Hi Gary. I appreciate your willingness to help us everyday woodworkers out. I’m interested in making a Nakashima Conoid-like chair. I’m trying to figure out the joinery, and in particular the seat-leg joint. I’d like to fashion a jig to do the joint reliably and repetitively. I imagine this joint has to be perfect, as it carries so much weight, with a mechanical advantage to boot. The joint is complicated by the attractive design feature of having the legs protrude “proud” of the seat – it isn’t a simple brindle joint.
How to construct this joint? A simple modified brindle joint, with stopped open mortises (not sure if I’m using the correct terminology here)? A “hip joint”, the type used by Maloof in attaching his chair legs to the seat? Other type joint? Jigs to accomplish this?
Thanks- Fred
Replies
Hi Fred,
This is a challenging joint. I think that like the Maloof chair joint you'll need to notch and rabbet the seat and the leg. As you note however, these notches are stopped. I suppose you could make up a jig for use with a template guide and straight bit. Clamp this to the leg and rout for the rabbets. But perhaps it would be simpler just to notch on the table saw and scribe lines around for the rabbet. Free hand rout to depth and clean up the three shoulders of each rabbet.
Perhaps you could make up a marking out template for this rabbet.
Obviously this cantilevered seat needs support at this leg joint. But I think that equally important is the crest rail joint. As the seat gets pushed down to the ground, the spindles push up on the crest rail. If this holds firm, this helps to support the seat. Do a good job there as well.
I'm sorry I have no immediate jig to solve this issue. I have not made this chair joint. I would strengthen it with a screw or pin as your optimal gluing surface is very small. Best of luck. Gary
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