Maloof Inspired Rocker, Charles Brock Plans 3

Last weekend I went over to my friends shop to use his Harbor Freight lathe, well, it had died. Apparently the motor had given up on its short, dubious quality life. Unfortunately for me I didn't know anyone else locally that has a lathe and I needed to turn the front legs for my rocker, so I did what any woodworker would do, I bought myself one, I mean, I really did need it to complete this project, really. So I went over to The WoodWhisperer's Amazon store because it really is a painless way to support a great site and to keep Marc able to keep supplying us with fantastic videos.

Once the turning was complete, and I was covered it Walnut chips, the front legs looked great in place and the chair is starting to look like a chair. Now onto the back legs, probably the most difficult part of the build so far. After creating the tapering jig that Mr. Brock describes in the book, I tapered the adder blocks on the rear legs to give the proper splay.

Then I cut the tenons on the table saw and rounded the inside corner on the router table. After a little fitting and fine tuning with my small router plane and some paring with a chisel the back legs fit nice and tight with just the right amount of splay.

With both rear legs in place and the front legs on it's really looking like a chair, tomorrow I'll drill some holes to attach the legs. Mr. Brock calls for a Miller stepped bit for the attachments of the front and rear legs, and also the headrest. I have some more cutting to do on the rear legs on the bandsaw and a little more shaping to do on the seat.

You'll notice the Rockler Bench cookies on my table, I've found these perfect for holding the coopered seat for shaping, in the DVD Mr. Brock uses what looks like a cradle custom made to hold the seat, but since I'm just making the one chair making a special jig to hold the seat seemed like overkill to me. I simply place the cookies on the table and set the seat on them, the cookies hold the seat securely when shaping and sanding. Next week, the arms, wish me luck.

"When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package."
- John Ruskin

Meditation Bench

This project is a meditation bench for my friend Jameela, its so a person can maintain a comfortable posture during extended mediation. I had no plan for this but I wanted an oriental feel so I added a cross stretcher with a slight arch and mitered ends at 10 degrees. After doing some research on the Internet I found that the seat should be angled at 10 degrees and the front of the bench should be between 6-7 inches. I had a nice curly maple board that was just long enough to get the seat and both legs out of in my stash. I cut the legs with a 80 degree angle on the top with the front 6 1/2 inches tall. I laid out for two through tenons in each leg and a notch for the mahogany cross stretcher. I cut a bevel on the top of the cross stretcher and cut notches to mate with legs.

I fit the cross stretcher in the legs and tried to visualize the best arch for the bench, I decided to start the arch on the outside of the miter and run it all the way across the stretcher.

I used an adjustable bow to lay out a pleasing looking arch and traced it, I cut it with the bandsaw and cleaned it up with a flexible sanding block.

The arched cross stretcher in place. I was very happy with the results. Now the hard part starts.

I didn't get any pictures of the process but I laid out the mortises using the tenons. I drilled out the waste and cleaned them up with some sharp chisels. Curly maple is a form of hard maple and its very difficult to cut and pare but if you take your time and are careful you can get good results. I eased the edges of the maple with an 1/8th inch round over bit but left the mahogany edges square.

I trimmed the tenons with a flushcut saw and cleaned them up with a block plane. I finished the top with a card scraper. I finished the piece with several coats of natural Danish oil and two coats of satin carnuba wax. I'll let the next few pictures speak for themselves.

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little. - Buddha

Stickley Footstool, Part 1

NOTE: Please be aware that the picture to the left is of a reproduction made my Kevin Creedy, I had thought the picture was from an auction catalog, it was also a Limbert, not a Stickley. I stand corrected.

This project is based on Stickley's "Smoker's Footstool", I guess back in the day when Dad got home he'd want to sit in his Morris Chair and puff on his pipe, basically smelling up the house and exposing his kids to the dangers of second hand smoke. Luckily things have changed somewhat in the hundred years since its debut and hopefully Dad's aren't smoking in the house. So I'm going to rename this "Reader's Footstool" as the drawer is a good place to keep your book safe and at hand.

I started with one board of 8 inch wide 4/4 quartersawn white oak and one board of 8/4 quartersawn white oak. I cut two lengths 18 inches and two lengths 15 inches. I jointed and planed the 8/4 inch stock to 1 3/4 inches thick and ripped 4 legs 1 3/4 inches square. I then ripped one of the 18 inch pieces to 1 1/2 inch, 4 inches and 2 1/4 inches for the top rail, drawer front, and bottom rail.

