Armchair
I was looking for an armchair to put in the upstairs lounge for comfy reading but couldn't find a cheap, secondhand one i liked. So i decided to make an expensive, firsthand one from these free plans. The chair pictured looked good and, its construction, featuring several non-right angles and new-to-me dowel joinery, seemed just within my skills' reach. Furthermore, the girlfriend pledged to make the cushions. Thus it began.
First i deduced a cut list from the plans, which lacked one, to see how much wood i needed.
Too much of one type for my stockpile, it turned out, so i headed north to Cypress Sawmill and bought some Monterey cypress, also called macrocarpa in New Zealand.
Some of the extensive stock of macrocarpa at Cypress Sawmill
Macrocarpa is easy to work, finishes nicely, and smells lovely. But it's soft at 2,750 N of Janka hardness, which is softer than radiata pine, so you need to take care not to scratch or dent it during a build. I chose dried, dressing-grade (few and tight knots), rough-sewn pieces and paid 15.35 $/m for the 200 mm x 25 mm gauge pieces and 30.70 $/m for the 200 mm x 50 mm gauge pieces. In hindsight, i could have saved a few bucks by buying 600 mm lengths (offcuts) instead of 1200 mm lengths.
I dimensioned the timber at my local community workshop using a fancy thicknesser and tablesaw. The rest of the job i did in my garage using hand saws, hand planes, and a (powered) hand drill, which are quieter, cleaner, and more tactilely satisfying.
I need to get a camera less prone to blur
The plans called for dowel joinery, which is hidden and strong enough for this application. Mortise & tenon joinery would be more elegant, perhaps, but slower and more difficult to install. Nailed/screwed joinery would be quicker and easier to install but ugly here, even with pocket holes.
The trick with dowel joinery, i learned, is placing and drilling the dowel holes accurately. To that end, i carefully measured, marked, and used this dowel jig set, which includes transfer points, drill bit depth stops, and a drill guide (among other things), all of which make doweling much easier. With that, the joints turned out suprisingly well.
No catastrophes, and just two mismeasured, out-of-true joints on the seat out-of-sight.
For the glue up, i used four, cheap, 900-mm aluminum sash clamps retrofitted Paul Sellers's way, which i can recommend.
Finally, i sanded and cleaned the frame, then finished it with boiled linseed oil and paste wax, my goto finish for light-use, indoor furniture.
Over to the girlfriend now to make the cushions, which simply plop atop the frame. She measured the finished frame and sketched a plan.
Then she bought foam and wadding from the craft store for about 45$. (New, pro-quality cushion material costs at least 200$.) Being so cheap, it probably won't keep its loft long, but we'll see.
She also bought some classy, burnt-orange upholstery fabric (10 $/m) to accentuate the macrocarpa's warm tones.
In real life, it's somewhat shiny with yellow rather than white lines
A few hours of cutting, stapling, and sewing, and voilà:
Whoops, i mean, presto:
Welcome to the mid-twentieth century!
But how are the ergonomics and comfort, you ask? Quite good, in fact.
End Times is a fascinating introduction to cliodynamics, a mathematical modeling of history, and its application to times of crisis. Hint: the USA is in crisis.
I find the angles relaxed but not too reclined, the arms just the right height, and the cushions pleasantly medium-firm. The only thing i'd change is add 50 mm to the seat height and 50 mm to the seat depth for my height of 1.75 m.
Lessons learned:
- Your sawmill might discount short lengths, in which case, use them in your cut list where possible, if you want to save money.
- Dowel joinery is elegant and relatively quick and easy compared to mortise & tenon joinery, but you better get the basic tools (described above) to accurately install the dowels.
- Tear out will look worse with finishing. Fix it beforehand, or replace the offending piece.
Excuse me now as i return to my book.