I ran into an issue, the splats twisted some when they dried, it happens, so I gave them a quick dip in hot water and twisted them around some then I clamped them all together, this forces them to be smooth and equally shaped.
A solid form would be better perhaps than the drying racks we used but usually there is not a problem and if so, the re-bend works well. The racks allow for a quicker dry so now that these are better formed I’ll put them in the racks after an overnight dry and we’ll be good.
I have pondered this chair thing for some time, it would make for a very informative video, my only issue is that my chair uses angled mortises for the bent splats (18 degrees). I have a multi-router but most don’t so my issue has been how to show the guy with the average shop how to do the mortises.
Came up with two possible solutions. First, and easiest would be to bandsaw the splats out of solid wood which allows a straight tenon to be created thus straight mortises, much easier. This method yields more scrap but would work well. If you used a piece of 12/4 stock you can saw a lot of splats one right behind the other and very little waste would be produced.
The second would be to use the Jessem Zip Slot that can be shimmed for the angle and using a drill and the special bit, the angles could be made. Here is a photo of a quick sawn splat out of some MDF so you get the idea.
This makes the chair very doable by a guy with an average shop. You may have doubts that you could build this chair/rocker, but you can. After completing one of these, you would have the understanding to tackle chairs and learn a lot about shaping.
There are a lot of patterns to these chairs so you would have to have patience in doing them. My goal would be to teach you how to make one so that you could duplicate it to 10!
I’ll think on this a bit more, I like tackling the tough stuff and showing you how easy it is to accomplish it.
Got to get these wrapped up and get on to the seed press and the colonial cupboard.