lwroten Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 My wife has been asking for some bar stools for a while now. I saw some pub chairs in the November issue of Wood magazine (Issue 215 Nov, 2012) that I liked, but I wanted a different look. I decided to laminate a 1/4" piece of walnut between two pieces of 5/8" thick quarter-sawn white oak for my 6/4 material. Both woods are fairly stable and the chairs will be in a conditioned house, so I don't think there will be any movement. The curve of the seat did not turn out the way I had planned, but I actually like what I wound up with. I was cutting the curve with a 1/4" bandsaw blade and it kept bellying out which lead me to buy an angle grinder and some aggresive sanding tools to fix the mess. When the 1/4" blade broke I fell back to my 3/4" blade. It worked surprisingly well on the remaining curves. I guess I will be using that on the next two chiars... I have 3 coats of tung oil applied so far, and plan 3 more. I posted the entire build on my blog if anyone is interested: http://lwroten.wordpress.com/tag/pub-chairs/ I would welcome suggestions on improving the process. It took about 10 days to build one and I have two more to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdgewaterWW Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 Looks great. I really like the Walnut screw plugs and the Oak, Walnut, Oak sandwich in all of the frame pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G S Haydon Posted April 23, 2013 Report Share Posted April 23, 2013 That's a well made chair. That dude on the tung oil tin looks serious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Turner Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 i really like how it turned out, the laminated walnut and oak look really nice together Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lwroten Posted April 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 Thanks, I thought of flipping the oak/walnut order on the seat, back, and front stretchers, but this matches my hickory kitchen cabinets better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Frank Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 i like your chair. not my cup of tea the uneven stripe up the middle. think if should be clean edge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 i like your chair. not my cup of tea the uneven stripe up the middle. think if should be clean edge I agree with that. And is it just the pic, or are those raised ridges on the seat? Kinda seems like that'd be a little uncomfy on the tush. But I dig the design, love the joinery, and the way you used the contrasting woods looks great to me. Aside from the issues on the seat, it's a pretty sweet stool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lwroten Posted April 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 It is an illusion, the seat is completely smooth. The lines will be more even on the next two (hopefully). This was my prototype, so I learned a few things. The seat is constructed by cutting the scoop on a bandsaw out of (4) 5" wide pieces. The 4 pieces are joined, then sanded. the problem I had was the pieces shifted maybe 1/32 up or down. Normally this wouldn't be noticed, but with the laminations, it is obivious, as you see. The problem would normally be solved by clamping with cauls across the seat to hold everything at the same level, but with the seat dished and the bandsaw cuts imperfect, this was difficult. I intend to make the seat pieces longer on the next two so that there are flat areas on either side of the scoop for the cauls to be placed. I attached another picture that shows the seat closer. It is smooth, but if you look close you can see where one of the joints are raised slightly. It doesn't take much to mess up the line and my joinery is nowhere near perfect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted April 24, 2013 Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 How about some dowels, biscuits or Dominoes to help with alignment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lwroten Posted April 24, 2013 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2013 I have never had luck with my biscuit jointer. (buying the cheapest one available was probably not the best course) It always seemed to make my joints worse... The dowels are a good idea, I may give them a try. The domino is, of course, out of my price range. I am slowly upgrading my tools to a more professional level, but justifying expenses without profit is hard to do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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