Doug’s Dining Room Chairs Project
I’m an amateur woodworker with lots of passion for the craft, and this is by far my most adventurous project to date. I chose a simple mission-inspired design with mostly straight lines as I wanted to increase my odds of success. One thing worth mentioning is that I made these chairs in a 14 x 16 basement workshop that did not include a bandsaw. The wood species is red oak. I created some router template/jigs to put over the seats to rough out the contour and sanded them smooth with a sanding disc on a drill. I did screw up by making the tenons slightly too long on the slates of the back of the chairs, so the mortise/tenon joints didn’t completely close on several of them. Lesson for the future- do a better job dry-fit testing before the glue up! I tried to hide that as best I could, but it is disappointing. Any other suggestions on “after the fact” fixes for situations like this? Overall, I’m pleased with the outcome. It was definitely enjoyable and I learned A LOT in the process.

By the way, my wife put in the order for these, and she insisted that we needed eight. The matching dining room table is the next project on my list. A friend and I worked with a guy with a portable band-saw and home-made kiln this past spring to harvest and create our own lumber for the table and other future projects. I’m currently soliciting design ideas for the table, so if anyone wants to throw those at me, I’d love it.

Mark’s Mission Style Rocking Chair
This is the first mortise and tenon project that I have attempted. The plans were purchased from furnitureplans.com. The chair is 17.5″ wide, 28″ tall and 22″ deep. The mortises were made with a mortising attachment to my drill press. Setting up the mortising attachment was trickier than I would have thought. Keeping the mortise blade and the fence square to each other and keeping track of the offsets required attention. The tenons were cut on a table saw. I was surprised that it went together as well as it did. The unfinished photos are of the dry fit up. I bought The WoodWhisperer Finishing DVD, the wipe on finish went on easily and the final product looked like someone who knew what they were doing did it.

“First off, I would never have started a chair had it not been for Sam Maloof; his story, inspiration, and craft. I’ve had my furniture business for 4 years and wanted to design/build a chair for years but was too intimidated. I saw Sam on TV and forced myself to take on the challenge.”

“To me, a great chair design that sits well is like breaking a 4 minute mile; it all has to come together. I started small, making a few miniatures to develop my ideas. The end result here is what I call my ‘dana dining chair’.”

“The wood is 8/4 cherry, 7 pieces joined by glue, biscuits (seat) and screws. One-half inch cherry dowels cover the holes and from there it’s on with the sculpting. I use grinders, a convex spokeshave for the seat (initially), die grinders, rasps, an electric hand plane, orbital sanders, french curves, just about everything except TNT. My production time has decreased significantly since I completed the first scale chair, about 5 days per chair. The most difficult part is using the eyes to create symmetry. If the left side doesn’t mimic the right, it throws you into vertigo.”

“I finished the chairs with 5 coats of General Arm-R-Seal with a #00000 steel wool brush up in between and to finish, a light once-over with J.E. Moser’s paste wax. My one commission so far has been 4 of these for a guy in Florida. Huge props to Marc at thewoodwhisperer.com.”

“I visit your website almost daily with the intention of furthering my woodworking knowledge and being entertained. You have yet to disappoint me. Attached are a few pictures for your Project of the Week. I just completed this dining table and chair set which replaced a far more traditional piece of furniture that no longer meets our current decor taste.”

“Thirty-five years ago my wife fell in love with a Thomasville dining set. But times have changed and so has my wife’s taste in furniture. So out with the old, in with the new. The new table measures 68 x 44 which is the size of it’s predecessor. The table base and breadboard are walnut, although since I eventually ebonized it, the wood could be almost anything. The top is 1” MDF veneered with quarter sawn raw wood cherry. The inspiration for the finish came from some high-end audio speaker cabinets. The first step was to add the black stripes. This was done by applying black dye to some grain patterns and immediately wiping away as much as I could. I then sanded it to leave a faint amount on the top. I mixed General Finishes Cranberry and Golden Oak stains in a 5:1 ratio for the basic color. This was followed by spraying 4 coats of General Finishes Top Performance glossy polyurethane followed by two coats of satin.”

“Since I had never made a chair before, I needed some help. I purchased Jeff Miller’s Chair making & Design and essentially copied one of his basic designs. The wood I chose was poplar since it would be ebonized and is cheap. The joints are mortise and loose tenons except for the side rails which are angled tenons. The angled tenons were the most challenging part of the construction. The finish is black dye followed by a black stain because I like a very black black and dye goes places that stain doesn’t. This was followed by three coats of gloss poly and two coats of satin. I have to credit my wife for making the seat cushions. This was her first upholstery attempt, and I think she did great.”

“The dining set now sits proudly in our dining room along with some of the other projects I have done. The corner display and floor standing clock have been around for about a year and nicely complement the table and chairs. Thanks, Marc. And keep on whisperin”.