Curly Maloof Rocker

[Bmac]

As I've promised I'm going to journal my next Maloof Rocker build. This is one of my favorite all time builds and this will be my 5th rocker in the past 2 years (third rocker of this year). I started building chairs about 4 years ago and it has become an obsession to me. During that time period I've built approx 30 chairs. I've learned a lot along the way. For all those who have been wanting to start this build I'd encourage you to get started, it is a challenging but immensely satisfying build.

Since this is a guild project I'll be following basically Marc's instructions and I'll point out where I've deviated from his directions. Marc does a great job with this build and with my first rocker I followed his directions down to the letter. Since then I've built chairs that were from plans supplied by Charles Brock and Scott Morrison. I've picked up a few tricks from these guys and my build will be an amalgamation of what I've learned from all three. 

The wood will be some gorgeous curly hard maple from @Spanky, I'm excited to use this lumber. I ordered two batches from him and one batch is a little more curly than the other, but I think it will all look great in the end. I know one thing, I'm saving every scrap of this during the build. 

Finally, in some of my past builds many of you have asked how long it takes me for one of these builds, I'll try my best to record the time I take to complete each step and try to keep a running tally as I go. I originally thought I'd start this around Thanksgiving, but I'm getting an earlier start. This build will be slow though, as it's prime surf fishing season here in the Mid-Atlantic region, and I'll be playing hooky from work and from the shop to wet a line.

Started the project by going thru the stock and began milling the parts. The seat is made from 5 pieces, approx 4" wide and 22" long. I had a board that was 11" wide, I was able to get two 22" lengths from this board and then I was able to get two 4.25" wide boards from each length and one 2.5" wide board from each length. I glued these two thinner boards together to make the center board for the seat;

Back legs, always good to get these from the same board and I had nice grain to follow at the bottom of the leg, headrest will likely come from the piece above and the adder blocks will come from the waste between the legs;

The front legs and the arms;

The back slats, you need 7, I'll cut out 8;

The plan calls for the width of the back slats is to be 1.5", I like my slats a little skinnier, these will be around 1.25", to me wide back slats look clunky. No matter how wide the main part of the back slat is, it still goes down to a 3/8th" tenon into the headrest, so thinner back slats are not weaker;

This is my piece for the rocker laminations, unfortunately I found some bark inclusions as I was prepping. I should have enough usable material and I can work around those inclusions;

Once stock selection was completed I moved on to the 5 seat boards. Glued up the 2 skinnier boards, jointed, planed and cut to length. Once that is completed I need to cut the 3 degree bevels for the coopered seat. These bevels will be on both sides of the middle board and on the out side of both boards that join with the middle board. You can see the direction of the bevels marked on the end of the boards in this pic;

****Real quick, a point about the coopered seat, I've done these seats both ways, coopered and just flat. I do like the coopered look a little better, but it's not extreme. The flat seat also looks pretty darn good. The coopered seat is definitely an option you can use or skip.****

Cutting the bevels, table saw set at 3 degrees:

Bevels cut and marking out domino placement;

This next step is really a little tricky, you need to domino into a beveled surface on some boards. Marc does a nice job of this and cuts all his slots with the 90 degree guide on the domino retracted, and the base of the domino sitting on his workbench. This results in a domino slot positioned toward the bottom of the boards and out of the way for future sculpturing, but is very difficult to do on boards 2 and 4, as the bevel orientation makes it difficult to get a correctly positioned domino slot and have it perpendicular with the face of the board. But his technique works great for the centerboard joints.

Below is a pic of the domino cutting the slots into the centerboard, you put the domino on the bench and slightly tilt to the face is perpendicular the the joint, it's hard to see if it's tilted, but it is, the opposing surface for this joint is 90 degrees, so you simply put the domino on the bench and plunge into the 90 degree surface;

Now with the other joints, the angle of the bevel prevents you for doing what I did above. So instead I set the angle of the domino to 87 degrees and cut the slot using the fence. To do this you need to put the fence on the bottom of the board as the reference for your plunge cut; 

Charles Brock handles cutting the dominos a little differently than Marc did, and I do a mix of their techniques. 

Now that the dominos slots are cut, I assemble and cut the seat to the correct width, you do this by cutting the excess equally for both outside boards. Once the width is correct I draw the outline for sculpting the seat;

Pre-sculpting bandsaw reduction is next. I want to cut my reduction with the 90 degree side of boards 2 and 4 on the bandsaw table, in this pic you see which side is which;

I then draw a line 1" from the bottom and develop a reduction cut line from that. I take a lot off, I want a deep seat;

Here's the board on the bandsaw, 90 degree jointed surface on the table. You can also see from the above pic I've got plenty of stock over my domino slots.

