Chinese Chairs Ver 2.0

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
I've been really busy with, well all kinds of work, but I'm just about to start on a second set of Chinese Chairs for Cirque du Soleil, but this time I'm making them from scratch, not fixing someone else's bad job.

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It begins with a load of Basswood.

Cheers!
 
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OK I'm a bit behind on posting pics.....

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This is my initial layout of the chair legs back and front, I want to have enough wood to make ten chairs, but only eight will be assembled, then the parts for the other two chairs will be sent along as spares. I also need some spares for the inevitable mistakes and practice runs.

This is now my full time job, I only go to the L shop in the evenings for a few hours to give my lovely wife a break and maybe fill the fridges.

Cheers!
 
This boxwood is not the same the carvers like to use, is it?

Yes Ted that is correct, but remember these are not really chairs, they are chair like acrobatic equipment. :)

These are a set of the the chairs that I rebuilt/fixed for them about 4 years ago....

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In Osaka doing the final fit

The chairs in use....

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Looks like you're off and running. :thumb:

BTW, I always did like that pic of you in Osaka on top of the chair tower, testing out your work. :whistling: :D
 
I just have to say, on days like this I'm really jealous of the people who have the luxury of space. Spending lots of time moving from one operation to the other, like jointing to thickness planing is just a pain. Oh well, I guess I should be happy I have any kind of shop when you consider my location :)
 
Pulled out the old jointer and it worked so very nice, no problems at all....

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But of course my cyclone is now full, I'm sure I'll be seeing this more a few more times before this job is done.
 
I just have to say, on days like this I'm really jealous of the people who have the luxury of space. Spending lots of time moving from one operation to the other, like jointing to thickness planing is just a pain. Oh well, I guess I should be happy I have any kind of shop when you consider my location :)

I feel the same thing about my space and I feel ashamed considering the your situation. But then again, you don't have a wife starting to move her pottery operations into your shop!

I guess I always thought that boxwood was hard to get now days. All the rulers were made of it. It that because it is so stable and is that why you are using it for making the chairs? Boxwood is also used as a wear strip on wooden planes because it is harder. Again hard to find over here for some reason. It could be a case of no commercial demand so no one harvesting it. Maybe we are talking about a different variety of boxwood? Do you or anybody else know? I would love to get my hands on that much boxwood.
 
I feel the same thing about my space and I feel ashamed considering the your situation. But then again, you don't have a wife starting to move her pottery operations into your shop!

I guess I always thought that boxwood was hard to get now days. All the rulers were made of it. It that because it is so stable and is that why you are using it for making the chairs? Boxwood is also used as a wear strip on wooden planes because it is harder. Again hard to find over here for some reason. It could be a case of no commercial demand so no one harvesting it. Maybe we are talking about a different variety of boxwood? Do you or anybody else know? I would love to get my hands on that much boxwood.

:doh:
Nice catch, sorry about that it is not Boxwood, it is Basswood..... close but not the same stuff eh?

This stuff is like balsa wood on steroids, it is light and stiff, but also fairly fragile.
 
OK all the legs are cut, some of the long one will be cut in half to make enough short legs. Some of the long ones have knots or such in them so that blank will be cut to make a front leg or be used as a practice run blank.

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Tomorrow I'll spark up the thickness planer and get these to their finished dimensions.
 
Thank you Tom.

I spent over an hour on the thickness planer and I'm just about done, but I had to empty the cyclone again.....

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.... this is becoming a familiar sight :)
 
Done with the thickness planer for the legs, and yes I need to empty the cyclone again....

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Right on 50mm

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and they are all nice and square too.

Boom
 
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