This will be the slowest Morris Chair build ever!

Jim Mattheiss

Member
Messages
467
Location
Long Hill Township, NJ
Hello all:

I'm embarking on what is likely to be the slowest recorded Morris Chair build.

Several weeks ago I went out to Long Island and picked up some White Oak from Allen Levine. Since that time I have been shuffling the lumber around my shed and garage waiting for the plans to arrive.

I'm using the Wood Magazine plan and started today.

I rough cut one of the boards and proceeded to spend a good bit of the afternoon planing the rough cut oak do to 3/4" for the 3 part lamination of the legs. The oak is just a little too thin to get the 2-1/4 inch thickness in 2 thicknesses.

I have cut the stock for the 4 legs (12 - 3/4 x 2-1/4 x 23 pieces) and have glued up the first leg.

My Grizzly portable planer got quite the workout. White oak is hard and heavy. Pic #1 is the contents of my chip collector after all the surfacing was completed.

Pic #2 is the first leg glued up and clamped. I have to round up my C-Clamps - these F-Clamps are a little too long for a 2-1/4" glue up.

Pic #3 is some of the other stock for the rest of the chair. This is the wifes side of the garage, so I had to shuffle the lumber around today. The stock is 1-1/8 to 1-1/4 rough cut with some cupping.

The plan requires a lot of 1/2" stock - I'm going to need to do a rough resaw of the lumber before planing. Brute forcing 1/2 of the stock into chips is too tough on my little planer. My cheesy Craftsman band saw is going to like that task either.

Anyway - I'm on my way with this project. . .

Cheers

Jim
 

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Alright, a project in progress:) looking forward to following you on this. Some of Allen's wood,wood magazine plans, and your fine craftsmanship will make for a good chair:thumb::lurk:
 
If the plan you're using is a bent-arm design, I'll suggest (from experience) that you laminate the arms BEFORE you cut the arch at the top of the side assemblies the arms sit on. Use the completed lamination to mark the cuts on the sides, so you can make sure the arms sit down flat on the sides.

And don't skimp on the upholstery. Poor upholstery can really make a difference in the comfort (or lack of) in the chair. :wave:
 
Okay - It's time for a status update . . . .

Over the course of the week I did the glue up of the laminated legs. Sorry no pictures of them.

Today I spent some time preparing the stock for the chair's frame. Since this stock is 1-1/16th thick it required much fewer trips thru the planer to get to desired thickness.

Picture #1 is the rough cut stock bundled and stacked on the table saw. Lot of burn marks huh?

Picture #2 is a view into MY side of the garage from the outside. You can see my Grizzly planer in the foreground and my chip collection system to the right of it. To the left is my portable work table - it's a maple table top on a converted Hirsch Saw table (where you mount a circular saw upside down and use it as a table saw). I picked the parts up garbage picking and it makes a great horizontal surface during projects.

Picture #3 is the view into LOML's side of the garage. I've slipped my Jet Mini Lathe and Craftsman Bandsaw into the front of her side.

Picture #4 is a view from LOML's side across to the rear on my side. You can see the Chop Saw on the BIG WHITE CHOPSAW STAND in the far corner. Some more rough stock is sitting on the saw horses next to the Chop Saw and my grinder with homemade jig is sitting on the rough stock.

The garage is fair game for WW projects during the fair weather, but once it gets COLD the cars come inside at night.

I DID pick up a Jet Benchtop Mortiser on CL this week (no pic but it's not a huge gloat either). That should make the mortising for this porject a little easier.

Cheers

Jim
 

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The big white chopsaw stand is a great idea. :thumb: Stable, easy to clean, and not much risk of cutting your toe on a setup like that. :D
 
Ah - another installment on the Morris Chair saga.

On Saturday I ripped the 2-1/4" White Oak legs of the chair to finished width. My Jet contractor saw did NOT enjoy the task. It got the job done, but it was working hard. I then cross cut them to finished length with much less drama.

Later on Saturday I was testing my new/used Craigslist Jet Benchtop Mortiser. With the machine off I reached under the chisel and managed to snag m finger tip while pulling my hand back. Ouch! I have a nice slice from the side of the nail bed to the finger tip on my middle finger on my left hand. Of course I'm left handed . . . At that point I walked away for the day. . .

Sunday afternoon I decided to play with the mortiser again. It was working well and I proceeded to drill all of the mortises in the chair legs. That's a total of 6 thru mortises and 6 1-1/8" inch deep mortises. The mortiser did it with little complaint and it didn;t even draw blood again. If it bites me again I'm gonna name it Christine after the car in the Steven King book. Thats the problem with buying used tools, you don't know what bad tool/user karma has built up in the tool.

I cleaned the garage up and we'll get back at it again later.

Picture #1 is the finished legs laying on the table saw.

Picture #2 is the mortiser on the table saw. I had the opening in the chisel facing forward and the hose from the chip collector in front of the mortiser. It caught the majority of the chips ejected.

Why do they say you should have the opening in the chisel facing the side?

Cheers

Jim
 

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On Saturday I ripped the 2-1/4" White Oak legs of the chair to finished width. My Jet contractor saw did NOT enjoy the task.

I have the same saw and enjoyed the same type of task with hard maple. A thin kerf blade and a new (straight) fence really helps give the saw an advantage over the wood. :) I've resawed some 6" wide hickory with very little bogging down. If I don't keep it tight to the fence all the way through, I can stop the saw completely.
 
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