There’s still more work to do on the rockers and back braces but for now I have them on hold. However, with the joinery on the seat blank complete, I needed to complete the work on the front and rear legs so that they will mate with these joints in the seat.
As you will recall, in my last post I created the joints in the seat that will receive the legs. These joints essentially have a tongue that must mate with a corresponding grove in the legs. There’s a bit more too it, as you will see, but that’s the basic premise.
Before I could create this joinery on the legs, I needed to do two things: for the rear legs, I needed to create profile on the inside faces and visible from the front and on both the front and rear legs I needed to add some material to make parts of the legs wider.
In the pictures you can (barely) see the outlined profile toward inside of the rear legs which was to be cut on the band saw. Because the legs had already been contoured, these cuts were a bit tricky. I was careful to be sure that there were always two points of the leg in contact with the saw table – sometimes one of those points was at the edge of the table as the leg was either entering the table or leaving the table. This allowed the cut to be completed safely even though it was sometimes happening at a point elevated above the table. In the second picture you can see the profiles cut on the inside of the rear legs.
After profiling the rear legs I milled adder pieces for both the front and rear legs. The front adder piece runs the length of the legs. The rear adder piece runs just between the sections that will eventually contact the seat. For the front legs, the adder piece will be profiled to become the outside of the legs. For the rear legs the adder piece was ripped at the band saw after gluing in preparation for more detailed operations to follow.
The rear legs of the chair need to cant outward at the top at an angle of six degrees. In order to accomplish this, the adder pieces on each rear leg must be ripped at six degrees from the outside faces of the legs. In order to accomplish this, I created a jig to use at the table saw. The jig is designed to ride against the fence on the saw and it has a fence of it’s own that is fixed at six degrees to the table saw blade. With a leg clamped to the jig the piece was pushed through the blade cutting off a six degree wedge. For the other leg, the jig was rotated 180 degrees and the other leg was cut in a similar fashion.
I took this opportunity to clamp the legs together in the vise using the angled offcuts from the previous operation so that I could smooth the seat joint area and square it to the angled faces which were previously cut on the table saw. After achieving smooth and square faces, I laid out for the joinery that will join the legs to the seat.
The notches to accept the seat joinery were cut on two faces of the rear legs using a sled on the table saw. Because each leg had only a small bearing surface resting on the sled, I clamped a block to the outboard side of the legs to prop them up at the correct angle. One leg was cut in the orientation as shown in the picture and the other leg was done at 180 degrees from this orientation. The notches were nibbled away with repeated passes of the leg over the table saw blade until the joint would just fit the seat. Once the rough notches were cut, I cleaned up the saw marks with a shoulder plane. 
The last step for this joint was to round over the inside corner of this joint to match the corresponding rebate that was cut into the seat. I did this with a ¾” round over bit in the plunge router. Because of the small size of the area where I could rest the router, this did not give optimal results. So, I subsequently repeated this step with the same bit in the router table. In the picture, you can see the general fit of the rear leg into the sea
t.
The front leg joinery was done in a similar manner to the rear legs. However, the notches were made on three faces of the legs. Also, this joinery was done prior to gluing the adder piece to the two front legs. In the pictures you can see the competed front leg joinery and the adder piece being glued between the outside surfaces of the two front legs after the joinery was completed.
Next up: Sculpting the seat
Tags: 6 degree table saw jig, Hal Taylor, leg joinery, Maloof joint, Sam Maloof, Sculpted Rocking Chair
From a woodworkers perspective, the thing that stands out most about a sculpted rocking chair like this is probably the Maloof-style joints used to join the legs to the seat. With all of the lamination behind me, I took the plunge to start the work for this unique joinery.
The joinery starts on the seat blank. So, I first used a sled on the table saw to trim the seat to finished length and width. The rear legs will be joined to the seat via a 3 inch by 3 inch cutout that is rabetted top and bottom on each back corner. The front legs have a similar configuration except they are set back from the front corners into a 2 inch wide notch in the seat.
These joints need to be very precise and with the thickness and size of the seat blank, that’s a challenge. In order to create the notches to exact size, I first laid out the joints with a pencil and then rough cut them at the band saw. This allowed me to get very close to the lines without worrying about the precision of the joints. The rear leg notches were cut out as single blocks. However, because the front legs are attached set back from the front corner, I used the band saw to create a series of kerfs to rough out the notches for them.
I created a couple of jigs to help with the process of precisely finishing these notches. In the picture you can see the front and rear leg jigs that I made to use with the router with a top bearing pattern bit. The openings on the jigs are exactly the size of the notches to be cut and the bearing on the bit rides along the edges of the jig to trim away excess material from the joint leaving a perfect notch. Because of the thickness of the seat, my pattern bit would not cut the entire rear leg joint in one pass. So, I first used the rear leg jig from the top and then again from the bottom to finish the joint. After routing the rear notches, I used a sharp chisel to remove the radius left by the router bit and to square up the inside corners of the notches.
