CLASSIC DESIGNS

by MATTHEW BURAK

ASSEMBLY OF THE

Bow Back Windsor Chair

GENERAL TIPS
Remove excess glue. Your work in the finishing stage will be more successful if you are vigilant about cleaning excess glue. Keep a cup of warm water nearby. Use a toothbrush and the warm water to thoroughly wash away extra glue and hard-to-see residue. Use a clean, dry rag to finish the clean-up and dry the wood. Dry fit all parts to get comfortable with the assembly process. Use reference or witness marks when you dry-fit the parts. It will make your final alignment upon glue-up much faster.

General Sequence of Assembly

1. 2. 3. 4. Check all parts and lay them out Detail the seat Assemble the stretcher Assemble the undercarriage (stretcher and legs) 5. Fit undercarriage to seat 6. Detail the bow 7. Assemble the back

Finishing is a project in itself. Any woodworking project can be enhanced or diminished by the level of work that goes into the finishing. A good finish takes time to apply, so allow for this in the project cycle.

1. Check All Parts and Lay Them Out

Familiarize yourself with the parts. Get them oriented around your work table so that little confusion exists about whats a right vs. a left; a front vs. a rear, etc.

PARTS A Bow LIST B Legs C Side Stretchers D Medial Stretcher E Seat F Spindle Set
c 2004 Classic Designs by Matthew Burak O

E C D F

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Hand tools you may want

hand plane, block plane, hammer or mallet, spokeshaves, scorp, drawknife, fish-tail gouge, chisels, scratch beader

You can give the seat more refinement by shaping the thickness back to the line drawn on the bottom. Start with a draw knife for the rough-in and finish up with a spokeshave.

2. Detail the Seat

The seat is the foundation of the chair. Start your assembly here.

The seat blank has been prepared (sawn, machine scorped and bored). Now, finish detailing the seat by using a scorp, block plane, or spoke shave to give the final shape to the seat. For those more comfortable with power equipment, power sanders and grinders can be used. Smooth away the tool marks left by the machine shaping of the seat blank. CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK
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For the top do the rough-in with a scorp and the finish surfacing using a curved plane and spokeshave. www.ClassicDesigns.com

3. Assemble Stretcher.
Coat the rear tenons of the stretcher with glue. Insert the stretcher assembly into the back legs, align the stretcher and tap firmly into place.

Apply glue to mating surfaces. Gently push parts into place. Check that side stretchers are in the same plane by laying the assembly flat on workbench. Drive home the assembly using scrap wood to protect the surfaces from marring.

Insert the two front legs, adding glue to the proper stretcher tenon and leg mortise as you go. To do this you will need to bend up the side stretchers to allow the leg to slide past.

4. Assemble the Undercarriage.

Apply glue to the stretcher mortises of the back legs. Put the legs lightly into their correct seat mortises. Legs are marked F front and B back.

Use a block of scrap wood to drive the parts together for a good fit. CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK
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Remove the undercarriage assembly from the seat, apply glue to the leg tenons and seat mortises. Moving from leg to leg, restart the tenons into the seat mortises. Tap the legs firmly into the seat mortises as you go around, until the tenon shoulders are firmly up against the seat bottom. Do not overdrive, or the seat may split. Level the seat using a straight edge placed across the flats on the seat. Shim under the legs to achieve the equal measurements from the bench top to the right & left sides of your straight edge. To set the seat height, measure the distance from bench top to the high point in the front of the seat. You need to remove enough from the front legs so this measurement becomes 18". Cut a marking block that is of equal thickness to the amount the legs need to be shortened. Undercut this block so you can easily scribe around the front legs marking them for shortening. Cut legs off where marked.

5. Fit Undercarriage in Seat.

Flip the assembly right side up. Step back to make sure your alignment is correct. Cut projecting leg tenons down to 3/8 or 1/2 proud of seat. Open up the kerf in the protruding leg tenons with a chisel. Apply glue to wedges and drive into tenon kerfs to secure leg/seat joint. Cut off surplus tenons. For a pristine look, cut them off close to the seat and sand flush. For an antique look, leave the tenons up 1/16 to 1/8 and gently remove sharp edges using a fish-tail gouge, low-angle spokeshave and sandpaper. Hint: Always cut with the chisel toward the center of the tenon to guard against chip out. CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK
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6. Detail the Bow

With the front legs cut to their final lengths, hang the back legs over the edge of the bench. Prop the back of the seat with a stick so that the top of the seat is 17 1/2 above the bench top. Cut the legs flush with and parallel with the bench top.

