Joint for chair construction?

I'll do my best to word my question so it can be understood... I'm loosely following the plans from Nov. '01 Popular Mechanics on building an Arts & Crafts style dining room chair. This will be my first chair project. My problem occurs when it comes to the curved back rest pieces. The article instructs to use 1 3/4" thick stock and bandsaw out the curved shape and the tenons which fit in the mortises in the back legs. I don't have a band saw so I was considering doing a lamination of 1/4" thick pieces and bending them in a jig to form a

3/4" curved piece. I was then thinking of mitering this piece so that the ends are flush with the back legs, i.e. no tenons on the back rest pieces. To join the curved back rest pieces to the rear legs I was thinking of using loose tenons for which I would cut mortises on my router table (first choice) or possibly a double biscuit arrangement. Since a lot of stress is put on a chair when someone leans back in it I'm thinking the biscuits may not be strong enough. Any advice or tips for how to cut a mortise in the flat end of a curved piece of stock on a router table? Thanks for any tips you can pass along.

Dale

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Dale
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On 4 Feb 2004 21:51:22 -0800, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Dale) brought forth from the murky depths:

Loose tenons should work fine. Alternatively (for the backs) buy/borrow/use a draw knife and spoke shave to curve the back slats.

Chairs get a LOT of abuse so tenons are recommended in every book I've read on furnituremaking, but bisquicks are nearly as strong, so either should work. (Most of the cheap furniture in the stores are bisquicked.)

Cut the mortise on the flat stock, then curve it. If you can't do that, design and build a jig to set the router at the correct position on the stock. It should be good practice and lots of fun. Mount the stock at an angle so the flat is perpendicular to the router bit and build a platform on top which limits the router movement.

Get thee to a library and check out all the jigs/fixtures and router books you can find. Building them is fun and they save a helluva lot of headaches.

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Larry Jaques

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