If you zoom in on this image you can see the cabinet maker's triangle that keeps the woodgrain aligned, this will help me keep the grain on the drawer in place with the top and bottom rails.
You will also notice that I used a dado blade to cut 3/4 inch long, 3/8 inch thick tenons on the ends all the sides but not the drawer front.

I reset the dado blade to 1/2 inch and ran a dado 3/4 inches from the top and 1 3/4 inches from the bottom on all four sides that will later receive 1/2 inch plywood. I used a bow to draw a nice arch on the bottom of all the sides and cut them on the bandsaw, cleaning up the sawmarks on the spindle sander.

Sometimes its just faster and easier to use a handtool to cut the shoulder's of the tenons, I could have used the bandsaw but I've found that it tends to over cut and leave a notch in the board, so I prefer the gentleman's saw.

I layed out the mortises to leave me with a 1/2 inch of leg sticking out past the sides. After installing the 3/8th inch mortising chisel and squaring it to the fence I aligned the fence so that if I ran each leg outside face towards the fence they would all be aligned correctly. Remember that the drawer face isn't mortised the whole width of the side but just for the top and bottom rail.

With the mortises cleaned out a little hand fitting with a shoulder plane gives the tenons a perfect slip fit. Here is the first dry fit, the next step is to cut the plywood top and bottom, install drawer guides and make the drawer. This project will be the perfect companion for a Morris Chair or anytime you want to just kick back.

"No man is good enough to be another's master." - William Morris

Stickley Coat Rack, Part 1

This weekend began the Stickley Coat Rack from the previous post. I spent a lot of time milling the lumber, the 8/4 Quartersawn White Oak that I had on hand was a little twisted and cupped so it began with a lot of work on the Joiner and with a Jack plane. Once it was close I ripped the stock down to just over 2 inches wide then let it sit flat on my workbench over night. The next day started with more passes on the joiner and to my surprise I ended up with two true square boards 1 3/4 x 1 3/4 x 72 inches.

I also milled some stock 1 1/2 inches thick for the feet and two pieces of 5/4 for the stretchers.

I made templates for the feet and the taper at the top of the posts out of some 1/2 MDF. I transferred the shapes onto the stock so that after the joinery I can cut out the shapes on the bandsaw.

The stretchers are through tenons so after cutting mortises through the uprights I cut long tenons on the crosspieces.

Here you can see how I cut the the shoulders off the tenons using the bandsaw.

After a little clean up using a shoulder plane for the tenons and a wide chisel for the mortises I did a dry fit of the stretchers.










Here are the through tenons in place, I marked each one so that I can trim the ends once I take it aparts and sand down the cross pieces.

Here is the dry fit of the of the uprights all done and waiting for me to come back next weekend. I need to decide how I'm going to join the feet to the uprights, shape and sand the feet and the cross stretchers.

"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see"

Henry David Thoreau

New Project!!!!!

Slow to get back into the shop after my vacation I was looking around for something that I really wanted to build, my neighbor Michelle is an Audiologist and came to me asking if I could make her a coat rack for her office. She said that she didn't have much wall space and wanted something that would hold a few coats.
I did some looking through my Stickley catalogs and found this. Its called a costumer and may have been originally intended to go in a bed room instead of the hall way but I think it will work great and looks really cool. I like the double tree design and it fits her requirement or not being too wide at 14 inches. The base is 22 inches across so it will only sit out 10 inches from the wall.

I only had to small pictures from my books and no plans so I searched around on the internet and found these pictures and more that show details such as the through tenons for the stretchers. I've also found some hardware that was close to these. What I have to figure out is how the base and the uprights are attached, I could either cut a deep bridle joint on the uprights or use a mortise and tenon joint on each foot. The rest is pretty straight forward. Any thoughts on the joinery for the bottom would be greatly appreciated.

"Do your work with your whole heart, and you will succeed - there's so little competition."

Elbert Hubbard

Stickley Music Cabinet, Pt. 1

I've wanted to make this Stickley Music Cabinet ever since I ran across one at an Antique shop a few years ago. This piece is something that has no equivalent in today's world, it is designed for a time when making music was a daily form of entertainment. It is made specifically to hold sheet music. I like the size of the piece, tall and thin without seeming out of proportion, I like the slight curve on the top edge of the sides, and I like the simplicity of it along with the detail of the through mortises. I also like the solid door that will hide the clutter inside. If anyone is looking for a stereo cabinet for a component system this would be perfect. The original had at least ten adjustable shelves and a keyed lock. The cabinet is 20 inches wide, 16 inches deep, and 46 inches tall, I'm only going to make 4-5 shelves but they will be adjustable. What I'm going to use it for is to store board games and various things that clutter up my living room.

