I took a sculpted rocking chair class!

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi!
I took a sculpted rocking chair class during the first week of May. It was held at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. I have tried to make a few of this kind of rocker and they turned out okay, but not great. So I thought it would be a good idea for me to take a class. I have attended this school in the past and I feel it is a great place to learn. The class was seven days long and met from 8 am. to 5 pm. everyday, most days went long past 5 pm.
We had to bring lumber with us that had been dimensioned according to a cut list given to us by the school. I think everyone made their chair out of walnut or mahogany.
Since this is a custom fit rocker, the first day was spent measuring our selves and drawing out the patterns on thin hard board. Once the chairs parts were defined, we started to transfer the pattern shapes onto our lumber.
From this point on it was a consistent exercise in making parts and fitting them to previously made parts. Although we were able to make all of the parts and to shape some of them, we did not glue the chair together at the school. We all have more shaping work to do at home plus the final sanding and applying of the finish. The class was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. I learned a lot of techniques that I will be able to apply to my future chairs.
I attached a few photos. The finished chair is the teachers and was used as an idea of what to work toward. The rough chair is mine and it still has to be put up onto the rockers. The other one is the pieces of the pattern laid out on the side profile of the chair.

Bye, Pete

[Pete Lamberty]

One of these is a photo of our teacher giving a demo to the class. The other is of my progress in scooping out the seat.

[nick brigg]

better see some more pictures of your progress!!!(because im tryign to find to figure out how to make one without taking a class)

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi Nick, I hope you have better luck figureing it out than I did. Like I said, I have made three of these and then decided to take the class. You might be interested in getting the Sam Maloof video. It shows a lot of how to make one of these chairs. Also there is a Yahoo Group on Sculpted Rocking Chairs that you should join. Lots of help there. Ask all the questions you want.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rockin...group/messages

Pete

[Ted Owen]

I took that class last year, Pete, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The most important information for me was learning how to fit a chair properly to an individual; as well as learning how to balance the chair so that when the sitter picks up his/her feet, the chair does not move at all.

Also, I can't believe I never before thought of doing all the joinery while the pieces are square, before any shaping. That idea has carried over to other types of projects.

Looking forward to seeing Marc and everyone again this year, once with Steve Latta and once with Mack Headley.

Best, Ted
(OK, I admit it, my chair's not done)

[Pete Lamberty]

I was surprised when Marc said that 70% of the students never finish their chairs.

[Ted Owen]

I vowed not to be one of the 70%. But so far I am.

Best, Ted

[Charles Jackson III]

Very nice!

[Jim Becker]

That looks like a great class to take!! Thanks for sharing it and I do hope you continue to finish your rocker and post progress pictures until the bitter end!

[Pete Lamberty]

Well it took me almost two years to finish this chair. I am extremeely happy with the way it turned out. It's very comfortable and I am sure I will be useing it for the rest of my life. Even though it took two years I would say I really only have about 150 hours of work in the chair. There was just a lot of life that got in the way of me working on it.

[Pete Lamberty]

One more photo.

[Vince Shriver]

Pete, This is a handsome chair, I'd even say a very handsome chair - great job. At 150 hours plus the nice wood, I'd imagine a chair like that would be a little past the price of a SawStop. I think that class would be very interesting.

[Pete Lamberty]

Thanks for the kind words Vince. Although I have no intentions of selling this chair, I have thought about what it cost to make. The class itself was a $1000.00. The walnut for the chair was $500.00. The hotel for seven nights was $350.00. The school isn't to far from home, about 220 miles, so gas wasn't too much extra. Then there was the eating out two meals a day. So I figure the dollar cost was about $2000.00. Then you can figure whatever you want for the labor. Anyway, for me, the cost was well worth it. I am thankful that I had the money to do it. Now I will start on another rocker with the intention of selling it.

[Doug Hobkirk]

Pete -

Gorgeous chair, beautifully finished. Thank you for making the effort to update the original post with the finished product. And thanks for freely discussing the costs and hours - these are important issues that most people seem reluctant to discuss.

How do you shape and contour the wood? The contour lines on the seat look remarkably crisp. How many of your estimated hours were spent sanding?

Wow again - a true heirloom chair. Congratulations!

[Pete Lamberty]

Hi Doug, Shaping the chair parts is the most time consuming job of making the chair. For me all of the shaping was done by hand. For the back slats, chairs legs, and back posts, I started with a Japanese saw rasp. This is a great tool for removing wood really fast. But you have to be careful because you can quickly remove to much. Make sure you wear gloves with this tool, it removes skin faster than it removes wood. After this tool I went with the Nicklson rasps #49 and #50. Then used sandpaper, 60 grit up to 600 grit. Some of the guys will use Foredom power tools or a die grinder. I may buy one of these in the future in order to speed up the work. The chair seat was done a little differently than the rest. In one of the first posts photos you can see a gouge. I used this to scoop out most of the wood. This tool is also used to make the hard line around the sitting area. In the photo you can see a white line. I just went real slow and tried to do my best. If you saw it in person you would see some errors. Then I used a angle grinder to slowly remove the gouge marks. Everything is shaped and sanded as much as possible before any of the chair is glued together. I hate to sand. I use a random orbital sander for as much sanding as I can. Then its all hand work. Did I mention that I hate to sand? I'm sorry to say that I have no idea how many hours were spent on sanding. I hope this has answered some of your questions. Peeet