What A Well Fitted Post And Rung Chair Joint Looks Like

An important part of chairmaking is knowing how tight to make a joint in order to get a proper fit. How tight I make a joint will depend somewhat on the type of wood used but, essentially, I want it as tight as possible without splitting the joint - and having to use a little force to bring it together is not necessarily a bad thing.

A good rule of thumb for testing a windsor chairmaking mortise and tenon joint is if you can put the joint about half way together with only hand pressure then you are about perfect. Then during assembly you can force it togther with a few hammer blows.

In windsor chairmaking, you are not often putting multiple joints together at once so a tight fit like this is possible without complicating a smooth assembly. On the other hand, with a post and rung assembly, I will back it off just a hair so I can have a bit more control on an assembly. When you add up a lot of joints that have to come together at the same time on one of these chairs then the extra give can be the difference between success and a struggle or failure.

Here is a short (and very out of focus) video of how tight I try to make the joints for a post and rung chair joint.

Enjoy!

Glue Up Of A Post And Rung Chair / Stool Assembly

I wanted to give a little sample of a glue up of a post and rung assembly. This is not the entire process but my hope is to share some little details about applying the glue and how to clean it up as you go along. These things are not often discussed in books but it is helpful to see how it is done so that your process goes cleanly and smoothly.

I use hot hide glue exclusively in chairmaking. Using PVA glues, or just about anything else, is simply madness if you plan to have well fitted joints. PVA glues will bind up in a split second in a really tight joint and will stop it from going together completely. On the other hand, hide glue will actually lubricate a joint making tight fitting ones come together more easily

You'll notice the first tool of the trade here is a good stiff bristle brush for wiping away the excess glue. This is just a cheap natural hair brush from a hardware store with the bristles cut way back near the base. Removing the majority of the glue this way keeps you from smearing it around and then worrying about getting it all wiped off. Also, try to avoid adding any water to the surface as you clean so that you do not dilute the glue and spread it around even more. That said, slightly damp cleaning tools may help lift the glue better.

Your next tool is going to be paper towel for cleaning the joints. This may prick your eco-friendly conscience but a clean surface each time to remove the glue is, in my opinion, the only way to go. Using a wet rag will only spread it around for you to fuss with later before finishing. Plus, a paper towel will pick up the glue off the surface better than a rag.

Lastly, be sure to use something like an old magazine under your work so that you don't damage the side that is on your workbench.

I first learned most of these methods from Peter Galbert. If you have heard about his upcoming book from Lost Arts Press and are wondering what to expect, this is the sort of detail that he covers. It seems nothing is left to guesswork. 

Even though I read and helped edit most of the text early on I can't wait to get my hands on the finished copy. Chris and Megan did a really great job of compiling the book into a super easy to read style that is a hallmark of LAP publications. Plus, Pete went back and reworked a lot of the drawings and I haven't seen all of those yet. Very eager.  Come on Chris, get that thing to the printers!!!!!

Danish Modern Chair Joinery - Møller Style Joints

I got a little nudge to follow up on something I promised to talk more about which is how to do those joints in Danish furniture where the rails meet at the same height on a post of a chair leg.

From the first time I made these chair joints until now I have made them the same each time in designs that require this type of joint. I have not had one fail yet. Honestly I had wondered for a long time just how the factory made there joinery. Turns out it is the same. I discovered some photos of an antique one that was for sale and the joint had come apart and there was my answer. I don't think it takes a real genius to figure this out but it is nice to have confirmation when you see a factory example of it to confirm you aren't making substandard joinery.

So I will let the pictures speak for themselves especially since I am heading out of town for the weekend and my time is a bit crunched.

By the way I do cut the mortise on the slot mortiser. You could use a router as a substitute but couldn't make any recommendations on how to use one of those things.

Here is an example of an assembled joint from a Møller style bench. You can see the typical thicker portion of the post at the joint height. This helps add more meat to the joint and a shoulder surface for support of racking forces.

Below is how the joint intersects in the middle of the post. The mortises make an X if you viewed a cross section of the post. I place the rail that is shown vertically as the front to back rail and the horizontal as the left to right rail. This way the front and back rails "pin" the side rails in the mortise. I think of it as a sort of back up if the glue joints weaken. There is plenty of glue surface in these joints as well. Surprisingly strong.