The second operation for this joint was to create a rebate along both the top and bottom of each notch. This effectively leaves a tongue in the center of each notch that will later mate with a corresoponding groove in the legs. This was done with a series of shallow passes with a 1 1/2″ by 1/2″ rabetting bit. In the pictures you can see that I used a scrap block clamped to the outside of the seat to eliminate any tearout. The resulting rebate leaves a 3/4″ radius on the inside corners of each notch. Later the corners of the legs will be rounded over with a corresponding 3/4″ rounding over bit to create complementary profile on the legs.
With the joints for the front and rear legs completed I setup another jig to rout holes for the back braces where they enter the seat. These were done with a template that I got from Hal Taylor. The holes were routed with a 1/4″ straight bit and a 5/8″ OD collar on the router. These holes are actually slightly oval in order to allow the back braces to flex slightly as you sit in the chair.
Next up: Leg Joinery
Tags: Hal Taylor, Maloof joint, router jigs, Sam Maloof, Sculpted Rocking Chair, template routing
The rockers and back braces for the chair are made with bent laminations. In the last post I showed the jig and process that I used to cut the thin strips to be laminated. So, now it was on to the actual glue-filled lamination process!
There are a bunch of potential ways to do laminations of this type – everything from a using a vacuum bag to building a form and using veneer screws to create a press. I don’t have any vacuum press equipment or veneer screws so I elected to make a couple of forms to be used with clamps for this process.
The forms were built out of construction lumber that I laminated together to double thickness and squared up with the jointer and planer. I then band sawed the curves into each form and carefully smoothed the curves to eliminate any flat spots This is especially important for the rocker form because a flat spot on a rocker will be easily felt when rocking in the chair. Next, I drilled a series of holes in each form to accept the heads of C-clamps. Along one edge of each form are metal stops (I used some scrap aluminum angle and steel straps that I had lying around). These stops allow the parts to be aligned evenly along one edge while they are being laminated.
As a first step, I laminated a backer strip on each form with the extra strips that I had previously cut. This allowed be to get acquainted with the clamping process and to determine how much glue to use and open time I would have. After the backers were dried I cleaned up the glue squeeze-out and trimmed them to be slightly narrower than the finished parts will be.
The moment of truth arrived and it was time to laminate the first rocker. I went about the process of spreading the glue as quickly as I could. I am using Titebond III for the gluing and it does not allow a lot of extra open time – the rockers have 9 strips so I had to move fast. With the wet stack on the form I went to work clamping – progressing from front to back on the rocker with the stack lightly clamped to the metal alignment strips. In the end it worked out OK, but let’s just say I had no time to spare when tightening that last clamp and let me tell you, there was a lot of glue squeeze-out! I left the rocker to dry in the form for 24 hours. Laminating the second rocker went a bit smoother as I was more prepared and familiar with the sequence of operations.
In the picture you can see the stacks of strips for the back braces. I am using Ash for the two inner strips for flexibility (I am also using original Titebond for this to avoid the dark glue lines that Titebond III would give). The Walnut strips on the front and back of the stacks were cut in sequence from the same piece of stock to give a visual repetition to the braces when viewed from the front and back of the chair.
The process for laminating the back braces is similar to the rockers except that they are done two at a time – one on top of the other. This process does alter the curves of the top brace somewhat when compared to the bottom brace. However, they are laminated in an order such that the bottom braces (with the greatest curves) are placed toward the outside of the chair and the top braces are placed toward the inside. This results in a change in the curves that is consistent across the back of the chair. With seven back braces, this arrangement requires four gluing operations with a 24 hour drying period in between each. While that’s going on, I can move on to some joinery for the chair.
Next up: Joinery for the seat and legs
Tags: back braces, bent lamination, laminating forms, rockers, Sculpted Rocking Chair, Titebond glue
I’ve been continuing with my operations to rough out and glue up chair components. With the rear legs already roughed out, I next turned my attention to the headrest.
The headrest (as well as the back braces of the chair) curves substantially to provide a more comfortable position while sitting. To obtain the necessary curve for the headrest you either need a very thick piece of stock (with a lot of resulting waste) or the pieces must be put together using a process known as coopering. For this headrest I am coopering individual pieces of stock with the grain oriented vertically.
The coopering process is much like the process that would be used to build a wooden barrel. The individual pieces are beveled on along their edges so that when glued together they form a segmented curve. The bevel angle on each edge can vary depending on how much of an overall angle or curve is desired and also how many pieces are being assembled. In my case, I needed an overall width of about 26″ for the headstock with an overall included angle of 40 degrees. I started with six pieces at 8″ high by about 4 to 5 inches wide. The six pieces provided 5 interior glue joints (the ends of the headstock are not beveled). Each of these joints has two edges to bevel. Put that all together and you have 10 bevels to provide a total of 40 degrees which equates to 4 degrees per bevel.
