Shopsmith Forums

While the paddle project is off at the woodburners, I decided to take a break from the canoe build also and make a small camp chair. Its a good chance for me to try and improve my joinery skills, which are sorely lacking.

I started by planning down some 4/4 curly maple stock I had to 3/4", and cut sanded the various pieces to length and width. Tenons were then cut. Getting stock to final thickness is one skill I still need to improve on. It seems like most of the rough lumber I have is either twisted or cupped, and Im not sure that Im following the correct procedures, things seem ok but some of the pieces had ever so slight twists.

I cut three 1/8" x 3 1/2" pieces of veneer on the bandsaw. Resawing to me was always a daunting task until I bought a new blade, since then its worked flawlessly. I mounted a 2 1/2" sanding drum horizontal as shown in the photo to sand out the band saw marks and bring the pieces into final size, I had read about this in my manual but this is the first time I tried it, not as slick as some of the home made drum sanders Ive seen some of you do, but for this project, it worked very well.

I then laminated three 2x4's and layed out a clamping form in a radius shape for the chair back, this was also cut on the band saw, the drum mounted in the drill press mode cleaned up the inside surface's perfectly. After lining with tape, I glued up the back and clamped up for a couple of days. Came out pretty well, square anyway, which for me is a major accoplishment. I layed out the chair back on paper and glued it to the lamination, and cut this out with the bandsaw. The sanding disk brought things right to the line. The trick for me was cutting the length of the tenon for the chair back, I finally layed out the inside dimension of the finished chair back on a work surface and set the curved section on top of this line then I used this reference to transfer marks to the wood with a square, cutting along this line with a straight back saw to make the tenon cheek i could then use a chisel and work my way down to the tenon thickness. Seemed to work out fine. One thing I really appreciate about the ShopSmith is the versatility. I angled the table in drill press mode and using a 5/16" router bit in plunge mode I cut an angled mortise for the seat back to rest in. Not having a "wixey" i used the Iphone angle gauge, I checked this with a couple different angle finders, thumbs up. All the sections were glued with epoxy thickend with maple flour, that will take care of any gaps in my joinery.

Next step will be drilling holes for caning, and applying a finish before completing the caning. Ill post photos of these steps little later.

I wanted to say thanks to others for posting their projects, they've help me very much in both technique and inspiration.

newportcycle wrote:
I started by planning down some 4/4 curly maple stock I had to 3/4", and cut sanded the various pieces to length and width. Tenons were then cut. Getting stock to final thickness is one skill I still need to improve on. It seems like most of the rough lumber I have is either twisted or cupped, and Im not sure that Im following the correct procedures, things seem ok but some of the pieces had ever so slight twists.

Looks like a fun project to watch!
Getting square stock isn't trivial. My latest project is using some quartersawn, dried white oak. It should be about as stable as anything out there. I just had to abandon one of my re-saw pieces, which cupped quite a lot over night. The only sense I can make of it is that some moisture was still trapped in it, and the moisture escaping faster after the resaw has caused that fresh surface to contract. I had hardly any spare thickness to work with, so that piece will have to wait for some skinny needs down the road.

Where did you get your plans from?

Keep us updated.

Foster From Flint

Local outdoorsman put out these books. The chair is of the same design I sat on as child during fishing trips with my Grandfather and his friends.http://gilgilpatrick.com/outdoor-gear.html

Although you seem to downgrade your skills, when reading your first post, my reading shows you to be a fine craftsman with excellent skills. You are several steps ahead of many of us as shown by - - ...

"The trick for me was cutting the length of the tenon for the chair back, I finally layed out the inside dimension of the finished chair back on a work surface and set the curved section on top of this line then I used this reference to transfer marks to the wood with a square, cutting along this line with a straight back saw to make the tenon cheek i could then use a chisel and work my way down to the tenon thickness."

You methods are tried and true - much better than using a ruler!

I'm sure you will turn out a nifty chair.

Thanks for that Chuck, its much appreciated.

It will be servicable, I can see a few more in the works until I get the joinery down pat. I try to use every project as a learning experience. Couple of lessons on this project;

1. Better stock preparation; although the pieces were sanded to size, there were some twists and cups still present. It seems like after glue up things twisted more.
2. More accurate tenons.
3. Go easy with the marking gauge. Ive several areas where the depth is excessive and the epoxy brings out the marks.
4. Make a written plan and put it on the wall to reference.

The local lumber yard sells a 10pack of 3/4" x 1 1/2" x 4' pine for 2$. I think next weekend will be a tenon-a-thon, and see if I cant sort out my fit problems. Ive been cutting my tennons on the table saw horizontally using multiple pass's to chew away at the stock. Using a stop block I can get the cheeks correct but the thickness is all over the place. I think this is some of my problem.

How do you folks cut your tenons? I'm a little indescisive on either making a jig for the router or something along the lines of the tenon master.

Some progress photos, holes drilled for caning. Also now have the legs, skids, and brace's glued up. Some rough sanding to do and then two coats of exterior poly before caning will begin.

newportcycle wrote: . . .

How do you folks cut your tenons? I'm a little indescisive on either making a jig for the router or something along the lines of the tenon master.

At the very least I would suggest making a rip fence extension(vertical) that includes a miter gauge bar slot.

That would be a 'super sized' tenon master(sorta) and would allow cutting the tenon sides with the work piece held vertical and clamped with the mitre gauge.

An extruded miter gauge slot(t-slot) would be helpful, or make a t-slot from the fence material using a key hole bit.

I have one obtained with my 510(made by I assume the original owner, not the PO) that has a large(2" wide) sliding dove tail built in, but the angle is not adjustable. Veeeery steady!!!!

JPG40504 wrote:At the very least I would suggest making a rip fence extension(vertical) that includes a miter gauge bar slot.

That would be a 'super sized' tenon master(sorta) and would allow cutting the tenon sides with the work piece held vertical and clamped with the mitre gauge.

An extruded miter gauge slot(t-slot) would be helpful, or make a t-slot from the fence material using a key hole bit.

I have one obtained with my 510(made by I assume the original owner, not the PO) that has a large(2" wide) sliding dove tail built in, but the angle is not adjustable. Veeeery steady!!!!

Thanks for the tip, I'll look around and see what I can find for plans.

newportcycle wrote:Thanks for that Chuck, its much appreciated.

It will be servicable, I can see a few more in the works until I get the joinery down pat. I try to use every project as a learning experience. Couple of lessons on this project]Using a stop block I can get the cheeks correct but the thickness is all over the place.[/B] I think this is some of my problem.

How do you folks cut your tenons? I'm a little indescisive on either making a jig for the router or something along the lines of the tenon master.

Thickness varies from one tenon to the next or on the same tenon? If it is the former, this maybe related to your first issue with stock prep. Need to start with stock of the same thickness to get same thickness tenons using the same table saw set up. If the latter, I am confused because there's no reason for the thickness to vary appreciably using the method you described. I have used a panel raising jig to cut tenon cheeks on the table saw that could easily be adapted to the Shopsmith. Basically you build a jig shaped in cross section like a lower case letter h that fits tightly over the rip fence. The tall leg of the h faces the blade and the rip fence controls the width of the tenon. On the tall side of the h, put a strip to serve as a backstop. Alternatively you could try using the band saw to cut tenons. That's what I used on my porch slider repair project.