Chair Plans

[arms]

Well,the time has come to ask for your collective advices !
i am making a new table for my house and am having a hard time finding a set of plans to make the chairs from ,the design will be old world or shaker,any ideas

[ryanarcher]

I wonder if rocker has any plans for dining chairs? your style sounds similar to his, and i can enthusiastically recomend his rocking chair plans (although I'm still farting around a bit before i build one) ;)
-Ryan

[Rocker]

arms,

Although I have made about 15 chairs in my time, probably none of them is of the sort of design you want. If you are prepared to use a modern style of dining chair, you could make Neil Scobie's design, originally published in the Australian Woodworker #82 (December 1998), and now sold in the AW plan series for $29. You might find it useful to buy Jeff Miller's book 'Chairmaking and Design', which should give you sufficient insight to design your own chair.

If you use M&T joints (as you should), you may want to get my plans for morticing and tenoning jigs, which are free on request - PM me with your e-mail address.

Rocker

[Scally]

Tom
I struggled with making dining chairs and read lots of articles and sat on hundreds of chairs.
Eventually I went to a Neil Scobie school at Bucca Creek.

My chairs are a combination of his Dining and Office chair plans adjusted to what I liked.
I liked the curve of his backs but wanted a taller chair.
Many chairs are narrow and not very deep so I expanded these on his plans.
They now fit bigger bums.
I think they are more comfortable to sit on for long periods.

His plans have been in the Australian Woodworker and they have them for sale.

Enjoy the planning

[Rocker]

Scally,

Those are very nice chairs - a much better design IMO than the original Scobie dining chair. Can you give us a few details of the design? Are the inner faces of the back legs parallel to one another? If not, do they splay out upwards, or backwards, or both? Are the side rails parallel to one another? If not, at what angle do they splay out from the vertical plane of symmetry of the chair? Are the tenons on the back end of the side rails angled? What are the dimensions (shoulder-shoulder) of the back, front and side rails?

Rocker

[tubby]

hi tom
i have two setes of plans for old world chairs one set is andriondack style and the other is a kentuckey chair
if you need a set let me know and i will send you one
adrian

[Scally]

Rocker
that is a lot to think about without my note book but here is a start.

The angles around the legs are 5, 10 and 15 degrees. These seem pretty typical for dining chairs.

Front and back rails are parallel.
Back legs splay out at the top.
The back to seat angle is somewhere about 100 degrees. We tried from 90 to 110 on a mockup. I think with the curve of the back I could have made it closer to 95 degrees.

The pics may give a better idea of the angles.

Tenons join the legs to the side rails and three 10mm dowels join the front and back rails to the legs.

I'll check the dimension tonight.
I do remember that when the family came around to give them a test run, that I marked where one of the girl's feet came to on a front chair leg, took the chiar into the kitchen , marked all four legs, cut them off with a Z saw and brought it back to her.
(They are used to me.)
She said she liked it higher!

[Rocker]

The angles around the legs are 5, 10 and 15 degrees. These seem pretty typical for dining chairs.


Scally,

Thanks for the additional info on the chairs. But I am confused by the 5, 10 and 15 degree angles. Presumably the 5 degree angle is the upward splay of the back legs from the vertical plane of symmetry of the chair, and the 10 angle is the angle between that plane and the inner faces of the side rails. But what is the 15 degree angle?

I don't like Neil Scobie's use of dowels to join the back legs to the back rails of his chairs. I made one of his rockers which used this method. I found it hard to drill the dowel holes accurately. The chair hasn't fallen apart yet, but I would much prefer to have used mortice and tenon joints, as I have done in my rocker design.

Rocker

[Auld Bassoon]

Well,the time has come to ask for your collective advices !
i am making a new table for my house and am having a hard time finding a set of plans to make the chairs from ,the design will be old world or shaker,any ideas
I'm in the throes of making some dining chairs. It's turning into a bit of a project from hell thoughhttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon9.gif - too many curves, mortices and downright fiddly bits. I'm presing on though, just diverting to other projects from time to time otherwise toys will be thrown, and dummies will be spathttp://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/icons/icon11.gif

Anyway, one source of plans (some free, others minimal cost) is

www. p l a n s n ow. c o m

[Krunchy]

Hi Rocker



You might find it useful to buy Jeff Miller's book 'Chairmaking and Design', which should give you sufficient insight to design your own chair.

Jeff Miller's book is now out of print and since Fine Woodworking named is as one of the "27 Books Every Woodworker Should Read" they are as scarse as hens teeth :(

I even emailed Jeff to see if he knew where I could find a copy and he said that he didn't have any. He did mention that he is negotiating with another publisher (not Taunton) to get the book reprinted.

Krunchy.

[Rocker]

Krunchy,

Since you are not too far away, I could perhaps lend you Jeff Miller's book, if you like to drop in and collect it some time. If you want to do so, PM me, and I will give you my phone number and address.

Rocker