MCM Chair

[Chestnut]

Not sure this isn't quite a Z chair but is definitely a knock off design. This chair is one we used to put our daughter to sleep. It was also helpful for my wife during nursing as it's a good height and the arms end up being useful for setting things down. This chair was given to me. It has cushions but they aren't pictures, they aren't important any way as they will be replaced with this project as the fabric used left a lot to be desired acording to my wife.

First step was to take measurements.

Then I made a full scale template by clamping a peice of plywood to the chair and tracing with a pencil. This allowed me to get angles and also get approximates for curves and material  widths.

The maerial i will be using for this projct is some nice QS oak. Not sure if it's white or red oak.

[wtnhighlander]

This is going to be good!

[Chestnut]

This has been a pretty quick project and has been a lot of fun. With a decent template and the stock on hand I took some time making paper rough templates from the large overall template.

These were more or less to identify parts. Additionally i used the templates to trace parts and nest them within boards to reduce scrap. I feel like most builders of chairs like this just cut long boards and then waste a lot of the material but that just doesn't feel right to me what I know I can make better use of the material. The front legs were nested out of 1 board. The only wide part necessary is the area where joinery happens.

The long main leg was a bit harder to nest, but i was able to orient the board in such a way where the off cut was a usable size for another part of the chair. The only trick with this is to make sure that joinery angles are maintained. This wasn't difficult with the large master template. I just established strait baselines. The bevel gauge was my friend. I have no idea what the angles where they just got transfered to a miter gauge and cut.

Once a few parts got laid out I was able to rough in the shape to get an idea of where joinery is supposed to go. No surprise I used the domino cutter to make mortises and then used home made floating tenon stock. Tenon stock was air dried green ash as it's really hard and nice and springy. I did my typical multiple plunges 5/8" apart on center to make one larger mortise. 2 plunges makes just under a 2" wide mortise 3 plunges makes close to 2_3/4" wide mortise.

Once the joinery is identified and cut I then laid out lines on the parts to cut the shape from the rough blanks. The shape was cut on the band saw and then cleaned up with a spoke shave, block plane, and rasp. Care was taken to ensure that the shaping wouldn't interfere with the joinery as I tried to maximize joinery size. I also did not clean up the curves that were near the joinery at this point. Leaving 10% will allow me to blend the separate parts together once the side is glued.

 

 

 

 

[Coop]

That is a cool design. You’re fortunate to have the chair as a template. Will this go to an expectant friend or maybe …….? 

[wtnhighlander]

I agree that maximizing the use of material feels better, and you did a good job with it. I'll point out that chairs are definitely NOT the right application for a lot of figured grain, at least not crotch figure. Avoiding such grain in mediocre cuts of lumber is often difficult. Straight grain with minimal run out keeps things strong and tight. Your QS oak selection is an excellent choice in that regard.

[Chestnut]

15 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

I agree that maximizing the use of material feels better, and you did a good job with it. I'll point out that chairs are definitely NOT the right application for a lot of figured grain, at least not crotch figure. Avoiding such grain in mediocre cuts of lumber is often difficult. Straight grain with minimal run out keeps things strong and tight. Your QS oak selection is an excellent choice in that regard.

Yes that is an excellent point. When i was nesting parts I tried to rotate things to reduce grain run out not increase it. With my stock I was able to facilitate both requirements with the same action so win win. That's not always the case.

Saving 2 BF of lumber is pointless if it means the chair leg is going to eventually break down the road. Also when I'm using oak like this the scraps are never truly wasted as all off cuts end up in my grilling bin to be used to make delicious grilled meat products.

17 hours ago, Coop said:

That is a cool design. You’re fortunate to have the chair as a template. Will this go to an expectant friend or maybe …….? 

If this is a question of are we expecting a 2nd. The answer is yes. We are expecting a baby boy June 2nd and this will end up being the nursing chair in our bedroom and the original chair will be in our daughters bedroom for bedtime.

[wtnhighlander]

Congratulations, @Chestnut! 

Please tell me you're going call him 'Wally', keeping the 'nut theme alive! 

[treeslayer]

That’s great news @Chestnut, congratulations to you and Megan !!, and excellent work as always 

[Von]

Congratulations!

[Coop]

Yeah!!!

Congratulations ! 

[Chestnut]

So the chair is finished but I'm a bit behind on pictures and this posting bit. After getting the curves and sculpting cleaned up I glued the side assemblies together. This is the part where the off cuts really came in handy as there is no part that is strait or perpendicular any more.

To clamp the main rear leg i used the curved off cut with some double sided sand paper. This worked perfectly and alloted me to get a lot of clamping force to close the joint.

The front of the rear leg I just used the mitered off cut and sand paper. I know I've seen Marc and others make fancy jigs but for one off angles the double sided sand paper works fantastic.

Here is the whole assembly in clamps. It's starting to look like the example chair.

I don't want to stress joints too much so I let the sides cure for a day before I sculpted out the parts that I left untouched. I'm really glad that i left the areas where the joinery meets as it didn't line up as well as I had planned. Some parts lined up perfectly others not so much. This was one of the better joitns.

