Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair - Part III

I was talking to a master craftsman the other day who is also a fellow member of the Siskiyou Woodcraft Guild here in southern Oregon.  He mentioned that the industry standard for the slope of the seat (towards the rear of course) is about 6 degrees while the rear posts are usually 90 degrees to the side rails.  Consequently, the rear posts start off with a 6 degree angle.  Now, this fellow's dining chair seats have a 4 degree slope.  Then the rear posts are angled another 2 degrees back with respect to the side rails.  Consequently, the rear posts start off with the same 6 degree angle as the industry standard.  There are certainly opportunities to experiment with the angles here.  A 6 degree or higher seat slope is probably more for lounging.  At a dining table one wants to be more upright.  Once the ole tummy is full and gravity takes hold then leaning back those 2 degrees can make a difference in comfort - and his chairs are extremely comfortable.

The swivel office chair I am working on will have a 3 degree seat slope, as dictated by the swivel hardware underneath (of course, I could add shims here and there to modify that angle but I decided to stay with the hardware setting).  Also, the rear posts are 90 degrees to the side rails.  Consequently, the rear posts will have a starting angle of 3 degrees rather than the industry norm of 6.  This will be OK since the hardware allows the chair to lean back.  Otherwise, one wants a good upright position for good posture at a desk.

While the rear posts are 90 degrees to the side rails, they have about a 2 degree cant angle vis-a-vis the rear rail.  2 degrees doesn't seem like much but visually it is a very nice angle.  Another very important thing is that the rear posts were rough cut from the lumber in such a way that the grain will flow up and out.  We certainly do not want the rear posts to angle outward but then have the grain flow inward!

Here are the rear posts rough cut, front facing up.  We are looking at the edge of the 8/4 lumber.  They are labeled left and right.  Although it is difficult to tell in this photo, the grain direction is definitely flowing in the direction I want:

Below we see that I have VERY LITTLE wiggle room to extract the front profile from the 8/4 edge - so I have to be careful here!

I've got 2 templates - one for the side profile and one for the front profile.  I'll work on the side profile first.  Because I have so little wiggle room with the thickness of the lumber, I start by hand planing the inside surface taking very little off (the jointer takes too much off).   With a somewhat flat inside surface I then surface the front of the post on the jointer so that it is 90 degrees to the inside surface.  I follow with a hand plane.  I lay the post on its side (inside surface down) and screw on the template.

Note that the critical area at the bottom of the template is perfectly flush with the flat hand planed front edge - this is a reference edge where the side rails will later meet the rear posts.  After removing waste on the bandsaw I take the assembly to the shaper.  The nice thing about the shaper is that I can reverse the cutter and the cutting direction to follow the grain without removing the template (as one would have to do on a router table).

I do not let the shaper cutter touch the hand planed reference edge at the bottom that is flush with the template.  After shaping the front I then shape the rear.  Also, I mark on the wood the location of the eventual post bottom.

Now its time to shape the front profile.  In order to fit the front template I need to shift the template at an angle.  I also make sure the location of the post bottom on the template is inline with the mark on the post.

I use the router table here. The cutting action is pretty much down hill for both sides.   Because the post now has a taper so to speak I have to shape the post in increments - lowering the bit each time.  This was somewhat tedious and dangerous.  If the bearing lost contact with the template then who knows what could happen to the post!  To be honest, I think I could have simply bandsawn the profile then gone straight to hand tools.  However, the router cut made hand tooling easier.

Once shaped I then revisit the inside reference edge to make sure that it is flat and 90 degrees to the front reference edge.  If you recall, the front reference edge was hand planed earlier and is ready for joinery.

Note the beautiful Marcou S20 smoother.  I bought this years ago when I was still earning money in the corporate world.  (I couldn't afford it now!).  It is a "low angle" handplane with a 20 degree bed rather than the typical 12 degree bed.  It also uses standard Veritas blades.  I am using a blade with a 40 degree angle for a 60 degree cutting angle - necessary for this tough and somewhat curly lumber.  Absolutely no tear out.

Next I use a file to remove the shaper marks.  The file leaves a nice surface which can be sanded with minimal effort.

