Lounge Chair 5.0
Front Assembly. Adding Splay.
(We’re in the lawless time of year. School break, between the holidays. Norms are suspended. I’ve started eating chicken noodle soup for breakfast…am looking forward to the rules and structure that follow January 1st.
Also, you’ll notice additional clutter. Misfit lathes, a shop’s worth of fluorescent lights, etc. This tools and equipment are from the cold storage space above the wood shop. We’re in the middle of renovations and all that stuff needed cleared out. What remains is in purgatory, awaiting its fate. Much of it needs the right owner. It will remain in view, bothering me, until it finds the right shop. I’m afraid that if I return it to storage, there it will remain, forevermore.)
Let’s get into it. We assemble the front of the chair.
The lounge chair is built in stages; front assembly, back assembly, full chair, then adding arms.
We’ll go cooking blog style today, with plenty of pictures and videos. I’ll do my best to limit the commentary. It’s best shown in images.
Gather the front rungs parts from their drying spot, and pull the front posts from the bending form (leave them in the form at least a week). Cut the rungs to length and skim the posts. While working the posts, I’m both shaving a final surface and bringing the heavier post closer in dimension to the thinner one. They don’t need to be twins but they should pass for cousins.
I use the Veritas tenon cutter to add a 5/8” tenon, 1” in length. (There’s a stop plug in the cutter. Set the cutter to fit the mortise/drill bit. In our case, I want a tenon that needs to be hammered into place. To do so, I’ll make a test tenon that I should be able to get started into a mortise, but only have the strength to press it 1/8” or so into place. I need the hammer to drive it home.)
The seat rung is wider than the lower. This extra mass adds durability. I cut away the bulk before using the tenon cutter (Otherwise the tenon cutter would find the center…and I want the tenon on the outside edge of the rung. Or the cutter would bog down trying to cut the extra material).
The layout: The shoulder starts 1 3/4” from the edge, and the tenon is 3/4” off the front edge. I’ll cut that away with the drawknife and return the shape to an octagon.
At this point, both the lower rung and seat rung are ready for the tenon cutter.
Operation; I’ve leveled the part in the vise. I start the cutter slowly (which seems to help it find center…there’s a feel with the tenon cutter, and I’m always tinkering to find the most consistent cut). Then I’ll go full speed until the tenon registers against the depth plug. Release the trigger and assess the tenon. Minor variations are common. Kick out mishaps and radical angles.
Now to shave them.
