Ok. So on Friday I glued the four legs to the seat. Now it is time to clean up all the joints and make them look great.
So after glue up, our front leg to seat joint looks like:
So I break out my trusty Lancelot carving disc on the right angle grinder (see seat carving) and ever so gently get rid of the excess material, not trying to get perfect, just close. 
On the top and bottom of the seat where the leg needs to flow into the seat I use a spindle sander on the power-drill to get close and then finished up all aspect of the joint with the ROS:
The same treatment is applied to the back leg joints. The sides and back of the seat are also sanded flush with the back legs so everything is smooth and flowing.
The arms are attached next. This is a deviation from Hal’s order who attaches the headrest next. I like to attach the arms because shaping the arm-to-leg joints is much more easily accomplished without back-braces in the way. 
-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com
5 comments so far
Julian
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694 posts in 419 days
posted 170 days ago
Looking good! Thanks for the step by step with pictures.
-- Julian, Park Forest, IL
a1Jim
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posted 169 days ago
Looking good nice photo work up.
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
stefang
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posted 169 days ago
Really interesting and informative.
-- Mike, American in Norway
Mike Gager
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222 posts in 161 days
posted 52 days ago
not sure youll see this since this post is older, but how are the arms attached to the legs? i would assume maybe screws but i dont see any holes or plugs in the pictures
NY_Rocking_Chairs
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435 posts in 491 days
posted 40 days ago
Where the arms meet the back legs, 4” screws are driven through and then plugged. Where the arms meet the front legs, there are 1 1/2” screws driven through and plugged. Also, copious amounts of glue are applied. I just received the new book and the new design no longer puts screws in the front legs but some adder pieces are screwed to the legs and these adder pieces have a lot more surface area that the arms glue to.
-- Rich, WNY, www.nyrockingchairs.com