This weekend I started on the chair in earnest! I started by jointing and planing all the wood to make sure it was true (flat and square). I then ripped the seat pieces to width (4.5”) on the table saw, and to length (22”) on the compound miter (“chop”) saw.
[SAFETY TIP: Always wear safety glasses! As I was cutting the wood on my table saw, I hit a knot and even though I was standing to the side of the blade, a piece flew out and hit my safety glasses just over my left eye. ]
Here’s a picture of the completed pieces. It may look silly to number each piece, but believe me, it’s necessary. As you work each one, they are juggled around and it’s very easy to lose track of which piece is which and what the correct orientation is. I chose some walnut with the lighter heart wood and placed those at the outside of the seat. I like the contrast. I hope it still looks good when it’s complete. The center board has a knot in the middle. I placed it so it will fall just behind the pommel. This way I should be able to carve most of it away.
My next step was to cooper the seat pieces. This is done by beveling some of the edges so the seat curves slightly. Maloof beveled the edges on the table saw and didn’t joint them. Brock bevels his on the jointer. I use a Forrest Woodworker II blade on my table saw and it leaves a nice clean edge, but not as nice as the jointer. My table saw was one of the first power tools I ever bought, and although it’s served me well, I hate it. It’s a Delta contractor style saw and it has no soft start. You hit the switch and…BANG!...it’s at full speed. It’s scary. It’s also underpowered for cutting this 2” hardwood. It was vibrating terribly when I ripped the pieces. Because of all that, I chose to bevel my seat pieces on the jointer.
I set the fence at a three degree angle (transferred using a protractor and a sliding bevel). Then it only took three passes to make the edge. I like to mark my wood with chalk so I can see how much progress the jointer is making. The first picture here shows the edge chalked before jointing. The next picture shows the edge after the first pass. Be sure to mark the board ends to show the direction of the bevel. And then be careful to select the correct orientation of the board to get that bevel. If you joint the board from the wrong side, you will not be happy.
After all the proper edges were beveled, I clamped the pieces together to show the “smile”. The Brock plans call for 3 degree bevels on only some edges which creates a very gentle curve.
Maloof used 3 degree bevels too, but on every internal edge. This resulted in a 6 degree change at each joint and a more pronounced curve. I decided that I wanted the bigger smile, so I quickly jointed the remaining edges and you can see the difference in this photo. I placed a straight edge along the top so you can see that the outer pieces remain flat and parallel.
Lesson Learned: The plans called for the seat pieces to be 4.5” wide. With 5 pieces, that makes the total seat width 22.5”. After coopering, the measured seat width was 22”. The problem is that the plans call for the seat to be only 20” wide. No worries since I can always remove more wood, but this is 4/10” off of each board. I’m assuming that extra material was designed in to account for any mistakes along the way, but 2” seems like a waste to me. Next time, I think I’ll reduce the board widths to 4.25”. That would give me 20.75” after coopering.
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