During the glue cure I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the angle of the front leg to the bench and how long to trim the legs. I ended up forming a really good plan of attack using the track saw.

11 hours ago, wtnhighlander said:

Congratulations, @Chestnut! 

Please tell me you're going call him 'Wally', keeping the 'nut theme alive! 

That is a great suggestion but we have decided on a name already and it's not that one, sorry.

[Mark J]

Congratulations to you and Megan, and Hazel!  

[pkinneb]

Congrats that's awesome!! Enjoy them, time flies my oldest turned 37 on Saturday 

[JohnG]

Congrats! And the chair is looking awesome.

[Chestnut]

Towards the end i got a bit excited and forgot to take as many pictures. As mentioned in my previous post I was working on a way to try and cut the side assemblies for the arm rest and then to get the right leg length. I ended up using my bevel gauge to try and set the bottom of the leg length. With that line set I measured on the old chair up to the bottom of the arm rest where the arm rest met the legs. Using that measurement i was able to determine to two planes for the ground and the arm rest.

To make the cut I dropped my track saw track on top of the 2 side assemblies. Lining up the track with the reference lines i cut both side assemblies in 1 shot so they would be as close to the same as possible.

With that out of the way the next step was to clean up the side assemblies and make the frames for the bottom seat and the back rest. This is where I got in a bit of a hurry and didn't' take pictures.

The bottom seat frame is a simple frame. To hold up the seat cushion webbing was used on the original chair. This will be emulated. I needed slots for the webbing to go through so I used a router  my domino to make 3 plunges in a row to create a slot. I did this around the permiter of the base spaced out to attach the seat webbing.

For the back rest I made another frame and attached 5 back slates in the middle. The original chair had 5 turned spindles that were used but I didn't really want to go to that detail and slats are easier. Now the trick is to attach the sides to the bottom and back rest. I figured the back rest should attach to the seat portion securely. So i measured the angle of the back rest with my bevel gauge. I transferred the angle to my table saw and ripped the back of the seat so I could attach the back rest at the right angle. I used dominoes for this. Again i forgot to take pictures sorry.

One good trick is keep in mind you don't always need to measure angles for your table saw exclusively above the table. I've found in many situations it's VERY helpful to go below the table. Using a square or bevel gauge in this way allows me to reference most of the saw blade instead of just the outer edge. I personally feel it's helped me nail angles on my table saw either 90 degrees or some random angle better.

Before final assembly thought is required to attach the arm rests. The main glue up won't include the arm rests for reasons. To connect the arm rests to the legs I made mortises in the tops of the legs that will match up to the arm rest. I made sure that reference lines would be easy to transfer and measured their locations from reference edges. I then documented that reference measurement on the parts.

The final step was just to assemble everything minus the arm rests. I glued the backrest to the seat in 1 operation so the whole glue up would be a bit easier. The back rest forms a long grain to long grain glue joint with part of the side assembly. In that location i ran a glue bead and used some small clamps. I don't fully trust this so I will reinfoce with screws later on.

And out of the clamps. You can see the arm rest mortises.

With the main chair assembled I started work on the arm rests. I traced the rough outline of the arm rest from the original onto a sheet of ply. I cut out the outline on the band saw and cleaned up the edges. I was going to just use this to trace on the board cut out and shape by hand but then i figured it'd be almost as fast to just template route the arm out. I HATE, i mean ABSOLUTELY HATE template routing so i usually avoid it at all costs but it just made sense here. I used my white side bit with a top and bottom bearing so i could flip the parts over and make sure I was always routing with the grain.

With the arms done it was just a simple transfer marks, make mortises, and attach with floating tenons.

With the chair fully assembled it was time for the reinforcing screws. Probably not necessary but it's better safe than sorry. I plugged the screw holes with bocote for a little flare.

The current status of the chair is applying finish. I"m going for shellac on this because I just like it. I meant to mix my own from flakes but then ran out of time. It's just too easy to grab a can of seal coat and go. I get that it's not as good but it's convenient. I could probably do a single coat of wiping on poly over top to add some durability but honestly I've been using shellac a LOT recently and the stuff is durable as long as it doesn't have water sit on it. 

I apply shellac with a Hake brush. I feel it's a really nice way to apply shellac and the brushes are cheap and easy to maintain. Between coats i just let the brush soak in denatured alcohol.

For now I'm just applying finish. My MIL is making cushions for both chairs and once they are complete I'll post the finished pictures.

[treeslayer]

Making great progress Drew, looking forward to seeing the finished project, what’s the cushions going to be?

[Mark J]

I like the TS angle set tip.

[Chet]

Congratulations to you and your family on the coming arrival of your son.

This is shaping up to be a nice looking chair.  I don't know if you came to any conclusion but in looking at all you your pictures this looks like White Oak to me.

On 4/30/2024 at 1:36 PM, pkinneb said:

Enjoy them, time flies my oldest turned 37 on Saturday

Huh, my oldest grandson turns 23 in October.