On Monday, January 9, 2012 4:34:06 PM UTC-8, (unknown) wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
> to slow.
It's easy to hog out oak if you can cut near-parallel to the grain;
I'd think in terms of plunge-cutting with a circular saw to make
semicircle stop cuts in the deepest part of the depression, then carve toward
those cuts with a gouge. It's quicker than you'd think.
The wood, though, has to be straight grained, you do NOT want to
cut a smooth curve near a knot.
Adzes, too, can be useful.
For finishing, go ahead and do the sanding-disk thing. Don't inhale
the sawdust, though.
Dennis Lougheed wrote in news:4f0b877c$0$26948$c3e8da3
[email protected]:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
> to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
> the expense.
>
If you've got a router, you could hog out the bulk of the material.
Finishing would then require sanding the rest of the way.
There's also carving accessories for angle grinders. I've never used
one, but have seen them on TV. They look like they work well.
A hand plane might also work, if you've got one where you can set the
blade way down below the sole. Like a router plane, the blade would
remove material from beneath the plane while it rides on the edges above.
This is just an idea, no idea how practical it is...
Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.
"HeyBub" <[email protected]> wrote in news:9eydnXhf-
[email protected]:
> Dennis Lougheed wrote:
>> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
>> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is
>> WAY to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
>> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to
>> warrant the expense.
>
> Think cushion.
>
>
New from Lenovo, the ThinkCushion(TM). Our resourceful engineers have
reduced the weight a traditional notebook applies to your lap and placed
it under your seat. Now this powerful system is not only easier on your
body, but will turn a hard sidewalk into a nice comfortable computing
spot!
Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.
On Jan 9, 11:01=A0pm, Puckdropper <puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:
> Dennis Lougheed wrote in news:4f0b877c$0$26948$c3e8da3
> [email protected]:
>
> > I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> > seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
> > to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> > expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
> > the expense.
>
> If you've got a router, you could hog out the bulk of the material.
> Finishing would then require sanding the rest of the way.
>
> There's also carving accessories for angle grinders. =A0I've never used
> one, but have seen them on TV. =A0They look like they work well.
>
> A hand plane might also work, if you've got one where you can set the
> blade way down below the sole. =A0Like a router plane, the blade would
> remove material from beneath the plane while it rides on the edges above.
> This is just an idea, no idea how practical it is...
Convex plane.
On 10 Jan 2012 14:43:28 GMT, Puckdropper
<puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:
>"HeyBub" <[email protected]> wrote in news:9eydnXhf-
>[email protected]:
>
>> Dennis Lougheed wrote:
>>> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
>>> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is
>>> WAY to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
>>> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to
>>> warrant the expense.
>>
>> Think cushion.
>>
>>
>
>New from Lenovo, the ThinkCushion(TM). Our resourceful engineers have
>reduced the weight a traditional notebook applies to your lap and placed
>it under your seat. Now this powerful system is not only easier on your
>body, but will turn a hard sidewalk into a nice comfortable computing
>spot!
<clap, clap, clap> Well done, sir!
--
We are always the same age inside.
-- Gertrude Stein
Dennis Lougheed wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is
> WAY to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to
> warrant the expense.
Think cushion.
On Jan 9, 6:34=A0pm, Dennis Lougheed wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
> to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
> the expense.
Might check back with the last years issues of Fine Woodworking. They
have had one, maybe two articles on building fairly simple router
sleds that allow you to machine out contour to a pattern. Yeah, it
is a little laborious but doesn't appear to be that bad.
Ron
On 1/9/2012 6:34 PM, Dennis Lougheed wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
> to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
> the expense.
The usual hand tools (adze, scorp, travisherm compass plane) will
probably cost you more than an angle grinder.
If you already have an angle grinder, find a wheel that will hog out the
material and use a sander to finish up
http://www.chippingaway.com/woodcarving/KingArthurChainsawBlades/FrequentlyAskedQuestions.htm
--
www.eWoodShop.com
Last update: 4/15/2010
KarlCaillouet@ (the obvious)
http://gplus.to/eWoodShop
In article <[email protected]>,
<Dennis Lougheed> wrote:
>I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
>seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
>to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
>expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
>the expense.
