Metro Morris Chair

[Dominic Carpenter]

Well, I finally started work on my bow arm,Metro Morris chair, a contemporary Stickley design on the classic. I thought I would post some pics as the process unfolds. The pictures included are of the basic box of the chair from the rear view and the stack of milled Walnut waiting to become slats. All four Walnut legs of the chair are double splayed and the stretchers, arms and back are Cherry. I am not working from plans so I have just taken some measurements off a classic Morris Chair and worked off a picture posted on the Stickley website. So far so good. I guessed at the angle for the legs (3 degrees front and 6 degrees back) and put a 1" splay on the front and outside edges. I still need to do work on the box including mortising for the slats, but wanted to get it dry fit to take a look at it. I have my bending forms build and will begin the arms soon.

[Joe A Faulkner]

Nice. I like your assembly table too!

[Mike Wilkins]

Had to turn my head 90deg to the left to see the photos upright.

[Dominic Carpenter]

Sorry about the photos. Sometimes I don't know which way is up.

[Dominic Carpenter]

My wife won't give up her half of the garage, so I put projects anywhere they will fit! The bigger the projects the harder it is to find a place for them. This one is a little difficult to move by myself so my helped me get it up off he floor. We had snow coming and there was no way my wife's car was staying outside.

[Dominic Carpenter]

Well, spent some time today shaping the tenon shoulders on the slats to match the curve of the side stretchers. I tried several different ways to do this, but in the end I took my marking knife traced the curve from the stretcher then used my trim router and a 1/4" straight bit to cut the tenon by hand. I snuck up on the knife line until the fuzz disappeared. It took some time, but they all came out pretty good. I also cut the arch on the front stretcher and milled the wood for the bent arm form. It doesn't look like much progress, but the slats took a lot of time. I plan to glue up the first arm tomorrow and the second Monday or Tuesday. Then the fun beings, cutting the tenons at the top of the double spladed legs. This design calls for flush cherry wedged tenons.

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[Dan Jung]

Great job so far.
I'm anxiously watching for more updates.
I will be starting my chair this spring.
Mine will be very close to yours minus the side slats.

Dan

[Brian Williamson]

Love the design!

[Phil Thien]

I, too, have been enjoying following your progress. Please keep us up to date!

[Terrific work, BTW, but that pretty much goes w/o saying, except I just said it.]

[Pat Barry]

This is very nice work Dominic. Its going to look great when complete. I think the cherry and walnut are a great combo. Are you planning to go with leather cushions?

[Dominic Carpenter]

I'm not sure about leather or fabric at this point. I was considering fabric, because my wife saw a nice pattern she liked. I would like leather, so we'll have to see. I just finished the bow arm lamination, cut them to width and length and have marked the curve of the bow arm on the top side stretcher. That's as far as I got over the last couple days. I anticipate cutting the tenons on the legs for the arm mortises shortly. I will post more pics when I get that on the way. Honestly, that is the part that scares me to death, but I plan on taking my time and not get too aggressive. I'm glad I've taken this on. It has taught me a lot about working with angles. Unfortunately, I made a one big, dumb mistake early on when cutting the legs. It hurts when you realize you cut a 3"x3"x28" piece of walnut wrong! I had to sit and clear my head after that one. Luckily, I had more stock than I needed, so I was able to mill up another leg.

[Dominic Carpenter]

Well, my time working on the chair was shortened this weekend by a pounding headache on Saturday, but I did make some progress. As you can see, I got the arms on the chair with a little modification. Instead of two through tenons on each arm, this chair will only have two up front. The tenons will be sanded flush with a Cherry wedge. But the rear tenon was boogered up by me and a careless day at the mortiser. Because they are ugly, they will stay unseen. I also left some meat on the upper stretcher to seat it into a dado that I will make in the bottom of the arm. It will provide another glue surface and make the joint nice and clean. There is a perfect 1/8" gap front to back. I cut the tenons on the band saw and cleaned the curve with a knife and chisel. The arm seats very nicely on the legs. Overall, it worked out very well.
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[Dominic Carpenter]

I'm back from vacation and looking forward to diving back into the project. Today, I routed the dado in the underside of the arm, milled the back and the began bending the first slat for the back. Not much additional progress to see yet, but here are a couple photos. I have removed the slats that go in the side panels because they are time consuming to put in every time I take apart the and reassemble the chair. I still have some fine tuning where the leg meets the underside of he arm. A little filing will bring them together nicely. I also need to cut the taper on he back of the arms and drill the peg holes to recline the back.

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[Dominic Carpenter]

I'm back in the shop and glued up the majority of the chair today. I debated on title bond or epoxy. I wanted a longe open time due to the time it takes me to assemble the slats in the side of the chair and I have a couple tendons that are a little loose. So I went with System Three T-88 epoxy. It gave me plenty of open time. Not too hard to work with, but can get messy if your not careful. Anyway, it is together and I have several details to still complete.

[Dominic Carpenter]

Here are some of the details that I finished yesterday. I had the tapered cut offs laying around from the legs and decided to make the corbels from them. I thought their taper made a nice touch that matches the taper of the leg. These are the little things I love about not working from plans. I'm glad I saved them. I also made and mounted the corner bracing and slipped the chair back into the frame. I' nearing completion. I plan to laminate some Cherry and Walnut and make two back rest stops that are a little different than what is usually seen on this type of chair, but still keeping with a contemporary Arts and Crafts style. image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg