Making a plan: From complex whole to component parts
This breakfast bar chair inspired by the work of Scottish designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh is a complex project made manageable by breaking down the construction and assembly process into smaller steps. The piece has five basic parts: frame, backrest, footrest, cap piece and seat.
Dry clamping the final assembly before applying glue provides several benefits, including the opportunity to gather all clamps and assembly aids you will need for final glue-up.
This photo shows how special angled clamping blocks help with the glue-up of the rails to the two side frames. Progressing in a logical manner is crucial during final assembly.
It’s important to continually check subassemblies and the final assembly for accuracy and squareness.

Just as you have followed the Critical Path through the processes of design, harvesting of parts, marking up and construction of subassemblies, so you must apply its logic and principles to the step of final glue-up. The outcome of your final project depends on the development of a thoughtful, logical and systematic approach to this crucial stage. As the adage goes, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.”

Because each project is different, each plan for glue-up and assembly will be different, depending on the number of pieces and subassemblies involved and other particularities of the project. But there will be some universals: As you did with the subassemblies that you’ll combine to form the final assembly (see Chapter 9, Lesson 1 and Lesson 2), you will want to dry clamp all the pieces together to ensure a proper fit before applying glue. This also gives you the opportunity to gather all necessary clamps and other assembly aids you’ll need for final assembly.

To provide a sense of the logic underlying a systematic plan for final glue-up, we’ll use the construction of the Mackintosh chair as an example.

The first step is to note that the chair has five basic parts: frame, backrest, footrest, cap piece and seat.

Construction begins with the pieces that form the flat frames for the sides of the chair. Each of these flat frames is constructed and glued up as a subassembly, and each is checked for accuracy and squareness. Ensuring accurate glue-up of these pieces at this stage increases your chances of a problem-free final assembly.

After the flat frames are assembled, the front and back legs are added, and the subassemblies are checked for squareness again as the frames come together. Next, the rails joining the two side frames are added, and, with the aid of angled protective blocks, the chair subassembly is glued up and clamped.

Next, the top back rail and the backrest, complete with details, are assembled and glued. The cap piece also is added at this stage.

Next up is the footrest. It is glued up as its own subassembly and even prefinished in preparation for final assembly.

Finally, the curved seat is made by applying glue to layers of bendable plywood and clamping them to a jig made to shape. The seat is then covered with leather in preparation for final assembly. Following such a logical process allows for the systematic assembly of the chair subassembly, the footrest subassembly and the curved seat. Having a plan turns a complex and potentially overwhelming assembly process into a series of manageable and less daunting gluing and clamping operations. It also increases the chances of ending up with a successful final project.