Maple Sculpted Rocker

[SeventyFix]

The Finishing Process

1. Sand the entire chair to 320 grit - a higher grit than I would normally use on a project.  Do this in a very well lit area to aid in seeing imperfections.  No matter how much I sanded, I still found areas that needed additional attention.  This is a "final" sanding before applying finish so make it as perfect as possible.
2. Vacuum off any dust.  I also used a rag and compressed air to get the chair as clean as possible.
3. Wipe down every surface with a reasonably damp rag.  Wet the rag again as needed.  This process raises the grain of the wood.  The grain is raised now to greatly limit how much it will raise during the dye process.  Allow the chair to dry completely (I brought the chair inside; it was a humid day).  Sand again, to 320 grit.  I used the old 320 grit sanding pads that I had used earlier as they were worn and not aggressive.  This gives about a 400 grit sanding.

[SeventyFix]

4. Mix the dye with warm water.  I used Transtint #6006 Dark Mission Brown.  Apply to test pieces of scrap lumber and adjust the dilution until you achieve the color that you're looking for.  Apply the dye with a rag, trying to keep a wet edge (easier said than done).

BTW, by now, if you've done this right, your workspace is a complete mess.

[SeventyFix]

Figured grain, anyone?

[SeventyFix]

I have heard this referred to as "popping the grain".  

[SeventyFix]

All accent woods are made of walnut.

The stripping pattern is clearly visible.

 

Fix any small imperfections where the dye didn't penetrate into the wood.  You may notice this around the seat/leg joints where the epoxy is exposed (and obviously doesn't absorb the dye).  I use a Sharpie (black and brown) and blended the colors nicely.  You'd never be able to tell that there was a problem.  

[Mick S]

Spectacular! That's some powerful popping. 

[SeventyFix]

Here's an example of what was previously described.  Keep the laminates from slipping and the stripping pattern will be continuous between the laminate layers.  It's just an extra detail that looks nice.  It's hard to get it perfect because some slipping is inevitable.  But limit slip as much as possible with figured wood.

[SeventyFix]

5. Let the chair dry completely.  Apply an oil finish.  I used clear Danish oil (from Watco).  

Watco says "Watco® Danish Oil is a unique blend of penetrating oil & varnish, which hardens in the wood, not on the wood. Watco Danish Oil penetrates deep into wood pores to protect from within and to enhance the natural look and feel of the wood. It creates the rich, warm glow of a traditional hand-rubbed finish."

 The dye is water based so it is not dissolved by the oil or varnish.  Apply the oil with an abrasive pad (think 3M scotch pad).  Rub the oil into the wood liberally.  Apply more oil where it is absorbed completely and the wood looks dry.  After 10-15 minutes, wipe off the chair to remove any excess oil.

[SeventyFix]

Let the oil dry (72 hours minimum).  The last step is to apply 3 coats of pre-catalyzed lacquer, lightly sanding in between coats.  I hire this work out to a local refinishing shop.  They have all of the professional equipment and spray booth and do this all day, every day.  They charge $75 to do the chair - at that price, it's not worth it for me to do this in my tiny garage shop.

[SeventyFix]

I will update this post later with a project wrap-up: what went right (very little), wrong (almost everything that could), what I would do differently (not too much) and what tools were required for the build.

[pkinneb]

Great build and great journal thanks for sharing!! That window in your shop is awesome as well.

[bushwacked]

my man parts just got excited .... I mean uhhhhh 

Damn that is a sexy chair!! Great job and glad I followed this! No one day I hope my chair looks 1/8th this good.

[SimonR]

That is one good looking chair right there. Whats next now that the rocker is pretty much done?

 

[SeventyFix]

10 hours ago, pkinneb said:

Great build and great journal thanks for sharing!! That window in your shop is awesome as well.

