Green & Green Settee Part X

The arms of the Blacker House chair have a wonderful serpentine shape.  The arms for this settee copies that shape. 

My plywood template is too long to fit on the bottom of the arm so I trace out the shape on some heavy paper and truncate the front so it would fit.  Now, due to the inevitable vagaries of the construction process, the paper template is a tad too wide.  Much of that can be attributed to the bloating effect of pencil lines (or should that be "affect" - I get dreadfully confused with "effect" vs "affect").  No problem.  Trace one side so the front/back connects properly, then move the template a bit and trace the other side so the front/back on that side connects properly.  Nice thing about shaping is that there is some wiggle room and aesthetics rather than the necessity of a tight joint is the main determinant.

 

In the photo above note that one side is left uncut so it can be a reference edge on the bandsaw.  First task is to level the sides at the front.  I'm careful to avoid removing any wood at the bottom since it is perfectly mated with the leg.  I use a hand plane and plane across the grain.  Actually, I later switched to a large shoulder plane which worked better.

Using another paper template snippet, I trace out the front side profile and take it to the bandsaw followed by a sanding drum on my drill press.  While I am a fan of the rasp/file technique, using the rasp to smooth out the bandsaw marks in the photo below is a rather difficult procedure since the risk of blowing out the grain on either side is extremely high.  However, it can be done, as that is the way I handled the Blacker House arm chair.

I'm using 60 grit on the sanding drum.  It still took a long time.  One of these days I plan on getting an oscillating spindle sander which I think would work a lot faster with less chance of burning.  I only go up to 80 grit then call it quits as I'm worried about burning.   I use a file to clean up the sanding marks.  (Note that there is a risk of prematurely damaging the file since sanding grit can get stuck in the wood and do some damage to any edge tools.)

With the front shaped, I now shape the sides of the arm.  After taking it to the bandsaw I use a template and a shaper cutter.  Nice thing about the shaper cutter is that I can easily flip the cutter and reverse the direction of rotation to handle grain direction without modifying the template setup.  On a router table one would have to flip the workpiece and template and then switch from a top to a bottom bearing flush cutter (or vise versa).  However, given the shape of the front of the arm this would not be possible unless one had a very narrow router table or unless one flush cuts by hand.  At this point I would rather grab the rasp, file, and spokeshave rather than mess with a router table.

It is tough to get a perfect transition between the front that was shaped earlier with a handplane and the rear that is shaped on the shaper.  I use a spokeshave to smooth out this transition.  Also note that, as with the paper template, I had to adjust the template a bit when switching from one side to the other.

After sanding with 120 and 150 grit here are the arms.

Now is the time to cut the front spline groove.  On the Blacker House arm chair I chopped and pared that by hand, but here I will use the router table.  (Chopping and paring by hand is actually not that difficult and goes fairly fast.)  I have a narrow cutter so I need to make a couple passes to get the desired width (about 5/16"). 

Note that, given the shape of the arm, I was not able to cut all the way to my line.  I still had to chop/pare that part by hand.

Good time to take a break!

Green & Green Settee Part IX

There is nothing more to report on Mr. Pumpkin, as my wife turned the compost heap and Mr. Pumpkin is now pushing up daisies.  Oh well.

The arms for the settee are very much like the Blacker House arm chair.  I pretty much followed the same procedure for the settee.  Although there is an older post on how I did the arms for the Blacker House chair, I'll go ahead and repeat the process here, with the risk of being repetitive.  But hey, this is the internet where loquacity is cheap!

The wood for the arms came from the same 8/4 board as the front legs.  The arms have a step in the front.  In order to create this step I cut a "stub" from the front.  This stub will slide directly under to preserve grain continuity, as such (note that I have 2 templates for the arm - a plan view and a side view):

The arm slopes downward towards the rear post.  I need to determine that slope from the drawing, then transfer the angle to the stub.  Now,  it is important to taper the bottom of the stub so the grain flows down inline with the top of the arm.  In the Blacker House chair I did not do this and had to re-cut the stubs as the grain flow did not match and looked pretty bad.

