Hal Taylor Office Chair

[Tracy White]

I just finished making this office chair. I used the Hal Taylor rocking chair plans but I already have a rocking chair and needed an office chair. Hal Taylor has recently revised his plans but I used the former version. The chair was a challenging but very fun and rewarding project. I had not done bent laminations before or used an angle grinder for woodworking. I had also never made the Maloof-style joints. Hal Taylor's plans were thorough and understandable. I called him a few times with questions.

The chair is very comfortable. I bought the office chair mechanism from http://officechairparts.com . I would like to make the rocking chair someday.

[Todd Young]

Stunning work Tracy. How long did it take you to build?

Am I reading it right that this is your first post but you've been signed up since Dec 08? If you are new, welcome to the Creek. I'm a relative newbie here as I've only been here a few months, but welcome anyways.

Judging by this piece, you're a seasoned woodworking veteran.

Looks great.

T

[Tracy White]

Thanks. I discovered Sawmill Creek when I was looking for plans for a Maloof-style chair. I actually made two chairs. The 2nd is the same except I made it 3 inches shorter and I am painting it white. The one in the picture is made from red oak. The 2nd is made from German Beech. I hated to paint it, but I made it for my daughter to match a desk I made for her earlier. I started both chairs in January so they took me about 8 months to complete. But since I work full time and woodworking is a hobby my time in my shop is limited. Building the chairs involves building bending jigs, a cross-cut sled, templates, and a slender "table" to hold a router for rounding over curved pieces. Building additional chairs would be faster since the jigs would already be made.

[John Keeton]

Nice work and nice adaptation of the Taylor style! I assume you went with the oak on this one because the base was available in that. It turned out very nice.

I want so bad to make one of these. Several creekers have built them in walnut, and I saw a similar chair in curly maple recently that was stunning. As I understand the plans, a good bit of 8/4 stock is needed, and I need to wait for my walnut to dry another year.

Welcome to the creek, BTW!!

[John Thompson]

Very nicely done, Tracy. Interestingly... I needed this chair a few months back to go with a large computer desk-hutch I designed. This would have been the perfect compliment to that. I tried to find hardware and ran into a wall so... your posting on where is a bit late for me as I just bit the bullet and purchased a leather executive chair.

Great job and I am envious as I would like to have this chair. The good news is I'll get over it.. :)

Well done....

[Nick Penchuk]

Tracy, That's really nicely done. The link doesn't seem to work. It goes to one of those generic Network Solutions page. Would you please take a look at the URL and repost. Thanks.

[Bruce Page]

You're not going to find that at Office Depot!

Beautiful work!

[Bill Wyko]

That is absolutely beautiful. You get an A+++++ in my book. Building a chair is on my to do list someday. Yours is a true inspiration.:)

[Darrell Bottoms]

WOW:eek:

Very Nice!

[Tracy White]

Sorry about the mistake on the link. The correct link is http://www.swivel-chair-parts.com/ I made my chair out of oak because I was making it to go with an oak desk. I did make the wooden pieces for the base. The base was my own design but it is similar to what is used for many wooden office chairs. The joint required to fit the legs into the chair mechanism is a little tricky so I'd recommend making test pieces out of scrap. The chair was made entirely from 8/4 oak. There is a lot of shaping involved with a band saw, an angle grinder, a router, and a random orbit sander. As I said before, this was a very fun project. I would encourage anyone to try it.

[Nick Penchuk]

Tracy, It's still beautiful, and thanks for the link.

[Mike Wilkins]

WOW!! I wish I had an office just to have an excuse to build one of those. This is some stunning work.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

This is an example of fine craftsmanship. Nicely done.
-Jeff :)

[Vince Shriver]

In the vernacular of my young daughter, all I can say is: Way Cool!

[James Sweeney]

Simply incredible!!! I love it!!! I wish I could build something like that. I need 6 poker chairs to compliment my poker table but could not find any good plans. Excellent work!!