On Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 9:39:19 AM UTC-5, swalker wrote:


Having a problem understanding the sequence of work.

You cut them into strips and glued them together and then bent them?

No. I haven't done any gluing and bending yet. Because I cut the slats about 5/16" thick, I needed to test bend one slat to see how well that thickness bends. I soaked the slat overnight and clamped it in a curve. No cracking or breaking, but it did have about 50% springback. This amount of springback was expected, since it was soaked for just a short time.

If yes, were your careful to glue them together in the same order as
they were prior to being cut?

The slats were kept in sequential order during cutting and will be glued in sequential order. This sequential order is contrary to laminating straight (table) legs or table top board orientation, stuff as that.

The slats have been soaking in water for a few days. I will clamp them in a curved form (no glue) and allow to dry, hence pre-form the rocker curve. Once dry, then I'll epoxy them in the final permanent curved form. I am thinking I need to pre-form the curve of the slats, first, to some extent, because of 1) the thickness of the slats and 2) to accommodate the method, I plan to use, for attaching the rockers to the chair legs.

I'm not sure this second reason is applicable, but I wonder if it will lend itself to the specific way I want to attach the rockers to the legs. With most chairs, the front legs are offset (front to back) with the back legs. For rockers, the offset has to accommodate a curved "board", unlike a straight stretcher running from leg to leg. Relative to the plane of the seat, the front legs are essentially straight up and down and the back legs are angled backwards at about 7°, so the rocker attachment is a compound angle fit. You can't simply drill holes in the rocker and insert the chair legs into the holes. That insertion can't be done when the legs are at/in a compound angle orientation. Not sure I am describing this adequately, but I'll be taking pics to show how its done, or how I plan to do it.

A consideration for this rocker-to-leg attachment, is also because of the bulk/weight of the chair. The whole chair (up to now) a little heavier than I'd like, so this attachment will help with the bulk issue, I think. I can trim down some weight, here and there. I'm trying to make sure I'm not missing something, in that, in case there is a mistake with my engineering, I want to cover my bases with regard to any error. My planned leg to rocker attachment may be over kill, to counter any mistake. This is a somewhat new design and I need to make sure the whole chair, itself, is properly balanced once it's all assembled. Sometimes this balancing (and alignment) act is a hit-or-miss proposition, for me, anyway.

The chair is made of cypress, generally not an appropriate wood for chairs, so I have to bulk-up the joints and a few other parts, for sufficient durable structure. Bulk equates to weight, so I have to accept some not-so-favorable aspects. In the end, the chair is for my brother. Any excess weight or inconvenience will be his problem.

Sonny