Thanks Ross, I can tell by your comments that you have a lot of experience with chairs. Given my lack of experience I did a lot of research before I touched a piece of lumber. It was always a question mark about the need for a front stretcher and I was hoping that it would not be necessary to provide more leg clearance. I probably assembled and disassembled the chair 20 times to test how things were working, and in the end I think it’s plenty stable without the stretcher.