Beautiful. Quality work and a great WIP.
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Hi all and welcome to TheWoodHaven2 brought into the 21st Century, kicking and screaming! We all have Alasdair to thank for the vast bulk of the heavy lifting to get us here, no more so than me because he's taken away a huge burden of responsibility from my shoulders and brought us to this new shiny home, with all your previous content (hopefully) still intact! Please peruse and feed back. There is still plenty to do, like changing the colour scheme, adding the banner graphic, tweaking the odd setting here and there so I have added a new thread in the 'Technical Issues, Bugs and Feature Requests' forum for you to add any issues you find, any missing settings or just anything you'd like to see added/removed from the feature set that Xenforo offers. We will get to everything over the coming weeks so please be patient, but add anything at all to the thread I mention above and we promise to get to them over the next few days/weeks/months. In the meantime, please enjoy!
Chair Steps Project
- Thread starter rxh
- Start date
Thanks. Very kind of you to say so.
With all the handling of the front legs, some of the edges were getting rather chipped so I cleaned them up with a small chamfer:
The sloping mortices were a bit tricky to cut. It was not easy to get the waste out of the acute corner:
It was easy to make a mistake. Here I am cheerfully chopping a mortice in the wrong side of a sloping leg. I had to glue in a patch, which I hope will not be too visible.
I trimmed the tenons to fit using chisel, rasp and small plane:
The sloping mortices were a bit tricky to cut. It was not easy to get the waste out of the acute corner:
It was easy to make a mistake. Here I am cheerfully chopping a mortice in the wrong side of a sloping leg. I had to glue in a patch, which I hope will not be too visible.
I trimmed the tenons to fit using chisel, rasp and small plane:
I too can see a use for one as the only person in the house who can reach the top shelf in the kitchen cupboards. I’d have to simplify the construction method though. I can’t ever imagine having the skills nor patience to make joints like that.
Is anyone keeping tabs on the number of beautiful homemade specialist planes and other tools used so far? I've lost count! But I think I can see one of the attractions of a project that can benefit from so many. 
NickM
Old Oak
Shame about the mortise mistake, but so easily done. I was talking to an expert about chair making recently, and forgetting the "handedness" of components is a classic gotcha. Apparently Alan Peters once made 12 left handed chair legs for the 6 chairs he was making so it can happen to anyone.
A highly experienced, well-known woodworker (I'll not name him to spare his blushes) once told me that his approach to chairs was GSE
Get Someone Else's.
Get Someone Else's.
On the subject of mistakes, here's a close-up of the upper end of a back leg on my step chair. I hope most people will think there are decorative studs concealing the way that the top of the back is fitted onto the leg.
Experienced woodworkers will see that the studs are too far apart for that. The real reason is that the studs are plugging holes meant for dowels to hold a little triangular infill piece, down at the other end, marked C on Fig 1733 ...
Experienced woodworkers will see that the studs are too far apart for that. The real reason is that the studs are plugging holes meant for dowels to hold a little triangular infill piece, down at the other end, marked C on Fig 1733 ...
That's a very neat fix. I had a bit of difficulty of my own with the triangular infill piece.On the subject of mistakes, here's a close-up of the upper end of a back leg on my step chair. I hope most people will think there are decorative studs concealing the way that the top of the back is fitted onto the leg.
View attachment 30493
Experienced woodworkers will see that the studs are too far apart for that. The real reason is that the studs are plugging holes meant for dowels to hold a little triangular infill piece, down at the other end, marked C on Fig 1733 ...
It is supposed to be dowelled to the adjacent pieces. I am not good with dowels but I set to work with a dowelling jig, making a pair of holes in a back leg and a pair of holes in Item C:
Although the pairs of holes did line up when fitted with dowels, the two parts did not. It was all going to turn into a terrible mess. I decided to go to mortice and tenon joints instead. I chopped out the area around the holes in the leg to turn it into a mortice instead and also made a mortice in the end of the sloping leg. Then I made a replacement Item C with the grain running at 90 degrees to that of the original (which I scrapped) and with tenons at each end.
