Solid wood furniture input needed

[Brian Penning]

A valued client has asked me to look into making something like this....and it does intrigue me.
It's for indoor use.
222824

Wood suggestions? I was thinking of Douglas Fir.
Construction methods? A lot of layered laminations to me, one on top of the other. A clamping nightmare.
Difficulty? Not sure.

[John Coloccia]

It just seems to put form over function....a piece that seems to exist for no other reason than to take up space. Blah.

It doesn't seem so bad to make, though. I would lean towards making a mockup using cardboard patterns, and then using those patterns to shape the outside blocks and the seat area before gluing...that is unless you like the idea of getting in there with, I don't know, a chainsaw or something to carve it out :D Incidentally, I DO know people that could probably rough something like that with a chainsaw in a matter of minutes. I are not one of them.

[Jamie Buxton]

Looks straightforward, and a lot of work. It'll weigh a ton. You might want to make the bottom hollow.

Sourcing clear dry lumber will be the trick. Clear dry doug fir now costs more than oak or maple.

For the carving process, you might start with a chain saw, then switch to the Arbortech three-tooth power carving blade. They might call it the Pro now. It makes a lot of sawdust very quickly. Then a Kutzall blade, and on into sandpaper on the same 4 1/2" grinder.

You might look the work of Wendell Castle, a sculptor, who was doing big stacked lamination furniture in the eighties. You may have to do some digging to find his old stuff. A simple google just finds more recent work. (http://www.amazon.com/Wendell-Castle-book-wood-lamination/dp/0442214782)

[Jamie Buxton]

A different approach to sourcing the lumber would be to try to get the chair from one piece of lumber. Around here there are trees big enough to do that -- redwood, blue gum eucalyptus, cottonwood, and a few others. They come down in storms, or because of development. The trunks are too big for normal use, so they go to landfill.

Using a single chunk of tree adds visual interest. It also might make your carving easier in a way. The lumber will be green, so it will carve easily. Also, because it will be green, it will crack as it dries out. That means the look of the chair is going to be kinda primitive, so the carving can be also be kinda crude. I've seen chainsawed outdoor tree trunk furniture, and it looks good.

[Prashun Patel]

Make it out of the wood that is the easiest to sculpt and shape for you.

I'm hoping yr not planning to make a big 30x30 block and then carve out the seat. I'd glue up the top three layers as a series of horseshoe shaped pieces. Bandsaw each layer as close to final shape as possible.

Get a $50 carbide kutzall style wheel and an angle grinder. It'll make short work of the shaping. To smooth the sides, I'd use a power planer and then block planes or spokeshaves.

Smoothing all that endgrain does not look very fun. But hey, power to ya!!!!

[Lee Schierer]

It's going to weigh a ton......I would suggest you also make the base hollow.

[Bill Petersen]

Check this site. He makes beautiful carved furniture from LVL, I've toured his shop and it's pretty amazing how he does it and how comfortable his furniture is.

http://www.sculpturedfurnitureartandceramics.com/index.htm


Bill