June/ July Chair Build

Well as Brian has said many a time, "Life happens".  Such is the case with me.  I did manage to get a chance to finish carving the spindles for my chair last Saturday.  Before I did that I took a few minutes to sharpen my drawknives.  While the edges felt sharp and would grab a finger nail, I could tell by the way they were cutting it was time for a quick tune-up.

Bevel down knife and the Drawsharp

Pete Galbert in conjunction with Jameel Abraham of Benchcrafted fame, developed the Drawsharp.  It is a wonderful tool for quickly sharpening/honing the edge of a drawknife.  Check it out here on the Benchcrafted site and on Pete's blog.

I was able to get the spindles roughed out into octagonal shapes and set aside to begin to dry.  I let them sit for a bit before exposing them to the heat in the attic, my present day kiln that only works in the summer months.  This keeps the pieces from warping and splitting.  I was curious so tonight I checked an extra spindles moisture content and was happy to see it had gone form 35% to 15% since Saturday.  Now I cam put them in the attic to begin super drying them.

Spindle at 15% EMC.  Time to put in the attic.

I finished the night off by doing a bit of redesigning of a stool seat.  What I did was increase the size by 10% and changed a few sight line, rake and splay angles.  Nothing drastic from the original design, but it is something that I have been wanting to do and now that I have someone wanting a stool I have the opportunity.

In shop design session.

Next I will be finishing up the arm for the chair and preparing to do the final assembly.  Hopefully the sun will come out and heat up the attic so that I may finish up the June Chair Build by the end of next week.  If not I may just have to finally break down and build a kiln.  Until the next time be well and be safe.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Chair Build Days, Oh Heck I've Lost Track

I have lost track of what day I'm on or what day it is.  I am happy to report I have replaced my computer and I am back online.  I chucked the PC for an iMac and have a bit of learning to do.

Medial stretcher fit to side stretcher

Since my last post I drilled and assembled the under carriage of the chair.  In the past I have done my boring with a bit brace and either an auger or spoon bit.  For this chair I used a battery operated drill with a brad point bit that I ground specifically for the purpose of building chairs.  Pete Galbert covers grinding bits in great detail in his book Chairmaker's Notebook.

Drilling the leg for the side stretcher.  I removed the drill for clarity.

In the photo above I am using a method I have been using for awhile now.  I first read about this on Pete's blog and decided to give it a go.  I found it to be very accurate and much easier than my old way of measuring.  I will probably not do justice with my brief explanation but here it goes.

After the legs are reamed and placed in the seat I put painters tape on the legs running with the centerline from bottom to top ensuring I cover the area where the side stretchers will be placed into the legs.  I place the piece of plywood with a predetermined angle (I believe this one is 72 or 74 degrees) against the two right legs.  Using a carpenters pencil laid flat on the plywood angle I draw a new centerline on the tape.  Repeat the process for the left legs.

Next I place a leg in the V-Blocks and adjust the blocks so the new centerline is parallel to the bench top.  I set the board upright resting on the angle cut on the board as seen in the photo above, and use it as a drilling guide.  It is very important to remember to put the top of the leg toward you and then drill.  This will ensure you are drilling the mortise in the correct plane.

The advantage of drilling using this method alleviates having to measure each mortise angle for each leg and allows you to drill one angle that is easily repeated.  It is possible because a new average centerline was drawn onto the leg and used as the basis for drilling.  If that is as clear as mud I understand.  It took me a few times reading it on Pete's blog before it sunk in.

The H-Stretchers are assembled and the legs set back in their mortises preparing for the glue-up.

Next comes the glue up.  I assemble the stretchers in their H-pattern ensuring that the ends marked for the back legs are on the same side.  I use the bench to rotate the side stretchers so that the ends going into either the front or rear legs both touch the bench top.  This ensures that the stretcher assembly is square and will easily fit into the leg mortises.

