Patterns

I noticed that the number of people viewing my blog increased significantly this week!  It appears that Charles Brock provided a link from his site.  Thanks Chuck!  Knowing that people are actually reading my blog is a big incentive to get more done on my chair.

Unfortunately, I’m in a bit of a holding pattern while I wait for some new tools to arrive.  I mentioned before that I needed a new router to accommodate the larger bits required for this project.  I bought a Triton plunge router that has a lot of nice features.  It was rated very highly in some of the woodworking magazines.  I also picked up the 3/4” roundover bit, but the 1/2” rabbeting bit wasn’t available in stock.  (The nice folks at my local Woodcraft store made a valiant effort looking for it though.)  So, I ordered the bit online.  Since the next step in the process is to make the rabbets in the seat, I’ve had to move on to other tasks.

I spent today creating a baseplate for the router so it will fit into my homemade router table.  I used 1/4" lexan which is easy to work with.  I scribed crosshairs on the plate to mark the center, and then I used a forstner bit to make a 2-1/8” hole for the large bits.  Even using a slow speed on the drill press, the forstner bit still caused melting, so I switched to using the scroll saw to complete the hole.  After a bit of planing and filing, I was able to get it snugged into the table.  

The rest of the day I spent cutting out some of the rocking chair patterns from plywood.  I expect to finish that up tomorrow.  While this is not as fun as working on the actual chair pieces, it’s a necessary part of the process.