Alright folks-lets finish this up-at the end of the last post all the components had been shaped by hand:
Now onto drilling the holes for the rungs. The is where chairmaking starts to get it's bad reputation. The simple fact is, there is math and angles involved to build a chair. The interesting fact is you can build a pretty good chair without ever mathematically determining what these are. We had enough time in this class for Brian to go in depth on how he figures out the angles on his chair. The truth is I only 1/2 understood most of it. The back legs are confusing because of the rearward and side-ward splay. That means all the rungs are different lengths and angles into the back legs from the front. Also interesting is that Brian admitted that he didn't ever really figure out the angles himself until he started teaching and students starting asking. So, how do you drill these hole properly without knowing the angles? Jigs, it's what's for dinner. So here's the jigs for the front leg rungs:
note here the step block closet to Bob(the guy on the drill press) as you drill each hole (3 total) you "step down" to change the angle.
Here's the jig for the back on the chair seat rungs (rear legs #1)
What we do with this one is use the square to sight the back slat corner to corner and then use the bench and the jig to pull the 2 legs into alignment. (assuming of coarse that your 2 legs are identical-and yes mine were defiantly NOT identical:BangHead:-so I had to shim the jig a little)
Next, rear leg jig # 2. This is the confusing one. Your trying to align the leg like this:
The method involves using a lever arm that you insert into the back seat rung that you rotate (which rotates the rear leg) and you use the stop block from the previous post in REVERSE.
When drilling it helps to have both a bit and drill press that have very little run-out. Brian recommends the Veritas drill bits, but then its up to the drill press to be run-out free. On my 1st rear leg side rung, the hole intersects inside the leg with the rear seat rung. When I drilled this the bit grabbed my rear leg and tried to ruin my chair. Luckily for me this is the hole that's hidden when you weave the seat soooo... here's what it looked like:
This called for Epoxy.. so that's how my chair got the nickname "The Epoxy Queen". Here's the other side without any problems:
So, after drilling all the holes we got to glue the chair together:
Brian likes hide glue for this, it was my 1st time using hide glue,and it wasn't that bad. However, my chair was a little caddywompous after gluing it up so we tried to persuade it back into shape with some clamps:
After that we put our 1st coat of danish oil on and then we leveled the legs:
Then we weaved(wove) the seats:
Then we drilled the holes for the slat pins and drove the little cherry buggers home:
And then a class photo:
Then when I got home I shaped the pins into little pyramids:
And Today I put the final coat of danish oil on both the chair and the hickory bark seat. Drum roll please........Introducing the "Epoxy Queen"
Hope y'all enjoyed the post-the class was great-highly recommended indeed.
Now onto drilling the holes for the rungs. The is where chairmaking starts to get it's bad reputation. The simple fact is, there is math and angles involved to build a chair. The interesting fact is you can build a pretty good chair without ever mathematically determining what these are. We had enough time in this class for Brian to go in depth on how he figures out the angles on his chair. The truth is I only 1/2 understood most of it. The back legs are confusing because of the rearward and side-ward splay. That means all the rungs are different lengths and angles into the back legs from the front. Also interesting is that Brian admitted that he didn't ever really figure out the angles himself until he started teaching and students starting asking. So, how do you drill these hole properly without knowing the angles? Jigs, it's what's for dinner. So here's the jigs for the front leg rungs:
note here the step block closet to Bob(the guy on the drill press) as you drill each hole (3 total) you "step down" to change the angle.
Here's the jig for the back on the chair seat rungs (rear legs #1)
What we do with this one is use the square to sight the back slat corner to corner and then use the bench and the jig to pull the 2 legs into alignment. (assuming of coarse that your 2 legs are identical-and yes mine were defiantly NOT identical:BangHead:-so I had to shim the jig a little)
Next, rear leg jig # 2. This is the confusing one. Your trying to align the leg like this:
The method involves using a lever arm that you insert into the back seat rung that you rotate (which rotates the rear leg) and you use the stop block from the previous post in REVERSE.
When drilling it helps to have both a bit and drill press that have very little run-out. Brian recommends the Veritas drill bits, but then its up to the drill press to be run-out free. On my 1st rear leg side rung, the hole intersects inside the leg with the rear seat rung. When I drilled this the bit grabbed my rear leg and tried to ruin my chair. Luckily for me this is the hole that's hidden when you weave the seat soooo... here's what it looked like:
This called for Epoxy.. so that's how my chair got the nickname "The Epoxy Queen". Here's the other side without any problems:
So, after drilling all the holes we got to glue the chair together:
Brian likes hide glue for this, it was my 1st time using hide glue,and it wasn't that bad. However, my chair was a little caddywompous after gluing it up so we tried to persuade it back into shape with some clamps:
After that we put our 1st coat of danish oil on and then we leveled the legs:
Then we weaved(wove) the seats:
Then we drilled the holes for the slat pins and drove the little cherry buggers home:
And then a class photo:
Then when I got home I shaped the pins into little pyramids:
And Today I put the final coat of danish oil on both the chair and the hickory bark seat. Drum roll please........Introducing the "Epoxy Queen"
Hope y'all enjoyed the post-the class was great-highly recommended indeed.
