Chair 2, part 3

So, this afternoon I did a lot of shaping of parts, and got the chair glued up. There were some parts of the process that weren't pretty, but it all came together.

I'm not always the most patient guy when it comes to seeing any kind of end result, so I clamped a board across the underside of the chair, to see how it felt when I sat down. Now, just having a board clamped across is not a fair estimation of a finished seat cushion. But it did give me a few insights into how the chair will feel when it's finished. For a second try, it's already several steps in the right direction away from the first one. I still have a lot of shaping and smoothing to do, but the way the arms splay out makes the chair feel less constraining. The seat is deep enough, and the way my knees fold around the front edge just feels right somehow. And the back is lower, and feels more supportive... but it's not quite where I want it yet, I think I actually want it a little higher, so there will be a third version, at least, before I start trying to do batches of these things.

So, I sat back, let the glue dry, took some notes for future reference, and then went to turn a bowl on the lathe. It's been a while since the last time I played around on the lathe, and I will say it was fun, for a while. I had a small piece of walnut that had some curl to the grain. I managed to scrape out a decently shaped bowl, with walls that were thin enough, considering my serious lack of experience with bowl making. I got the finishing process started on the inside, and I was pretty close to being ready to flip it over and finish the underside. Then the capacitor for the motor blew out and ruined all the fun. I was less than pleased. It's not catastrophically bad, it's certainly repairable with a minimum of real effort. But still, the lathe is down, and the bowl remains unfinished.

Given that it's the week before thanksgiving, I imagine the rest of the world will be pretty quiet, so I foresee a good couple of days in there this week. So there will be more to read about, soon.