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Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 8:44 AM
How difficult is basic chair building? Still using a set of oak victorian chairs that I pulled out of a neighbors trash pile and rebuilt back in the early 1980's for my parents when I was a teenager. Would like to build a simple shaker style chair from scratch to replace them. Would also like it to be neander other than the turning...

They do not look that difficult to build from scratch. Where do I best start to learn to build them?

Regards,

Chris

Prashun Patel
02-18-2016, 9:08 AM
When I started (as if I've made more than a couple chairs...) I worked from plans.

Chair building is unique and demanding both in structure and ergonomics.

I made a couple chairs from plans, then made a couple of my own design, playing with different types of joints and ergonomics. What I have found (YMMV) is that there is a lot of genius in the established and available designs. If you waiver too much, things just don't feel right or they fall apart.

I think a great source of inspiration is Michael Fortune. He has a wonderful article in FWW on a 'made for production chair' that I learned a lot from. His techniques are more machined, but the parts, dimensions, proportions, and angles would translate well to your desired style. The Fortune chair uses a more apron-style chair that is IMHO easier to construct well.

The demands on proper material prep (choosing proper grain) for the rear legs and stretchers are high for chairs. So, choose a species of wood that is strong, and that you can afford to spend a little extra on to get proper riftsawn parts.

The Windsor Chair guides (I have Dunbar's. I liked it) will suggest great tools you may use for roughing, shaping. However, those designs are demanding for a (IMHO) first attempt.

Good luck. It's SOOOOOO fun.

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 10:04 AM
When I started (as if I've made more than a couple chairs...) I worked from plans.

Chair building is unique and demanding both in structure and ergonomics.

I made a couple chairs from plans, then made a couple of my own design, playing with different types of joints and ergonomics. What I have found (YMMV) is that there is a lot of genius in the established and available designs. If you waiver too much, things just don't feel right or they fall apart.

I think a great source of inspiration is Michael Fortune. He has a wonderful article in FWW on a 'made for production chair' that I learned a lot from. His techniques are more machined, but the parts, dimensions, proportions, and angles would translate well to your desired style. The Fortune chair uses a more apron-style chair that is IMHO easier to construct well.

The demands on proper material prep (choosing proper grain) for the rear legs and stretchers are high for chairs. So, choose a species of wood that is strong, and that you can afford to spend a little extra on to get proper riftsawn parts.

The Windsor Chair guides (I have Dunbar's. I liked it) will suggest great tools you may use for roughing, shaping. However, those designs are demanding for a (IMHO) first attempt.

Good luck. It's SOOOOOO fun.


Thanks for the encouragement. What is available commercially for less than a small fortune is an abomination....I can't think what I build myself would be worse than that.

Bruce Haugen
02-18-2016, 10:08 AM
There's nothing simple about chair making. I know you asked for Shaker, but here is the start of Curt Buchanan series https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uEwjnEsj63o on Windsor chairs. It is fantastic but there are 51 videos in the series. He shows everything.

Prashun Patel
02-18-2016, 10:12 AM
...I can't think what I build myself would be worse than that.

You haven't seen some of my attempts. It's hard to make a good-looking chair that's strong.

Sean Hughto
02-18-2016, 10:15 AM
It is impossible to generalize. Chair making can present several challenges: design, ergonomics, alignment, angles, complex and stressful glue-ups, and on and on. Which ones you encounter depend upon your aim and design. I could make something to sit on with all 90 degree angles and nails, but it likely wouldn't be very comfortable, elegant, light or long lived. But it would be easy.

lowell holmes
02-18-2016, 10:28 AM
A good place to start is this book. It addresses the Issues that Sean mentiond.

http://www.amazon.com/Chairmaking-Design-Jeff-Miller/dp/1933502061

I can't believe it's not known. It is a remarkable book. Jeff addresses the issues that Prashun brought up. He even has a section on making plywood prototypes to
determine what is comfortable for you to sit in.

I also have Dunbar's book and I like it.

Another place to start is to attend chairmaking classes. I've attended three classes at Homestead Heritage, two rocking chair classes and a Windsor chair class.

Bob Glenn
02-18-2016, 10:29 AM
If you are building a bookcase or table, you want it to be strong. If you are building a secretary or desk, you want it to be strong and well designed. If you are building a chair, you want it to be strong, well designed AND comfortable. Good luck.

