Carving a Chair Seat

[Joe Krawczak]

Does anyone know of a good method to carve out a wooden seat for a chair or stool? I'm not too interested in doing this by hand. Thinking it can be done with a plunge router and some sort of jig. Thanks in advance for your help.

Joe

[Mike Henderson]

If you're just going to do one seat, it's probably easier to do by hand. I did a sculpted seat in walnut on a rocker by hand with a chairmaker's plane. Took me several hours but it would have taken me longer to make jigs for a router. I would expect that you will have to do some hand work to finish the seat, even if you are able to do the majority with a power tool.

Of course, if you're going to do a bunch of seats, you need to find a powered solution, which may be a CNC machine.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

Or, like me on my long delayed chair project...you could use a combination of power and hand tools. I've only done one seat so far, but I used a router to "rough it out" and hand tools to contour and smooth to final shape. Fortunately, for me, I chose mahogany for the project and it works fairly easily.

[Neil Lamens]

Hi Joe:

Router, gouges, mikita body grinder and 6"PC ROS, oblong scrape, and sand......oops forgot.... dust protection.

[Bob Smalser]

Here's how I do it:

Drill index holes to depth, using another chair seat as a model if required.
Chainsaw to depth using the tip of a small 12" arborist's or carver's saw.
Clean up using scorp, shaves and sandpaper.

[Jim Becker]

Bob, I really like that chain saw idea!!

[Bob Smalser]

Bob, I really like that chain saw idea!!

These Adirondac chairs are made using tapered cedar sawmill waste, poly construction adhesive, galvy nails and the arborist's saw. Nailed together and chainsawed to shape. I can do 6 a day.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/30531628.jpg

Knotty cedar tops and slabs become benches the same way using just a level and string:

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/2594265/29955706.jpg

[Jamie Buxton]

I scoop out chair seats with an Arbortech carving blade in a 4" angle grinder. It is a disc with three carbide teeth. The thing looks really scary, but it is controllable, and it makes quick work of the basic shaping. After that, I switch to sandpaper discs on the same angle grinder. I can go from blank to finished seat in 20 minutes or so.

[Mark Singer]

As jamie said an Arborteck works well. Draw the pattern on the seat and make a plywood profile for each 4" across ...Once you have made one its easier, because you can check one against the next....then a Rotex or auto body sander and finer abrasives

[Ralph Barhorst]

There was an episode of "Wood Works" on Sunday that showed how to make a 12" diameter bowl in the top of a table. It required a jig to hold a router. Something like this might work for a chair, but I think that it would be way too much work for just one chair.

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cda/article_print/0,1983,DIY_14446_3877250_ARTICLE-DETAIL-PRINT,00.html

[Carl Eyman]

Not being sure a link to FWW is legal under TOS and being too lazy to look it up I've pmed you a message with a link to the Methods of Work that shows how to make a router jig - or is it a fixture? Anyway looks like it'd work

If it does not work e-mail me and I can email you the article

[Jim Becker]

Carl, the link to FWW is fine as long as it isn't to their forum.

Jim
SMC Moderator.

[Joe Krawczak]

Carl,

Can't open your PM due to pop up blocker installed here at work. Maybe you can post that link from fww. That would be great.

Thanks Again,
Joe

[Dan Lee]

joe
Dont know if a dish profile is what you have in mind but ... Woodsmith had plans for stools many years back with the seat dished out. This is basically what their the jig looks like wit a router mounted in the sled. Works really well, made about 8 of them.

[Carl Eyman]

Joe:
FWW has this article. I got it through being subscribed to their web thing. If you can't bring it up* I've made a hard copy of it and will snail mail it to you. Here's the URL http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/subscription/Workshop/WorkshopArticle.aspx?id=27733

Let me know how you do.

* They may restrict access to subscribers, tough they allow you to e-mail the article straight from the web page.

[Carl Eyman]

Dan: FWW's is similiar, but has the provision to make the "horn" in the seat too. That is the separate sides one for each cheek.

[Jim Becker]

Carl, it would be better for Joe to source a copy of the article at a library and copy rather than you copy it...a reference to the issue date should allow for that.

[Carl Eyman]

Jim:
I appreciate your thought on this, but on the web page they give you the option to "e-mail this to a friend". I would have done this if I'd had his e-mail address. How can furnishing him with a copy be any more a copyright infringement than the e-mail? Also how can furnishing him a copy be any different than inviting hip to read my copy of the magazine in my home? Jim, I believe copyright infringement deals more in how you use t6he information than in how you disemenate it. By the way, the copy I offeredto send is one I e-mailed myself from the website. I'll be glad to hear rebuttal and will comply with any official position SMC adopts.

[Dan Lee]

Carl
I do remember seeing that jig in the mag pretty darn clever

[Joe Krawczak]

Carl,
Thanks for that link to FWW, only they wouldn't let me in w/o a subscription. I'll probally search out my local library and search the archives of some of the mags to see if I can find a good article pertaining to seat carving.

Joe

[Jim Becker]

Carl, no rebuttal. I just try and be very sensitive and conservative when it comes to copyrighted material these days given the huge amount of litigation going on "out there". In the case of FWW, yes you can email the link to a friend, but if the friend isn't a paying member, FWW is likely looking to generate revenue from that individual to join and have access. Emailing a link is a marketing tool, beside a convenience.