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Thread: The Great Morris Chair project

  1. Bringing this thread back from the dead. I have too many hours to count in reading this!! Love every bit of it. Just finished my footstools, and planning on my Morris build.

    I plan to steam bend my arms, have the stuff to make my steam box, just need some guidance on the form. Everything I read talks about planning on some springback after the bend. So, how much should I plan on?

    Thanks, and happy shop time to all.

    Oh, and this is my first post. Very happy to be here.

  2. #632
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Winnipeg, MB, Canada
    Posts
    22
    Kelly: I've been quiet for over a year with a move and new shop to set up as well as other more pressing projects. I've also finished the stools and am part way through chair. Time to get back at it. I did the arms as bent laminations so I am interested to see how the steam bending goes for you. I will post some pictures once I make some more progress.
    Its all good when its done. If its not good, its not done.

  3. #633
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Adjacent Peoples Republic of Boulder
    Posts
    492
    Two of these await upholstered cushions, due in a few days. Six yards of Kravet fabric.

    Arms are laminated, back slats are bandsawn.

    Per the plans by American Furniture Design, pretty much a match to Stickley's.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  4. #634
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    I am still working on mine! I hope to finish construction of the pair of ottomans before the weather gets warm. I am flattening and thicknessing all my boards by hand, hence the glacial progress. I have also spent some time this winter building a drill press table and a mortising jig for my router. My original plan was to drill & chisel, but I hope to get better and faster results with the router. Either that or I will ruin months of hard work in a few seconds.

    Currently I am trying to decide what to do about the center slat design. I don't really have a good way to make the "I-beam" shaped cutout called for in the plans. I think skipping any sort of design would be safe, although it is a nice focal point for the eyes and it might be nice to have something there.. Anyway, something to think about in traffic for the next week or two.

    Kelly, I was also considering steam bending the arms, but I'm a little nervous as my lumber is kiln-dried. None of my lumber is really thick enough to turn into slats for laminations unless I combine boards, which I want to avoid if possible. Looking forward to hearing about your experience with the steam bending. I don't have any advice regarding the amount of springback but I was hoping it would be on par with the laminated bends (1/4" or so?).

    Mike

  5. Gene, love the color of your chairs. I think mine will be similar. doing a method of using dye and stain process.

    Don't get me wrong, I love a good mortise and tenon made in a classical way; however, after making 13 arts and crafts dining room chairs, I am tired.

    So, I built a slot mortising machine. LOVE IT. I went metric, so I can use the premade tenons made by festool for their domino.

    First project I made with the slot mortising and also first project I designed on google sketchup and built is the gong. That is also the color I will use on the footstool and eventually the chair.

    got the dye done a few days back, sealed it, then put the stain on yesterday. First coat of poly on this morning. I typically use wipe on protection (minwax poly) but started using general finishes a while back. Both end up pretty thin. I read an article a few months back that talked about wiping on the standard poly minwax. It got really high ratings of strength, so I am trying that method. Brushed on the poly to get it on quick, then wiped it for even coverage.

    Seemed to work ok. Will do another coat tonight or in the AM, 3rd coat it, then let it dry 3 or 4 days before sanding and final coat.

    Will post up picks then.


    IMG_1946.jpgIMG_2224.jpgIMG_2245.jpg
    Last edited by kelly holloway; 02-13-2015 at 2:17 PM.

  6. Quick update.... been reading every article I can find on steam bending. Most say to use air dried lumber, a few have said air dried for big bends, but kiln dried is typically ok for slight bends.
    I don't have any air dried quartersawn, so I am going to give it a shot. My wood was kiln dried and picked up from the local mill, so was not dry by any means when I got it. I let it sit for a year stickered and with fan blowing through it, so it is very dry now.

    Got the steamer and the pipe, so might as well give it a shot. Stinks that I am using some of my best figured wood to do this, so if it fails, I have wasted some awesome wood.

  7. #637
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    Kelly, how about a test run with an expendable piece the same size as an arm? I would think that should give you an idea of the behavior of your batch of wood under steam.

    Mike

  8. Did not like the wipe on of the full blooded poly! It left lots of streaks, but did not run as much as brushing usually does! For the protection, I am happy, but my final coat may be regular wipe on poly.

  9. #639
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    So finally some updates with pictures. As I mentioned, I am doing some of the work by hand, including thicknessing. The boards I chose for the ottomans have a lot of reversing grain and they were challenging to get surfaced without tearout. A very sharp blade on my smoother set close to the chipbreaker combined with a light cut is the way to deal with it.

