Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair (Splines/Pegs) - Part XI

The last bit for this chair are the splines and pegs.  I'll be repeating myself here since I've gone over this in other blog entries - but hey, as I've said before, verbosity on the web costs little!

I will install the crest rail spline first as this is a somewhat delicate operation.  Skipping ahead, here is what the spline will look like once installed (somewhat dull as I have not buffed it yet):

The spline comes up the side and then takes a turn to the rear to follow the rearward sweep of the crest rail.  While this can possibly be cut with a router I prefer to use hand tools here.  Below I'm using a flexible jig with 1/4" spacing that conforms to the curve of the side of the chair.  This jig allows me to center the spline along the length of the side which I cannot do with a marking gauge riding one side or the other.

Next I'll use a dremel to hog out most of the waste:

For the top I will use a marking gauge running along the back of the crest rail.  I adjust the marking gauge to meet up with the scribe lines below.  I follow up with the dremel once again, making sure that I stay away from my scribe lines:

Now its time to use my chisel to clean the sides:

The trickiest part is the corner - need to go slow and deliberate here!

Now its ready for splines.  I make the splines using the bandsaw and the Jet 10-20 drum sander.

The tricky part here is where the bottom spline meets the top.  There is a compound angle here and requires some fussing to get a tight fit with my jack plane:

After the glue dries I use a coping saw and my dremel to hog off most of the waste, followed with a spokeshave, file, and sandpaper:

Here is my method for making pegs.  I make the peg stock using a bandsaw and the small drum sander (Jet 10-20).  Then I lay out my sand paper squares as such:

I've got 120 grit on the left followed by 150, 220, 320, 400, and 600.  Below the sandpaper you see a sanding pad - which I use not for sanding but for cushioning under the sandpaper.

I start with the 120 and 150 grits without the sanding pad on a hard surface.  I use the pad under all the other higher grits.  Now, the way I work is that I do not use a pendulum motion.  I angle the stock and slide the tip from left to right only - keeping the angle the same.  I then rotate the stock and make another 2-3 passes.  I make 2 more rotations so that all sides have been sanded.  The goal with the 120 and 150 is to make a pyramid with even edges.  I may have to rotate the stock another round to get the pyramid shape, especially for thicker stock.  I find that by sliding the stock in one direction at a fixed angle I have a much better chance of making even edges all around.  If I try to apply a pendulum motion I find that the edges are all uneven vis-a-vis each other.

Now, if one had a disc sander (which I do not) then one could use that to obtain the initial pyramid shape.

I then go to the 220 grit with the sanding pad underneath.  I use the same hand motion.  However, with the soft sanding pad underneath, the pyramid tip evolves to a nice pillow shape - exactly what I am looking for.  These higher grits go fast as I'm only looking to remove the scratch marks of the previous grit.

Then I buff the edge with my dremel tool and cut the tip off using a fine handsaw - about 3/16" long:

Here I'm using the Lee Valley square hole cutter to make my holes:

Here's the chair with the ebony accents finished: