Curved chair top rail and flat slats?

[Guest]

I'm looking at making a billiard spectator chair, similar to the one in the picture. My question is, how would I make the curved back top and bottom rails, and how to mortise them for the wide slats?

[jteneyck]

I would make the curved rails by gluing up 1/8" strips cut on my bandsaw and run through the drum sander.  I use plastic resin glue but others seem to do OK with Titebond.  Anyway, you make a simple curved form to match the shape needed and bend the strips into or over the form.  With a vacuum bag it's really simple to get even pressure, but you can do well enough w/o a vacuum bag on something that small by just adding a few extra unglued layers on the side opposite the form, or by making two forms and using plenty of clamps. 

The mortises might be more easily cut by plowing a dado the depth you need, then gluing in spacer blocks between the slats.  You can route the dado w/o problems if you trace the shape of the slat onto a piece of scrap plywood and cut that to make a template to clamp onto your router table.

John

[Eurekan]

I've made two rocking chairs with a very similar back rail design from a Woodsmith plan (Issue 84). In that process I cut the curve on the band saw and did the mortice on the drill press. A little cleanup with a thumb plane and small spoke shave and the backs were good to go. 

One other thing... Having learned a lesson the hard way. If you have flexible slats make the mortice deeper and the slat longer.

[Steve N]

I would decide what the overall thickness of the piece needed to be and bandsaw it out of stock with a pleasing face grain if it was possible to get it from 10/4 stock which is readily available in most species, usually 8/4 will suffice. If it were bowed more than the 10/4 would allow for I would do the lami glue up John described. Now for rockers I would prefer the strength of the lami, however for backs strength isn't the big consideration rockers would be. You do need to pick wood for straight grained, knot free wood though. So primo, but you would want that anyhow for stock that would be so prominently displayed.

[Richard D.]

For the curved piece....First cut the tenons while it is straight and then on the bandsaw cut the curves. Once the curves are cut you don't have a reference surface, that's why you do the joinery first. It will require a thicker piece of wood because you lose a lot on the cut.

[Guest]

The mortises might be more easily cut by plowing a dado the depth you need, then gluing in spacer blocks between the slats.  You can route the dado w/o problems if you trace the shape of the slat onto a piece of scrap plywood and cut that to make a template to clamp onto your router table.

John

The problem I see with a groove (dado) is it would be curved, and the slats and spacers would be straight. I was thinking of making individual mortises, and putting a tenon on each end of the slats. (Cutting the mortises on a curved rail, wouldn't give me a flat surface to use a mortiseing jig.)This would hide any sloppy mortises. If the rails were straight, I would cut the mortises and not use tenons on the slats.

I was planing on cutting the rail end tenons, before cutting the curve. 

Would it pay to layout and cut the end tenons, on 1 wide piece of wood (about 7") cut the curve on the bs, then rip into upper and lower rails?

Thanks for all the info.

[DaveR1]

How thick are the slats? How thick will the finished rails be?

[Eurekan]

I've done this twice as I said. My slats were 1.5 inches wide. I cut my moritises after making my curved backs the way I wanted. I penciled in the mortise location so they were centered and straight. Scribed in the center line to help center the drill bit. The bottom of the backs were square and helped keep everything vertical.  Forstner bit and a chisel.

[ianab]

If you are going to do it with laminations like John suggests, you could make the mortises first by cutting notches in the middle laminates. Then glue up the piece on your form, with the mortises already in place and following the curve perfectly.

[Steve N]

For the curved piece....First cut the tenons while it is straight and then on the bandsaw cut the curves. Once the curves are cut you don't have a reference surface, that's why you do the joinery first. It will require a thicker piece of wood because you lose a lot on the cut.

Richard are you then mortising the back rails at an angle to allow for a flush fit with the curve? Or does it matter. Is this how you did your Maloof? Or the dining chairs? Both were nearly perfect prototypes of their style of chair, they just flowed.

Is this how you are doing your chairs?