Making a Pair of Deck Chairs

[Jim Koepke]

Finally got a round tuit for building a couple of chairs for the back porch.

One advantage of this design is the footprint is only two and a half square feet. The disadvantage is it is low to the ground.

First step was deciding on the height of the back. Since an eight foot 2X12 was available it seemed a 48” back piece would work fine.

Cutting the 2X12 with a handsaw was a bit of a different matter:

a 2 X 12 vs Hand Saw.jpg

This was a fresh piece and still being damp from the pressure treatment chemistry made it a bit tough to cut by hand. Outside with a handsaw was unmasked. Inside with the bandsaw a mask was worn.

Next the seat support was lain out:

b Seat Layout.jpg

A framing square with a couple of stair gauges was used. The one gauge was set to the thickness of the 2X6 used for the seat and the other end was set to 11-1/2” for the width and gap of the seat pieces. The long end of the square was held at the corner of the base stock. The lighting makes it difficult to see the brass stair gauge.

This is the method of layout used earlier to determine how long the base needed to be. The seat area was lain out and a 48” stick was used to determine how far the back had to extend to prevent tipping backward:

c Truck Bed Square.jpg

Figuring the bed & tail gate lines are square enough for this it was determined a 48” back tilted ~10º more than the seat angle would be stable with a 24” base.

A pair of dividers was set to the thickness of the back + 3/8” to draw a line for the placement of the cleats to hold the back:

d Layout for Back Placement.jpg

Laying out the curve at the back of the base was easy with an ellipse template:

e Laying out Curve on Base.jpg

Since it is slightly smaller than the curve needed it was made in three steps. Starting at the bottom and then from the top. Where the two met in the middle was smoothed over with a third step. If you have ever done a drawing with a French curve this is done the same way.

The curve layout could be done many ways. My preference was to not have sharp corners at the back.

Once a piece was finished with the layout it was aligned with a second side piece. They were held together with deck screws. The layout for the back cleats was carried over to the other side before cutting on the bandsaw.

f Bandsawn Together.jpg

A couple notes here, make sure the screws do not come thought to scratch the bandsaw table.

Also, installing screws with or without a pilot hole goes easier with a little wax on the threads:

g Applying Wax to Fastener.jpg

This is an old lump of soft candle wax. Some candle waxes are harder than others.

jtk

— Too be continued later…

[Stew Denton]

Jim,h

I am looking forward to the build and to see how the final design works out.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

Jim,h

I am looking forward to the build and to see how the final design works out.

Stew

Hopefully the rest will be posted later today. We have to take the granddaughters to the airport today.

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

All the running around yesterday was a bit tiring so this was delayed to today.

When the sides were separated they were flipped so the marks would be on the inside of the side pieces. The cleats are set to the line on one side and attached:

a Installing Back Cleats.jpg

The second cleat is held with one screw so it can be aligned with the first cleat before installing the next two screws.

The side and back were set up on the truck bed. Notice a piece of scrap was placed at the top of the back to hold it in place. Another piece was used as a spacer from the bottom of the base:

b Set-Up for Attaching Back to Base.jpg

A clamp to hold the back may help here, but it mostly got in the way.

Attaching the second side is a little more difficult:

c Second Side of Base - Clamps Help.jpg

This works best on a flat surface to align the bottom of the base. Notice the spacer between the sides. It is the front apron cut to the width of the back to keep the base sides square. There are three clamps used here. One at the top of the base, one at the bottom of the base and a quick clamp is holding the back to the cleat on the right side as viewed in the image.

When the back is attached the apron is next:

d Installing Apron.jpg

When driving in the screws, the apron might have a tendency to twist. Check and correct this before installing the second screw.

The seat is made of two 15" long pieces of 2X6. One is aligned with the back. The other is aligned with the front. This leaves a gap in the center and one between the back seat piece and the back of the chair for leaves and dirt to fall through.

The chairs take up little room on the deck:

e Chairs on Deck.jpg

Two or our granddaughters and Candy all checked them for comfort and gave their approval:

f User Comfort Testing.jpg

The girls enjoyed having dinner on the deck and sitting with their phones doing what ever it is teenagers do on their phones.

My thoughts on this is maybe to add a few more degrees to the back angle and adding another piece of 2X6 to the seat.

For these my plan is to have a low rail for a foot rest on the deck railing.

Thanks for looking and hopefully this may provide others with ideas about building small chairs.

Another note: Forgot to mention the 2X12 sides for the base were cut with a circular saw due to the difficulty with the first piece being cut by hand. It didn’t seem worth the time to increase the set on the saw for one project.

jtk