Thread: CHAIR DESIGN 101

hi Shane,
Yes, the drying rack is the final required shape for the slat. The now fully dried and 'set' ARC slats slide easily in and out of the drying rack whereas the Huon pine slats bent in the same bending form now have to be forced into the drying rack?
I also used the drying rack to mark the slats for cutting to length.
fletty

HEALTH WARNING
IF IN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS, ANYONE OFFERS YOU A FREE DOSE OF THE FLU CURRENTLY GOING AROUND THEN THE ANSWER IS A FIRM BUT POLITE NO!

The City to Surf was on last Sunday. I had started to feel flu symptoms the night before but still ran and completed my (I think) 30th. Still OK Sunday afternoon but, by Sunday night, I was in a bit of a mess. I dragged myself out of of bed for a few work things during the week but haven't felt well enough to do any 'discretionary work' until today.

I stand before you as a man who consumes 'fiendish level' sudoku but who under the influence of the flu currently is still struggling to tell his left from his right!
Anyway, I started with something reasonably fool proof.
As I posted earlier, I tapered the front legs on the thicknesser, which gives a lovely slight curve to the machined face, but leaves the foot at the original section so I used a shooting board to plane the taper on the foot to be parallel to the taper on the leg

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I then made a simple dado cradle

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which I used to machine the recess in the back legs to take the armrest which is held in place with a double domino

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by the end of the day, I had made enough real parts to let me 'loosely assemble' the first chair! This is the first time I've had any real feeling for the size and shape of the design because the EP has always been much bulkier and heavier than the final product.

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I'm pretty happy with the shape and lightness. There is a fair bit of sculpting to go but that will only be after final assembly to make sure all of the curves fair into each other.

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Only the side frames have been assembled in their final position, the rest is held together with clamps and willpower........!

it's good to feel better again, fletty

You have done well considering.
Chair is looking great.
Be warned it ain't over yet.......the flu that is.

Coming together very nicely indeed Al.

Looks good so far. I am getting the impression that it might be a little small but this might be because the seat is not in.

Thanks Christos,
There chairs are unusually tall which makes the standard width seem small in comparison. The seat height is more akin to a bar stool. I have had trouble visualising the proportions ever since the beginning and was even tempted to sell my soul to the devil and invest the time into Sketchup or similar?
I learned years ago that, when making a batch of anything, I should keep them all at the same stage or potentially only ever finish one! However, I have decided with these chairs to take one through to being mechanically complete only because I am not yet sure of 'the look'.
I'll make all of the jigs etc as if I am making all of them and hopefully I will end up with all 6 being finished.
The design elements, bent slats, crest rail and general shape, will be repeated on a further 2 chairs being an office chair and a rocker and I have made the relevant parts for those as I have made the 6 dining chairs.
Due to mistakes and poor cutting, I have already gone back to Greg requesting "more ARC" .... and I fear there may yet be another call!
fletty

I realised that I wasn't doing much between 10pm and 2am most nights so I scored a few extra shed hours! I haven't done anything on the chairs for weeks and it was a joy to get back on to them.
I needed to dress some of my arc stash to make the aprons and lower back splat supports but this wasted a lot of timber as I reduced 30mm thick to 22mm thick and filled the dust collector! One benefit of the segmented heads on the thicknesser and jointer is that the shavings are smaller, less dusty and eminently compostable .... so I simply empty the dusty in the back paddock...

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I wonder why they call it Australian RED cedar?


I cut all of the side and front aprons and cut and domino'd the back splat supports

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I put a front apron on for the first time

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.....and it seems to improve the visual balance

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... but it improved again (I think) when I put the first foot rest on?

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The chairs are so high that a foot rest is essential even for me, but I had been agonising (= losing sleep) over the design ... arts and crafts 'cloud lift' design ... metal insert for wear ... sculpted in 2 dimensions ... pierced ... but I am now so taken with a simple straight bit of timber, shaped on each end to meet the tapered leg that I think I have fluked the right design and proportions?

Hopefully I can get some more civilised shed time on the weekend!

fletty

I am still watching and very interested.

Also a good thing that I am not able to comment on the design.

I like them a lot.

I've had a very enjoyable shed weekend, not a lot of progress but my head is in a much better place!
I rather symbolically dismantled the EP....

