Here is another beautiful rocking chair by customer Walt Wogee out of some of our Tasmanian Black Acacia Slabs.
Here is a little write up on what Walt thought about the project:
"Since koa is in the acacia
family I would say that it works about the same as black acacia though
the black acacia seemed to be a little harder and denser than the koa I
have used. I did not experience any significant warping or
checking which indicates the acacia is pretty stable. I used TiteBond 3
for most regular gluing and for making all of the laminations requiring
the bending of the runners and back slats. The runners are made up of 8
strips: 5 strips are acacia, 2 are wenge for accent, and the bottom
strip is mesquite which matches the color pretty well and is much harder
than the acacia. The back slats are made of 2 strips of acacia and one
of wenge in the middle. I use System 3 marine epoxy with 3" and 2"
long 1/2 inch dowels to join the arms to the legs and the runners to the
legs. I had no problems gluing anything or bending the laminations.
I
would say that the acacia works and cuts as well as walnut, cherry,
African mahogany, or lyptus all of which I have used for making rockers
as well as other projects. Be careful if you round over the edges of
runners or legs with a router to avoid having your router tear out a big
junk of your work though this can also happen with other woods. The
seat is made of 5 pieces just like Maloof instructed. I remove some of
the seat excess wood on the band saw just like Sam before gluing the the
pieces using biscuits. The basic shape of the seat is roughed out with
an angle grinder and donut shaped attachment. I use 6 inch and 5 inch
random orbit sanders. The aggressive mode of the Festool sanders
starting with 24 grit pads takes out the grinding marks. For the finish
sanding starting at 80 I now use the new Mirka Ceros DC sander which
has the most aggressive and powerful motor of any random orbit sander I
have used. A second choice would be the 5 inch Makita sanders which are
much cheaper. The random orbit mode of all the other sanders I have
tried is not aggressive enough for me when sculpting this kind of chair.
I do very little hand sanding and finish sand to 400 and then use
Mirka polishing pads of 500 and 1000 with a random orbit sander to give a
high sheen to the wood before applying the finish. Three coats of Deft
Danish oil were rubbed into the wood though you could probably use
Watco or some other product to get a good result."
*Please Note:
If you like the look of the Tasmanian Black Acacia, make sure to take advantage of our upcoming Summer Parking Lot Sale (Sep. 6 & 7, 8:30-4:30 boy days). We will have roughly 300-400 BF of Black Acacia slabs discounted during the Sale!
Feel free to contact us for more information 760.434.3030
Walt Wogee is a retired high school science teacher and and long time wood worker.
To contact Walt Wogee for more on his Rockers his number is 909-336-1065
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