Wing Chair Documentary(construction complete)

The arm support is screwed and glued to the roll and the wing stile. This is the very final screw.

I placed glue in the front of the arm support only and elongated the rear screw hole to allow for movement in the wider, cross grain, wing stile.

Here is the final construction ready to go to the finishing department. I will also be placing metal support brackets at various places for additional support.

Wing Chair Documentary (gluing arm post blocks)

Here I am shaping and gluing the arm post blocks. I really like the look of the vertical cylindrical arm roll on these chairs. Most traditional wing chairs made today favor the horizontal roll.

Wing Chair Documentary (gluing wings and arm post)

I usually have a helper available when needed, but when necessity calls: I used double sided tape to hold glue blocks in place to clamp the wings to the back frame. The angles of the clamping blocks have to be right on, or the force of the clamp will really give you problems when gluing up. The glue blocks on the curved wing rail were saved from the original cut off, but a better idea would have been to custom make a block that fit around the wing stile also, preventing slippage. As you may have noticed, I changed my earlier plan, which was to glue up the back frame as a unit, in favor of gluing in parts. When you are not going by any plan or the plan is your own, sometimes you have to let the process fall into place.

I also glued the arm posts to the seat frame. I need to attach the arm rests and add a few finishing touches and the chair will be ready for the finishing department.

Wing Chair Documentary (gluing wing to seat)

Now that most of the sanding is complete, I am gluing the wings and back frame to the seat frame. At first I thought I would have to attach the wings and back frame to the seat frame as one unit, but this way seems to work(and is easier). I had to use a horizontal clamp on the wing rail to hold the clamping block in place.

Wing Chair Documentary (wing glue up)

Tonight, I commenced the final step; the big glue up/assembly. Here I am starting with the wings which will then need to be clamped to the back frame. The unit(wings and back frame) will then be attached to the seat frame and, after some fine tuning/sanding, the chair will be ready for my wife to finish. I saved a small cut off of the original wing rail to use as a clamping block. The block is prevented from sliding with the help of some grip tape.