Some additional views below.

Above is the joint before shaping. I carve off the corners and then finely rasp the surface to match the shape and thickness of a piece of cord.

I have found no faster way to round down the tenons to match a slotted mortise than a no.6 grain rasp. On that note I prefer round as opposed to square mortises here because I think the joint is less likely to split out when stresses are applied to the joint.

For reference the tenon is 3/8" thick by 1-7/8" high (I think?) and the post are 1-1/2" square at the joint. 

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Making the CH25 - Designed by Hans Wegner

Sometimes I feel like I am resurrecting the dead or at least recreating Jurassic Park. The paleontology of furniture. Digging up bones (pictures). Sifting through the dirt and debris (more photos- hopefully closeups or bottoms side shots).

When you are hoping to make a piece that you have never seen and not too many people have either and to top it off any technical information on them is no doubt buried in some website only in Danish is challenging, to say the least. I fortunately have gained the knack for obtaining at least one or two dimensions and working from pictures after that to the final dimensions of the entire piece with success.

Critical in making this project come together was determining the exact diameter of Danish cord. If you saw my ruler for weaving danish cord post then you know why this was so problematic. Once I figured this part out I had to find photos that showed exactly the number of cords on each portion of the chair. This took me about a year looking at photos that would pop up online. Thanks to an online auction, I stumbled upon some good close ups where I could count each cord. Put that info together with the dimensions and that finally completed the missing details I had been looking for.

Fortunately, Wegner was a craftsman, so his designs follow a logic that a woodworker can see at its core. You can see an underlying structure that is logical in the wood choice. How he utilized standardized lumber dimensions to derive the different parts for proportion and joinery. It is amazing the efficiency of the lay out of parts for production. I have learned after making several of his designs that there is practically no room for improvement. That is why you see so many "modern" chair designs that have his chairs at the core. Though, in truth, Wegner took many of his designs from chairs of antiquity. How about his wish bone chair that is essentially derived from a Quan Yi ceremonial chair (Chinese). I digress...

I know everyone wants to know. How to weave that back? What is that hole in the top of the rail for? Do you use cord nails in the back? No. I can answer that for you. The rest will have to wait for another post. And, YES, this chair is really "that" comfortable. Oh and finally, NO, you have absolutely no need for an ottoman.

What is the Diameter of Danish Paper Cord?

Wow, what a question. I have been asking that for a long time. What is its actual diameter. I think I may have figured it out finally.

The root of the problem of nailing down the exact diameter probably lies in the fact that it was originally an industrial product made to bind things. Anything and everything. It wasn't meant to meet a particular exacting standard (as far as I know of). This product just so happened to make its way into Danish modern chair production because of a number of reasons.

Despite this, as far as I have experienced, there is an amazing consistency in size from roll to roll and from different suppliers, though I now primarily source it from one company in the US.

I used to use a rough figure of 7 cord widths per inch. This works for anything less than 3" but anymore than that and it becomes clear a more accurate measurement is needed. Here is where it gets ugly. There is no easy measurement that fits. It doesn't even make a clean round number in metric.

It is somewhere between 1/8" and  9/64". Or somewhere between 3.5mm and 3.6mm. I have landed on the figure of 0.13875" or 3.52425mm. It is close to 31/32" for 7 cords which works ok for figuring the nail locations on a 5/2 cord layout.

Since this figure is awkward to work with in the shop for laying out cord and nail locations I made a ruler for simplifying the process and of course want to share it with all of you.

Don't be confused by all the little blocks. There are instructions on how to make a ruler with the print out. It is designed so that you can create a two sided rule and be able to pair it with the different standard ratios of cord layout used on most danish modern chairs. 

It is sized for printing on standard 8.5 x 11 paper. The rule is 10" long and can be made longer by butting pieces end to end. I suggest using some clear plastic tape to laminate it with to create a simple flexible rule. Choose from several different measuring ratios, such as, 5/2, 4/2, 2/2, and a basic 1/1. I paired most of these with the option to have a 1" scale on the reverse side.

