Plywood seats?

[Wade Lippman]

I am replacing the plywood seats on two IceCream chairs. The existing wood is 1/4" and is deformed from use, as well as just weathered to death. The chair is made for 1/4" material, but I wonder if I should use 1/2" plywood and route a 1/4" shoulder all around to fit the chair? Would that be more durable, or would the routing make it weaker than just using 1/4"?

[Kent A Bathurst]

You win - I had to google IceCream chair........

You could use the 1/2" - would not be worse - but you could also consider putting 2 - 3 cleats underneath with brass or SS screws thru the ply. Give you some structural advantage, and spread the load.

However - how old are these seats? Maybe you just consider them as perishable parts, and replace them every XX years?

[dave werkheiser]

If you want to stay with 1/4" ply, consider 6mm Baltic birch . It is stronger, has more plies and is closer to 1/4" thickness than most 1/4" is today. You will have to go to a plywood supplier or a better lumber yard to find, the size is 60" x 60" and should be around $25-35

[Lee Schierer]

3/8" ply is still available at some lumber yards.

[John TenEyck]

I would use 1/4". Those chairs are probably 50+ years old, right? Which means you'll have to worry about replacing them again in about 50 years.

John

[Bill White]

I have replaced several with 1/4" ply without any probs.
Bill

[rudy de haas]

hi:

If you only have a few chairs to do and a few extra dollars won't kill you, consider teak or oak marine plywood. it's availavble in 9mm (about 3./8th), will stand up well to use, and making it fit should not be difficult since the layers are held together sufficiently well to let you shave a little here and there if you need to - something you will find more difficuilt to do accurately with typical baltic type pywoods.

[Wade Lippman]

I had 1/2" plywood, but would have had to buy 1/4". Since no one said it was wrong, just unnecessary, I routed down the 1/2".
BTW, measuring more carefully, the existing seat was .28", so I was able to duplicate that with the 1/2". Doesn't exactly correspond to any metric. Odd.