Progress on the "Birth of Mary" Chair

Things are going well.  Finished all the fitting and the upper rail joinery.  The decorative elements on the upper rail are moderately indistinct, so I improvised a bit.  Three holes, with carved concave edges, similar to Gothic tracery carving (but a whole lot simpler).

Here's the current status of the chair.  It pretty much looks like a frame because that's what it is.  Once the seat goes on, it'll miraculously transform into a chair.

Round Post Joinery

One of the questions I get (along with the head-tilt) when people look at turned furniture is "how do you make the mortises in something round?"

Well, you could hold it in place and freehand drill it.  Or, you could make one of these and do it on the drill press.

Cutting the second set of holes

It's basically a series of blocks cut at angles and glued to a base board.  All of the blocks are cut exactly the same, so they automatically center whatever is put in the middle.  My original set up for this is HUGE and is ungainly, so I decided to make a much more minimalist jig.

Cutting the first two holes is easy, just line up the bit with the incised line (what, you thought those were just for decoration?) and drill away.

What you see in the picture is cutting the second set of holes, which are 90 degrees from the first.  To make sure the holes are at 90, I put one of the chair rails in place and use my speed square (the gray triangle thingy) which has a level on it.  I put the level on the chair rail and adjust the rail up and down until it's level.  This guarantees the second set of holes is perpendicular.

It takes longer to explain than it does to just do it.  It's pretty straightforward.   The biggest advantage for making them this way is that you don't have to mark up your pieces.  The leg is almost at its finished state.  The last thing I want to do is mark it up.

First fitting

I had already put the mortise holes in the back posts, so it was time to do a fitting.  A couple of the rails are a bit thick at the joint, so some adjustments will be needed.

The observant will note that the front top rail is lower than the side rails.  This is for 2 reasons.

1 - It strengthens the joint since the holed for the rails won't meet
2 - Comfort.  A woven seat is more comfortable if the front rail is down from the side rails. It keeps the rail from pressing on the underside of your leg quite so much.

Next up - decorative drilling!

Birth of Mary Chair pt 2

Today was working on the back legs/posts of the chair.  It's hard to tell exactly what's going on in the picture, but it appears to be a combination of beads, fillets, and coves.

If this was a turned leg, it would be pretty quick to do.  However, this is in a square post, which means saws, gouges, and a mallet.

Layout

The layout lines are more for guidelines and getting the saw depths correct.  The gouges are really what determine the curves (at least for me).

Cutting the depth lines

Roughing to the lines with gouges

Basically, this is a case of rounding the beads with the inside of a #9 gouge and then removing everything that doesn't belong on the sloped section starting with aggressive cuts and then smoother and flatter gouges.

The two legs, roughed out

Test layout of back

Then I made the upper back rail.  It went so quick, I forgot to take any pictures.  It's still rough, straight from being sawed and the curve hasn't been smoothed down yet.  The tenons are cut, and are pretty much ready to go.

Next up are mortises and cleanup.