I number each leg and the corresponding mortise.  When I glue the legs to the stretchers I start with #1 and continue to #4.  When all four legs are glued onto the stretcher assembly the tops of the legs will not fit into their mortises.  They will sit on the underside of the seat just to the inside of the reamed mortises.  This is due to the rake and splay of the legs.  Next I applied glue to the leg mortises and tenons, and with a little pressure the legs will flex enough to enter the mortises.  Then with great care seat the legs into the mortises up to the depth lines that were established when fitting the legs.

Prior to gluing the legs onto the stretcher assembly I used a saw to cut a kerf for the wedges into the top of the legs.  These kerfs are approximately 2/3 the distance from the leg top to the depth line.

Legs before wedges are inserted.

In the photo above you may have noticed that the kerfs for the wedges are cut perpendicular to the grain of the seat.  If they were cut parallel to the grain it would be very easy to split the seat when inserting the wedges.  I cut my wedges slightly wider than the mortise in the seat.  I do this so that when I drive the wedges into the kerf the little bit that comes into contact with the softer pine seat acts like a key and helps keep the legs from rotating.  Wether it is needed or not is debatable but it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling so I do it.  Another important note is to put glue on only one side of the wedge.  This will keep things from splitting when there is seasonal movement of the wood.

I use hide glue and only hide glue.  I have used Titebond or even Elmer's glue in the past, but the problem is that tight parts will seize quickly and sometimes before all parts are where they are supposed to be, and that will make one loose their mind.  I use an inexpensive hot pot with a plastic container (cut down Solo cup) to heat my glue to the optimal temperature of somewhere between 110 - 130 degrees.  I don't mix my own glue, I really like and use Old Brown Glue.

My $20 glue pot works like a champ.

When driving the wedges into the leg top it is important that the leg is positioned vertical so that the hammer blows to the wedge travel directly through the leg into the bench top.  If the chair was allowed to remain on all four legs while driving the wedges the indirect pressure of the hammer blows could cause the leg to split out below the underside of the seat.  Ask me how I know this.  I allow the freshly glued up undercarriage to dry for at least 24 hours, so the glue will reach its full strength, before cutting the wedges and trimming the legs flush to the seat.

Wedges in place.

Seat with its undercarriage.

This evening I had a few minutes so I pulled some oak,  that has been soaking for quite a bit, from its watery domain.  When I lifted the lid, well lets say WOW!  Its a good thing this blog isn't equipped with smell.

Wet spindle stock.

I carved out the 4 short spindles into octagons and set them aside to dry.  Rehydrating the oak has made it much easier to carve and to follow the long wood fibers, than it would have been if it were worked in an air-dried state.

Short spindles in their octagon shape.

Next I will finish the long spindles and then it is a matter of letting things dry for a bit before I place them in the kiln (read shop attic) to super dry.  While this was to be a June Chair Build it looks like this is going to be more like a June and July Chair Build for me.

Our host for this event, Brian Eve, has gotten his chair underway and it looks like it is going to be a nice one.  Go check it out here.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Chair Build Days 4 and 5

Much has taken place in the shop since the last post two days ago.  Yesterday, I pulled another piece from the water and was quite pleased to see a 39% MC reading.  This meant it was time to steam and bend.

After soaking for about two and a half days.

First I had to do a little adaptation to my steam delivery system.  Up until yesterday I had used the 12' hose connecting to special fittings on both the steamer and steam box.  The problem is 12' of hose is 9' too much.  In the past I was unable to get my steambox up to 212 degrees, and I believe it was because of a heat loss in the hose.

Wallpaper steamer requires the fitting on the hose.

Hose fitting to connect the hose to the wallpaper steamer.

 After lopping of 9' of hose I was left with 3' of useable hose with a fitting on one end and open hose on the other.  What I discovered was a 3/8" ID hose inside of the black exterior hose.

Black hose acts as an insulator around the white hose that carries the steam.

 Next I removed the brass fitting from the steam box and on the drill press bore a 7/8" hole that provided a tight fit for the black exterior hose.

Brass fitting was required when using the hose as it came from the manufacturer.