Now that's a cunning solution and proof that you have the required patience! It reminds me how that chair design threw up quite a few unexpected puzzles in the construction... I look forward to seeing if both your pairs of triangles come out the same size and fit together first time...
Here we have some dry assemblies to test that the parts will go together. Obviously, some overlength bits will need to be cut off. It was one of AndyT's valuable tips to leave the full size stubs at the lower ends of the front legs until a late stage. I still need to cut the housings to accept the steps and drill the upper rails for the screws for attaching the seat parts. The stick-on coloured spots to identify which parts go together was another of Andy's good ideas.
Ah - my apologies to Rob!
Quick question - looking at your picture, there are two bits at the bottom that I have circled.
They're not in the original design, which has those two triangles held together just by one of the steps, halfway up the legs where the full-sized square parts are. I don't think they could be a mistake, so are they a cunning modification?
They're not in the original design, which has those two triangles held together just by one of the steps, halfway up the legs where the full-sized square parts are. I don't think they could be a mistake, so are they a cunning modification?
Well spotted!. Yes, they are intentional. They should provide a bit of extra strength and keep the legs firmly in their intended position. I think they will also be helpful with my intended method of glue-up, as I hope to show.
Sheffield Tony
Nordic Pine
I assumed you were drawing from the Lisbon chair in your photo, which has rails there. It also avoids the little stubs of rail that have caused problems with their dowel joints. I think you do right to M&T them instead.
I compared the designs of the two chairs and decided to adopt the lower rails from the Lisbon one.
Well, I started preparing wood in early September and there is still a way to goI'm impressed by your pace. I've just looked back at my own one, to find that although I started it in February, it didn't get finished until nine months later, in November!
Mike G
Petrified Pine
Well, this is all rather nice to watch. I've never had much luck with dowels either, and I like your alternative solution.
A couple of tools observations. My scratch stocks tend to end up looking like yours, with screws everywhere. It's really annoying when the blade slips out of position, and the only solution is to squeeze it even tighter. Your hand drill.....I've not seen an egg beater drill with such a large handle. Is it a normal size drill, or is it more like a breast drill? And whilst on the subject, I find the weakness of those drills to be the top (vertical) handle, which has to be fixed tight. If it rotates it takes the power away from the turning handle (poor description, but if you know what I'm talking about.......) Does everyone have this problem?
A couple of tools observations. My scratch stocks tend to end up looking like yours, with screws everywhere. It's really annoying when the blade slips out of position, and the only solution is to squeeze it even tighter. Your hand drill.....I've not seen an egg beater drill with such a large handle. Is it a normal size drill, or is it more like a breast drill? And whilst on the subject, I find the weakness of those drills to be the top (vertical) handle, which has to be fixed tight. If it rotates it takes the power away from the turning handle (poor description, but if you know what I'm talking about.......) Does everyone have this problem?
Thanks. I made the scratch stock many years ago and never got round to making a fancy one. I think I kept on adding screws until I got a good grip on the blade
Yes, I used a breast drill because the chucks of my "egg beater" style drills don't open up enough to hold a 3/8" bit. I have the same problem sometimes with the top handle coming loose. I suppose it could be fixed with a drop of Loctite on the threads.
Sheffield Tony
Nordic Pine
Sometimes the cordless drill is tempting.
Reggieb
New Shoots
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2024
- Messages
- 53
- Reaction score
- 34
- Name
- Rob
- LOCATION
- Worcestershire
Love the use of coloured dotsHere we have a trial dry assembly of the components of the back of the chair. There a lot of mortice & tenon joints in this job
View attachment 30580
Here is a dry assembly of the front legs and their associated sloping legs and top rails.
It is all starting to look more like a chair now:
This gives some idea of how it should be like in steps mode (the small blocks are to represent the thicknesses of the seat components):
It is all starting to look more like a chair now:
This gives some idea of how it should be like in steps mode (the small blocks are to represent the thicknesses of the seat components):
Thanks. Yes it is very pleasant to work. I have just started to cut up the top of an old dressing table to make the seat and steps:
I was interested to see that this piece has "chalky" inclusions:
duke
Old Oak
Possibly mineral deposits / salts.
