Chair Plans

[Mike Holbrook]

I need to build chairs, for my business. These chairs will be exposed to outdoor temperatures but not rain and minimal sun. We have a Dog Park and I want some very good chairs to put on: a deck,porch and training room. These chairs may have dogs jumping on them so they can not be too delicate. Adirondack chairs are nice and we have some plastic ones. I also need chairs that people can sit and eat in or sit up straight enough in to watch dog trials and training in. May even want some bar type stools. Chatting is a pass time that our friends and clients participate in regularly. Any ideas or plans anyone can think of are appreciated.

[David Posey]

For adirondack chairs, I used this:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to-plans/woodworking/2919751?click=main_sr
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cm/popularmechanics/pdf/PMX0706Adiron.pdf

and ended up with the chairs you see here:
231242

All done by hand in cypress. You will have to modify the pieces for the seat a bit. It ends up being too pointy about 4 inches behind your knees if you don't knock it down some. I thought about rounding the top more on the right one to match the other one, but I kind of like them being a little different. Also, these sit fairly upright. The legs are not quite to plan, as I cut a little extra off my first one and built the other to match. That's pretty easy to adjust once you get it built, and might be necessary anyway to get it level.

[Garrett Ellis]

Popular woodworking made their titanic deck chair plans available for free because of the recent 100 year anniversary. More complicated than adirondack though.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp-content/uploads/Titanic-Deck-Chair-Article.pdf

[Zach Dillinger]

In one of Roy Underhill's books, The Woodwright's Eclectic Workshop, he has a nice plan for some very simple, and very inexpensive to build, Adirondack chairs. They might suit your needs if made out of a proper outdoor wood.

[David Posey]

Do you have a lathe? It seems to me that being able to turn would open up a lot of possibilites when it comes to chairmaking. It also seems like your production might be a little faster too, but I can't really speak to that as I haven't tried turning myself yet.

[Jim Koepke]

I need to build chairs, for my business. These chairs will be exposed to outdoor temperatures but not rain and minimal sun. We have a Dog Park and I want some very good chairs to put on: a deck,porch and training room. These chairs may have dogs jumping on them so they can not be too delicate. Adirondack chairs are nice and we have some plastic ones. I also need chairs that people can sit and eat in or sit up straight enough in to watch dog trials and training in. May even want some bar type stools. Chatting is a pass time that our friends and clients participate in regularly. Any ideas or plans anyone can think of are appreciated.

I like to make Adirondack chairs. Mine are a little different than the traditional style. With the seat rail being a straight piece, the angle of the seat gets to be a bit much. My way to take care of that is to make the seat rail out of a piece of 1X12 and angle it so the seat surface is closer to being parallel to the deck. Also do not make the back lean back more than approximately 98º from the seat's surface. With wide arms a plate and drink can easily be accommodated. They are solid enough to stand up to dogs.

Here is a leg layout and cut order image:

231259

The process of laying this out was to place a 36" piece of 1X12 on my bench and decide how far the front curve should be off of the ground. The bend at the back of my knee to the floor was used for this prototype. Don't forget to allow for the seat slats. You may want to drop an inch off of this depending on whether you are average height or taller than average.

I used lap joints for the front legs and the seat back. Carriage bolts would work just as well if you wanted to cut down on time. Using bolts instead of glued joinery would also allow replacing parts over time if anything broke.

Here are a couple of posts on a couple of my Adirondack chair builds.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?149730-Second-Yard-Chair-Prototype&p=1531115#post1531115

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?165894-Another-Dovetail-Thread

My original thought was to have a build thread. Still haven't got to that project. So many other things going on. I have been cutting parts to make another pair of chairs, but so many other things keep getting in the way.

There are a lot of free plans on line, but my inclination was to use those as starting points for dimensioning.

jtk

[Mike Holbrook]

Great chairs guys. Anyone have a design for a regular chair, stool a little more upright?

[Jim Koepke]

Great chairs guys. Anyone have a design for a regular chair, stool a little more upright?

The popular woodworking on the stands currently does have a plan for a Celtic chair. It would be easy to modify for your needs.

jtk

[Zach England]

I'd really like to make enough of those Titanic deck chairs so I could constantly rearrange them.

[Mike Holbrook]

I wanted to study the "Ancient Chair" information in the current Popular Woodworking, June. I ended up just doing a digital subscription. They were throwing in some discussion of storage solutions etc. that I was interested in too...The chair looks interesting although I am not so sure of the back. Unfortunately the design calls for bending the wood for a couple legs. It seems weird to me that they bent the wood for the legs and back but cut the even greater curves in the chair arms from a solid piece with a band saw. The chair looks like a sturdier, maybe easier to make Windsor Chair alternative " a throne for the common man". The joinery is interesting; pegs, drawbores, wedges....I'm not sure if I have the skills for such a chair yet, might be able to modify the design to something a little simpler to make.

[Jim Koepke]

The chair looks interesting although I am not so sure of the back. Unfortunately the design calls for bending the wood for a couple legs. It seems weird to me that they bent the wood for the legs and back but cut the even greater curves in the chair arms from a solid piece with a band saw. The chair looks like a sturdier, maybe easier to make Windsor Chair alternative " a throne for the common man". The joinery is interesting; pegs, drawbores, wedges....I'm not sure if I have the skills for such a chair yet, might be able to modify the design to something a little simpler to make.

My thought was to modify it into something a bit easier to make without the steam bending. It reminds me of a captains chair that has been with me for many years. Even though mine is of a different design using turnings.

Searching for > captain's chair plan < turned up this:

http://www.davidcolwell.com/C6captains.html

It looks a lot like a relative to the Popular Woodworking chair.

jtk

[Mike Holbrook]

Jim thanks for that link. I now have it in my chair making folder. I am liking the basic Celtic/Ancient base and arm design with a back more like the Captain's Chair. I think I could get a shorter back with a little curve to it out of an 8/4 board with a little help from a coping, bow or band saw.

Another idea would be to just add another piece at 90 degrees to the back of the chair at shoulder height.

Maybe Hickory, Ash or even SYP?