more chair stuff

[Ajcoholic]

Andrew, your work is beautiful, even in the prototype stage. I look forward to seeing the finished set. Are you going to do 2 captains chairs and 6 regular chairs for this set?

No arm chairs Don, just 8 sides.

The table will be a large rectangular one, with 4 legs in a fixed base style, with the tops extending over the base on either end with two large leaves.

[shilala]

Simply awesome. Well done, Andrew!!!

[dlcw]

I will be starting work for a customer in about 4 weeks on a 10' x 4' rustic hickory pedestal dining table with breadboard ends, 12 chairs (two captains chairs) and 10 bar stools. Should be a fun and challenging project.

Still trying to figure out how I'm going to manhandle the 4'x10'x1.5" thick top myself when it is all glued up. I know I'm going to do final flattening and thicknessing on WALLE.

[Ajcoholic]

I will be starting work for a customer in about 4 weeks on a 10' x 4' rustic hickory pedestal dining table with breadboard ends, 12 chairs (two captains chairs) and 10 bar stools. Should be a fun and challenging project.

Still trying to figure out how I'm going to manhandle the 4'x10'x1.5" thick top myself when it is all glued up. I know I'm going to do final flattening and thicknessing on WALLE.

Don,
You best get some help with that top! The largest single top my father and I did (we both worked on the dining room set) was about that size, but in 3" white pine. It took 4 men and a custom sling to carry the top into the house and set it onto the base. And I am not joking.

I have done a few 4' by 8' by 2" oak and maple tops in the recent past, and they were heavy enough for two guys...

[Ajcoholic]

Now we're getting somewhere...

Today I finally settled upon a back design. I like Sam Maloof's stuff a lot, and draw inspiration from the hard & soft edges he uses a lot.

For the legs, all transition from round on the bottom back to rectangular at the seat, and then the back legs from the seat up are half round.

The back I tweaked the drawing file to better fit the concave top and scalloped bottom. I am pretty impressed with myself, I managed to do the drawing in Aspire without asking for help (the back is a complex curve sweeping both side to side and top to bottom now following the outer profiles and matching radius on the backside).

Here are some pics...

I have one more prototype to make (have all the parts almost ready for assembly) I shortened the seat depth by 1.25". I had a number of people try it out, and for shorter people like my wife, the seat depth was just a wee bit long. For me, it was perfect but I'm 6' with long legs.

Here are pics I just sanded and oiled the chair... will lacquer it and keep this one for myself as a sample.









And that is how I go from a concept to a final design... what you dont see is the 3 or 4 rejected backs, and legs. Just keep at it until you are happy with the design. And it feels great.

[Ajcoholic]

Here is a detail of the crest rail side edges...



And, of the final back design as it comes off the shopbot (with the ends trimmed on the bandsaw and cleaned up with the sander)

[bbrozo]

Wow. That is beautiful. Definitely studio quality...

[dlcw]

Sweet!!!!!

[Ajcoholic]

Thanks Bill... its funny how you take a piece of wood, shape it a bit and knock off a few edges... and it turns into a chair!

It really is a simple design. I like this style of chair, that uses a heavier seat to attache the legs and does away with the stretchers. Simple, clean yet sturdy.

Like I have stated several times in the past year since I bought my Shopbot Buddy... it is for doing jobs like this that is excels - combined with Aspire, you can so easily create a shape, cut it out and work with it, change things on the fly, etc.

I bet my time to prototype a chair like this is 1/4 the time it used to be (or at least 1/3). And, for producing 4, 6 or 8 more - the time savings are very significant. My time can be spent doing the sanding and shaping, vs the tedious marking out/bandsawing/cutting mortises etc.

Thanks SHopbot!!

[COBOB]

AJ, you are an Artist. Absolutely an Artist.

Bob