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Thread: The Great Morris Chair project

  1. #91
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    Windsor, ON
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    3

    starting my legs in the morning

    Good Day All,
    This week's heat wave has my loft shop over 100F and quite sticky.
    I did find some early morning shoptime, and experimented with a new-to-me 4pc leg. (link)
    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=89240

    My sample worked out fine, but proved fussy and time consuming. I am not
    sure which approach I will use when I start my chair legs early tomorrow morning.(?)
    I find Gary's legs to be very attractive and doable. I have until morning to figure myself out.

    Nathan, I dug around in my shop and found my first try at through mortises
    in white oak. I suffered nasty scalloping, as shown here. (tried to embed pics here, but they are at bottom)

    I found that sharpening of both the hollow chisel and auger bit is crucial.
    But, for me, the solution was to NOT leave a gap to drop the bit relative to chisel tip.
    That advice is everywhere, but proved to harm, not help my efforts. If the bit extends too far,
    it can engage the stock too soon... and also be horsed around from side to side.
    Merely seating the auger bit and chisel fully, solved it for me. (!?)

    I was honing the outside chisel flats on my waterstones, but that is wet
    and messy. I now do the same with folding diamond hones from LV,
    in 600x and 1200x. Quick, dry and tidy---but bonus, I can do it while the chisel is mounted in the mortiser. (link to LV diamond hone)
    http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...08&cat=1,43072

    Inside the chisel I tune up with the fine and coarse cones as shown.
    GZ's drillpress rig looks slick. I get by with softwood faces on vise to hold
    her steady, and cones slowly in a VSR drill. Back to diamond to remove wire edge.

    I use the auger file to deburr chip ejection port. It only cuts either on face, or edge---but not both at once, so no collateral damage!
    The auger I also file the cutting flute, the scoring bevel and clean the points. I learned to hand sharpen twist drills on bench grinder in machine
    shop as a kid. I am timid to power grind the auger, and find the hand file
    works fine and not too aggressively. (your mileage may vary)

    I am gonna try to get into my shop before my busy day, to beat the heat and get some bonus time to start building my chair.
    In the original invitation post I had projected a July start.
    If I can get something cooking in some very early mornings, I should be able to have my legs done just before July ends. (sneaking under the wire)
    I will post any progress,
    Walt
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Walt Caza; 07-30-2008 at 4:13 PM.
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  2. #92
    Join Date
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    woke the rooster and broke the ice.....

    Hi Everyone,
    I was in my shop darn early and finally got started. I was hoping to begin in July...
    but never bargained for July 31st! (whew, just squeaked by)

    I decided to try Gary's thin veneer approach. The legs he posted here look great.
    I was planning to resaw veneers by bandsaw, but GZ steered me toward tablesaw.
    First, I had to whip up a quick and tight zero clearance solution. (link)
    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=89329

    From each 5/4" blank I was able to get 4 good sheets. The blank was jointed after
    each slice to provide one glue-ready side per sheet.
    My caps are 2 and 3/8" wide, giving lots of grace for glueing to leg cores.
    I am not yet sure how I will trim them flush(?), but I have lots of ideas!

    pics are:
    -rough lumber for otto leg cores, and choice veneers to right---
    then chair leg cores and choice veneers to right

    -4 leg cores plus a spare (used up some light sapwood, for storystick and tests)

    -I planned out which faces go where on chair, and marked with triangle

    -the blank and 4 homemade veneers, slip matched and 3/32" thick
    (interesting how rays show or not by changing light and position)

    -Gary told me by pm, 'use lots of clamps, lots'. I'd like to think I did!
    (I hope he finds this amusing...)

    Thanks to GZ for helpful tips on his leg approach. I enjoyed how he told me that
    he learned to match grain across spindles from me.
    Now I am learning his leg technique, and see value added again.
    Sharing this project is working out great!
    be well,
    Walt
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Walt Caza; 07-31-2008 at 9:20 PM.
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  3. #93
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    raw legs ready for clean up (pic)

    Hi All,
    I was able to get 4 chair legs plus a spare glued up.
    Also 4 ottoman legs plus a spare. The spare will be used as storyboard
    and also set-up and test cuts. There is nothing like a scrap of the exact
    same dimensions for centering mortises. Also for re-checking layout
    before committing on actual parts.

