Arts and Crafts Dining Chairs
comments (7) December 12th, 2011 in Reader's Gallery
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.
Design or Plan used: Kevin Rodel
posted in: Reader's Gallery, chair, cherry, arts and crafts, upholstery, prairie style

















Comments (7)
Posted: 12:57 am on April 15th
Posted: 12:28 am on April 15th
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?
Posted: 10:52 pm on March 28th
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/44917/arts-crafts-dining-table
Posted: 1:06 am on February 11th
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
Posted: 1:05 pm on December 31st
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?
Posted: 8:25 am on December 28th
Posted: 12:34 pm on December 27th
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