While the steamer was bringing the temperature up in the box, I carved a piece into a 7/8" round bow. I marked the center with a line and an arrow so that I would know what side to put up.  It is best to figure this out before you have a very hot piece of wood in your hands that needs bent in 45 seconds. I mark the wood in such a way that the tangential plane is against the form.  The tangential plane is parallel to the bark and the radial plane runs from the pith to the bark.  This would mean the growth rings would be parallel to the bending form.  I am happy to report that my steam box made it to 212 degrees with ease.

The steam box actually held 212 degrees without a problem

  

The bow was in the box and the timer set for 1 hour.  When working with green wood I will usually steam pieces for 30 minutes.  Since I was working with wood that had been air-dried I rehydrated the pieces and doubled the steaming time, as suggested by Pete in his book Chairmaker's Notebook. While the steaming was taking place I prepared for the bending.  As I said before, once the piece comes out of the box you have a short bit of time to wedge the piece at its center point (arrow up facing the form), bend, pin and wedge the the ends before it cools too much.  When the hour was up I put the bow in the form and bent away.  I was so so happy with the results. It bent like I had just taken the piece out of a freshly cut tree.

The only place where a fiber or two raised , SUCCESS!

 
I attribute the success of the bend to being able to rehydrate the material and being able to deliver a consistent flow of 212 degree steam through out the steam box while using a defect free piece of oak. I was so psyched with the results I carved two more bows and put them into the steam box for an hour.  Well it would be great if I reported only my successes, but that isn't me.

The other two bows came from pieces whose grain was not as straight as it should be (understatement of the week) and as a result I ended up with a few small delaminations.  I was able to use some polyurethane glue and tape to repair those.  This morning I steamed and bent two arms that I carved and they were out of some wood that I most likely should have cut short of the wonky grain and used for spindles.  However I had to give it a go (I need help). One of the arms suffered major delaminations and required glue, clamps and then tape.  At this point this arm has become an experiment.  The other arm fared a bit better but I will most likely burn it also.  It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, well here you go.

Delamination in the bow caused a kink most likely rendering it unusable.  There is some extra material on the bow, therefore if I am able to fare the curve without loosing to much material it will be used.

This is the repaired delamination that caused the kink.

This arm bent the best but the wonky grained prevented me from being able to keep it flat in the form.  As part of my experimentation I have clamped it to my bench top with holdfasts to see if it will set in a flatter profile.

Moral of the post: If you find yourself wanting to bend pieces like these DON'T!  Seek help!

Five bends with one for sure usable bow and four ahhh maybe's.  I guess we will see how or if I am able to recover.

When the day ends it is time for the clean up crew.  My grandson Zane telling me "I help Pappy".

I have an arm that I had bent earlier so I am good to go there.  I usually bend more than one component just in case, and it appears it was a good thing.  Next I will be carving the spindles and then setting them aside to dry with the bendings from this past session.  Until the next time may you be blessed with straight grain always.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

June Chair Build

It is June 2nd and time to participate in the June Chair Build that has been promoted by Brian Eve. In case you are not familiar with our host allow me to give you a glimpse.  Brian is a woodworker who is living in Munich Germany and the author of the blog Toolerable.  Brian arrived in Germany in the 1990's while he was in the US Army.  Brian spent eight years in Bamberg Germany and a year deployed in Iraq.  After Brian's discharge from the Army he moved with his wife to Munich, where he is employed as an Army civilian.

Brian started woodworking at the Army woodshop building furniture for his barracks room.  Things like bookshelves, coffee table and blanket chest.   When he arrived in Munich, space was at a premium and it appeared there was no room for a woodshop.  Or was there?  Brian figured if he used only hand tools  he would be able to carve out 100 square feet of space in the basement storage area and have his shop.  Check out this short video of his tiny workspace here.  When Brian has to use machinery he uses the machines at the Dictum GmbH shop or the Army woodshop in Garmisch.

Brian says he especially likes building tools for the challenge and in the end you have a useful tool. Brian also likes blogging because it helps him to think through a project when he can't be in his shop. He also likes the camaraderie of the internet woodworking universe.  Thank you Brian for sharing your story with us.

