Doweling the Seat Boards and Cutting Seat Joints

Yesterday I finished the day beginning to bore the holes for the dowel joints joining the boards that make up the seat. The front four holes are 3/8 in. 1/2 in. up from the bottom and 3 in. in from the front of the seat. These holes are lower because they lie in an area of the seat that will be scooped out. The holes in the back are in the unscooped area and are located in the center of the boards 7/8 in. up from the bottom. The back holes are 1/2 in. in diameter.

Boring the holes is a bit of a challenge, because of the 3 degree bevels on the boards. The number two and four boards have cancelling bevels so when I set them on edge the top face is 90 degrees to the drill, so this makes them easier to drill. When I drilled two of the 3/8 in. holes I found it difficult to locate the holes and hold the boards in place. I am looking for a better approach today. I will have to tilt the drill press table three degrees for boards one and five. For board three, the center board, I will have to tilt the table six degrees, because the bevels compound each other.

I am thinking of using sandpaper to help hold the boards in place while I drill them. I also may use wood scraps to clamp each side of the boards and then clamp the assembly to the drill press table. We'll see how this works.

After I get the holes drilled for the dowel joints I will cut the joint area on each corner of the seat where the four legs attach.

Seat Coopered and Laid Out

I have now coopered and laid out the seat. I coopered the seat by beveling the five boards like this, /\ \/ \/ /\, each 'V' representing where two boards meet. The bevels are 3 degrees. The result is as the boards are drawn together they form a shallow 'U' shape. This shape will be accentuated when I scoop out the seat.

Scott Morrison has a right-tilting Delta table saw, but my SawStop tilts left, so I had to place my fence on the opposite side as Scott did in order to use his 4 3/8 in. width measurement for the seat boards.

I found that when it came to laying out the seat outline and the border for the scooped area the template was a little wider than the five boards. As a result I may want to add a 1/16 in to the board width next time. The outer two boards can be about 3/4 in. shorter because of the shape of the seat template.

I have a couple borer holes in the back of the left board, and one other in another place, for which I will have to figure out a solution. I will probably fill them with walnut sawdust impregnated epoxy to match the wood.

Quilted Claro Walnut in Seat

I've got the seat boards planed and dimensioned to 1 3/4 in. thick and 5 in. wide. I am excited and pleased to see the level of quilting in the Claro Walnut even in this my worst board. There are going to be some truly outstanding chairs in the remaining boards. I learned that it isn't a good idea to attempt to plane down to dimension on a jointer. It seems that I inevitably introduce a taper to the board. I figured that out just in time for my middle board. It was 5 1/8 in. on one end and just below 5 in. on the other. The planer is best to use for planing to dimension. I guess I should have known that! I also need to figure out whether my jointing technique has something to desire. I probably am not pressing properly in some way.

The Adventure Begins

Yesterday Monday December 9, 2009 I finally got started on building my Sam Maloof inspired rocking chair. I have already created all the templates, jigs, and the form for laminating the rockers, but yesterday I actually began working on the seat.

I regard my first chair as somewhat of a 'prototype,' even though I am building from instructions and templates I purchased from Scott Morrison (www.finewoodworker.com). I am building this prototype using the boards of Claro Walnut that are most flat sawn. I regard this wood as the lowest quality of the wood I purchased from a young man in Angel's Camp, CA. It was sawn in approximately 2 in. slabs from a tree that had been in his parent's back yard and had declined and died over the past five years. So if I make any mistakes I have reduced the impact to my wood supply.

So as I begin today I have sawn the five 2 in. by 21 in. pieces required for the seat. I have jointed one large face and the small faces. Today I will plane the non-jointed face down to the required 1 3/4 in. final thickness. Then I will cut each board to the final 21 in. length. Speaking of the 21 in. length. I made my first mistake yesterday by cutting two of the boards too short. Fortunately the boards are not too far off (20 1/4 in.) and can be used on the outer sides of the seat where I don't need the entire 21 in. length due to the curve in the rear of the seat. After getting the boards to their final dimensions, I will saw the 3 degree cuts to cooper the scooped shape of the seat. After that, if I get to it, I will drill the holes for the 1/2 dowels I will use to align the boards and to add strength to the joints.