Doug Robinson and I have been "semi" working on building a pair of Hal Taylor style rocking chairs. I say "semi" as we have been VERY slow, and haven't done much to them in QUITE a while. They are challenging, and following Hal's plans are at times a challenge.
All in all, it hasn't been too bad. The big learning/realization we have had I would suggest (Doug feel free to comment) is that Hal's plans are laid out for the tools he has and the work methods he is accustomed. For example, he ripped all his strips for the glue ups of his rocker very meticulously on the tablesaw and then glued them. We did no such thing. We ripped them haphazardly on the bandsaw and then used the wide belt sander to get them to thickness. That is one example of having better tooling, but to the contrary, if you don't have a certain machine or tool, there are other ways to accomplish it.
Still, I figure I will post some work in progress pics. Hopefully, it will get the two of us motivated on this as we are supposed to spend time working on them next week.
I will add pics and commentary, but here is the first.
Doug cutting the notches out on the seat. We used the bandsaw to do this. I don't remember what Hal used.
You drill holes in different places at different depths to tell you how far to grind/carve the seat to better fit the posterior.
Sanding and grinding the seat is MESSY. I have since moved to a gooseneck scraper and found it works VERY well. Still, I haven't finished the seat.
Last for this post, a bad spot that I routed out and had to glue a filler strip in. More to come.
Thanks for looking.
All in all, it hasn't been too bad. The big learning/realization we have had I would suggest (Doug feel free to comment) is that Hal's plans are laid out for the tools he has and the work methods he is accustomed. For example, he ripped all his strips for the glue ups of his rocker very meticulously on the tablesaw and then glued them. We did no such thing. We ripped them haphazardly on the bandsaw and then used the wide belt sander to get them to thickness. That is one example of having better tooling, but to the contrary, if you don't have a certain machine or tool, there are other ways to accomplish it.
Still, I figure I will post some work in progress pics. Hopefully, it will get the two of us motivated on this as we are supposed to spend time working on them next week.
I will add pics and commentary, but here is the first.
Doug cutting the notches out on the seat. We used the bandsaw to do this. I don't remember what Hal used.
You drill holes in different places at different depths to tell you how far to grind/carve the seat to better fit the posterior.
Sanding and grinding the seat is MESSY. I have since moved to a gooseneck scraper and found it works VERY well. Still, I haven't finished the seat.
Last for this post, a bad spot that I routed out and had to glue a filler strip in. More to come.
Thanks for looking.
