rocking chair runners

freddie

Hi Guys

Do any of you guys know where I could possibly but rocking chair runners in Ireland or the UK. Found some in the US but would prefer closer to home. Do any of you have any experience making them?

Many thanks
Freddie

ttm

Bit of a discription or link to a Pic of what you want might help, also what area are you in, no point me offering to help if your no where near Waterford.

Sounds like a job for someone with either a steamer ;) bandsaw or both - sort of rules me out.

SpitfireIV

Like ttm said, a little more info would help . Is it a chair you are making yourself? Or restoring? What type of timber is it you'd want the rockers made from? Could they be laminated, a straight piece bent, or a curve cut from a large piece?

freddie

Sorry for the lack of information guys! Yes its a chair we have made ourselves but very simple and in MDF. We have no experience working in real timber so dont know the best way to make it. We would like the runner to be Oak and because of the science involved we will probiblay go with simular dimensions to the one in the attached link.

We are going to be batch producing the chair so cost is important so that probibly rules out laminating and steam bending, well for the numbers we are looking at anyway!

Any info or suggestions will be very welcome! We are based in Dublin

http://www.vandykes.com/product/cc140006/maple-rocking-chair-runners

SpitfireIV

The ones in the link look to be cut from a solid piece of wood. I suppose it'd be the best option as steam bending, unless you have a lot of formers on the go can take a while and you are always guarenteed a similar curve when doing pairs, might be close, but not exact in some case, which, for a rocking chair might give a bit of a bumpy ride! .

I suppose if you knew of someone whom had a good bandsaw he/she could knock out a load of them in a matter of hours. Depending on how clean the cut was you could clean them up on a router table with a bearing cutter and template, or clean them off with a spokeshave.

Might be a handy nickser for someone!! How many are you talking about in this batch?

Fingalian

Howdy,
Welcome to the wood butchers forum ( steady,just speaking for myself guys!). Why do you want to use oak for the rockers ?....because the the only way to bend it is (a) steam it (b) rip it and laminate it over forms (c) go to France, and find a nice friendly forest ranger.
If you are going for batch jobs and mdf why don't you consider gluing two sheets of 3/4'' ply or two 1'' sheets and using some nesting software to get the max out from the sheets with the minimal cuts. Make a perfect template and run the blanks against it with a bearing guided router bit.

ttm

So why not buy a decent band saw and cut them out yourself?

You need to be looking very carfully at the grain when you cut out the ones like in the link. Its not rocket science but you could easily end up with batches that broke if you got a badly cut batch. Laminated might give you the best end result but would push up cost.

Oak would be nice but no better than Maple (rock maple might be really good) as the weakness is in the fact these are cut out and you have to have some area of weakness in the short grain.

I'd be very inclined to try ash for the runners? So next step might be to find a Hurley maker to do them for you? If you did them yourself the timber should be readily available in suitable sizes, it cuts easily, sands very well and is about as strong and shock proof as you'll ever need.

Edit> @Fingalian good ideas - I still like my ash idea but now I'm thinking perhaps rough cut on bandsaw then finsh from a template with a router?

SpitfireIV

ttm wrote: »

Edit> @Fingalian good ideas - I still like my ash idea but now I'm thinking perhaps rough cut on bandsaw then finsh from a template with a router?

Maybe it was just me, but I found when cleaning up ash (about 10/15mm)with a routher/bearing cutter and template that unless you are extremely careful and watch the grain that the cutter can catch the grain and chatter, or jump, ripping the grain and basically making a mess of the piece.

Thinking about it now you'd have to have a router table set up to go down the template route as the legs would be too narrow to use the router freehand/upright??

ttm

Fair comments about the ash, but if it was me it would for some reason be a timber I'd try doesn't mean I wouldn't dismiss the idea quick enough if it didn't work out. Wasn't thinking about using a bearing just a template guide with two stencil type templates as opposed to a single cut around template. First template would cut most of one side then the second template would have an index so it fitted over the already cut section and alow the second part of the first side to be cut. Then turn over and repeat.

So process would be

Thickness plank
Cut to suitable lenths
Mark out for bandsaw
Cut on bandsaw
Template and router

The holes for the legs could be fitted in to the above process after cutting on the bandsaw so these holes (or mortices) could be used as index points or clamping points when routing?

Really just thinking aloud and probably a long way round to do something very simple?

But then I know if I really wanted a load done with minimum effort on my part I'd source the timber and get a mate with a robotic CNC router which is normally used for cutting out letters for signs to cut them. His machine has a bed that will take up to 8x4 sheet material and holds it with a vacuum so once its programmed and setup its just a matter putting the timber on the bed and pressing a button. So there's another way sheet or thicknessed plank material cut on a CNC router.