Adirondack Chair - Arm assembly & routing arm details

Well this past Saturday was productive.  I got the upper back brace completed.  I went the quick and easy route on the upper back brace.  Marc showed us how to handle making the angle cuts and then do the bevel angle with a block plane, rasps and a little bit of paring chisel work.  However I went and did both the angles and the bevel on the band saw similar to how he showed us to do the bevel angle on the lower back brace.

Once the upper back brace was completed, it was time to glue up the arm and back brace assembly.  The glue up came at a perfect time to head off to lunch and let the glue dry up in the clamps enough that I could continue working latter in the day.


The next part was to cut a 1" radius curve in the back of the arm and upper back brace and sand that smooth.   Now we are finally getting to the part I was looking forward to - routing the 1/4" x 1/4" rabbet detail all around the outside edge of the arms and upper back brace.

Once I had the rabbet cut I changed the router bit out from a rabbeting bit to a 1/2" straight bit.  Marc's cool trick he showed us for using a couple of layers of paper to help set the bit final cut depth.  Essentially you take a couple of layers of paper and put it between the bottom of the rabbet and lower the bit until it just touches the paper.  This prevents the burrs of the bit from digging into the wood so that when you turn the router on and start cutting the burrs will not cut slightly deeper then the bottom of the rabbet.  Another thing Marc has always encouraged with hand routing is that some routing maneuvers are easier if you just free hand it and very carefully approach your pencil line mark.  I'm only now getting to the point that I feel confident of my control while free hand routing to route real close to the line.  The picture at left was my first special indented cloud lift rabbet effect and it came out rather good and if you look close you can just barely see the edge of the pencil mark left on the wood.  I managed to have enough control to go right up to the edge of the pencil mark and make a rather straight smooth cut that will need very little sanding to smooth out.  My other 7 cuts of the same detail came out similarly - some were a tad better and some a tad worse but all were close enough that the sanding effort will be slight.

At the end of my day I got the satisfaction of doing a dry assembly of the chair.  I know what my after dinner evening activity will be the rest of this week.  I'll be hand sanding and gently rounding all the sharp edges of the rabbet details on the arm and softening all the other edges - kind of sounds like a nice way to let go of my stress from work and relax before going to bed.