    Once you have selected what grain you want to put where,
    you wanna avoid scrapping anything.
    My veneers were mounted so adjacent leg faces will match.
    The spare could be used as a backup leg, in case of trouble...
    but that would eliminate my matched leg faces.

    With 3 long and deep mortises right through each hardwood leg,
    there is always a chance you may end up with tear-out.
    The spares were made from less appealling light sapwood, which was
    just gonna clog my shop with more scraps.
    Among the long list of shop dangers, there is also the risk you may
    drown in off-cuts!

    Now I need to trim the caps to the legs and clean them up.
    And last crosscut the sets to final length.
    take care,
    Walt
    Attached Images Attached Images
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  4. #94
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Stony Plain, Alberta
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    Walt

    Now thats a lot of clamps... Who said we can have too many!

  5. #95
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    Mar 2007
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    Stony Plain, Alberta
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    More Pieces to the Puzzle

    Good Day to the Creek!

    Here are a few more pieces to my ottoman puzzle.

    Morris chair and ottoman 017.jpg Morris chair and ottoman 018.jpg

    These are the rails and strechers for one of the ottomans, legs are done, and side slats ready to be stained.

    Morris chair and ottoman 021.jpg

    Next will be to put the grooves in the rails and clean up the machine marks on the edges with a hand plane.With a little luck I will be able to post a pic of a side all put together at the end of the weekend. It's a long weekend up here for us so I will have an extra day for a little extra shop time. Will keep my fingers crossed...
    Last edited by gary Zimmel; 08-03-2008 at 12:45 AM.

  6. #96
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
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    Stony Plain, Alberta
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    Little Fillers

    As I get closer to putting the first side together I took the time to start making the fillers that go between the slats.

    I have alterd from the plan just a bit and have desided to put 1/8" chamfers on the filler pieces.

    Morris chair and ottoman 123.jpg

    Because the pieces are so small I find it easier and safer to do these by hand. I first shoot one end to make sure that I have a perfect edge.


    Morris chair and ottoman 124.jpg Morris chair and ottoman 125.jpg

    Instead of measuring each one of the pieces, I just set my titemark to 1 1/4" and scribe a line.

    Morris chair and ottoman 126.jpg

  7. #97
    Join Date
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    Stony Plain, Alberta
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    Little Fillers

    A quick cut and a little clean up and on to the next one.

    Morris chair and ottoman 129.jpg Morris chair and ottoman 128.jpg


    Quick and easy. And above all safe. I don't like getting my fingers that close to the flesh eating blades.

    Morris chair and ottoman 130.jpg

    The end fillers will be custom fit when the side is together.

  8. #98
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    Stanwood, WA
    Posts
    3,059
    Walt and Gary,
    Canada seems to be leading the way. I hope I won't disappoint.

    All,
    Progress continues with the landscape. We are waiting on the sprinkler install to get the sod in and the remainder of the landscape material. On of the things I had to do anyway was a garden cubby which cured my jones for some woodworking. Nothing special as it is meant to look rustic.

    The whole time I work on it though, the stack of QSWO haunted me. I truly can't way to get started. I may go ahead and start the surfacing work when the wife isn't looking this week.

    I am the only one that is behind? There are quite a few of us in he build but I regularly see posts from Nathan, Gary, and Walt. I will be glad if I am not the only one who has a setback right out of the starting gate
    Dewey

    "Everything is better with Inlay or Marquetry!"


  9. #99
    Join Date
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    Windsor, ON
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    Lightbulb solution to shuffled posts

    Good Day to the Creek,
    Now that this thread is growing larger, it has become unwieldy.
    To view the posts in chronological order, may we suggest using the
    Linear display mode...

    To do this, select any Creek thread. Now, in the upper right-hand corner,
    on the 7th line down, you will see display options.
    This allows you to switch between the 3 possibilities.
    To avoid buried posts, and shuffled order... simply select Linear display mode.

    You can also select it as your default under your User CP.
    I also like to set it to view the freshest posts first, so I do not have to
    navigate through older posts.
    This will put the buried posts issue to rest. (link to Lumberyard thread)
    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=88371
    Thanks,
    Walt
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  10. #100
    Join Date
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    slat changes, and my efforts...