Hope this makes your shop life a little easier. BTW I decided to make this after weaving a CH25 pair that I recently made. I will post some photos on that since I know many have questions on how it is done.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD PAGE. (Click on the download button in the upper right corner of the new page to begin download.) NOTE: THE DOCUMENT IN THE LINK DISPLAYS INCORRECTLY BUT THE DOWNLOADED IS JUST FINE. 

NOTE: The plans are in PDF format. If you don't have a PDF reader Adobe Acrobat is a free software that will make it viewable and printable. Make sure where ever you print it that the "scale" is set to 100% or the measurements won't be accurate on the print. You may need to unselect "fit to page" when printing.

If I made any errors anywhere in the plans please let me know so I can update them.

Drilling - Post and Rung

Yet more on drilling... Lets look at how I approach drilling for a Danish Modern chair frame. Naturally the tooling that was in vogue during the time a chair was designed and produced will often suit the production of that style the easiest even if other means are developed later on. I find that especially true of windsor pieces. That is why I will do almost all drilling free hand on those pieces but for the Danish Modern pieces most holes will be done on a drill press or even slot mortiser. I will cover the latter method in a future post, which is a must have tool for Wegner designs.

So lets look at my drill press set up. I use a jig that without would otherwise make drilling a post and rung chair a real fumbling awkward mess. I have seen a number of descriptions of ways to do this but none that don't require something that is specific to each chair design. This jig is just a platform that I can set a specific angle on. It will drill anything from 0º-25º.

Here is how it works. A round dowel is drawn forward or backwards by a treaded shaft. The dowel makes contact with an angled bracket pushing the platform up or lowering it.

I use a cordless drill to drive the shaft, for the sake of speed. 

Here are a few photos of a post beginning prepared to drill. The pictures are pretty self explanatory on the order of set up.

The angle is set by a simple gravity/plum bob type angle gage that you can purchase at any home improvement store. I compare the chuck or bit angle to the platform and just adjust the platform to the angle in relation to it.

 I use an additional platform with a "V" groove to hold a round part stationary. Square it to the platform edge. Add a clamp to hold it still. (not shown)

Center it on the groove.

Drill!

For posts that are tapered, leave an end on your turning that is equal to the diameter of the largest portion of your turning. This will allow you to base your angle of the hole being drilled on the center line of the part rather than any angled taper.

I will almost always start by drilling the front and rear post and assemble a right half and a left half of a frame. Then follow by drilling the remaining holes on one of the assembled halves at a time then complete by mortising or drilling for the back rest/supports. Now assemble the two halves into a whole. Doing it this way makes the assembly more accurate than trying to drill all the holes and then assembling. 

This is the simplest most versatile method I have come to use so far. I will follow up with some discussion of how you can use this jig in connection with sighting angles to drill compound angles. This is really useful for drilling the holes in the back of an elbow chair or something similar.

How to Weave A Danish Paper Cord Seat - Series

So I have been wanting to post a series on how to weave a Hans Wegner style Danish paper cord seat for a few years. I finally have gotten around to it. I just finished up a set of 6 chairs that are the CH36/37 in mahogany and they really are the perfect chair to demonstrate with.

Here are the videos starting with part 1 through to part 6 totaling about 38 minutes. I tried to edit out all the none essentials but I left comments on parts that will not only get you through the weave but some very helpful pointers that I could have used when I began. I suggest watching it completely through before starting. Once you have completed a chair, if you watch it again, you will likely understand and appreciate the additional comments better.

Please leave your comments. If I have left anything out or something seems to not make sense, please let me know. I spent a bit of time editing these so I would like them to be useful.

By the way, if you click on the "Danish paper cord" tag to the right of this page then you will see some posts on the basic weaving kit that I use. I don't cover this in the video to keep it concise.

Enjoy!

Click here to go to my YouTube channel with all 6 videos.

Steam Bending

I have wanted to give an idea of what steam bending is all about. However, I have yet to get someone to hold the camera to do some videos while I do the speedy process so here is a video that shows the basic idea really well.  I stumbled across this video on how the Peacock Chair by Hans Wegner is made. Move the video up to about the 4:10 mark to get right to the steam bending process or just watch form the beginning.

Enjoi!