Subtitle: Why didn’t I just stay in bed?
My motivation for this blog was to share my mistakes so that anyone else building a chair could learn from them. Well, prepare for a huge learning experience!
This post covers the last two days, since I didn’t get much done yesterday. I ordered a new band saw blade From Grizzly on Monday morning and it arrived Tuesday afternoon! Of course, Grizzly is based just an hour and a half north of me in Bellingham, WA, but I was still impressed with the response time! Thanks Griz. You guys earned a link from me.
The blade I received is a 105” x 3/8”, 4 TPI, Timber Wolf brand. This thing breezes through 3” walnut like butter. No burning, no squealing. I wish I had bought this a long time ago.
While I was still waiting on the blade, I cut the adder blocks on the back legs using my table saw from hell. I clamped it to the 6 degree jig to get the correct angle. As you can see from the picture, the clamps are dangerously close to the blade, so I had to be very careful. Due to the opposite angles on each leg, the 6 degree jig has to be flipped 180 degrees for the second leg. The only problem I experienced was because I didn’t check that the blade was square with the saw table. I recently made some boxes that required the blade to be tilted at 45 degrees. When I moved the blade back, I only used the markings on the saw. I neglected to check the blade with a square. When the blade is low, this isn’t much of a problem, but when it’s up at its full height (as it was here for the adder blocks) the difference is clearly visible. This gave me some more practice with my hand plane to ensure the cut face of the adder block was square with the flat side of the leg.
Lesson learned: ALWAYS check the square of your blades, especially after changing the tilt.
The next step was to cut the dados to match the seat tenons. This is the same procedure as the front legs, but more complicated. The back legs are much longer, curved, and the adder block puts a tilt into the whole business. I found that the end of the leg was hitting the sled and I couldn’t get the adder block face flat. To correct this, I added a scrap piece of 1/4" plywood underneath the leg. In the instruction video, Brock has some special jigs and blocks clamped in place to hold the leg steady. I was impatient, so I held them by hand. This proved to be a mistake. The first dado I cut was too small. I should have trimmed it slowly with a chisel or plane, but instead I tried to make a little cut on the table saw. Well, I cut too much, and that made the dado loose. I was able to compensate by cutting the second dado very tight. See the picture below.
Cutting the second dado on the first leg required me to move the 1/4" plywood to the bottom of the sled. Unfortunately, I also had to raise the saw blade to account for the added height. I cut the dados on the second leg with more care (I thought), but when I tried a dry fit with the seat, I realized that I forgot to LOWER the blade and this resulted in a dado that was too deep. Arrrrrrgh! I’ll now have to create a patch for this.
Lesson learned: Take your time, and think about each step. Measure twice.
With the dados finished (sort of), I routed the roundovers and snugged the legs into the joints. Here are pictures of the legs, a close-up of the joint, and the chair assembled with all the legs in place. It’s finally starting to look like a chair!
Next, I cut the front and back top of the legs at 9 degrees. This helps the legs flow into the headrest. Then I cut the “ears” or “horns” on each leg. Here’s a picture of the legs after this step.
The instructions call for the arms to be cut next, but the headrest (or crest rail) looked easier, so I skipped to that step. I started with 16/4 stock that I resawed down to about 3” thick. I have a 14” band saw with a riser block to give me a 12” vertical cut. I needed all of it for this resaw. I used a 3/4" blade and it cut quite smoothly. I jointed one edge so when I band saw the headrest curve, it will be square. The front and back will be cut off, so no need to plane those. The plans call for a 6 degree cut on each side of the headrest to match the angle of the back legs. I used my compound miter saw to cut the angle.
Then the problems began…I took measurements from the plans and used a bit of trigonometry to determine the distance across the top of the headrest. But this calculation didn’t match the headrest pattern, or the actual dimensions I was getting on the chair. I quickly realized that the pattern was oversized in width and could be cut down. No problem. Why didn’t the chair dimensions match? After some more measurements, I found the problem. The distance from the joint to the top of the headrest on the pattern is 33”, but on the chair it measured 34”. I had left 1” of extra material on the bottom of the back legs (for insurance), but the dados are measured from the bottom and I forgot to account for this. So, the joint is 1” low and the result is that the headrest will now be 1” higher. I will have to remember this when I make the spindles! The headrest angles were now off, so those had to be cut down also. The picture shows the headrest clamped into place. It still needs to be customized.
Lesson learned: If you are going to add extra material, make sure it is clearly marked.
All-in-all it wasn’t a complete disaster, but I’m not happy with my mistakes. I hope these screw-ups help you to avoid similar problems.
My stats show that people have been viewing the blog from all over the world. Thanks very much for that. Please feel free to comment. My job regularly takes me to Australia, and I see several views from there. So, cheers to my mates down under!
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