Thank you - it was an arduous build.  The home originally called for 2 smaller windows, spaced apart. I wanted more light in the garage.  So I asked to have the space between the windows filled with an even larger window.  It brings a ton of light into the garage.  Last winter, I removed and reinstalled all of the landscaping in the front of the house.  New 12V LED landscape lighting, plants (I hired a landscape architect to provide a plan), stone (4 tons) and soil (8 yards).  I completed everything myself, realizing considerable savings.  While working on this build, I stopped often to watch huge butterflies and hummingbirds feed at the flowers.  It really turned out well.

 

9 hours ago, bushwacked said:

my man parts just got excited .... I mean uhhhhh 

Damn that is a sexy chair!! Great job and glad I followed this! No one day I hope my chair looks 1/8th this good.

  Thanks, I really appreciate that.  It's certainly not perfect but it turned out.

 

3 hours ago, SimonR said:

That is one good looking chair right there. Whats next now that the rocker is pretty much done?

 

Thank you. My garage is a mess and my tools are not well organized.  My next project is going to be to clean up and organize my workspace.  Nothing bothers me more than having a tool and needing it but not being able to find it.  I'm seriously thinking of trying to track down plans for this Trevor Hadden tool cabinet (anyone, let me know if you know where to obtain plans).

I'm not sure if Fine Woodworking provides actual plans.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2010/10/28/an-a-tool-chest

 

[SeventyFix]

10 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

Let the oil dry (72 hours minimum).  The last step is to apply 3 coats of pre-catalyzed lacquer, lightly sanding in between coats.  I hire this work out to a local refinishing shop.  They have all of the professional equipment and spray booth and do this all day, every day.  They charge $75 to do the chair - at that price, it's not worth it for me to do this in my tiny garage shop.

Scratch that - I checked with the shop today and the charge is $125.  I'm dropping the chair off tomorrow.

[Cheeset202]

12 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

I will update this post later with a project wrap-up: what went right (very little), wrong (almost everything that could), what I would do differently (not too much) and what tools were required for the build.

Absolutely stunning work on the chair.  I appreciate your sharing on the rocker build as that is my next step on the chair and I will definitely use some of your techniques, grinding the center of the leg is a great idea.  I look forward to your summary of the total build and what you learned.

[pkinneb]

13 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

Scratch that - I checked with the shop today and the charge is $125.  I'm dropping the chair off tomorrow.

Never done it it but given the time and expense you have into the chair that seems very reasonable to me. Can't wait t see the finished product.

[Mick S]

Beautiful job, as usual! I'll look forward to the wrap up, since this is a one-of-these-days project for me, too.

[bushwacked]

13 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

Thank you - it was an arduous build.  The home originally called for 2 smaller windows, spaced apart. I wanted more light in the garage.  So I asked to have the space between the windows filled with an even larger window.  It brings a ton of light into the garage.  Last winter, I removed and reinstalled all of the landscaping in the front of the house.  New 12V LED landscape lighting, plants (I hired a landscape architect to provide a plan), stone (4 tons) and soil (8 yards).  I completed everything myself, realizing considerable savings.  While working on this build, I stopped often to watch huge butterflies and hummingbirds feed at the flowers.  It really turned out well.

 

  Thanks, I really appreciate that.  It's certainly not perfect but it turned out.

 

Thank you. My garage is a mess and my tools are not well organized.  My next project is going to be to clean up and organize my workspace.  Nothing bothers me more than having a tool and needing it but not being able to find it.  I'm seriously thinking of trying to track down plans for this Trevor Hadden tool cabinet (anyone, let me know if you know where to obtain plans).

I'm not sure if Fine Woodworking provides actual plans.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/2010/10/28/an-a-tool-chest

 

wow that is a great looking tool cabinet ... I hope you find the plans because I want to watch that build  

[SeventyFix]

Project Wrap-Up

After a long project like this one, I think back on what went right, what went wrong, what I learned and would do differently in the future.  Like most of you, I work and have family obligations that divide my time.  Dedication to large hobby projects would not be possible without my wife’s enthusiastic love and support.  I have enough time to complete one large woodworking project per year.  Although the Sam Maloof inspired rocking chair is not large in size, it is the most complex project that I have completed to date.