Not having plans for this but knowing the dimensions this cabinet is simple to make. It is a simple box with the top and bottom being joined to the sides with through tenons. There is a kick board at the bottom that appears to be inset by one half of an inch. The sides protrude from above the top a few inches and there is a back splash that rises one half of an inch above the sides. Not being able to find any pictures of the back I'm going to go with a shiplap back which would be period appropriate for this piece. I guess a plywood back would be fine too especially if you are making it as a stereo cabinet and need to cut a slot for ventilation and cords to run through.

The first thing I did was to make a template out of 1/2 inch MDF, I plan to cut the mortises with my plunge router so I layed out the slots to fit a 3/4 inch router bushing. After drilling the ends of the slots with a 3/4 inch forstner bit I use a jigsaw to cut out the rest and then clean it up with chisels and files. I cut the relief for the base on the bandsaw and clean it up on the oscillating spindle sander and with a sanding block. I don't really need the template to be full height so I make it only 24 inches tall, I'll route the bottom then move it for the top.

Choosing some nicely figured boards from my stock I cut them to rough length and square the sides, I glue them up making sure that each piece has one clear side. Once the glue has dried overnight I scrape off the excess glue then run them through the drum sander to flatten the panels. I then use the template to transfer areas to be removed to the boards for the sides, taking care to choose the best sides for the exterior, marking the inside and front.

Placing the side panel inside up I drill two counter sunk screw holes at the level of the bottom shelf. These screws will hold the template in place while the bottom shelf will hide the screw holes once the unit is assembled. Clamping the template/panel combination to my work table I easily route out the mortises taking it in a few passes with a 1/2 inch straight cutting bit.

With the template still attached I switched to another router with a 3/4 inch pattern cutting bit this is when having a couple of routers comes in really handy. I have a Porter-Cable 690 motor in my router table, a P-C laminate trimmer for light duty, and two Dewalt 618 combo kits that get the job done. I usually keep one of these setup for my dovetail jig and use the other for everything else but this method seemed the most efficient set-up for this project.

Flipping the panel around I again drill two counter-sunk screw holes on the midline of the top shelf. I use the pattern bit for the slight curve on the top front edge, then the same bushing guided set-up for the mortises. I then repeat these steps on the other panel. With all the routing done I use a 1/2 inch chisel to square up the mortises. The top and bottom shelves were glued up at the same time as the side panels, I cut these to size (16x20 3/4 inches) and sent them through the drum sander but I ran out of time today so I'll have to leave them for next weekend.

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

William Morris

The Wedged Through Tenon

The wedged through tenon is another type of through tenon used in Arts and Crafts Furniture. The process for making the mortise is much the same as the previous post, except that once you get the mortise on the bench to clean it up you must flair the outside ends of the mortise out about one eighth of an inch. This will allow the tenon to be spread by driving a couple of wedges into it, this gives the joint holding power against being pulled back through the mortise. Once the mortise is ready and the tenon is cut you need to drill a hole about a quarter of an inch from the shoulders of the tenon, this will keep the split in the tenon from spreading once the wedges are driven in. The next step is to make a cut from the end of the tenon down to the hole.

You should now cut wedges that are the width of the tenon, they should be just a little longer than the relief cut on the tenon and just a little wider than the slope you cut in the mortise. I prefer to use a contrasting wood as the wedges are an important part of the exposed joinery, but make sure that you are using a hard wood. Since I use quartersawn white oak I usually make my wedges out of wenge or ebony.

The tenon can then be set in the mortise with a coat of glue on the faces and shoulders of the tenon. You must be ready to move along because you have a limited amount of open time with the glue. Start one wedge in the relief cut a quarter of an inch then start the other wedge, using a small block to protect the wedges gently tap them in a little at a time, alternating one then the other. You should end up with an equal amount showing on each wedge when you are finished. Don't attempt to pound them in flush, once them stop moving stop hammering, otherwise you will break the wedge off inside the mortise. Once the glue has dried carefully trim off the excess wedge material and sand flush. You now have a very strong joint that is beautiful as well, a joint that is an integral part of your arts and crafts piece, rather than being hidden its there for the world to see, to celebrate the craftsman that took the time to create it.

Gustav Stickley's motto was "Als Ik kan" it translates from the German to "As I Can", or, more to the point, "To the best of my Ability". , a worthy goal for us all.