Use a spokeshave to clean up the saw marks and shape along the length of the bow. Country chairs have bows that are round in cross section. More high style chairs have bows that feature a D-shape cross section. Shape your bow accordingly. Also, see sidebar below about detailing the face of the bow. BOW OPTIONS
Many historic Windsors have decorative profiling on the front face of the bow. The traditional way of crafting this detail has been to cut it in with a scratch-bead cutter. This gives the finished chair the unique characteristics that only hand tooling creates. To make a scratch bead, simply grind or file the profile you want into a piece of a cabinet scraper or old band saw blade. Secure the cutter between two blocks of wood that have a right angle corner to act as the fence. The beauty of this tool is that it will allow you to stop your profile short of the hand blocks (12 from the finished tip of the continuous arm bow and 1 short of the seat on the side chair bow). Set up correctly you can achieve very quick results with this tool. 5

Chamfer the ends of the legs where they meet the floor to guard against chip-out.

With the undercarriage glued up and dry, and before insertion of the upper spindles begin to restrict the space, detail the areas at the tops of the legs where they protrude through the seat. CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK

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Set the height at the top edge of the bow at about 22 1/4 above the flat of the seat. Wind and push center spindle up into bow. Then wind it down into correct seat mortise. Shape the bow ends to a 3/4 dia. round tenon.

Hint: Use a 3/4box end wrench as a quick, accurate sizing gauge for the round tenon.

7. Assemble the Back

Use a framing square to gauge bow for balancecenter spindle should be perpendicular to seat deck, bow height near 22 1/4.

Dry-fit bow into mortises in seat. Hint: Sight through pre-drilled bow holes toward spindle mortises in seat to make sure bow is facing correct way. CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK
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Make a reference line on each side of the bow, both where it goes into and comes out of the seat. This will make it easy to reposition the bow in the balanced position upon glue-up. www.ClassicDesigns.com

Cut excess bow tenons back to within 3/8 of seat bottom for more effective wedging.

Add glue to bow tenons and seat mortises. Reinstall bow to reference lines. Note board lying across stretcher to catch excess glue drips.

Mark line in through center of bow tenon, and perpendicular to seat grain. Remove bow and spindle from seat.

Kerf bow tenon along the reference mark. Stop before blade intersects reference mark relating to the top of the seat. CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK
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Wedge bow, clean off glue and cut off excess. www.ClassicDesigns.com

Add glue to center spindle its two mortises and reinstall. Clean glue, cut the spindle off about 3/8 proud of the bow. Chisel a crack into each spindle (shown left). Orient the crack perpendicular to the centerline of the bow, to avoid splitting the bow. Glue wedge and tap into the kerf to expand the tip and secure the spindle in the bow. Cut the excess back flush with the top of the bow, or leave it a little proud if you will be finishing for an antique look. Hint: Before driving wedges into the spindle tips, chisel them shorter, thicker and narrower, shown right.

As you did with the center spindle, chisel a crack into each spindle, glue and wedge.

Pre-fit remaining eight spindles using the following routine: Twist the spindle far up into bow hole. Bend spindle at its middle while swinging butt end of spindle over edge of seat and into hole. Wind spindle down into the seat hole to pre-fit/size the hole. Remove spindle, add glue and replace using the same technique.

Cut off projection to desired height -flush for a contemporary look, more irregular for an heirloom look.

CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK

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CLASSIC DESIGNS
by MATTHEW BURAK
WINDSOR CHAIR KIT SPARE PARTS

Break something? Heres help!

Get replacement parts for your Windsor Chair Kit below.
Continuous Arm Chair Kit

Bow Back Chair Kit

A H C G D B
KEY ITEM PART NO.

A E

F
PRICE

C D F
KEY ITEM PART NO. PRICE

A B B C D E G H

Continuous Arm Bow Front Leg Back Leg Side Stretcher Medial Stretcher Seat Handblock Arm Support Wedge Kit

CAB-D CL1-06 CL1-18 CSS-D CAM CABL CAHB CAS CWGK

73.00 ea 9.90 ea 9.90 ea 8.40 ea 7.50 ea 125.00 ea 2.80 ea 7.25 ea 2.10 kit 2.50 ea 2.50 ea 2.50 ea 2.50 ea 1.50 ea

A B B C D E

Bow Back Bow Front Leg Back Leg Side Stretcher Medial Stretcher Seat Wedge Kit

BBB-D CL1-11 CL1-18 CSS-D BBM BBBL CWGK

30.00 ea 9.90 ea 9.90 ea 8.40 ea 7.50 ea 123.00 ea 2.10 kit 2.50 ea 2.50 ea 2.50 ea 2.50 ea 1.50 ea

SPINDLES - SMOOTH

SPINDLES - PIPESTEM

SP25 SP24 SP22 SP20 SP12

25 1/4 Smooth Spindle 24 1/2 Smooth Spindle 22 3/4 Smooth Spindle 20 3/4 Smooth Spindle 12 Smooth Spindle

SP25-P SP24-P SP22-P SP20-P SP12-P

25 1/4 Pipestem Spindle 24 1/2 Pipestem Spindle 22 3/4 Pipestem Spindle 20 3/4 Pipestem Spindle 12 Pipestem Spindle

Order online at www.ClassicDesigns.com or call toll-free 1.800.843.7405

CLASSIC DESIGNS BY MATTHEW BURAK
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