Rocking Chair win

[Mike Henderson]

Cerritos College, where I take woodworking classes, held it's annual woodworking competition today. I entered my "Contemporary Craftsman" rocking chair and won first place in the chair making category. In addition to a ribbon, it came with a $150 prize.

I forgot to take a picture at the school so the picture below was taken after I got home.

Mike

[Jim Koepke]

Nice, are you going to leave the ribbon on for awhile?

Just think, when people sit in it and comment on how nice it is you can tell them they are sitting in an award winning chair.

Congratulations on the fine work and the recognition.

jim

[Jamie Cowan]

Congratulations, Mike. That's a good looking chair. I assume the prize money is already spent on tools or more wood.

[Mike Henderson]

Jim, I would leave the ribbon on the chair if I thought I could just pass it off as something "natural" but people would see through that.

I haven't spent the prize money yet, Jamie, but you know how that is - I'm sure I'll find something woodworking related to spend it on. Actually, I don't have it yet - they're going to send it to each of the winners. Probably take a week or two - enough time to find something.

Mike

[Dave Anderson NH]

Congratulations Mike, something like that win is good both for the ego and the shop. I have no doubt that you'll find something useful to hang in your tool cabinet.

Best regards,
Dave

[Wilbur Pan]

Nice job, Mike! Congratulations!

Any details as to how you built the chair? What did you use for the finish?

[Stephen Shepherd]

I have a question about your rockers, have you tested the chair to see if it crawls when rocked?

Stephen

[David Tiell]

Very nice looking chair, Mike! Congratulations!

[Mark Singer]

Congratulations! That is great!

[Terry Bigelow]

Nice job, Mike. Any pictures from the side?

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks, everyone, for the comments. Let me see if I can answer the questions.

Wilbur and Terry - I have some more detailed pictures on my web site (http://www.mikes-woodwork.com/mikes_projects.htm) (page down a few times). The pictures were taken when I first built the rocker so you can see a color difference in the wood. Cherry darkens with age and I put the chair in the light to accelerate the color change. If you have questions about specific parts of the chair, I'll post additional pictures. You know, ask a grandparent for pictures of their grandchild:)

The chair is finished in Minwax oil based wipe on poly (satin) - several coats. It was then rubbed out with very fine steel wool lubricated with mineral oil. Then I used 1000 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper lubricated with mineral oil and rubbed it out again. A few days later I applied a couple of coats of wax. The rubbing out is a lot of work, almost like sanding the chair all over again.

If there are specific construction questions that I can answer, Wilbur, please ask.

Stephen - no, I've not experienced any crawling (they call it "walking" around here) when it rocks. I have experienced it with other rockers (none that I built) and always wondered what caused it. Do you know? I've also experienced rockers that walked in a circle. Any information you can give will be appreciated by me, and I'm sure, the other people on the forum.

The rockers were bent to about a 39" radius arc, and a small amount of recurve is put on the ends. You always get a bit of springback so the radius usually winds up a bit bigger but the bending form was cut for a 39" radius.

Mike

[Jim Becker]

Congratulations, Mike!!!

[Stephen Shepherd]

Stephen - no, I've not experienced any crawling when it rocks. I have experienced it with other rockers (none that I built) and always wondered what caused it. Do you know? I've also experienced rockers that crawled in a circle. Any information you can give will be appreciated by me, and I'm sure, the other people on the forum.

Mike

Mike,

Funny thing, after reading your post, I put together a piece I had intended to do at some point and put it on my blog.

www.fullchisel.com/blog

Most rockers toe-out so making them coplanar is not possible but matching the arc helps. The shape of the bottom needs to have a belly across the section through the rocker. Unfortunately this will wear off. A higher arc will crawl more than a low curve.

I have only made one rocker with walnut rockers and it did not crawl. The others of pine or fir crawled, one more than the others. Apparently walnut rockers no matter their shape don't crawl, don't ask me why, folklore that works. (I wonder if any rocker would crawl on a walnut floor?)

Rockers like flat belt pullies have a belly in the middle, the belt tracks on the highest point, the middle so it stays in the center, same idea with rockers. There are also a number of other factors, such as center of gravity changes as the chair rocks, the length of the rock and duration together with factors like progressive arc on the rocker to flatten out on the back to slow the backward rocking action.

Stephen

[Bruce Page]

A justifiable award Mike, your work is beautiful.

[Brent Ring]

Nice work and Congratulations! Beautiful!

[Joe Cunningham]

Wow, great looking chair, and congrats on the win.

I'll be heading over to the website to check out some of the pics...