Day 1 of my "Build a Rocking Chair" camp adventure with Bill Kappel
The beginning of "old guy" summer camp started today and my fine camp counselor is a true gentleman named Bill Kappel. I finally found the perfect thing to do with my extra week of vacation this year. I went to rocking chair camp.
For those of you who don't know of Bill Kappel, he is also known as the rocking chair guy. He makes his own take on the Maloof style rocking chair and does it with style and class. Not only does he make chairs and other amazing wood pieces, but he also offers classes ranging from one on one to small groups. He is a great guy, and I feel fortunate to be working with him this week. You can tell he is good since unlike some hacks I know, Bill laughs at the concept of being called a master woodworker. (even though he just might be one)
For me it was a cross country trek since his workshop is a bit more than 2 hours South of Salt Lake City Utah in a place called Ephraim. I am not sure how to pronounce it, but here I am in my hotel room writing this blog entry. I live in Cleveland, Ohio when I am not traveling so Utah is a big change of environment for me.
Enough fluff.. lets talk about the build. Today was day one and we started making the seat. I chose Mesquite lumber for my chair, and I have to say the figure is amazing. Bill has an amazingly organized and intelligent method of building his chairs that can be broken down into specific and orderly steps. The advice he offers at each step helps understand how the choices are made for each step in the process. He follows a similar procedure to the one I have seen on the Maloof DVD I have, but obviously hands on is the way for me to learn it.
I will take pictures and post them as the days go on. I am also making some video recordings of technique so that I can refer to them when I need to make my next chair. Today was day one and I have several to go. I am confident that when I am done, I will be taking home the best looking chair in my house.
Mott, it has taken me a long time to see your postings. Sorry about that. My wife and I have had some health issues, but I am back in business now.
I plan on making some rockers this year and giving classes again.
I love your posts and pictures. I think you may have giving me more credit than I deserve, but at my age I will take all I can get. It makes me feel good that I can be of some help.
Day 2 started with taking my glued up seat out of the clamps and taking my first shot at carving out the seat with a grinder. I have not done this before so it took me a bit to get the technique down. It will take far longer to perfect it.
I was fortunate to have Bill's undivided attention and patience. He helped me get the angles right until I started to get my seat formed. Had I tried to learn this on my own, I guarantee that I would have wasted dome prime lumber until I got to this point.
Take a look at some of my pics from glue up to carving..
boards marked to be cut for glue up. angles create chair shape when all glued
clamped to make markings and planning joints prior to glue up
Horizontal boring for doweling the seat
glue up ready for carving
carving to shape seat begins
Carved
first sanding is done and front leg joints are started.
next comes the front and back legs.
This so far has been an extremely interesting and educational experience. I am sure it will continue this way.
Well, day 3 has ended and man am I tired. It was a super productive day.
The legs were formed and fitted. The biggest challenge was to mate the legs to the seat.
After hours of fiddling and using Bill's method, all was fit perfectly. What a thrill to see the legs attached and fitting like a glove. After the legs were fit, Bill gave me another lesson in machine carving to form one back leg to the seat. Later we cur out both arms and carved the first to fit.
Enjoy the photos
front leg is marked
after band saw cut offs
a close up on the joint
back leg is cut out
creating a flat at an angle to the face. makes legs lean
finished angled surface
cutting the joint
a view of the joint
grinding a joint
leveling and sanding
legs dry fitted and one leg worked
arm blanks were doweled and dry fit
arm being marked
cutting away waste on the band saw
part two of many cuts
carved out arm
leveled and rough sanded arm
done for the day… tomorrow is more
The biggest challenge here is that I can't actually finish the whole chair. I will UPS myself the components and when I arrive home do final gluing, shaping, sanding and finishing..
day 4 is over and the chair is getting bettter and better
Today, we did more sculpting, cut and glued up the laminates for the rocker runners, and created the headrest and the first back slat. The following pictures tell the tale.
Tomorrow is Saturday and I have a half a day to mount the rails to the chair. Of course I will have to take it all apart, wrap all the pieces and ship them home to do the actual glue up and final assembly. I have so much work left to do that I don't expect to be done for at least 2 or 3 months since I have to go back to work. Vacation is almost over..
Today I glued the stand offs to the rails, created the dowel ends on all the back slats and started to refine them. I also got more grinding done to form the second arm and copied all the templates and jigs so that I will be able to make another chair after this one is done.
Bill has been such a help and a great teacher. I have taken my woodworking skills to a whole new level on this trip and I am so thankful for this chance. This was an intense week.
Enjoy the following photos.
runner out of the clamps
second view
gluing on the standoffs
second view
I don't expect to be able to post tomorrows photos for a few days. I have to travel home first. I hope that you enjoyed all of this. I plan to post more as I finish the work in my shop.
I met Bill at a show here in Salt Lake City before he moved from CA to Utah. He is a very nice gentleman indeed. I am, one day, going to take his class. In regards to the templates does he allow you to make them while there or just make pencil copies of them? It looks to me like you are going to have a very nice rocker and will have learned a great deal.
Well, I am in Salt Lake city and in the morning I fly home. I got on the net here at my hotel so I figured I would post my pice from my last day. I was able to start to fit my rails to the legs and do a bit of sculpting. I still have many hours of work to do when I get home before my chair is a chair, but you can see from the pics how far I got in a week.
starting to fit the leg
leg is doweled into place and ready for sculpting
front is marked
back is marked
begin front sculpting
begin back sculpting
how far I got before I took it all apart and boxed it up for my trip home.
Sorry for the delay. But I have been crazy resetting the shop, installing my new dust collector, and getting my heat straightened out.
I had a bit of a tragedy in my chair as you can see in this pic. The seat split. I am trying to figure out the best repair solution so that it is strong and the crack does not continue.
Anyhow, the following photos show my rough sculpting and joinery. I still have at least 40 hours of work left as I need to finish the back slats and chair back, install and sculpt the rails, and finish sand everything.
Wow, That looks like so much work. Some day I hope to have say "I made a rocking chair" but that is off in my future (I hope).
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