The Woodworker & Woodturner – August 2019

PROJECT

56 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking August 2019 http://www.getwoodworking.com

Oak kitchen bar chairs

My woodworker friend was surprised I was
attempting to make chairs, which does require
the matching of a lot of angles, and I think
he had visions of my ending up with unequal
legs and a rocky future – o he of little faith!

Setting out the joints
Once everything was measured (at least twice)
and cut to size, the first step was to mark out the
location of the joints (photo 4). My woodworking
friend assumed I would be cutting proper mortise
& tenons but they leave little room for error. My
Festool Domino jointer is an amazing machine
for the amateur and does give some wiggle
room (photos 5, 6 & 7 ).
I was determined not to hurry making these
chairs and to produce them one at a time. I had
decided to attach the seats by screws through
the 70mm cross struts to give some mechanical
security and drilled and countersunk the holes
before gluing. The next step was to glue the back
uprights and three cross struts. I have always
successfully used waterproof PVA glue and
despite the availability of more sophisticated
adhesive, continue to do so. Fortunately I am

not short of try squares as each angle has

to be checked at the same time as the back

is clamped. Once dry, the same was done

with the front legs and to ensure alignment,

the front leg frame was clamped to the rear to

check alignment before final clamping (photo 8).

Lots of angles

The trickiest part of the whole project was

joining the front legs to the rear and ensuring

all 16 angles were 90° and cross struts level

with each other – not for the faint-hearted.

The chair was clamped together to ensure

everything lined up and adjustments made

(photo 9). The wiggle room provided by the

Domino jointers was helpful here. Once everything

lined up, the final gluing took place and the chair

clamped. When clamping, I always protect the

piece with offcuts, which are sometimes difficult

to manipulate. It occurred to me that a little

double-sided tape could be used to stick the

offcuts to the clamp, thus solving the problem

(photos 10 & 11 ). The project now actually

looked like a chair, which was comforting,

leaving only the seat to be added.

Adding the seat

The window board was cut approximately to

size and two pieces joined back to back, this time

using a Makita biscuit jointer, which uses nice

wide biscuits. Because of the bull-nose front and

rear, great care had to be taken over the clamping

(photos 12 & 13 ). Once the glue was dry, the seat

was sanded both sides with my excellent Makita

orbital sander. I have finally acquired an adaptor

to attach the dust extractor, which makes such

a difference both to the air quality and also the

life of the backing pads as build-up of sawdust

tends to affect the adhesion of the sanding

sheets (photo 14). I have discovered Mirka

sanding sheets, which are net based and allow

the dust to be extracted all over and not just

through eight small holes. They are also

effective and long lasting (photo 15).

12 The Makita biscuit jointer

4 Marking out joints 5 Festool Domino jointer 6 Mortises cut by jointer

8 The front legs are clamped to the rear to ensure

alignment

7 Domino tenons

10 Sticking offcuts... 11 ... to clamps

9 Checking angle alignment