Well I’ve taken to the next steps in life in general – I’ve started up (sort of) a new project at work, and I’ve built my first chair! Last year I had signed up for building a chair but as some of you are aware I had a issue that prevented my participation. However the class was offered one more time and I was able to get in. 3 days of seriously quick steps to 1) introduce you to the pieces parts 2) get you familiar with the process flexibility and 3) to actually get a chair done (but not with finish on it) after 3 – 8 hour days. Actually it was 2.5 8 hour days, but who counts 🙂

The class starts with the turned spindles pre-turned, the seat form cut out of 8/4 glued wood planks, and lots of regular spindles to be cut to length and trimmed with the spokeshave. Chopping, carving, sanding and trimming are basically the order of events. Drilling holes as dictated by the wood in the condition you have means that many holes are drilled by angles determined by eye – with primarily only the 4 leg inserts guided by a template. Once the four legs are in, the curved back, and the center back spindle determine where the arm spindles get mounted (and determine their angles). Most of the cuts are done with spade bits, to allow for more effective cuts. All the cutting and fitting is done just before assembly (PVC glue in this class) and since we’re inserting spindles into circular “mortises” we split and wedged the end points to ensure firm fits.

As you can see, I did finish the chair, but have also been swamped in classes and demo’s recently which surprised me, and kept me from posting! I’m trying to get back to 1-2 times a month going forward.