[TwoSkies57]

Charles, 6 of one, half dozen of the other. I used a 1/2" x 2" coarse burr with the 1/4" die grinder. The burr worked very nicely. Removed the wood quickly and for the most part evenly. You can actually achieve a relatively smooth finish by using a light hand, even with the coarse burrs.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Sanding muscles

Not much in the way of pictures to offer for today's efforts. It was basically get up, go get my coffee and donuts and come back home and start filing and sanding. What I am finding interesting and to be honest, kind of enjoyable is working with something other than right angles. Sanding and filing all of these curves and sweeps and so on has been the learning curve on this project. I'd assume like most, we've all done curved worked before as 'part' of a project. But when the project itself is pretty much one big curve, it takes on a whole new light. Which rasp to start out with, which one to finish with, which sandpaper grit, sponge pads, hard rubber pads, riflers, burrs and grinding wheels...one could easily build an arsenal of sanding tools alone. Each with distinctive and specific task. Learning how to get from point A to point B while shaping continues to be a surprising experience. I will say this, I'll never look at another piece of "sculpted" wood work the same.....

Pic 273: The crest looks kind of "flat in this pic, but trust me, it does have a nice gentle curve to it. Joints all turned out nice and tight. At this point, the crest was sanded down to 220...and the curly cherry is becoming much more prominent.

Pic 275: Shot of the back left of the crest. The horns are kind of uneventfull at this point. I may have to do something with them, what exactly, I dunno..

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

Nice job of matching the curves on the bottom of the crest. What is it that's bothering you about the horns?

 

[TwoSkies57]

Charles... Its kind of like what bothered me with the armrests. Maloof's rockers call for a armrest that is somewhat sharply angled side to side, front to back the armrests are gently curved and fit the theme well. I went with a more rounded over armrest, just cuz thats what I like. Even the tips of the rockers themselves are rounded over. I think its the fact that the two horns come to a 'point'...yet, I think rounding the tips over more would not look good at all.
Probably just over thinking it, which I do alot at times...

 

[TwoSkies57]

Rockers and legs

Fine turning the look of the rockers was a breeze. A good sharp flat spokeshave takes care of 90% of the work. Rasps do the rest. Again, another area of the build where you can do whatever floats your boat. The bottoms of the rockers I left alone. I like the idea of a good size flat for the rocker to rock on. I also think this gives the rocker a bit more lateral stability? Don't know that to be a fact, but works for me...
The tops I tapered a good bit to take advantage of the laminate buildup. Starting out slowly and then working into a groove, the rockers shaped up in no time. I just love the sound of a sharp iron cutting thru the wood. Curly little shavings all over the floor. Ahhh ya gotta love it Using the maple portion of the laminate as a reference, it wasn't hard to keep both sides balanced
I shaved the back tips down to a nice taper and rounded off the ends. A nice clean look. Visually, this is or can be a very important part of the build. I was pleasantly taken aback by just how much of an impact the rockers have on the over all look. The wife came down to see how things were going and first thing she said was "Wow".."that really looks nice. And you all know when the wife approves, your in good shape...*L* I shaved off as much as I could for now. The remainder will be cleaned up as part of the shaping of the risers.

Next was to set the chair to the rockers. This part of the build is perhaps the most demanding in terms of having to get it right. There isn't much room for OOOPPPSS.
First off, I'm setting the rocker back further than plans dictate by 1". I'm doing this to get more of the laminate to pop on the front tips. Not a big deal.. just another personnel preference thing. Setting the rocker atop of the rockers can be a little trickly. You just got to be careful to not tip the rocker. At this point, the rocker has a bit of weight to it. You also want to do this part of the assembly on a "flat" surface. Since my workbench is anything but flat it pays to have a nice sized piece of MDF sitting around. Usually I'd use my router table as an assembly table, but the rocker sits too high.
Long story short, put the MDF on the workbench, laid out the rockers and got the chair atop of them. I then ran a piece of wood overtop of the rockers to secure then down. Got the chair positioned where I want her and laid out a few lines. Laying out the position of the leg is important. In doing so, you can then take the rockers back to the vise or the bandsaw and remove most of the waste from the risers as needed.
Next is to get the legs to sit flush atop of the risers. The front legs had about a 1/8" gap on the back side and the back legs had a little less than 3/32" gap in the front/sides. Now at this point you could take a scribe and mark out each leg to riser joint, remove the chair and clean things up like that. Or you can take a piece of low grit sandpaper (preferably cloth backed, which I didn't have any of), place the sandpaper face up between the leg and the rise, and pull the sand paper thru. By doing this repeatedly, you sand down the leg and eventually end up with a perfect fit. Keeping in mind, that while you are doing this, to pull downwards on the sandpaper as you pull it thru. Otherwise, you'll crown the bottom of the leg. 15 minutes or so with each front leg and I was walkin' in tall cotton. This little sand paper trick worked beautifully. I'll do the same with the back legs, then go over all 4 once more just to tweak things out.

