WJ098 Rocking Chair
WJ098 Rocking Chair
Craftsman Style
Rocking Chair
• Step by Step construction
instruction.
• A complete bill of materials.
• Exploded view and elevation
drawings.
• How-to photos with instructive
captions.
UNDERSTATED
ARTISTRY
Arts & Crafts style furniture devel- severe than the originals, and the vari-
oped in the late nineteenth century, ous components in the chair aren’t as
beginning in England and migrating to heavy. All these changes make the chair
America where it became better known more pleasant to sit in.
as the Craftsman style. Other names,
such as Mission furniture, were also Cutting and Mortising the Legs
commonly used to market this style of Chairs are subject to incredible
furniture. Craftsman designs were char- stress from all the movement a person
acterized by simple, economical lines, goes through while sitting. People lean,
dramatically diverging from the Victorian tip back, swivel and manage other
frilliness of the previous era. By 1900 In reaction to the cruel industrial contortions that make designing chairs
the Arts & Crafts Movement was a practices of the 1800’s, Craftsman difficult and risky. All of this makes
dominant force in American furniture artisans strived to maintain the finest chair design and construction a
elements of creative handwork while
and lighting design, pottery, architecture specialized branch of woodworking.
selectively using modern machinery
and the decorative arts. The main structural components
to best advantage. Blending the two
Gustav Stickley became the stan- of this rocking chair are the back legs.
methods relieved workers of repeti-
dard bearer of the Arts & Crafts tious, unskilled work so they had These are the heaviest pieces in the
Movement in the United States, develop- time for more individualized, expres- design and support the rest of the chair.
ing a line of furniture that exemplified the sive woodworking tasks. All the legs receive a number of mortis-
ideals of simplicity and quality craftsman- es which, in this design, are square to
ship, while remaining within economic the leg profiles. The legs also have
reach of the middle class. Other notable tenons on their ends for joining them
American figures in this movement were The rocking chair detailed in this with the arms and rockers.
architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Louis article is a hybrid of several arts and Following the scale drawings on
Sullivan and Charles and Henry Greene crafts designs that were popular at the page 98, cut the back legs (pieces 1)
and lighting artist Louis C. Tiffany. turn of the century. The lines are less out of wide 11⁄4"-thick stock and then
96 HOME PROJECTS
WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
across the front and back leg faces.
Pivot your table saw's miter gauge
to 85° for cutting on the left side of the
blade, and raise the blade 1/8" above
the table surface. Cut one sloped
shoulder on each leg, and follow this
Figure 2: Use the drawing below to lay out all the angled
with multiple passes over the blade to
tenons in the project. Hollow out the rail mortises with a 3/8"
remove the waste for the tenon. Now drill bit, then clean up the mortises with sharp chisels.
swing the miter gauge to its opposite
85° setting and repeat the tenon cutting
process on the other side of the stock. 1/2"
90°
To cut the remaining two shoulders on
each leg, straighten the miter gauge to
90° and tilt the blade to 85°. Cut one 1/2"
3/4"
set of shoulders with the miter gauge Front edge
on the left side of the blade and the
other set on the right side of the blade.
Enlarge this template and lay it on the edge of your stock for
In both cases repeatedly pass the stock 5° 1/8" outlining all the angled tenons. On the crest and lower rails,
over the blade to complete the tenon in align the template with the front of the stock and cut the
tenons prior to band-sawing the curve.
side-by-side passes. Clean off the saw
marks on the tenons with a wide chisel.
The front leg tenons pass through
the arms and are topped with a pyra- rail (piece 3). Rip the rails to their fin- the back legs or the front legs join the
mid design. This design, intended to ished width from 11⁄2"-thick stock. Lay legs at a 5° angle. Since all the mortises
highlight the skill of Stickley craftsmen, out the curves and the mortises for the are routed squarely into the legs, the 5°
became a trademark during the Arts & slats (pieces 12) on the bottom edge of angle must be accommodated by the
Crafts era. The pyramid can be cut with the crest rail and on the top edge of the tenons, and the first step in this process
a sharp handsaw and a wide chisel. Lay lower rail as shown in the Crest Rail
out a line on all four sides of both front Drawing on page 98, and lay out the
legs 1/4" down from the top and center angled tenons at each end of these
a line on the top of the legs from the pieces using the template shown
front edge to the back. Use your hand- above. Be sure to align the front edge
saw to rough in the angled cuts from of the template with the front edge of
the line on top of the legs to the line on the stock.
