Large Model Association Forum

I am taking a little break from the Beverley. There is some serious stuff to do on that, so I will have this break and then go back fresh.

Meanwhile I am doing a project that has been on the cards for some time. My workshop chair is a 100 year old high chair, the seat being about 21 inches from the floor. I need this to be three inches higher. This has been made more necessary by engaging in the Beverley project, I could do with that extra bit of height to get round the fettling and cutting on the bench.

So I am going to make a new one based on the same George V era design, as it is fairly basic. I have posted a few pictures of this from today. Firstly the piece of timber selected from my little stock pile of Ash that must be 40 or 50 years since it was cut down. The second shows the back legs marked out and ready to cut from the stock, then showing the bendy plane used for planing the curves. The next picture shows that one of the legs is almost ready for cutting to width, and the final picture shows my original chair being used as a pattern.

I thought it better to start with the most difficult parts, there being several curves, angles and straight bits on these. The original seat is made from one piece of wood, I am going to have to glue two pieces together to get the right size, an exercise in planing true and square, as per the school lesson over 50 years ago!

Didn't do a lot today. Finished the shaping of the back legs and cut them to width. Just need to smooth the saw cut sides and prep for joint cutting. I glued two pieces together for the seat, but I suspect I will need to glue on another piece to make it exactly right. Saw mills do not seem to cut timber to any decent widths these days?

seeing as its on the LMA site, shouldnt your chair be thus big?

Or better for the workshop, needs a bit of repair,

But seriously, your a bit of a craftsman, its obvious you love your work, i wish i had had a lifetime of working wood, instead of steel,

Thank you for your little jokes Alan, very funny, although I was hoping that this page would have a serious side to swap ideas and solve problems with our workshops. Various tips and ideas to make our days more pleasant and productive? However, me a craftsman? Well yes I suppose so, but I was a bricklayer for 30 odd years after the RAF. Woodwork is very much a hobby for me, but I do have a fairly sophisticated collection of tools. I sometimes had differences of opinion with professional carpenters/joiners on sites. I used to comment when they used a chisel to open a tin, for example, and receive an expletive filled reply, and sometimes be told that us "pen knife carpenters" are tossers etc. Perhaps they would like to see my collection of "pen knives".

Todays effort was concentrated on the seat blank. What you see in the pictures is the result of a very full days effort, and the seat is still in need of finishing off, probably with a curved scraper? This was a lot more difficult to do than I had imagined.

Glad you at least saw the funny side, woodwork craftsmanship is a bespoke dieing trade, you dont see tools in B&Q without a plug on these days, for me, if i wanted that chair like that, i would have used none other than a large rotary sander, stuck into a 240 volt drill !! Even in my trade, turning metal has neen given over to robotic means, and believe me, its not uncommon to get an entire batch with the same silly error, then, they come get me out of a cuboard, to sort it out

MalcolmDouglasPorter wrote:I am taking a little break from the Beverley. There is some serious stuff to do on that, so I will have this break and then go back fresh.

Meanwhile I am doing a project that has been on the cards for some time. My workshop chair is a 100 year old high chair, the seat being about 21 inches from the floor. I need this to be three inches higher. This has been made more necessary by engaging in the Beverley project, I could do with that extra bit of height to get round the fettling and cutting on the bench.

So I am going to make a new one based on the same George V era design, as it is fairly basic. I have posted a few pictures of this from today. Firstly the piece of timber selected from my little stock pile of Ash that must be 40 or 50 years since it was cut down. The second shows the back legs marked out and ready to cut from the stock, then showing the bendy plane used for planing the curves. The next picture shows that one of the legs is almost ready for cutting to width, and the final picture shows my original chair being used as a pattern.

I thought it better to start with the most difficult parts, there being several curves, angles and straight bits on these. The original seat is made from one piece of wood, I am going to have to glue two pieces together to get the right size, an exercise in planing true and square, as per the school lesson over 50 years ago!

I'm a chippy by trade- the last time I saw a bendy plane was back in the sixties!

Managed to get all the parts of the workshop chair cut today and started work on the curved back rails, the front (concave) sides are shaped, perhaps a little bit of adjustment needed, I will continue on Friday.

Tomorrow is my birthday, 69 for my sins. We are off to the smoke to the Theatre for The Phantom of the Opera (again). Probably have to force and Italian nosh down the old neck, few glasses of vino to wash it all down.

See you on Friday?

Malcolm, the chair's looking good and a happy birthday for tomorrow.

Happy Birthday

Hope your birthday plans went-- to plan,

Had a fabulous day yesterday, thank you for your good wishes.

Had a couple of things to do today. Needed to rack off my latest home brew into the barrel for clearing. I will bottle this brew in about four days. You will notice the wooden block under the fermenting vessel? This is the same wooden block that I use for sanding and can be seen on the bench with the chair components.

Some of you moaned that my workshop is too tidy. It's only tidy when I have cleaned up, and now it's time to dump the shavings, the box is too full to be of any use right now.

Just to remind you of the main job going on in my work shop, a glimpse of the Beverley and the chair components. I did mention the serious stuff that I have to do on the model. This includes the undercarriage for which I really have to complete the drawing before I can get going with it. This I will do once my new chair is well advanced. I will be looking for someone to make some of the undercarriage bits for me.

Been busy this last couple of days with various things, not least conducting viewings on my house which is on the market!

However, I have been cutting joints on the workshop chair back, this is very time consuming and caused a bit of bad language, but as you can see from the first dry run that all is going OK. There is a bit of adjustment to make to the joints. I have three slats, 1" x 1/4", to make for the back that go between the curved rails. Once this part of the chair is up to scratch, I will then complete the front frame and glue them up once I am satisfied that they are OK, then cut the joints on the side rails. These rails are different to the front and rear ones as the front is wider than the back so the joints are cut at an angle. This is a deliberate move to annoy us? LOL. Most of the joints on this chair will be assembled using blind wedges.

Rear slats are cut, fitted and dry assembled. The front legs now have their mortises cut and ready for the rails once the tenons are cut tomorrow. I'll soon be using this chair. I could have done with the extra three inches height making this, can't have everything? I will be staining the finished chair in a brownish, mahogany sort of colour, and using mahogany wax, then copious amounts of ordinary wax to give it a good finish, tedious but worth the effort.

Not a great deal done today, had other stuff to do. The front frame is now dry assembled and ready to cut the side rails tomorrow. These are a little more difficult as the tenons are cut at an angle because the front is wider that the rear frame. Nothing I can't handle though, even if it does cause some bad language?

Finished all the basic joint prep today and as you can see, the final dry run of the complete chair, it's looking good. I spent quite a long time making the tiny wedges for the blind joints, 20 of them to be precise. Got a few more wedges to make for the side rails tomorrow along with a bit of fitting of the joints to ensure squareness. There are a few slight errors on the chair, not really noticeable or to worry about. I will wait till the glue has properly dried before tackling the finishing process, this means Saturday. Any bets as to the stability of the chair, will it rock or sit squarely on the floor? They usually rock.

Once I have finished this essential item, I will set about the Beverley once more, but first I must get the undercarriage design finalised, it is bugging me big time!

The workshop chair is finished. It will make a positive contribution to my activities, but it is not finished as well as I had intended. I got the hump with it as I had made a horrific cock up when assembling, too embarrassing to detail. I had to do some surgery to rectify the cock up. It took a lot of time making this and to cock it up right at the crucial time is infuriating. I will not be stamping my name on it!

No doubt other workshop stuff will fill this space in time?

Malcolm - Tom Chip n Dale would be proud of you, take a bow!

I suppose when the time comes, the LMA has found a new Chairman!
Steve