 

Next I cut the taper on the table saw:

Note that after cutting the taper the front of the stub tilts back, as you see in the photo above.  On the Blacker House arm chair this did not sink in.  I cut the mortise in the stub and did not leave enough room up front.  The front tilted too far back and there was not enough wood for the front of the stub to be inline with the front leg.  I had to redo the darn stub a second time!  Fortunately, I had a lot of wood for the arms at the time to cut a second (and final) stub.  If doing an operation for the first time it helps to be liberal with your rough milling.

Here is the stub with the front trimmed and the mortise cut.  I'm using a floating tenon here, so I used the multi-router to cut a mortise in the bottom of the stub and the top of the arm.

 

Now it's time for the main part of the arm.  The arm narrows as it approaches the back.  I cut this taper on the bottom of the arm with a bandsaw and use a hand plane and shoulder plane to flatten it out:

 

The strategy for the arm is this.  Divide and conquer.  The arm has 3 joints.  I will cut the 2 most difficult joints individually, namely, the front mortise and the rear notch.  The third joint, where the top of the stub meets the bottom of the main part of the arm, is a simple surface joint and I will do this last to complete the joinery.  I've already cut and fitted the mortise in the stub where the arm connects to the front leg.  Now it is time to cut the rear notch where the arm connects to the rear post.  I use my template to locate the rear notch:

 

One thing to note - a subtle but very important detail regarding using a marking knife.  Even though I am using a fine marking knife to mark the location of the notch on the rear leg, in the photo above we see that the knife's bevel is facing up and away from the joint.  The joint will end up being too loose.  Believe me, this will happen!  The correct way to mark this joint is to clamp a small block above and below the arm, remove the arm, then knife the location of the notch.  The knife's bevel will then be facing inward toward the joint and not outward away.  The joint will be tight.  This makes a difference!!! 

Now, why did I not do this?  Because the arm has a taper.  While the joint will be too loose at first, as I slide the arm into the notch the thickness of the arm increases so that the joinery becomes nice and tight.  But, in general, do not forget that the knife's bevel should be facing towards the joint and not away!

Now that the 2 difficult joints are done, we complete the third joint.  At this point, it is a simple task of gluing the main part of the arm to the stub:

The arm is done!  Well, not quite.  We still need to perform the shaping.  Since this post is getting pretty long, I'll do that in another post.

Green & Green Settee Part VIII

This will be a short post.  It's raining outside and I don't feel like taking a photo of the pumpkin.  But rest assured, in the next post we will see the state of the pumpkin in its post mortem journey.

In this post I need to add a center rail to the seat.  The front of the seat is about 54" long.  This is a lot of span so the upholsterer recommended a center rail.

I cut mortises in both the front and back rails.  I do not want a long tenon that penetrates perpendicular to the length of the front/back rails.  I'm afraid this would weaken the rails too much.  Consequently, I am using double mortises/tenons in line with the length of the rails.  Below I have cut the mortises using the multi-router and a 3/8" bit:

By the way, in case you've noticed, the rear rail in the photo (which is actually the front rail) has some secondary wood glued on.  I believe it is ash.  When I cut the rabbet in the front rail the front rail warped along its length almost an 1/8".  Too much wood was removed for such a long piece.  (Needless to say, I was somewhat pissed).  Consequently, I milled some ash 3/4" thick and glued both together on a flat surface.  This straightened out the front rail nicely.  The front rail is now pretty thick, but it is also darn strong!   Cutting a rabbet 1" x 1/2" is a problematic procedure given the potential of wood movement.  Perhaps next time I will not cut any rabbets and simply glue on a secondary wood to give me the rabbet I need to avoid such wood movement mishaps.

