Yoo-hoo...TEd - Wordsmith.org

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TEd, do you happen to have any plans for a double rocking chair or bench? I'd like to make one for my front stoop.

Usually, I go "au pif" (I follow my nose) when I make something and just design it myself, but I'm thinking that the rocking feet need specific angles and such.

bel:

Nothing on hand, and I did a search and found plans for onlyone double rocker, but that has the two persons facing in opposite directions. Cutesy, but not very practical, since if one places it on a stoop one user is facing the street and the other is facing the wall of the house.

I don;'t see anything really special about the rockers other than making darn sure you have good joinery. Chairs in general are tough because of all the stresses you place on the chair, and those stresses increase when you put it on rockers.

But the biggest thing you'd have to do to convert regular rocking chair plans to a wider chair is just beef up the crosspieces by 20 percent or so, perhaps put in a hidden stiffener behind the main crosspiece to prevent the center from sagging.

Be sure and send me pictures!

TEd

Bel,

A friend in Arkansas builds rockers and other chairs professionally using handtools. One of his chairs was in the Clinton White House -- and that is either a recommendation or it isn't, depending. Whether he's written a book or not, I'm not sure (it's been ages since I've seen him), but I know that he and another friend once produced a video on the subject. If your interested, drop me a line and I'll get you his info. Another source would be a book a Shaker furniture. I think Dover publishes one. I don't remember if it has plans, and my copy is Upstate. If you've never used it, the New York Public Library has an all-around excellent site http://www.nypl.org. If I need to buy a book, I often look there and then on http://www.abe.com for a used copy. Conversely, and more frequent, I often look at Amazon and then the NYPL site. A N Y W A Y . . . Owen's chairs are pretty durable.

"Durable" meaning only to suggest that his plans are probably good.

Owen's chairs are pretty durable.

If it could handle President Bill �

bel, I googled (Googled?) this phrase: double rocking chair plans and got some promising-looking results, if you want to try it.

Thanks for the responses folks. I got off of my lazy bum and googled rocking chair.

The thing I was worried about was the rocking feet, you need a specific angle to get a comfortable rocking motion. I found a note stating that the feet have to be of a length of 31 inches with a the ends being 3" from the ground. That answers that question.

I shall definitely take pictures when I'm done. Summer's nearly here so I'll be able to start working in my workshop soon.

There's absolutely no air circulation in my basement so I have to wait for summer to be able to open the window and door - either that or suffocate in sawdust

I got off of my lazy bum Gosh, I'll bet he was glad.

Speaking of bad jokes...

There is a new study out about women and how they feel about their asses. The results are interesting:

About 2,800 women were surveyed. Among the 2,200 who responded

80% of women think their ass is too big.
15% of women think their ass is too little.

The other 5% say that they don't care,
they love him, he's a good man, and they
would have married him anyway.

Res ipse loquitur...

90% of men say the first thing they notice about a woman is her eyes.
90% of women say the first thing they notice about men is that they're incredible liars.