Chair modification pt. 2

With the legs cut out and surfaces prepped, it was time to undertake the only real joinery of this project: cutting the mortises for the seat rails' tenons. These were nine millimeter wide, and would have to be located on the same location as the original chair's legs.

On site, I marked the height of the two tenons using a knife and a square.

I then marked the dimensions of the mortise from the original legs. I don't have a mortise gauge, so I just used my homemade cutting gauge, taking multiple passes after marking both legs.

With the mortises marked, I took the legs to my workshop and marked the cut more heavily with a knife.

I chiseled out a recess to guide my cutting, and then drilled pilot holes with an 8mm bit, hogging out as much waste as I could.

Clearly I don't have a 9mm mortise chisel, or any mortise chisel for that matter. I don't even have and 8mm or 9mm bench chisel, but the 1/4" chisel did admirably for the ends and the width, while the broad sides were pared down with a 3/4" chisel.

The front rail fits just fine!

I took the front subassembly upstairs to mate it to the rest of the chair. The side rails needed to be cleaned a bit of excess glue, and the mortises lightly shaped, but the final fit is nice and tight.

In situ. Next: shaping the legs, gluing it up, making a seat, finishing.

Chair modification pt. 1

The first step in modifying this chair for our space was removing the front legs to see what sort of shape the tenons were in. Getting the legs off in good shape would also provide me with a model of what the replacement legs should look like.

This step had to take place up in the apartment, as I couldn't put a kettle on down in the storage area. A little hot water poured on the joint softened the glue right up.

The chair knocked apart without any trouble.

Here's the shape of the upper part of the leg I will have to reproduce.

I started by smoothing up the stock I got for the front legs. The pair I'd hoped to retrieve from a dumpster were buried under a ton of junk by the time I got back there, but I found a nice piece at a hardwood reseller right in the center of Stockholm. Working at a proper bench for once is a pleasure! This planing stop mortised into the benchtop was a revelation.

Being too wide, I needed to make it squarish, and started the long rip with my plow plane and a 1/8" iron to make a pair of grooves to lead the saw.

I sawed at the bench rather than pull the sawbench out from under the tool chest. I need to make a smaller sawbench to keep up front. The sawing took 15 minutes, and while it is hard birch I probably need to sharpen the saw. This is my converted crosscut to rip saw, and I haven't sharpened it since reshaping the teeth. I then got out the crosscut saw and cut it in half. Two legs to square up and get ready for mortising.

While I was sawing I clamped down the remaining part of the chair to remove the back legs. Here I needed to use a little toolbox saw as I was working at the bench and didn't have any space behind me.

As suspected, cutting off the back legs went right through a couple of tenons. 

These joints don't look too healthy, either. I'll have to take them apart, clean them up, and clamp everything together again. Then I'll cover the exposed mortises with a piece of felt or something for it to ride on when resting on the windowsill.

And here it is! This is what the chair will end up doing when completed. 

Vise installed

After the holidays I've finally gotten around to making headway on some projects. I'm gathering parts for an exciting project for later this winter, after the chair for the loggia. But everything depends upon getting the workbench finished.

I cut up a bit of ash countertop I had to make a new chop for the vise. Drilled 20mm holes for the threaded rods, and laminated the two pieces together up in the apartment.

The holes in the chop were made with a forstner, but to get the holes in the workbench face line up I chucked in this cheap 20mm spiral wood bit. That thing plus my 50m extension cord maxes this drill out, but it got the job done.

In situ. While I had power running down to the basement, I drilled a first holdfast hole. Sadly, the 1" hole was too small. I thought I'd checked this out with my calipers first! Anyhow, will need to plug that one with a bit of dowel in order to redrill it. Again, using forstners as that's what I have. My next size up is a 28.6mm, what is that, 1 1/8"? Will have to do.

Future project: chair modification

The "loggia" has quickly become our favorite room in the apartment. The kitchen sofa with proper cushions is very comfortable, and we have equipped the room with cozy lighting. My wife's folks recently brought down the round birch table, a very nice piece. But the room lacks seating opposite the sofa, unless one perches on the marble window sill.