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 10:31 AM
A good place to start is this book. It addresses the Issues that Sean mentiond.

http://www.amazon.com/Chairmaking-Design-Jeff-Miller/dp/1933502061

I can't believe it's not known. It is a remarkable book.

I also have Dunbar's book and I like it.

Another place to start is to attend chairmaking classes. I've attended three classes at Homestead Heritage, two rocking chair classes and a Windsor chair class.

Thanks! My Amazon account should be very active...

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 10:32 AM
If you are building a bookcase or table, you want it to be strong. If you are building a secretary or desk, you want it to be strong and well designed. If you are building a chair, you want it to be strong, well designed AND comfortable. Good luck.

Methinks I might need it...

Mike Holbrook
02-18-2016, 11:16 AM
I like the chairs built from green wood, more along the lines of Windsor chairs. I like the older Irish/Welsh designs vs the more complex designs made with turned legs and rungs. I took a chair making course at Country Workshops because I thought the construction techniques might be simpler and easier. I actually found that working with larger stiffer wood that was not green was much more demanding. Windsors tend to use thin pieces of wood with the grain running through the entire piece. These pieces are usually split out of logs instead of having to be made from expensive dimensioned lumber. The beauty/genius of these pieces is they flex and move with the person sitting in the chair. The other convenient thing about these pieces is they dry easily in a short time in a home made kiln. These pieces are also easy to bend after steaming them in a fairly simple steam box. Bending these pieces takes around 45 seconds. More time means the wood stops bending and starts cracking. In my experience it is much easier to bend thin pieces of green wood than to splice and glue up large dry boards and then shape them. Bottom line for me was making a simple windsor design may be easier than working boards, gluing boards... and the final product is much lighter, can last hundreds of years and is more comfortable to sit in.

Peter Galbert recently wrote & illustrated a book, "Chairmaker's Notebook", available through Lost Art Press, that explains just about every thing one needs to know about making Windsors. Chris Schwarz just came out with a book on designing and building simple staked furniture, "The Anarchists Design Book". Windsors are a type of staked chair. Chris' book reveals how to make a staked chair using more conventional hand tools. The book shows you how to make very stable staked chair legs from 2x2' pieces of oak with a hand plane and hand tenon cutter, which means you do not need a lathe to make the chair legs or other parts.

Prashun Patel
02-18-2016, 11:28 AM
Chris-
The one thing I will say after reading all our responses is: don't be intimidated. If *I* can do it, you can do it.

While it may be challenging, it's a well-documented and straightforward endeavor. So please don't read the responses as discouragement.

Mike Holbrook
02-18-2016, 11:39 AM
What Prashun said goes double in my case. If I can make a Windsor.....
I am very excited about Schwarz's new book as it teaches simpler ways to make functional: chairs, tables, bookcases.....using simpler tools and techniques. The book tries to put furniture building within reach of a larger audience with a smaller tool and skill set.

Jim Belair
02-18-2016, 12:08 PM
Garrett Hack had an article in FWW called Chair Making Simplified that will be my first chair attempt when I get to it. It simplifies angles, etc.

http://www.finewoodworking.com/woodworking-plans/article/chair-making-simplified.aspx

I got it from the first compilation shown below but suspect it's also in the second one as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Furniture-Great-Designs-Fine-Woodworking/dp/1561588288/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455814697&sr=1-3&keywords=fine+woodworking

http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Building-Chairs-Best-Woodworking/dp/1561588571/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=038YZ1C6VV48KS7R29NF

Mike Henderson
02-18-2016, 12:09 PM
I've built a number of chairs and rockers. The construction part is not that difficult but making the chair comfortable is more difficult. I learn a bit more with each chair I make. Jeff Miller has a good book called "Chairmaking and Design" which I recommend.

Make one - even if you plan to throw it away. From that one, you'll work out the joinery and you'll see how comfortable it is. Take a chair you like and feel comfortable in. Measure it and use those measurements for your first chair (seat height, seat depth and seat width, primarily).

Whatever you do, make sure the joint between the seat side rails and the back is strong - Use mortise and tenon joinery, not dowels. You can make a chair that will last a very long time, which looks good, and is comfortable. And you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you built it.

Mike

Tony Wilkins
02-18-2016, 12:18 PM
The new Anarchist Design Book goes through a couple of variations of staked chairs.

Bruce Haugen
02-18-2016, 12:19 PM
I have to throw in a caveat. Chairbuilding can be as complicated as the dickens - picky, precise, unforgiving of mistakes. But if I can do it, you can do it. Here is the first one I made, a modified copy of a Moser continuous arm Windsor. I had dimensions and angles to follow, which helps immensely.

