Paddy Roxburgh
Established Member
For New Year gifts for my family (we're very secular in my family, Xmas takes second place to Hogmanay) I decided to make something for my brother, sister and parents. Whist I do a fair bit of woodworking in my job at a dry dock I rarely make free standing furniture. I made an ash coffee table for my sister, a shaker side table (from some unidentified brown wood from a dusty pile next to the dock) for my brother and a small jewellery box made of oak and some other unidentified brown wood for my Mother. I enjoyed making these pieces and found it refreshing to make some things on my bench that didn't need constant carrying out to the river for scribing into weirdly shaped walls of a boat. I discussed the coffee table with my sister in advance and we had a look on google images to find one to copy and I showed her a range of timbers that I had in the workshop, she chose the ash. I've been promising to make her one for years since I fitted some granite work tops in her kitchen and put some of the pieces down on her horrid veneered MDF ikea coffee table and scratched the top. My brother has quite a large house so I figured that a small end table would have somewhere to go. I guessed they would want something with quite simple wood grain, kind of neat and tidy (not my thing, I prefer loads of swirl), and figured the unidentified brown wood would be perfect. I chose the table from a link Custard had posted here from an american magazine, although I ignored the instructions as they were a bit heavy on machine work. For the two tables I prepped the planks on the PT (before hand planing) and roughed out the tapers on the legs with the bandsaw and did all the jointing and joinery and finishing with hand tools. The box I did entirely with hand tools. If I were to make the box again I would swap the woods as the endgrain of the oak does not show up that well compared to the brown stuff, so the side with the dovetails does not really show up, but the endgrain of the brown stuff really shows against the oak so the boring side of the dovetails is in your face (this is even more exaggerated in the photos)
Now the problem is my Dad. My parents already have more furniture than can fit into their house, including various pieces that their parents bought 80 odd years ago. Neither of my grandparents were rich (one mended clocking in machines, the other was a shunter on the railway) but they both bought hand made furniture when they got married that is still going strong long after their deaths. I do know what my Dad wants, but there was no way to have them ready for hogmanay. A set of dining chairs. So after champagne and whisky, infront of three generations of my family I promised to make him a set. I've been looking through the posts here and am a bit intimidated by some of them. If it takes Custard 80 hours to make the lovely walnut chair he posted then I am going to have to make some comprises on styling. I have no doubt that Custard would be loads quicker than me, and I have to make at least eight. Now, I love my Dad, but 800 hours I do not have spare. I have looked at loads of pictures and am thinking that I need to make the seats wider at the front than than the back and need to have a continuous curve on the back legs (rather than just an angle when they rise above the seat as cheaper chairs seem to have), or they will look rubbish. Thinking through the job I think it will be loads easier to make the back legs parallel to each other so the back of the chair is the same width all the way up, then whilst not many of the joints will be square they will only be out of square in one plane (I hope that makes sense?). I intend to make one chair out of pine mostly by hand and make MDF templates so I can make the actual set out of something nice (perhaps cherry, or oak) and use the templates to route the pieces on the router table, I'm also thinking of doing the joinery with the domino 700 (I have the Seneca adapter and the smaller cutters if necessary). If I were making one I would probably not bother but for a set I think it will save plenty of time. My plan is to make some MDF cut outs to the various angles that I need to set the fence for each component
At this moment I have one question, but I predict I will be back with more. I have heard Paul Sellers say that the angle of the chair back should be 7 degrees off square compared to the seat, but this was in the context of a chair with a kink at the seat rather than a continuous curve . If I do a continuous curve (with a flat section where the legs meet the seat frame) what should be the radius of this curve, indeed should it even be a section of a circle or should it be more curved above the seat than below, or visa versa?
Any other advise will be gratefully received. Making the other gifts was a pleasant and relatively straight forward for me, a bit easier than my normal projects. The chairs are a bit scary, but a promise made when drunk on Hogmanay is still a promise.
Paddy
Now the problem is my Dad. My parents already have more furniture than can fit into their house, including various pieces that their parents bought 80 odd years ago. Neither of my grandparents were rich (one mended clocking in machines, the other was a shunter on the railway) but they both bought hand made furniture when they got married that is still going strong long after their deaths. I do know what my Dad wants, but there was no way to have them ready for hogmanay. A set of dining chairs. So after champagne and whisky, infront of three generations of my family I promised to make him a set. I've been looking through the posts here and am a bit intimidated by some of them. If it takes Custard 80 hours to make the lovely walnut chair he posted then I am going to have to make some comprises on styling. I have no doubt that Custard would be loads quicker than me, and I have to make at least eight. Now, I love my Dad, but 800 hours I do not have spare. I have looked at loads of pictures and am thinking that I need to make the seats wider at the front than than the back and need to have a continuous curve on the back legs (rather than just an angle when they rise above the seat as cheaper chairs seem to have), or they will look rubbish. Thinking through the job I think it will be loads easier to make the back legs parallel to each other so the back of the chair is the same width all the way up, then whilst not many of the joints will be square they will only be out of square in one plane (I hope that makes sense?). I intend to make one chair out of pine mostly by hand and make MDF templates so I can make the actual set out of something nice (perhaps cherry, or oak) and use the templates to route the pieces on the router table, I'm also thinking of doing the joinery with the domino 700 (I have the Seneca adapter and the smaller cutters if necessary). If I were making one I would probably not bother but for a set I think it will save plenty of time. My plan is to make some MDF cut outs to the various angles that I need to set the fence for each component
At this moment I have one question, but I predict I will be back with more. I have heard Paul Sellers say that the angle of the chair back should be 7 degrees off square compared to the seat, but this was in the context of a chair with a kink at the seat rather than a continuous curve . If I do a continuous curve (with a flat section where the legs meet the seat frame) what should be the radius of this curve, indeed should it even be a section of a circle or should it be more curved above the seat than below, or visa versa?
Any other advise will be gratefully received. Making the other gifts was a pleasant and relatively straight forward for me, a bit easier than my normal projects. The chairs are a bit scary, but a promise made when drunk on Hogmanay is still a promise.
Paddy
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