Rockers
The rockers on a Weeks Rocking Chair are bent laminations.
The grain of the wood follows the curve, making them very strong for their cross section.
Audra and Autumn lining up the laminations
Audra and Autumn and the laminating.
We saw the strips for laminating on the table saw. We use an extended fence, an extended table, a wooden tool for holding and guiding, and a special saw blade with a stiffener.
Table saw set up for sawing rocker laminations
We sand them to .280".
John Michael sanding rocker laminations
We glue the laminations and clamp them between forms on a table we built for the purpose that provides vertical pressure to line them up.
Audra gluing rocker laminations
We profile the top and sides at the shaper using a fixture.
Among the other steps of boring and sanding, we profile the ends on the pump sander.
Austin profiling rocker ends at the pump sander
Because we glue these strips together just as they were sawn, book-matching the top surfaces, the laminations almost disappear. Most patrons haven't seen them after years of rocking.