Reading Places in Progress

Here's a set of images from the fabrication phase, which took place from June to December of 2010.  Overall, there's over 250 hours of fabrication time in this project.  All lumber was sourced locally or regionally. 

These are templates cut for the seat base and curved cushion for the transitional reading place.  Both were cut on the vinyl plotter, using Inkscape and SignCut Pro.  This saved a LOT of time - great being able to "print" full-sized patterns.

The form that was used for 70" long bent components.  Remember to cover the working surfaces with (preferably reinforced) plastic packaging tape - really helps with cleanup of squeeze-out.

These are the 40" bent laminated back slats - they have 4 5/16" plies - all matched from the same resawn 6/4 stock.

A stack of 70" curved laminations ready to be trimmed.

4/4 oak clamped up for the 16" wide arched front aprons.  The rectangular opening for the long intensive side piece is glued as a gap - I'm not any good at chiseling inside corners.

7' long oak "headrest".  2" thick, but not all the way through...

...added some reinforcement to make it plenty strong...

...but just as heavy.  There's a 3/4" x 1" x 6'10" long mortise that follows the entire base...didn't have the courage to cut 30 separate mortises, without knowing exactly how the back slats would be spaced.  1/32" shift over 30 pieces = losing an inch...

Close-up of the mortise.  The ends of the mortise were eventually chiseled square.

Checking the fit, and the curve of the back (upside down).

When the cushions arrived from Yacht Canvas in Annapolis, MD., we tested the fit with a mocked-up intensive side bench.  This cushion is 6'6" long.

The intensive side back with headrest.  Note - strategically placed 20" recumbent trike tire in foreground for size reference.

The back - trying for comfort, not ergonomics.

Roughing out the frame for the curved transitional side reading place.

With the curved back slats and cushion in place, it's starting to look like something you could sit on...but not a good idea (being held up by a wedge of ply).

From the other side.  The real challenge was figuring out the spacing of the floating tenons along two offset arcs.  The top plate is 12/4 x 6" solid maple, following a 8' long arc.  Lots of slow, steady template routing.

The reverse of the piece - awaiting a kerfed 3/4" ply skin.  The piece is parted at the footer - there's three sections - a base, a seat, and the back.  All are joined with carriage bolts prior to final assembly.

The solid 3" x 2" x 6' quartersawn pin oak seat edge was mortised to accept the first slat and floating tenon.

Just about ready to add some finish.  The final mock-up of the intensive side reading place.  No glue yet - friction is the only thing holding it all together!

All finish was hand-wiped - I used a boiled linseed oil / poly blend to make the grain of the maple pop.  These are the short radiuses for the back of the transitional piece.

Final view prior to moving - note the moving dollies under the curved piece.  Each weighs in excess of 500 lbs.

A close-up of the laminated curves for the back of the transitional piece.  There were 70 components, each cut to unique lengths to minimize aligned seams, all glued to a bent ply base skin.