Deck Chair Build-Discussion, plans, photos

Hi Everyone,

Well, I had some time off and while I was doing other things, I began thinking about building a chair for my deck. Here's the discussion about that:

 Discussion
My home and it's contents are badly worn out and I've discarded a lot of old stuff, including a lot of my old furniture. I don't have a lot of stuff left and all I have to sit on in my living room is a couple of IKEA chairs and on my deck, several old plastic webbing chairs. I do need some living room furniture and some heavy duty deck chairs that can stand the weather we get here.

So I went looking for some plans and I came across some plans on Etsy by Les Kenney of www.buildeasy.com. If you have looked for wooden chair plans on Etsy I'm sure you've seen it:https://www.etsy.com/listing/568951569/garden-chair-and-bench-combo-woodworking?ref=ap-listing. The chair fits as it's made out of 2x6 construction lumber and it's heavy duty and should withstand our winters here so I ordered a set of plans which come as a pdf file to your email address.

Photos

So I purchased the lumber and got to work on it. Most of the parts are rectangular in shape and not difficult to cut. But the back legs and back support are cut out of one piece of 2x8 lumber and that was difficult. Also there are 4 lap joints that need to be made and that was difficult as well. Here are some photos of the parts:

The arms cut out from two long pieces of 2x6 and in order to get that long diagonal cut you see I used my bandsaw and cut out the arms bit by bit:

The back and rear leg part was next and that was the most difficult part to cut out and I did that next. The back support is cut at an angle to the legs and to top it off a lap joint has to be cut out so a back piece will fit into the supports:

So I clamped the back supports together and marked them.  And I made the shoulder cuts on my band saw and that was my first mistake:

I proceeded to cut out the waste section with the band saw:

and started to break out the pieces with a mallet. This part went alright:

But the shoulder cuts are not perfectly straight and perpendicular to the bottom of the joint so the back part did not fit squarely into that joint. This set off about an hour of sanding and filing and trying to get that back part to fit properly. Eventually I made it but the back part fits loosely and I'm going to have to deal with this when it comes time to assemble the chair:

And this is what that portion of the chair looks like at present:

The front legs-according to the plans, the front legs are made out of 2 pieces of 4x4 with a deep lap joint that supports the seat sides and front supports cut into the 4x4. I bought a 4x4 but at the last moment decided it would be better just to dig into the wood pile and make the legs by gluing up several pieces of 2x4 to replicate these parts:

I glued and screwed all three leg parts and made two legs. I think this went better that it would have with me trying to cut those joints out of the 4x4.

I still have the chair seat parts to cut out and I'll do that probably tomorrow.

So looking ahead, I need to sand all the parts and seal the wood before I assemble the chair. I think it will look better and this will also allow me to get wood sealer into all the nooks and crannies of the chair.

Stay tuned,
VW