Round tree seat

[ScottyT]

bare with me here, as i am pretty hopeless at computer stuff and forums.
I had a lovely little tree seat land on my bench not so long ago and thought it’d be good to share it with some like minded folk. It had some interesting obstacles to be overcome with the machinery I have so it was very enjoyable.
I’m going to try and put some photos up so we shall see how it goes.

 

[ScottyT]

Discount the random roof picture. Apologies.

 

[seanf]

Beautiful. Any pictures of it in situ?

Sean

 

[ScottyT]

Beautiful. Any pictures of it in situ?

Sean

Unfortunately not it’s fairly rare I get any pictures of my work in its resting place unless I do the site fix, which is isn’t very often!

 

[ScottyT]

I made a small oak one a few years before this but can’t seem to find any photos of it. It’s very similar but much smaller from memory and it has some shaped arms. Not often I get to do fully circular work so i remember most.
im certain I had a shot of it in situ….

 

[seanf]

@ScottyT Thank you for the reply. It would probably disappoint me to not be able to see things actually installed, but I understand things are obviously different when running a business instead of indulging your hobbies as I do

Sean

 

[ScottyT]

Found the seat but no resting place. Annoying.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Absolutely stunning work

 

[pe2dave]

Very much impressed. Even more so you've room to build it in the workshop!
I built a simpler one and had to dry fit in the living room

 

[ScottyT]

Very much impressed. Even more so you've room to build it in the workshop!
I built a simpler one and had to dry fit in the living room

In the living room brilliant.
From memory the iroko seat was 2.4 O/D.

 

[pe2dave]

(Only place with flat concrete floor!). Chopped up 4x2 to raise it off the carpet!
Happily in place round a 30" diameter fir tree. Only issue is treating it annually,
the mess from the tree is ... bad. Tree roots will cause a problem some time ahead.

 

[HOJ]

Absolutely brilliant, presume you have a fair amount of waste from the curved work & intrigued as to how you fit the back slats into the frame rails?

 

[ScottyT]

(Only place with flat concrete floor!). Chopped up 4x2 to raise it off the carpet!
Happily in place round a 30" diameter fir tree. Only issue is treating it annually,
the mess from the tree is ... bad. Tree roots will cause a problem some time ahead.
Ah I see, you gotta do what you gotta do.
The trickiest bit of the job was to align the top rail and bottom rail parallel so the back slats

Absolutely brilliant, presume you have a fair amount of waste from the curved work & intrigued as to how you fit the back slats into the frame rails?

yeah there is a lot of waste. It all goes into heating my house.
as regards to the back slats, that really is one of the trickier tasks on the job, it’s the crux if you like. every curve is ring fenced from mdf templates i rout out from a radius on my rod, all simple until you reach the top rail. I’ll get to that in a minute.
the back slats are morticed and tenoned into the back rail and top rail, but it’s not as simple as that. The top rail isn’t in the same plane as the bottom one, they are not parallel to one another due to the top rail being on the angle that follows the angle on the bench legs. More simply put the bottom rail is parallel to the ground, and the top rail is not, the outside shoulders are further from the bottom rail/ground than the centre of the rail due to it being ‘pointed down’ from the angle of the leg.
so a separate template that I call an ‘eye through jig’ is made, I get a measurement from the outside shoulder length of my top rail, and mark that measurement in the centre of the rail, on this top rail we’re talking about 1/4” out the middle to obviously nout going to the shoulder. If I then set my trammels up to take nothing out the shoulders and 1/4” in the middle I have my radius template that gets nailed to the face of my rails.
a cradle is then made for the spindle to allow me to pass the rails through with the 2” rebate block and ring fence. All this brings my top and bottom rail into the same plane, parallel with one another which means my slats have all got the same shoulder sizes and as they are only 50mil wide it’s not enough to show the joint laughing.
if I had a tilting moulder there is an alternative way but I can only work with what I got. I have all the jigs and templates still so I’ll fire some photos across to better explain it.
probably sounds complex but it isn’t to be honest.

