05 – Seat Blanks

  1. A Walnut Windsor Chair – Introduction
  2. The Log
  3. Transport
  4. Rough Lumber
  5. Seat Blanks
  6. Legs
  7. Arm Posts and Tapered Holes
  8. Carve the Seat
  9. Turn the Undercarriage
  10. Assembling the Seat and Undercarriage
  11. Spindles
  12. Arms
  13. Assembling the Spindles and Arms
  14. Crest Version 1 — The Form Bent Laminated Crest
  15. Crest Version 2 — The Steam Bent Crest
  16. Final Assembly
  17. Detailing
  18. Finishing a Walnut Windsor Chair
  19. Final Notes

Entry 5

Seat Blanks  –  12/28/2007

My first step once I have sawn the lumber into pieces is to fabricate seat blanks.  Since the seat is about 20 in wide and the lumber is about 12 in wide, the seat blank is assembled from two pieces.  The photo shows a blank with holes drilled and another with the seat band sawn from the blank.

The starting point was boards that were 12+ inches wide and about 20 inches long.  Using the band saw, I ripped each piece into a 2 in wide turning blank (chair leg or stretcher) and a 10+ in wide blank for the seat.  Each piece for the seat is then jointed.  Put another way, I use a hand plane to put a straight edge and a flat face on each of the two pieces that go into a seat.  A flat face is needed before I can feed the board into the power planer to dimension the board to its proper thickness.  If the reference face is not flat, the planer will simply follow the twist in the board and the blank will not be flat.  I use a jack plane and a jointer plane (Record no. 7 shown in photo) to flatten and edge the board.

After flattening, I use a power planer to thickness the boards.  The thickness of my chair seats is from 1 and 5/8 to about 1 and 7/8 inch depending upon the material.  These are 1 and 3/4.

After establishing the thickness, I rip the boards to final width (just over 10 inches) on the table saw.  Then, the edges are jointed.  I use the No. 7 plane.  The goal is a glue line that will all but disappear.  Since the two boards for each seat came from the same larger board, they have similar color and grain.  Careful matching of the two edges and planing yields a seat blank.

I use yellow (PVA) glue to join the two boards.  I also use a couple of biscuits along the bottom edge to ensure proper alignment.  After the glue has dried, excess is scraped off and I transfer the outline of the seat and the location of the holes to be drilled to the square blank.  I keep plywood templates for different seat sizes.  These seats are 20 inches wide and 18+ inches deep.  I find that this size is reasonable for many people.

The through holes for the legs and arm posts are 5/8 inch and the blind holes for the back spindles are 1/2 inch.  These are drilled on a drill press.  I use a tilt table (tilt front to back) and the tilt of the table of the drill press (left to right) to drill the compound angles consistently.  The holes for the legs and arm posts will need to be tapered, but that will come later.  The last step here is to cut out the seat from the square blank.   (December, 2006)