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Chairs........ Mission Accomplished!

I've been remiss in updating you all on this project, but that is because I've been rather busy :eek: :)

I'm well into these chairs, finding some stuff that really makes me go :eek: :huh: :dunno: :doh: :D but I'm able to fix everything so far.

I'll put some more pics up later, right now I'm just popping in between the Dungeon and the L shop work, and I have a quick question for you all.

The seats are 46cm/18" wide and deep, first, the boards should be run front to back, right? so the endgrain of the boards are on the front and back, correct? or should they be side to side, so the endgrain will be on the sides of the chairs? They will be painted (not by me!) so the look is not important, but I just think front to back is the norm...no?

Next, I have the boards all planed down to thickness, I got mostly 20cm/8" wide boards, they are mostly good straight boards, most are cut so that the growth rights are an arc on the end grain, with the arc of growth rings mostly centered on the board. Now I'm thinking I might be ahead to rip these boards down the center to reduce the chance they might cup on my, your thoughts?

Next, with the cups on the boards, should they all go down, or should I alternate them, cup up, cup down, cup up, cup down etc? If I rip the boards in half there would be a total of about five boards all about 10cm or so wide.

If you can help me out on this I'd really appreciate it, I'm getting a bit behind and have to really turn the heat up on this job.

Next up, they are so very pleased with my work (I've been sending them email picture heavy up dates every couple of days) and now they are asking me to give them a rough quote time wish and cost wise to build them 8 new chairs :eek: :thumb: I guess they are pleased with what I'm doing.

I'll not get the OK for that for some time, but they are asking.

I guess I'm turning pro :eek:

Cheers!
 
First of all Stu congratulations! This is a great opportunity and will hopefully pan out to more work but also possibly to other companies needing things built/repaired as well.

Im not sure it makes a difference which way the grain runs on the chairs but I will leave that answer to someone else more experienced.
As far s boards being 6" wide and wider and the whole cup up cup down thing though. Whenever I build wood counter tops or glue up panels I never use anything wider than 5 to 6 inches. If a board is wider than that I will mark it and rip it then glue it back together. Usually what I will do is join/plain to within an 1/8 to 3/16 of final thickness checking for flatness as I go. Then let the wood sit overnight, the next day plain/join to final size and glue up immediately. Usually that relieves most if not all of the stress in each board and if I get the joint right a lot of times it is difficult to see where I glued a board back together. This also holds true that if you aren't going to be able to get to a glue up right away then leave that stock oversized as well until you are ready to work it.
The other thing I do is my final milling is usually about a 32nd overthickness to sand/scrape any variances to get the entire piece to final size.
I usually dont bother with the cup up cup down issue as final appearance is far more important. and all the cup up cup down means is it won't cup in the same direction but if it moves it will look like a seascape instead. I have found it alot easier if a piece decided to curl when assembled that way to be able to rip where needed and re-join/glue and still keep the same thickness.
 
Stu the big boys always told me that for a flat panel never go over 3 to 3 1/2" wide boards and flip so grain is not going the same way ( the up down you are talking about). This will give you the strongest and the flattest panels.

I used to buy glued up panels several hundred at a time to run on the CNC and they were never over a 3" wide board. Anything in the width you are talking about will at some point cup or crack.

Jay
 
A little late to the party, but....

I've always seen the chair seat's grain run from front to back, but your acrobats may be putting an undue amount of strain on the chairs when they're stacked (or whatever you'd call that configuration) and they may have a reason for running the grain in a particular way.

What direction did it run on the chair you repaired? I'd either ask the acrobats about it, or run the grain the same as the sample chair.
 
I agree that chair seat grain normally runs front to back, but
a) chairs are normally something you sit in, not stack, so "normal" rules don't apply, and
b) I think the grain running front to back is so that it is easier to carve out the shape for the legs and butt.

I have read (multiple times) that ripping a board to relieve stress is an old wife's tale. Lately I have gotten (as incidental boards in a shipment) a number of 12 inch wide red oak boards and a number of 15-16 inch wide sipo boards. I have used them (with delight) without splitting and gluing and have had no sign of warping, even on unsupported items like my saddle stands.

If you have any boards near the pith - small diameter annual rings - I would scrap that part in a piece as critical as this. The wood around the pith is, in my experience, very unstable.
 
Fellas I really appreciate the feedback, I'm busy like all get out right now, so not much of an update, I'm on chair #6, with the new seats built for all 8 chairs, but I'm still a bit behind the 8-ball, the #6 chair was so wonky it took about 5 hours of messing with it to get it straight :doh:

The seats have to be flush with the sides of the chair, I leave the seats a tad wide and hand plane them to fit perfect, but on the endgrain what is a fella to do?

sharp_LN_62.jpg


.... Oh yeah, a stupid sharp LN #62 does nicely :D

Much more to show and share, but I'm slammed no time, sorry.

Oh yeah, they have asked me to put together a quote to make a whole new set of chairs from scratch :thumb:

Cheers!
 
Looking good Stu! good luck on the bid for the next round of chairs!

Been watching your vids on you tube since Bart posted a few down in the spinny section. Well done! I'm learning a thing or three!!
 
They must be thrilled with the quality of your work :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:

Good luck on getting the order from the next set.

I would really like to try a plane so sharp that would slice end grain so beautifully:)
 
I finished today, this morning actually...... there was much rejoicing :D

My hat is off to the star of my Dungeon, it worked so well, I cannot tell you how happy I am with it.........

best_tool.jpg


.... yep, I'm talking about my Roubo Style Workbench.

Boy does it work well! :thumb:

I got the chairs all done, 117 hours total, now just packing and then a three day trip down to Osaka.

Cheers!
 
But...but...your new bench...it looks all worn and used. :eek:

Well done. That's the way a bench is supposed to look. :highfive:

Congrats on getting the first batch done, and good luck on the second. :thumb:
 
Good for you Stu, well done.:thumb::thumb: You may want to think about how the billing versus payment is going to go.

Just in case there is always the opportunity to deliver half get paid and deliver the other half. Always helps to have collateral in hand to get a collection done.;) Dont know how good they are on the paying side. :dunno:
 
They are great, they have already paid me for the first 65 hours of work, straight transfer into my bank account :thumb:

Yeah the work bench looks ratty, but most of that is from sharpening, I need to plane it down again, just a bit, and put a much better seal coat on the bench.

Cheers!
 
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