LumberJocks Woodworking Forum banner
22K views 71 replies 29 participants last post by  Toolz 
#1 ·
Day number one - Do a bunch of work!

So i've been building the Sam Maloof, Hal Taylor inspired rocking chair to the point that about all I do is build these chairs and I love it!

I've decided to market them locally as well as on the internet, so far i've done small, medium and large in soft maple, walnut and lacewood or a combo of walnut / lacewood.

I want to be able to offer different rocking chairs as well as chairs and tables but let's not get ahead of our selves here. Anyways i've decided I want to build a double rocker version of Hal Taylors chair I have not seen one so I don't know if Hal or someone has built one yet.

I'm confident in everything I have to do / adjust to build the double, just don't know yet if I will have to add a center leg that goes from seat to head rest. When you see double rockers there all based ofo of Sam's design with glued back braces adding structural support to the head rest, now with this rocker the back braces flex and are designed to move in the seat and head rest.

Day 1

Get our wood together and lay out parts, cut all parts to rough dimensions

Back legs
Front legs
Seat
Head rest
Back brace billets
Arms
Rocker billets

By the end of the day we should have our rocker and back braces cut into lamination strips, the rockers should be glued up clamped in there jig. The first set of back braces should be glued up in their jig. The seat should be glued together, the head rest pieces should be coopered and the first pairs should be glued and clamped.

Also on the back legs you can do a few things cut some wood here and there, cut some angles on the top and bottoms, add a adder piece to the arm joint.

So when all is said and done you should be almost out of clamps just for this one chair I thought my clamp inventory was on the up and up…...lol















Paul
Canadian Rocking Chairs
www.canadianrockingchairs.com
 
See less See more
7
#11 ·
Carve, Cut, Sand, and a little bit of glue

Today I started with the seat or should I say seats, drum sand, notch and rabbbit seat, again do some stuff to the rear legs glue second adder block, carve out seat, continue gluing headrest pieces, notch and round over front legs to fit joint, cope arms with table saw, glue front legs together, continue gluing up head rest, shape rear legs, get the rear legs to 90% finished which is leg/seat joint fitted, sanded, routed, sanded…...

Yup that was a good amount of work today, i'd like to have glued the rear legs to the seat but i'm tired went for an extra long walk with my dog.

























 
#19 ·
A beautiful day in the shop

First things first I glued the rear legs in the morning, did't take a picture but I did take one on how I router the legs on the router table.

I've now glued up all the back braces so there ready for there next tep but not yet other work to be done first.

I use a swinging jig on my band saw with 1/2'' blade, swings the coopered headrest to produce a near perfect cut…...sweeeet! One of my favorite parts of the construction

Now on to front legs stuff, bandsaw, sand, rout, sand and glue on adder block to top of leg, then glue front legs to seat.

Also creating the front legs is another favorite step they go from a square block of wood to 95% complete in about 1 hour, I actually took pictures of each step but I have a ting with taking a picture and turning the camera off to fast I will stop doing that sa it does not allow the picture to save…..

The last 2 pictures show how well this chair is engineered i just placed the arm on top of the glueing up front leg, this joint was cut as the first step of cutting out the rear leg, then just touched up with a disc sander. The arm side was not even cut it was the end of the board apparently square…....

I'll admit I should have trimmed the arm blank on the end, just means a little more sanding, good thing this wood has no checking, i mean none at all on any board!

Also there's a good amount of wood under the arm joint, because I just missed trimming it at one point with the band saw, funny thing is the other side is trimmed, ahh well again just a little more grinding.























 
#26 ·
The back braces are 4 pieces laminated together, I take great care in organizing them so the grain or in this case the flecks match across front and back, my first chairs I used 2 stripes of ash in the center but found this is not a rule of thumb but does give nice contrast with a walnut chair.

I just used double sided tape, about 1/16'' thick stuff from lee valley, hold the head rest there no problem, have not had an issue, I know have uses little vacuum clamps, but so far not needed, I even used the same tape for the 2 head rests, pulling the one off and just slapping on the other. The force needed to push it through the band saw is not much, the blade does not even make the rear thrust bearing spin.

Te inside faces of the headrest coopered pieces have been jointed, if they were rough then the double sided tape would not work so well

Because the curve of the leg and the joints, you need to use the " donut " to allow the 5/8'' round over to remove wood as close to the joints as possible, then you finish the shaping by hand.

