Had to post this to go along with my other project.

I bought a reamer from The Windsor Institute. I was a little worried when I got it because I didn’t have the measurements for the taper that would be required to fit into the reamed hole.

I e-mailed Mike Dunbar, the Dean of the Institute, to ask for the measurements. He reminded me that chairmakers are stupid, and can’t remember measurements. Ream a hole in a block of wood, cut the block in half, and use that—and so I did. It works great, and you can tell if your stump will have a good tight fit, because the gauge won’t wiggle on the stump, which you can measure when the leg/post is still on the lathe.

Well, since I’ve been running around the world, quite literally, haven’t had much time to get back on the Windsor pony and get to my Boston side chairs. I did, however, get back into the shop over T-giving and finished up turning the legs and side posts for the two chairs I’m building to go with my new dining room table.

Wife wants all the same kind of chairs, but I think that will be too boring—but I decided to build two Boston side chairs, and paint them blue and mustard yellow. So, here are the turnings, finally done!

I am a relatively experienced spindle turner. But I had a heckuva time with spiral chatter with this project. I did use a steady-rest for the posts (I have a Oneway) and it is indeed quite nice. But even after the skew work, there was sanding. Yes, there was. The wood used was hard maple.

FWIW, it took me about 1 hr./leg, and about 2 hrs. for the posts. Not fast enough to be proud, but I got ‘er done!

Here are a couple of thoughts for folks looking to do this.

1. Make good templates. I did, and it saved me a ton of work. I copied a chair leg picture out of the book I used out of the book by John Kassay, and after gluing it to thin plywood, cut the template in half. This makes it easier to mark out the legs on the spindle blank while it is on the lathe.

2. The most important thing across legs is vase shape. Vases can be more squat on the end, or less. Your eye can tell the difference. It can’t tell the difference if they’re all the same, though you may favor one or another.

3. Make sure to add extra on the ends so you can make the stumps protrude out of the seat.

4. Keep the whole leg as thick as you can during the turning. Turn the small stuff last, or alternately, turn the modal points (the fractions 1/2, 1/3, 1/4 of the length) while the piece is thick.

Next step, finish carving the seats—I am relatively INexperienced seat carver, so that will be the real challenge for me! Wish me luck, and of course, I’ll post the results!

Hi Folks,

Put it together, and painted it—Old Fashioned Milk Paint—2 coats, Pitch Black underneath, 2 coats Salem Red on top. I rubbed 2 coats Minwax Poly Coat on it after that.

I was afraid of painting a chair something other than black, but this one really came out pretty good. To get a feel for size, the kid (Conor, 8) is about 5’ tall. So this is not a small chair.

I’m going to enter it in the local fair. There is a lot of competition from cedar shingle birdhouses, so we’ll just have to see!

I made this chair as part of the same class as my pal, Fred Dudak, at the Windsor Institute with Michael Dunbar.

Fred’s chair was more refined than mine when I left—he’s got more of the chairmaker knack. But I did a little work on my knuckles and redeemed myself a little!

Delicate things—especially until all the parts are assembled.

This is me, demonstrating conclusively that my head is made of wood. Or at least my brain…

The Rio Fuy, Chile, a 33’ waterfall.

I promise never ever again to post anything that isn’t involved directly with woodworking… really!

This is a Federal Tip Top table, reproduced from Michael Dunbar’s classic book, Federal Furniture.

I like little tables because they are something that I can get a handle around and complete in a couple of weekends. My wife, however, has read the riot act to me and said ‘NO MORE SMALL TABLES!!!’

I’ll be photographing a couple of them over the next couple of weeks and posting them. Uh, did I tell you I like to make small tables??

;-)

This is a dining room table that I recently finished, built of elm that was planted in Walla Walla by the first pioneers in 1840. I call it ‘guilt free old growth’. It’s all twice-quartersawn, and just magnificent, wood-wise.

The table was patterned after a desk originally designed by Kevin Rodel, a famous Arts and Crafts author and contemporary furnituremaker. He called the piece I patterned mine off of as his ‘Taliesen Desk’.