Those spacer blocks that tie the chair splats together, what are the called? Doohikey will work for now. There are 8 doohikeys. Here is the original so you can see the objective - a great design. One thing to note is that the 4 outer spacer lengths (from top to bottom) are slightly longer by about an 1/8" than the inner spacers - one of those small touches that makes a difference I think:
I suppose there are more than one way to install them. I believe some folks may edge glue the spacers to the splats and I think others edge join with screws.
As I quickly discovered, those 2 techniques are problematic with my chair since I hand shaped the splats as well as beveled the outer edges to lighten them up. The four narrow splats curve back, curve out, and have beveled edges and are each slightly unique. In the photo below you can see how the splat appears thinner in the center where it is beveled. The top and bottom are not beveled and are noticably thicker.
The splats are 1/2 inch thick. During the design phase I had a difficult time determining from the photos of the original chair the correct thickness of the splats and whether or not they are beveled. The more I look at the photos the more I think 1/2 inch may be too thick. Beveling the edges is a great way to lighten up the splats and reduce the perceived thickness. Now, I only beveled the "outer" edges. For the center splat, both edges are beveled since both edges face out. I did not bevel the inner edges because I felt that an inner bevel would have conflicted with the over-all curvature of the base as well as the angles of the side seat rails. I did not test this out with a sample, so I may be wrong. I look forward to seeing the original to answer these questions!
Here is a photo of the spats ready for the next phase.
The original builders mortised the doohickeys - which is what I will do. Still, mortising requires laying out a mortise - which is difficult without reference edges. I could not use a marking gauge. Consequently, I came up with this cute little flexible jig to lay out the mortise on the beveled or outer edges using a marking knife. The space is the thickness of my doohickeys - 3/16". Now, I only used this on the outer or beveled edges. I will lay out the inner edges later.
Here is the center splat with the mortises chopped out. I chopped them by hand. I could not use my small dremel since the edge was beveled. (Next time, perhaps I will bevel the edges AFTER I cut these mortises!!!)
Next I fabricated the doohickees. They are about 3/16" thick and the length is 1" for the 4 inner spacers (next to the center splat) and are 1 1/8" thick for the 4 outer spacers. I pretty much just bandsawed and handplaned the spacer to final thickness. So, here is the first spacer:
Nice fit! But, ooops! As you can see, because the splats are layed out along an arc the spacer is way off center against the next splat. That first mortise would have to be chopped at an angle so the spacer lines up correctly with the next splat. It could probably be done but it is too late for this chair. I could taper one side of the mortise. Instead, I tapered the spacer itself:
One edge of the spacer in the mortise will not have a good glue surface with the mortise wall. I could use epoxy. However, I do not expect a lot to happen with these little fellows so I think there will be enough glue surface all around to make things hold. I think next time I will cut the mortise at an angle.
With the spacer lined up correctly against the next splat I used my marking knife to lay out the next mortise. Because this next mortise is on the inner face of the next spat, which I did not bevel, I could use my dremel to cut the mortise:
Here are the doohickeys installed (dry fit).
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