Sculpting Chairs Part 1 Lines, Shadows and Curves, Oh My!

A graduate of one of the most prestigious woodworking schools in the U.S. recently wrote me to ask for help. I am not sure how he arrived at having constructed a roughed out Maloof type rocker since they were inquiring about my bundle. They were fearful of shaping and sculpting the legs, seat, crest rail ,etc. and then faring one into the other. You know the tried and true FDR saying,"The only thing you have to fear is fear itself!" Sometimes we are afraid of failure and sometimes we are actually afraid of success. It is the old writers block, only in this case sculptor's block.

Let me qualify this as a discussion of art over engineering. The engineering qualities of the woodworker are very necessary as I have written before. This is more about freeing oneself from formula to producing what looks good to you and hopefully other observers.

Does nature or nurture make a wood sculptor? A man sat in the back of one of my Maloof Inspired Rocker Demo Classes for a day and a half before raising his hand and stating, "I can put it together but I can't shape it!" He went on to describe his totally frustrated attempts to do anything art related.

What are the human tools necessary for success as a sculptor of wood? Sight is huge but not totally necessary. If you can see the line or visualize it, you are ready to pick up the tools and sculpt. If not, you must become a student of sight. Try this activity. Most cars are automotive sculpture. Follow the hard lines (they define the edges or movement) and how they pull the eye around the car. Find the softer lines and how they cause transitions to be made from surface to surface or hard line to hard line. Make visual comparisons of two cars that are in a competing group. Observe a Camry and a Honda. This will really work well if both cars are the same color. How are the lines the same? How are they different? Observe how opposing surfaces meet. Is the line caused by the meeting of two surfaces that have different radii? What surfaces are concave? Which are convex? Where are the flat surfaces? Where are the shadows? What causes the shadows? Train your powers of observation. Now describe the lines and decide what their purposes are in the over-all design. Do the same thing with nature. Trees, leaves, flowers all have shapes, lines and surfaces in opposition. How do they work together to form the whole?

The first sentence in the previous paragraph sounds ridiculous and yes, I am sure an overstatement. Touch is huge and can help if you have a vision deficit ! When I started studying Sam Maloof's work I saw them in a museum setting and I explored Sam's chairs kinesthetically. I touched and rubbed them with my fingers every time the security guard turned his head. I was using my fingers to get the details. Just another way to program them to memory. As I sculpt I am always touching and asking myself how does it feel? Is it flat, hollow, round? How does it flow?

Get a ball of modeler's clay and form surfaces in opposition that you like and form a lines at the transition between the two. Visualize , think and feel, you are on your way!

The next post will discuss lines that are satisfying and flowing versus what is not!

Kreg Router Table & Router Lift

What do I expect out of a router table? As a chairmaker and teacher I want dependabilty and durability. The stand and table need to be heavy without being a boat anchor. Weight reduces vibration that can induce chatter in the cut. Because I take my router table with me when I teach a class, sometimes transporting it 100s of miles, the frame needs to be rigid and it has to have good casters. I want the table top and plate to be absolutely flat and I want them to stay that way because I have enough tool set-ups when I get to the class location. I don't want my router table to need adjustments, too. The fence needs to be easily secured and allow for micro adjustments without too many moving parts. It also has to have great dust control which is important for your health and happiness in the shop. Besides that, I don't expect much!

The router table is used for two very important operations. I trim or copy the back legs of my Maloof Inspired Rocker and Low Back Dining Chair using a 2" spiral router bit w/top pilot. The other operation is rounding over the inside of each leg at the joint to fit the radius of the seat 's rabbet. In this case I need a full round over without a bead. The fence helps me round over even though I round past the dados that are cut through the legs. Otherwise, without the fence the pilot could plunge into the rabbet. It's just a matter of control and this table and fence give me what I need.

The lift is the icing on the cake. The plate is heavy duty milled aluminum. It has a multiple jack screw system that makes it easy to level and machine screws to hold it to the table when you have it just right. It is built for a porter-cable router but there are adapters available for all the popular router motors from Kreg. My Bosch router motor fits tight without any movement. The real reason for the lift is adjustment. This baby comes through in several ways. There is macro adjustment with a rod that locks, unlocks and positions the router horizontally. A thumb wheel makes the micro adjustments easily and it all locks in to prevent slippage. It's all EeeZeee !

If you need a lot of stops and micro-adjusters for the fence, Kreg has thought of them all including some handy feather boards. If you want the best new thing check out there Beaded Face Frame Kit. I don't do this kind of work but after talking to people who do this system will add beaded face capability to your shop's router.

This router table and lift meets and exceeds my expectations everyday in my shop!

Where are You on the #1 thru #10 Woodworker's Continuum?

When teaching woodworking classes I can quickly tell if a woodworker's style is that of an artist or an engineer or somewhere in between. Think of it as a ten point scale or continuum with 1 being the artist and 10 being the engineer. This evaluation not only helps me understand how to help students achieve success but it has helped me with my focus on projects.

The Maloof Inspired Rocker project that I teach, like most chairs or functional furniture is evaluated in the end as how well did form meet function? The woodworker's style dictates what comes easiest and what will be the hardest to accomplish, form or function. I have had students that could sculpt beautiful lines but really struggled with the unforgiving process of creating tight structural joints. They are the artists. Being an artist is a blessing until you struggle on the engineering side of your project. Plans are seldom if scarcely used. They get in the way of what's important. It's all form (lines, curve, textures and colors) to the #1 artist. Their chair may look good but might not sit or rock safely. It may never go together.

On the other end of the woodworking continuum lives the engineer. The engineer typically has all the tools perfectly sharpened ready to follow explicit instructions using plans with precise measurements. Joinery is tight and functional and the chair will rock and support the sitter but the sculpting shows a failure to take risks to form their own curves and explore lines that would make the chair flow.

It's important that you know where you are on the continuum. If you are a 4 you are more of an artist but very close to being well-balanced. An 8 would describe a woodworker whose strong suit was following directions but short on taking artistic risks.

If you know where you would fall on the continuum you will know your strengths from which you can work from and the areas of risk on which you should work the most. The purpose is to grow at whatever you do.

I would like to think of myself as a 5 (being very well balanced) when in reality I am surely a 4 working harder at the engineering side meaning I don't like to measure or deal with identifying a radius as long as I am happy with the results. Sculpting is my preference but to teach and publish I must identify, quantify and communicate information in an organised, precise way like an engineer.

Think about it!using plans with precise measurements. Joinery is tight and functional and the chair will rock and support the sitter but the sculpting shows a failure to take risks to form their own curves and explore lines that would make the chair flow.

It's important that you know where you are on the continuum. If you are a 4 you are more of an artist but very close to being well-balanced. An 8 would describe a woodworker whose strong suit was following directions but short on taking artistic risks.

If you know where you would fall on the continuum you will know your strengths from which you can work from and the areas of risk on which you should work the most. The purpose is to grow at whatever you do.

I would like to think of myself as a 5 (being very well balanced) when in reality I am surely a 4 working harder at the engineering side meaning I don't like to measure or deal with identifying a radius as long as I am happy with the results. Sculpting is my preference but to teach and publish I must identify, quantify and communicate information in an organized, precise way like an engineer.

Think about it!

Going Pro as a Woodworker Part 5 - Getting the Tools You Need

While teaching a recent woodworking class, I was asked a question in front of the group that could sound both humorous but very relevant. How do you justify or sneak your tool purchases past your better half? The class got all fired up about the topic letting me know that we had hit hot common ground.

Well my method was to leave it in the truck, go in, hug the wife and wait for my beloved to head for her favorite chair in the bedroom so I could usher the the tool or tools past the front door on the way to the shop. Then I blend it into the general collection as quickly as possible and get rid of all incriminating packaging ASAP. You probably do something very similar. It doesn't really matter how wealthy or poor you are we all have the same problems just a different number of zeroes at the end of them. The real point is that we don't want to and can't waste money on tools that are non-productive, mediocre or promise to do a lot but don't do anything well.

My first tool was a radial arm saw. The Sears info said it would crosscut, rip, route and perform great feats of joinery. My uncle said, "Don't believe all that, if you can get one tool that does a single job well. You will have something!" The saw crosscut well if you kept visitors from leaning against the saw's table (pushed it out of square). The motor ran at one speed making it a terrible router (too slow) and dangerous for anything else.

Finally I'll get to the topic. The first thing you need to decide is what do you want to build? That is an irritating question if you don't have an answer for it, but you can't argue with the logic. You buy a tool to do a job. If you don't have a goal in mind you don't need the tool. I have seen so many woodworkers put together a model shop, every tool and I mean every tool beautifully organized and ready for building something but not much is produced. On the other hand there are woodworkers who turn out amazing work with home-made tools or very few tools. Again they specialize and the work is not about the tools but what they want to accomplish. Simply a means to an end. If you don't decide what you want to accomplish it doesn't matter what tools you collect. You will just collect tools you better not go pro you will eventually be a generalist who has gone broke.

Because of competition, price and competition will help you get what you really need for the same or less than the cost 20 years ago. Old is not necessarily better or is the newest technology the best buy. It has to be assessed on a tool to tool basis. Stay away from gimmicks and hot items. Use your money for the basics. I have a six hundred dollar dovetail jig on the shelf that I don't need because I rarely build items needing dovetails, the manual is irritating and I learned to cut them hand. That purchase was made at least 12 years ago when I was a generalist, part-time non-specialized pro.

What do you need?

You have to have a good table saw at least a better contractor's saw with 1 1/2 HP or better, standard miter slots, t-square fence and a flat solid surface (cast iron or the new granite) top. I would build a crosscut sled and buy an aftermarket miter gauge without too many bells and whistles. Don't buy the gauge advertised by the slick salesman at the show. I have buyer's remorse for several show buys in my career. SawStop technology is great if you can afford it. It is arguable that we must afford it from the side of safety.

Buy a good heavy jointer. Everything starts at the jointer. Stock must be square and you better start at the jointer. Six inch is fine but an eight inch makes good sense at today's prices. But again, What do you want to make? The helical heads and carbide cutters are great if you are going to need almost finished flat, square boards, but you are probably not. You need square boards. Don't spend the babies milk money on this!

Planers are cheap! The lunch box type for less than $500 is the way to go unless you are running flooring.

Bandsaws are important to me because I use them for ripping, resawing, cutting out patterns and parts and shaping them. I make sculptural chairs so I need a big solid saw. I bought a 20 inch 3 horse Italian beast.

Lathe purchases should be based on what you want to do. You can justify a large lathe if you turn large bowls. You can turn most furniture products with a small lathe. But again if you build bedposts you need .......!

Hand tools are where I spend most of my money. Four or Five times the amount of stationary tools. But you must again know what you want to accomplish and buy the best to a point. My chisels are a mid priced brand they are not the best Japanese steel. My rasps are the best because that is where I need the best.

Don't go cheap on education, information, safety, light, heat or AC and cleaning the air.

After all of this the best tools in your pro tool box are attitude and persistence.

Going Pro As a Woodworker Part 4 - Finding Customers

"If you build it they will come!" This is not completely true. This addition makes the statement ring true to me, "If you build it and they know about it they will come!"

Sam Maloof struggled with finding the best way to connect with customers during the early part of his career. For him to build "It," wasn't enough. He tried designer galleries for a while and had to give too much money (commissions) and control. He finally settled on a one customer at a time model while really pushing the magazine, newspaper article and book methods of getting the word out about his work.

The "humble" woodworker can't be so humble in reality. The woodworker, businessman must be more like the character in the old private detective series named Columbo. He was always asking questions , never thwarted but never rude and always "humble" as he moved in to solve the case. In the case of the humble woodworker you must find opportunity after opportunity to show, talk about and/or tell a story about your furniture. To do this you need to know your story and develop your brand before moving forward to find your real customers. In other words, Who are you? What is your story? What do you do? What is your product's value?

Consider these questions to find your customers:

• Who are your customers? You should be able to describe them. Education, income, age, interests, vocations, dreams, needs and values. They are your target. A person recently asked me if I ever took my chairs over to a local flea market to sell. I graciously thanked him for his suggestion . He didn't know my customer.

• Where are your customers located? I live in a city that is more concerned with price than the experiences of life. As a young woodworker making custom furniture, I competed with furniture stores in my local market. Let me tell you there is not any profit there.You have to fish in a pond with the fish you want to catch.
  

• How do you get your furniture or story in front of your customer? Once you know the answer to the above and you have developed a product out of wood that you think your customer desires, then you have to place your brand in front of them. (see blog article concerning developing your brand)
  

I found out through bold effort that the media needs a story. They have all of this space, TV, radio, magazines and newspapers that they need to feed. I find that a press release emailed to the newspaper or magazine works well. Give them enough of an idea for a story that they can take it and make it their own.

Example: We have a turning club locally that was having a devil of a time getting press. I told the president that I would use a method I had used before to get them a story. The local paper's "Home Section" was a good fit for a story about wood turners (mostly men) wearing plaid concerned with designing and making wooden decorative items with texture, shape and color using lathes. I emailed the story idea to the home editor and she pounced on the idea. The story brought renewed interest, new members and enough orders to improve their clubs teaching mission. I have done the same thing with teaching woodworking classes. They need to print!

The media loves human stories about craftsmanship and passing skills to a new generation. They need you! (See a magazine story link in part 2 of this series that is an example of how I have used this method)

If your customer can afford your work they read and keep abreast of what is going on using the media in some form. Try the following to find your customer one, fifty, five hundred or thousands of miles away from home:

• Establish a blog or website. I have sold my woodworking products to customers all over the world even in Moscow, Russia by utilizing the internet. Like I have said before, take or pay for high quality professional pictures of your work and post them on the web. Create your store. The world is flat on the internet and you look as big as anybody.
  
• Join and link to individuals on the internet that will place you in front of your customer.
• Send links and stories to TV stations, magazines and newspapers that can place your work and story in front of your customer.
• Recognize key people who can get the word out for you as a customer or connector to your next target customer.
• Study other successful woodworkers and find out their story. They can be and usually know the keys to success. This works for anything you want to do!
  

While you are perceived as the humble woodworker, sell, sell. sell!!!

RAS 115 is a Dream Wood Sculpting Machine

Several years ago at the Festool IWF booth, I told one of the reps what type of work I do and he said you got to try the "Termite Tool!" Full of woodworker's cynicism , I thought, Yeah! Just another grinder. I didn't try it, so I continued to shape my rocking chair seats using a grinder with a carbide wheel attachment while turning my shop's air into a dusty haze. My only alternative was to go outside on a windy day and let my neighbor deal with the dust. As usual necessity is the mother of ..... well? How about? "Change!"

I was planning my first Seven Day Build Your Maloof Inspired Rocker Class and was worried about the air quality and the mess when the 5 students started sculpting their seats in the classroom. I was afraid the air would look like a 70s Lynard Skynard concert. Festool to the rescue! Thanks to the help from the staff at Highland Woodworking and the Festool Representative Dan Durant they put together a group of three Festool RAS 115s and their 22E Dust Extractors. How did that "change" work for me?

Festool designed this baby to be used for paint removal and surface preparation. They have a wood sculptor's dream. The RAS 115 is a high-powered wonder! Armed with 24 grit Saphir paper it is the answer to sculpting and/or shaping woof furniture even indoors. It is aggressive when you want it to be because it keeps constant torque. RPM can easily be adjusted so as not to heat up the abrasive which causes clogging and will ruin your bank account. It is light weight and very controllable allowing you to feather in a curve or round-over a surface. For aggressive shaping I like to use the optional hard pad. It just gives more support when I am shaping a concave area. The soft pad comes with the grinder and I like to use it for faring in arm to back leg joints and doing finer work. The Festool "StickFix" paper comes in several varieties. The Saphir works in the most aggressive situations and has a tougher edge, while the Rubin leaves a better surface and better definition.

Where the RAS 115 really shines is in the areas of health and safety and neighborhood relations. My neighbors are no longer living under a fog of walnut dust on windy days when I sculpt rocker seats outside with my grinder. It easily hooks up to my Festool 22E Dust extractor with a non-static hose and starts and stops its operation with the grinder. I prefer the 22E to using my shop's cyclone collector because there is less noise and it picks up better. The grinder has a rotating hood or shroud that easily rotates in place via a gear built into the handle. The hood has a set of brushes that deflects the heavier dust and redirects most of the lighter dust particles into the hood. You can see the dust getting sucked in as you operate the grinder. Best of all what is left is not visibly floating in the air. It is also a lot safer than my grinder armed with the carbide grinding wheel. The wheel can easily grab clothing and instantly leave a mark. I was almost bitten and have the t-shirt with the custom ventilation to prove it.

This "change" is working for me! The students in my class were amazed also at how will it works. Several of them are now proud owner/ users. It is one of the most used tools in my shop.

Great Tool for Sanding Maloof Inspired Rocker Laminations

Some of my hobbies include playing guitar, dobro and own several other string instruments. Recently, I was surfing a supply and tool site for luthiers called Stew-Mac. I saw a tool called "The Luthier's Friend." It was designed to sand small strips of binding or wood that are used to build guitars. It is a vertically mounted drum sander, fence attachment for the drill press.

Just like the rest of you guys, I don't have enough room. My 16-32 Performax drum sander takes up valuable floor space in my shop and costs $900. As a chair maker its only use has been sanding lamination's for rocker sleds. Maybe the Luthiers Friend (it hangs on a peg hook) could sand the few laminations that needed drum sanding and free up some floor space for assembly and carving. After Googling the name of the tool I found some info about the designer and gave him a call.

Ken Picou is a fine woodworker, tool maker and designer (http://www.bigtimebait.com/) in Austin, Texas. Ken sent me one to put through the paces.

The Luthier's Friend is a friend to anyone who needs to quickly sand thin strips of wood like my laminations. The operator simply sets the fence to reveal the desired thickness between the fence and the sanding drum. Don't take a big bite(just like the Performax drum sander) and pass the laminations through the opening. The base of the unit provides zero clearance with the bottom edge of the sanding drum (which is also outfitted with a roller guide on the bottom and is called a Roto-Sander). A great little dust control shroud picks up that pesky stuff. Way to go Ken you have a tool that does what it was designed to do. Save money over buying the big drum sander, and valuable space (did I mention it hangs on a peg hook).

The Roto-Sander can be used to duplicate the rocker's back legs from a template without the dangers of router table duplication with a two inch bit. Ouch!

It is available from Highland Woodworking.