Here’s the story on the chairmaking video. I got almost all the clips sorted (I have yet to finish editing the Harvesting Hickory Bark section) and uploaded. Turns out that I can’t post it all in one week anyway – I have a 20gb limit. From what I can tell on the vimeo-on-demand gig, for me to upgrade the price jumps from $240 a year to $600 a year. That was an easy decision – I’ll post the last few sections next Monday January 23.
So if you want to have at it, there’s about 18 “chapters” posted now. If I did it right…(so far, it seems like it went all right. I’ll iron out any kinks if you run into them…) It’s 5 1/2 hours now – and about 3 more to come. Or 3 1/2 – I had an idea for a conclusion this morning when I woke up.
A short trailer – that tells you almost nothing about what’s in the video series. I hope that its title will indicate what its contents are. The trailer, such as it is, is below. It’s more of an introduction to the introduction. (whoops – I hit “publish” too soon on this post, the trailer won’t be ready til 7am – fifteen minutes from now. Go have breakfast.)
The video series is on vimeo-on-demand, like the joined chest project. It’s $75 – you can stream it, download it and I don’t know what else. I’ve spent a lot of time clicking buttons lately, time to make some shavings. Here’s the link:
PETER FOLLANSBEE: JOINER’S NOTES 
Peter;
Thanks for making this video. It’s one of those “have to have” products. With regard to JA chairs, I have a question. Not sure if this is the appropriate place to ask, but I’ll try. In trying to do your “relatively clunky” or JA’s svelte legs, is there any reason one cannot use shorter, let’s say 7/8″ mortise and tenons? More of a safety margin for mortising. Thanks
I wouldn’t go shorter than 7/8 for sure – but I bet that’d work.
Peter – when I took a class with Alexander in 1995 we were instructed to use 15/16″ tenons and mortises. I think the reason was concern that Nathaniel could not watch every student and there was concern that we might not stop boring before breaking out the far side of the post.
Hi Larry – there’s so much to chew on in that comment! Nathaniel couldn’t watch every student – what about JA? Caught napping or playing the piano no doubt. 15/16ths is probably a good compromise in the debate of mortise-depth/post diameter. Shorter than that would probably begin to make the joint weaker. Back when JA was mad for spoon bits the goal was to get maximum depth to the mortise – thus longest possible tenon. Doing this chair video project has my mind reeling with stories and dead-ends, etc. Thanks for checking in Larry.