Kingston Library Chairs - Cafe Chairs & Upholstery

As I mentioned in our blog posting yesterday, the upholstered seats are finished for the Kingston Library chairs.  So we snapped a couple pictures this afternoon and have attached them below.  Matt also felt a little left out in the last posting, so we staged a shot of him, attached below, posing with one of his cafe chairs, which are coming along nicely.  We also started gluing up the birds-eye conference table and the wood looks great!

A nice spring joint in birds-eye maple.

Matt and one of his cafe chairs under construction.

Kingston Library Work Continued

Well, we're still working away on the Kingston Library project.  The chairs are 99% finished, except for a little more finishing work and the highly anticipated branding event using our new branding iron (see photo below).  The upholstery work is completed and the seats look nice.  We still need to get a photo with the upholstered seats in the chairs.  I'll try to get one and post again soon.  The table columns have been turned and the cutting and fitting of the legs are well underway.  The tops are all glued up and are now with CNC Router Solutions in Dover to get cut into circles and the edge profiles shaped.  We've also scoured northern New England and the great North Woods looking for some nice birds-eye maple to make the conference room table top.  Our normal suppliers didn't have what we needed, so we ended up searching elsewhere.  I travelled to Rumford, Maine last weekend and visited Premium Specialty Hardwoods.  Nice selection of figured maple and other domestic wood, but they just didn't have what we needed at the time.  So Gary and I went on a road trip to Vermont where we finally found what we wanted.  We picked up a number of nice boards at a reasonable price.  We missed our turn on our way back and ended up crisscrossing through south western New Hampshire on a nice afternoon.  Good road trip and we got to see a part of the state that we rarely visit.  Really pretty.  I didn't get a photo of the wood yet, but will have to post one soon.  It will be nice!  Action photos of our recent work are below!

Our "BRAND" on a test piece of maple.

Michael at the lathe finish sanding the table columns.

Gary and I building the jig to cut the flats on the columns for the table legs.

The jig in action of the shaper.

Another shot of the jig in action.

Cutting the joinery on the table legs.

Chairs in the finishing shop.

Michael cutting mortises in the cafe chair legs.

Gary vacuuming saw dust off me after sawing a few parts.
I had more hair up there before this operation.

Windfarm on a ridge somewhere near Acworth, NH, I think.
Google maps was a bit sketchy on the phone in this area.

Kingston Library Chairs - All glued up

We've still been at it the past couple weeks, working hard on the chairs for the Kingston Library.  The chairs glued up really nicely.  The joints are tight and the chairs generally came together fairly easily and square.  The sheer number of chairs has been challenging.  Gary and I have been joking that we get each step of gluing up or fitting parts down to a science by about the 25th chair.  The dovetailed center stretchers went in pretty quickly, but the finishing up with glue clean off and sanding has been slower going.  I've attached a few more photos of the building action below.

A detail shot of a side seat rail's wedged through tenon in the rear post.
  As Matt likes to call it, "the 200 year joint." 

Nice morning at the mill.  On the way to get donuts at Monkey Business!

Morning light on the glued up chairs.

Gary "Dubba" G. fairing the thumbnail on the top edge of a stretcher.

Sawing the dovetail socket for a center stretcher.

Center stretcher dovetail finished off.

Library Chair Construction - Recent Progress

We've been busy trying to get the library chairs finished up and haven't had much chance for posting on the computer.  I've attached a number of photos of some of the action below.

Jack sawing sticker sticks to length

Chopping corners for the slip seat upholstery

Shaping the crest rails

Gary testing out the fit  

Testing out the bifocals, cleaning off glue

Gary scraping glue during a chair glue up

Preparing another chair for glue up

Glued up chairs

Kingston Library Chairs - Front Assemblies

Matt, his father Michael, Gary and I are still plugging away on the chairs for the Kingston Library.  We've been fitting and assembling the front legs and rails and are looking forward to gluing up the whole shootin' match.  Gary and I glued up piles of the front legs and front seat rails after sawing and hand planing slight curves on the inside faces of the legs.  Matt has fit all the side seat rails to the back posts and cut the rabbets for the slip seat upholstery on the shaper.  Michael has been fitting the glue blocks to the front rail assemblies.  Matt also has bandsawn the crest rail shapes into the chair back assemblies and is ready to flush cut them on the shaper.

More action photos of our recent progress are below:

Michael installing glue blocks.

Matt sawing out the crest rail shape on the glued up chair backs.

Matt laying out the crest rail shape on the chair backs.

End view of a wound side seat rail after processing in our jig below.

Our jig for the sander to put wind in the side seat rails
so they land flush with the canted rear posts.

Matt admiring his handiwork in a standing chair.

Gary cutting kerfs for wedges which will secure the side seat
rail tenons in the rear posts.

Chair Making - Cutting Compound Angle Tenons and More

Our work has continued on the Kingston Library chairs this week.  We've been gluing up the backs and making the front assemblies.  Matt's father Michael has also joined us for some of the action and Gary has been giving us a huge hand since the beginning of the project.

Here is a photo of Michael at the tablesaw ripping the front leg stock.

Here is a shot of Gary and I cleaning off glue from the back side of a chair back assembly.  We initially thought our splat pieces were bending under clamp pressure and we used the quickclamps to flex them back.  Our solution to getting at the back of the assembly for cleaning up the glue was to use our friend Evan's router jig for a support.  Turned out the jig was useful for something, Evan (that's for messing with my chisels).

Matt has been hard at it cutting the complex joinery to connect the side seat rails and stretchers to the rear posts.  The jig wedge is set to the "cant angle corrected by the trapezoid angle" which I keep written on a sample block so we can always look back to remember how to do it.  Please feel free to post questions if you would like more information about cutting these joints and the set ups.

Kingston Library Chairs - Fitting Parts

Work is continuing on our chair project and we've been grinding away on fitting and faring the posts and back pieces.  There are a lot of parts!  Below are a few more action shots of the work in progress:


Here's a shot of Gary scraping the mill marks and faring the corners of the back splat pieces.

Here's a shot of Matt trimming shoulders and preparing the parts for glue-up.

Here's a shot of one of our new holdfasts in use holding down a chair post that needs faring of an inside curve.

Here's another shot of the holdfast during a critical chair manufacturing procedure.

Kingston Chair Crest Rails and Seats

Over the past few days, we've been working at making the parts for the Kingston Library chair backs and seats.  We've been shaping the curved back pieces on the shaper using a plywood pattern.  In the case of the crest rails, which need a slightly angled back surface in order to land flush with the tapering post, we've been using hand tools to adjust the surface off the shaper.  I've also finished up saddling a prototype for the slab seats.  We will send the prototype to our friend in Maine who has a duplicating router that he will use to rough out the remaining seats.  A few photos of the recent action in the shop are below.

Matt on the shaper with a crest rail part.

Gary and Matt sorting back pieces by color and grain pattern.

Tools in use for finish shaping the crest rails.

Using the old time tools for part of the seat shaping.

The finished seat to be used as the pattern for the duplicating router.