Thread: Fine woodworking video chair making

G'day Jow104,

I came across that one a week back or so and meant o go back to it, thanks for the reminder.

Always wanted to make some chairs, and once I get past my current build I'll be seeing what I can do to use the chair design to work out some chairs and table for my deck.

yes, I had just decided to make my first chair and then that turned up. Watched the first series 2 weeks ago and then saw the rest today. Not rocket science but a few little tips in there.

Great find Jow. Nice clear instructions. Good vid

I called my wife in to have a look at this with me and she asked if it was some April Fool's malarkey that someone had sent me. We both cringed throughout the whole video. Part of me wanted to turn it off, but it was somewhat compulsive watching; I just had to see what abomination was coming next.

It's hard to believe Fine Woodworking gave that video their blessing. To quote Effie: "How embarrassment!"

Woodwould, which bits did you find not to your liking?

Where do I start! I thought the design itself was flawed; the premise for choosing loose tennons so the chair's dimensions could be altered as it progressed is preposterous! The 'loose tennons' were loose in more sense than one. I've never seen such sloppy tennons and considering they're then sloppy in both the rails and legs, the aggregate potential for failure is doubled.

The repetitive scrubbing back and forth with a pencil is no way to achieve accurate marks. No wonder he had to cut everything oversize and follow with the odd sequence of sanding and then planing/shaving.
A clean line made with a proper marking knife followed by accurate saw cuts to those lines should produce components that fit together with no, or at least minimal clean-up. Pencils are for face marks and signatures, not fine cabinetwork.

Pace wasn't called into issue, but nonetheless, traditional mortices and tennons could have been produced in a fraction of the time it took him to faff about with the router. There's not much point in using power tools if they take longer to perform the same task and don't provide superior accuracy. He could have made the mortices more accurate if he'd bothered to set up jigs, but then they would have slowed the production even further and there's still the issue of his ill-fitting tennons.

His gluing technique was neither competent nor tidy. That chair required thorough gluing with some very special glue to compensate for the sloppy joints, whereas it received sporadic dabs at random spots.

His general skills were a concern throughout the series of videos (use of spokeshave, handsaw etc.). His comment about the upholstery not being very well done, but "good enough" was so lackluster and was reflective of the whole project. Ramming the seat into the chair frame at the end would have been hilarious if it weren't so abysmal. The joints didn't have much of a chance to begin with and the oversized seat then put them all under pressure.

Those are just some points I recall, though there were many others. I was utterly amazed at the lack of basic skills and comprehension of the fundamentals of fine woodworking. I presume that bloke is self-employed as I don't know of any cabinet shop that would give him employment.

The series may have been to offer ideas and inspiration rather than focus on fine woodworking, but the embarrassing lack of skills made a mockery of it. A thoroughly hack job from beginning to end.

A delightful summary . I don't claim to have any significant skill, but having just completed a set of 12 chairs, I couldn't bring myself to watch past the first episode.

Regards,

James