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Rocking Chair- Part 19 |
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The chair is sitting on the rockers that we left here and which were later fitted with these small stacks or pedestal's on which the legs are now sitting, as seen in this picture. These are simply stacks of extra 1/8th inch thick laminating strips that have been glued in place. I used the same former as for the rockers for the gluing job, putting the basic rockers as they were then, back into the former and gluing up the extra laminations on top of the rockers. The stack and rocker assemblies have been cleaned up on the planer but no shaping has yet been done.
I am in the process of marking up the stacks with a line that passes up the centre of each leg. These will be guide lines for drilling holes through the rockers and up into each leg for four inch screws .
The little template in the foreground is just ensure the same correct setback for the front legs from the toe of each rocker. |
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As you can see here, I have roughly shaped the stacks under the legs (on the bandsaw and bobbin sander). I am now using a rather "Heath Robinsonish" clamping set up, to hold the rockers in position whilst I drill the holes for the screws through the rockers and up into the legs.
The next step is to get my daughter over so she can sit in the chair and we can fine-tune the balance position for her. I will do this by adding one or two extra laminations under the front or the rear legs.
Well, my daughter Sarah came by and decided she wanted a sitting position slightly more laid back than I had it. One lamination strip of an eighth of an inch was enough - two was too many. It is surprising how sensitive one is to these small variations, I liked it the same way as Sarah but Mary my wife - who normally likes to sit bolt upright - actually preferred the chair with two laminating strips added. I guess I have been married to a Californian Hippy all these years without realizing it. |
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I screwed the rockers to the chair and fettled the front leg joints by pulling 100 grit sandpaper through the joint (plainly without a screw in the joint being worked on!). This goes pretty quickly and as long as you pull the sandpaper away from the side with the grit (which would round the joint faces), results in nice clean well fitting faces.
I used a new order of West System epoxy for the next step which was to glue the rocker to the front legs. After the glue cured (I waited for 24 hours) I repeated the exercise on the rear legs.
These joints represent one of several operations on the chair where I think to myself, "Are all my ducks in a row here - this is irreversible and just has to go right!"
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Hal warns about this potential problem in his notes but I walked right into it nonetheless. Having glued up this joint (which involves covering the screw with glue before screwing it home) I decided the glue looked very thin so decided to add some more of the West system filler. I duly unscrewed the joint (very messy) and put in some new thicker glue. I then recoated the screw and drove it home, whereupon I heard a click noise that wasn't the clutch on my cordless - OH NO!!, hydraulic pressure from the glue being forced up by the piston action of the screw had cracked the leg and glue was now oozing from the crack shown here, located somewhere around the tip of the screw. Not a lot admittedly and after I had stopped beating my head against the wall, a few remnant brain cells decided that the glue would probably hold everything together.
I went to bed in a foul and despondent mood, wondering what the morning would hold and whether the joint would..
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