Hi, Gary -

I’ve been making chairs the past few years and the shavehorse has been a
great help.  I began with a simple British (bodger’s) style that worked
well for most tasks, but was challenging when working pieces where the part
clamped in the arm tapered away from me.  Easy to see how it might slip.  I
wanted an improvement on that, so repurposed the base of my spoon mule (4’
long, two beams, two legs at the rear, one in front, Dawson Moore design)
to hold a Swiss dumbhead style head.  It works quite well.  Look at the
sites of Tim Manney, Curtis Buchanan, and Peter Galbert for ideas.  What
might apply best here, considering your height, is that the head and my
seat are moveable.  The head is held in place (wedged from beneath) at any
reasonable point along the beam and my seat can be moved into position as
needed.

I hope this provides some useful info.  If you’d like to see photos, let me
know.  The base also fits a bowl-holding attachment, as designed by David
Fisher and whacked together to fit my base.


Regards to all

Dwight