>
The classic method uses some handtools like the curved drawknives, inshave &
scorp, The inshave is like a more radically curved drawknife, and the
scorp even more so, sometimes with a single handle & both ends of the
blade curving into a circle and joined at a single handle. You may be
able to find drawknive or even an inshave at a yard or estate sale. I've
never seen a scorp in the wild myself. Without those, for a one-off project,
maybe you could try a belt sander with something like a 24 or 36 grit
belt, using the roller to gouge out a rough shape. It would still be
a lot of hand work to clean up. If you are handy with metalworking,
maybe you can make an inshave that's passable enough for a single job.
I've never tried it, and you'd have to make sure that the RPMs aren't
excessive, but it occurs to me that a die grinder with a burr might
work reasonably quickly too.
--
There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat,
plausible, and wrong." (H L Mencken)
Larry Wasserman - Baltimore Maryland - lwasserm(a)sdf. lonestar. org
On 1/9/2012 6:34 PM, Dennis Lougheed wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood seat for
> my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY to slow.
> Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing expensive equipment as
> I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant the expense.
Others have mentioned various hand tools, then suggested instead various power
tools. I've made quite a few chairs (see the flickr link in my sig), and I
don't use any of the tools mentioned so far (angle grinder, scorp, inshave,
drawknife, etc.). I use:
1. A home-made mallet and a large (1") straight gouge (sort like one of these:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=30024&cat=1,41504) to chop out
the majority of the waste;
2. A round-bottom spokeshave (like the Stanley 51R or 151R) and/or a convex
spokeshave (like this one:
http://www.angloamericantools.com/tools/wood-working/spokeshaves.html) to clean
up the rough surface left by the gouge. I actually use the round-bottom
spokeshave (often sideways across the grain or on a skew) more often than the
convex model. Look for "raised handle" spokeshaves, like this:
http://peterrobinson.galootcentral.com/spokeshaves/#Stanley-51-shave rather
than this: http://peterrobinson.galootcentral.com/spokeshaves/#Stanley-52-shave
3. A sharp curved card scraper (like the third style in this set:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32639&cat=1,310,41069&ap=1) for
final shaping, smoothing, and leveling of high spots.
Once you've reached this point, you can finish up with sandpaper without too
much trouble, probably just by hand or with a good rubber sanding block,
starting with 120 or 150 grit and working towards the smoother grits. Of
course, a good round bottom random orbital sander will make this final step a snap.
None of the hand tools I mentioned will set you back very much money
(especially if you snag good used ones on eBay), and you'd be surprised how
fast you can get the job done once you get the hang of them. It's also way
more satisfying (and less error-prone) than attacking the wood with an angle
grinder, and WAY less messy. I can't STAND using power tools for this purpose;
they're noisy, it's hard to "feel" your progress (when you have high and low
spots), and they throw dust everywhere!
--
Free bad advice available here.
To reply, eat the taco.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/
Dennis Lougheed wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is
> WAY to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to
> warrant the expense.
Radial or table saw, radial is easier. Instead of the blade cutting a
straight line, the blase and wood are arranged at an angle to each other and
shallow cuts are made with the blade teeth only. That will cut an arc, the
width being determined by the blade diameter and its angle to the wood.
Multiple passes - blade being extended slightly each time - are made to get
the depth you want.
--
dadiOH
____________________________
dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
"Dennis Lougheed" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
the expense.
I've used a flap disk on an angle grinder. 5 minute job.
On 1/9/2012 7:34 PM, Dennis Lougheed wrote:
> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is WAY
> to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to warrant
> the expense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6DaDGE_FJI
--
Jack
Add Life to your Days not Days to your Life.
http://jbstein.com
In article <[email protected]>,
Puckdropper <puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com> wrote:
>"HeyBub" <[email protected]> wrote in news:9eydnXhf-
>[email protected]:
>
>> Dennis Lougheed wrote:
>>> I'm making a chair and would like to create a depression in the wood
>>> seat for my butt to rest comfortably. Working in oak and sanding is
>>> WAY to slow. Suggestions as to how I might do this without purchasing
>>> expensive equipment as I don't envisage making enough chairs to
>>> warrant the expense.
>>
>> Think cushion.
>>
>>
>
>New from Lenovo, the ThinkCushion(TM). Our resourceful engineers have
>reduced the weight a traditional notebook applies to your lap and placed
>it under your seat. Now this powerful system is not only easier on your
>body, but will turn a hard sidewalk into a nice comfortable computing
>spot!
You forgot to mention that it's deccorated with rhinestones, gold chain,
and other faux gemstonens.
but, if you did so, that would make it a "bum bling" piece of humor.
And your joke is better than that. <grin>