With the lower reference edges good to go (where the posts meet the side and rear rails) I now need to check the third and final reference edge - where the post meets the crest rail.  That reference edge needs to be flat across both posts, and it needs to be co-planar with respect to the bottom of the post.  For what ever reason, I am not flush here.  I may have gotten overly exuberant with the file, or during the process of truing the inside reference edge earlier I got the top out of whack.  I do notice that I am too thick here to begin with.

Ok, now this looks much better.  I also use winding sticks to check the co-planar question vis-a-vis the bottom of the post.  Note that my block plane above is configured with a 50 degree blade for an effective 62 degree cutting angle.  A sharp blade and a waxed plane bottom keeps exertion to a minimum.

Now, I mortise the inside face for the rear rail tenon.  Straight forward.

However, cutting the mortise on the front face for the side rail is a bit more complicated.  Michael Fortune wrote an article in Fine Woodworking  (July/August 2012) called "A Revolution in Chairmaking" which describes, among other things, the use of a stepped tenon for where the side rail connects to the rear post.  I think it is an awesome tenon.  I used it for a settee I built earlier in the year.  For this swivel chair, where the rear posts quit just below the seat, I think a lot more stress is placed on this section than if the chair had full rear posts that met the floor.  Consequently, this type of tenon joint is even more appreciated here.  Michael describes cutting this joint using a router and a shop made router jig.  I encourage you to read that article.  I am using a multi-router but the principle is pretty much the same.

I'll jump ahead briefly to show you the finished result.  Note that the small through tenons will each have 2 wedges (I have yet to cut the wedge kerfs in the photo below).  Rather than have one large tenon slicing through the post, the two smaller tenons requires the removal of far less post material, no doubt resulting in a stronger post.  But with 4 wedges rather than 2 the tenon is at least as strong if not stronger than using a single through tenon.

First I use a 3/8" end mill bit to cut the main tenon 7/8" deep.  I remove the post and square the edges:

Next, I install a 1/4" cutter on the router.  I use a long upcut spiral bit.  I did not change the height setting of the multi-router.  Consequently, the 1/4" cutter will be exactly centered in the 3/8" mortise.  We will be cutting 2 small mortises through this larger mortise.  For the first mortise, I move the cutter to one end of the mortise and set the stop.  Then I use a 1/16" gauge to move the cutter over 1/16" from the end:

Now, the mortise is 5/8" long.  The cutter is 1/4" wide.  So I need 3/8" of travel on the other end.  I use gauges to set that distance.

Then I set the other stop.  Now have my side to side stops set.  Michael Fortune does pretty much the same thing with his shop made router jig.

Now I cut the mortise.  Because I am using an upcut spiral bit I get no tear out when punching through (and I go slow here!)

I perform the same steps starting from the other end of the primary mortise to cut the second small mortise:

Later I square the ends of the small mortises and add a taper (about a 1/16" flare) to accept a wedged tenon.

While I could cut the posts to length, I've decide to hold off.  Having extra meat at each end may facilitate clamping later on.

Time to call it quits!

Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair - Part II

I'll work on the base first.  The seat was a bit too high on the chair fitting rig.

The swivel base was in the "mid" position so that one could raise or lower the seat about the same distance.  I decided to keep that setting but lower the seat somewhat by modifying the legs so that the bottom of the leg is flat.

I designed the top of the leg to have a cloud lift detail - a very Greene and Greene motif.  The cloud lift has a sharp inside corner.  I decided to define this inside corner with the table saw.  I first band saw part of the front then cut the inside corner with the table saw:

That flat is not too appealing, but it will get rounded over with the template and flush trimming bit.  Ok - so, I figure I'm pretty smart and I'll try to flush trim the tip without a backer by doing a very slight climb cut at the very tip.  Ooops!  Did not work!

Fortunately,  I left quite a bit of extra wood on the other end.  Oh yes, I had pre-drilled the holes for the wheels.  Since I had to redraw the profile of the leg farther back I had to drill another hole for the wheel.  This left the old hole in place which I plugged up with some maple.  Hopefully no one will notice (except for everyone on the internet who happens to read this blog!)

