Chair design wanted!

[Wild Dingo]

Okay heres the thing... I am getting shall we say too many spare tyres around me girth not to say Im getting fat just a tad shall we say well rounded :rolleyes:

Anyways! years back we gave up the idea of ever getting enough chairs around a dining table at one time for this mob so I built church pew type benches for everyone to sit on... so that was 14 years back today one of them decided it had had enough and broke one of its uprights... not really a big thing to fix but I got to thinking... maybe its time now were down to 7 to think about makin a few chairs to go with the table Im about to start making

So Ive had a fair gander around the place and do you think I can find any dining chairs?? nope! flamin truck loads of Adrionick {sp?} style out door chairs fine if you want outdoor chairs but not so good for around the dining table

So any of you blokes and sheilas know where a fella can find some chair plans for the best price available? {ergo free! :D }

Thanks in advance
Shane

[Mrleft8]

I designed a very comfy and good looking chair a bunch of years back... I'll see if I can dig up the full size plans. I THINK, that if you look at last years lawn tractor polo thread, you'll see one of the chairs in the picture of Carter blowing out her birthday cake candles....

[Jack Heinlen]

What style of chair?

There is a chair that I think is one of the most elegant ever built. It's made with greenwood, split then formed on a shave horse. Because the wood is riven the scantlings can be pared down to a minimum. This makes the chair light of line, light to pick up and move around, and strong. No glue is used in the joints, but rather the differential in the wood movement of the upright green pieces v the dried rungs holds the joinery together. It's adaptable to a variety of spindle back chair styles. I know Fine Woodworking has had articles on them in the past, and that there are several books about. There was also a thread here, three years ago, but I can't point you there.

All you need are a simple shave horse, a froe, a mallet, a draw knife, a bit brace and a spoke shave. Plus some straight grained billets of tough wood; around these parts ash or oak or hickory. It's good exercise too. ;)

[ 08-09-2004, 09:49 AM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[George Roberts]

Chairs are sort of personal.

I have to knock out a couple dozen for several tables I have built in the past. After a year of thought - I have enough of an idea of what I want to start making them this winter. I don't expect that I will have plans.

Back to your question - there are a lot of plans on websites available for less than $20 (perhaps less than $10; perhaps for free). Look nd you will find something you like.

[Joe ( Cold Spring on Hudson )]

Simple chair I designed. It is cut from one 4 x 4 sheet of 3/4 plywood. So you get 2 chairs per 4 x 8 sheet. They snap together and are held in place with countersunk screws. In my design I preferred to show the end grain lamination and screws I liked the industrial look with the traditional lines. You can however buy 3/4 lamination tape that you iron on the edge grain to give that solid look.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid63/pad47d06acdb6c055e5df23baa22232d8/fc1afd83.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid63/p02c806ad0e67ac1f189724d9de6f87ee/fc1afd85.jpg

[Wild Dingo]

Thanks fellas :cool:

Jack its for the Dining table mate... weve had the church pew style for so long now Ive become fed up with it and as the hoons start to vacate and make their own ways we have little need for them anymore... and besides Id really enjoy sittin on an actual chair I made instead of a bench :cool:

This mob are a pretty knockabout bunch of hoons so thin legged chippendale fragile things are simply a waste of time around here... be broken in a heartbeat! :rolleyes: so they have to be fairly sturdy

That design is interesting Joe... will hold off on the ply though Ive enough proper timber around me not to have to worry about it... I like the shape though but I am plannin on using contrasting timbers so Im thinking the legs and back leg/uprights will probably be Jarrah for the strength and where you have that circle shape Im thinking of about 4 upright peices instead {ladder back??} in another timber probably banksia which is a pinkish color which I think would contrast beautifully with the dark red of the legs... the top and bottom rails will be messmate and the seat Sheoak simply because I think that golden lacey look would be excellent

This would match the table I have drawn perfectly... I have to go to the mill and get 2 lengths of messmate and while there I intend to see what other timber they have that will contrast with it all... thinking maybe spotted gum would be good anyway the top will be messmate with sheoak and banksia insert and a 2inch Jarrah surround the spotted gum or something similar will be the legs...

Im hoping to build it or at least get a good lead into it before we move so we can get rid of this one at her garage sale in a week so we eat in the living room for a couple of weeks :rolleyes:

Okay gonna keep hunting so wish me luck in me search of this internet thing bein the sorta person I am Im hopin for the cheepest price possible I mean with everything else available on the net for zip surely a fella can expect a dining chair or two??... and mates remember Im not Donn here!!! ;)

Anyway thanks again :cool:

[ 08-09-2004, 11:31 AM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[Jack Heinlen]

Shane,

Type 'greenwood chair making' and you'll come up with a bunch of sites. Here's one.

http://www.northwestwoodworking.com/summerwkshps/ chairmaking.html (http://www.northwestwoodworking.com/summerwkshps/chairmaking.html)

http://www.northwestwoodworking.com/summerwkshps/pics/arm3_LG.jpg

[ 08-09-2004, 11:52 AM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]

[Wild Dingo]

Thanks Jack... now see those rails in the back? turn em the other way up so they run the same way as the legs thats what Im thinking and obviously I was wrong calling what I was thinking of ladder back wasnt I? :rolleyes:

Also thats lookin a tad shall we say fragile? need bulk mate!!! :eek: these buggars would have that as matches in a nanosecond!! :rolleyes:

Sometimes I think I raised this mob a tad to independantly rough and ready twould be nice to be able to have some dainty sorta furniture around the place... ah well wont be all that many years and they will be all off our hands and then she can have her chippendale style furnishins... okay she cant cause Im a clutz tongue.gif so Id just make up for the hoons if she did :cool:

But thats aimin in the direction Im heading with the cane seat and style is almost there a bit of bulk in the legs and were cookin! :cool:

[Jack Heinlen]

Shane,

Any chair, if used regularly, is the most abused piece of furniture in the house: plop in 'em, lean back on two legs, squirm etc. One point about this construction technique is that the stock is riven rather than sawn, so the grain is dead straight. This overcomes one weakness in this style, broken spindles. Another point, they go together without glue in the joints. They rely on differential wood movement and a sort of 'ball and socket' joint. The final point I'd like to make is that they typically are made without power tools of any kind, though some builders have adopted power for making the tenons.

Bryan Boggs has been building these chairs for twenty years. You can bet that he has worked out the stresses, and that that chair, though it is lithe, would not be match sticks anytime soon.

Look into it. It's a very cool way to make chairs.

Good luck.

Jack

P.S. The method is adaptable to vertical spindles or slats rather than a ladder back.

[ 08-09-2004, 12:18 PM: Message edited by: Jack Heinlen ]