Green & Green Settee Part VI

Ok, here is what the settee looks like:

Unfortunately, this looks very much like a photo from an older post.  It is not the same photo.  I made a mistake on routing the edge profile.  I profiled the bottom of a side rail rather than the top.  I was rushing and I did not mark where I needed to cut.  The lesson:  layout lines and markings are critical to avoid silly mistakes like this!  Now, I may have been able to call it a feature - but with the brackets below the rails this option was not acceptable.  Those brackets need a sharp 90 degree edge at the bottom of the rail.

Also, if you recall, my very original front rail warped considerably during the early stages of this project which required purchasing another piece of 5/4 lumber for the rails/stretchers.  As I milled this lumber I realized at the time that I was not happy with this new lumber selection.  The color was too brown (vs salmon pink) and had way too many brownish mineral spots that looked too much like burn marks.  Another thing is that I designed the front rail too thin - which would require gluing on a secondary wood for strength and for the rabbet that the seat would rest upon.  Also, the brownish rails did not match the pinkish brackets below the rails.

Too many lumber variants for a fine piece of furniture!

Given this, I decided to redo the rails.  Unfortunately, to preserve grain continuity and color matching and given the angles I ended up redoing the 2 side rails, the front rail, the 2 side stretchers and the center stretcher.   I also had to redo the brackets.  A lot of re-milling and re-tenoning!

After going through this new exercise, I'm very happy with the new lumber selection.  I purchased 6/4 this time to allow for a thicker front rail.  In fact, the lumber may even be from the same tree as the 8/4 I used for the legs and rear posts.

I also had enough lumber to replace what I had for the crest rail.  This means that the front rail, side rails, side stretchers, center stretcher, brackets, and the crest rail all come from the same 6/4 piece of wood, which matches very nicely with what I used for the legs, posts and the back rail and stretcher (which all came from 8/4).  Much better!

Oh yes - I was not happy with the design of the crest rail.  It took me awhile to figure out why - but I finally realized why.  So, I brought down the drafting table and re-drew the crest rail .  The original design had too much of an S curve going on with the width narrowing in the center.  I redid the curve so it is more of an arc along its entire length until it flattens at the end to meet the rear posts.  The crest rail is also the same width along the entire length.  In the photo below you see only the top of the new crest rail. 

Of course, I had to redo the templates.  But I made the process much easier than before.  I  traced the top of the curve onto 1/4" plywood using carbon paper, took it to the bandsaw and then faired to the line using a spokeshave and sand paper.  Then, to establish the bottom of the curve I simply used a compass:

The compass has a piece of lead on one end and a needle point on the other.  I simply followed the top curve to establish the bottom curve.  You see 2 lines at the bottom in the photo above.  This represents the rabbet which will be hidden by the upholstery.  I simply used the bandsaw and spokeshave to fair to this line.  Fast and easier than all the router setups I used in an earlier post!

The new template represents half of the crest rail.  I will make one more template later off of this one that represents the entire length of the crest rail.  Just flip this one around to get the other half.  (There is extra plywood on each end - half of the crest rail is represented by the 2 faint vertical lines in the photo above).

2 STEPS FORWARD, 5 STEPS BACKWARD, AND NOW ONE STEP FORWARD!  I still need to redo the center stretcher to finally get caught up.

Green & Green Settee Part V

While trying to decide whether or not to fit the arm before or after gluing up the sides, I decided to knock out some details required before any glue up.  The advantage of gluing before fitting the arms is that I will have a more firm foundation for fitting, and, in general, is preferably better.  However, I may want to cut the front spline mortises using a router table.  In this case, I need to fit the arms before glue up, dis-assemble, then route the splines.

Anyway, here I am preparing the bracket details that will go under the front/side rails.  I do not need to shape the brackets at this time, but I need to do the joinery before glue up.

 

In the pictures above I drilled a 1/4" hole.  I am transferring the hole location to the leg using a dowel center doohickee.  In the Blacker House arm chair I actually cut little mortises.  However, here I will use a dowel. Then I drill 1/4" holes into the legs where I marked the locations.   Since side brackets hit the front legs at an angle, I cut a shim with the correct angle for drilling:

Now, the brackets attach to the rails via screws.  After preparing a hole with a forstner bit and a brad point (drilling a clearance hole), I take the bracket to the bench, clamp, then mark the hole locations on the bottom of the rails using the same brad point.  I will later drill into the rails at those locations using a smaller brad point appropriate for my screws.

Done with the brackets for now.

