Plans for Morris chair

[Joe Cowan]

I have decided to build two Morris style chairs for my basement/TV room. I like Norm's plans as I can get a video as well as plans to go by. I see on his site a picture of him setting in the chair, but it looks like the arm rest are flat and I want to build the arm rests with the gentle arc. Has anyone here built his chair? What other plan is good for this chair?

[Bud Millis]

Try Tommy MacDonald aka Woodworking with Tommy. He's out of Boston and has a show on PBS. He has a Mission style Morris chair with the sweeping arms. If you go to his site or the Boston PBS site you can buy plans and the video.

[Cody Colston]

Check out Walt Caza's "The Great Morris Chair Project" thread in woodworking projects here.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?85886-The-Great-Morris-Chair-project

[Jim Barstow]

Both Fine Woodworking and Wood Magazine had nice plans. I built a chair taking the best from both. I used a curved armrest which really softens the hard lines of the chair. It is
remarkably comfortable.

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[Daniel Smith]

I just completed a bow arm Morris chair that was featured in Fine Woodworking (issue 205) with plans from American Furniture Designs. There is one small measurement error in the plans, but otherwise the chair went together very easily an looks great. There is some discussion of this chair in the Morris chair thread.

[Rod Sheridan]

275264

Hi, if you like this chair I can e-mail you the drawings I made for it, just PM me your e-mail address..............Thanks, Rod.

[Clay Fails]

I just completed a bow arm Morris chair that was featured in Fine Woodworking (issue 205) with plans from American Furniture Designs. There is one small measurement error in the plans, but otherwise the chair went together very easily an looks great. There is some discussion of this chair in the Morris chair thread.

I am in the middle of building this chair right now. The video series on Fine Woodworking by Grep Paolini is very helpful. The poster is correct; you need to double check all the dimensions on the plans, and in a couple places Paolini's dimensions differ from the AFD plans. So far has been a really fun oroject.

[Daniel Smith]

Clay - I'm not sure where in the project you are, but don't lay out the through mortises in the arms based on their placement in the 1:1 scale drawing on the plan. That will leave you with too much of an overhang on the arms' inside edge and the back won't fit in the opening. That was the only real issue I had with the drawings.

[Mark Blatter]

If you buy the Wood plans, you can get the plans for $13 I think. Or you can buy the entire years worth of magazines for $20 and get the plans for both the chair and the ottoman. Plus lots of other stuff from that year. I bought the entire year as I wanted both the chair and ottoman.

[phil harold]

I really want a recliner version
;o)

[Clay Fails]

[QUOTE=Daniel Smith;2181764]Clay - I'm not sure where in the project you are, but don't lay out the through mortises in the arms based on their placement in the 1:1 scale drawing on the plan. That will leave you with too much of an overhang on the arms' inside edge and the back won't fit in the opening. That was the only real issue I had with the drawings.[/QUOTE

Dan, thanks for the heads up. I'm actually just getting ready to cut the through mortises, and have deliberately waited to cut the back slats until i'm sure of the clear opening. The plans seem to indicate there is a 1/8 inch overhang between the inside arm edge and the legs. Then it says to leave another 1/4 inch for the back stiles. That sounds like a pretty big gap. I don't have the plans in front of me, but I seem to recall there is a dimension error on the width of the back slats relative to the arms. I'll double check everything before I cut the through mortises.

[Clay Fails]

Clay - I'm not sure where in the project you are, but don't lay out the through mortises in the arms based on their placement in the 1:1 scale drawing on the plan. That will leave you with too much of an overhang on the arms' inside edge and the back won't fit in the opening. That was the only real issue I had with the drawings.

Dan, how did you end up making the legs? I really wanted to use the lock miter method but just could not get the bit adjusted correctly. It is a very frustrating bit to use. I made the legs with the veneer face on two sides, and that seemed to work OK.

[gary Zimmel]

Good to see you are building a Morris chair Clay and have fun with your build Joe.
And don't worry about veneering the legs. Gus Stickley used to do it that way...;)

[Gene Davis]

Know Sketchup? If so, then consider building the version of AFD's California West Bow Arm Chair that I did a precise 3D model of and put up on the 3D Warehouse for anyone to download for free.

I had just finished building a pair of their Stickley version of same, all exactly per the plans, mortise and tenons, quartersawn white oak, etc., and so had their measured drawings. The California version has splayed legs and some curvature in the side rails and stretchers. Its basic geometry is the same as the Stickley version.

In my take on it, as can be seen in the image here, there are no mortises, and no tenons. Every piece of joinery is handled with Festool dominos, and I used Festool's exact specs in placing the dominos in the model. Various sizes are used.

AFD shows it in their literature made with two species of wood, neither of them qs w.o. It looks to me as if the arms and legs are cherry, and the rest is all hard maple, some of it birds-eye.

[Paul Douglass]

I ordered the plans and built this one:
http://www.woodstore.net/arcolmorchai.html

I'm thinking because I was able to do it they are good plans.

[Kent A Bathurst]

I have decided to build two Morris style chairs for my basement/TV room. I like Norm's plans as I can get a video ..........

Norm is an icon. Norm did a great service to all neophyte woodworkers. Myself included. I have always admired him. His flannel shirts - not so much. :p

He deserves the $$ Jillion he earned from those shows - every single penny, IMO.

I am tiptoeing around this a bit ...............

Going down that path, I would take this route:

Norm's video will be pretty helpful in terms of techniques, etc. - on the visual end of the game. But - you can use that as a visual aid and still go somewhere else for plans and joinery.....

You want the real deal in terms of materials, dimensions, joinery, etc. - then get one of the books by Bob Lang. A Creeker, and an unimpeachable source of great information on all things Stickley and Arts & Crafts. He also has large-scale drawings on a number of items...dunno about the Morris Chair, but I have used them from Bob on bookcases, etc.

[Clay Fails]

Nice work Paul, that is beautiful! I'm about 3/4 of the way done with mine, and so far have really enjoyed it. First time I've used Qsawn white oak, and I really like how it feels and looks.

[Daniel Smith]

Clay - I used the three piece laminated leg with veneer on two sides. Unless you knew how the leg was constructed, you'd have to look pretty hard to see the edges of the veneer. Where the leg construction is a little more obvious is in the through tenons, but again, you kind of have to be looking to see the glue lines.

I used cherry for mine.


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[Joe Cowan]

Thanks for all the posts on this chair project. I have ordered the book, I have the FW issue 205, and now have to decide which one. I hope I can get some help along the way from the guys that participated in the Morris chair project on this site it I choose to do that chair. I am leaning on that one due to the wealth of info in the thread about the chair build.