My Maloof Rocker (Part 3 – A Leg to Stand On)

Step 4: The Back Legs
To make the back legs, I first made a template out of plywood.  You will need to have 3 joint areas: 1 to attach to the seat, on for the arm and finally an area to attach the head rest. Once I had the template cut out on the jigsaw, I sanded it and then traced the pattern onto 2 pieces of 2”x4 ½”x47” maple.  I then cut out the legs on the bandsaw.  If the picture bellow, you can also see one of the arms that I cut out on the bandsaw. The arms are cut from two blocks of 2 ½” x 4 ½” x 19 ½”. I also made a small plywood template for the arms to insure consistency.

Step 5: The Front Legs
The front legs were much easier to make. I cut a dado on 3 sides were the leg will be attached to the seat.  I then rounded over the sides with a router so that it fits snugly onto the seat. The front leg blanks measure 2” x 2 ¾” x 19 ½”.  Once the dados where cut and routed, I mounted the blank on the lath and started shaping the top and bottom of the leg. I then drilled a 3/8” dowel hole at the top and bottom of the leg to be able to attach it to the arm and runner.

Step 6: Test the Fit
I cut the dado on the back legs with a hand saw. I clamped the leg to the seat to locate where to cut the dados. Then, I did a dry fit to make sure everything was lining up correctly.

Once I was happy with the fit, it was time to glue up!

Spirits to the Rescue!

Last night, I was working on the head rest for my Maloof rocker. I had jointed and ripped the piece of maple that will become the head rest. Now, all that needed to be done was to pass it thru my big industrial 15″ planner. One problem; the planner was stuck behind a huge pile of lumber and I really did not feel like moving all that mess just to plane one small board.

In the corner of my shop, my old discarded Delta 12” portable planner sat under an inch of dust. I had stopped using it a while back because I kept fighting with it to push and pull boards thru it. The problem is the rollers, they are made of rubber, and even if I kept cleaning them with a damp cloth, they never really had the bite needed. I had read somewhere a while back that if you clean the rollers with mineral spirits it should help.

So,  I pulled the Delta out of retirement and cleaned the rollers with some mineral spirits!
Hallelujah!!!
The planner pulled the board and pushed it right out very smoothly.

Cheers!

My Maloof Rocker (Part 2)

Step 2:  Rough out the seat.
The seat is a lamination of 5 boards measuring 22”x4”x2”.  You could use one big slab of 22”x20”x2” if you like, but having the parts separated facilitates the ‘butt-groove’ carving.  Once I had the 5 boards milled and squared, I drew the layout of the seat with a template while having all the boards clamped together. The template was made out of 1/8 inch plywood.

Rocker Seat Parts

I also drew the side layout to indicate where to remove the waste. I did not use a template for the side layout; I eye-balled it. I started with the middle board (#3) and scooped away as much material as I could with the band saw.  Once #3 was done, you can stick #2 and #4 in turn next to it and trace the outline created by the band saw. For the 2 end pieces (#1 and #5), you can’t remove much of the waste with the band saw without getting in trouble, so I kept those as is.
After I scooped out as much waste as I could with the band saw, I turned to hand tools. I used a spoke shave, pull shave, block plane and a rasp. You need to be careful not to tear out the side edges on the board because this will be visible when you glue up the boards.
At this point, you will also need to cut some notches where the front and back legs will later be attached. For the front legs, you can cut a dado that is about 1 ¼” wide by ¼” deep 18” from the back of the seat. This is done on board #1 and #5. For the back legs, I cut out a 2” deep x 3” wide notch.  The 3” cut was made at a 5 degree angle, so that the back legs will splay out. This was cut on the table saw with a tall fence in the miter gauge. These notches will be routed later for the joinery.
Step 3: Glue up the seat.
To assist in the glue and also to add some strength, you can use dowels. The dowels I used where 3/8”. I bored some holes  about ¾” deep in each board. 2 holes in the front and 1 at the back. You can stagger the location of the dowels; this should add more stability to the seat.

Dowels, ready for glue up!

Once glued up, I continued to use a pull-shave to carve the seat. This was a great workout! 
An angle grinder with a carving wheel can also be used to carve the seat, this should be quicker but it will generate quite a bit of dust.  I also cut the front of the seat with the band saw to give 2 nice curves.

Then, with a bit of sanding with an orbital sander …

With some sanding...

Cheers!

My Maloof Rocker (Part 1)

One of the first woodworking magazines I ever bought had an article in it on Sam Maloof and his rockers. I was immediately hooked on that chair! A couple of weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and build my own Maloof Rocker! I will try to share with you the steps I went thru in building this project, and hopefully, inspire you to build your own rocker.

Step 1: The Lumber
First off, I wanted to build it with walnut, but getting 8/4 walnut for me was difficult and very expensive, especially this being my first ever chair, I could not risk investing hundreds of dollars and potentially ending up with a chair that is not exactly what I had envisioned. I already had some 8/4 maple, so I opted to use that instead, this removed some financial worries and I could then just enjoy the process of building the rocker.
How much lumber do I need? : You would normally need around 40 to 50 board feet to build this chair.

More to follow… 
Cheers!