 

[ScottyT]

yeah there is a lot of waste. It all goes into heating my house.
as regards to the back slats, that really is one of the trickier tasks on the job, it’s the crux if you like. every curve is ring fenced from mdf templates i rout out from a radius on my rod, all simple until you reach the top rail. I’ll get to that in a minute.
the back slats are morticed and tenoned into the back rail and top rail, but it’s not as simple as that. The top rail isn’t in the same plane as the bottom one, they are not parallel to one another due to the top rail being on the angle that follows the angle on the bench legs. More simply put the bottom rail is parallel to the ground, and the top rail is not, the outside shoulders are further from the bottom rail/ground than the centre of the rail due to it being ‘pointed down’ from the angle of the leg.
so a separate template that I call an ‘eye through jig’ is made, I get a measurement from the outside shoulder length of my top rail, and mark that measurement in the centre of the rail, on this top rail we’re talking about 1/4” out the middle to obviously nout going to the shoulder. If I then set my trammels up to take nothing out the shoulders and 1/4” in the middle I have my radius template that gets nailed to the face of my rails.
a cradle is then made for the spindle to allow me to pass the rails through with the 2” rebate block and ring fence. All this brings my top and bottom rail into the same plane, parallel with one another which means my slats have all got the same shoulder sizes and as they are only 50mil wide it’s not enough to show the joint laughing.
if I had a tilting moulder there is an alternative way but I can only work with what I got. I have all the jigs and templates still so I’ll fire some photos across to better explain it.
probably sounds complex but it isn’t to be honest.

I may add that the top of the top rail needs the exact same treatment but in reverse, meaning more out the shoulder end and nothing in the middle, so it all eyes through a treat. If you did not do this all the top rails would look like rope going through eyes, sagging in the middle of every one and then rising to the next eye again. In this analogy the rope is my rails and the eyes are the mortices at the top the legs.

 

[Doug71]

Wow! I like that a lot, you must be very skilled. Thank you for sharing

 

[ScottyT]

I dug out the rod and templates for the bench today, on this 8x4 is everything I needed to jig, template and rod wise to make the job.

 

[ScottyT]

Here’s the ‘ithru’ jig that brought my top rail into parallel with my bottom rail. You can quite clearly see the curves in the top and bottom of it (one template to do both the top and the bottom of the top rail)
It all worked out lovely. You only really have one shot at it, if you overcook it on the curve that piece is on the log burner.
i always get out x2 of everything if it’s curved, and add more if it starts getting over the 15-20 mark.

 

[HOJ]

As much work in the templates and workings out as there is in the making, thank you for sharing, and educating, I have an interest in this as I am considering a redirection, away from making windows and doors...

I have attached a picture of a bench I made this year, not in your league mind.

 

[ScottyT]

As much work in the templates and workings out as there is in the making, thank you for sharing, and educating, I have an interest in this as I am considering a redirection, away from making windows and doors...

I have attached a picture of a bench I made this year, not in your league mind.

View attachment 131583

that’s a lovely bit of work! From the photo i am assuming it’s oak? The screen on my phone isn’t the best so that’s my guess anyway
I am very lucky as my work is so varied, I never make the same thing twice it’s almost a one off every time.
I dont mind making the odd window and door every now and again, but the variation and problem solving in my usual line of work is what I really enjoy.
How long did the bench take out of interest?

 

[HOJ]

Yes all European Oak, generally that's all I work with, but misled you, made the bench late last year, I've no idea of how long it took to make, it was a special request (& I didn't want to charge for it) so did it as and when I had a bit of space on the bench and the time, but I had made one before and thankfully kept the templates.

Like you I prefer a challenging project rather than routine, but got to pay the bills somehow, again, really appreciate you sharing the info.

You have, from what you have said, established a reputation!

Cheers