Posts from the ‘Lounge Chair’ Category
This past weekend I had the opportunity to take a chair design class with Jeff Miller who came to speak at our Cumberland Furniture Guild meeting.
This was a condensed version of Jeff’s normal class, but we had the opportunity to explore design ideas by sketching, small scale modeling, and full scale mock ups. I worked on a variation of my bent lounge chair.
Most of the concepts Jeff discussed were really not all that revolutionary to me, but perhaps the biggest takeaway was that design is a skill that can be cultivated like any other with practice. It’s tough to form new habits, but putting more effort into refining my designs before construction begins is something I hope to achieve.
After I was fairly satisfied with my drawing and templates, I started making the bending forms for the legs/stretchers and the arm rests that will be created with bent lamination. Using my templates, I rough cut the forms in MDF and used a flush trim bit to make them match the template perfectly. I was out of packing tape, so I used a little Alabama chrome to protect the surface from glue.
I selected a nice plank of cherry from my stock and began to layout my components for the best grain graphics. Again, the templates are very helpful here.
Next I sliced thin 1/8th inch veneers for the legs/stretchers. 12 layers will get me 1 1/2″ thick. I marked the stock with a triangle before re-sawing to keep the grain oriented.
I used Old Brown Glue hide glue to glue up the lamination. The extended open time really helps with these glue ups and I find that the dried glue is not as hard on planer/joiner knives.
Aaron M. Wells 