Ron’s Kid’s Table and Chairs Set
Last year my daughter asked for a table and chair set for my grandson. We went shopping and found some, but they were expensive and did not appear well built. So I decided to build one. I used pocket hole joinery to construct the table and chairs. The table apron and legs, chair legs and back are made of pine. I filled the pocket holes on the chair backs with the pocket hole plugs. The seats and table top are made of plywood (Birch) with edge banding on them. We then applied poly sealer. He loves the set. I did this without any plans, it was my own design.
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.
12 Responses to “Viewer Project Collection II”
Ron – I think that kids will like the square design, and the pocket
hole plugs make a nice accent. I think that kids prefer simple shapes
and designs.
Doug – since you asked about the fix, I might have tried inserting a
contrasting wood (something dark) instead of trying to hide the gap.
It might have been an interesting design feature.
Great job, Ron, Doug, and Mark!
All excellent projects!
Doug, I wouldn’t fix the gaps. It’s been my experience that the fix is more noticeable than the original gap. Just chalk it up to experience and realize that you will notice the slight error more than anyone else who uses the chairs will.
Ron – I love the square pine look. I might build some for friends that have little kids.
Doug – I agree with the other comment that you are probably the other one that will ever be bothered. Thanks for the tip to ALWAYS dry fit. I personally think the chairs look great I bet you table design is already in your head and that will give you the best match to the chairs.
Mark – Very impressive for the first mortise and tenon. I like the final look.
Some nice work
Great job guys. All very nice.
Great work by all. They all turned out great, especially the rocker.
What a nice set of dining room chairs. I know well of the dry fit wishful thinking syndrome. Especially for the slats I don’t see that as a matter of concern. Next time you can make ‘em tighter, but I would look at those and be pleased. I was wondering about the tenons on aprons/stretchers. They seem rather shallow to me. Did you have any more room in the leg to make them deeper without weakening the leg. I am not a chair maker, but do know that chairs take a beating from us large and/or active folk. Well done. We’ll be looking forward to the table when you have that ready. Thanksgiving is coming soon!
Tom- learn as you go. I agree with you about the short tenons. Next time–longer. With my three kids, they have been getting heavy testing for a few months now and do seem plenty strong. They finished out as heavy, sturdy chairs.
Thanks all for the positive remarks and suggestions. It was a pleasant surprise the other day to make my regular hit to woodwhisper.com and see my chairs featured with two other great looking pieces. It was a wierd feeling, as I was sitting in one of the chairs at that moment. Haven’t been able to start the table yet. Other smaller projects pushed their way up the list…
Doug, I really like the chairs. Do you have the plans or measurements for them? I’d really like to attempt it and these would look nice in my kitchen.
I didn’t write-up official plans or do sketch-up. I just looked at lots of different mission style designs, took measurements of a few chairs and them made my own decisions, then went to work. I made 1/4 templates out of hard-board for all of the components and then just went to work production style with the table saw, router and I think I used the bench-top band-saw to complete the angle point on the back leg. Mostly, I remember setting up the table saw for each cut and running all through at one time. A combo or dado blade (tenons) and router (mortises) was used for the joints.
If you want measurements, I could take those again and get them to you. Let me know. I also have a few more pictures than Marc included here.
Doug, great chairs. I agree with the others. As an amateur craftsman myself, I’ve found that I’m usually the only one who notices or cares about those little defects (it’s good to care though). What did you use to carve the contours in the seat?