beadLOCK Loose Tenon Joinery System  —  Project: "Making a Chair" (Part 2)

Have you ever started a project, and midway through it, wondered why you took this project on? Well, Maureen and I wondered just that. We wanted to make the chair but had no idea it was so complex a task    We finally decided that there were many parts to the chair, but that no one part was that difficult to make. With that in mind, we cleared some workspace and went about duplicating one part at a time.    Maureen holds one of the legs which she shaped at the router last time.
	The original back leg had a gradual rounded top. We want to change that and have it square. When pattern routing, Maureen stayed away from this section.    Now she used a "gentleman's saw" to cut the piece flat. We will add some shape after we figure out where the top mortise will be — another change from the original.
Maureen next tackles the front legs. They are shaped from 1 1/2" square stock. The original leg is in her left hand. You can see that after a 2" flat section, there is a taper on the two inside edges.
	I have a commercial taper jig but often prefer to make a jig just for the specific leg. Maureen places the sample leg flush to the edge of a scrap piece of poplar. She draws the tapered side outline.
She cuts to the line at the bandsaw.
	With a blank in place, she can safely and accurately make her cut.
Having made the taper cuts on two sides, Maureen has her front leg. The other one is as easy.
	Back at the bench, she marks where the mortises will go on the leg. Since the taper is on the inside, she wants to be sure that the mortise in on the same side. The single hole at the middle of the leg is for the cross brace.    BY the way, she is only marking the approximate position at this point. The exact placing will be done by the beadLOCK guide.
Maureen's next task is to rip some slats for the back section. In the original it was a solid panel. She decides that several tin slats will look more "Stickley Style."    To get a number of uniform slats, she will rip one board into several 3/8" widths. She selects the 1/2" spacing template. This will allow for 1/8" kerf of the rip blade.
	She slides the template into one of the Incra TS-III channels. With the stock in place and just touching the blade, she locates a 1/2" marker under the cursor.
Maureen can make her cut. After each cut, she simply moves the fence to the next 1/2" space mark and makes another cut.
	Each cut is right on the money. In that the wide section on the board remains between the fence and the blade, this method of resawing is a much safer way than to set the fence at 3/8".
One last thing to saw are the top and bottom back rails. In the original, they have the curved shape. Again, to be more in keeping with the Stickley Style, Maureen will make them square.    She uses the original to get the shape of the piece. In the final chair, we will probably resaw strips and laminate them to a form. For this prototype chair, Maureen will cut the shape at the bandsaw.
	With a 1/2", 5 tooth per inch installed, she can make a pretty smooth cut on this gentle curve.
The Delta Bench Random Orbital Sander smoothes away the saw marks very quickly. Maureen uses 150 grit paper. The outside only takes a few minutes.
	The outside curve looks good. Unfortunately, I do not have a spindle sander so the inside curve will have to be done by hand.

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