Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 11...........

The clamps are off and the final sanding has begun.....: -)

Well..........the rockers have just been final adjusted and now have been epoxied and clamped.  They must sit now overnight to dry before we begin the remaining final sanding and then finally the multiple coats of special finish.

In these photos you can see I have clamped directly over each leg and joint to ensure a good bond.






Stay tuned for more updates soon......:-)

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For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/

Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 10...........

The rockers have now been drilled and are dry fitted with the dowels.  Next step will be to epoxy the rockers to the legs. Then all the finish sanding begins.    





Pretty comfy...I just couldn't resist.......:-)


Suppose I should now go work on the rockers.... :-)

Not that anyone is counting, but we have 55 days or less than 8 weeks to go...

The headrest has been glued, clamped, screwed, and plugged.

The back splats are allowed to float freely in the mortises to allow for movement and expansion and therefore not glued.

I added a couple extra boards that I molded and fitted to the bottom of the seat to provide a bit extra support. I know it is over engineering, but the cargo will be precious and Grandpa wanted no chances for failure. Humor me here....I actually think it adds to the uniqueness of the chair myself and will add it to all future chairs.

Sanding is progressing well and will dry fit the dowels for the rockers once a little more sanding is done on the chair and the rockers.



We are getting close...Looking really good if I do say so myself...

Stay tuned for more updates soon......:-)

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For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/

Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 9...........UPDATED......

The rockers are now being fitted to the bottom of the legs....

Once they match...... the dowels will be cut and the epoxy applied to hold them in place....

then the finish sanding will begin......only 57 days to go...

Here is the completed first rocker.  The second rocker is in glueup and tomorrow will be planed, squared, and rounded  to size and shape.
Soon....... we will know if they know how to rock, or if I do........  :-)

Here are the strips being glued up on a form to the shape of the desired rocker.  Lots of clamps and glue..... It is amazing to be able to bend and shape this beautiful walnut .........With all the clamps and the mold and the strips this is very heavy...

.

Here are the walnut strips which were cut to form the rockers.

Ten strips each 1/8 inch thick, 1 1/2 inches wide and 53 inches long, for each rocker.....

These were cut from a solid piece of walnut and re-glued in the same order as they were cut, making them look like a solid piece of wood.  By cutting the strips and molding them into shape you get much more flexibility, than if you were to cut the shape out of a solid piece of wood.  very cool concept.... 

Here the arms have been glued, screwed, clamped and now they are free...
 The headrest is almost ready to be glued, screwed and clamped into final place.

The final sanding of this portion must be done before final glueup because once it is glued you are not able to get in in between all the spalts.












After trying several different arm shape, this set of  arms  was chosen, then glued, screwed, and clamped into place. 

These are the bloodwood plugs I created and glued into the holes over the screws. I think it adds a touch more of contrast to an awesome chair.....If i do say so myself..(The future new owner also totally agrees)

STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT UPDATE...........................................

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For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/

Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 8.....

Headrest and the splats have been fit together and the arms are still in progress.

The mortises for the head rest have been cut and here I am refining the splats to fit the holes...





Stay tuned for more updates soon......:-)

****************************************************************

For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/

Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 7.....UPDATE

 UPDATE
Well the clamps did come off and I sanded and shaped all the splats.  Then I decided to spend the rest of the day sanding areas that would be covered up once I glued more.  It will allow me to have a more even sanding job.  Tomorrow the headrest will get mortised and the splats cut to length..  We will see how the rest of the day goes.....  Cheers!!!
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Today.... These clamps come off and the arms will be be doweled, glued, and screwed on....  

The splats will be further shaped to match the mortises in the seat and then mirrored to the headrest.

Here the legs have been shaped with a bevel and now are being glued and clamped.....

Prior to the glueup 1/2 inch holes were drilled into the top and bottom of the front legs and the bottom of the rear legs for the attachment of the arms and rockers.
The tops of the front legs were given a 10 degree bevel to position the arms at the correct angle.


The white board at the top of the back is only a spacer to help align the back legs.  It will be replaced with the headrest, which will be mortised to hold the top of the spalts once it has been centered to match the seat.

Somewhere in that process I will begin cutting the strips which will make up the rockers.

Here is a jig I created to hold the back splats while they were being sanded, edged, and sized to go into chair back mortises.

Once the splats came out of the form they had to be planed to the proper width to match the mortises and also rounded over on the edges.

They will be cut to length to match the desired height of the headrest.

Once installed they free float in the mortises to allow for flexibility and movement.

Back splats fresh out of the forms and awaiting their turn in the process.

They are 3/8 inch thick, 1 3/8 inches wide, and over three feet long.  The splats were created by laminating three 1/8 inch strips on a form to give me the lumbar bend that is needed.

Once the headrest is positioned the lengths will be adjusted as needed.




If you would like to see what Splinters is doing on this project right now go to the live Shop webcam.  Webcam is operated when work is being done in the shop.

Stay tuned for more updates soon......:-)

****************************************************************

For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/

Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 6

New photo tonight.....will move it to part 7 later with more photos and story...

I dry fitted most of the parts late this afternoon. The only pieces left to create are the two rockers.    I am pleased......  This was the closing shot on the workshop live  webcam feed this afternoon......

Spalts, the back of the rocker with the awesome lumbar support, are the next part to be created.
To do this I have to rip a board into 1/8 inch x 1 1/2 inch strips.

For this project each spalt is made up of three of these strips.  There ae 6 spalts, so I needed to cut 18 strips. I built another jig to help push the narrow pieces through the saw blade.

Once the strips are cut, they are laid out like this, glue is applied and.....

 

Then they are placed in this special jig, clamped up and set aside to dry...typically  they must sit for at least four hours, but I am letting them bond for at least 8-10 hours.

Here is four of them glued up and out of the clamps and form. 

While the spalts are drying I begin the fun process of grinding out the seat from the boards I had put together before.

This is a very dusty step, so as you can see, I have a full face shield, dust mask, ear plugs, and I tried to cover as much skin as possible.







         

As you can see this creates a bit of dust.

The major grinding is completed and now ready to move on to the beginning of the sanding  and shaping process.






Stay tuned for more updates soon......:-)

****************************************************************

For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/

Scott Morrison inspired Custom Rocking Chair continues...Part 5

Here is the first dry fit of joints together.....Starting to look like a chair......a little bit .....

Woo hoo...Sorry It doesn't take much to excite me these days....   :  - )


Tomorrow I begin cutting the 1/8 inch strips of wood which will be glued up in a jig to make the spalts.  After that I start grinding the seat out.......





The mortises slots cut for the spalts in the seat.  I created a layout in CorelDraw and used a Shopboc CNC router system to cut the mortises.

Seat boards in glueup.............

Dado's in rear legs. The seat will fit in to these and each lip will provide support for the person in the rocker.

This is the jig that will help me cut the dado's in the read legs.

This is the seat with the notches cut out for the rear legs and the dado's cut for the front legs.

 

This is the rear legs cut to shape and squared for attachment to the seat.  I have just completed the jig to cut the dado's for them.  There will be two dado's cut on the leg.  One on the front and one on the side which will provide a support lip for the seat once it is in place.

 

This is the front legs in place with the dado's

 

this is the front view of the front legs and the lap  joint which was cut using the dado's.

more views of front leg joint









Stay tuned for more updates soon......:-)

****************************************************************

For more information about ordering your own custom board go to:
http://www.splinterswoodworks.com/