Template day at the chair factory...long with lots 'o pics....

[Terry Hatfield]

And the saga begins.....

I embarked on the start of the 10 dining chairs today. I'm building them from a plan that was in Wood Magazine in March 2004 (issue 154). They are mission style chairs so they have tons of mortises and a few pieces with curves. Hopefully they will look something like this....



The plan calls for most of these parts to be cut on the band saw and then sanded to the lines but with so many to build, I though I'd make templates to hopefully speed and streamline the process. I spent much of the morning making all the necessary templates for the various pieces and the corresponding mortises in each. Much easier to just match the template to the parts adn draw the mortise locations instead of laying them out individually. I won't be tapering the back slats as it shows in the pic so no template needed for them in my situation.



I'm cutting the pieces to rough size and then attaching the templates and flush trim routing them. I actually made 2 rear leg templates. One is the master for the routing and one is for the mortises. I screwed the template to the leg blank in the mortise locations. I was a little leary of just 2 sided taping these together considering the pieces are super hard white oak and 1 1/2" thick. ONe the part is routed adn sanded, it's just a matter of laying the mortise template on the part adn marking for the mortises.

Here you can see the hole for attaching the template in the mortise locations.



I bought a template bit from Rockler that could handle the thickness of the legs and installed it in my table with a start pin for added security. I'm cutting very close to the lines so there is very little to rout away but it still makes a heck of a mess. I sacrificed some tuperware for the makeshift dust hood.



And here is the first finished rear leg. I'm going to build 1 chair just to make sure that I have everything down correct and then do the rest in a production type run. These mortises are a real pain because of the angle of the pieces. It takes a different setup on the mortiser and assorted spacer blocks and such for every mortise. I'll be glad to be doing them in bulk once I feel conficent that I have everything right.



Only 229 more parts to go and I'll have 10 chairs Thanks for looking. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I know I am. Felt SO good to be in the shop today!

Terry

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Looks like a lot of work Terry! I'm sure jigging it will speed things up!

[Terry Hatfield]

I wanted a challenge. I think I got it.

t

[Joe Chritz]

I have 4 to 6 chairs on the to do list. I will be watching intently.

With that many mortises I would think about a router jig and plunge router. Might be faster and easier to make a dedicated jig for each mortise. Of course I don't have a mortising machine so I would have more reason to do so.

9 at once will be a fun project.

Joe

[Frank Drew]

Very interesting, Terry, thanks for posting your process.

It illustrates why chairs can be such a pain -- there are very few right angles. It's hard for a shop that doesn't specialize in chairs, and already have all the jigs and templates, to make any money from them.

[gary Zimmel]

You'll be able to do these chairs in your sleep after getting 10 done....
Great start on your chair herd Terry. Looking forward to the progress pics.

[Bobby Hatfield]

Hey Terry, save those templates, cause I only need 8, but will deliver the cherry for them. Table to be started before hot weather, just after a set of maple cabinets. Bobby

[Bill Huber]

I think the templates are the only way to go and then when you need to make 10 more chairs you will have them ready to go.

Is your template bit a shear type bit, I find that I really like them a lot even better then the spiral ones.

Good luck and post the finished set.

[Terry Hatfield]

I have 4 to 6 chairs on the to do list. I will be watching intently.

With that many mortises I would think about a router jig and plunge router. Might be faster and easier to make a dedicated jig for each mortise. Of course I don't have a mortising machine so I would have more reason to do so.

9 at once will be a fun project.

Joe

Joe,

It won't be bad with the mortiser except for these rear legs. Once I get them all made, then I will be able to do one mortise at a time using that particular setup adn just move through the process. The front legs all have mortises spaced the same distance from the edge of the leg so one setup will do all of those. Still a lot of mortises no matter how you make them.

t

[Terry Hatfield]

Very interesting, Terry, thanks for posting your process.

It illustrates why chairs can be such a pain -- there are very few right angles. It's hard for a shop that doesn't specialize in chairs, and already have all the jigs and templates, to make any money from them.

That is exactly why I'm building using this plan. Most of these joints are at 90deg angles! I would not be doing this if every leg was some sort of compound angle. Still it's a bit overwhelming to think about making this many.

t

[Terry Hatfield]

Hey Terry, save those templates, cause I only need 8, but will deliver the cherry for them. Table to be started before hot weather, just after a set of maple cabinets. Bobby

LOL... I'll UPS the templates to you when I'm done.

[Terry Hatfield]

I think the templates are the only way to go and then when you need to make 10 more chairs you will have them ready to go.

Is your template bit a shear type bit, I find that I really like them a lot even better then the spiral ones.

Good luck and post the finished set.

I'm using this bit, Bill....

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...r%20trim%20bit

Seemed to work great as long as you are only taking off too much material. I probably should have bought a double bearing bit like the ones that the guys were talking about in the other thread but this one seems just fine as long as I go slow and cut the blanks close to begin with. I tried to do one that was not cut nearly so close to the line and there was some tearout. Lesson learned.

t

[Don L Johnson]

Enjoy the process. I built a 10 chair set of Mission Style chairs; you are right, there are a lot of mortise and tenons. If you need a reason for purchasing the Leigh FMT jig, now would be an excellent time.

[Terry Hatfield]

Enjoy the process. I built a 10 chair set of Mission Style chairs; you are right, there are a lot of mortise and tenons. If you need a reason for purchasing the Leigh FMT jig, now would be an excellent time.

Hmmmmmm.........better not. I spent all my money on lumber for this project. In addition to the 10 chairs the total project consists of a 96x45 dining table all out of 8/4 white oak with 3x3 solid legs and big 2 piece china cabinet mostly out of solid wood as well. Would love to get an FMT but that will have to wait.

t

[Jim Becker]

Well, nobody can accuse you of choosing simple no-brainer projects! LOL (One of these days I need to get back to the set of six chairs I started in 2003...I'm a little, um...behind...on that project, ahem....)