The Through Tenon

The through tenon is probably the most important joint in the Arts and Crafts Style. One of the hallmarks of the style is that structural elements are used as decoration since the use of non-essential applied element are not used. Hence the use of of joinery elements to add a detail of interest to the piece of furniture. The through tenon can be cut flush with the surface and wedged, it can be left long and tusked, or in this example, camfered. The mortise is extended completely through the piece and the tenon is extended to protrude and then camfered to soften the edges. You will find this joint on everything from Morris Chairs to small cabinets, the example I'm working with here is from a Stickley small tabouret #603.

I am learning to use Google Sketch-Up, its a free 3-D design and drafting tool you can find here, http://sketchup.google.com/, so I thought I'd give drawing up this joint.

The first thing I did was to draw the leg, 20" tall, 1 1/2"x1 1/2" square. I added the Mortise 4" from the bottom, 1/2"x2".

I made the stretcher 16 1/2" long, 2 1/2"x1", with tenons 1 3/4"x1/2", this done I added an 1/8" chamfer around the end of the tenon.

I combined the two pieces and put a peg through to hold the tenon in place. Now, this seems pretty easy and straight forward, but I have to admit that it took me longer to draw this out in Sketch-Up than it did to make the real through mortise. I spent many hours watching videos on the design, click, build blog at fine woodworking, and reading the posts there, I also spent a lot time at the Google Sketch-Up site.

Today it was time to make some sawdust and really make a trough tenon and mortise, I broke out my plan for the Stickley small tabouret and gathered some 8/4 quartersawn white oak and some 5/4 quartersawn white oak, luckily I had some cut-offs from previous projects so I didn't get into my inventory. As many of you know I build almost everything in quartersawn white oak so I keep a couple of hundred boardfeet of the stuff around.

The first thing I did was to plane the 8/4 stock down to 1 1/2", next I ripped 1 1/2" legs and cut them to 20". After marking the location of the mortises on the best faces of the legs I used my wheel marking gauge to mark the sides of the mortises and also to score a line into the face to help minimize tear out. You could also use a marking gauge or just a square and a knife.

Whatever method you use, the goal is to define the edges of the mortise on the outside face so you can start the cut from here instead of from the inside face like you would in a ordinary mortise.

There are many methods and techniques used to cut mortises, I'm not going to go into each one, just tell you the method that I have learned to be the most efficient for me. I use a hollow chisel mortiser to cut the mortises first, then I will fit the tenons to the mortises. I line up the marked location with the chisel in my mortiser and run a test cut in some of the cut-off from the leg stock. Once I'm happy with the set-up I can quickly and easily knock out the mortises on all four legs.

You can see in this picture that the chisel travelled all the way through the leg, I use a sacrificial scrap under the leg to protect it from blow-out. This leaves you with a pretty good mortise, but you still need to take it to the bench and smooth it out with a sharp chisel, this shouldn't take much more than a little paring and smoothing.

I took a few minutes to mark out the tenon on a cross stretcher so that I could set up the table saw. I raised the blade to pass through the line of the tenon and used the miter gauge's stop so that the blade would pass right at the shoulder line. I cut the shoulders on all four sides of all four legs.

Next I used the cheek cut to adjust the blade so that the blade passes just inside the cut without hitting the shoulder. I adjust the tenon jig by eye, close to, but not on the line. I know that this cut will be fat, but close, after cutting both sides I test it in the mortise. By eye I decide how much over the tenon is and adjusted the jig accordingly. I find that I can get dead on using this method in just a few cuts. This way is much more accurate and less likely to leave you with a skinny tenon than trying to measure it and setting the jig right off.

With the correct width set I cut all of the tenons and take them to the bandsaw to make the edge cheek cut, I set the fence at the correct distance and run all the stretchers through.

I like to leave my tenons a hair wide then take a couple of swipes off each side of the face cheeks with a shoulder plane this lets me get a fit that's snug, but not so tight that you have to force the tenon through the mortise.

Once the tenon is in place I like to check the extra length and mark it at the face of the leg so that the chamfer doesn't protrude into the leg.

I like to remove the material on the disk sander with the table tilted down to 45 degrees. You could use a block plane but be careful as this tends to have a little blowout since you are planing end grain.

The complete through mortise and tenon with chamfer, this is just a dry fit of course. When the cuts are finished for the table and everything is sanded I'll spread glue on the inside half of the tenon and on the shoulders and knock them in place. Once the glue is dry I'll drill a 3/8" hole through the center, careful not to blow out the other side of the leg and hammer a walnut dowel through with a little glue inside the hole. I'll cut the dowels flush and sand them smooth. The dowel adds another decorative element to the joint and helps to hold the joint tight if you have any shrinkage in the stretcher. I will complete the table in future posts and have more posts that focus on the joinery that is used in Arts and Crafts furniture.