cut a pattern or template (Fig.

3) to use as a
Its sturdy but attractive appearance makes this tradi-
tional captain's chair ideal for either desk or den.
OPULAR year in and year out is this com-
fortable, handsome captain's chair, the same
kind the old sea-dogs had in their cabins
aboard ship, and which they stowed ashore
when their sailing days were over. The tradi-
tionally-styled one shown here is made of maple
and has a fruitwood finish. For the craftsman
who takes his time, and works carefully, it isn't
too difficult to build.
Start out by gluing 1¾ in. thick boards to
form the seat, which is about 19 in. deep and
21 in. across. Join these, boards with dowels
and glue, making sure grain goes in different
directions on adjacent boards. While glue sets,
use your lathe to turn legs, rungs and spindles
to dimensions shown, leaving dowel ends as
shown (Figs. 1 and 2). In sanding these pieces
on the lathe, follow circular sanding with hori-
zontal hand sanding while piece is still between
centers. You can now stain, varnish, and wax
these parts before putting them all together,
but don't run finishing materials onto the dowel
ends unless you want to scrape them later;
these ends must be clean for a good glue job.
Before boring the various holes, you must
guide for the different angles. For example,
the 2 front legs spread out toward the sides at
100° from the undersurface of seat, and also
100° toward the front, making a compound angle.
Locate centers of 4 leg holes in top surface of
the seat. Clamp a backup board securely to
undersurface to prevent auger bit from splinter-
ing wood when it breaks through. Set auger
point at center of hole, tilt bit against the tem-
plate one way, then the other, and begin to
bore. Check both angles after every couple of
revolutions, and you'll get a fairly accurate job.
But don't be impatient to see how the legs will
fit! Bore rung holes in all 4 legs at proper
angles (Fig. 4), again using templates. Work
carefully, to prevent having 2 right-hand or left-
hand, posts, instead of one of each (that is, a
pair for the front and one for back). The under-
structure of the chair is roughly blocked out in
Fig. 4 to show leg and rung (or stretcher) dimen-
sions and angles for assembly. But don't glue
this assembly together yet.
Next rough out the saddle seat, by boring
holes to proper depth at many places all over
the seat to depths shown in Fig. 5. First, locate
all ½ in. deep holes, for example; then using a
stop on the drill bit (a twist of wire or rubber
band would do), drill all ½ in. deep holes, then
all ¼ in. holes, and so on. The larger your
bit, the less wood you'll have to clean out later.
Use a fairly fiat-pointed bit, not an auger bit
with its long screw point, and figure in your
MATERIALS LIST—CAPTAIN'S CHAIR
(All dimensions in inches. Use maple or birch)
2 pcs. 2x2x18½ front legs Fig. 1
2 pcs. 1½ x 1½ x 18 back legs
1 pc. 1½ x 1½ x 16 top front rung
1 pc. 1½ x 1½ x 18 lower front rung
2 pcs. 1½ x 1½ x 11¼ front spindles "
7 pcs. 1½ x1½ x 10¾ back spindles "
1 pc. 1/8 x 3 x 4 template Fig. 3
1 pc. ¾ x 14½ back dowel rung Fig. 4
2 pcs. ¾ x 15½ side dowel rungs, upper "
2 pcs. ¾ x 17½ side dowel rungs, lower "
4 pcs. 1/8 x 1 x 1¾ leg wedges Fig. 5A
3 pcs. 1 x 4 x 1 5 arms & back Fig. 7
1 pc. ¾ x 4 x 20 glued back upright Fig. 11
1 pc. 1¾ x 19 x 21 glued seat Fig. 5
4 pcs. 1/8 x 1 x 5½ splines (dowels optional) Fig. 8

