turned chair assembly pt 1

joiners' saddle & post

Here’s some more steps in the turned chairs I’m making. I assembled a front section for one of the four-legged chairs, which will have a woven seat. To bore the holes for the front rungs I fix the post on my workbench with a holdfast. The post is cradled in two Vee-blocks, what Joseph Moxon called a “joiner’s saddle” in the seventeenth century. There’s many ways to hold these things for boring, but I have taken to this one – I find it comfortable. Then I use a brace and bit, in this case a 3/4″ reproduction spoon bit. The square is to help align the bit; I line it up, bore a little, then squat down to sight the square & bit again…then make any necessary adjustments, and keep boring. The only complaint I have with these repro spoon bits is that the shaft is too short. Seems they are made for Windsor chairmakers, and the rest of us are stuck with them…I’d like it longer.

 Once the holes are bored, I drive the rungs in place. The seat rung is not turned on the lathe, it’s just shaved with a drawknife. Then I start driving them in place. Usually I work without glue; this chair I glued, it’s going to Arizona, so I figured the glue won’t hurt. 

drawkinfe work

 

boring front post

 

chair assembly begun