to all those Morris Chair builders

[Brad Wood]

Hey,

I've got a hankering to do one of these Morris Chairs and I am wondering how many board feet do you end up using? I'll likely buy plans from somewhere and figure the plans will tell me, but I'm just trying to figure out what kind of wood investment I am looking at before I buy the plans.

thanks

edit: guess I should also ask what is the thickest final dimension you need, and what is most common... I'm guessing the legs are laminated?

[Dean Karavite]

Brad, I think we are the two guys late to the Morris Chair party, but that's okay. Have you noticed a number of recent articles stating the uselessness of cut lists? I have two emails on the subject this past week. Still, I'm 100% with you and could use some help. I tried working out a list in excel, complete with board feet and price calculations. Then the book came in. Did you order the book referred to in the other thread on the Morris Chair? It (or the plans you can order) come with cut diagrams and they look very useful in determining what wood you need to buy. I am at work and do not have the book handy. Just check out the first page of the dedicated thread.

One other thing I would like to get is a full size drawing of the form/jig for the arms.

[Brad Wood]

The Morris Chair plans available from FWW web site (taunton press) include full size plans, templates, etc. I like the look fo the chair and figured I would just go with those plans. Between the plans, the PDF on their site, and the info in the mag, I figure I should do OK. I've never done anything off a set of plans before

At this point I'm just curious if these chairs typically take 10bf, 25bf, 100bf, ??, to make. (not including waste I suppose). 1/4 sawn white oak goes for $4.00/bf around my parts, so I'm just trying to get an idea of how much $$$ I am in for just to get the stock.

(in other words, I don't have a lot of disposable income, so I have to save my milk money)

[Dean Karavite]

Hi Brad,

I have read that FWW article 5 times and watched the videos too. Thanks for the information on the full size plans - that is what I need since I have never laminated anything in my life. Obviously I was too focused on the videos to catch that the plans were full size.

My estimates put the 1/4 sawn oak for this at around $300 if, and a big if for me, if I eliminated waste to the max and was very smart with my cuts. I never am, so maybe $400 is about right? I have yet to buy the wood and have a few other things in the works. It's tough, but with wood, labor and upholstery I can understand why some of these guys charge $2500 or more per chair.

Dean

[Brad Wood]

what price are you paying for your oak?

I know there are probably at least a dozen folks here that have built these chairs... how many bd ft guys??????

thanks

[Ben Hatcher]

Looks like 33 bft according to Walt Caza's posts in the great morris chair thread dated 1:20 PM 0-09-2008:

>7 bf of 3/4” thick for leg blank laminations, if you stick to the legs as original plan
(more on leg options in the next posting)

>16 bf of 5/4” thick for stretchers, rails and decorative corbels
(all 25 thin slats are contained in frames of this thicker stock)

>10 bf of ½” thick for slats, splats and bow arm lamination layers (3 per side)

[Walt Caza]

Hi All,
and thanks Ben H. for helping me respond, before I respond!
The quote was from Sept 6 last year, after which I threw in:

I say greater than these amounts, because you must always dance with knots, end checks,
light sapwood that I try to remove, and butt ugly sections of grain. (character!)
Not to mention that most every board is just a little too short to get that last set of
matching rails out and with pleasing grain layout… (shucks again!)

The material needed for this project hinges on two main variables:
#1 Will be how you go about getting to ½” thick for the various slats for seat, back and sides.
You may choose to resaw, or heavy waste thickness planning.

The second variable was how you approach building up the legs.
In the name of full & adequate disclosure, it will take more than was quoted by Wood magazine.
Those are barebones net amounts, it would take more rough stock to get'er done.
Another aspect that may prove tricky...
is finding a source for 5/4" stock in your chosen wood.

The Wood mag. plans called for 3/8" thick slats, but Gary Z. and I upgraded all our slats to a full 1/2" thick.
More stable, less banana problems and also more robust in the finished chair.
The catch is... you are not likely to get a pair of dressed 1/2" slats out
of 4/4" stock, even rough stock which runs generous.
A pair of 1/2" slats can be readily taken from 5/4" stock as well.

Not mentioned are small quantities for cleats to carry the seatframe,
and two pair of pegs to serve as recline adjustments and also backrest pivots.

Like Dean, I also recently read the assertion that cutlists are not overly helpful.
While I suspect it's a clever marketing ploy to boldly attack proven
workshop conventions such as the cutlist,
it's true projects always take more lumber than expected.
How long is a piece of string?? However long it needs to be, to get the job done!!

Not all the quartersawn white oak I bought ended up in my chair! (waste and booboos)
Plus I am now building a matching ottoman from the same pile of oak.
Good luck with your project Brad,
we'd love to share your progress and problems in the Morris thread,
play safe,
Walt

ps I ended up using 8/4" rough stock for my arm laminations,
so that all the plies for each arm would cooperate discreetly,
which worked out fabulously in my finished chair.

[Brad Wood]

Hey Walt,

Thanks for the info... I appreciate the time you took to write it all out.

I guess I could have gleaned this info from the Morris Chair project thread, but that is one big discussion, so it is hard to sift through it all to get little bits of info.

thanks again.

[Julian Nicks]

If you plan on using qswo you will want to make sure to buy extra to be able to get the best figure of the wood where it needs to be. If you are tight on material you might not end up with good grain selection throughout.

[Wayne Sparkman]

Brad:

I was searching on Google for an Arts and Crafts footstool, and came across this about the Morris chair on Google Books. I see that it includes a cutting list.

http://books.google.com/books?id=OMEJjUVtbwwC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=arts+and+crafts+footstool&source=bl&ots=WE7GDQlOMl&sig=As-IHl3H5Uu-Vv5Ue02UPWJpAH8&hl=en&ei=1vqrSuuTN4S6NZqKlPIN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=arts%20and%20crafts%20footstool&f=false (http://books.google.com/books?id=OMEJjUVtbwwC&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83&dq=arts+and+crafts+footstool&source=bl&ots=WE7GDQlOMl&sig=As-IHl3H5Uu-Vv5Ue02UPWJpAH8&hl=en&ei=1vqrSuuTN4S6NZqKlPIN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10#v=onepage&q=arts%20and%20crafts%20footstool&f=false)

[gary Zimmel]

I agree with Julian that one should buy a little extra QSWO.
Always nice to have a good pick of nice ray fleck pieces.

As Walt said there may be a little oops...
For me it was cutting the blanks for the bowed arms.

The plan that we used from wood mag had a good cutting list also.
I downloaded it from there website.

Good luck with the builds and make sure to keep us posted in the thread....

[Brad Wood]

thanks guys, you are all awesome. I'm probably not going to start until next spring. I have to start thinking about my larger projects in adavance so I know what I am in for $$$ wise as initial investment. As I mentioned above, I don't have a lot of disposable income,

[Fred Bell]

I built a Morris chair about 5 years ago and recall spending just as much, if not more, on the cushions. I have no experience with upholstery so I subbed that portion of the project to a professional. Granted that I bought expensive fabric, I think that it was about a quarter of the cost for three cushions, seat, back and foot stool. It didn't make sense to make a nice mahogany chair and fit it with cheap cushions.

[Brad Wood]

wow, I think this post has been moved between Projects and General three times now