The center board is tricky, you have a bevel on both sides;

You can mess with your bandsaw table and put it at 3 degrees, or you can just cut from both sides, as the cut angles toward the surface and the end result is just a ridge in the middle of the board where your 2 cuts intersect;

Here are my 3 center boards with their pre-sculpting cuts, you can see in the center board I just have a little ridge, toward the front I've cut out an outline for the pommel;

Next are the joints that are cut into the outside boards and some pre-sculpting shaping. It's easier to do some gross shaping while the boards are apart.

Almost forgot, I'm about 3.5 hours into this.

 

 

[Dave H]

That's going to be one beautiful chair! I look forward to following your progress.

[RichardA]

Between your work, and Spanky's wood, this ought to be one amazing build.

[Mick S]

This may be added to my short list. I'm really looking forward to seeing this build!

[pkinneb]

I'm in thanks for taking us along!!

[Spanky]

Bmac if you lived in driving distance, I would trade lumber for one of your rocker’s. I see you started with the best. 

[Coop]

You probably couldn’t have gotten a better grain pattern for the back legs on that board if you had four boards available. Really looking forward to this build! 

[treeslayer]

Man that's going to be beautiful @Bmac its going on my "someday" list for sure, any thoughts on finish, dye, colored shellac something to pop the awesome grain

[Bmac]

9 hours ago, treeslayer said:

Man that's going to be beautiful @Bmac its going on my "someday" list for sure, any thoughts on finish, dye, colored shellac something to pop the awesome grain

Yes, right now my plan is to use TransTint dye, I'll be testing it on a few scraps before putting it on the chair. After the dye I plan to use a oil/poly finish followed by an oil/wax finish. This will be the same finish Maloof used and I've had great luck with it on my previous chairs, but this will be the first chair I dye prior.

Here's a few questions to people that have experience with dye, I've used it occasionally in the past, but not extensively. I know if mixed with water it will raise the grain and I'll have to resand. Does prewetting the wood help? Or is it better to use something like lacquer thinner with the dye? Are there any issues using a solvent like lacquer thinner instead of water? What gives the best most even coloring?

[treeslayer]

I’ve used trans tint mixed it with dewaxed shellac but I have only used it on small table tops and small tables applied with a foam brush and I don’t know if that’s the best way or not but I did have great results 

[Chestnut]

11 hours ago, Bmac said:

Here's a few questions to people that have experience with dye, I've used it occasionally in the past, but not extensively. I know if mixed with water it will raise the grain and I'll have to resand. Does prewetting the wood help? Or is it better to use something like lacquer thinner with the dye?

I would use a spray bottle to raise the grain on the whole chair and then sand back smooth. After you wet the grain and sand smooth the wood shouldn't raise again. If you want to play it safe you could try wetting the surface again to see what happens. You could use alcohol with the dye, the fumes will be pretty strong. I wouldn't use lacquer thinner, it will probably work but the fumes would be deadly.

11 hours ago, Bmac said:

What gives the best most even coloring?

Even coloring is going to be achieved by an even coat of a well dispersed dye. The dye mixes well in water and alcohol and not so well in oil solvents aka mineral spirits. If you want a perfect application I highly suggest to apply the dye via HVLP. Maple blotches in a not so attractive way sometimes so that is something that doesn't suit the best to wiping but isn't an issue spraying. I don't think you'd need something like a Fuji, a conversion gun would probably work great but I'd practice. Best part is you can practice with water and raise the grain at the same time.

Also applying dye with the shellac is possible but it can be tricky as well. If you get a dry edge and overlap you could get dark lines etc. Drips while applying on the chair may be very hard to manage.

That said Dave did a bang up job above.

[Bmac]

We are moving now. Here's my progress since last post....

This post I tackle the seat joints, pre-assembly shaping, and the seat glue up.

Cut the back notches for the rear leg joints. A few thoughts here, first the size of the notch is only somewhat important. I try to be dead on but as you'll see with assembly there is extra seat here extending out past the rear leg. So if you cut the notch at 2 15/16ths" instead of 3", you'll be fine. The real big deal is the fact that this notch needs to be dead on square, I mean dead on. 

The front notches are only 1/4" deep, I set up the blade and the fences so the cut is done without needing any adjustments. Also I just leave on my standard blade and nibble away, quicker than setting up the dado stack;

Against the Incra stop;

Against the tablesaw fence;

Cut is a little rough at first;

Router plane makes quick work of this and gives me a perfectly flat surface. I would have used the router plane with the dado stack anyway, another reason I just use a standard blade for this notch.