Pic 276: Rear tips of the rockers. Rocker on the right is done. This is the beauty of doing laminate work. Now, with this maple showing as it does, it helps pull in the maple from the armrests a little.. not much. .but a little...

Pic 277: Side view of the rear tips

Pic 278: Rear tips again.. a little finish work and these ought to pop nicely.

Pic 279: Beginning the laying out of the legs to the rocker/risers. Take time here and get it right. By laying out now, you can remove the rockers to the bench or band saw and remove most of the riser waste ahead of mounting permanently.

Pic 280: Laying out the rear leg. The angle of the legs to the risers is a bit skewed by design. Shaping of the leg/riser joint should (?) take care of any visual issues...

Pic 281: By placing a piece of sand paper face up, under the leg, then repeatedly pulling the sand paper thru the joint, you get a flush joint. Sweet!!! I came across this idea doing research work on this build and couldn't wait to give it a try. Dang if it didn't work ;0

Pic 282: This pic gives you an idea of the gap in the back of the front legs. About a full 1/8".

Pic 283: This is the joint after doing the sand paper trick. I'll do this to all four legs, then go back and do them once more for a fine tuning. Changing the mounting angles on the back legs will change the angles on the front legs by just a hair. Might as well take a few extra minutes and do them again and move on from there..

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

Or you can take a piece of low grit sandpaper (preferably cloth backed, which I didn't have any of), place the sandpaper face up between the leg and the rise, and pull the sand paper thru.

At one place I worked we took sanding belts and cut them up and glued them to mdf for sanding blocks. They last a long time and the belts are cheap. For your applicationI would sandwich the end of the belt between two pieces of wood to grip on. If I try to hang on to something thin like sand paper for too long my hands start cramping up. I've used a similar method for leveling out chair legs where I glued sandpaper onto a piece of mdf and pushed the chair back and forth until all the legs sat flat. Crude but it works.

Gluing contrasting wood into the rocker and using it for a visual reference is a good idea. Did you plan it that way?

 

[jw2170]

Keep going, Bill. You're nearly there......VBG

 

[TwoSkies57]

At one place I worked we took sanding belts and cut them up and glued them to mdf for sanding blocks. They last a long time and the belts are cheap. For your applicationI would sandwich the end of the belt between two pieces of wood to grip on. If I try to hang on to something thin like sand paper for too long my hands start cramping up. I've used a similar method for leveling out chair legs where I glued sandpaper onto a piece of mdf and pushed the chair back and forth until all the legs sat flat. Crude but it works.

Gluing contrasting wood into the rocker and using it for a visual reference is a good idea. Did you plan it that way?

Charles... I've done the MDF thing before with great success however since the risers on the rockers are curved MDF was out of the question. I did think of trying a very thin piece of veneer, that might have worked ok. But I just went with 80grit sand paper. The paper turned out to be heavy enough that tearing was not an issue. In the YouTube video and old sanding belt with cloth backing is suggested.

I did plan out the contrasting woods ahead of time, but only for the effect that they would provide. Using them as a reference when shaping turned out to be a nice bonus. Even if the laminates were of a similar wood, the glue lines would provide a reference point as well.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Keep going, Bill. You're nearly there......VBG

James, I have a little under two weeks to finish her up. However, If she runs long, then so be it. I"m not going to hurry things up and take a chance of screwing something up. If its a couple days late, its a couple days late.

I figure 3-4 hrs. of shaping is left, then a good 4-5 hrs of sanding then a week to apply the finish... We're nearing the home stretch..

 

[TwoSkies57]

Mounting the rockers

Today was pretty much spent getting the rockers mounted to the chair. I had previously spent a good bit of time getting everything lined up the way wanted. So all that was left to do was to mark the two front leg locations for the dowels and dowel the two back legs.
I used a couple of 1/2" dowel centers to locate the position of the dowel on the rockers. Once this was established, I drew a center line down the side of front leg thru the side of the rocker. This gave me a good reference point from which to drill the riser out a good 1 1/4". It all sounds easy enough and for the most part it is. However, get it wrong and the leg will not mount flush to the riser. Once my drill line was laid out, I clamped down the front of the rocker and to my surprise, the drill line was almost perfectly straight up and down which made drilling alot easier. I chucked up a 1/2" bit and drilled out the riser. Then I grabbed the 2 2 1/4" dowels and proceed to do a dry fit. Darn if everything wasnt spot on. *WHEW*...
I'd like to apologize for not having any pics of all of this, but honestly, I was too busy to even give it a thought. by the time I realized I hadn't taken any photo's, it was too late.
Once I knew the front dowels were going to work, I decided to go with a 5 minute epoxy instead of the 24hr. stuff. Since the dowels dictated where the front legs were going to go and the back legs were just going to sit on the riser for now, I mixed up a batch of epoxy and glued one side up at a time. Doing the front legs first, getting the dowels seated and then clamped loosely. I quicky then spread some epoxy over the top of the corresponding rear riser and sat the back leg on top. Firmly clamped down the front leg, then tweaked the back leg into position and clamped her down tight. I let everything sit for an hour and she's rock solid. I still need to drill 1/2" dowels into the back legs which I"ll do tomorrow. Honestly, I was in too big a hurry to see what the front riser/leg joint looked like once shaped. you can judge for yourselves.

