Custom wooden rocking chair design & build blog Archive September 2010

What is bent lamination?

Bent lamination is the process where multiple strips of wood 1/8'' thick or less are glued together on a form with a caul and clamps holding it down for 24 hours until the glue dries. This accomplishes 3 main goals

- creating the desired curve for the lumbar support

- creating the strength needed

- allowing the back brace to have flexibility. 

In this blog entry we will go over the process of creating our bent lamination custom rocking chair back braces.

As you see below each back brace consists of 4 different laminations about 2.2mm thick, we grain match the laminations so make sure you keep everything it order!

DSC_2067






















We lay out the laminations and begin adding glue in between the layers, we use Tite bond III waterproof with some crazy figure like 4500 psi holding strength. This is one reason anything made from bent lamination is so strong, modern glues are very strong, easy to use and even food safe!

DSC_2068

DSC_2070

We glue up the back braces in pairs so you should have 2 stacks once all the glue is applied. We stack the back braces making sure no glue is in between separate back braces.

DSC_2072

DSC_2071

Back braces in form with caul ready for clamping, we use the caul because using the clamps directly on the laminations damages and cups them, not good.

DSC_2073

Get some clamps

DSC_2074

Start clamping, you should start to see the glue squeeze out, also you must make sure the laminations are all exactly lined up where they should be. The form has some uprights that help keep the laminations where they should be.

DSC_2076

Squeeze out!

DSC_2080

It takes 13 clamps per back brace.

DSC_2078

All clamps tightened, a good amount of glue squeeze out everywhere, perfect! You can notice some old wood hockey sticks that we use as uprights, of course the glue like to stick to them so we have coated them in a glue resistant film. Made in Canada eh!

DSC_2085

With the magic of the internet we have a pair of back braces all done. These are built using one layer of Ebony and 3 layers of walnut.

DSC_2083

You can see the desired curve that the laminations now hold, we still have a lot of work to do before they can be used in a custom rocking chair, but we are well on our way now.

DSC_2084

I've notice some websites that say there's more risk to a flexible back brace breaking over a solid piece, I disagree especially with how our chair is designed. The rocking chairs we build are designed to allow the back brace to flex without putting stress on the back braces it self. We accomplish this buy using a oval shaped hole at the seat location allowing the back brace end to move back and fourth freely when flexed. Also the hole in the bottom of the headrest is double drilled with a angle towards the front, again allowing the top of the back brace to move freely without causing stress. I will post detailing the stress free movement of our flexible bent laminated back braces in our custom rocking chairs.

Thanks again for stopping by, hope you learned something and if you have any suggestions please let us know!


Paul - Joel

Custom rocking chairs and tables!

2010-09-21 9:20 PM

View Comments

Starting 2 new custom wooden rocking chairs

Nice relaxing sunday, time to re-saw some rocking chair back braces and rocker laminations. I had already done the Ebony the other day but need to cut the 3 other laminations for each back brace, for a total of 48 more walnut laminations......... time to crank up the music and settle in. It's actually not that bad we re-saw using a 1'' wide blade that is carbide tipped to leave a very smooth finish with a very small kerf its cuts really straight and goes pretty quick through Walnut, it was the Ebony that really was a harder job.

custom rockign chair back brace laminationsIn this picture you can see 2 seat blanks that have been removed from the clamps ready to be drum sanded to remove any inperfections in the glue up. Also is a stack of back brace lamination all in order for each chair. A few hours is actually spent organizing them, there's no going back once there glued up in the forms.



custom rocking chair ebony back bracesHere are the back braces laid out and numbered for each rocking chair. Again keeping everything organized is very important, a lot of hard work went into making nice grain matched laminations, no messing it up now!



custom rocking chair walnut blanks

Arms, Front legs and Headrest blanks for the 2 chairs, tomorrow will be working on these , especially the headrest as it needs to start getting glued up tomorrow, it has about 4 steps to glue it all together. This is because we use a coopered headrest, where we can match the grain to the seat and arms, and get a larger curve which assures more comfort to your body in one of our custom rocking chairs.