Once you have your notches it's time to route the notch to develop the classic Maloof joint outline. I find using the handheld router here a mistake waiting to happen. To me the router table with the starter pin in place gives me much more control;

Few minutes later, looking good. With the maple I did get some burning, esp with the end grain. I don't think there is any avoiding this and the joint has a ton of gluing surface anyway;

Now before I glue up the seat I'm going to take a minute to do some pre-assembly shaping. This helps a ton developing the contour of the future seat. The outside boards are placed next to the already cut boards they will be glued to. I strike a line for depth and begin shaping. Here you can see my guide lines;

One side done;

other side done. Take notice how little dust is present on the table. This operation was completed by the Festool Ras and took about 7 minutes per board!!! 

Is it necessary to do this pre-assembly shaping. No, but it helps. I can hold my RAS at an angle that is not possible when the seat is assembled. If you look at this photo you can see the RAS disc would be digging into the adjacent board. To do this operation once the seat is assembled you need to hold your grinder in a much more awkward and less effective angle;

Here's a view of board number 4, I'm pretty aggressive with my reduction. I was aware of my domino placement and we should be fine. Once the seat is completely shaped then I would expect this area to be slightly over 3/4" at it's thinnest;

Finally, all glued up, I almost forgot you need to put the seat in this position so glue doesn't drip down into your joints. Positioned wrong at first but caught myself;

So you can see from above I'm well on my way to shaping this seat, it's nothing more than blending together the boards now. Also with shaping I think the biggest thing I see people do that I don't think looks good is they scoop out on the perimeter at a harsh slope to their depth then they have a large flat area 1" below the top of the seat. I want my slope to be more gradual and much less "flat" area. This shape tend to cradle the legs and the backside and is much more comfortable. I'll elaborate on this in the next post as shaping the seat is on the agenda then.

These operations took just 1 hr, so I'm sitting at 4.5hrs so far.

Thanks for looking.

 

 

[Chet]

I am looking forward to watching on this build. 

[gee-dub]

Lovin' the ride-a-long.  thanks for the many pics and descriptions of your methods.

[pkinneb]

Great info Bmac! I really like that you used the router table vs hand held. When I did my bar stools it was very difficult to keep the router flat. So will you do 100% of the power shaping with the RAS? I really liked mine but still used a grinder to start, might have to try all RAS on my rocker.

[Bmac]

25 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

Great info Bmac! I really like that you used the router table vs hand held. When I did my bar stools it was very difficult to keep the router flat. So will you do 100% of the power shaping with the RAS? I really liked mine but still used a grinder to start, might have to try all RAS on my rocker.

I'm with you, I couldn't hold my router flat and it kept running on me. Using the starter pin is like an extra hand and I feel like I have so much more control.

I will not use the grinder at all on this build, all RAS. It's not that I dislike the grinder, a grinder does a great job and is a little faster,  but I do dislike the mess it makes. Also I feel like I have better control with the RAS. It won't run/jump on you and when you learn to use it you can be aggressive or really fine with it. Hopefully after this build I can make the case for the RAS and you'll give your RAS even more love. 

[Chestnut]

4 hours ago, pkinneb said:

Great info Bmac! I really like that you used the router table vs hand held. When I did my bar stools it was very difficult to keep the router flat. So will you do 100% of the power shaping with the RAS? I really liked mine but still used a grinder to start, might have to try all RAS on my rocker.

If you do some of the shaping like Bmac points out before you glue the seat up it really speeds things up. I was able to get the seat carved more accurately more quickly using his method.

[wtnhighlander]

@Bmac are dominoes really necessary for strength in the seat assembly, or are they primarily an alignment aid?

[Bmac]

34 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

@Bmac are dominoes really necessary for strength in the seat assembly, or are they primarily an alignment aid?

Using the dominoes are definitely for alignment first. The coopering of the seat makes the glueup very difficult without the dominoes, also the dominoes are critical to keep the correct orientation of the joints.

Maloof believed they added some strength also, perhaps they do.

[Mark J]

At the risk of starting some controversy, at The Marc Adams Scool last week they had an evening lecture from the Titebond (Franklin) chemist (Bob).  He addressed the very same question.  Now I have no horse in this race, but the company that sells the glue says that with properly prepared surfaces the side grain to side grain bond is so good that the Domino/biscuit/dowel does not improve, and may even weaken the joint.  

He also pointed out that the glue in the Domino joint will cause the adjacent wood to swell.  If the surface above the joint is flattened this will result it subtle divots when the swelling finally subsides.

Another interesting tidbit, PVA glues all bond to cellolose.  There is very little exposed cellolose with end grain, thus explaining the poor bond.  He also mentioned that burning or burnishing long grain surfaces alters the cellulose giving a poor bond.  

