Hay all. Well I finally overcame my fear/hesitation of building chairs.
I always had shied:embaresseaway from building them, you know the fear of the unknown. Silly, really I guess, however it did stop me from attempting it for several years.
Here is a quick pic of the completed chair
I have built plenty of Adirondack chairs, but for some reason I considered them different.
I did use plans, thanks to a unnamed buddy,:icon_thum.
cutting the parts was pretty straight forward. I did wonder however how to preform the mortise and tenon joints on curved pieces.
SO hopefully I can show the steps here that I took.
I started out with selecting the grain patterns that would look the best. You presentation means allot.
I never use to do this step, but it does make a big difference.
Then I cut the tendons on the square stock.
After that I made a template of both sides of the arc for the ladder back
and then the other side of the arc.
I filed and sanded the templates edges to ensure that they were smooth with no bumps or divots on the edges.
Starting with the first one using double sided carpet tape, I mounted the template on the stock.
I then traced around the template with a #2 Pencil. I used this pencil because I wanted a thick pencil thin not a thin one.
All this was for the next step. Off to the bandsaw.
If you look close you can see the pencil mark traced around the template. I followed this mark to the outside edge of the mark. I had to put on my glasses for this :gar-La;.
The trick here was to cut the outside edge of the pencil mark and not the template. I came close on several occasions.
After cutting the the pattern I would take the piece to the router table and using a 2" pattern bit, I would follow the template removing the material under the pencil mark.
It worked real well as there wasn't much material that the router bit had to remove.
Repeat the procedure with the second template. After several hours it was all done except finish sanding.
FOr the legs it was about the same ordeal, except they had the mortises in them.
Started out with a template.
Mounted the template to the stock watch for the grain orientation.
Traced, cut on band Saw, routed around template with pattern bit.
If you notice the mortises are marked out and are now ready to be cut out.
Off to the mortising machine. Sure am glad I got one. I still would be there cutting them into/out by hand.
Making the cross braces and the front legs was pretty straight forward.
I used 3/4 MDF for the seat bottoms. Man I hate cutting that dusty stuff. But figured they should work just fine for seat bottoms.
I did purchase the foam from a local upholstery shop. The wife got the fabric.
No matter how we tried I couldn't get the fabric wrapped around that foam and seat bottom to save my soul. It just didn't look right.
SO I cheated and took them to the upholstery shop and they completed the seats for me.
Best $20.00 I spent.
And then there was a chair.
Made up a mixture of BLO, MiS, and Satin polyurethane
2 Coats of this followed by, 3 coats of Satin and done. Of course were was sanding between coats.
ANd here they are in their new home with the Trestle table I had built last year.
Whew that was a bit putting that together. hope you enjoyed.
Thanks for looking
MAC
I always had shied:embaresseaway from building them, you know the fear of the unknown. Silly, really I guess, however it did stop me from attempting it for several years.
Here is a quick pic of the completed chair
I have built plenty of Adirondack chairs, but for some reason I considered them different.
I did use plans, thanks to a unnamed buddy,:icon_thum.
cutting the parts was pretty straight forward. I did wonder however how to preform the mortise and tenon joints on curved pieces.
SO hopefully I can show the steps here that I took.
I started out with selecting the grain patterns that would look the best. You presentation means allot.
I never use to do this step, but it does make a big difference.
Then I cut the tendons on the square stock.
After that I made a template of both sides of the arc for the ladder back
and then the other side of the arc.
I filed and sanded the templates edges to ensure that they were smooth with no bumps or divots on the edges.
Starting with the first one using double sided carpet tape, I mounted the template on the stock.
I then traced around the template with a #2 Pencil. I used this pencil because I wanted a thick pencil thin not a thin one.
All this was for the next step. Off to the bandsaw.
If you look close you can see the pencil mark traced around the template. I followed this mark to the outside edge of the mark. I had to put on my glasses for this :gar-La;.
The trick here was to cut the outside edge of the pencil mark and not the template. I came close on several occasions.
After cutting the the pattern I would take the piece to the router table and using a 2" pattern bit, I would follow the template removing the material under the pencil mark.
It worked real well as there wasn't much material that the router bit had to remove.
Repeat the procedure with the second template. After several hours it was all done except finish sanding.
FOr the legs it was about the same ordeal, except they had the mortises in them.
Started out with a template.
Mounted the template to the stock watch for the grain orientation.
Traced, cut on band Saw, routed around template with pattern bit.
If you notice the mortises are marked out and are now ready to be cut out.
Off to the mortising machine. Sure am glad I got one. I still would be there cutting them into/out by hand.
Making the cross braces and the front legs was pretty straight forward.
I used 3/4 MDF for the seat bottoms. Man I hate cutting that dusty stuff. But figured they should work just fine for seat bottoms.
I did purchase the foam from a local upholstery shop. The wife got the fabric.
No matter how we tried I couldn't get the fabric wrapped around that foam and seat bottom to save my soul. It just didn't look right.
SO I cheated and took them to the upholstery shop and they completed the seats for me.
Best $20.00 I spent.
And then there was a chair.
Made up a mixture of BLO, MiS, and Satin polyurethane
2 Coats of this followed by, 3 coats of Satin and done. Of course were was sanding between coats.
ANd here they are in their new home with the Trestle table I had built last year.
Whew that was a bit putting that together. hope you enjoyed.
Thanks for looking
MAC