I will be making a series of post on the chair that I am building and the experiences along the way.  I will be building, of course, a Windsor Chair.  This will be a child's Sack Back Windsor.  A while back a friend was soliciting donations to raise money for a mission trip to Africa.  I donated a certificate for a child's Sack Back, this is the chair that I will be building.

My lovely chair model Chloe

Unlike the chair in the photo above, I will be turning bamboo turnings for the undercarriage and the arm posts. These will be turned in maple.  The spindles, arm and bow will be made from white oak, and the seat will be carved out of sugar pine.

The maple rounds have been drying for a year or two and should be quite stable.  The sugar pine I purchased when Midwest Woodworking in Cincinnati Ohio went out of business.  I was told it had been drying for over 30 years, so it should be quite stable as well.  The white oak is in the form of a large log that has been drying next to my house for a bit over a year.  This gives me reason to pause. While I have used one section of the log to date the other unsplit section has been sitting longer than I would have liked.

Midwest Woodworking stacked wood

After splitting the log open I will take a moisture reading and see where I stand.  If the reading is below 25% I will be afforded the "opportunity" to experiment with soaking the rivings prior to shaping and bending the arm and bow.  Pete Galbert addresses working with air-dried wood in his book Chairmaker's Notebook on pages 146-147. If the moisture content is 25% or above I will make the parts without soaking them.

The only other thing/obstacle to slow me down is me.  I had to have a procedure preformed on my Achilles Tendon yesterday morning and I am to take it easy for the next couple of weeks.  While carving at the shavehorse fits the bill I'm not sure about splitting that big oak up.  In light of this situation I will be doing things a bit out of order from my normal process.

For all that are joining in on the chair build good luck and straight grain to you all.


~ Ray Schwanenberger

Where Have I Been Part 2

As I noted nearly a year ago, along with a partner, I started a Radon Testing and Mitigation company.  After many hard months it was apparent that there was not the need for another Radon company in our area.  As Kenny Rogers advises (know when to hold em, know when to fold em), I decided to fold em and cut my losses.  This along with the passing of my mother and the untimely passing of a nephew, I have been somewhat of a social recluse.

I have been keeping up with a few of my favorite blogs and watching the work of friends.  I have begun to restore a 1920's bungalow that my eldest daughter purchased.  That should keep me busy for a few months.

What I yearn to do is get back into my shop.  Lost Art Press recently published Chairmaker's Notebook by Peter Galbert.  For me, this was the most anticipated release since LAP opened shop.  I have to tell you it was well worth the wait.  If you have ever thought about building a Windsor Chair this is a must have book.  Pete wrote and illustrated the entire book.  His writing style make the intimidating process of building a chair seem very doable. Today I read a post on Brian Eve's blog, Toolerable about him starting a chair build.  He is encouraging others to join in with their own chair build starting in the month of June.

I have dried seat blanks in stock, dried maple rounds and my choice of two white oak and three ash logs, so why not.  I'm in for a build in June.  I too hope you will venture down this path and get a glimpse of what I have come to enjoy, building chairs.

Stay tuned for photos of the build and watch Brian's wonderful blog also.

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Shop Stool Build Off - The Conclusion

It is the day after the Shop Stool Build Off (SSBO) and what a great time it was.  So many people working across the world on a single project, a new shop stool.  One would think this would be a fairly simple thing to build.  Many of us used this opportunity to push our talents to the next level.

At the center of my design is a seat that tilts 10 degrees forward to promote a more ergonomical sitting posture.  The three legged design provides a solid base no matter how uneven the surface it sits upon.  I chose contrasting colors for the stool.  The seat is Ash and the legs and stretchers are Cherry.

I started Saturday morning laying out the seat on a piece of 8/4 Ash and then boring the mortises for the legs.  This is where great concentration was required.  The front legs raked (angle as seen from the side) 19 degrees and splayed (angle seen from the front/rear) 17 degrees as legs normally would.  The single back leg is counterintuitive because of its 1 degree rake toward the front of the seat and 0 degree splay.  This is what is needed to give the seat its 10 degree forward tilt.

