I finished sanding the second rocker laminations and got them glued up in the jig. The packing tape and paste wax works great. The glue doesn’t stick at all to the tape, so the clean-up from the first rocker glue up was very quick. I only replaced the tape at the bottom of the jig. I re-waxed the whole thing before putting in the second rocker. The clamps were all tightened into place and I left everything to dry overnight.
The first rocker was run across the jointer to clean it up. Here are some pictures. The rocker has been sitting in my shop for a week now. I checked the rocker against the pattern and there was no spring back at all. I really like the maple accent strip. The lamination lines are invisible and since I kept the strips in order it looks like a single piece of wood. Marking the wood with a “V” before cutting the strips, and then making sure you maintain that “V” when you glue up the rocker ensures this look.
The wood I selected has some heart wood which is lighter than the sap wood. I’ll mount the rocker so the heart wood is on the outside so it matches the seat. I noticed this pattern before I started on the second rocker, so I laid up the strips to mirror this pattern on the opposite side. Be sure to label the front and back of the rocker so you remember to lay it on the jig in the correct orientation. If you fail to pay attention to the grain and the lamination order, your rockers could come out looking random.
As I mentioned before, I used my random orbital sander (ROS) to remove the bandsaw marks on the rocker strips. This is not ideal because the strip thickness is not uniform. A hand plane could be used, but I’m not that skilled with my plane yet. My electric planer needed the blades changed, so I just went to work with the ROS. After the glue up, I cut out another strip to be used for the rocker-to-leg transition. I’ve never changed the blades on my planer, so I figured it was time to learn. I started by RTFM (Reading the freakin’ manual). It turns out it wasn’t hard at all. The blades are double sided, so I just needed to flip them around. I didn’t have much luck with planing thin strips previously, but I thought that a sharp blade might help. It only took two quick passes and the strip was done! There was some waviness that I could feel, but that can be sanded easily. Live and learn. I’ll use this method on my next chair and save some time.
My final task for the day was to start shaping one of the back legs. I made pretty good progress on the leg-to-seat joint. I also made some executive design decisions on where I wanted hard lines and soft lines. The soft lines were marked with chalk. I then used my router to round over some of the soft corners. Here’s a picture showing the differences between the shaped leg and the rough one. I spent about 3 hours on just this today and there is still plenty more to do.
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