Arts and Crafts Dining Chairs
This is a 6 chair set shown with my "invisible dining table". The table is a work still in process
The dining chairs were built from a Kevin Rodel plan published in FWW and available from Taunton. The chairs are solid cherry with some wenge Greene and Greene style accents. The upholstery is 2 inch high density foam over a webbed ash slip seat frame and has black cowhide covering…my first upholstery experience. The chair frames have a lot of angled joinery which increases the challenge of getting tight looking fits. There is one jig suggested for the angled mortises which worked only moderately well and I also made several templates and jigs for some of the arced rails. The chairs are finished with 5 or more coats of Waterlox. The table I’m currently working is my own design which will follow the Frank Lloyd Wright and Prairie style design motif. I’ll post that separately when completed.
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This is a 6 chair set shown with my "invisible dining table". The table is a work still in process
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Comments
Great looking chairs! Rodel's design is one of the finest I have seen. Great craftsmanship.
Your chairs look great!
I've just started on one of these (out of red oak) to see how it goes. (This will be my most advanced project to date.) Did you come up with a better jig for the angled mortices?
Hello Flactem,
No, I used the jig that Rodel shows in FWW, but it was too flexible and spread as you tapped in the wedges to hold the workpiece. I needed to place various clamps across the jig to really prevent sliding and to keep the workpiece angled properly with the router base. Also, if you bought the full size plan from Taunton be sure to check all plan dimensions yourself. There are numerous dimensional errors probably created by the draftsman and a lack of skill with trigonometry. Also some pictorial errors on spreader features. I've sent an error list to Kevin but he was not confident that an errata sheet would be published by Taunton.
Thanks
The dining table is now completed as of February and can be seen at this location:
https://www.finewoodworking.com/item/44917/arts-crafts-dining-table
You did a great job with the table and chair set, BRAVO!
I will be using Kevin's plan to make chairs for my sons and their families. (kind of a production to match tables I have made and in the processing of making).
The jig stability I can work around, as you did, but can you share the dimension issues that you found relative to the plan?
To Kbibelhausen: Just saw your post and question this evening. If you still would like to see a list of plan errors and other suggestions I can e-mail them since the list is too long to post as a comment. Not quite sure how to get it to you otherwise. I'll check out the forum to see if that is a better venue for plan errata.
I posted the error list in the Knots Forum as post # 170025 under the title Kevin Rodel A&C Chair plan errors. Hope you can find it there.
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