Spindle High Chair

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Another commission project.

Probably 1930s, probably Blackwood and probably Melbourne Chair Company.
5 or 6 layers of paint. Nails in just about every spindle dowel :doh:

I'll knock it apart, strip it and polish it. I'll need to turn a few new spindles (just a couple of plain ones for the base frame) and rebuild the seat. I'll also build a foot plate which has been missing for a long time. It would of also had a folding tray but the owner is not fussed about it having one. The seat is a plywood plate tacked to a frame. I think it's original. You can see that someone has used tie wire to sure up the left arm.

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To knock it apart, I had to check for nails on each spindle. Most were loose (apart from the nails), but some needed a heat gun to loosen the glue.

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Here's the chair now :U

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I'll be cleaning for a while now.
Heat gun, scraping and washing down with stripper. I'll spin the spindles in the lathe to finish the cleaning and start the polishing.

Here's the back before and after cleaning.

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There's no great rush on this one, but I'll try and clean a couple of bits each night.

[burraboy]

We had one of those 30 years ago. It had a footrest that needed replacing when we got it, is that the case with that one too?

[Thumbthumper]

We had one of those 30 years ago. It had a footrest that needed replacing when we got it, is that the case with that one too?

Spot on.

At the front of the legs, there are two filled holes (with about 3 layers of paint) that would have had a footrest doweled in.
It's been missing a fair while though.
I've seen a few pictures of similar chairs, so I'll build something along the same lines.

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The seat is pretty smashed up.
I'll keep the front part and rebuild the sides and back. I have a bit of an old table top that I'll use for the pieces.

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I'll be scraping paint for a while :doh:

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I've finished cleaning the spindles and glued the back section together.
The section is dry fitted into the sides to get everything to line up properly.

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I marked out the seat base sides with a bevel, knifed the lines and chiseled to the line to make a small fence for the saw to sit into.

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My next problem is the dowels.
The dowels enter the base sides at an angle so I'm don't think I can use a
doweling jig.
I can use dowel pointers to get the precise position, but I'm worried about drilling at the correct angles. I'm normally a mortice and tenon sort of guy.
Any suggestions?

[burraboy]

A dowelling jig should be fine, the dowels will be square to the line of the joint rather than square to the sides.

[Thumbthumper]

A dowelling jig should be fine, the dowels will be square to the line of the joint rather than square to the sides.

Ah, I see what you mean :doh:

I was overthinking.

Thanks

[Christos]

Just pulling up a chair :) to watch the progress of this one.

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Just pulling up a chair :) to watch the progress of this one.

Groan .... :U

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Being a long weekend in the ACT, there's been a fair bit of workshop time.

This is the back section after it's first coat of shellac.
You can see a patch I put in on the right. Someone at the factory drilled one of the holes for the back spindles just a bit deep :doh:

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Here's the two new spindles turned out of blackwood, and a bit of old hardwood plywood from an old 1930's wardrobe. This will be the new seat.

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The seat frame has been made and the plywood cut to shape. The front piece is original, but the sides and back had to be remade.
I've drilled the holes for the armrest spindles and the back section.
Pic 3 is checking the fit.

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The following pics are preparing to glue up the leg frame.
Drilling out the broken dowels.
Patching some of the nastier holes.
I use a dremel with a small drum sander to clean the paint and glue out of the dowel holes.
Lat pic is the back leg section ready for glue-up.

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I decided to give the spindles a coat of neat shellac prior to the glue-up.
It's easier to coat the spindles while they're not attached and it makes it easier to clean up the excess hide glue. Care needs to taken that you don't coat the dowel ends.

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This is one of the joys I get from restoration. You can see the wear on the front leg spindle from years (and possibly generations) of little feet.

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The leg frame is all glued up now.
I put some cast irons weights on top to keep everything square while the glue sets.

(looking at that photo, I really need to clean up the plane shaving in the workshop :doh:)

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Not far to go now ...

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I've finished building the footrest.
I didn't have enough blackwood, so I used some old Oregon. Very old fine-grained stuff.

I didn't have any 12mm dowel, so I made my own with a beading plane (planing from both sides on the edge of a 12mm ash board).
I like to cut a groove with a v-carving tool to give the glue some room to move.

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Marking out the seat with an awl. I used some glue and knocked the pins in with a hammer wrapped in leather.

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The final glue up.

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Not quite finished, as I need to give it a good rub with some shellac mix, and a waxing.

Before.

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After.
I hoping the customer will like it. If I see another, I'd probably buy it for my own collection :U

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Thanks to all that had a look.

Cheers.

[burraboy]

nice job....:2tsup:

[Christos]

Groan as you would say.

Very good job as I would say(I could use more of an adjective at the start of this sentence but that would put me in trouble :rolleyes: ). I kind of hope to be able to do restore like this in the future.

[Ross Lambert]

Hi
Thanks for your post and given what you have done I thought you might be able to give me some advice.
I'm repairing a bow smokers chair and I'm up to re-gluing the leg frame. It has two side stretchers, two middle stretchers and obviously four legs (back ones are angled towards the back). Just wondering what is the most sensible order to glue it up.
Thanks
Ross

[Thumbthumper]

Hi
Thanks for your post and given what you have done I thought you might be able to give me some advice.
I'm repairing a bow smokers chair and I'm up to re-gluing the leg frame. It has two side stretchers, two middle stretchers and obviously four legs (back ones are angled towards the back). Just wondering what is the most sensible order to glue it up.
Thanks
Ross

Hi Ross,

You really want to glue the legs up in sections.
With the chair above, I glued the back legs and the front legs separately. You could also glue the side sections first. When they were completely dry, I put the back and front sections together.
You would need to be an octopus to successfully put the whole leg arrangement together at once :D It's also easier to get everything to line up properly and the legs all sitting firmly on the ground.
Use the seat to make sure the legs are in the right position.

[Ross Lambert]

Hi Ross,

You really want to glue the legs up in sections.
With the chair above, I glued the back legs and the front legs separately. You could also glue the side sections first. When they were completely dry, I put the back and front sections together.
You would need to be an octopus to successfully put the whole leg arrangement together at once :D It's also easier to get everything to line up properly and the legs all sitting firmly on the ground.
Use the seat to make sure the legs are in the right position.


Thanks for the advice. The glue up went very smoothly even without an octopus. Here is idea from left field that I discovered whilst doing this job. I was doing this repair late evening and didn't want to disturb the neighbours with banging the joints apart so I used a small bottle jack and padded it between the seat and the stretchers (snugged up nice and close to the leg so as not to snap anything. With a bit of hot water on the glue it worked a treat, was faster than the mallet for joints that were still solid and seemed less brutal.
Thanks again
Ross