Sellers Home Rocking Chair: Episode 12
Posted 28 April 2021
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When a rocking chair is made parallel from front to back, the rockers are easy to fit to the legs because half of the shoulder lines are square across and squared to the arch of the curved rockers. When the chair tapers so that the back of the chair is narrower than the front, the chair is much more graceful and less clunky, but that means that the shoulders to the legs become compound cuts and none of them are square in any direction. In this episode, Paul walks you through the complex process step by step to cut both tenon and mortise for a perfect union.
Would you have to shim-cut all four legs the same number of times to try and have each of the legs shortened equally? I’m thinking of normal chairs and how they don’t sit right if one corner if slightly shorter. They’ll teeter on two diagonal legs. Is that a concern here, or does the addition of the rocker itself sort of negate that?
Hi Dan,
Paul says:
No. The rockers take care of any minor inequalities be cause the rockers have only two points of contact with the floor.
Izzy
Hi Dan. The rockers allow for small discrepancies in the length of the legs. Plus there’s enough flex on the rockers (and frame itself) that the screws will pull the parts together to form one solid structure.