After boring the mortises I moved onto sculpting the seat.  This was my second workout for the day.  The first was shoveling out the driveway and the pile of snow the plow left behind.  There is a reason that Eastern White Pine (EWP) is used almost exclusively in the making of Windsor Chairs.  Ash is hard!  What was I thinking, there is a reason they make baseball bats out of Ash.

To change things up I moved onto turning the legs and stretchers.  All was going well until the last leg. It was then that a hidden knot revealed itself.  My fix was to fill the cavity with epoxy and continue turning.  The leg came apart on the lathe.  This meant a design change was in order.   The only way to save the project was to shorten the legs resulting in a stool that is now 21 1/2" tall.

At this point it was late and I was hungry and a bit dejected at this unwelcome development.  So I called it a night deciding to start fresh in the morning.

Sunday morning started with me referring back to my trigonometry tables.  I had to determine the correct leg lengths to maintain my required 10 degree forward tilt of the seat.  After I had determined the correct length of the legs I moved onto reaming the mortises to a 6 degree taper.  In my opinion this is one of the most critical steps in the process.  To have the undercarriage symmetrical I had to be spot on with my reaming.  Here you can see the 1 degree forward rake of the rear leg.

 In the picture below it appears there is one leg when in fact there are two.  This indicates that the extra time and care taken during reaming has paid off.

Things at this point are looking symmetrical.

Next was to measure, turn and fit the stretchers.  After that was the somewhat nerve racking glue up.  First step is to glue up the undercarriage.  If everything was done with care and great attention paid to the details the seat should slide on without much effort.

All that was needed was the usual slight pull on the tapered tenon leg tops and into the mortises they slid.  Next was installing the wedges perpendicular to the grain of the seat.

After a couple of hours the glue had dried and the tenons and wedges were trimmed flush to the seat.  I then scrapped and sanded the seat.  All that was left was to apply the finish.  First was a seal coat of dewaxed shellac.  This was followed by two coats of an oil/varnish mix.  After it had dried I rubbed it out with a gray nylon pad and applied one coat of General Finishes Polycrylic to give it the tough protection it will need.

I have to tell you this was a roller coaster of a ride.  But once the stool was completed and sitting there it became evident that it was one heck of a good time.  Like a roller coaster, I will quickly get in line to participate in another Build Off.  Many thanks to Chris Wong of Flair Woodworks for putting on the SSBO.  I hope I will see you at the next one, whatever it may be.
~ Ray Schwanenberger

Shop Stool Build Off

This Saturday, January 25th, is the Shop Stool Build Off.  What is this you ask?  It is an event conceived by Canadian woodworker Chris Wong where woodworkers around the world are invited to build their best shop stool in a day, or weekend if Sunday is needed.  The progress will be tracked via Twitter #SSBO, Google+, Facebook, etc.  At the conclusion Chris will share pictures of all of the pieces on his blog.  This sounds like a good time and the details can be seen on Chris's web site.

I will be building a stool in the Windsor style, of course.  Though I must confess, it is not an original design, but that is the beauty of this event; It doesn't need to be.  It is my addaptation of an ergonomic stool designed by Pete Galbert, Curtis Buchannan, and Galen Cranz, that Pete dubbed "The Perch".

It is no secret that I have been experimenting with chairs for guitar players.  The more I worked with my prototype the more design questions and challenges have been brought to the surface.  I have been looking to solve some of these questions with a more simple stool for guitar players.  With that being said, my plan is to make a dual purpose prototype "Studio/Shop Stool".  I look forward to seeing all the stools made during the event, and hope you too will be participating.  

~ Ray Schwanenberger

Drawknife Rehab - The Conclusion

It has taken a bit longer than expected, as usual, to complete the rehab.  However, after a few minor bumps in the road, it is done!  In the last episode I left off needing to hone an edge on the newly ground bevel.  So with great anticipation I went to the drawer that holds my new Galbert Drawsharp.  Are you are asking yourself; "What is this new fangled contraption of which he speaks"?

