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Dining chairs


Jamie

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1 hour ago, Jamie said:

Overall I made 23 leg blanks to get the final 16. 

Well if they all come out okay you could make to extra chairs for when you have a big crowd over or you will also have grandkids at the table someday.?

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"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;  remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." - Epicurus

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Got to work tonight cutting the mortises. FE6528C1-58D9-497C-8D0D-0ACC43CE3C7B.thumb.jpeg.19d4f048987483e7b2da228a9bb41c16.jpeg

Started with the mortise on the back leg that attaches the side seat rail. Had to make a template to support the back leg. Template has a couple marks on it to line it up with the cress rail mortise which made for a pretty easy process. Just had to carry the line around the template to work for both the left and right legs. 
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To mortise the front legs which have a bevel cut, I made a wedge to bring the face square to the chisel. BE51DB59-6279-4A76-9CB0-EC58C8B6C470.thumb.jpeg.01e892d7ee25a3bf0334adb2e02050fa.jpeg

All hell broke free about half way through the front legs. The depth stop on the rikon was moving a little on me which wasn’t a big deal till I tried to snug it up some. 1D567454-5FFE-4296-81E1-7274ED756F6A.thumb.jpeg.6f08978bde5fd03f7ea3c40804b822a0.jpeg

Ended up stripping out the screw. Thought I was done till I got parts to fix it but got looking at it and took the stop off of the side movement stops. Was the same size rod so fit perfectly. B0756F00-FF3C-4319-AE54-656A98D6077A.thumb.jpeg.7edf490b3db558772470142d3c23e398.jpeg

The smaller stop actually works better than the factory depth stop. Does not move at all. The factory one with its long arm seemed to have quite a bit of flex in it. The whole that goes on the rod is to big for the rod along with a small set screw holding it gave it some slop. One tip I learned from epic woodworking is to cut a spacer to set the depth of the mortise machine. Just set the bit and chisels down on your piece before cutting and then use the spacer to set the depth. Works like a charm. I even cut a few other spacers to set the distance of the chisel to the fence. With the way the clamp is on this mortiser it’s hard to get a measurement. 

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More mortise cutting went on all week. Would get around a hour of shop time after work. E176E9F4-9708-4078-8E8B-873D08FC6EE3.thumb.jpeg.e09855c94c55448fb051ca9f8ce5ee69.jpeg

Used a few blocks cut to match the back legs to hold them in position. There are a couple flat spots on the legs to make the alignment go the mortises fairly nice. EE7EFFA5-47BA-4456-9751-CAEDF0C2B21E.thumb.jpeg.3cc86dc9ef77151142738787dc86770e.jpeg

The mortises on the bottom of the leg took moving the hcm to each end of the bench to make it possible. The angle of the leg would cause the top section of the leg to hit the bench top. 
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I did end up getting them all cut. Here I am doing a little clean up on them. Just cleaning out some of the corners and sides of the mortise walls. 1780005A-EBA4-4126-BB1E-0138E6EBAF13.thumb.jpeg.536f3ff6198942c019bc025e66dacb7d.jpeg

Cut a taper on one set of the legs to see how they would look. Used the bandsaw to cut it with the jointer to clean it up. 

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Got a good amount of time in the shop today. Started of putting the taper on all the legs. Bandsawing then jointing, holding the leg on the angle of the taper wasn’t to bad but with the grain direction made running some of the legs a little sketchy. Would expose quite a bit of cutter head at times. D356D455-3C3C-4EC4-BB38-5D27DAB84504.thumb.jpeg.cb03151aa995d87c78a3c0376b21a3ea.jpeg

This is showing all the tapers marked out. To do this I would sandwich my template between the set and mark both at the same time. 
 

It feels like I spent most of the day marking out lines. After the taper was cut there is a pyramid detail on the top of the legs. Tom in the video series shows doing the pyramid with a bandsaw and block plane to dial it in. I tried a few practice runs doing it that way and couldn’t get the feel for it. 48DC025C-4DAA-49E7-8606-884E8031F53F.thumb.jpeg.8bb9044596c759aa50041c6670732ba9.jpeg

Took quite awhile to mark out all the legs. Used 2 combo squares and a Milwaukee trim square to lay them out. The Milwaukee square I’m really enjoying using. It’s a 4” carpenter square that is really handy. 6747BCFC-6E29-43C9-89EC-C38B186D73D8.thumb.jpeg.d39f78e4376f762d276ba3f8e62067e7.jpeg

All the legs marked out. 
With the block plane out of the question I went a different route. Trimmed the bulk of the waste off with the bandsaw then used the disc/belt sander. Took a little setup to move the table to the disc side and fine tuning to get the angles correct. Was well worth the setup time as it was faster to do the cutting and sanding than even marking them out. 63797527-CFC3-44A8-8603-CF29D2A67F60.thumb.jpeg.f4a0bd574bff3a31ad5bec093e84a774.jpeg

After the first two slopes are cut its back to the bench to mark out the second set of cuts. B99131B4-2F6C-473B-B7B9-4FD20BFF4DAE.thumb.jpeg.34c27b363cc988e44be6bfc0417a4d87.jpeg

The end result.  Takes a little to dial them in, all in all a lot of time spent on such a little detail. 

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1 minute ago, Kev said:

Personally, I think the sander was a way better option in the first place!  Looking awesome!

Thanks!
I agree the sander was a better option. Only thing that made it more of a challenge is the angle of the taper and the shape of the leg. Can see why he went with the block plane for that reason. I found that my hand tool skills are not quite ready for end grain oak. 

