I am building the bow-arm Morris chair featured in FW in 2012 and largely enjoying the process. However, there are a number of discrepancies in comparing the 2012 FW article with the purchased plans and the Greg Paolini videos. If the span across the rear from leg to leg is 24 in. (as in the FW article) and the width of the backrest is 23 1/4 in. then the distance from the side of the arms to the tenons has to be 1/2 in. not the 1 in. stated by Greg in his video. The 1/2 in. offset leaves you with a distance from arm to arm of 23 3/4 in., which leaves an appropriate gap on either side between the arms and the backrest of 1/4 in. The purchased plans show the correct gap.
Another really annoying mistake is that nowhere do the plans, videos, or FW article state the offset for the stretchers. You can see it in the video, but the FW article exploded drawing on page 2 makes it look like they are centered on the rails. If you make them that way, which I did, then you can’t use the dadoing technique to take care of the overlap between the stretcher tenons and the lower rail tenons. There is basically nothing left of of the end of whichever tenon you choose to dado. If I felt confident enough to guess, I never would have bought the plans in the first place.
It is also a minor annoyance that the FW article doesn’t give the widths of the rail or stretcher tenons. They are in the purchased plans. Unfortunately, the plans have an error in the full-sized drawing of the arms. The arm is actually drawn as 40 in. long, but is supposed to be 40 3/8 in. The distance from the right side to the width reference line on the left side is, coincidentally, exactly 40 3/8, so use that in your calculations. There is also a mistake in the distance between the backrest posts. It is given as 20 3/4 in. It should be 20 in. as in the FW article.
I would like to suggest that FW prints corrections at the end of archived articles. It is not appropriate for the best journal in woodworking to fail to ensure that their articles, videos, and advertised plans all agree and are correct.
It is also a minor annoyance that the FW article doesn’t give the widths of the rail or stretcher tenons. They are in the purchased plans. Unfortunately, the plans have an error in the full-sized drawing of the arms. The arm is actually drawn as 40 in. long, but is supposed to be 40 3/8 in. The distance from the right side to the width reference line on the left side is, coincidentally, exactly 40 3/8, so use that in your calculations. There is also a mistake in the distance between the backrest posts. It is given as 20 3/4 in. It should be 20 in. as in the FW article.
I would like to suggest that FW prints corrections at the end of archived articles. It is not appropriate for the best journal in woodworking to fail to ensure that their articles, videos, and advertised plans all agree and are correct.
Replies
Found Paolini's Morris chair article beginning on page 32 of the June 2009 FW issue no. 205.
You are right. I have been looking at the online article and was reading the copyright date as the date of the original article. Should have been issue No. 205.
I was in the middle of a chair build when that issue arrived and swiped some basic measures. I'm not entirely pleased that I did. I think the chair is too wide and a little too deep. Before you go too far you might want to mock it up and see how it sits.
Thanks, MJ. Maybe my butt is bigger, but the Paolini Morris chair has the exact dimensions of my favorite leather chair, which is worn out. I will post how the new chair feels when I am done.
Fatty.
You always have to be careful of plans.
Many have errors, or can be interpreted in different ways.
My preference is to start with the bits that define the piece, then try to join them together. Where there is significant uncertainty it pays to make a test piece in scrap. I don't mock things up (too lazy) generally, but find that making the odd dubious part in cheap stock first is worth the effort.
I noticed that the plan that is sold states that it is for a similar chair, that could explain some of the discrepancies between the pdf and the plan purchased such as the 40 vs 40 3/8 arm length . As for the mortise location for the rail and stretcher tenons not to interfere with each other I came out with two possible solutions. The front and back stretchers can be centered and the rail mortise pushed to the outside centered 3/4 inches away from the edge or both rail and stretcher mortise can be off center by the same amount.
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