Ash/Oak Dining Chairs

allen levine

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boy, why did I choose ash. What was I thinking?
AFter making the 3rd or 4th template,(just couldnt seem to get it right), cutting thick ash down to thickness then rough cutting on bandsaw is not anywhere as easy as the mahogany/sapele chairs I made.
As soon as I put the first leg on the router table to trim to shape, the ryobi bit fell apart. The guide bushing flew off and after 40 minutes of looking for it, I gave up and bought a new Amana bit today.
Very slow start. Very slow. I dont have any furniture grade thick ash, so Im weeding through the "trash ash" and cutting around all the knots and bad spots. Why did I choose ash.
 
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I decided Im going to have mix up all the pieces with white oak and ash.
I have a tremendous amount of white oak shorts and making chairs with all the short small pieces is a good way to use it all up.
I believe after applying some oil to the finished chairs the white oak and ash will look similar in shading and some of the grain patterns.
Heres the first prototype chair with mixed pieces of oak and ash.(those are all the pieces for one chair)
I still have to cut mortises and tenons. Its a slow process for me.
 

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It seems slow cause your still in vacation mode. Looks good so far. How many chairs this time?:wave:

nah, my hands keep spasming so Im having a rough time holding pieces down and straight. thankgod monday I get my infusions for a few days.
I need 6 chairs, but IM not sure if Im going to use the one Im making now.
I have to see how it turns out, the original router bit gave me a bit of headaches on the curved back legs.
 
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I only had 2 hours today to work on the chair, I had to install new front door locks.(I waited for my son to help)
Heres where Im up to.
The back piece was cut poorly at the shoulder only because I did it free hand on the bandsaw. I might fix it, I might just cut a new one the correct way.
The back is 46 inches high.
Its a bit wider then the first set of chairs I built myself, those being 16 inches width, these are more like 17.5, since the seat cushion will sit inside the rabbet I cut out on the seat rails. I will use a forstner bit to make a curved cut on the top of the front legs to match the channel for the seat cushion to rest, then hand chisel the rest to get it all to match. Nothing will be exactly the same, but thats hand built furniture. I will round over all exposed edges and I will use my block plane to bevel top and bottom of legs. Simple,very, very simple design, (I must build within my comfort zone) but with a little oil, a nice comtemporary fabric pattern, I think they will look fine.
I thought Id have tomorrow and thursday to work all day and start milling up lumber for the chairs, but my son is asking me to schlep my compressor and tools to his home tomorrow to help him hang all the moldings. Not something Im looking foward too. Then it seems I was enlisted to help out on another job on thursday morning. doesnt anyone understand Im not a well man?
Im dog tired today, wish I had more of the chair done to show.(the pictures dont show the nice curve I put on the bottom of the back legs)

and for the record, I thought my delta drill press attachment was the bomb. Well, I sadly stand corrected, but must admit Im wrong. The mortiser is so much easier to use and set up, and cuts so much easier, important to me, because I lack the hand and arm strength, and the small drill press was a chore when one has to cut a 100 or so mortises.
 

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the back legs are rough cut on the bandsaw, then I use 2 sided tape and hold the rough cut to a template and use a flush trim bit.
I do the back the same way, and used the legs curve to shape the back piece.
 
The chairs are gonna look nice, Allen. I like the simple, clean lines. Just 2 hours, huh? I'd still be trying to remember where I left the danged pencil after 2 hours.
 
You are simply unbelievable! You got that done in 2 hours :thumb::thumb:

I like the center piece in the back and i saw the curve in the picture showing the whole chair from an angel above. Can see the rabit too.

I know why you get roped into all these things. Because then the job gets done Dad.:D:thumb:;)
 
IM sorry I wasnt clear. I only got 2 hours in today. I had all the parts cut, today I cut the mortises, rabbets and tenons and dry fitted it all.
Did a little sorting also to pull out alot of short pieces for all the short pieces.
Tomorrow is an off day, gotta put up all my kids moldings with him.
This is gonna be a long build, most of August is booked up for me with work and other obligations. Wont matter soon, I should be fully retired before the New Year. Ive had enough of retail business. Woodworking is a much more relaxing atmosphere with no pressure.
 
its really just too hot and uncomfortable to do much work out there today.
It was my last day off, so I wanted to accomplish something.
I made the decision to use all the white oak shorts I had, no matter what grade, QS, common, rift sawn, whatever I had shorter than 20 inches and narrow, its going to be cut down and milled for these chairs.
quite a difference in grain patterns and colors. Should be interesting. Heres about 36 pieces I have cut down to size ready for mortise and tenon work. Lots of shades and colors.Making 6 chairs, its all about parts, just keep cutting and make sure they are all the same exact size so it all fits together.
At least now I dont have alot of shorts not usuable for much else.
 