To create the bevels I elected to make multiple passes over my jointer with the fence set at 4 degrees from vertical. With a setup for a very light cut (less than 1/32″ per pass) this operation was much safer than using the table saw with the relatively small size of these pieces. After the beveling was done on the jointer I elected to take a few swipes with a hand plane over each edge to eliminate the mill marks and to assure a pristine glue surface. In the picture you can see the pieces dry fit after beveling the edges.
Because of the bevels on these pieces, the glue up operation was very tricky. The glue up of the six pieces was initially done in three pairs. Next, two pairs were glued to each another with the use of angled blocks faced with sandpaper adhered to the clamps. Because the headrest now exceeded the depth of the heads on my clamps, the final glue up required the addition of some temporary blocks glued to the headrest to act as clamping points. At a later stage, these glue blocks will be cut off and the curve will cut into the headstock at the band saw. In the pictures you can see the sequence of this series of gluing operations.
Setting the glued up headstock aside, I moved on to cutting the thin strips for the laminated rockers and back slats. This was a repetitive operation that required precision and safety. So, I created a simple jig to allow me to rip thin strips at the table saw to a very tight dimensional tolerance. The jig also allows the strips to be ripped on the waste side of the blade so that strips can be ripped from a larger piece of stock and avoiding the dangers of trying to do this between the blade and the fence.
Each rocker requires 9 strips at 1/8″ thickness and each back slat requires four strips at 90 thousandths of an inch thickness. For the rockers, I made additional strips because some will be needed to create stacks under each leg where they join the rockers. I also made some extra strips to create a curved backer for use when these strips are later laminated with a clamping form. There are seven back slats required but I made an extra for safety as well as some additional strips to create a backer. for their glue up as well. In the picture you can see the resulting strips for the rockers.
Next up: Bent lamination and creating the leg joints in the seat
Tags: beveling, coopering, headrest, jointer, rockers, Sculpted Rocking Chair, table saw, thin strip ripping jig
I have always admired the work of Sam Maloof. Not only has he developed a style that is very distinctive and unique in its own right, I think that he has also done a tremendous amount for the craft of woodworking in America.
I especially admire Maloof’s rocking chairs. These are the pieces that he is arguably most well known for. The flowing hard and soft lines of his design work together in a truly elegant form to create a work of art in wood. For many years I have wanted to make the time to create a chair patterned after the Sam Maloof designs.
There are several current rocking chair makers that have patterned their work after Maloof. One, in particular, seems to taken his queues from Sam but also added some unique design and functional elements as well. Hal Taylor was originally inspired by Sam Maloof and has developed a chair design that goes beyond Maloof in both aeastetics and function. Hal has been building his chairs in Virginia and refining his design for many years. He has also taught many people to build his chairs in classes at his shop. While I don’t have the ability to do a class with Hal right now, I contacted him and I will be building a chair based (at least initially) on plans of his design.
This chair calls for about 35 board feet of 8/4 stock. I will be making mine from Walnut and I purchased about 45 board feet to cover any waste generated during the build process. Most all of the chair components need to be milled close to a full 2 inches thick before any joinery is done on them.
The first step in this effort was to create hardboard templates for most of the chair components. Once I had the templates cut out and their curves smoothed, I took some time to read the stock and to identify where each of the chair parts would come from. The most important parts here were the layout of the rear legs and the seat. I was lucky enough to have obtained some fairly wide stock so I could get the rear legs and seat components from the same board. This allowed for consistent color and grain characteristics for these parts.
At this stage I just marked the parts on the rough planed stock and cut to rough dimensions. I wanted to be sure that I had enough stock for all of the components before starting to cut to critical dimension. In the first picture, you can see the rear legs marked and their orientation for best grain match. The next picture shows all of the major pieces rough cut and ready for further work.
I cross-cut the seat on the table saw using my shop-made cross-cut sled. My stock was wide enough for me to make a symmetrical 2-board layout for the 21 1/2 inch wide seat. However a three, four or even five board seat would also be attractive with the proper layout for grain. You can see the glue-up of the two seat boards in the next picture – the orientation of these boards is with the growth rings arching upward when viewed from the front of the seat. This will yield the most lines of grain to be cut through when sculpting the seat out at a later stage which should produce a very attractive seat.
Satisfied that my layout of the remaining parts would work, I set out to cut the back legs next. I traced the outline onto the Walnut following the template using a white pencil and went to work at the band saw. I used a 3/8″, 3TPI blade for this task. It could handle most of the curves, but to avoid any binding I chose to make relief cuts into a few of the curved areas before following my lines to free the pieces. I stayed about 1/16″ away from my lines for the most part. The result was two legs that are very close in shape.
Next up: The coopered headrest and cutting thin strips for the rockers and back-slats
Tags: band saw, Hal Taylor, Sam Maloof, Sculpted Rocking Chair, table saw cross cut sled, walnut
