Dining Chairs


Chestnut

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I like the angles that you have added, it helps keep the design refined while making the chair the right size to be comfortable.  Making prototypes is helpful in the long run because when you are happy with the final design you take it apart and you have templates for the whole project. 

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38 minutes ago, treeslayer said:

I’m in Drew, your journals are some of the best on here. I really like the way your thought process works, trying different things, prototypes, design thoughts and of course top shelf craftsmanship

Thanks, I really need to give a 2nd shout to @Bmac as his advice has been very helpful.

10 minutes ago, Chet said:

I like the angles that you have added, it helps keep the design refined while making the chair the right size to be comfortable.  Making prototypes is helpful in the long run because when you are happy with the final design you take it apart and you have templates for the whole project. 

I'm going to make a full blown prototype out of the project material, I expect it to take about 15 BF of material but i agree it'll be worth every penny to trouble shoot problems before a batching out process begins. I'll probably make final templates for the final prototype just to make sure the templates achieve what I want.

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I told you during our conversations you may well be headed down a path that is hard to leave. I made my first chair about 4 years ago and it has become somewhat of a obsession. The variety of chairs you can make is extensive and I learn something new with every different style of chair I make. 

I really look forward to following along with this build as I also have found your thought processes and and design ideas are always interesting. I think you are starting with a solid design and concept and the end result should be a great set of chairs.

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Nut, what will these be built of? I too like the cat tail design, really cool! Bmac also helped me on the sculpting and was probably the reason my seat didn’t become firewood!  Didn’t you recently post that you had a RAS115 that was still in the box?

Not to question your design or abilities as all of your work turns out fantastic. Just a thought though. While you’re adding curves, how about adding a little to the front legs, say something like this. Just a thought. Looking forward as always to following your projects. 

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4 hours ago, drzaius said:

Nut, just following your builds exhausts me.

I hope that's a good thing. To be fair the first prototype was January of 2019 and the second was all last week.

 

2 hours ago, K Cooper said:

Nut, what will these be built of? I too like the cat tail design, really cool! Bmac also helped me on the sculpting and was probably the reason my seat didn’t become firewood!  Didn’t you recently post that you had a RAS115 that was still in the box?

Cherry obviously :P. Ok well maybe not that obviously. These are the chairs for the dining room table i made a year ago which was cherry.

The front leg and rear leg embellishments haven't really been settled on. I have been leaning more mission or A&C style with a blend of curves for added flair so They might just sport a heavy taper. I'm not sure yet.

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  • 3 weeks later...
14 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

Drew, have you tried the technique of drilling "depth wells" at predetermined locations in the seat to use as guides for the carving wheel?  Might help make the result more symmetrical, even when removing bulk with a saw.

I was going to look into that as well as just throwing a strait edge across and using offsets and measurements to keep things similar. I also want to create a template that I set on top that could give me horizontal information as well, like outline and a shape for the deepest part ect.

My one hesitation with the drilling is what happens if my drill bit goes a bit too far....

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I've used both techniques and much prefer the bandsaw removal preshaping technique, but both will work. The bandsaw technique gets you real close to symmetric reduction if your cuts are accurate.

As for symmetry, you don't need to be exact. Your eye doesn't pick up little discrepancies, feeling the seat with your hand picks the discrepancies up way more than your eye. For symmetry get it looking symmetrical to your eye, then feel it with your hand marking high spots and reduce until it feels acceptable. The soft foam interface pads are great at helping get things smoothed out and more symmetrical.

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13 minutes ago, Bmac said:

As for symmetry, you don't need to be exact. Your eye doesn't pick up little discrepancies, feeling the seat with your hand picks the discrepancies up way more than your eye. For symmetry get it looking symmetrical to your eye, then feel it with your hand marking high spots and reduce until it feels acceptable. The soft foam interface pads are great at helping get things smoothed out and more symmetrical.

I'm not quite close  on symetry yet. It looks uneven. I was goign to use a quick template like Marc does in the rocker video just to give a good starting point.

I was hoping to make more progress on both of my current projects but it's still in the peak busy time of year for me. It's also peak fishing season and i haven't been out once yet.... I should move my boat further in the driveway so i can't help but hook up to it and take off.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just want to say that none of the above techniques is mutually exclusive.  Guide holes are what I use to turn those suspended forms, but I also use a straightedge and depth measurement from a datum.  With these you can still use bandsaw pre-shaping and check your work as you go against a template.  

As to drilling a hole too deep, yeah, don't do that.  I check and re-check position and depth, and my target depth is 1/4" short of the final surface.  

For a large complex curved seat surface this is going to be a lot of holes with a lot of different depths, though.  So I won't be surprised if this is not the route you choose.

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  • 1 month later...

Great progress, even though you ended up scrapping it the learning is going to help in the long run. Seat looks great.

For the curved backrest, and I know you don't plan on doing it but I had some thoughts I'd share anyway. The lamination makes the joinery much more difficult, not impossible but definitely more difficult. Cutting a curved backrest out of a solid piece with the joinery already done before cutting out the shape is a much easier approach. With that said, I think with some more fiddling with your jig you would have eventually gotten the joint right with the laminated piece. 

Looking forward to following your progress!

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