Maloof Rocker - Glue-up and Arms

Front & Back Legs Clamped in Place

The actual gluing of front legs to the seat is straightforward.  All that’s needed is to make sure the legs are square with the seat.   A pair of clamps above and below the seat are used to make any minor adjustments for squareness.  The back legs need a bit more since side to side clamping and front to back clamping is required.  There is also a temporary spacer that is cut at 5 degrees to match the splay of the rear legs.  When that piece is clamped in place it trues up the legs to the seat so you don’t have one leg at 6 degrees and the other at 4.

The arms are next.  I started by tracing their shape from the template then cutting them out on the bandsaw leaving the end where it connects to the back leg a little long.  That joint requires a compound cut and the setup varies depending on how the angles between the seat and legs match up.

One Arm Cut & the Other Ready for Bandsawing

After cutting the arms out I made a choice of which arm was left and which was right then moved to the disk sander to smooth the outside curve of the right arm to fit into a jig.  One of the arms can have its compound cut made using the crosscut fence while the other needs to be held in the jig.

Left Arm

Right Arm

The compound cut starts out with the blade tilted to 23 degrees and the fence square to the blade.  Once the initial cut is made and I do a test fit the adjustments begin.  I tweak both the blade and the fence to get a tight joint between the arm and the leg with the arm centered over the front leg. 

Left Arm - Initial Cut

Left Arm - Fitted

The arm is attached to the front leg using a ½” dowel.  The hole in the leg for the dowel was drilled on the lathe and then the top of the leg was cut to a 13 degree angle.  Now I need to mark the exact location of the center of the hole in the arm then drill a ½” hole at 13 degrees to get a tight joint between the arm and the leg.   Marking the hole center is easier than you might expect.  I put a dowel center finder in the hole, set the arm in place, give it a whack and the center of the hole is marked.

Dowel Finder in Place

Center Point For Drilling

Now all that I have to do is drill a hole at a 13 degree angle centered on the mark.  At first I was going to just tilt the table on the drill press but when I went to loosen it I needed a 23 mm socket to fit the clamping nut.  The way the table is constructed an adjustable wrench will not fit and guess who does not own a metric socket that size?  My alternate method, which worked just fine, is a board clamped to the table at shimmed to 13 degrees.

Jig For Drilling 13 Degree Hole in Arm

Now that I had the holes I needed a ½” dowel.  My experience with dowels purchased at the big box stores are that they are not truly round and are generally a soft wood.  Since I only need 6 dowels for the whole chair and wanted them made out of hardwood I decided to make them out of leftover pieces of cherry.   First is to cut a 5/8” square piece about 5” long and turn it to just about 1/64” oversize.

Dowel Turned 1/64" Oversize

Driving Dowel Through Die

Because trying to turn a cylinder exactly a ½” in diameter is tough I took the slightly oversize piece and drove it through a piece of steel with a ½” hole in it.  The steel acts like a die and trims the dowel to just about a thousandth over ½”.  The oversize is due to the compression and springback of the wood fibers as the blank is driven through the die.  Next is to remount in the lathe and sand slightly so I have a perfect fit.  Last is to score some grooves down the side of dowel to provide an escape for any excess glue in the joint.  I really do not want to end up building a hydraulic cylinder and split the leg apart when I clamp things together.  Cut to length they are ready to use.

Finished Dowel Ready to Cut to Length

Arms and Legs Installed

Mounting the arms to the back leg is done with a 3”x #10 screw.  Preparation requires just three steps:

1.  Drill a ½” diameter countersink hole two-thirds the way through leg.  I will fill the hole with a katalox plug later.

2.  Drill pilot hole through leg and into arm.

3.  Drill clearance hole through leg.

Once that is done assembly consists of applying glue to the dowel, the arm, clamping them in place and installing the screw.

Next-up - The Back Slats