Some more progress today. After cutting up the board into pieces for the seat and steps of the chair I planed off the old finish:
The cleaned up boards were just under 7/8" thick. I now knew the width I had to make the housings in the legs for the steps. I set to work on the front legs with chisels and finished with a small router plane.
The housings in the sloping legs and back legs were cut with saw, chisel and small router plane. Here I am using the "heel" of the marking knife to make "tracks" for starting the saw cuts:
I reserve this 20 TPI saw for dovetails and delicate work:
After removing most of the waste with a chisel, I finished with the router plane. It is a Stanley No. 271, to which I have added a fine adjuster.
All the housings have been cut. Their shallowness concerns me a bit as I think they won't offer much resistance to being pulled apart. I may try to come up with a way of strengthening them.
This is how I have shaped the tenons in the rails that come together in the back legs. I have tried to avoid either of the tenons being too short.
The cleaned up boards were just under 7/8" thick. I now knew the width I had to make the housings in the legs for the steps. I set to work on the front legs with chisels and finished with a small router plane.
The housings in the sloping legs and back legs were cut with saw, chisel and small router plane. Here I am using the "heel" of the marking knife to make "tracks" for starting the saw cuts:
I reserve this 20 TPI saw for dovetails and delicate work:
After removing most of the waste with a chisel, I finished with the router plane. It is a Stanley No. 271, to which I have added a fine adjuster.
All the housings have been cut. Their shallowness concerns me a bit as I think they won't offer much resistance to being pulled apart. I may try to come up with a way of strengthening them.
This is how I have shaped the tenons in the rails that come together in the back legs. I have tried to avoid either of the tenons being too short.
Lons
Old Oak
Is that a home made mallet from HDPE or PP, (bottle tops) ?
Thanks. I think the modification is very useful. The thread on the upright is 40 TPI, which make fine adjustment easy.
Yes, milk bottle tops, melted in a soup can. I think they are HDPE. I got the idea from Pete Maddex.
Dr.Al
Old Oak
I really like that modification to the 271. I've got a little Record router plane that looks the same (I can't remember the number but it might well be 271). I might have to make the same modification. Thanks for the idea.
It's fascinating to follow your build and try to think back to the details of mine from twelve years ago.
On the housings for the steps, I looked back at my photos and found that the cuts into the legs were probably about 3/16" at the front and only 1/8" at the back (where the slanting legs are thinner than the decorative front ones). I did dry-fit the parts to make sure that the surfaces of the four leg housings on each side were all in the same plane. I also worked the step pieces clamped together as single units, with straight sides. They have all stayed together nicely, just glued with liquid hide glue.
Where I did go wrong was that I cut the front leg housings all the way through, which would have been fine if the front edge of the step had been square. But when I put a moulding on the edge, it revealed a gap, which I had to fill in with a patch. I can see that you have cleverly avoided this trap by arranging for the full-size square section of the leg to coincide with the step, and have cut two stopped housings on each one. Smart!
And I am another fan of that ingenious modification to the little router. I really like how there's no need to permanently alter the original tool - the extra hole for the threaded post is already there, as is the hole for a locking screw to keep it in place. I'm definitely copying that one - thanks!
On the housings for the steps, I looked back at my photos and found that the cuts into the legs were probably about 3/16" at the front and only 1/8" at the back (where the slanting legs are thinner than the decorative front ones). I did dry-fit the parts to make sure that the surfaces of the four leg housings on each side were all in the same plane. I also worked the step pieces clamped together as single units, with straight sides. They have all stayed together nicely, just glued with liquid hide glue.
Where I did go wrong was that I cut the front leg housings all the way through, which would have been fine if the front edge of the step had been square. But when I put a moulding on the edge, it revealed a gap, which I had to fill in with a patch. I can see that you have cleverly avoided this trap by arranging for the full-size square section of the leg to coincide with the step, and have cut two stopped housings on each one. Smart!
And I am another fan of that ingenious modification to the little router. I really like how there's no need to permanently alter the original tool - the extra hole for the threaded post is already there, as is the hole for a locking screw to keep it in place. I'm definitely copying that one - thanks!
Lons
Old Oak
I can just about sharpen it with a very small file in the right light but it is quite a challenge
I don't know how I could set the teeth .....