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20 hours ago, Jamie said:

I found that my hand tool skills are not quite ready for end grain oak. 

End grain Oak takes a really sharp iron in you plane.  Oak is like trying to plain a hand full of soda strays if your iron isn't really sharp it just wants to tear up the wood. 

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"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;  remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." - Epicurus

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Got the back legs finished up! Just have to sand them all at some point. E9D0D821-EC32-4A65-91AF-ACC60B3C076F.thumb.jpeg.8fa625fbc9e63f03c220d17694696d31.jpeg

Started on rough cutting the remainder of the chair parts. Am going to adjust the jointer knives some before milling all these parts. Noticed I have a few knicks in them. Also will probably flip the planer knives as well. Doesn’t seem like I did that all that long ago, I wouldn’t think they should be dull this quickly. Still do a decent job but the planer just screams for mercy. E00C52D6-5D2D-4D12-ACA4-FB6F902966DF.thumb.jpeg.0666db3ebe22479cd03e17a45259d40e.jpegE00C52D6-5D2D-4D12-ACA4-FB6F902966DF.thumb.jpeg.0666db3ebe22479cd03e17a45259d40e.jpeg

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Don't try to get to crisp of a point on your pyramids it will look harsh to the eye.

Something like this - 

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"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not;  remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for." - Epicurus

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Quite a bit of progress since my last post. Started out drum sanding all the parts to final thickness. I planned them down to 1/16 of final dimension. The drum sander I have isn’t overly powerful so took quite a few passes. Started with 120 grit then 150 and a final pass with 220. This is the first time I ever used 220 grit on the drum sander. Hoping it will save some time when it comes to finish sanding. I ordered in some new rolls from industrial abrasives website and have to say I was really pleased. They offer them pre cut for my machine. Had the paper 2 days after ordering. 
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Had a helper for a few minutes.  Don’t know why she had a Christmas sweater on but if she’s happy with it so am I!
 

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Had to stop with the sanding to do a little pumpkin carving.  I figured out a couple years ago that a jigsaw is the best tool for the job, I keep around an old black and decker jig saw just for this project.

 

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I had this old delta dust collector in my loft and decided to give it a try on the sander. Reason for this little experiment was every time I use my drum sander the fine dust doesn’t separate in the cyclone very well and plugs up my filter bags.  Since I just cleaned them I went with this option.  I didn’t have a filter bag for it so just used a pillow case, which I had to shake out a couple times during all the sanding.  Am really considering ordering a can type filter for the dust collector, the price of them is scaring me off yet. 
 

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Dis get some help from the wife. As you can see from her expression she was thrilled to do it.

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All the sanded parts, took a few hours to get them all run. 
 

I did cut all the parts to finished length on the miter saw, didn’t snap any pictures of it.  Was really nice having the kreg fence. All the parts came out spot on. 
 

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Using my newly made tenon jig to cut the many tenons. 
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Cutting the tenons worked really well with a little tip I found. Cut a spacer the thickness of your tenon plus the thickness of your blade. The spacer that I have here is mdf that I planed down and tried to sneak up on the thickness with the drum sander, got it a little thin. Used some masking tape strips as shims to dial it in. 

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After cutting the tenons I nipped off some of the excess on the shoulders so when running them on the table saw the off cut would have some room to no bind in the blade.

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Used the miter gauge to cut the rest of the tenons, using the fence of the saw as the reference point. A39EDE2E-F742-4195-A852-70642F3448B2.thumb.jpeg.4628ddfbfcbb8d658fe35e550315193e.jpeg

Lot of setups with the offset tenons. But the nice thing is with all the chair parts is that your not doing the setup for one cut, get to make at least 8 with each one. A1F686E9-F3E0-4AA7-AD5E-92BE9128E56B.thumb.jpeg.7195a7b1305b3973e1314325e6aebc52.jpeg

Without moving the fence all the cuts were made on the tenons. 
 

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Cleaned up the excess material on the bandsaw. Leaving myself about a 1/16 of room in each of the mortises. 
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Had to dry fit a back leg assembly! Have to admit I was pretty pleased with how well it came together. 081BE992-AB18-4549-9D63-C81E0A532948.thumb.jpeg.a9301bebdde0f63bc4fbeb7aceff3c48.jpeg

 

Moved the kids tv from their toy room that never hardly ever used out to the shop. Iowa game started today and all work stopped. Shoulda kept working on the chairs with the way the game went. 

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Just now, Kev said:

Looking awesome!  Always cool to see the kids in the shop!

Thanks!
 

Yeah it’s nice to have them out there, she doesn’t mind helping either which is nice. Saves me a lot of steps chasing parts. She is having a hay day with all the little offcuts, gluing them into all sorts of things! 

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Just now, Jamie said:

Thanks!
 

Yeah it’s nice to have them out there, she doesn’t mind helping either which is nice. Saves me a lot of steps chasing parts. She is having a hay day with all the little offcuts, gluing them into all sorts of things! 

That's how it gets started!  Awesome!

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4 minutes ago, Kev said:

That's how it gets started!  Awesome!

I will snap a picture of her creations tomorrow. It is nuts how many she put together. It’s all great till you don’t notice her clamping something in your vice till after the glue has dried.  Luckily I got it unstuck from the vice jaws without much damage. 

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1 minute ago, Woodenskye (Bryan) said:

Wow! I’m glad that I’m not the only one who gets the I’m really thrilled to be out here helping you look!  ?
 

Chairs are looking good! 

If you look over her shoulder in the picture you can see her method of transportation. God I hope she never sees this comment ?

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