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it has done its job and the first of the real chairs has now taken over its role

Originally Posted by fletty

Thanks Christos,
.......I learned years ago that, when making a batch of anything, I should keep them all at the same stage or potentially only ever finish one! However, I have decided with these chairs to take one through to being mechanically complete only because I am not yet sure of 'the look'.

The remaining 'unknown' in the US Secretary of DefenSe meaning, is the mounting height and spacing of the back slat assembly. I've got the first production chair to the point where I will get a cushion made to confirm the mounting height of the back but, in the meantime, it is mounted on the chair with clamps. I need to get the lumbar support in the right place but I've also found that the distance between the upper and lower mounts AND the length of the slats also affects the geometry rather dramatically!


By the finish of play and the opening of a bottle of unwooded chardonay the chair looked like this

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the back assembly clamped on and the rest of the chair held together with dry dominos and pocket hole screws of which only the dominos will be the fixing for all subsequent chairs


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the contrasting frame of tassie oak is the base for the webbing and foam and leather cushion but at the moment it just makes the whole thing look like a commode!

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I haven't done any of the shaping yet but, as i went along, I inserted the spacer blocks to provide the 'meat' for the organic corner radii

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I'll see the upholster this week, determine the mounting height, disassemble chair one to fix the back and reassemble it .... this time with glue!

fletty

Originally Posted by fletty

By the finish of play and the opening of a bottle of unwooded chardonnay .....

This is not your usual course of events.

You waited until the close of play to unscrew (what a coarse term - bring back "uncork" I say).



NOW I begin to understand the height of the chairs - they're commodes. You want to avoid any splash chance? They do look a wee bit uncomfortable though - a bit rugged on the thighs and stuff.

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Nah, they look really really good - you're nearly there! Very handsome.

Interesting read Fletty.

I have been assembling the parts and reading/watching material to do some steam beaning.
Previously I have done bent-laminations or cut the pieces to shape.
There was spring back with the bent laminations but nothing compared to your steamed method.

I will definitely pre-soak any timber I decide to bend. Thanks.

The slats in my dining chairs are set into the rail at the back of the seat.
What are your reasons for extending them past the seat and down the back legs?

Originally Posted by Scally

The slats in my dining chairs are set into the rail at the back of the seat.
What are your reasons for extending them past the seat and down the back legs?

Hi and thanks Scally,
It was a combination of ideas .....or maybe a confusion of ideas! I've always liked the Charles McIntosh design which has straight back slats extending from VERY high to below the seat. As the chair was to be very high, I was worried about racking if anyone leant back in the seat so I put the back legs VERY far back to make it difficult to tip the chair. I didn't want my first steam bending to be thick chair LEGS so I was left with bending the back slats?
Now that I can sit in the chair I find that it is very hard to tip back because the fulcrum is a long way back and you need to lift you own weight a long way before you reach the tipping point. My only concern now is that I'm worried about the thickness of the slats. I haven't yet been able to sit in the chair with the upper and lower slat rails both fixed and the slats glued into the rails but at the moment, the slats appear a bit TOO bendy? I have been to the upholsterer and I'll have the first cushion this weekend. This will let me confirm the height of the lumbar support and so the location of the crest and bottom rails which will let me glue the slats in for the first time, here's hoping!
fletty

We had a good day at work yesterday ... so I'm celebrating by not going in!
I get the prototype cushion tomorrow so I thought it would be nice to finish the first production chair as far as i could without knowing the mounting height for the back and not having the crest rail carved. I pulled it apart, did the minimum amount of curving, sanded to 400 and gave the finished pieces their first coat of 1 : 1 : 1 tung oil ; mineral turps ; and boiled linseed oil.
I had planned on going REALLY curvy and 'organic' but thought I'd just start with basic shaping and oil it to see if it needed more? At the moment I'm happy with how it looks.

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The 'old' me would have spent hours staining each individual piece so that all of the colours matched but my girls, and now I, prefer the timber to be as nature made it (in terms of colour and grain anyway!). Even the leather will be natural and not dyed for even colour. I might from now on only show some details pics and save the whole shots for a grand unveiling at the end?

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IF I do more 'shaping', this elbow for instance will have the edges heavily radiussed but .......

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the leg and foot design is a direct clone of the tables they are intended to match but the table has a heavy radius on its outer corner starting above the foot, I might do at least that much 'bling' on the chair as well?

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Once the back height is set and the crest rail carved, I'll be able to oil and fix the back assembly .... and then assemble at least another 5 chairs!

fletty