Front Assembly
After last week's preparation of the side seat rails and side stretchers for the Upprätt 2 armchair, I proceeded to fine-tune the angles at the front end of the side seat rails. This dialed-in the vertical angle of the front legs. I need to make sure that the feet sit flat on the floor, of course, but, more importantly, I need to make sure each arm will sit flat on the top of the front leg and intersect the back leg in precisely the right spot.
With that exercise completed, I cut the front seat rail and stretcher to length and laid out the joinery.
I also traced the top templates onto the parts to confirm the tenon locations. Then, I went to the table saw to cut the tenon shoulders.
The bandsaw is great for cutting the tenon cheeks.
Below, I'm trimming the bottom of the tenon.
I dry-fit the front assembly. Here, I marked the exact position of the inside face of the front seat rail and then planed that surface just slightly forward of the back face of the front legs.
With the back of the front seat rail planed, I then laid out and drilled holes for the L-nails to be used for attaching the Danish cord seat wrap.
Next, I cut the curves on the bandsaw.
After planing the curved surfaces of the front seat rail and stretcher, I traced the templates for the front and rear of the seat rail.
Below is a view of the curved front.
And the flat inside face.
I did the same thing with the front stretcher and followed that up with edge softening using the spokeshave.
On to the front legs... they are in need of surface refinement and edge softening.
After the shaping and the joinery fitting was completed, I sanded the surfaces to make the sheen of the wood more uniform. For this I used two quick, very light passes; first with 800 grit and finishing with 1,000 grit.
It felt good to do this next dry fit of the side assemblies. With the front completed, It looks like my goal of "lightening" the feel of the Upprätt armchair in this second iteration of the design seems to be working out as planned.
Next time, I'll be working on final fitting and shaping of the side seat rails and stretchers. Hopefully, we'll be looking at more glue-ups, as well. Eights joints glued up so far, with fourteen to go!
Hej då!
Craig
