More furniture...

[gitano]

It's a long story I won't bore you with, but I am getting to some long over-due promises. Among which is to build an ensemble of furniture for my house. (You may recall the built-in book case and shelves.) There are four pieces to the furniture ensemble:

The coffee table:


The Morris Chair:


The Craftsman footstool:


And the Craftsman Futon:


I am building two of each except the coffee table. So far, I have completed one of the footstools, and am in the final throes of the first Morris chair.

Here are some pics of where I am at the moment. I'll start with a sequence of pictures of the footstool.

The legs showing mortises for rails and a practice piece to make sure the setups are right on:


All of the pieces laid out prior to dry-fitting in prep for glue-up


All pieced get sanded and finished (stained) before glue-up:



And the finished product without the foot-pad. (We're waiting for the upholstery fabric to arrive.)


When I drilled the holes to pin the tenons, the drill was just a hair "large". When I bought the dowel for the pins, it was just a hair "small". As a result, it didn't fit the way I wanted it to. So... I made my own dowel from some left over flooring material I had. It was called "Australian Bullet Wood". God only knows what it is, but it is VERY hard and very brittle. Here's making that dowel.


Here are some pictures of the chair.
The joinery is 100% pinned mortise and tenon. (Actually, now that I think of it, there are screws to hold the cleats that the seat of the chair rest on an the pad of the footstool.) That makes them strong as a brick fortress, but it also mean NO margin for error. Every joint is linked to every other joint in terms of dimension and angle.










It's been a real beast with the angled armrest. That means angled mortises in the armrest and angled tenons on the legs. (Lotta swearing heard in my shop of late.) You notice the 34 spindles - each with a tenon on each end and a mortise in each rail. Each spindle requires four cuts to cut to width; two cuts to length; eight cuts for the tenons, and each face gets hand sanded. Took me four and a half hours to mill and sand 17 of them for one side.

There are still a lot of small pieces to complete. I have to fine tune the fit of the front and rear rails, make several "pins" for the adjustable back, glue the corbels on the right side, and "finish" and glue the thing together. God willin' and the creek don't rise I should be able to finish this chair - less the padding because the fabric hasn't arrived yet - this week. Next is the futon.

The point is: I've been pretty busy lately and it looks like I will be for the foreseeable future. (At this point today, I have 42 hours in the chair alone.)

Paul

All photos from cell phone.

[22hornet]

Great work Paul! You must have the patience of a saint to do all that work. I wouldn't be able to do all the joining properly. At best though I would have ended up with additional fire wood!

[gitano]

Thanks 22Hornet.

I could never charge by the hour for my work! There's an old saying that goes like this: "The difference between a professional and an amateur is that the professional knows how to fix his mistakes." I've got the mistake-fixing down. However, there's more to being a professional; at least a good one. You have to be able to work fast AND do good work at the same time. I fail fairly miserably on that second point. At a paltry $35/h the cost of this UNFINISHED chair would already be $1470! And that doesn't include the lumber.

If you ever feel you need a lesson in patience, try making something with lots of little spindles with tenons that fit into twice as many mortises on two opposing rails. I am quite certain that I set each of these sides up AT LEAST 10 times. If the upper rail was rectangular instead of tapered, the setup would still be challenging, but with the taper, there is no way to clamp the the two rails together. I am going to make a dry-fitting jig before I start on the second chair!

Paul

[j0e_bl0ggs (deceased)]

Had it been me this would have turned into kindling a long time ago...

Superb job there Paul.

[LvrLover]

This is why good quality furniture costs a fortune.

[gitano]

This is why good quality furniture costs a fortune.

That CAN be the reason, but a lot of good quality furniture is "machine" made yet commands "hand" made prices.  The fact is, machine-made furniture is usually BETTER quality fabrication because the machines can make a million repetitive cuts EXACTLY the same, and square corners are SQUARE. I'm lucky if I can do three repetitive cuts in a row exactly the same.

Some people appreciate the variability of hand-made furniture. I appreciate tight joints and  square assemblies. It's more impressive when those tight joints and square assemblies are hand-made, but I don't pooh pooh machine made stuff IF... it is made with quality materials and is of quality construction methods. It's almost impossible to find machine-made furniture with mortise and tenon joinery these days.

Paul

[drinksgin (deceased)]

Purty work!
I am going to mention your shop is ALMOST as cluttered as mine and I am sure you could get it up to my standards, if you really tried.

[gitano]

I'd have an uncluttered shop if I had someone to come in and do the cleaning.

Paul

[Hunterbug]

Nice. One of these days I'll see them in person.

[sakorick]

I would have a uncluttered Sunroom if someone would clean it. Your work is impressive and I am envious. Regards, Rick.

[recoil junky]

I'm lucky if I can do three repetitive cuts in a row exactly the same.


Paul

That's three times more than I get.

RJ

[gitano]

The woodwork on the chair is finished, but we're still waiting on the upholstery fabric to arrive. I'll wait to post more pictures until its upholstered.

Now on to the futon...

Paul

[rockinbbar]

Heck of an undertaking and excellent craftsmanship, Paul.

The Amish are jealous! :D

[davidlt89]

just excellent craftsmanship!!!! way above me my friend!!!

The Amish are jealous!

We have several amish communities up here and they are top notch craftsman!!! But boys they are expensive. And talk about hunters and trappers!!! God bless.

[gitano]

Heck of an undertaking and excellent craftsmanship, Paul.

The Amish are jealous! :D

Thank you, Barry, but I assure you that the Amish would not be jealous. The camera hides 'a thousand sins'.

We have an Amish "outlet store" up here in The Valley. (Isn't "outlet store" an oxymoron when used in connection with "Amish"?) It's quality stuff, but they are VERY proud of their handiwork.

Paul