rocking chair plans

Wood magazine has a nice plan for a rocker. Issue 183, May 2008.

Good Luck!

Tom

thats a pretty perfect model for me...... gonna get rid of those round mortise and tenons, use the stock I have on hand(its for outdoors ofcourse, I need a few more chairs outside), and tweak a few of the measurements, but Im going to use that model. Thanks.
 
No problem Allen, let us know how it goes, pics and comments. The LOML likes the design and wants 2 for the deck, so iffin you make some, I am courious on how they go together so maybe a person like me (less than moderate skill level :p) might be able to build.

Tom
 
The legs and rockers will be built with the leftover Ipe I have, and the seat and back slats, as well as arms will be one of three species. Redwood, Red Cedar, or PT pine. Im going to test all three with a stain I have in mind, one I think would look good with the dark rich ipe. A reddish minwax stain. Cant recall the name at this time. I believe I have enough redwood, a little short with cedar, and PT is easy and cheap enough. Ill know by weds. Ill probably have most of the parts cut before weekend.

some guy out here on the island was advertising a ton of ash on craigs list, and Id love to get it from him, but that was yesteray, and I had to work today. so Ill give him a holla to see if he has any left.
 
again, Id like to thank Tom for pointing me to a set of plans I could model after.
Alot of tweaking, since Im not using round tenons, or pegs on the legs with overlapping the rockers.(nor will the back slats be jointed with round tenons)

So I decided to get under way, work a couple of hours, and looked around the garage.....its gotta be Ipe, yeah, Im beginning the stuff all over again, and pressure treated pine, cause thats all I have alot of in the garage, not enough red cedar, redwood or mahogany, and Im not going to buy anything.
If I suceed with this chair, it will be given as a present to someone who is very kind to my wife, and myself, and is rather up there in age. 85+.

I thought about just using oak, since I have alot of it, but I know this lovely lady would be happier with a nice outdoor rocker, and I have to make sure it stands up to weather.

Just that ipe, man, I have the ipe dust in my socks already.

Ran into my first problems already.

First, I dont own a router table, so the rounded tenons are out. I dont own a bandsaw, and thats gonna hurt alot, but I dont think a bandsaw blade will cut threw Ipe unless its made for metal. Third, I dont own a trammel. Nor did I even know what one is(no laughing rennie or ned) I had to look it up, cause I thought a trammel was a person that was living 4.7 miles north northeast of the munchkin village along the yellow brick road, cause its just something I never used or heard of. Trammel,.,.hmmmmmmmmm nice item.(talk about the inexperienced woodworker)


so, I improvised a bit.
Already busted 2 bosch jigsaw blades trying to get it to cut through both rockers of 5/4 ipe together.
Ill have to do one at a time, using a metal jigsaw blade, and belt sand and fine sand together, getting a nice curve and hopefully as close to identical as possible.(cutting together offers a real big advantage)
I could have trimmed up the 5/4 ipe to 3/4, but I wanted to use same thickness as legs, and MT joint it all together.

one rocker cut, I made a pattern out of 1/2 inch mdf, to get started.

Just showing some woodworking, not world class stuff, but making alot of dust., an awful amount of dust.

cut 8 pieces of wood on the TS, mitre saw took me 10 minutes.
Took me almost 2 hours to cut out pattern and one rocker.
 

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First, I dont own a router table, so the rounded tenons are out. I dont own a bandsaw, and thats gonna hurt alot, but I dont think a bandsaw blade will cut threw Ipe unless its made for metal. Third, I dont own a trammel. Nor did I even know what one is(no laughing rennie or ned) I had to look it up, cause I thought a trammel was a person that was living 4.7 miles north northeast of the munchkin village along the yellow brick road, cause its just something I never used or heard of. Trammel,.,.hmmmmmmmmm nice item.(talk about the inexperienced woodworker).
I'm hurt.:(

BTW - Isn't a trammel one of those things people ride in to get up the side of a mountain?:huh:

Actually Allen, you impress me regularly. In fact, you were the inspiration for me to try and rearrange my entire shop over a single weekend. I figured if you could build and entire back yard full of furniture in 2 days, I should be able to move a few cabinets around!

