With the bulk of the construction done it is time to move on to the sculpting of the chair. I won't go over everything, all over the chair, just a sample. The bulk of the material removal was done with a grinder fitted with a carbide grinding wheel wheel. I was absolutely amazed at how fast this tool was able to waste away wood. Next, it was onto a 50 grit sanding wheel, and then on to finessing the sculptured joints by hand with rasps, files, and sand paper.
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| Front Leg to Seat Joint Before Shaping |
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| After Initial Shaping with Grinder |
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| Arm Before Shaping |
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| Arm After Initial Shaping With Grinder |
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| Refining the Arm and Seat to Leg Joint with Rasps and Files |
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| Starting to Look Decent |
With the shaping completed I moved on to working on the headrest. The locations of the spindles entry into the seat is marked and punched with an awl. The locations of the spindles entering the headrest is marked as well and then the headrest is temporartily clamped into position so that the angles of the spindle's entry can be transfered to the headrest. Once the lines have been transferred to the headrest, they can be sighted down for the angle of drilling into the seat.
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| Sighting Down the Headrest Lines to Drill the Seat Spindle Holes |
The headrest is then taken out of the chair to the drill press. The lines drawn on the headrest are sighted as the drill bit is lowered to ensure the tilt on the drill press table matches the angle of the spindle hole.
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| Sighting the Alignment of the Hole |
With the holes drilled the shaping of the headrest can begin. The headrest is clamped to the bench and the usual routine of grinder through rasp and sandpaper was used to shape the portion of the headrest which will be inaccessible when the spindles are installed.
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| Rounding Over the Headrest |
With the headrest ready for installation it is time to finish preparing the spindles. The spindles were roughed out on the bandsaw and the round over on the back formed with a router. They were initially built overlong and are trimmed on an individual basis. Both ends of the spindles go into 1/2" diameter holes so rasps are used to shape the ends of the spindles from roughly 1/2" by 1/2" square to circular; a test block with a 1/2" hole is used to check for fit.
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| Shaping the Ends of the Spindles |
The spindles are epoxied into place, to help with squeeze out the seat and headrest were taped. The epoxy was mixed up with the addition of some sawdust to help it match the chair and allowed to cure for a day.
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| Tape Protecting the Seat from Epoxy |
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| Spindles in and Ready for Rockers |
