Taking a step back

After twelve blog posts and probably 10 full days of work spread over a month of elapsed time, here's where we are: all of the component parts for the two chairs are ready to move to the next steps. The legs and stretchers are mostly finished, the spindles and bows are 3/4 completed, and the seats have a lot of work (almost all) left to do.

Two chair kits!!

It's funny, that doesn't look like that much work. These chairs are around halfway(?) done now.

The sequence from here on is all about assembly and finishing:

1. Drill the angled holes in the seat for the bow, spindles, and legs
2. Ream the leg holes to make the conical mortises discussed in the last post
3. Cut out the basic seat shape on the bandsaw and then carve the seat! This is the most fun!
4. Measure and drill the angled mortises in the legs and stretchers
5. Assemble the bottom of the chair - woo hoo, we now have fancy stools
6. Cleanup the tops of the legs which protrude through the seat top and smooth the top of the chair using scrapers and sandpaper
7. Finish the spindles and fit them to the seat
8. Finish the bow, measure and cut tenons on their ends and fit them to the seat
9. Drill holes in the bow and fit the spindles to the bow
10. Assemble the upper part of the chair
11. We now have chairs! Have a beer or two :)
12. Paint and oil the chairs

Almost each of these is worthy of its own post, so we are far from done... :)

You are not allowed to have a blog post with only a single picture :). So check out these cute stools:

Designed by Peter Galbert and others, and built by me. These are called "Perch stools", and are very comfortable. They allow your pelvis to tilt in the proper way to support your lower back. Way, way simpler than a complete chair. They use all the same techniques used for Windsor chairs, but without an upper assembly are much easier and faster. The little one is for my shop, the taller one is for the kitchen counter.