331990

And there was a guy living across the street from me at the time who watched me build the whole thing. He wondered if I'd take $150 for it. Umm, no.

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 12:37 PM
Chris-
The one thing I will say after reading all our responses is: don't be intimidated. If *I* can do it, you can do it.

While it may be challenging, it's a well-documented and straightforward endeavor. So please don't read the responses as discouragement.

I will not....and it is not a project I will strt until fall at the earliest. UI am trying to read up when I am too tired to work in the shop safely. right now I am building a set of kitchen cabinets, and getting ready to start a grandfather clock for my wife. My son wants a computer desk...I am going to be a busy guy.

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 12:38 PM
What Prashun said goes double in my case. If I can make a Windsor.....
I am very excited about Schwarz's new book as it teaches simpler ways to make functional: chairs, tables, bookcases.....using simpler tools and techniques. The book tries to put furniture building within reach of a larger audience with a smaller tool and skill set.


Popular woodworking is good at that. I have been able to build a few things just because someone at the start of the article said 'this really isn't that difficult..."

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 12:44 PM
I have to throw in a caveat. Chairbuilding can be as complicated as the dickens - picky, precise, unforgiving of mistakes. But if I can do it, you can do it. Here is the first one I made, a modified copy of a Moser continuous arm Windsor. I had dimensions and angles to follow, which helps immensely.

331990

And there was a guy living across the street from me at the time who watched me build the whole thing. He wondered if I'd take $150 for it. Umm, no.

That is gorgeous work. When my son was looking at Northland College in Wisconsin, we sat in a room full of Mosier furniture when we were doing a tour of the College. Being able to actually see Mosiers work made me feel like ti was approachable. His book on Making shaker furniture started it all for me in College.

Mike Henderson
02-18-2016, 1:17 PM
Don't try to start with Windsor chairs unless you plan to do a lot of work in that genre. There are a number of special tools that you use to do Windsor chairs, plus steam bending (special forms and a steam box). The legs and spindles are turned, although the spindles can often be worked with a spokeshave.

Start with a plain hardwood chair. You can do everything you need to with a table saw and a few hand tools. A tenon jig for the table saw might help.

Mike

Brent Cutshall
02-18-2016, 1:35 PM
Yeah,just about the easiest to make are those old fashioned straight-back chairs. The best tools for the job are an assortment of drill bit sizes,a spokeshave,a tenon saw,and a mortise chisel.

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 2:15 PM
Yeah,just about the easiest to make are those old fashioned straight-back chairs. The best tools for the job are an assortment of drill bit sizes,a spokeshave,a tenon saw,and a mortise chisel.


That was exactly where I was going to start....

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 2:17 PM
Don't try to start with Windsor chairs unless you plan to do a lot of work in that genre. There are a number of special tools that you use to do Windsor chairs, plus steam bending (special forms and a steam box). The legs and spindles are turned, although the spindles can often be worked with a spokeshave.

Start with a plain hardwood chair. You can do everything you need to with a table saw and a few hand tools. A tenon jig for the table saw might help.

Mike

I think I would take a couple of classes before attempting a Windsor chair. Going to try to go to France in the fall, so a class is at least a year or so off due to vacation being already allocated....

However, a Windsor chair is on my bucket list.

Mike Holbrook
02-18-2016, 3:48 PM
Actually, Schwarz's new book explains how to make a variation of a "Windsor" without most of the specialized tools professional Windsor chair builders often have to maximize productivity. Yes, you may want to learn to use a draw knife, but IMHO this is one of the most powerful hand tools well worth the short learning curve. There are always tons of tools one can buy. In my experience green wood working tools are at the bottom not the top of the high expense tool list.

Legs for Windsors do not have to be turned, staked chair legs are made from 2x2" oak boards, a hand plane and a hand tenon cutting tool available from LV fairly cheaply. Seats can be made with a draw knife and a couple flea market spokeshaves or gouges. Most of the rest of the work can be done with a drawknife. Some use a scorp which is just a bent drawknife. Some like an Adze which is just an axe for chopping out hollows. Travishers are popular but they are just a more refined spokeshave. Gouges or chisels can do most of the work some people do with the: scorp, adze, travisher....

Steam boxes and drying kilns may take a little while to build but they are a valuable addition to any shop. They allow a woodworker to bend and dry small pieces of green wood, increasing the range of woods and projects one can tackle.