On my second attempt I clamp an MDF backer board to the bottom, flush trim the tip, then remove the forward clamp to flush trim the remaining part of the top:

Notice the blue tape.  I like to put tape on the template for the first pass to hog off most of the material which is likely to result in some burning, remove the tape and run a second pass where I am removing very little wood with no burning (hopefully).

The flush trim bit does a nice job but some wood is left on the inside corner which I remove with a shoulder plane and chisel making sure I go across the grain:

Next I cut the leg to final length and then cut the dovetail on the tablesaw.  I figure that a 17 deg dovetail seems to do the trick:

I hand plane the sides of the legs and use a file and sand paper up to 180 grit on the top of the leg.  Here is what they look like:

As you can see, the dovetails seem rather loose at the bottoms.  However, the metal flares out at the bottom.  The dovetails are actually pretty tight and I need to use a hammer to drive them home.

The next step is to install the quarter round pieces to hide the metal hub.  Or at least I thought they would be quarter round pieces without thinking too much about the shape.  As a test I glued 4 square blocks of cherry together with paper in between and turned them on the lathe.  After separating the pieces I quickly discover that quarter round pieces will not work.  I need circular arcs that are less than quarter round pieces.  I take one of the blocks and use a hand plane and chisel to define the desired shape, which you can see below on the right:

Well, the lathe will not work.  I guess its time for some hand work.  So I grab the bubinga blocks and determine the desired arc:

These blocks are not long.  The safest way to cut away most of the waste is with the band saw.  I am making a 45 degree cut here:

Next I clamp the piece and use a rasp across the grain to hog off most of the waste, a hand plane with the grain to smooth the piece along its length, followed by a small file and sandpaper:

Now I glue the circular arcs onto the base.  Note that I had hand planed the two reference sides before shaping so they are ready for glue up.  The legs are about four inches wide.  I glue the top 2.5 inches of the arc pieces since the grain is running in opposite directions.  We need to allow for wood movement and I figure 2.5 inches is pretty common for tenon widths so it should be fine here.

The nice thing about those blocks is that they force the legs into 90 degree positions.  After the glue dries I then screw on a bottom plate (not shown) with #14 screws that screw into the dovetails.  I also screw into those dovetails from the top as well.  Those screws from below and above secures everything very well.

Those legs are not moving!

When I am ready for finishing, I will round over the edges, wet the wood to raise the grain, then perform final sanding with 220 grit.  However, I'll quit here.  Time for a beer.

Greene & Greene Blacker House Office Chair - Part I

Ok - first thing first.  All this time I've misspelled "Greene & Greene" as "Green & Green".  Funny how all along I've read "Greene" but then turned around and spelled it as "Green" - my brain simply filtered out the trailing "e".  This makes me wonder what else my brain has been filtering out lately!

Here I am transferring the final settings of the chair fitting rig to cardboard.  I determined the ideal height of the chair, depth, as well as the splat curvature.  Because there will be inlay the splat needs to be of necessary thickness and rigidity.  This rules out thinner laminated strips for the splat.  Consequently, the goal is to restrain the curvature so that I can use 8/4 lumber.

Notice how the bottom of the splat curves inward to help define the lumbar area above.  This means an angled tenon at the bottom.

Next step is drafting.  I have a large drafting table (about 40" x 74").  I draft a plan (top) view, front view and side view on a single sheet.  This is an important step as I try to answer as many questions as I can.

Here is the front view.  Note the familiar Blacker House splat design:

Here is the side view:

Here is the plan (top) view:

Next I create my templates directly off of the draft.  I trace the curves using plain ole carbon paper onto the plywood.  I used 1/8" plywood for most of the templates.  For those templates that I will use on a router table or shaper, I use 1/4" plywood which I will later transfer to 1/2".

Most of the lumber comes from a single piece of 8/4 bubinga except for the front and side rails.  I purchased a separate piece of 4/4 bubinga for those.  This 8/4 brute is heavy.  I cut it down to rough mill size.

Fine wood is like fine wine.  It needs to breathe!

Designing A Comfortable Chair - Part II

I mentioned in my previous post about a cool chair fitting rig described in Fine Woodworking issue #96 (Oct. 1992) titled "Design a Chair that Fits like a Glove" by Glenn Gordon.  I am designing a swivel office chair for a client.  I adapted the chair fitting rig in that article for a swivel chair:

The hardware for the swivel office chair dictates some parameters such as lean back (which is 3 degrees).