    Hello All,
    The demands and distractions of summer are competing for our time and energy.
    I found some shop time and started working on my slats.
    The side frames are the most complex assemblies of our Morris chair.
    Anytime I have parts, captured by other parts, I do them first.
    Otherwise, trying to precisely fit them in between later is tricky.
    To remember this, I call it working into 'the pinch'.
    [and avoid it] DAMHIKT!

    Also, I am a tenons first man. This is accomplished by making a keeper sample block
    with a long mortise of the desired width. (determined by hm chisel)
    I bring the sample mortise block to the tablesaw to determine correct tenon width for my hollow mortiser chisel.
    I keep these blocks with my mortiser for future work.

    The old hands often say to use actual pcs for layout, over measuring, where possible.
    Having the actual tenons on an actual rail, makes layout of the mortise
    length and postion quick and accurate.

    So, to build my side frames, I first need slats and rails with tenons.
    Gary and I have decided to first try increasing all slats to 1/2" thickness.
    Also, the side slats we are starting wider at 1.5 inches, while keeping the
    wide center slat at 4.25".

    I was hoping to get a pleasing match for my highly visible side slat galleries.

    pics are:
    -started with a 4 foot slab of oak with promising grain
    -note the vertical endgrain indicates Quartersawn
    -jointing (for bandsaw resaw) revealed ray fleck
    My attempts to Z match, as I referred to much earlier in this thread.
    The pencil letters indicate bookmatches. (they were touching in board)
    As you can see in the pics:
    -The A bookmatch is barely ok, and the back of the center, is bookmatched
    to B.
    -The B bookmatch is also unappealling, the back of the center matches A.

    I took 3 blanks of 16" from slab, and resawed into 5/8" thick pcs,
    jointing one side each time to go against bandsaw fence.
    While I am glad I tried, I will not be using these for chair.
    I will make a box with them later, or drawer.
    (spendy lesson, but how else can we get them?)

    continued
    Attached Images Attached Images
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  11. #101
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    slat adventures... (contd)

    Hopefully, half inch thick slats will prove more stable over time.
    I next decided to resaw some 5/4" oak for my slats.
    The actual rough stock was 1 plus 3/8".
    Jointing, and bandsaw resawing yielded a 5/8" bookmatched pair.

    But not enough oak to make the slat gallery.
    The center slat is 4.25" wide, and is flanked on both sides by
    3 slats of 1.5". (plans called for 1.25, but trying wider first)

    So I needed net 4.25 +4.5 +4.5 =13.25 of total slat width.

    Since my Z match attempt, and triple slip match effort were ugly,
    I tried a pair of 5/4" blanks taken as neighbours out of board.
    Also, to make near-match less conspicuous, I was seeking toned down
    grain.

    pics are:
    -the 3pc slip match from 8/4" board (no good)
    -those 3 triples had a split fault, and I pulled them apart by hand
    -the 5/4" resaw looked ok
    -slat gallery cooperates nicely (neighbour grain match?)
    -14 side slats - stacked and stickered

    So, pretty grain on the surface of thick stock is no clue to what lies beneath.
    And 5/8" layers are too far apart to provide enough grain similarities to be called a match.
    If you wanna make an omelet, ya gotta break some eggs.

    And lastly, resawn neighbour blanks solved my seeking.
    Walt
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by Walt Caza; 08-08-2008 at 7:30 AM.
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  12. #102
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Stony Plain, Alberta
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    Walt

    With the amount of wood the two of us are "setting aside" we will be able to build one more chair....

    Slats are looking good. Thanks for the post.

  13. #103
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    It's Comming Together!

    Good Day to the Creek!

    Well it is finally comming together. It's closing in on one month from my start date to getting to putting a side together. All in all I am pretty happy on how everything is shaping up.

    Here are some shots of the first side that is together. These little things are real chunky. The slats were made from a single piece so we have grain match. (thanks Walt)


    Morris chair and ottoman 023.jpg Morris chair and ottoman 024.jpg



    Morris chair and ottoman 026.jpg Morris chair and ottoman 028.jpg


    As the side was going together the LOML said she wanted some buttons, so there are a few buttons that were added. Jury is still out for me, but she likes them and thats all that counts. Happy spouses mean more tools... I pre stained the slats so final staining will be a tad easier. (don't have to watch for runs on the slat cut outs)

    Just a few more steps and the ottomans will be ready for staining.