96 SCIENCE AND MECHANICS

AUGUST, 1951 97
 FRONT LEG (2 REQ'D, LEFT & RIGHT) No two people in the world
have personal seats which are
identical, anyway, and you
can always claim to have cus-
tom styled the chair seat to
fit your own basic architec-
SAW KERF FOR WEDGE
DRILL, 2 HOLES ture.
OVERALL LENGTH APPROX. DRILL, 2 HOLES When the rough-out is
finished, insert the 4 legs,
BACK LEG (2 REQ'D, LEFT & RIGHT) OVERALL LENGTH 18" smearing Franklin's hide glue
evenly on dowel ends and in
holes and wedge slots (Fig. 5)
covering all surfaces thor-
oughly. But don't insert
wedges at this time! You
KERF
START DRILL 3 HOLES START TAPER can, however, glue up and in-
TAPER sert all rungs (or stretchers).
LOWER FRONT RUNG There should be enough play
in legs to allow for rung as-
sembly. Always let glue be-
come tacky before joining
parts.
OVERALL LENGTH Bind leg assembly tightly
TOP FRONT RUNG with rope, using twist sticks,
and protecting finish with
small strips of scrap wood.
Smear wedges (Fig. 5A) with
glue, and ram them home into
DOWEL END OR INSERT DIMENSIONS SAME
leg slots. Then, allow entire
OVERALL LENGTH
IN " C " ABOVE APPROX. 16" assembly to dry while you
BACK SPINDLE (7 REQ'D) bandsaw the arms and back
SLIGHT TAPER
(Fig. 7), and back upright (Fig. 11A). You can
also join back and arms with 3/8 in. dowels.
Allow glue to dry thoroughly overnight and
then go back to the seat and trim protrud-
ing end of leg post to conform to seat profile.
DOWEL INSERT ONLY OVERALL LENGTH APPROX. With a sanding drum on a flexible shaft or with
cabinet scraper and hand sanding, using coarse
FRONT SPINDLE ( 2 REQ'D) paper, work out chisel marks and gradually fine-
sand surface to finish grade. Next, locate spin-
dle holes along edge of seat and drill them at
proper angles (Fig. 5). Take both arm pieces
and round back piece (not back upright) and
with either saw or shaper cut spline grooves
DOWEL INSERT ONLY as shown (Fig. 8). Then glue and join, using
OVERALL LENGTH APPROX. straight-grained splines with a close fit for thick-
ness. Let splines protrude somewhat from the

drill point in determining your depth stop. LOCATE SALIENT LINEAR DIMENSIONS SQUARE STOCK IS
ROUGHED-OUT ROUND
These holes are guides to shaping the seat, of
course, much as the preliminary cuts on the
lathe (Fig. 2) are used to establish minimum
diameter of pattern to be turned. Instead of
having to calibrate the seat thickness at numer- USE CUT-OFF TOOL TO
ESTABLISH MINIMUM
ous specific points, using the undersurface as a LATHE DIAMETERS
THEN CLEAR OUT TO
guide, you have the easier method of judging SHAPE
the changing thicknesses of the seat surface,
STEPS IN TURNING
using the board's original top surface as a refer- MARK WHILE
ence line. LATHE IS TURNING
Next, following the saddle seat edge line, and
using mallet and chisel (preferably a broad CUT-OFF TOOL
gouge at first), take light surface cuts all over
and gradually work down to the bottom of all
drill holes. Don't worry if you get it a bit off!

98 SCIENCE AND MECHANICS

 PLAIN ¾" DOWEL
STRETCHERS
PLAIN DOWEL
LONG
TOP STRETCHER SEE-ID
LG. INCLUDING ENDS
MOVE PENCIL CHAIR
LONG AND BLOCK LEG
AROUND LEG
BOTTOM STRETCHER SEE-1C CUT
OFF

F R O N T V I E W SHOWING 1 FRONT S I D E V I E W SHOWING FRONT B A C K V I E W SHOWING B A C K

LEGS ONLY WITH SADDLE SEAT & LEG (LEFT) AND BACK LEG, WITH L E G S , SEAT & PLAIN ¾" DOWEL
STRETCHERS SEAT & PLAIN STRETCHERS STRETCHER

ANGLE BORING
100" 105° TEMPLATE
PLYWOOD OR
AUGER BIT MASONITE

WHEN BORING
THROUGH, CLAMP
SCRAP PIECE 80° 75° SURFACE
UNDERNEATH OF WORK

When glued rungs are in place, use a few scraps of

back surface, to be trimmed flush and finished wood to protect the leg finish. Wind a double length
later. Or a good dowel joint may be used in- of clothesline around 2 legs; tighten by using twist
stick. Back rung prevents rope from climbing up-
stead of splines, to completely conceal the inner wards during tightening. Repeat for each pair of legs.
joint construction.
Locate and drill out BIRCH OR BACK SPINDLE 3 SPINDLES TILT
MAPLE TILTS 75° OUTWARD OUTWARD 8 0 °
spindle holes on under- PERPENDICULAR
side of arm and back TO OUTER EDGE
assembly (Figs. 7 and OF SEAT
10). Before installing
spindles, however, cut
WEDGE
and glue up stock for 4 REQ.
the back upright. This
piece can be sawed out
of a solid block of maple,
but to save materials CURVED LINE IS THE
DEPTH OF SEAT BELOW
cost, take a plank (Fig. PROFILE LINE FRONT TO BACK
ORIGINAL SURFACE
11A) and saw several
curved sections out of REFERENCE LINE IS
it, using the same curve ORIGINAL SURFACE
as the front edge of the SEAT
main back piece (Fig.
7). G l u e a s m a n y 1" SQUARES

