My Windsor chairs attempt

Rob, I am keeping it very simple. I use a 3/4" roughing gouge for 99% of the work. I use a parting tool to get to 1/32" over my critical dimensions, and a skew only to cut the two V grooves in each leg. The roughing gouge leaves a pretty good surface, which I then go over with 120 [if needed] then 180 and 240 sandpaper. Skews scare me, in my hands a skew is a WMD.
 
Well, slow progress made. All legs done. And 6 arm stubs done. These will support the end of the continuous arm.

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Next comes the undercarriage for the legs, two front to rear rungs, and one center cross piece per chair.
Here are some of the blanks for the undercarriage.
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Well, little by little, I've been working on all the turned parts. For 3 more chairs I need: 12 legs, 6 arm stubs, 6 stretchers front to back, 3 stretchers side to side. I am happy to report, that unless I mess some up and need to redo them, the turning parts are now done. Next I'll start on the continuous arms.
 

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Getting steamy

Well first of all, I'm going to digress just a bit and talk about steam bending. I have different set-ups for different purposes. Up until now, the longest items I steam bent were bent shaft canoe paddles. My steambox was 48" long. So today, I made an addition to the box, allowing it to accommodate the 60" long continuous arms. But first, I thought I'd show my little rig, which I use for steaming small things, like the hoops I make for my wife's baskets - she's been learning basket weaving, and I couldn't bear to see her buy the hoops when I could make them.


The steam source is just a little hot pot I bought at a garage sale for a couple of bucks. The steamer is a piece of 1.5" schedule 40 PVC pipe. I wove a little wire in the bottom of the pipe to keep the item from dropping into the water, and permitting the steam to go up.

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OK, now that that's out of the way, here is the bending form, I'll use to put the double bends in the continuous arm.

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Next are some of the blanks I rived from my white oak log some months ago. Using a combination of tools, bandsaw to get some rough shaping, then drawknife, spokeshaves, planes, and a bit more bandsawing, we go to the continuous arm, 60" long. You can see the decorative work I did using a simple shop made beading tool. You can see that the arm is wobbly, twisted, and generally goofy looking. I am expecting these variations to resolve when I steam it and put it on the bending form.

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As for the big steamer, here is an image next to me for scale. Inside it are dowels to support the item to be steamed. Notice the hi-tech door latch, a rubberband. The outside of the box is bare, the inside is varnished. I use a garage sale hot plate, and a metal 1 gallon paint can for my steam source. It'll need to boil for about 1 hour, and this should do fine. The bottom of the steamer has a hole which mates well with the open paint can top.



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So that's about it for today, more to come when I make some more progress.
 
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