glider rocker

my brother and sister in law just had a baby. he's real cute. but this isn't a blog post about babies. even cute ones. 

we were playing a game of "make weird faces." liam sports old man pants.

no, this is a blog post about designing and building a glider rocker. my brother tom commissioned me to build one for his wife lesley and then-fetus liam. and at the start of the project i thought, "eight months? plenty of time." but then things got really busy around the start of the year and next thing you know, there's a baby and your rocker isn't quite finished. i made delivery two days late, though if liam had stuck it out to his due date, i would have been 5 days early. so who's really at fault here?

but enough about that. about the design: the geometry is pretty tricky on a project like this but, fortunately, my dad's wife, lisa, has a glider that i used as a basis for all my measurements. after some dimensional drawings, i was able to superimpose my design over it (inspired by some arts and crafts pieces i have seen, specifically greene and greene.)

the chair is built of elm (from my favorite urban lumber yard- selected because it was available and you got to be open to options when the yard only mills donated logs) and finished with true, squeezed-from-bugs shellac (selected because of its quick dry time and lack of possible allergens when compared with nut oils). both the wood and the finish had their quirks- funky grain and plenty of small knots and cracks in the former and finicky application with the latter- but the results are pretty good.

tom demonstrates how to sit in a chair.

construction is primarily mortise and tenon except for the "undercarriage" which must be assembled directly onto the bearing axles and is therefore held together with brass screws. unfortunately, the project is still incomplete as cushions are still needed for both the seat and the ottoman. but start researching non-toxic cushion materials and you may forgive me the delay.

here's a snap of the inscription that's hidden on the inside of the undercarriage leg. the middle mark is my chop, below that is the date in roman numerals. the top is rather self explanatory.