The first thing I did was trace out the patterns on the wood. You can see the seat and the arm pieces sketched out on poplar.

I then checked the thickness of the arm pieces . . . I needed 1 5/8” and they were a tad over 1 ¾”. The back pieces of the chair were also 1 ¾ and had to be taken down to 1 1/8”. I dragged out the planer and a few passes later they were in spec.

Next it was off to the bandsaw. I did some practicing on scrap to get a feel for how the machine works and then it was off to the races. Betsy . . . I did cut reliefs after I took these two pictures. I cut reliefs in all the other pieces which made it much easier to cut. When I was done I had about 100 little bits on lumber on the floor.

Oh . . . this was the garb I was wearing when working with the BS.

Here are the final pieces. A little bit rough in spots, but a little sanding should smooth everything right out.

WARNING . . . even though bandsaws are probably one of safest power tools in the shop, they can still inflict damage. Whenever I used power tools I wear the tight fitting mechanic’s gloves. I was thankful I was wearing them today. I was getting close to finishing and I was a little tired and not paying the correct amount of attention and this is what happened to my glove. It just nicked my finger. LESSON . . . be careful around all power tools.

Here is my shop companion for the day . . . his name is Chicklet.

I then spent some time examining my inspiration. The seat is actually 1” thick made from several t&g boards. I opted to go with pocket screwing the boards together. Here is the blank.

I also dressed by 8/4 blank that I will use for the arms and back of the chair.

I then dug out some cardboard to make templates for the seat, arms and back of the chair.

Tomorrow I will be hitting the bandsaw to cut out the pieces. The only problem is that I have yet to use my BS since setting it up several months ago. I am a little nervous with diving right in so I will have to make some practise cuts prior to taking the plunge.

Anyone have any hints to getting these pieces cut properly?

As my shop is in shambles I had to cut the decking half way out the side door. Arrg.

Next was the test fit . . .

And attach all the decking boards.

The final steps were to add the skirting and cut a slight curve . . . and voila . . . done.

This was the original step

Unlike the Winter Awards and my very secretive Project X . . . with this project I will be an open book. What I plan to make is a chair (as DW claimed my other one) to use at my computer.

Here is my inspiration. We have had this office chair kicking around for years. It is still very comfortable and the proportions are great even though it is in very rough shape.

And here is the junk . . . the bottom off a modern office chair that I salvaged from someone’s garbage about two years ago.

The plan . . . to replicate to the best of my abilities my inspiration and mate it to the junk. I plan to use poplar and no adhesives. I will not be staining the chair, however I may paint it if I can find a zero VOC paint.

As I work through the project I invite suggestions to “tweak” the chair just ever so slightly . . . just keep in mind that I will not be using any adhesives or stains.

Let the journey begin.

First thing I had to do was some destruction. I was building this with no real plan . . . although I do have a finished product in mind. This “non-plan” approach had me cutting the same boards three times before it was right. I should have done my calculations first. Oh well.

I notched the top part of the stringer and had to notch the frame so it would lay level. this was a test fit.

Next I had to add some support with the two concrete blocks. They were a little high so I had to do some digging. Anywhere there is wood touching concrete or wood, in addition to my wood preserving mixture, I put a strip of ice shield. This tip was given to me some time ago by an older gentleman (he used strips of tar paper) to prevent water buildup.

This is as far as I got today.

I had a little “oopsie” when dry fitting the pieces and had to rely on my homemade edible glue to stick the “oopsie” back together. Actually there are better words to express how I felt, but as this is a family site . . . “oopsie” will do just fine.

The pics above are from yesterday and I have arranged Project X and its twin in order to deceive the average woodworker. You can only decipher what it actually is if you have a special decoder ring . . . or you can wait until later this week when I post the finished pics.

I finished off the remainder of the dovetails. Staying inside the pencil lines and cutting straight were the biggest challenges. I also found that chopping out the tails with a chisel was a bit of a pain because the spruce would collapse and not cut clean. Took a bit of work cleaning the pins and tails . . . but in the end they all fit together with a satisfying “cluk”.

I then had to cut a groove in the inside of the top pieces. This was accomplished using a ¼” straight router bit in a table mounted router. Had to break out the Marples to do a bit of cleanup as well.

Finally . . . I attached some pieces and got DW to come out and take a couple of pics.

Spoiler: The short pieces of 2×4 in the background will be resawn.

Not making dust this evening but I did convince DW to take a few snaps. Note to self – get DW new digital camera so I can inherit hers.

The first two pics show my first ever attempt at hand cut dovetails. I am happy with the way it came out. I just have to practice more to get better.

Here are two pics of Project X. The top snap shows the top section of Project X. There is one dovetail in each corner. The three pieces laid across it will make up part of the bottom. There will be two dovetails connecting these pieces. Oh . .. the dark box in the background was my Xmas gift from my parents – my grandfathers 1949 Record Multi-Plane. All the pieces are there including the instruction booklet. But I will blog it in more detail later.

The next picture used to be a 2×4 (minus the wood in the picture above). The pile on the left will complete Project X and the stuff on the right will make the Project X clone.

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Now can I be cut some slack? :-)

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Well . . . I did better than I expected. Now I’m not saying I going to win any awards for my dovetail joinery, but the four pieces of the top did fit together.

On my practice run I found that the Irwin Dovetail saw I had purchased was just to rough on the spruce. So I put it away. I found the best saw was my Stanley Japanese pull saw . . . unfortunately it was a bit “wobbly” and upon close inspection it shows in the finished project. But I still happy with the joints as my first attempt.

My chisels could have been a smidge sharper as it was a challenge to chop out the remaining bits after using the coping saw.

I gotta get myself a striking knife as well . . . I was using a mechanical pencil and had to cut inside the lines.

Its all a learning experience.

Pics . . . well . . . the batteries went dead in the camera and we could not find the spares. Honest I tell you.

Sorry Jamie . . . no pics tonight.

I have 9 more dovetails to cut – 4 for the bottom and another 6 for the Project X Twin.

Due to some strategic use of my planer (some would call it an accident) I managed to squeeze another 2 key pieces out of the 2×4. Exxxxxxcellent.

Well . . . DW was not up for taking pictures tonight . . . so the “no pictures, did not happen” does not apply.

Tomorrow night I will be practicing dovetails.