Below is a picture of our templates which seem to grow every week. Can't wait to come up with some new designs, and share them with you.

custom rocking chair templates

Below is the fist table we've really played with the leg design, it is actually a really neat table, that will look great next to a rocking chair. The top is beautiful built from one board it's matched with a sap line down the middle, pictured to the left.

maloof custom rocking chair side table


2010-09-19 10:05 PM

View Comments

Torsion box table

Well since we have an order for a very large pedestal table, we decided we needed a larger assembly table, which we can also use as a table for a vacuum bag. So of course we built a torsion box, if you don't know what one is, it is basically a top and bottom sheet with ribs on the inside similar to a airplane wing. What this does is create a VERY strong and VERY flat surface to work on. Now we built this in the garage so we decided to go with plywood to construct it, as there is a high level and fluctuating level of humidity. All our other torsion boxes have been built using mdf.

DSC_1915

In this photo we built a 2x6 frame to have to torsion box top rest on.







torsion box frame bottom sides

The bottom and some side are in place, using glue and brad nails.

torsion box frame ribs


torsion box frame progress



torsion box internal ribs


torsion box amost doneWe start at one end we have a grid spacing of 6'', you can use a rib as a spacer so it's pretty easy to keep everything in line.


Don't be shy on the glue and use brads along the way to hold things together.


custom rocking chair assembly table

Were using Titebond II as it is water resistant again due to the high levels of moisture in the garage. Better to be safe then sorry!








Almost there, so many ribs, so much glue, where's my coffee!

















Lunch break........


















Almost time for dinner........














Dinner time!



Look at the all done, all that is left is glue and attach the top, we used screws to hold it down then place about 1 tonne of weight for 24 hours.


Forgot to take a picture all finished, sorry it that poor blog etiquette. Oh well I think there will be many pictures in the future.

2010-09-18 12:14 AM

View Comments

Bar stool progress

Today was a day of mostly sanding, sanding and even some more sanding. Not nearly as exciting as yesterday which was sanding and more sanding....... but by the end I was able to apply finish to our newest custom rocking chairs which is always so exciting. I think I forget just how beautiful wood can be. Then I apply the finish, and pop there it is........ the wood shows its true colours always a wonderful thing.

DSC_1893Here is the makings of a bar stool i've been working on, the templates are from Scott Morrison but i've change the details, especially the seat joints where we use a joint that offers double the glue surface, by using 1/2'' bits instead of 1/4''.

DSC_1895Picture is the workhorse of the shop the Festool RO150 best sander ever! That's all i'm going to say.

DSC_1896

DSC_1897


DSC_1899Here is a close up of the Maloof seat joint, this joint is about as strong as you get, especially after adding 2 4'' screws. Not only is it strong but it's very sleek and stylish especially after we sculp, shape, sand, and buff it to perfect fair lines.

2010-09-15 10:41 PM

View Comments

The finishing touches, another custom rocking chair done

 Today was a day full of sanding, basically wake up sand, eat , sand , sand , eat , sand , sand , sand , finish!  and eat some more. Figured i'd go over how we sand a custom rocking chair.

DSC_1891Our process goes like this

Grinder - 120 grit - 150 grit - 220 grit - 320 grit - 400 grit - abralon 500 grit, burnish with wool pad.

Okay when you type it out it does not seem like much work, but let me tell you it is!!  Above 220 we like to hand sand everything, we feel like the piece has a more organic flowing natural lines so soft to the touch, that every time you feel the chair it's a surprise. 

Every person that happens to come by at this stage gets to experiance the most exciting times durng the chair build, first it's all sanded ready for finish, one more quick seat of course. And second the transformation from bare wood to the grain popping hand rubbed oil finish.





Here is a close up of the hand carved seat on this custom rocking chair that has been burnished with a wool pad after going through the grinding and sanding procedure. It's sure is nice when the chair starts to get to this stage, you kinda do areas of the chair to completion until it all comes together as a wonderful glowing chair even before we put the finish on.  

DSC_1883

Before and after the first coat of oil / poly finish has been rubbed down, now we let dry for 2 days, and repeat a total of 6 times, all the hard work really pays off in the end.

sidebyside

Thanks all for coming by to have a look at our custom rocking chair - design and build blog, as always your feed back is much appreciated so if you have any requests on what were posting on here send us a msg. We will have more detailed pictures of this rocking chair up shortly.

2010-09-15 10:41 PM

View Comments

Ebony Ebony September 10th 2010

Joel went on a wood safari today to get some Gaboon Ebony, lucky at our local wood supplier they received a large shipment of Ebony cut offs that they were selling for much less then usual, they charged $6 a pound, shown here is about 40lbs. We generally use this wood for our custom rocking chairs as plugs. Although we did also get a piece that should be able to do 2 chairs worth of back braces. We were so excited to see how this wood would re-sawn on the band saw, that joel went right to the jointer. As I setup the band saw he squared up the plank and 5 minutes later we were cutting the back braces laminations. Now for to plugs so so many plugs.

