While making a 6 chair set of Kevin Rodels terrific dining chair design, I found numerous errors on the full size plan that I purchased from Taunton to go beyond the original article in FWW #190. Here is a list of problems I found and reported to Rodel in 2011.

Turbochief

Mesa, Az

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Arts and Crafts Side Chair

Project Plan #36 from Fine Woodworking

Design by Kevin Rodel / Drafting by Jason Bennett

Errors and Issues List

1.     Back Leg Profile & Pattern

–        Drawing omits top diamond cut therefore 43 inch leg height is not defined clearly. Drawing line work is at a maximum of 42 7/8 from floor. Crest rail tenon profile is shown at 1 13/32 on pattern versus 1 ¼ dimensioned on other view.

–        Crest rail tenon profile is shown at 15/32 from leg surface, not ½  inch, and the lower back rail tenon is not at 17 inch from the crest rail tenon. Since most other dimensions can be scaled quite well from the layouts, these are notably off the mark.

2.     Dowel reinforcements

–        Omitted on plan for all seat rail locations versus article instructions. Also note that article says to “mortise the crest rail” for pegs but the mortises are actually in the leg face.

3.     Cross stretchers

–        Shown as 1 ¼ thick in exploded isometric view, drawing upper left. Actual thickness is 1 1/8 inch.

4.     Back Splats

–        Plan shows vertical height of splat assembly as 16 1/8 but because it tilts at 7 deg from vertical it’s true developed length is actually 16 ¼ . This latter dimension matches the tenon placement and shoulder size. So, both the splat detail, drawing lower right, and the cutlist have multiple errors on length.

5.     Other Trigonometry Problems

–        Seat side rails are shown as 14 9/16 on the cutlist but must actually be cut at 14 11/16 minimum because of the 4.5 deg angle impact on their “parallelogram shape”.

–        The seat side rail patterns are shown as too long on the arc. If these are made as templates and laid on the side rail outer face for pattern routing, the 4.5 degree shoulder angle will cause one of the shoulders to be “clipped off” on the inside face. The curve profile must be biased away from the tenon shoulder on one end to prevent the clipping.

–        The seat frame side pieces are shown as 17 5/8 on the cut list but must be 17 7/8 by 2 ½ to fit the pattern shown. Again this is the effect of the 4.5 degree splay angle on each side.