Today I started on the final shaping on the headrest for the rocker. Photo below is the roughed out coopered headrest.

 

I had to plane down the glue squeeze out because the next step is to joint one end of the headrest and I need a relatively unobstructed surface to ride against the joiner fence.

 

There, all clean now.

 

Now that one side is cleaned up pretty good I made one end of the headrest nice and flat for a good reference surface for the band-saw operation.

 

One end is nice and clean now.

 

I traced a nice arc on the rough end with my pattern I use for all the rocker headrests. Remember I need the clean end to ride on the band saw table.

 

I hung my 3/4" 3 TPI re-saw blade on my 14" band-saw with riser-block. And I cut on the pattern line.

 

My band saw is well tuned, it has to be in order to make cuts like this. I am however looking for a set of new guides, these are a tad worn. But they seem to be holding up fair for now. I can saw veneers with my 14" Grizzly Bandsaw, it's a good saw.

 

 

With my sanding block sawed and shaped to the same radius as my headrest, I need to sand the lumps out by hand and also level the surface, this is a long process, it typically takes about a half hour or more to get this arc nice and smooth with zero imperfections and lumps. I use 60 grit for this process.

 

I can get a ton of leverage when I clamp it up to my bench and I am able to exert body weight down onto the surface.

 

Thanks for following along!

Thanks, John. A great pictorial essay. 

If you're getting slices like that one from the saw now, the guides may be redundant.

That's a really thick cut and was there any bowing or blade wander at all? Of course a sharp 3/4" blade makes a big difference. 

One nice thing about the Carters, once you have it set up for the blade you use, there's never a need to adjust it. In a day of rewsawing white oak, I was constantly adjusting those cool blocks. 

That looks great! How long does it you to build one these chairs?

That is so cool John, I have been trying to figure out how to do that for some time and I had my mind wrapped around sawing it out of a thick piece. Thanks for posting.

Herb

really like your style...

 

a lot...

KUDOS...

Very well done.  You keep it moving right along.

6 hours ago, Gene Howe said:

If you're getting slices like that one from the saw now, the guides may be redundant.

That's a really thick cut and was there any bowing or blade wander at all?

Gene, no blade wander but then it's sharp, and a best with 3 TPI.

My guides work great when resawing, but when I put my 1/4" blades up on the BS then they wander, I have investigated this issue to no end, without launching into a long story, new guides are needed.

6 hours ago, Chips N Dust said:

That looks great! How long does it you to build one these chairs?

Kelly, I can build a rocker in 5 weeks of weekends if un-interrupted.

This rocker, has been waiting in the wings for a long time, as you can see I started the series with many of the components already constructed, that's because I actually started this rocker about 2 years ago, and events and life kept me from continuing on with it. I have been sidetracked many times and well, you know how it is. I am gearing up my shop once again for chairs, I can see my shop heading in a direction now, it's a good direction, and it involves mainly chairs and sculpting and hand made tools.

5 hours ago, Dadio said:

That is so cool John, I have been trying to figure out how to do that for some time and I had my mind wrapped around sawing it out of a thick piece. Thanks for posting.

Herb

You bet Herb, I am glad we could spur the creativity and ideas along! A little cool secret for getting those headrests coopered are these little guys known as "Pinch Dogs", thus the holes you see in the headrest at the end grain joints. They have a ton of holding power and they are very easy to use, very archaic, but worth their weight in gold for odd shape glue ups. I used no clamps for the headrest, just these little guys.

 

4 hours ago, Stick486 said:

really like your style...

a lot...

KUDOS...

Thanks Stick....

41 minutes ago, HandyDan said:

Very well done.  You keep it moving right along.

It is moving that is for sure Dan! Thanks for following!

John, for blades of 1/4" and smaller, you need the Carter Stabilizer. You should research for your particular saw. You may not need the guide system.

As you know, mine is a Shopsmith and I had to do a complete change over. You may not need to.

At any rate, it's a 15 minute job (or less) to switch between stock and either of the Carter systems.

Edited October 22, 20169 yr by Gene Howe

 Great job John, coming along nicely.

Assuming that there is a draft at the glue joints, how did you determine the angles to get the arc you needed?