Gaboon ebony

We decided to store our plugs in this really old Pepsi bottle, we cut about 100 plugs today and just to do the bar stool and latest custom rocking chair we used about 40 plugs.

ebony plugs

Below is 4 pieces of back brace laminations that Paul cut, only many many more still to cut, but what A beautiful chair this is going to be. The Ebony is a very very dense wood, it actually sinks in water..... yes we tested (-:  Cuts nicely on the table saw, but must cut very slow when band sawing. Thats okay though cut slow have a break in a rocking chair cut some more laminations, back to the rocking chair, back to the band saw...... now were all done! 

rocking chair laminations

Here is the latest custom rocking chair with Zebrawood back braces, what beautiful rocking chair can't wait to put on the finish.

rocking chair bar stool

Thanks again for come by to see what were up to, if you have any questions of comments please let us know.  Contact us now!

2010-09-10 9:13 PM

View Comments

Cold September 8th 2010

Today we had to design a round pedestal table. We want a round table with a 52'' diameter that has 2 center leaves that are 12'' each, so pretty big table! We want it to be very robust looking and strong, so were going to go with about a 6x6'' center column with 4'' thick legs and table top supports. I forgot to snap a picture of the design but i'll get it posted up tomorrow. Joel came up with an ingenious sliding dovetail top that will allow each half of the top to be pulled out 12'' to install a leaf or 2 when guest come over.

Final sanding has begun on this custom rocking chair, we do it in stages but as of right now it's about 10% sanded to a final polish so lot's more work to go.

maloof barstool

Above we have a bar stool that were adapting from another design, Maloof inspired that's for sure! In Sams book there is a sketch of this bar stool just at random on the side of the page, i've never seen a picture of know if he ever made them but it's going to be a nice stool! 

Below are the arms for the bar stool there's a little trick to get some curve to them that needs about every F clamp we own.

clamping arms

Thanks again for coming by to have a look at what our minds can design and our hands build, it's truly a joy working and learning every day.


Joel if you read this tonight, don't forget coffee tomorrow   (-:

2010-09-08 10:38 PM

View Comments

Rainy September 6th 2010

We've had a bunch of progress on this next custom rocking chair, you can see the grain matched back braces are installed along with the headrest. This is a major step in the assembly process because everything in the inside of the back brace area is sanded and buffed to it's final stage, we will touch it up along the way but generally it's ready to go!

custom rocking chair progress

zebrawood custom rocking chair















Detail shot of the grain matched back braces, which are made of 4 laminations, the top layer was cut from a piece of Zebrawood 1'' thick, using a carbide tipped bandsaw blade.











Below is a test we picked up a new wood called Holly....... yes it's called Hollywood. It remains very white when finished, infact the whitest wood i've ever worked with, looks good but not for this chair were sticking with the ebony plugs as the chair already draws enough attention with the Zebrawood included in the rocking chair.

holly plugs walnut













Below we happen to find a beautiful piece of curly walnut. Joel and I get very excited over special pieces of lumber, because we like to make every piece we make unique and beautiful. With the careful use of exotic and figured woods we can make you a very unique piece of furniture that will be around forever! 

curly walnut

DSC_1851

2010-09-06 10:26 PM

View Comments

Design & build a Maloof style table

We recently came up with a rough drawing of a table leg design we can adapt from our current design. We want to eventually design it with 6 or 8 legs but were starting with 4 to see how the lines work out visually and how the stability is.

maloof table template design













Above you can see the template we've created that will be the beginning for every piece of this table. Below we have rough cut out all the pieces, from 1.5'' think walnut and with a center post that is 3'' x 3''. Notice the tung and grove joinery between the center post and center leg sections. Sam Maloof came up with this design from what I understand, not only is it beautiful when were all done, but also about as strong as you can get one reason our furniture will challenge the test of time.

maloof side table parts


maloof table parts layout

Initial layout of the parts before assembling the joints, below all parts glued up rough sanded and initial shaping via the router has been done, let me tell you there's much more work still to be done!

maloof side table spiders


2010-09-04 3:31 PM

View Comments

Canadian Woodworks   -   Custom wooden rocking chairs and tables   -    Hand Made in Canada                              info@canadianwoodworks.com