For a frame of reference, I consider myself an intermediate woodworker.  I completed the Wood Whisperer Morris Chair and Split Top Roubo projects.  Compared to Roubo and Morris, Maloof was, in my opinion, the most challenging of these projects.

Why We Do It

The biggest mistake that I made occurred before starting the project: choosing to build a Maloof-style rocking chair in the first place.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as it is often said.  Truth be told, although I appreciate his work, I do not particularly care for Maloof style furniture (or most mid-century modern furniture for that matter).  There.  I said it.  I accept that this makes me a terrible person and that I deserve to be shunned by the woodworking community.  I chose to take on this project because of the difficulty of the build and to learn new (to me) techniques.  In retrospect, my most enjoyable projects are those where I greatly desire the end product.  

Let me state this explicitly: this is a hobby.  Enjoyment is a large factor behind why it is done.  There were times during this project that were not enjoyable.  I have never been so close to giving up on a project as I was on this build.  Some steps involve working on parts of the chair that have already undergone significant labor.  Mistakes mean major backtracking. Unfortunately, I made a few of those mistakes and had to scramble to recover.  Absent my stubborn nature (which makes donkeys seem agreeable), this chair would have ended up doused with gasoline in the backyard, my trembling hand readying an unlit match.

The Plans

If you have completed Wood Whisperer projects, you have become accustomed to exceptional project plans with precise measurements.  Do not expect that level of detail in this project.  The plans are from Charles Brock and they are rough.  Perhaps this is intentional; one contributor said that the plans are meant to provide a rough guide.   Take the headrest template as an example: the angles on each side do not match.  In the end, this did not matter as the headrest was fitted manually from a larger piece of stock.  Arguably, this should not bother me but it did.  There were times when I was questioning parts of the build because the plans did not seem to fit.

The Price

Be prepared for the cost of this project, which I outlined near the beginning of this journal.  My shop is fairly well equipped, yet I had to purchase about $850 in special tools for this build.  In the future, I will balance the cost of the project with my level of need/want of the final product. 

My recommendation is to not purchase the thin Kutzall bit (Kutzall Original Ball Nose Burr - Fine, 1/4" Shaft - Head Diameter 1/4" - BN-14G).  This is the smaller of the two ball nose burr bits and I found it difficult to control.  There were no tight spaces that required this bit.  Eventually I used the larger ball nose burr bit exclusively.  Additionally, do not purchase the sphere cutting bit (Kutzall Original Sphere Burr – Fine - S-1G).  I never even took this bit out of the package.  The end of the larger ball nose burr bit is round - use that instead of the sphere bit.  Skipping these bits shaves $36 off the tool list.

In retrospect, I would only buy one of the power carving disks.  The medium disk removes material at a good clip.  It is debatable but I would skip the course disk (King Arthur Holey Galahad See Through Disc Round Coarse) for another $70 savings.

The scribing tool (FastCap Accuscribe Scribing Tool) was difficult to use.  I detailed a near fool proof method that employs a flattened pencil and card scrapers. Skip the scribing tool for another $16 savings.

The Wood

This is one area where I do not believe in skimping.  The results speak for themselves; either you love it or you don't.  With only one major woodworking project completed per year, I try to get the most interesting wood possible.  I did use walnut instead of ebony as accents.  I shudder to think of how much it would cost to use ebony to accent the rockers.  Many people like foreign exotic wood species and there is nothing wrong with that.  In my mind, there is something special about local (USA/Canada) exotic/figured woods.

Be careful with your wood species selection.  This project requires some thicker stock, which may not be easy to find in the wood you have fallen in love with.  Tracking down 10/4 figured maple

The Process

This project is more difficult to follow in videos than others are because of the numerous curves and carving.  I found it difficult at times to follow the video series.  How much is being carved away?  How deep is that curve?  Turning a two dimensional picture in a video into a three dimensional sculpted object was not always straightforward for me.  Your spatial perception and experience may vary.

