On 3/4/2013 8:12 PM, Sonny wrote:
On Monday, March 4, 2013 6:40:15 PM UTC-6, Swingman wrote:
Chair legs with two radii of the magnitude are a PITA ..

For a long time, I've liked front porch chairs and rockers. Every opportunity I've had, I would speak to old timers about their chair making.

Long ago, one old timer told me how to easily make a double curve on the backrest support and continuous with/onto the (lower) leg, when creating/designing a chair from scratch. Maybe others had used or knew of this, but it never occured to me to try it, so I was impressed and have never forgotten. *A slap in the face of how easy and simple it is. I recall,(I thought I knew it all) my "educated" ass was taught a good lesson about the common sense of such things, that day.

It went something like: "If the upper curve is on 3', then, to make the lower curve with a sharper curve, shorten your same string with a nail, on the same sweep." I was trying to understand his French and I don't speak or understand French very well.

Anchor (focal point) your 3' string and sweep your pencil, at the other end, to make the upper curve. At the point you want to start making your lower curve, and for it to be graciously continuous with the upper curve/sweep, put a nail 6" closer to the pencil. As you make your upper sweep mark, the string hits the nail and the nail becomes the new focal point. The shorter length/radius continues the sweep, hence making the lower curve a sharper turn. There's an infinite number of different double curves to make by positioning the nail at different distances.

Visiting with old timers is, often, as much a pleasure as woodworking, itself.

And, Karl.... your chair is looking good, too!

That's a neat trick, but it apparently wasn't used on the original of
these two that I am commissioned to match.

There are 4 separate curve radii on the back chair legs, two on the
front and two on the back.

Then the leg is angled back almost 3 degrees.

I just made an mdf template to match an existing leg, and used that to
make four identical to the above.

Placement of M&T joints on these curved legs for the chair side aprons
(angled downward the same three degrees) on the back legs, and for the
curved back rest spindles and angled back rest rails, is the fun, PITA
part.

--
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KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)