Levi's Chair

Progress is slow on the chair with most of my free time being spent on getting the motorhome ready to leave Friday/Saturday for Oregon.

I've turned a couple of sticks for the back to see which I like best. One is pretty thick but with a taper. The other is thin. Of the two I believe the thin one works best. The only question is can the thin one stand up to a growing four year old boy. I expect we will see.

BTW, I could turn the thick stick around and have the thick part of the taper on the bottom, and it is a thought.

I still haven't heard from the woodstore about my workbench Ash. I need to give them a call.

ken

Chair Bottom Finished

Levi's chair base is finished. I'll start the four sticks and top rail this afternoon after work, maybe, if it isn't too hot to work in the shop.

It may be a little high for Levi, if it is it is easy to cut down. I will include instructions on "how". If things do not get too crazy with work, critters, getting the motorhome ready for the Oregon trip and keeping Casa Chaos from falling down I could have the chair finished in a few days. Will not happen but I could.

Chair base, leveling the legs:

ken

One Key Installed One To Go

One key in place, working on second:

Once the second key is glued in I'll clean up the seat and fit, wedge, and glue the legs in place. If I can find a few free moments this week the chair will be finished. Only problem, finding those few free moments matching up with a shop cool enough to work in.

ken

Keys For The Seat Bottom

Because the seat is a glue up I'm keying the two halves, belts and suspenders dontchknow.

Next up after finishing the keys is cleaning up the seat and knocking the legs home. Once the legs are fitted the back slats and comb will finish the chair,

Work is trying to force my retirement or at least it seems that way. I've six days in a row starting Monday with one off followed by ten in a row. As much as I enjoy my work I don't enjoy that much of it in a row. I don't mail it in and after a line (usually three or four days depending on the Regs the crew is training under) I need a couple of days to recover. It ain't been happening.

All that is to say even though I'm near the short rows it may take a couple of weeks to finish the chair.

ken

Progress On Levi's Chair

The legs, leg tenons, and seat mortises are done and fitted, kinda of. The left rear leg is a little off, I should be able to go in with the reamer and fix it enough so it isn't too noticeable.

I need to shape the seat, make four spindles and a crest rail to finish. Here are a few photos of the progress so far:

Setting up to ream the seat.

Checking progress.

Seat and legs.

As always click 'em to big 'em,

ken

Chair Leg Blanks Finished

Four leg blanks finished and ready to shape the tenons on the lathe.

Even with the short legs and the woodie, it is a sweatathon this time of year. There were a lot of water breaks getting to this point.

I can't say I'm in the short rows but just four small back spindles and a crest rail to go before fitting it all together.

BTW, the little portable bench is amazing. Solid as a rock, perfect height for planing, and the wood screw leg vise holds better than any vise I've used. It is a joy to work on.

I haven't heard from the woodstore about the Ash for the new bench but Lake Erie Toolworks emailed the wood screw for the vise is on the way. We are only a couple of weeks away from the Oregon trip so even if the Ash shows up next week I don't expect the bench will be finished before the middle of Oct. or latter.

See you guys on down the road,

ken

Ten Pounds In A Five Pound Box

In the never ending quest the move the deck chairs, to fit the ten pounds in a five pound box, I shoved the machines around the shop this morning.

A couple of things set me off. First the band saw and the planer are my most used machines and both had restricted movement areas. So all the sweating and huffing was to clear up the work space around the band saw and the planer. Also I expect to replace the Ricon bandsaw with a 18" Powermatic the next time the Powermatic's go on sale. If that happens, the table saw may go away fixing some of the space problem.

A couple photos of the new arrangement. Dust collection and electrical are not hooked up yet because I want live with the placement for a bit first.

I hate to give the table saw away but it is used very little and it takes needed space. The shame is if it is sold I might be able to take MsBubba out for a good dinner on the sale, maybe.

ken

Shaping The Legs

I'm shaping the leg blanks for Levi's chair before taking them to the lathe to turn the tapered tenons. I've found the best tool for shaping the legs is a ECE Jack plane with a light camber. It is light, easy to hold, and can be set to take good chunks of wood each pass without turning your arms to noodles.

I'm not sure how the chair will look when finished. The seat is near full size but the legs will put seat height at about 250mm vs. 460mm for an adult chair. Whatever, it should be bulletproof. 

ken

   

Tormek SE-77

Simple changes can make big differences. In my love/hate relationship with the T-7 sharpening system most of the hate came from the SE-76 jig. It would not handle thick irons or ones without parallel sides and if anything was out of alinement you just had to live with it. In addition it was (almost) impossible to camber an iron.

The new SE-77 jig addresses almost all of those difficulties. Best of all it makes putting a camber on your cutters very easy. Here is one of my Jack plane's iron fresh off the Tormek.

Most of the time I do not grind but this iron had a couple of deep chips and after few minutes on a 120 grit diamond plate and no real progress it was off to the Tormek. As you can see a nice smooth camber and was quick and easy. Also it gives a very good base for sharpening by hand until I do another deep chip.

For some time I've had one green eye and one red with the Tormek. Stop/Go, sell it or not. The Se-77 changed all that, it would be a hard job to pry it out of my cold dead hands now.

ken

New Welsh Stick Chair for The Grandpeanut

The boy child and his wife just had a new grandpeanut, a girl type named Abby Ray. She's a cute little sucker but I guess all grandparents say the same. Anyway the first grandpeanut isn't much of a peanut anymore. They grow fast.

With two of 'em they need another chair for the table and chair set I made a couple of years ago. I started on it this morning. This one will be a small Welsh stick chair. What I expect will happen is the old chair and table will be passed down to Abby Ray and sometime in the next year I will make a new table and a couple more chairs for Levi that are a little larger than the current ones.

Here are a couple of photos drilling the mortises for the legs.

Down the sight line:

The resultant:

Click 'em to big 'em.

I've really starting to like building vernacular furniture and even better I like looking at and using the builds. As a hand tool wood worker stick chairs, staked tables, and boarded chests just fit my house and my eye.

ken