At first I shaped the corners at the joint first but learned it's easier to rout up to the joint then shape from the joint to the round over by hand.

I've said it before and i'll say it again, Hal's plans are very very easy to follow and accurate to allow your first and your 50th chair to come out great, I can't say enough how happy I am with his design, I now hope to build off his design to creat some of my own chairs inspired by Hal / Sam, this double is my first departure from the norm with more to come I hope.
 
#32 ·
Taken it easy on a Saturday

Started the day off enjoying a good storm watchin with my cup of coffee, but back to the chair…...

First I glued the stacks to the rocker to allow for the leg to rocker transition

I now have taken the clamps off of the front legs and seem to have glued up nicely

I figured out how the 2 head rest pieces would be glued together and glued them together…...lol

Then drum sanded the edges of the back braces, cut the bottoms to fit the routered back brace holes in the seat, they all fit great but now I have to wait till the headrest is ready so here's to a little R&R

Thanks all for coming out to have a look.

Some one asked how many hours I have into it I had 24 hours into it before today, worked about 4 hours today so as of right now I have about 28 hours into this chair.















 
#37 ·
No internet make Paul do more work

Ya that's right the internet left my life since July 1st, I just got it back yesterday I have since finished the double rocker, of course taking pictures along the way.

I will update this blog daily still posting about how much work I did each day.

In this series I have now sculpted the seat joints about 90% done, the head rest is starting to take shape and let me tell you it's a work of art! lol

I " fixed " the arm where it attaches to the leg then glued it to the front leg and attached it to the read leg with glue and screw.

You can see the rockers now out of there jig with the stacks attached but before shaping, that's soon to come (-:

I must add a little tip from Hal, always " prime " your end grain. Put a layer of glue on all end grain before assembly do something for about 5 minutes come back and you'll find most of the glue has been drawn into the end grain, scrap away what has not absorbed add new glue and then put your joint together.

Again sorry to all who was following this blog for the lack of posting, but you can officially blame the internet so please direct all complaints to the internet.

Oh and the last photo is of a rocking foot stool I am designing, again it is now complete so i'll have pics of it also as we move along.













 
#38 ·
That is coming along nice! Look fwd to seeing the progress on this one! Good luck!

Had no internet for about a week thought I was going to go nuts! Hate being dependant on something but we do all are bill's and banking and of course No Lumberjocks that is unacceptable!!!! LOL
 
#45 ·
shaping, sanding, glueing

Well in this installment I apparently did a bunch of things funny how you have to do that to keep a project going.

So in order of accomplishments

Carved under arms

Worked a bunch on the headrest

Worked a bunch on the back braces

Sanded, sanded, and sanded head rest

Sanded and sanded ….... and sanded back braces

Sanded and sanded chair in many spots but getting closer

Installed back braces with head rest and drilled holds attached with screws and placed temporarily a top the rockers

Well since this chair is finished I though i'd include a little teaser as the last picture…. so enjoy!

Just a note you might have missed the last blog entry on this because at first I did not add it to this blog, so go back a page and double check.





















 
#50 ·
Making a rocker, rock!

We start off with the rockers in there raw form 1/8'' strips glue up to create the shape of the rocker.

We mark where the legs sit, and use our curve template to create our fair curve. Cut out on the band saw, and sand.

Next cut the rear of the rocker to add a little shape, the rocker will tell you how it wants to be shaped back there.

Next round over top edges of rocker.

Wax the ends of the back braces with melted wax place in the hole before it's hard and jiggle.

( that's what she said )

Anyways, all around the back braces and the headrest has been sanded to 500 abalon 100% complete also burnished with a wool pad, and were ready to glue up

Now we attache the rockers, align, drill for screws install screws, fix joints, remove screws, prime end grain with epoxy, scrape just as getting hard, apply more epoxy and mount rockers with 4'' screws also coated with epoxy.

And of course i'll add a little teaser one of my favorite shots!



















 
#55 ·
Ready for finish!

So everything is attached, the rocker to leg joints are ready to be final shaped and sanded and the rest of the chair is ready to get sanded to 500 then burnished before the finish.

The leg joints have 4'' screws through the rocker into the leg, plugged with 1/2'' plugs

The last picture is myself with a good friend of mine. I'm in the camo shirt















 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top