We've had the idea of adding seating here by modifying a chair with extended front legs, and back legs removed behind the seat, so that it may rest on the window sill. The idea of buying a perfectly fine chair with the purpose of chopping up isn't very appealing, though, and with my current skill set it would be difficult (and expensive) to pull off a custom number.

I spied a pair of square section, tapered  birch table legs in a dumpster the other day, and thought that they may work for chair legs (the legs will need to be extended off a standard chair length by about 11 cm). Lacking a chair for the project, though, I left them where they were. The next day, however, I found a perfect candidate chair left out for garbage pickup in our neighborhood.

I first thought the chair to be birch, but on closer inspection I realize it's beech. Whatever it is, it's not in great shape, which makes butchering it for this project easier on my conscience.

The front legs are almost square section, about 40x40mm. The chair's been abused, as this busted mortise can attest.

Even this part of the back is cracking.

The plan is to:

• Make new, longer tapered section front legs and mortise them to accept the existing tenons.

• Cut off the back legs below the seat's apron, and level the side and back aprons.

• Refinish the entire chair with wax.

• Make a new seat, probably from plywood, foam sheeting, and a scrap of fabric.

Small bookcase pt. 8

For lateral strength, this project has until now relied almost entirely upon the strength of the joints. Given the thickness of the timbers and the cabinet's projected use, this isn't much of an issue, but it is something to consider in furniture design. Since the upper cubby now features a door, it only follows that the cubby should also be provided with a back, securing its contents and simultaneously adding a bit of rigidity to the structure.

I had an offcut of some 3.5mm birch plywood that fit the bill, and used a cutting gauge and my router plane to get the job done.

I marked off the thickness of the recess into which I would insert the plywood on the back.

And extended the cuts to the edge with a knife and square.

Setting the router plane at just over the depth of the plywood, I then used it to mark the depth of the recess.

And just pared down with a chisel.

And then cut everything to a uniform depth with the router plane.

I set the corner of the plywood in the recess to mark the size.

And laid out my cuts with a drafting square, because that's what I had in the apartment. Drat! opportunity missed to use the Schwarzian layout square.

Again, just using the dozuki here to cut to the line.

I set the panel in backwards to mark approximately where the nails should go.

I predrilled with a little 1mm bit in a removable chuck in my screwdriver.

And nailed it in place. I didn't have a nailset handy, so that will have to wait.

Back in place, with the door, still awaiting a hinge.

Small bookcase pt. 7

With the door assembled and mostly flattened, it was time to fit it to the case.

I needed to take about a millimeter off each side, and still lacking any kind of vise on my temporary workbench rigged up a couple of clamps for workholding purposes.

I needed to run upstairs to check the fit a couple of times, and then hit all the edges with the block plane a couple of swipes.

And smoothed the faces with a cabinet scraper.

And gave my new purchase a workout: a much-needed small dustpan!

In situ. Time for a hinge, and to do some final smoothing of the whole case.

Small bookcase pt. 6

So the whole bookcase was designed around the space for which it was destined, the material I had at hand, and a single decorative element: this plastic bead panel of a rose I planned on using in a door in the upper-right cubby. My daughter made the panel using a set of 30 different plastic beads and software converting a digital image to the constraints of the kit. It's about 15cm square, and gets sealed with a household iron. I like this modern decorative element, and see it as a sort of 21st century version of a pie safe tin door, or much-simplified decorative marquetry.

Until now, this project has been accomplished with a bare minimum of tools: a single chisel and saw, a mallet, and a no 4 plane. For the door, an optional addition to the project, I've moved into my basement workspace (now lit with a rechargeable worklight) and will use some more elaborate tools.

For example: the small plow plane. I used this to groove the stock I had for the door to accept the panel. The stock had nice straight grain and was just long enough (about 90 cm) to make four sides. If I screwed one up, there wasn't any extra to play with.

Once the groove was finished, I used my homemade miterbox to cut 45 degree angles to length.

And then the shooting board to trim to length and perfect the angles.

I thought I got the corners just about perfect.

But the glue up complicated things, and in the end a couple of the miters are a little gappy.

Also, I need to flatten the face and the back, as the corners were a little off. Miters are notoriously difficult to get right, and I suppose I got a little cocky after the relative success of my first attempt, and didn't have anything to specifically clamp the corners down. I think it will be fine in the end, but it's a skill I still need to hone.