All I lack is finishing!

It's an old joke but in this case it's true. All I lack is staining and finish. I spent Friday fitting all the slats to the holes and Saturday doing all the sanding on the slats. 

Here's the bench dry fit

And 10 of the sanded slats.

Saturday evening I got the the first section glued together. I decided it would be easier to do one section at a time.

We had guests at the B&B this weekend so after breakfast Sunday I glued the second section together. After cleaning the shop (it was a mess) I glued the third section. I guess I didn't take a picture of that.

Since I've been talking about bluebonnets I thought I would show you how big the plants are getting. Very unusual for January.

No blooms yet but it won't be long.

And in other news, we had our first baseball practice yesterday! I am so ready for baseball! We practice at Schreiner  University in Kerrville. They are a Division 3 program with a new coaching staff and they have been very gracious in allowing a bunch of old guys a place to train.

This is Sammy. He pitches and plays second base.

Johnny getting some BP.

And here it is! First thing this morning I started shaping the head crests in the back.

Try to make it all flow together in away that makes sense.

Another view of the back.

Rear center leg joint.

I wondered for awhile the best way to blend the front. I kinda like this.

Center legs protrude just a little and then rounded.

Good view of that detail.

Nice lines.

Front leg joint.

Rear leg joint.

All of this shaping is done in the same manner as we have already talked about. Grinder, die grinder, rasps, and sanding. If you enjoy standing in one spot sanding for hours and hours, you will absolutely love doing this kind of chair.

Front center leg through tenon. This would have looked great with wedged tenon but I didn't think of that until just now! Next time. Tomorrow I'll go to Kerrville and get some stain and hopefully get it stained in the afternoon. I'll keep posting pictures of this till it's done.

And More

Another beautiful day in the Hill Country!. That rain yesterday really helped the river, and the bluebonnets are everywhere! If it stays warm they might be blooming soon. I hope they don't because we've seen those late freezes kill the whole crop. There is still winter left!

Started the day by cutting the curves in the head crests on the bandsaw. There is still a lot of smoothing to do after the cut and I took this picture to show you that you don't always need an expensive tool to do something. This is a Stanley sure-foam rasp I got at one of the big box stores for about $15 dollars. It does a great job of removeing a bunch of material in a short period of time, but you still have lots of control. If you enlarge the picture you can see where the tool mark is and just how the rasp is working it's way down. Follow that up with some finer grit rasps and sanding.

I put the head crests in to mark the drill lines for the back slats.

This is just so I can get an idea of what the overall chair will look like.

And speaking of back slats, here's the rest of them. Profiles have been cut and marked up for the face cut. This takes awhile!

After the face has been cut I sand them with the oscillating belt sander and use the 1/4" round over bit on the tops and bottoms.

The backs on the fat part get rounded over with a 1/2" bit. The fronts of the fat part don't get rounded. Why? Just because. After this is a lot of sanding and getting the bottoms to fit the holes in the seat, cutting the length, and fitting the tops in the holes in the head crest. Pictures of that tomorrow.

And in other news, the slab was poured for Peggy's garden shed so I guess I have to start framing it next week. Anybody know where I can get some old corrugated metal or old ship-lap siding?

1/4/12

Not much to show you today. I was able to glue the seat together and that will have to wait for tomorrow to mess with. I won't do any more on the front legs until I can access the notches in order to fine tune the fit. Peggy and I had to go into San Antonio to run some errands and I had to get another chunck of cherry for the bench. While we were in town we went to see "Warhorse". What a great movie! It's one that is definitely worth seeing on the big screen. 

Took some doing but it's glued together.Tomorrow I'll flip it over and start shaping the seat. I cut the curves and the front scallops before putting it together since it's so big. I didn't cut the curves on the ends yet since I needed the square surfaces for clamping. Should be able to fit the front legs, round them over, and get the seat sanded. Lot's of pictures tomorrow!