Good luck on the rockers. Also, note that the parts and joints of a rocker undergo a lot more stress in use than a regular chair. Using redwood or cedar might be problematic. You don't want any 85 year olds' hitting the pavement in a shower of splinters.:eek:
 
I'm hurt.:(

Also, note that the parts and joints of a rocker undergo a lot more stress in use than a regular chair. Using redwood or cedar might be problematic. You don't want any 85 year olds' hitting the pavement in a shower of splinters.:eek:

thats a reason I decided to go with a strong hardwood for the legs, rockers and stretchers/supports.

Im only going to use PT pine for the back slats, seat slats and arms.(perhaps finish them light as a nice contrast to the dark walnut color of the ipe)
 
I hope the results dont dissapoint.

(this might be a bit above my level, but now Im sure it aint no fun if I know I can build it, failure doesnt bother me anymore when it comes to cutting wood)
 
Seen what you can do Allen, you will have no problems with this. And in chance you do, it's not failure, it's the learning curve for the next one :thumb:

Tom
 
I decided to get all the mortises done. Digging into ipe is painstakingly slow, and a work out in itself.(as Ive learned with the last build)
My wife came out to see what was going on with me, and she told me I looked like I was struggling, almost in pain. So her next logical question was if its so hard to make a hole and it looks like it causes you pain, why do you like it so much?
I thought about it for a second or two, then told her its like marriage.
It hurts alot at some points, but overall I really love it.
She told me Im an dumbell and walked away.

Anyway, moving on, I ran into a little problem, and I hope someone here can help me so when I make my next set of rockers, I know how to proceed.
The rocker is curved on the bottom, and making a mortise on the top of it, it needed to be straight with the flat surface of the leg area of the rocker.
I cut a small wedge out of scrap, and kept clamping it down, using a one inch level, which I stepped on and cracked eventually cause it kept falling on the floor. So I decided to just keep the chisel part of the bit exactly over the piece to judge levelness, and moved the wedge underneath carefully and slowly. I also allowed an extra 1/8 of an inch depth so even if Im a tiny bit off, a little extra depth in the mortise will only help, and wont present a problem to me in assembly.
Everything to the left of the facemask is done, all mortises done, just need to cut seat and back slats out of PT, and cut all the tenons.

Im always a bit nervous since I have to hope it all fits together when I dry fit it, especially this chair, since the stretchers(front to back legs)attach to the legs at different heights. Either its there, or its back to the drawing board.
I had to tweak everything since I didnt use their round tenons, and that adds alot of numbers adding and subracting.
No pain, no gain.(nice cliche)


just sharing a bit of wooddust, hope Im not putting anyone to sleep.
 

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anyone who happenned to take a looksie at this chair, can see that cutting the seat slats with anything but a bandsaw is not going to be a happy task.
I got a bit frustrated after 4 slats, decided to give my wrist a break.

anyone in the nassau county area? Id be happy to take you out for lunch one day in exchange for about 60 minutes band saw time(pressure treated pine only)Id do the cutting.
 
anyone who happenned to take a looksie at this chair, can see that cutting the seat slats with anything but a bandsaw is not going to be a happy task.
I got a bit frustrated after 4 slats, decided to give my wrist a break.

anyone in the nassau county area? Id be happy to take you out for lunch one day in exchange for about 60 minutes band saw time(pressure treated pine only)Id do the cutting.

Allen I wish I was I would be only too happy to let you use my bandsaw. Sad to see a guy so motivated not have the tools. Hey if I was one of those wall street execs that just got one of those multi million parachutes heck I would buy you one and have it delivered but unfortunately I am just a normal guy.
 
the reason a bandsaw is needed for this project.

I started smoothing and sanding over some of the slats, but jigsawing this kind of work is not preferable.
Making do with what I have at my disposable.

another day, another mortise.
 

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well, after today, I have a completely new found respect for anyone making rocking chairs out of hardwoods.(making them correctly and beautiful, dont want to confuse my build with others)

This is by far the hardest project Ive ever attempted.

As Ive said, due to my lack of a bandsaw, I had to adjust things and use all mortise and tenons joints, no rounded over mortises like the plans suggested.
I will cut a small curve in the front stretcher for some shape.

Im happy to see everything is fitting so far, like a puzzle, if one piece is off, its back to the drawing board.

I did make one huge/small error. I cut the mortise for the bottom front to rear stretcher on the back leg on the wrong side. I will cut another hole, and plug the back hole cut incorrectly.(never underestimate the value of a good nights sleep)

Enough for me today, this is extremely challenging for someone on my level, I dont want to rush it.
 

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