[Tpt life]

This is going into the cost/return or diminishing level of impact realm. If glue is so strong, am I worried about weakening due to an alignment aid? That travels a curve with size of glue surfaces scaled against “loss” of integrity. Also, the swell bump is a known issue that has had many instructors to teach locating alignment aids “low” in the workpiece. Again, that’s on a benefit curve as thin items don’t allow much wiggle, but then, the smaller the piece...the less stress it typically comes under. All that to say that the issues you bring from the Adam’s school are valid, but you weigh those issues against your needs for the project.

[Bmac]

@Mark J, interesting info and I think @Tpt life made some good points. I've always thought long grain to long grain glue joints don't need reinforcement, but alignment is key here and the domino is awesome for alignment.

I think a lot of the older woodworkers considered reinforcement necessary because they didn't have access to the glues we use today. Perhaps with hide glues reinforcement helps long term, any thoughts on this theory? 

[Bmac]

Here's another update on the Curly Maloof Rocker, I've tackled shaping the seat, cutting, fitting, jointing, turning, and dowel placement of front legs, and back leg prep.

I started on scooping the seat further. As I said, after the presculpting it went pretty quick. Interestingly I rewatched Marc's video of him shaping his seat, and he used the angle grinder. I forgot how rough it left the surface. The RAS leaves a surface that is so much easier to sand. The technique I've developed for myself is probable best described as power shaping and sanding. Right next to my work bench sits the tools needed for this, all plugged into the Festool vac via a 3 way plug. All I need to do is grab the tool I want and put the hose on. I have 2 Festool Rotexs  ( a 90 and a 125) and a RAS. These 3 do the heavy lifting along with some hand tools ( scrapers, rasps and sandpaper).

Here's the seat, one side blended in and the other not quite there yet;

Still need to develop a little more sweep in the leg area;

You can see the nice gradual slope developed in the seat. Again, I see a lot of these chairs where the slope from the outline is steep and goes straight down to a large flat area, Think cradling the legs and backside;

Here's the seat sanded to 120, I'll stop here for now but I still have some work to do;

I wanted to show how the interface pads do such a great job of molding into the curves and slopes;

Next are the front legs. Start by milling and getting the width to fit the width if the seat joint;

Now that it we have the right width, next is to cut the joint into the leg. The top of the joint is 7" down from the top of the leg. I measure the exact width of the seat tenon, and I measure both to make sure they match exactly;

Strike my cut lines;

Set the blade to 1/2" high;

Set the table saw fence and the Incra stop to the joint outline and cut like I did for the joint in the seat, that goes well and then I round off the inside of the leg at the joint area, got a good fit;

Next is the turning of the leg. The turning is an off set turning, so I cut I cut some off the inside of the leg, then I need to reduce the width. With my technique I need to keep the centerline at the center after reducing it from the side. This will make sense  soon;

After doing pre-turning reduction I started turning;

Here are both legs turned;

Now you can see I left the ends square and I need to do this to drill the dowel hole into the center of the leg. Marc does this on the lathe and that just looked sketchy to me. With my technique I put a dowel centering jig on the square ends (hence keeping the centerline in the center!) and drill a 1/2" hole 1" deep;

Went to the bandsaw to cut off some excess;

Then I shaped these areas with rasps and the sanders;

Now that the front legs are done, on to the back legs. Planed and jointed blanks, drew outline before I was off to the bandsaw;

One important note, after bandsawing I need to pattern rout the legs. My 2" flush trim bit is 2" long so I need to make sure my legs are slightly under 2". Spanky sent me 9/4 lumber. I'm a little over so back to the planer;

And here are the legs trimmed up;

I not happy about the knot that showed up, I'm going to put that to the inside of the leg. I need to reduce that area before shaping so I hope most of it will get cut and sanded away. 

So next is back leg reduction, adding the adder blocks and cutting the back leg joint. I also want to find some time to start cutting the strips for the rockers and the back slats. I like to do these as I'm working on the major parts, to me it saves some time.

Speaking of time here's a breakdown;

Shaping seat- 1.5 hr, sizing frontlegs and cutting joints- 45 mins, turning frontlegs, dowel holes and shaping - 1.25 hr, milling back legs, cutting out on bandsaw, flush trimming- 45 mins

That puts me at a total time of 8.75 hrs. 

Thanks for looking.

 

 

[pkinneb]

Looks great Bmac!! Thanks again for the journal this will be very helpful when I do mine. X2 on the interface pads they worked great on my barstools as well

[wtnhighlander]

@Bmac, the chair parts are shaping up nicely! (pun intended).

For those of us with grinders, but no Festool, I find that a 36 grit flap wheel removes stock rapidly, but leaves a surface comparable to 80 grit on a ROS. Almost as good as a round edge burr wheel for shaping, too. True, the flap wheels wear out, but at least they are an alternative to a somewhat pricey tool.