It is a wonderful tool for sharpening/honing drawknives.  It is the brain child of Chairmaker, instructor, raiser of goats and all around nice guy, Peter Galbert in collaboration with tool maker, artisan and all around nice guy Jamel Abraham of Benchcrafted.  Ok enough of the Bromance.  Check out the Drawsharp here.

Following the instructions I set the Drawsharp to hone the newly ground edge.  I started by making several passes with the diamond abrasive on the beveled edge until a burr was turned along the entire edge.  I then flipped the drawknife over and honed the back turning the burr back to the bevel side.  This left me with an even scratch pattern along both sides of the edge.

When using the Drawsharp you hold the drawknife as though it were a fiddle and move it over the blade.  Next, I turned the pads to the sandpaper sides and continued to turn the burr from bevel to back and back to bevel using a diminishing number of strokes until the burr had disappeared.

I have heard it said many a time, if a drawknife can cut Eastern White Pine end grain and leave it silky smooth, it is truly sharp.  Well, I am short on EWP.  However, I have a plenty of Sugar Pine.  Sugar Pine is a bit harder and more dense than EWP, but only slightly.  So without any handles I put the edge to the pine.  Not the results I was hoping for.

As you can see the cut bore evidence of fine nicks in the edge.  I retrieved my jewelers loop to closely inspect the edge.  As I feared and suspected, the pitting on the back was not going to allow me to produce a keen edge.

This meant one of two things, either scrap the project here and now or attempt to remove the pitting from the back.  I don't know about you, but at times like these I hear voices; in an English accent I hear "What the bloody hell, get to work".  It might be a dead relative?  So it was, I took a file and worked the back of the drawknife, taking care to keep it as flat as humanly possible.  After removing about 1/4" to 3/8" of the pitting back from the edge I put the drawknife to a series of water stones stopping at 8000 grit.

 I repeated the honing process with the drawsharp and the final results were this.

As you can see there is still evidence of a tiny nick caused by the pitting.  I looked with the loop again and found it to be close to the end of the blade.  It was a go for the handles.  I thought about using paduck or purple heart but decided on good old cherry.  Why?  J.W. Mix & Co. was the maker of the drawknife and my research revealed the company was in New Haven, CT.  I felt it was only fitting to use a beautiful American hardwood on this old American drawknife.  I remembered my brother-in-law giving me some old cherry sticks that he salvaged out of a 19th century home, so I went digging.

This was my step drilling gauge for each handle and the handle pattern.  Each handle needed to be step drilled to accommodate the handle tangs that transition from rectilinear to round.

Now let it be known far and wide, I am not a woodturner.  I would someday like to be very proficient, that being said, this process took me probably three times as long as someone who knows what the heck they are doing would have taken.  Whew, that felt good to get that off my chest.  First I roughed out the cylinders then I step drilled each one.

Next I put the blanks between centers and began shaping the handles.  This process was much like turning legs for chairs, only smaller.  I was feeling my oats and thought I would use a skew chisel to give it that extra nice touch.

As you can see, I was humbled and put the skew away for yet another day.

Here are the finished handles drying.  The three dark rings were scribed with a skew and then burnt in with an old guitar G-String.  The finish is shellac put on while spinning on the lathe, then burnished with shavings.  After that, I wiped on several coats of an oil varnish mix.  The only thing left was to put the handles on the drawknife.

First I annealed the tang ends by heating them to a cherry red and letting them cool.  This made it easy to peen them over.  Thanks for the heads up Pete.  I really, really like the look of natural cherry and black together so I decided to paint the ferrule's and caps black.

A drawknife that could have easily been destined to be on the wall at a Cracker Barrel will now be residing on the wall above my bench waiting to be put into service.

With every project I try to learn something.  I take away from this project; The importance of finding edge tools that are free of or have very little pitting; That some tools are worth the extra effort to make them usable again; That investing my money in good tools made by good people is worth 10 fold the expenditure; That investing some time in learning to use a skew chisel would be a wise investment.

I hope that I have been able to provide you with some good information.  Information that will encourage you to get into your shop and try something new.  This is how we learn, by pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone.  So let's go to the shop and do something new and exciting, and always be safe.

~ Ray Schwanenberger