Hans Wegner chair- trying to figure out plans- it's all Brian's fault

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Oooh, oooh.... This just happened. What if I put f-holes in the back? I love it. Please vote with your comments.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Yesterday I resawed the wood and cut out most of the parts.. Sorry, but I do not have a saw good enough for this, so I broke the neander code of conduct and used a bandsaw. In my defense, a treadle saw would have done about the same. Actually I was really wishing I had made the handle for the Wenzloff rip saw blade that I have. I could have done a much better job resawing with it.

By the way, cutting that 14' long piece of mahogany really hurt, but it is for a good cause, and I still have 10' that will go towards two kayaks I am building.

[Brian Holcombe]

Nice Malcolm, it's coming along nicely.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Clamping is no fun, but planing is a breeze with a LV low angle jointer. By the way, the splat will be just fine at 1" thick. I was worried it may be too thin to shape to the curve of the back.

By the way, as I don't have time or tools to fashion the Wegner hardware, I am just going to use a wood dowel with a drilled piece of wood for the front hinge. I have a full set of LV dowel makers so I can make the dowel quite thick to support weight. (Not to be confused with a dowel plate- these are the ones that work like the tennon cutters and you feed stock into them and it comes out round.). I'll make the dowel out of mahogany to match.

[Brian Holcombe]

I would imagine that hoop used has a purpose as well, I would guess that it's due to the distance from the hinge to the top of the leg being shallow. The hoop likely helps to mitigate the chance of both the hinge deflecting and pulling away from the leg as well as breaking out of the short grain the leg.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Tought I would post an update. Nothing has happened. :-) having a 20 month old, a job where I often travel, and teaching on Saturdays has made this difficult. I am traveling next week to present this. Oh my. I guess I had better get busy. I took the day off tomorrow to get'r done.

Epic fail on my part was trying to split up the top rail (the coat hanger) in order to save having to use a huge piece of mahogany. I am scrapping that and doing over the coat hanger. I am laminating two 2" thick pieces of mahogany. This gives me a 4" thick piece to work with. The original plan was glue the wings to the middle strip, but that leaves end grain and makes attachment difficult. Honestly I do not know what I was thinking. The only way to get this thick wood is I have to buy a 12 foot long board. They do not sell shorties. 2x10x144 ack! I can use it for the next project.

I made a mistake chopping a mortice but it is fixable. Working at midnight took its toll on my thought process and I measured backwards. The rail will still cover the mistake. Only we will know! It was so good to be chopping mortices again. Oh how I love chisel work. To me it is the essence of woodworking to be tapping a chisel along a scribed line or hammering it into a mortice.

The seat looks awesome so far. I get to use my new toy from Veritas on this one. I am really proud of how well the two parts mated. I love the look. I got the book matching down the middle that I wanted but no end grain on the "pants hanger" part. I also think it sets the seat off well to have the contrasting woods.

image.jpgimage.jpg

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Picked a nice piece of ribbon stripe. 2×7×169.5 got 15% off for a slightly crooked one. 20150224_155136.jpg20150224_161626.jpg

[Brian Holcombe]

Coming along nicely!

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Thanks! I will sleep well tonight knowing I changed the top rail (coat hanger). It would have ruined the piece the way I was going to do it. The blank for the new one is gluing up now. I am hoping to have this ready for assembly tomorrow.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Glued up a 4" thick chunk of mahogany today and made sure to match the grain so that the glue line doesn't show. Oh my am I happy. It looked like one piece of wood after cutting. I misjudged my thickness and the face ended up with some glue line show g but the grain matches perfectly. More on that later.

Sorry folks, but I had to cheat this one on the band saw. I cannot cut 4" thick mahogany by hand with this deadline. Forgive me. I have sinned! :-)

I am very happy because I drew the outline but free handed the curve and then freehand shaped the whole thing. It is symmetrical. Hooray.

20150225_102655.jpg20150225_111447.jpg20150225_111441.jpg20150225_115658.jpg

[Prashun Patel]

Following this with relish. So are you saying when you resawed the blank you cut through the lamination? If yes then beware. Those glue lines have a way of showing up in short order especially when cut on a bias like that. Further, A visible glue line may mandate perfection in that contour because it frames the penetration. If not symmetrical, it can look like a mistake.

You are more skilled than I so perhaps i am reading it wrong or not realizing you have already thought of this.

[Christopher Charles]

I too am very familiar with the phenomenon of "nothing" happening

Thanks for taking time to share the progress. Build threads are my favorite, esp. those with a bit of sin. Good luck with the deadline.

c

[Malcolm Schweizer]

Following this with relish. So are you saying when you resawed the blank you cut through the lamination? If yes then beware. Those glue lines have a way of showing up in short order especially when cut on a bias like that. Further, A visible glue line may mandate perfection in that contour because it frames the penetration. If not symmetrical, it can look like a mistake.

You are more skilled than I so perhaps i am reading it wrong or not realizing you have already thought of this.

No, you are quite correct. I planned it so the glue line was on the back and with the taper it would barely be noticeable. Well I went too deep shaping and the glue line showed up on the front lower middle. Fortunately it is a perfect match. I was careful to match the grain when I glued it up. I cut both pieces from the same board and flipped them face to face so that the grain was matched. The second image in my last post is the bottom and you can see how well the grain is matched and how thin the glue line- that is the bottom but it gives an idea.

Actually the plus side is as you said the glue line mandates perfection, but it also makes a good reference line for shaping. This is where building surfboards pays off. Shaping fair curves eventually comes naturally. Fortunately due to the curvature the line makes a hump that mimicks the shape of the top. I took a picture but it is too large to upload. I used epoxy so the glue line will practically disappear with varnish. I will ensure to get pics when done. It is not nearly as bad as it sounds. I have to press on. Just put the baby to bed and giving her time to get into a deep sleep so I can chop the mortice in it.

[Brian Holcombe]

Very nice work! Wegner's mastery of blending carpentry and furniture design really shows through as you build the piece, there are quite a number of details that present themselves upon the detailed investigation of the piece as you progress through it.

The wood you have picked is really a fine choice, it will shine!

[Prashun Patel]

Got it. Epoxy. Good tip. Face match the glueup. Great tip. Noted.