Bow Arm Morris Chair - The Wood Whisperer

[SeventyFix]

I recently completed Marc Spagnuolo's Morris chair project in figured cherry.  The project and the chairs were covered in a presentation made on Tuesday May 17th, 2016 at the North Texas Woodworker's Association (www.ntwa.org) in Plano, Texas.  The slide deck is compiled from information gathered online and is not unique to me.  The information is being presented for educational purposes only.

Once again, Marc's plans and videos were excellent.  There was only a slight deviation between the two in the placement of the seat supports on the chair. 

I resawed the arm stock on the tablesaw as my bandsaw is really weak.  Instead of 5 layers of wood, I only had room for 4 (1/4" thick each).  This posed no problem during the bending process.  Spring back was minimal and did not affect the final product.

I did not segment the top half of the bending form like Marc did, largely because I don't own sufficient clamps to do so.  I spent extra time ensuring that the top and bottom form templates matched as perfectly as possible.  As instructed, spray adhesive firmly held cork into each side of the form.  The bending form performed extremely well.

 

Also note the Roubo workbench, built using Wood Whisperer Guild plans and guidance.

[SeventyFix]

Measure out the Unibond 800 components using a scale.  Mixing is easy - I used a stick and found that the components combined quite well.  No power mixing was required.  (I made A LOT of batches of this stuff.)

[BobInAustin]

Looks really nice. You said you'd make the side rails straight.  Under the arms you mean? 

[shaneymack]

Great job on the chairs, they look awesome !

[SeventyFix]

The glue lines turned out nicely

The filler pieces added between the side slats are quite delicate.  I would suggest making them larger so that they can go deeper into the slot.  This would allow for more glue surface.

DO NOT CLAMP LIKE THIS (you will regret it - I did)

Instead, clamp like this

Slipping of the plys may occur during glue up.  This is stressful as the glue is starting to get tacky and set up.

Solve this problem with some screws, strategically placed in the waste (this is going to get cut off at a later stage).

Clamp every section that you can.  Add a clamp to any area that will hold a clamp.  You can't have too much clamping pressure.  I tightened these clamps with all of my strength and left everything to cure for a full 24 hours.  I was paranoid that something would go wrong and the arms would be ruined.  In the end, it turned out as close to perfect as I could hope for.

Disaster struck while routing the mortises in the arms.  The arms were made out of the best wood that I had purchased ($14/board foot highly figured cherry).  The screw had fallen out of the collet that holds the bearing in place.  The bearing was free to move up the shaft of the router bit.  When that happened, the bit no longer followed the template.

What to do?  I had come to appreciate the pyramid style of through tenons that were popular on the old chairs.  The Guild design used a shorter pillowed exposed tenon.  Different strokes for different folks.  It took me a week to decide on a course of action.  I continued with the rest of the arms, making them to the plan design.  On the damaged mortise above, I made a new, larger template and used wood shims to fill the space between the smaller tenon and the now-sloppy mortise.  I filled everything in with West Systems epoxy.

 

[SeventyFix]

I made a long, squared "bar" of stock from leftover material and ran some test cuts on the miter saw.  15 degrees was the sweet spot for me.  The picture below is of a test piece - the actual faux tenon caps that were used were a little over 1/8" thicker.  Next, a hole was drilled into the bottom of each faux tenon cap to accept a dowel. The dowel was glued to the tenon cap.  Using sand paper applied to a granite plate with spray adhesive, each facet of the faux tenon caps was sanded through the grits until they were free of saw marks and looking sharp.  Care must be taken to avoid rounding the sharp edges of the pyramid.

The chairs were assembled and the actual tenons were sanded flush with the arms.  The tenon caps would be handled after assembly of each chair side.

Each individual faux tenon cap was carefully positioned in the correct place on the arm.  The perimeter of each cap was marked with a sharp carving knife.  The knife lines were deepened with progressive cuts and highlighted with a pencil.  A new shallow mortise was cut, very carefully and free hand, with a router using a, upcut spiral bit.  Final cleanup of the sides of the mortise were cut with a chisel. 

I drilled the hole in the center of the mortise slightly larger than the dowel attached to the faux tenon cap.  This meant that I didn't have to be absolutely perfect with the position and vertical angle of the hole.  I mixed up some thickened epoxy and filled the hole.  I lightly painted epoxy on the underside of the tenon cap, on the dowel and on the bottom of the shallow mortise.  Everything went together perfectly with minimal squeeze out.

BTW, epoxy squeeze out isn't the end of the world.  Use West Systems 207 clear hardener to minimize staining and clean up with a rag soaked in acetone, lacquer thinner or alcohol.  I used lacquer thinner because I had it on hand.

Judge for yourself if these results are good enough for you.  Someone asked me last night "are these real through tenons or are they applied"?  I asked him if he could tell - he said no.  The faux tenon caps are cut into the arm and thus protrude from the arm.  Without deconstructing the chair, it is not possible to tell if the end of the tenon is part of the leg or an applied piece. 

Another advantage of this technique is control.  Faux tenon caps can be cut all day long on test pieces until a style and size is achieved that suit the desired look. 

[SeventyFix]

First coat of Waterlox - the grain did "pop"

The finished product

 

[..Kev]

Those look awesome!

[SeventyFix]

The arms look very shiny - they have about 7 coats of Waterlox on them.  They are glass smooth.  Since taking these pictures, everything received a scuff sanding, a coat of Zinsser dewaxed sanding sealer and three coats of lacquer.  I still have to buff out of the finish but the shine is muted.

Final Thoughts

The chairs are at the upholsterers right now.  I will try to post updated pictures when the upholstery is complete.  I chose to upholster in leather.  The leather was purchased from Roden Leather in Michigan.  It's a family run business and the owner really worked with me in choosing a leather and on pricing.  I bought large hides and needed 3 to cover 2 chairs and 2 ottomans (~$400 per hide).  It would be a shame to put in as much time and effort and I have in these chairs and upholster them myself in some kind of pleather/naugahyde.

http://www.rodenleather.com/

The wood was purchased from Horizon Wood Products in Pennsylvania (talk to Dan Terbovich) and shipped to Texas.  There aren't a lot of cherry forests this far south.  I bought 2 qualities of curly cherry: figured ($7 per board foot or BF) and HOLY COW! figured ($14/BF).  The holy cow material was used on the arms and side slats where it would be seen the most.  The rest of the chair was built using the other curly cherry.

http://horizonwood.com/

 

 

[SeventyFix]

Please reply to this post if you have any questions - I will monitor it for a week or so. 

I have no special knowledge, experience or training - this was my first furniture project.  I have the good fortune of a supportive wife who allowed me the time and space to complete this project.  It took about 9 months, working at my slow pace, an hour or two after work and a few hours on the weekends.

I made just about every mistake that could be imagined.  I remade quite a few parts after errors or deficiencies were discovered. If I could complete these chairs, so can you. 

[Tom King]

Really nice work, and thanks for the documentation with pictures!

[mikemenifee]

Really turned out great.

[pkinneb]

They look amazing!

 

[Mick S]

Beautiful work and a really nice presentation to the NTWA!

[wtnhighlander]

@SeventyFix, the chairs look terrific, and I appreciate all the photos. However, a warning to future viewers: the number of photos included in the original post completely choked Tapatalk when I first opened this thread from my phone.

[TerryMcK]

Very nice work

[Eric.]

Awesome job, they look great. I am a little curious how you arrived at such a wacky finishing schedule...seven coats of waterlox then shellac then lacquer???

[SeventyFix]

Eric,

The original plan was to follow the finishing schedule detailed in the videos.  Marc uses a single coat of Waterlox followed by a coat of sanding sealer and three coats of lacquer.  I applied the Waterlox a couple of times to the entire project to get that layer looking even (this was my first time using that product).  I had some trouble getting the arms just right - there was always some uneven finish around the protruding tenon caps.  The issue was certainly due to my application method.  It took me a few more tries but eventually the arms looked near perfect.  So the arms did get quite a few more coats of Waterlox than intended.

I found that the Waterlox coating was extremely delicate.  Any slight rubbing of the pieces, for instance while installing the back rest, marred the surface.  I wrote to Waterlox and was told that this was due to the film being too thin and was I applying the product to the surface at X gallons per Y square feet.  Clearly I was doing something wrong.

A resource that was to help spray the sanding sealer and lacquer didn't work out.  I decided to finish the project using Waterlox alone.  It's used for floors, right?  It should do fine for furniture.  I was hand applying it with a cloth.  My results were good but not good enough for my taste.  Some parts of the chairs looked shinier than others.  I did have a few drips.  I thought that I had done well but my technique clearly needed improvement.

I brought everything to the upholstery shop.  I had hoped to get the chairs upholstered prior to my presentation but the shop schedule didn't allow it.  This shop also does furniture refinishing - they have the whole spray booth, etc.  During a conversation with the owner, I learned that the shop would scuff sand and apply sealer and lacquer for $100 per chair.  SOLD! 

So, in conclusion, you're right.  Don't do what I did.  But that's how it ended up being somewhat convoluted.  I am not a finishing expert and do not recommend my madness to anyone.  Next time, I'm going to apply one coat of Waterlox and let the finishing shop do the rest.  Maybe one day I'll invest the time, money and energy into a good spray setup.  But there are many aspects of my woodworking skills that can be improved first.

If anyone is in the North Texas area, I would highly recommend Andrew's Refinishing for furniture and kitchen cabinetry refinishing and upholstery.

http://andrewsrefinishing.com/