Notes for Builders

Back Braces

My current standard for back braces is to use ash strips for the two inside lams on all back braces. This adds more flexibility and strength.

I cut the back brace billets a sixteenth wider now, at one and seven sixteenths and finish to one and three eights. Except on the small rocker which remains the same.

If you have the BBHT you are up to speed on the new back brace/seat changes, if not I recommend you order the BBHT for only 35 dollars it makes a significant difference.

Rockers

I use nine lams in the rocker now, two more than previously. The reason for this is to make the rockers more rigid and less inclined to flex. When the rockers flex as someone is rocking, even the slightest bit, the leg/rocker joints are stressed and this can result in separation eventually. The two additional lams insure that there is less stress placed on the leg/rocker joints. If you go to nine lams be sure to take a quarter inch off the bottoms of your back and front leg templates to compensate for the additional 1/4 inch rocker thickness.

Also I cut the billets for the rockers wider by a sixteenth (one and nine sixteenths)so that when they are cleaned up they will be a solid inch and a half wide.

Headrest

I now plane all of my glue joints, including the headrest joints to achieve a perfect glue line and also a stronger joint.

For what it is worth, I no longer use the contrasting accent strip between the headrest and the back legs. Hal Needham (stuntman hall of fame) ordered a chair from me about five or six years ago and requested that I leave it out. When I finished the chair I immediately saw the wisdom of his decision and have not used one since. The lines of the headrest are graceful and fair and interruption of the flow by the accent strip is not good. (personal opinion)

Attaching Rockers

When attaching the rockers with epoxy I have found over the years that it is important to "prime" the end grain of the legs prior to gluing. You can do the priming just prior to the actual gluing (after the joint has been fitted) Or, since the epoxy runs up the end grain so readily you can actually do the priming after you cut the bottom of the leg at six degrees to match the rockers. It is important if you do the priming at this point to use the slow set epoxy so it has time to penetrate the grain a good distance. If you choose to prime after fitting the joint it is better to use the quick set epoxy, let it sit for a few minutes, scrape the excess glue off cleanly just before the glue begins to set, then give it another hour or two to cure well before gluing the rockers to the chair. The reason for this step is that end grain quite readily wicks up the epoxy via capillary action and will leave virtually no epoxy in your joint.

Glues

I believe that Titebond is generally the glue of choice for all joints except the leg/rocker. Here are some insights I have gained over the years using glues:

• Titebond type III, this is my 'go to' glue. It has an excellent open time does not grab when sliding complex joints together and it's strength is unparalleled. However, and this is a pretty big HOWEVER, it is a light brown color when cured. Therefore I do not use this glue when making a maple chair as the glue line will show and my goal is always an invisible glue line. When gluing up a maple chair I use Titebond type II. You can still use type III for the seat/leg joints because the end grain showing in the legs after finishing is always darker than the glue anyway and therefore the glue will not, in this case, show.

• Titebond type II, this used to be my 'go to' glue before type III came out. I still use this glue for all of my lamination work and for gluing up side grain joints on my maple chairs. I use it for my laminations because it flows out of the bottle easier than the type III.

• Titebond type II EXTENDED SET TIME GLUE, This is my 'don't use' glue. In my opinion Titebond made a mistake when they came up with this glue. It does have a longer open time, however after this glue cures it is brittle and I will NOT use a glue that goes brittle on me.

• Any Polyurethane glue, I would recommend that all polyurethane glue be left on the shelves in the stores. I love to try anything new that comes out and when Gorilla glue came out I couldn't wait to try it. There were some things I liked and some things I didn't but all in all I thought it was a winner and began making a chair using it. I liked the 'self spreading' properties a lot as it saved me time. I didn't like the 'foaming at the edges' if you happened to get too much glue on the piece. As I was working along on this chair my almost finished headrest happened to fall off of my work bench onto a concrete floor. To my amazement it broke apart cleanly on one of my lovely polyurethane joints. There was no wood tearing at all. I thought this quite curious and gave it another medium whack and another joint separated.

• This caught my interest and I thought I should get to the bottom of this issue. Polyurethane glue is suppose to have some moisture in the wood in order to work well. I was building this chair in August in Virginia and the wood moisture was in the 8 percent range. I assure you there was no 'want' for moisture in my shop during this episode. Here is what I did:

• I cut about 20, 2 inch cubes of various hardwoods then I got a plank of cherry about four feet long and I glued half of these planks with Titebond and the other half with Gorilla glue. At the end of two days in the clamps I removed the clamps, got my handy dandy carpenters hammer and began my investigation. I clamped the cherry plank in my shop vice and went down the row of blocks:

• tap tap tap tap tap tap tap

• tap tap tap tap tap tap

• tap tap tap tap tap tap

• tap tap tap tap tap tap

• All of the blocks glued with Gorilla glue came off with the first round of tapping with absolutely no wood separation in any one of the ten joints, meaning that the glue failed, not the wood. My Titebond joints did not separate until the fourth round of gradually increasing force. All, 100% of my Titebond joints came apart with significant wood damage, meaning that the wood gave way before the glue.

• Many folks have attempted to argue with me about polyurethane glue and I simply suggest to them that they repeat my test for themselves. I have had several folks call me back to tell me that they did the test and that they now agree with me 100% I have had no one call me back to state that poly was a good glue.