    Hope everyone at the Creek has a great weekend and a little shop time!
    Last edited by gary Zimmel; 08-08-2008 at 11:54 PM.

  14. #104
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    side frame parts...

    Hi Everyone,
    I got some shop time last weekend, and now have the legs, slats, rails and
    stretchers I require for my tenons first approach to building side frames.

    My lumber included a pair of brutal bananas. This 9 foot banana had a 2.5 inch crook.
    I did not have my camera, but the one I took my stretchers from, had more than a 4" crook!
    My neighbour complained that I 'got ripped off', but I knew better...
    9-foot-banana.jpg

    I put the wicked crooked board under the sun, where it just barely revealed some fantastic grain.
    I chose a pair of 3 foot sections for my chair front and back stretchers.
    I drew pencil lines along the rays to help spot them under the rough, helping me find center of my prized pattern.
    I had to bandsaw some grain correction.
    grain-correction.jpg

    The resulting sunburst pattern might look good in my finished chair. (fingers crossed)
    It is difficult to decide which of the pair will become front stretcher. (?)
    (tempting to wipe some stain on them for a sneak preview)
    front-and-back-stretchers.jpg

    I am surprised we do not hear more complaining about sawdust.
    Since I had just emptied my cyclone, I opened up the loft, blasted my
    big push/pull fans and dressed the stock so far, just letting the chips fly.
    I find the floor quick and easy to clear of these piles.
    From an empty garbage can, I stuffed 2 garbage bags chock full from the
    jointer (ribbons), and 2 more from the planer (Byrd turds).
    2-bags-from-jointer.jpg 2-bags-from-planer.jpg

    I prefer to start my next workshop session with a clean, safe floor.
    I do not always have the energy and motivation to pull it off, though!

    continued...
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

  15. #105
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    ready to mortise side frames

    As I said, to make tenons before mortises, you need to make and keep a
    sample block for each of your mortise chisels, including hollow chisels for mortiser.
    This block has 1/2" and 3/8" mortises for comparison.
    My pet sanding block has a slit to receive a full sheet of sandpaper.
    mortise-sample-and-pet.jpg

    Then you make all the related parts, and tenon them too.
    Tenon thickness is checked against the sample of an actual mortise.
    The clamped corner had some grain open a gap, I hope it holds closed,
    because my parts are chosen to match.
    4-rails-and-2-stretchers.jpg

    I have a General tenon jig for the tablesaw. However, I have grown fond of
    using my crosscut sled, and a stop block for tenons.
    The blade exposure was very small on this operation. (less risk)
    If my machining is careful, I do not bring out my shoulder plane.
    As you can see, I buy the spendy toys, but get great mileage from homemade shop helpers too!
    cutting-tenons-on-sled.jpg

    While it is not nearly as slick as Gary's hotdog grip LN miter plane on a shooting board,
    I clean up my tenons with homemade 80grit sandpaper glued to strips,
    and a simple benchhook. Any machine then serves as my bench...
    I promised myself no more projects, until I build a proper bench...(ya right)
    bench-hook-and-sanding-stri.jpg

    Now I have all the needed parts for my side frames. Next shop time,
    I will layout my mortises with the actual parts and tenons.
    The yellow dot shows where I left the tenon wide to poke thru to the front.
    (more balanced than original plans, which accomodate slat groove by offsetting the tenon)
    The back cannot be similarly modified, due to the stretcher position.
    The back stretcher sits lower, due to seat slant.
    side-frame-parts.jpg

    This is my first attempt to embed pics into the text.
    After I get a look at how it comes out, I will decide if I will embed pics in the future.
    Thanks to GZ for the embedding lesson.
    And thanks for looking,
    Walt
    Last edited by Walt Caza; 08-12-2008 at 7:06 PM.
    There are no shortcuts to anywhere worth going! WCC

    Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind - Dr. Seuss

    Crohn's takes guts. WCC

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