Next I prepare the leg indents at the bottom of the legs.  Now, the leg indents from a distance appear to be simple ramps, so to speak.   A router jig works well in cutting the ramp.  This is what I did for the Blacker House arm chair.  However, later I discovered that the leg indents are actually pillowed, with the sides carved.  So, I decided to go authentic with this detail:

I scribe around the detail, going heavy at the sides leaving extra wood at this point.  I know I cannot carve a straight line.  It will be caddy wampus by the time I finish carving it - and caddy wampus here looks really bad.  We want those sides to be straight.  If the pillow has slight carving undulations, that is fine and actually adds to the texture of the piece, but caddy wampus sides does not.  Scribing here helps prevent wood fibers tearing out beyond my layout lines while carving

I made a scratch stock, thinking that this would be enough.  However, I had a difficult time getting the depth and finish I wanted.  Consequently, I use the scratch stock to hog out much of the sides...

I remove some material at the corners, going heavy.  Then I use a double beveled angled chisel to carve the sides.  The scratch stock gave me a nice ramp against which I can ride the chisel, and the double beveled chisel allows for much more control of the depth than a straight flat chisel which can easily get caught in a specific direction and go too far.

 

I go down about an 1/8".  I then chop the end and then round it over with a back bent gouge

Next I use a marking gauge to slice a clean and straight shoulder and then I pick out the goobers with a chisel and small scraper.

After chiseling the corners I then clean everything up with some sand paper.  I had some tear out here and there where the grain got funky.  120 grit took care of that just fine.

Note that this is the back leg which is pretty wide.  The narrow legs on the Blacker House chair would accentuate the pillow detail quite a bit more.  I think this detail is very nice when carved!  However, to be honest, the straight ramp also looks very nice.  From a distance one is hard pressed to tell the difference.  I'm thinking that the original craftsmen wanted the leg to look ramped but carved it as such since the affect is very similar and, given the hand tools, does not require nearly as much wood removal.

Ok, time for some repair.  On one of the legs I got overly exuberant and took the chisel beyond the edge.  Be wary of listening to Stevie Ray Vaughan play the blues while attempting delicate carving!

I took a 7-4 chisel and carved a small chip.  Then I took the same chisel and scooped out the errant gash, making a bigger gash.

Because I used the same chisel sweep, the chip and the new gash have matching profiles.

Then I glue it on.  The little chip wants to stick to your fingers more than the wood, but after 2-3 attempts I got it lined up.  I will wait 24 hours before planing it flush as the wood will shrink as it dries.  We want the glue/wood to be fully dry.  Here is the repair.

Green & Green Settee Part IV

Mr. Pumpkin continues his journey and so do I.

Time for joinery.   The seat of the settee is a trapezoid.  My mortises are straight - I angle the tenons.  In order to figure out the angle for the tenons one could use an angle gauge and simply lay it on the drawing.  Two drawbacks - first, the angle gauges are pretty small and so a small error in transcribing could result in a larger error during construction when dealing with longer pieces.  Second - oops, I accidentally bumped my angle gauge and lost my setting.

A more accurate method is to use dividers:

Now we have a "trapezoid jig".  This jig is accurate and is far easier to use for marking tenon locations.

I'm using a mix of integral and floating tenons.  I'm using integral tenons for the front rail, side rails, center stretcher (since this is a through tenon) and for the center splat.  I am using floating tenons for the rear seat rail, rear stretcher, rear post where it connects to the crest rail.

Here I am cutting some mortises:

This awesome machine is a JDS Multi-Router.  Expensive but well worth it.  I spent a year looking for a used one.  They do not appear that often.  One came up last year and I called a couple hours too late.  Another one became available and I actually had the deal for a couple hours - until the fellow selling the machine sent an email in apology saying that a neighbor saw his machine and paid him cash on the spot.  So the deal evaporated.  I bit the bullet and bought the machine above new.  I recommend a variable speed router for sure.   I returned a Porter Cable single speed 690 - an otherwise fine machine but the 27,500 RPM was way too fast and caused way too much vibration.  I tried the Porter Cable 892 but quickly exchanged that for a Bosch 1617 VS.  The housing on the Bosch is much more rigid than the 892 - important when the router is dangling sideways.  Also, the 892 housing does not have a machined base - the base has the powder coat paint on the bottom with nibbles, etc.  It was not flat and quite unacceptable.  

Here I am using my trapezoid jig to set the angle for cutting tenons.  I bought the largest sized tenon templates for the 1/4", 3/8", and 1/2" thick tenons.  I simply use the tenon templates to help me set the upper and lower stops on the vertical axis for the thickness of the tenon.  Once set, I did not use the templates during the actual cutting.