Although I do not like to see the use of exclusive and expensive machinery in the Guild builds (Festool Domino), Marc does talk about other methods (e.g. dowels) that can work.  Thankfully, I have a friend with a Domino and was able to experience using it (great tool).

Marc uses the rasp for many operations.  When appropriate, I used tools that removed more wood with each pass to speed the process.  A good example is using the spokeshave to pare down the facets of the spindles.  The spokeshave removes more material faster and produces far less dust.

The spindles are worth special mention because they are a project in themselves.  Expect to spend a lot of time making the spindles.  Work in bright light to see and correct imperfections.  In the future, I would come up with a jig to hold the spindles while grinding the rounds (the four areas in each spindle where they transition from wide to narrow).  I had a difficult time getting this right and upon very close examination, it is still not perfect.  Looking at professional pictures online, I can see that they struggled with the same issue.

Angle the holes drilled into the seat that accept the spindles.  Several spindles cracked when the headrest was fitted.  The spindles are under too much pressure to bend forward.  This issue can be alleviated by angling the holes towards the front of the chair.

Dye the epoxy the color of the finished product.  I thought that I was so smart using clear resin and hardener but it came back to bite me at the end of the project.  The clear epoxy works great on projects executed with light wood species.  When using dye, as I did on this project, the epoxy should be dyed to match.  This is a small detail but it would have taken no extra time.

To avoid drips, I usually thicken my epoxy mixture.  A can of thickener is cheap and lasts virtually forever as so little is necessary with each batch.  I did not have to worry about epoxy dripping down from the spindle holes in the headrest during assembly.

If I had to do it all over again (and I might), I would steam bend the rockers.  This only makes sense when using the striped figured wood that I used for this build.  Steam bending would have kept all of the figured lines matching up just right.  I would not have been able to include an accent strip.  However, the accent strip does not stand out much after the stain was applied.  Marc used layers of different wood species; obviously, in that case steam bending makes absolutely no sense.

In Conclusion

After working for so many hours on this chair, I have come to appreciate its graceful curves and many unique design elements.  I like the flow of the hard lines around the headrest and the horns.  The spindles are elegant and cradle the curve of your back just right.  As others have said before, it is surprisingly comfortable.

I built this chair while also working on two other time-consuming goals.  This put pressure on me to finish the project rather than allowing me to enjoy the process.  I may have started with a false sense of competency, having completed other reasonably challenging projects in the past.  In reality, power carving, fitting parts together (e.g. the arms to the legs) and chair building in general were all new tasks to me. In the future, I need to respect the challenges in each project and set expectations adequately.  I will never again build to a specific deadline.

[SimonR]

20 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

Thank you. My garage is a mess and my tools are not well organized.  My next project is going to be to clean up and organize my workspace.  Nothing bothers me more than having a tool and needing it but not being able to find it.  I'm seriously thinking of trying to track down plans for this Trevor Hadden tool cabinet (anyone, let me know if you know where to obtain plans).

that's a gorgeous cabinet right there! I guess the Habs waited for you to get done with the chair to start playing better eh?

[SeventyFix]

9 minutes ago, SimonR said:

that's a gorgeous cabinet right there! I guess the Habs waited for you to get done with the chair to start playing better eh?

They're coming to Dallas in mid November-ish and I've been holding off on getting tickets.  I wasn't enthusiastic with the play during the first few games that I saw!

BTW, I was there during the march to move the banners from the forum to the Molson (now Bell) Center.

[Chet]

The rocker looks outstanding.  If I remember correct you did a couple of figured cherry Morris chairs and this came out just as nice.  Well done.

[drzaius]

6 hours ago, SeventyFix said:

Project Wrap-Up

Thanks for this very thoughtful write up. Lots of good advice her that could be applied to many different projects.

[Cheeset202]

I really appreciated your summary write-up, some of your comments surprised me and made me think about my current adventure building the rocker.  I do share your desire to take on projects that teach new skills and present many challenges, which this chair does.  Your journal was well done and your perfection to getting it perfect is second to none that I have seen so far, well maybe you and the gentleman who recently built 2 guitars! Look forward to next years build!