Chris Hachet
02-18-2016, 4:01 PM
Actually, Schwarz's new book explains how to make a variation of a "Windsor" without most of the specialized tools professional Windsor chair builders often have to maximize productivity. Yes, you may want to learn to use a draw knife, but IMHO this is one of the most powerful hand tools well worth the short learning curve. There are always tons of tools one can buy. In my experience green wood working tools are at the bottom not the top of the high expense tool list.

Legs for Windsors do not have to be turned, staked chair legs are made from 2x2" oak boards, a hand plane and a hand tenon cutting tool available from LV fairly cheaply. Seats can be made with a draw knife and a couple flea market spokeshaves or gouges. Most of the rest of the work can be done with a drawknife. Some use a scorp which is just a bent drawknife. Some like an Adze which is just an axe for chopping out hollows. Travishers are popular but they are just a more refined spokeshave. Gouges or chisels can do most of the work some people do with the: scorp, adze, travisher....

Steam boxes and drying kilns may take a little while to build but they are a valuable addition to any shop. They allow a woodworker to bend and dry small pieces of green wood, increasing the range of woods and projects one can tackle.

His new book is high on my want to read list. The only down side is that I am buying so many woodworking books I may wind up putting off the purchase of the LV Veritas Large Shoulder plane I wanted to acquire.

And yes, simple chairs like he builds can be quite nice. It has only been in building simple furniture that I feel ready to try something more difficult. Imagine that I will have a similar learning curve with chairs.

jack duren
02-18-2016, 4:52 PM
Best experience you'll ever get will be from hands on experience, NOT a book. Don't mimic, be creative .If you don't have patience you'll never get past the first chair.....

David Eisenhauer
02-18-2016, 5:23 PM
I believe Paul Sellars has a how-to video (it may be one of his must-pay-something-to watch videos) on making a simple, sturdy kitchen ladder back type chair that looked like a good way to get one's feet wet on basic chair making.

Mike Holbrook
02-18-2016, 6:37 PM
Chris, Schwarz is Lost Art Press now, he does not work at Popular Woodworking although they apparently have the rights to sell the books he wrote when he was there. The Anarchist Design Book and Galbert's book Chairmakers Notebook were both published by Lost Art Press as were Schwarz's newer books and those of quite a few other woodworking authors.

I have the medium shoulder plane but I almost never use it. I do use the small plow plane, router plane and the skew rabbit planes fairly often. Tough to decide which planes to buy first.

Tony Wilkins
02-18-2016, 6:40 PM
The ADB really focuses on an even simpler build and tool philosophy than ATC. The seating options in it follow that trend.

lowell holmes
02-19-2016, 12:06 PM
I reiterate, start with Jeff Miller's book.

He covers design, mock up, and construction. It includes complete plan as well.

The book is one of the best how to books I've seen.

Jeff is a remarkable woodworker. He makes chair building look easy.

Chris Hachet
02-19-2016, 12:36 PM
I reiterate, start with Jeff Miller's book.

He covers design, mock up, and construction. It includes complete plan as well.

The book is one of the best how to books I've seen.

Jeff is a remarkable woodworker. He makes chair building look easy.

I ordered it from Amazon as soon as it was suggested. Should be coming to me next week....Does look like a good book, and I love Jeff Miller as an author.

John Dykes
02-19-2016, 2:35 PM
Absolutely look at the Paul Sellers options. I've always wanted to make chairs.... I made Paul's stool and chair out of 2x4 lumber as my prototype for further work. It was a huge ego \ confidence booster.

Richard Coers
09-15-2022, 12:56 AM
This step by step article is about How To Make a Chair. If you want to build a chair by yourself, you could get the job done in a weekend, using just common tools and materials. There are many designs and shapes you could choose from, therefore you have to plan everything from the very beginning, as to fit your needs and tastes. A simple chair with a back support and a straight-forward seat is a great choice for beginners, as you need just basic woodworking skills. Learn more in this article: How To Make a Chair (https://www.handcraftstips.com/2022/09/how-to-make-chair.html): The Method Of Making Chairs.
Might want to check the date on the last post.

Richard Coers
09-15-2022, 10:06 PM
They do not look that difficult to build from scratch.

Regards,

Chris
Famous last words. The front legs are wider than the back, there is an angle between the back legs and the seat, back slats are steam or laminated and bent, and often the back legs are bent and splayed out. None of that is easy. Of course you can always make an uncomfortable chair by eliminating angles and bends.