thicknesses together as
needed to build up to FIGURES ABOVE REF.
LINE ARE DIMENSIONS
at least 4 in., using a FROM EDGE
small dowel here and OF SEAT FRONT SPINDLES TIL
there for support. 80° FORWARD & 80° OUTWARD
When dry, remove
from clamps and cut
LEG HOLE , LEG &
the bottom plane from WEDGE IN PLACE
an angle of 90° relative
to the front, to approx.
87°. Bandsaw both ends
as shown, and round off

[AUGUST, 1951 99
 S P L I N E GROOVE BACK BIRCH OR MAPLE
5"C-C ARM 5/16"
PIECE
¾" 1/8"
¾" 5 1/2"
LOCATION OF SPLINE 1/8"
ASSEMBLY 5"C-C GRAIN
3¼" ¼"
LINE ¾" 2¼" 5/16"¾" SPLINE

¾"

5"C-C 12 5/8R

1" SQUARES

11 3/8"R
RUN GRAIN LINE.
Fig. 9. Cutting out arm of chair on a bandsaw pre-
THIS DIRECTION FOR
1" STRENGTH AND TO SAVE
paratory to joining it to the main back piece with
STOCK
either splines or dowels. Also, see the drawings.

POSITION OF SPINDLE HOLES ARM ARM 5½" 1"

5½" C-C INDICATED FOR UNDER SIDE

ARMS AND BACK 80°

ALL SPINDLES EXCEPT 90° 80°
ASSEMBLY
2 FRONT ONES ARE 9 0 ° SPINDLES
ALL PARTS TO SEAT, VIEWED FROM SEAT # 1 & #2
TOP BAND SAWED EDGE, BUT TILT OUTWARD
1" SIDE
4" 8 0 ° FROM SEAT. BACK VIEW
SPINDLE TILTS ONLY 15° 9½"
PROFILE OF ARM AT END
FROM SEAT. FRONT
TOP SPINDLES TILT FORWARD
80°AND OUTWARD 8 0 °

top front edge generously. Smooth out band- 80° SPINDLE #2 9O° 80°
FRONT VIEW
saw marks with a curved cabinet rasp and blend
this surface gradually into the rounded top 1¾"
edge with a smooth suggestion of soft miter or SEAT SEAT 4"
warp. Sand the back surface to a finish grade,
then attach upright to main back piece with which is definitely not of the reddish variety
glue and screws (Fig. 11) and power sand or but tending toward a light brown. When dry,
scrape front surfaces flush with each other. apply one coat of gloss varnish thinned with
Now glue and insert spindles into seat, then about half turpentine.
attach arms and back assembly, always wiping Lightly sand this coat and remove sanding
off excess glue at once with a dampened cloth. dust as before. Final coat is satin finish or
Don't disturb the chair for at least a day, then rubbed effect varnish unthinned. Again sand
complete the finishing job. Select some stain lightly, this time using wax or wood cream with
which will give a sort of gray-cast brown effect, about a 320 or even lighter grit paper. Rotten-
or wipe thin gray enamel over the bare wood, stone or pumice could also be used. Wipe ex-
leaving a very light, scarcely-discernible tint. cess off and polish with a soft cloth. Apply wax
When dry, sand lightly and remove dust with coats without sanding, a day apart, but be sure
slightly-moistened cloth. Apply maple stain to polish each one hard and dry.

1
2
MAPLE 3
1 3/8" x 8" x 20"
B A C K U P R I G H T PIECE
3
STACK MAIN PIECE JOINED COUNTERSINK SCREW
PIECES HOLES BETWEEN SPINDLE
2 TO SIDE A R M
AND GLUE
WITH
DOWELS 1 SIDE ARM
¾"
ROUND OFF TOP SECTION AT
2¼"

3
4"
2 FLAT PATTERN
FOR BACK 3"
4" SIDE
1 FLUSH 87°
ARM
PLANE 87° BAND SAW GLUE & SCREW TO
BOTTOM TO SHAPE BACK TOP OF BACK PIECE

100 SCIENCE AND MECHANICS