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allen when you get ready to start making your pieces, lay out the whole chair and try match them up so they all look similar as much as possibly..another words 3 darks and 3 lights but i wouldnt try to have one all dark and another all light
 
allen when you get ready to start making your pieces, lay out the whole chair and try match them up so they all look similar as much as possibly..another words 3 darks and 3 lights but i wouldnt try to have one all dark and another all light

makes sense, you always make sense. Im not thrilled I used QS for legs, but I did want to use up everything I had laying in the shed instead of cutting long boards.
 
...I made the decision to use all the white oak shorts I had, no matter what grade, QS, common, rift sawn, whatever I had shorter than 20 inches and narrow, its going to be cut down and milled for these chairs. quite a difference in grain patterns and colors. Should be interesting...

When people ask what type of wood you used, you can tell them the chairs are made out of some very unique Mélange Oak. They'll think you're all sophisticated and stuff, and have no suspicion you were just using up a bunch of oak shorts. :D
 
This might be important for new woodworkers:
Recently, I was introduced to a new wood guy who had tons of beautiful wood.
The wood I really needed currently, was 8/4 ash. Noone else seemed to have any 8/4, and when he said he might have some, I told him Id like some.
All he had was some 30 yr old ash sitting in a barn, and it was really common stuff. He didnt seem too thrilled about selling it to me, almost like he knew how cruddy it is. But I figured hey, Ill cut around it all and pick out the good stuff.
So originally, I thought I paid 1.60 a bf, but I looked up the breakdown, and saw I paid less for the sycamore and and 2.40 a bf for the ash.
So this is a lesson Im learning the hardway, on hardwood.
I didnt want to splurge for 8/4 ash furniture grade, probably costing me around 5 bucks a bf.(some places charge as much as 6.50, but my few connections I could have gotten some clear ash for 5.00 in that thickness)
I didnt want to glue up, and now IM sorry I didnt.
I need approx 35 bf of clear ash to build 12 rear legs and 12 front legs.
So this would have ran me 175 bucks or so.
The ash I bought, he only had 10/4, so at 2.40 a bf, ofcourse I got 63 bf or so for 150.00.
Ive already spent 4 hours resawing, jointing, and planing, and havent gotten close to have a product I can cut down to shape for legs.
So for being cheap, and stupid, I saved 20 bucks, and I have q;uite a bit of ash left over from resawing, but common stuff, with alot of knots, and just not that usuable. But I gave myself 10 hours of work to get it ready to use.
Not worth it, figure all this out before you build anything. IF you want the knotty looking stuff, fine. But for solid legs, I wanted solid clear lumber.
I made a mistake. But Im going to use it, then plane down all the remainer from the resaw and use it to make a few end tables.

again, my point for people who are just starting to purchase and build with hardwoods, if you read this, be careful thinking you got a good price if the lumber is common, your total net bf of decent stuff will be very low, and not worth the price if you need better quality.
 
Good point Allen. I've never figured out exactly how much usable stock I get from buying inexpensive rough sawn common grade. I would probably be an eyeopener if I spent a few minutes figuring it out.
 
oh boy, so before treatment I resawed all the junk ash I bought.
I dont know how long an ash beetle could attack wood, but this wood was infested with them, its obvious. I dont even know if the wood is usable now?
some boards, like the last pictures, were fine, no marks, just some knots.
I know the wood is really old, and I cant picture a guy with 10's of thousands of bf of wood laying around wouldnt burn up all the infested ash.
Is this stuff still usable, I already took it and piled it under a tarp outside away from my wood stash. I cant picture anything being alive in there now.
so why is wormy chestnut worth a forturne? this isnt pretty.
I was jointing and planing it all down I got yelled at to stop. My arm is wrapped with the IV needle in place for therapy, my wife told me Im completely insane now, if I got sawdust into the area, eh..........if I gotta go, it will sorta be like Garfield, just a little different.ok, alot different, but at least doing something I love.

but all nonsense aside, is this wood usable?(all those wormy canals, are all solidified, nothing is powder, its just about as hard as the wood)
 

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