1138 38
A little off the top. An angled wedge sliced off
the end of the arm forms the bend.Get to the bottom. The wedge is glued to the
underside of the arm, smooth face to smooth face.Smooth it over. Planing out the band saw
marks leaves a smooth surface on the top and
bottom of the arm.Nothing to see here. The glue line should
disappear because the grain and color are the
same in both pieces.Can’t miss. Balance the arm on the base assembly
and mark the location of both the front and back
tenons without moving the arm.Follow around. An adjustable bevel transfers
the layout lines for the angled mortise from the
top of the arm to the bottom.and bottom face of the arm. The procedure was roughly the same
for the back tenon, except that I used an adjustable bevel to carry
the lines over the edges.
When the chair is finished, the arm extends^1 ⁄ 4 " past the leg
on the inside. I measured from the side of the leg to the cheek
of the tenon, added the^1 ⁄ 4 " and marked the side of the mor-
tise on the upper and lower faces of the arm. I then measured
the tenon width and marked that distance on the face of the
arm for the second edge of the
mortise.
An accurate layout is half the
battle so I stepped back and
double-checked my lines before
cutting. I removed most of
the waste inside the lines with
a^3 ⁄ 4 " Forstner bit at the drill
press. For the front mortises, I
placed a block of wood below
the arm to support the horizontal end level while drilling.
At the back of the arm, I cut a wedge from a scrap of^8 ⁄ 4
material to support the arm while drilling to keep the front and
back edges of the mortises plumb. I used this same wedge to
support the arm on the bench as I pared the mortise walls back
to the layout lines.
I worked carefully and checked frequently to avoid over-cut-
ting the mortises. It isn’t possible to check the fit of the tenons
one at a time. As with the through-tenons connecting the rails
and legs, I beveled the ends of the tenons and hidden edges
of the mortises before fitting, and used pencil marks on the
tenons to locate any high spots.
When I had a good fit, I marked the top edge of the arms
on the leg tenons, then removed the arms and rounded over
the exposed ends of the tenons with a block plane and rasp.
Before permanently attaching the arms, I drilled a series of
(^5) ⁄ 8 "-diameter holes on the inside back edges for the support
pins.
Back in a Week
While waiting for the glue to dry on the base assemblies, I
made the curved back slats. I built a form from four layers of
(^3) ⁄ 4 "-thick particle board cut to a 36" radius. I cut the curve on
the first layer at the band saw, then smoothed the edge. The
remaining edges were cut oversize, and each layer was added
to the stack, then trimmed to the previous layer with a flush-
cutting router bit.
Each slat consists of six^1 ⁄ 8 "-thick layers. I marked a triangle
on the edge of the slat blanks to keep the pieces in order,
and made the cuts on the band saw. With a decent saw cut,
the laminations can be glued without any further smoothing.
Supplies
Tools for Working Wood
toolsforworkingwood.com |
800-426-4613
X Aniline dye, Fumed Oak
(#94) 1 oz., $7.49
Price correct at time of publication.
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