the long sides. Now begin paring thin Chuck a 3/8" Forstner bit in your
shavings off the four sides of the pyra- drill press and adjust the drill to bore
mid to get the desired shape. 1/2" into the bottom edge of the crest
Forego cutting the bottom tenons rail. Now drill four holes into each
on both the front and back legs for mortise area to remove the bulk of
now. Later, you can scribe the tenon the waste, then readjust the drill press
shoulders to the specific curve of the bed to perform this same operation on
rockers. This technique will be the narrower lower rail. Once the drilling
described in detail later. is complete, square the ends of each
mortise with a sharp 3/8" chisel and
Making the Crest and Lower Rails pare the mortise walls clean. Figure 3: Align the arm mortise with the
The next major chair components Due to the widening of the chair front leg tenon and rest the arm on the
shoulder. Lay out the rear joint where the
are the crest rail (piece 2) and the lower from back to front, the pieces connecting arm intersects the back leg.
Arm
is cutting the tenon shoulders.
Cutting the angled shoulders on the
crest rail and lower rail is easily done on
the table saw. Attach a 16"-long scrap-
18" wood auxiliary fence to your miter gauge
and set your blade to a 5° angle. Put
your miter gauge in the slot to the left of
Slat
the blade and cut off the end of the
wood fence at a 5° angle, then repeat
this process on the right side of the
21"
20" blade to cut the other end of the fence.
Top View
The ends of the fence now serve as
guides for cutting the tenon shoulders.
With the back side of the crest rail
facing down, line up the right tenon
shoulder line with the cut-off end of the
Front Leg fence (with the fence on the left side of
the blade). Adjust the height of the
blade so the teeth just reach the cheek
line on the rail stock and pass the rail
over the blade. Flip the stock around
and cut the matching shoulder on the
other end. Now make these two cuts
on the lower rail.
191⁄4" Cut the shoulders on the front face
161⁄2"
of the rails by lowering the blade so the
teeth just reach the cheek, and then
Back support follow the procedure you just used for
rail mortise set in the first set of shoulders.
1/4" from edge
The next step in forming the tenons
101⁄8" 91⁄2"
is cutting the cheeks on the band saw.
Set the rail stock on edge and feed the
wood slowly into the blade, staying just
55⁄8" 5" 37⁄8" outside the layout lines. Be careful to
45⁄8"
stop cutting when you reach the shoul-
der kerf. Cut both cheeks on each
tenon, and then nip off the pointed bit
3/4" of waste material that remains at the
3/4"
end of the tenon.
2" Now cut the shoulders on the top
Rocker and bottom edges of all the tenons
using a handsaw and chisel. Remember
that these cuts follow the 5° angle of
the shoulders. With a handsaw, cut into
Each square
equals 1" the stock 1/8" and then remove the
waste with a chisel. Once the edge
shoulders are formed on each tenon,
98 HOME PROJECTS
WOODWORKER'S JOURNAL ©2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Rocker Side View Rocker Front View
smooth the tenon cheeks with a sharp 1" chisel. Check the fit
of the tenons in their mortises occasionally as you work.
Cut the rail curves on the band saw using a medium- 433⁄4"
toothed 1/2"-wide blade. Cut just outside the layout lines,
then belt-sand the backs of the pieces smooth. Chuck a
drum sander in the drill press and clamp a V-block to the 171⁄2"
bed to uniformly smooth the inside curves of the rails.
The top edge of the crest rail can now be cut on the
band saw to its curved profile. Lay out the curve (shown at 301⁄2" 213⁄4"
right) and cut just outside the layout line. Carefully remove
the ridges with a belt sander.
12
3
19
18
1 11
14
13
15
4
9
6
10 8
16
16
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