Woodworking: November 2006 Archives
I got so many comments Friday on my sock yarn. Thank you all for being so encouraging and positive. With Thanksgiving coming up and a bunch of things at home and at work to take care of, I'm not sure I'll get the chance to email very many people personally, so I did want to express my appreciation on the blog. Thank you so much.
Today I have my dad's first guest entry. It's not about knitting, but it is about an extraordinary "FO". Rather than just post a picture, I thought I would ask my dad to tell its story in his own words. I hope even if you only show up here for the knitting, that you'll at least scroll down to see the completed item. It's extraordinary and truly a beautiful thing.
I'd like to start the rocking chair story by fat fingering or attempting to paraphrase a statement from the book I'm currently "reading". The book is The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A excellent book by the way. The phrase is.... the beginning of an auto biography ( building a rocking chair) doesn't start at the birth of the individual in question (buying wood) but at ...... There is much more to the statement but that is as far as I can go with it. The rocker story really starts in 1987 when Bobbi and I are starting to build our house and I mean build our house. We started the build in October of 87 with a foundation in the ground and the purchase of a trailer so that we could live and work on site 24 7. From that moment until completion (???.... completion defined as a home occupancy permit because I'm still working on the house) Bobbi and I worked every day after work until 11 or 12 at night and on weekends from 8 am to 10 pm. This routine went on without interuption until the home occupancy permit was issued 10 months later in July of 88. In May of 88 I was phyically and emotionally running on empty. It is at this time the Keyboard Biologist returns from college. She saw the state of affairs instantly and said "I can't live in this trailer we are going to move into the new house now!" and we did move in that very day never to go back to the trailer. The energy and spirit she brought re energized and motivated Bobbi and I to complete the project and you know what she is still providing that motivatonal service today. Thank you T. So when I was in a bit of the dull drums during the early part of my retirement I heard that familar voice say " I would like a special rocking chair" and the fire was lit again. But now I hear the other significant female voice in my life say "why don't you make the first rocking chair for me so that you can debug the process for T's chair ?". So now the building of the rocking chair story can begin. I went on the internet and finally found the right rocker to build. Hal Taylor builds this rockers for a living and also teaches others how to build them. If you would like to see some of his rockers you can go to his website.
The project begins with the wood. Cherry is the wood of choice for the first chair. Well actually it was the only choice at the time because the mill only had cherry in the thickness appropriate for the rocker but as you can see by the following pic it wasn't a bad choice.
The next and perhaps the most significant step is laying out the pieces to take best advantage of the grain and general characteristics of the wood. Since the head board and seat are the two pieces which catch your eye first they get first choice of grain patterns. This effort can be seen in the next pic of the seat and head board wood before any gluing or shaping is done.
This same process is done with all the other parts which are the arms, legs, and rockers. The rockers are the lowest priority bescause they are made of laminations so only the very top of the rocker is visible. Once you've made your best shot at this effort the next step is to start machining the various parts of the rocker. The following pic shows the seat with the leg joints machined in.
The next pic shows the seat with the roughed out legs fit into the seat but not glued yet. The joining of the legs to the seat is the most sophisticated part of the wood working in this project but not the biggiest part of the project. I did not appreciate this but the lion share of work on this chair isn't the joinery but the shaping of the wood through grinding, filing, planning, carving, and sanding.
Speaking of shaping the wood the next pic shows the amount of sawdust I had on the table next to where I ground out the seat shape. (disclaimer) Whenever I do any of this type of work I wear a dust mask and I have a powered air filtering machines filtering the workshop air because in most cases when I am working in the shop my fathful companion Ufer is resting on his bed just 10 feet away. I can't get the Rottweiler to wear a dust mask though.
Moving on the next pic shows the previous image but with the somewhat shaped arms. The arms still have to be chamfered and sanded yet but you can get a sense of the grain with respect to the seat.
The last pic before the finished chair pics is of the seat, legs, and head board. At this point the legs are glued to the seat but the head board is just fit into its position. One of the techniques of this project is to do all of the shaping before a part is attached to another part. In this pic the head board fits the opening but does not have its finished shape yet. Once the part is fit then it is disassembled, shaped, and is given a semi final sand.
Once all parts are shaped and sanded then they are glued together. Then the whole chair is sanded with a 320 grit, a 500 grit, and finally a 1000 grit sand. After the 1000 sand the wood has a glossy look which appears like it has already been finished. The next pic is the finished chair as viewed from the chair's left.
The next pics are of the head board, then a top view, then a front view, and the last pic is of the joint of the front right leg to the seat.
That is what the finished chair looks like and Bobbi tells me it feel very good, rocks real nice, and it would be very appropriate for................... oops but that is another story. Since T and I already picked out the walnut wood for her chair that project will begin right after the Thanksgiving holiday. If there is any interest I can give progress reports.
There will certainly be some interest from me in hearing more about his chairs! Dad and I are also thinking about developing a special spinning chair. More on that as it progresses, as well!
