As usual, I’ve made more sawdust than pieces in this process, but this set is looking pretty good so far. Still have some final shaping/cutting of slots to receive the door post/madness to go.
This is how I went about making them: laminating three smaller boards into a monster. The advantage to a klutz like me (aside from not having to find a 2″ or thicker board) was the critical end cut could be done on a simple mitre saw. Steps were:
- Cut to rough shape
- Flatten bottom edge on jointer
- Cut rear angle
- Trim rear to slide under the door post, cut notch
- Carefully sneak up on the front cut
You can see my pencil outline on the left board, above, for the vertical-plane curve. Once those were cut, I did the same for the horizontal curves. You can also see one of my failed efforts and the original rocker that survived.
The sill below the rocker is trimmed to continue the underside curve back to the door post (the matching relief is about an inch deep). I will probably make a template and use a router for this. The sill will first be trimmed to roughly match the rocker in the vertical plane, and then, once the rocker is actually secured in place, sanding will shape all of the boards to match, including the bottom of the rear door post.