Pic 284: RR leg/riser joint epoxied in postion. A 4-5" 1/2" dowel remains to be drilled and glued into place. I tried not making too much of a mess with the epoxy and ending up making more of a mess while trying to clean up the excess.

Pic 285: LR leg/riser joint. The front of the joint has been roughed in with the grinding wheel. the back of the joint has been roughed in with the grinding wheel and then touched up with grinding burrs. I've concluded that the grinding burrs and not necessarily that much faster than a rasp when it comes to removing material. They are however much, much more controllable.

Pic 286: The LF leg joint. This joint has been sanded down to 150 for now and doesn't look half bad.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Rocker to leg dowels

Last few days have been spent knocking out some odds and ends. 4 walnut plugs on each side of the upper arm to crest joints have been installed. Alot of time sanding and spending time on the shaping of the rocker/riser to leg joints. With a little bit of luck, I"ll be starting the finish schedule this weekend.
Build wise, both rear legs sit atop the rear risers mounted on the rockers. Once mounted a 1/2" hole is drilled up thru the rocker, thru the riser and into the bottoms of the rear legs. I believe this serves two purposes. 1st and foremost it reenforces the joint itself and 2ndly I believe it also adds additional strength to the leg itself. Keeping this in mind, I choose some very straight grained walnut dowels I had on hand.
Drilling the holes isn't terribly difficult, you just got to make certain to drill thru the center of the rocker/rise and into the center of the bottom of the leg. If your off by a couple of degrees you got a mess on your hands and a great deal of work fixin things up. I used epoxy as the adhesive. Once the epoxy had set up, the rest was easy/peasy, flush cut sawed off the ends of the dowels and did a little sanding. Did the same with the walnut dowels on the back leg to crest joints. The walnut provides a nice little contrast with the cherry.
One riser left to shape, a little finish work on the front lip of the seat and the rest is sanding in prep for finish....

life is good

Pic 287: 1/2" hole drilled and walnut dowels installed into the bottom of the rocker/riser to leg joint.

Pic 288: After setup, flush cut saw and a little sanding is all it takes.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Finished up the risers this evening and started tweaking the front lip on the seat. A couple little blems to take care of and surprisingly, not as much sanding as I had thought. I suppose that my efforts to get as much of the sanding done prior to assembly is going to pay off.
One issue I do have is that it appears that I have something of a flat spot on the rockers. Nothing you'd notice on a carpet, but on a hardwood floor, you can feel the "bump"......I took a quick look and couldn't see anything, couldn't feel anything either. So I tried a couple different locations. Same bump, same spot on the rockers..ahh well, if this is the biggest problem I run into, I can't complain..

 

[denniswoody]

I'm looking forward to a pic or two of the finished rocker before you start finishing.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Dennis...

I'll take several for ya tomorrow and get them posted tomorrow night.. I gotta say, she don't look to bad Where I've wet the rocker down so far,,its been a deep rich color. I'm going to be curious to see how the top of the crest looks. I purposely used a piece of wood with about 1 1/2" worth of sap wood and place the sap wood at the very top.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Assembled and ready for final sanding....

Here are just a couple of pictures of the rocker as she stands now. Completely assembled, 99% of the shaping is completed. Next couple of days will be spent sanding and preparing for the finish. Going to go with a poly/oil blend in a satin.
I got the 'bump' out of the rockers by block sanding the bottoms. I put her on a 3/4" sheet of MDF and she's smooth as silk now.

Pics 289 thru 292: These are just the rocker as she sits now.

 

[denniswoody]

A work of art - you should be very proud of this chair. The pics have a blue cast when opened, but clicking on the Actual Size option fixes that.

 

[TwoSkies57]

Thank you Dennis.. your too kind.. Its been work alright
It'll all come down to the finish. If I get that right, I think we'll have a winner, if not............I don't even wanna go there.

Decided to go with a poly/oil blend of 3-4 coats followed with a oil/wax blend 2-3 coats. 24hr. rest between coats. I think that'll be the best way to pop the grain and still give the rocker a durable top coat.

 

[jw2170]

I'll have one when you finish that one........VBG...

 

[TwoSkies57]

I'll have one when you finish that one........VBG...

Certainly James, do you have a wood preference?

 

[denniswoody]

Hey let's get a group of members together and go for a quantity discount!