The part that I copied from the article is the back splat fitting assembly:

In the above photo we see how the assembly can be tilted back as necessary with the use of hinges.  However, a way is needed to support the assembly - the first photo above shows how the assembly is supported using plywood bolted to the sides of the side rails and a top piece that is clamped to support the back assembly.  It works, although there is a lot of weight overhanging the back of the chair which makes the chair want to lean back too easily when sitting.   Not sure how to get around that.

For the final chair, the back splat will meet and mortise into the top crest rail.  The crest rail will be proud of the back splat about 3/16" of an inch.  With the chair fitting rig I simulate this fact by clamping a 3/16" plywood to the top back support.  The goal is to make sure that the 3/16" bump does not end up digging into the client's back - very important since the Blacker House arm chair I built last year has this issue - the bottom of the crest rail digs into the back a bit and is not very comfortable.  Lesson learned!

Another question is what distance must the wheels be from the center for stability?  I drilled a couple holes so that I could test different distances for the wheels:

Designing A Comfortable Chair

This past spring I spent a fair amount of time on our new fence.  I live on a corner residential lot and the new fence wraps around 3 sides of our lot.  We went bird crazy and cut out barn swallows in the fence panels.  Actually, let me clarify.  My wife cut out the birds!  Here is one section of the fence:

Now imagine 36 sections of fence with anywhere from 2-5 bird cut outs in each section.  I still need to finish the 6 gates but that will be an ongoing process for now.  After finishing a small project for a client it is time to get back into the shop for my next project.

I am now working on a swivel office chair for a customer.  The chair will be inspired by the Green & Green blacker house arm chair. The back splat, crest rail, and the various ebony plugs and splines will borrow from the arm chair.  The base will use swivel office chair hardware with 4 legs dovetailed into the hardware.  No arms.

A year ago I built as close a reproduction of the blacker house arm chair as I could based on various photos I acquired here and there.  I think I got pretty close:

Now, I'll be honest.  The chair is not the most comfortable chair I've sat in.  Of course, chairs in many ways are like shoes and should be custom fit for each client.  When I sit in this beautiful chair I find that the bottom part of the crest rail digs into my back somewhat.  My first reaction is perhaps I need to make the entire back sweep farther to the rear, even though the chair back already has a pretty well defined rearward sweep.  Since the customer wants the back to be like the blacker house arm chair it is important that the back be comfortable for the customer as well as look beautiful.

There is an article in issue #96 (Oct. 1992) of Fine Woodworking titled "Design a Chair that Fits like a Glove" by Glenn Gordon.  The article has a very cool chair-fitting rig.  I may build one for this project.  In the meantime, I quickly hacked together this setup (I still need to attach the swivel base):

It is not nearly as fancy as the rig in the article.  Nonetheless, I find it pretty revealing.  The shape of the splat I borrowed from my couch.  The couch is a new Scandinavian style couch with great back support and curvature.  I took some 12 gauge electrical wire and shaped it to the shape of the back of the couch.  I then used the wire to quickly draw the curve on some 8/4 lumber.  It is a very good starting point.  I can move the  entire back forward or rearwards as well.

For the crest rail I've tried 2 orientations.  The first orientation is where the crest rail sweeps back following the curvature of the splat, similar to the blacker house arm chair:

The splat has nice lumbar support.  However, the bottom of the plywood crest rail sticks out which is very noticeable when sitting.   I tried moving the entire back forwards and backwards and I still experience the bottom of the crest rail digging into my back a bit.  Next I straightened the crest rail so it is more vertical and in line with the back of the splat rather than the front:

With this scenerio my back rests upon the entire crest rail rather than the very bottom of the crest rail - which I find more comfortable.  What kind of design follows from this?  Here is an absolutely beautiful chair designed and built by master craftsman Jeff Miller where the back of the chair sweeps forward at the top rather than rearwards as with the blacker house arm chair:

So I will explore the forward sweep in the context of the Green & Green design motif.

Green & Green Settee - Finished

Here is the Green & Green inspired entry-hall settee fully clothed just before delivery.  Fun project!