1 hour ago, Gene Howe said:

At any rate, it's a 15 minute job (or less) to switch between stock and either of the Carter systems.

Gene, the stabilizer, I have seen it but I kind of just threw it to the side because I have had my head set on a new guide system. But it may work. But, are you saying if I want to change between blades, for example going from a 1/2" to a 1/4" I'll need to also install the stabilizer at the time of a blade change? And it takes 15 minutes correct?

Awesome John...enjoying the learning journey immensely.

Almost as good as being in your shop with you...now if you can get this site to replicate the wood smell...

Thanks for taking us along.

20 minutes ago, John Morris said:

Gene, the stabilizer, I have seen it but I kind of just threw it to the side because I have had my head set on a new guide system. But it may work. But, are you saying if I want to change between blades, for example going from a 1/2" to a 1/4" I'll need to also install the stabilizer at the time of a blade change? And it takes 15 minutes correct?

That's on my saw, John. The stabilizer REPLACES the guides. Depending on your saw's configuration, the time may be less. Maybe, all you'll need to do is pull the stock guide and insert the stabilizer.

For me, it's not a biggie because when I change to a smaller blade it's going to be on for quite a while. 

Edited October 22, 20169 yr by Gene Howe

1 hour ago, DuckSoup said:

Assuming that there is a draft at the glue joints, how did you determine the angles to get the arc you needed?

I am not familiar with the terminology "draft" Duck. I'd love a definition in this case, thanks!

 

As far as the angle goes, it's the same angle for every chair, it never changes. But how it is determined is by the angle of the faces the entire headrest joins too. Imagine the top of the rear legs, and the headrest joins to the top of the rear legs at the inside top of the rear legs. The inside top of the rear legs are canted out 20 degrees each for a total of 40 degrees. In the image below of my cherry rocker I squared up in red the joint I am talking about, both joints in those locations are cut at 20 degrees, for a total interior angle of 40 degrees. I have six sections to my headrest, with 5 joints, divide 5 into 40 degrees you get 8 degrees per section, but since we have two sides to cooper for each section, you'll have to divide that further by two, so now we'll have each side of each section must be cut at 4 degrees.

 

Now before all that happened, there is a designer out there by the name of Hal Taylor, as much as I would love to take credit for this chair design, I can't. Hal Taylor is one of my chair mentors along with Russ Filbeck and Kerry Pierce.

But this specific design belongs to Hal Taylor, the design was created by him, and the angles were predetermined by Hal Taylor. And according to Hal Taylor, he came up with this degree by just playing with it, and he arrived at 20 degrees on each leg, to form a comfortable roundness to the back rest area.

20 minutes ago, Grandpadave52 said:

Awesome John...enjoying the learning journey immensely.

Almost as good as being in your shop with you...now if you can get this site to replicate the wood smell...

Thanks for taking us along.

Take the smell of walnut, and multiply that by 10, Claro is stronger, and I love it!

16 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

For me, it's not a biggie because when I change to a smaller blade it's going to be on for quite a while. 

I'll have to research it further Gene, because the time for change over could be a negative. I can hang blades on my bandsaw up to a dozen times in a day when I am really working (really working?) ya right. But you get my point. But I like it, it is compelling, and less expensive! I'll research, thanks for pointing me in the direction Gene.

 

if I had enough room and funding for a second band-saw that's the way I'd do it, but not.

13 minutes ago, John Morris said:

I am not familiar with the terminology "draft" Duck. I'd love a definition in this case, thanks!

 

 The inside top of the rear legs are canted out 20 degrees each for a total of 40 degrees. In the image below of my cherry rocker I squared up in red the joint I am talking about, both joints in those locations are cut at 20 degrees, for a total interior angle of 40 degrees. I have six sections to my headrest, with 5 joints, divide 5 into 40 degrees you get 8 degrees per section, but since we have two sides to cooper for each section, you'll have to divide that further by two, so now we'll have each side of each section must be cut at 4 degrees.

 

  Worked as a helper in a pattern shop years ago and the pattern maker used the term "draft" to imply angles which I tend to use from time to time.

  I used the same formula when I made this and was just curious if you had a different technique. My problems were that the pieces were to small ( 3/8-5/8) for the angle so I left the small ones straight and cut the larger angles at 18* to get my circle.