In the photo above the cutter is set at the lower stop on the vertical axis.  It is locked in place so I do not accidentally raise the cutter into my tenon.  I simply climb cut all the way across.  Then I move the cutter to the upper stop, lock it, then climb cut all the way across.  (Note that I run a couple passes, taking only about 1/4" or so of material per pass). I think this method works quite well.  I like my tenon ends square anyway so at this point I do not need the sundry smaller sized templates.

Later, I will square the corners of those mortises that receive the square tenons with a chisel.

Early on, when I was drawing this project out, I came across an article in Fine Woodworking (issue 227) by Michael Fortune called "A Revolution in Chair Making".  Mr. Fortune is a veritable craftsman indeed and this is a great article.  For this settee I adopted his tenon design used where the side rail connects to the rear post:

Those small through tenons will receive wedges - a very strong joint indeed!

In the photo below, the front rail is on the left and the side rail is on the right.  Notice how the main tenon locations are offset so as not to weaken the leg and have tenons bumping into one another.  The front rail has a shorter stub tenon since it will have a rabbet for the seat.  Although it is difficult to tell in this photo, the side rail tenon is angled.

For the rear rail and rear stretcher, I am using floating tenons:

Here is the settee dry fitted:

While I was at it, I mortised the top of the rear post where it will receive the crest rail and mortised the center of the rear rail where it will receive the center splat (hidden by the upholstery).  I also rabbeted the front and rear rails.  I do not rabbet the side rails.  I will leave them thick on top and glue on cleats for the seat.

Green & Green Settee Part III

While the pumpkin fulfills his destiny on the compost heap I continue working on the settee.

I started off with 3/16" plywood for the templates.  However, 3/16" is too thin to comfortably run on a shaper or router when shaping a thick piece of wood.  Consequently, I create 1/2" templates off of the 3/16" templates for the side profile of the rear post, front profile of the crest rail (or actually half the crest rail), and the top profile of the arm.

At this point, I suddenly realize that the crest rail template will not be useful as is.  The reason is that there is a 1/2" wide rabbet at the bottom of the crest rail (3/8" deep).  This rabbet is where the upholstery will be tacked.  The template above represents what we will see above the upholstery but the template does not include the rabbet which will be hidden by the upholstery.  Now, it is tempting to simply take the existing template and drop it down a 1/2" to include the rabbet.  But this will not work!  Why?  Imagine if the curve of the crest rail approaches 90 degrees.  Dropping the template down a 1/2" will not add a 1/2" rabbet where the curve approaches 90 degrees.  Where the curve approaches 90 degrees the template would actually have to be moved sideways.  As you can imagine, we will end up with a piece of modern art - not a crest rail.

After tea and some cookies, I decided to use my router template set.  To be honest, I've had this set for almost 10 years yet have never used the set:

I need to proceed in 2 steps as I do not have a bushing that will give me a 1/2" wide rabbet in one step.  I start off creating an intermediary template with a 5/16" rabbet.  I first use a wheel marking doohickee to pencil in a 5/16" rabbet.  I bandsaw close then take it to the router table:

In the photo above the original template is on the bottom and the new template is on top.  On the router table I have a bushing with a straight bit.  The distance between the outer wall of the bushing and the bit is 5/16.

Once I shape the new template, I need to shape the top of the crest rail on the new template - the top profile will remain the same so I simply flip the work and run it with a top bearing bit:

Now, I need to duplicate this entire procedure by adding a 3/16" rabbet to the intermediary template with the 5/16" rabbet to finally create a template with a 1/2" rabbet.  I use a different bushing to give me the 3/16" rabbet.

In the photos below we see the original template with the new template side by side.  The next photo shows them stacked on one another.

Now it is time to shape the rear posts.   The rear posts have been jointed and planed to a width of 1-3/4".  I do not attach the template yet.  I use the template to draw the outline of the profile, bandsaw close, then joint the bottom front of the post - a critical area that is a reference edge and must be flat where it meets the rails:

Now I attach the template and prepare it for the router table.  When profiling, I watch grain direction and I keep the router bit from the critical bottom front area that was flattened on the jointer.  Oh yes - don't bandsaw too close!  I almost did not leave enough wood for the final shaping!  Whew, close call.

Next I cut to length.  I kept a reference mark on the wood that represents the bottom during this entire process so that during this step the posts would be cut at identical locations - otherwise, the posts will not come out identical.

And they are now ready for the joinery!

For the chippendale chair I built at North Bennet Street School we shaped the rear posts by hand.  It was not that difficult.  However, if I build this settee again I'll have the templates all prepared and the process will go much faster.