almost there

so here's the compete structure, almost. there is a second front rail with a panel in between the two that is missing from the photo. that panel has the cutouts as well. since this picture i've done the shaping and i started sanding today. it's moving along at a good rate, thanks in part to a 1/8" roundover bit. i feel like skywaker, slowly being pulled over to the dark side. i must say, it's nice on that side of things, but sometimes it's a little dusty. 

i found some brass machine screws at the local hardware store, and bought them all. those buggers are pricey. i was looking for some steel slotted head screws, but those are probably impossible to find nowadays, so i bought these instead. i'm going to use them to attach the slats to the frame work. the slats have some bow in them that i intentionally left there to add some give to the seat. i drilled some oversized holes through the slats, and i'll have to tap the adjoining hole. i just happened to have the right tap for the screw as well, must be a common size.

i wasn't crazy about the yellow brass with the oak, which is going to get some water based stain, so i did a quick search about patination. i found a pretty good blog conversation in a sword makers forum, and the guy suggested gun blueing as an option. we had some, i gave it a try, and it worked great. it gave a nice dark brown which will go quite nicely with the stained oak.

moving along, one conundrum at a time

after a good holiday break, i got back to work on monday. the side assemblies are all done as of today. i saw the pattern for the cutouts in kitchen cabinets in the fisher household from hbo's six feet under. i liked the pattern, so i thought i would use it here. i checked out other options, but this one still came out on top. it was a fun little detail to do. didn't take long, but it adds a lot of character to the sides. i'm going to have a panel in between the front rails, and i'm going to have the same detail on the horizontal up front. i've yet to decide if it's going to be a whole piece or if i'm going to break it up into three, to further echo the sides.

now here's the conundrum, how do i support the back... i'm going to have four vertical supports topped off with a long horizontal rail running along the top of all four verticals. the two verticals on the ends are no problem, i'm going to have a bird's mouth style joint at the bottom with a dowel running into the top of the rail, and a horizontal pin through the bird's mouth. i'm not worried about the end ones because i'm going to notch the arm rest to accept the back support, and i can also pin into the leg. those two won't move, but i'm worried about the other two. most members of my family are of the large sort (this is going to an uncle's house), and i'm thinking that this is not going to be enough to support three of me. so, what's the solution? i was thinking of adding a metal plate on the front of the vertical that would go from that piece into the rail. a kind of strap. i think this would hold even me. what do you folks think?