I was going to use floating tenons.  However, I decided against this as the center rail is only an 1" thick and attempting to fit a floating tenon would be problematic.  So I am cutting integral tenons.

First I use a scrap to fit the bottom tenon.  My strategy is to carefully fit the top of the lower tenon to the mortise, then use the multi-router's 3/8" template for final setup to cut the full tenon.  If it is a bit heavy I can easily pare the bottom of the tenon (which is outside) with a shoulder plane.  I cannot pare the top of the lower tenon with a shoulder plane as there is wood above:

In the photo above we see a scrap piece.  The bottom of the tenon has been rough cut so it easily slides into the mortise.  My goal is to exactly fit the top of the tenon.  After a couple tries I get the top to fit nicely.  The multi-router has a plethora of stops.  As I get close I can move a stop by using a piece of paper and moving the stop the thickness of a piece of paper.  In the photo below we see the top of the lower tenon sliding nicely into the mortise.

Now that the upper stop has been set on the multi-router I set the lower stop by using a 3/8" template.  I do not actually use the template during routing.  I use it to simply set the lower stop.  Then I cut the lower tenons on both ends of the center rail:

Now I do the same for the upper tenon.  I use another scrap of wood to fit the bottom of the top tenon exactly, then use the 3/8" template for final setup and route the entire top tenon.  As it turns out, both were a bit thick.  However, I knew that the inside faces of both tenons fit the mortises exactly.  No need to pare there (and doing so would be difficult to say the least).  I only had to pare the outside faces of each tenon a bit for a final fit.  Worked out nicely.  I also squared the mortises:

Then I trim the top of the center rail to be inline with the rabbets.  Here's the center rail finished:

Green & Green Settee Part VII

In the post mortem photo above we see the pumpkin remains adorned with cherry shavings from when I hand planed the various parts of the settee to remove the machine marks.  Hand planing away the machine marks before glue-up makes sanding much easier later.  Wind and rain has scattered the cherry shavings around a bit.

The settee has a center stretcher.  The settee will be used in an entry way so I wanted to make sure that folks could slide their shoes underneath.   Initially I had the center stretcher centered underneath.  However, I brought it towards the front a bit to add more support to the front section.  I used the golden rule to place the center stretcher towards the front.

The center stretcher is a through mortise/tenon which will be plugged with a dowel from the bottom through the tenon to help secure it.  On top there will be a decorative ebony plug.  I cut the tenon first then the mortise.

I clamp the stretcher to the side stretchers to scribe the top shoulder line.  I use an angle gauge to transfer the angle to my multi-router to cut the tenon.  I use a 3/8" template to cut the tenon.

With the tenon cut I then re-clamp to the side stretcher to mark out the mortise locations.  I only have top and bottom shoulders on the tenon which simplifies the fitting.  Given the knife marks on the bottom of the side stretchers I use the knife to mark out the mortise end locations.  Later I will not worry about those knife marks on the bottom of the side stretchers.  I think it is pretty cool to find furniture maker marks on a piece of furniture, especially on really old pieces.

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the mortise process.  In a nutshell, I use my multi-router to cut the mortise through the side stretcher.  The center stretcher is contacting the side stretchers at an angle.  Although I can get pretty close to the angle I need on the multi-router, it is pretty difficult to get dead on for a nice tight fit given the angle.  Consequently, I cut the mortise using a 3/8" bit so the thickness is dead on but I leave the sides heavy and later chisel to the scribe lines for a tight fit on the mortise ends.  I need to square the ends anyway so this is not an extra step

After fitting the tenons, I then pre-drill a "starter" hole in the bottom of the side stretcher on my drill press.  After glue-up I'll finish drilling by hand all the way through the tenon and hammer in a dowel.  More importantly, I pre-cut a square hole on top for the decorative ebony plug.   After glue-up I will not have enough room to negotiate a chisel and hammer to cut the square hole, so now is the time to do this task.

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.