Maloof Rocker - Sculpting the Legs

Front Right Leg Before Sculpting

The sculpting of the leg to seat joints are next.  I would be lying if I said that I approached this step and was not nervous.  With nearly 150 hours of work invested in this project (both test and actual chairs) the idea of taking a grinder and whacking away freehand at the joints made me more than a little apprehensive.  

To give me some guidance and consistency on shaping the curves I pulled out my old drafting French curve and used it along with some freehand drawing to add a few layout lines.  They may not be the final shape but at least I had something to start with.   

Using the 4 ½” angle grinder with the 50 grit disk I gingerly started to shape the curve.  Once again the ease and speed that this tool removes material is surprising.  I find that I can really concentrate on the shaping and the material just disappears.  Sometimes I think a little more resistance to the cutting might be helpful.  Next is to use the pneumatic die grinder with the carbide burr to work on the top and bottom concave surfaces.

Pneumatic Die Grinder

The pneumatic die grinder is also used to cut a concave arc out to create a smooth transition from the seat to the leg.  Once a rough and I mean rough shape is ground I move on to a series of sanding drums mounted in the die grinder.  The drums progress smaller in size and to finer grits as I refine and create a smooth transition at the joint. 

At a certain point I move to hand tools; rasps, files, sandpaper wrapped flat blocks or around dowels I turned to match the arcs in the joints and at last just plain old hand sanding down to 100 grit.  It takes at least a three of hours per joint from the start to get to a point where the transitions are pretty smooth, there are no humps, bumps and there just remains finish sanding.  This is almost to that point.  I still have some fine tuning to do before I call it good.  Once there I will wait to do the final sanding until the chair is a lot closer to being finished.

The rear leg to seat joint starts out as the same blocky form and the front leg.  It follows a similar procedure using the same tools as the front legs to shape smooth transitions between the pieces.

Right Rear Leg to Seat Joint Before

This is the finished work on the leg and joint below the seat.

Sculpting the rear leg to the arm joint is a little more involved.  I start the same way in shaping a smooth transition from the leg to the arm.  However, on the inside there is a detail that gives the impression of the leg flowing into the arm.

Left Rear Arm to Leg Joint

I start with grinding the seat top to rear leg joint then outlining the curve into the leg and making a smooth transition between the two.

Layout and Sculpting Tools

Once the grinding is completed it’s on to refining the shape with a varied assortment of power tools, rasps, files and sandpaper.

Here the joint is mostly finished waiting for the arms to be shaped so the two parts can be blended together.

The last little bit to do here is to clamp the headrest back into place, mark the transition and grind it close to the finished shape.  In this picture the left side is completed while the right side is just marked.  Finish shaping will come later after the headrest is glued and screwed in place.

 Next up – Sculpting the Arms