Affixing a chair seat?

[Jonathan Jung]

Float-mount a seat on a chair, or glue it down permanently?

I've been attaching the seats to my chairs similar to a tabletop, see picture. However, it's not as clean looking and the screws can't grab very much wood, because of the deep seat scoop. The main thing though is that it doesn't suck the seat down tight to the frame, as tight as I'd like. There is only 3/8 - 1/2" screw penetration so it's risky to really crank it down. Using the Wood Web shrinkage calculator, rift/qtr sawn walnut at 14" wide (the width of contact between seat and frame) has minimal movement, around 1/8". I'd rather be able to set a couple dominos and glue the seat down. I realise that my customer's home humidity control will have an effect, so I calculated for an 8-12% MC variance.

Does anyone know if glueing the seat down would be safe enough against splitting?

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[Jamie Buxton]

Glue some more wood to the underside of the seat, so you have the thickness to properly seat the screw. You don’t have to cover the entire underside - just where your screws are.

[johnny means]

Just counterbore some oversized holes in the chair frame. Great chair, don't over complicate it