    I have an old #3 I ground with a heavy camber to use as a scrub:

    P1020874.20.jpg P1020882.20.jpg

    Finally the obligatory shot of all the parts. The slats aren't cut out yet but they will come from the small square boards in the foreground. Somewhere around this point I started asking myself why I decided to make two chairs and ottomans. I'm a bit embarrassed at how long it's taken me to get to this point.

    P1020886.20.jpg
    Last edited by Michael Peet; 02-20-2015 at 10:05 PM.

  10. #640
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    Okay, enough of the handwork. Next up I started making mortises in the legs. First I bored out the majority of the wood on the drill press. The new table I made works so much better and faster than my old system of clamping makeshift fences to the stock table. I think I just about wore out my 7/16" bit hogging out these 24 mortises. I kept a block of wax handy for lubing the bit every couple holes.

    P1020893.20.jpg

    Since the mortises go all the way through I decided to try a spiral downcut bit to keep the sides of the mortise clean. The chips would fall through to the floor. Here's the big honkin' bit I used:

    P1020898.20.jpg

    I also made this mortising jig for my router. I gave it a test run when making my girlfriend's Christmas present and ended up making a few small modifications for the leg mortises. It is a bit fiddly with all the knobs and hold-downs and whatnot, but once it's set up it takes only a few seconds to mill out each mortise. The router is fixed to two fences that constrain it side-to-side, and there are two adjustable stops to control the length of the mortise. There are some things I would change on version 2.0, but I am happy with how it works considering I designed it as I was building it.

    P1020895.20.jpg

    The bit wasn't long enough to reach all the way through the leg, so I had to come in from both sides. Keeping the same reference face of each leg against the jig allowed the inside walls to come out smooth. Next I will square them up with chisels, which will prove to be a time-consuming job I am sure.

    P1020894.20.jpg

    Mike

  11. stained

    mike, Great work.... and that is one heck of a router bit. Looks more like a milling bit. I felt bad showing off my slot mortise machine hoping not to upset the purists, so that makes me feel better.


    Got all the steps of the staining done. Very happy now with results. On the doors that I made, the center section came out really light compared to the rail/style. Picture order is confusing, first picture is after, second picture is before.

    I had completely finished the panel before I glued up the door and then stained the door/style. So I went back, sanded it, and used general gelstains to get closer. Ended up two coating, candlelight and java, and was happy with result.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by kelly holloway; 02-22-2015 at 7:18 PM.

  12. #642
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    Looking good Kelly! There are no purists in foxholes, or something like that...

    I finished squaring up my router-cut mortises tonight. Slow going, but I got better the more I did.

    P1020899.20.jpg

    Mike

  13. #643
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    Thanks to the especially long and cold winter the humidity in my basement shop got down below 30%. I decided to take advantage of the dryness and rive out a bunch of drawbore pegs. These have been roughed out at around 1/2" diameter, and right before use I might dry them in the oven a little longer and then bring them down to the final 3/8" with a dowel plate. The pegs can then absorb glue and ambient moisture in the assembly and expand for a nice strong joint for years to come (hopefully).

    P1020900.20.jpg P1020901.20.jpg P1020905.20.jpg P1020906.20.jpg

    I am also making some further progress on the joinery, completing the slat assemblies with mortise and tenons:

    P1020911.20.jpg P1020912.20.jpg

    There is light at the end of the (ottoman) tunnel! Next up is a little final tweaking of the slat joints, then on to cutting the tenons for the rails and stretchers.

    Mike

  14. #644
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    Well I am in the home stretch for the ottomans. I am doing the tenons for the rails and stretchers, and starting to fit up side assemblies. The tenons were cut on a Delta tenoning jig for the tablesaw. I bought the jig for this project and so far it has worked pretty well, faster than my old method of making tenons on the bandsaw and cleaning up with planes.

    P1020913.20.jpg

    Fitting the site assemblies is quite challenging for me, especially since the slats go into mortises instead of a dado as called for in the plans. This means the 4 rail tenons must fit with no gaps on the outside poke-throughs, while simultaneously the slat tenons need to fit tight up against the rails. They are deceptively simple-looking.

    Just taking it slow, checking for fit early and often. Two sides down now, two to go. I'm trying not to think about the chairs with 7 slats on each side...

    P1020914.20.jpg

    After this, fitting the stretchers is the only major joinery task remaining.

    Mike

  15. #645
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Rochester, NY
    Posts
    681
    My side assemblies are "done". Maybe a little fine-tuning left but for the most part I think I am ready to move on to the stretchers. The joints are not that pretty on the inside, but the outsides look okay. They are all a pretty snug fit, and seeing that it's still kind of dry in the shop I am not sure how much to loosen them up so they don't explode in the summer.

    P1020915.20.jpg P1020919.20.jpg

    Mike

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