D.McDonnel "Mac"
10-10-2005, 12:16 PM
What a week I had at American Sycamore! I took the Bow Arm Morris Chair class with Dale Barnard and had a good outcome! Dale took an existing design and modified it so we could build it during our 6 day class. We put in a good 50++ hours during the week and very little of it was non-productive time. We took 400+ board feet of Frank Miller's finest QSWO and milled, drilled, bent, turned, sawed and jointed it into EIGHT of those beautiful Bow Arm Morris Chairs.
There were some long days, good meals and a few "learning opportunities" where we got to re-do a piece or repeat a process. The legs were glued up such that we had good face grain on all 4 sides. All the joints are pegged mortice and tennons. The arms, steam bent and through morticed (no fake decorative tennons for us!). Dale showed us several ways he speeds the work up in his shop since he has to make a living at this and time is money for him! Thanks for all your patience Dale!!
Anyone who likes Mission Furniture and doesn't want to pay the Stickley Company $4000 should consider taking this class next year! Don't be intimadated by the project, one of our classmates had very minimal previous experience (this was his first furniture project) and finished before the rest of us! I'm sure this class will become a favorite at American Sycamore.
I'm attaching a picture of the chair as it sits in my shop awaiting sanding and finishing!
There were some long days, good meals and a few "learning opportunities" where we got to re-do a piece or repeat a process. The legs were glued up such that we had good face grain on all 4 sides. All the joints are pegged mortice and tennons. The arms, steam bent and through morticed (no fake decorative tennons for us!). Dale showed us several ways he speeds the work up in his shop since he has to make a living at this and time is money for him! Thanks for all your patience Dale!!
Anyone who likes Mission Furniture and doesn't want to pay the Stickley Company $4000 should consider taking this class next year! Don't be intimadated by the project, one of our classmates had very minimal previous experience (this was his first furniture project) and finished before the rest of us! I'm sure this class will become a favorite at American Sycamore.
I'm attaching a picture of the chair as it sits in my shop awaiting sanding and finishing!