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| by:
Rick Campbell
photos: Roger Yip
illustration: Len Churchill |
BEACH CHAIR (part 2) |
Cut the Slats
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| Cut
slat rabbets on your tablesaw with a dado blade.
Clamp a stop strip to your saw fence to control
rabbet widths. |
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| Install
the brass bolts, washers and cap nuts to join the
seat supports to the backrest. |
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Turn your attention to the slats for the seat and backrest.
Begin by cutting out blanks for these parts from 3/4" cedar.
It’s a good idea to prepare a few extra slats to use as
test pieces, or just in case you blow an important cut later.
Leave the blank for the wider curved slat at the top of the
backrest square for now.
The
ends of the slats are notched to fit over the edge of the supports.
I made these 1/8"-deep x 3/4"-wide rabbets using my
mitre gauge to guide the parts over a dado blade installed in
my tablesaw. A sacrificial board clamped to the fence and positioned
flush against one side of the blade serves as a positive stop
to determine rabbet widths. Use the spare blanks, prepared earlier,
to fine-tune this setup before you go to town on the parts destined
for the project.
With the rabbets done, complete
the curved profile on the top seat slat. To create the arc,
trace along the edge of a flexed strip of wood, then cut out
the profile with a bandsaw or scrollsaw. Sand to remove any
tool marks before rounding over the edges on the top face of
all of the slats using a bearing-guided 1/4"-rad. bit in
a table-mounted router.
Put it All
Together
Using the arrangement of brass bolts, washers and cap nuts shown
in the plans, attach the seat supports to the backrests. Now
you’re ready to install the slats using weatherproof glue
and one inch stainless-steel #8 pan-head screws. The approximate
spacing for the slats is shown in the plans. Just be sure your
arrangement allows the end of the seat to clear the bottom backrest
slat when the chair is folded. Predrill for screws, countersinking
the heads 3/8" deep to accommodate tapered wooden plugs.
I cut my own plugs from scrap using a drillpress cutter. Before
you move on to the next step, take a minute to sand the tips
of the backrest supports to conform to the curved profile on
the top slat.
The cross braces
are located on the front and rear sides of the backrest assembly.
They will support the seat when someone is relaxing on it. Notice
that the plans show one edge of each brace is bevelled 20º
to approximate the slope of the seat supports. With the chair
unfolded, and the bottom of the legs sitting flat on your bench,
hold the braces in place and mark their position. This is much
easier to accomplish with an extra pair of hands, so don’t
be a lone hero. Now, fold the chair and install the braces at
the marked locations using glue, screws and tapered wooden plugs,
as before. Make sure the bevelled edges are oriented in the
proper direction.
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| CLICK
ABOVE TO ENLARGE |
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Almost Beach Time
Unfold the chair and test it while you consider your finishing
options. Cedar stands up well to wet conditions with no finish
at all. It will weather to a light grey over time, and some
cracking may occur. I chose to wipe on a couple of coats of
Circa 1850 Tung’n Teak oil. This is my favourite finish
for outdoor projects because it has provided good protection
over the years and it is easy to apply. I will give the chairs
a fresh coat at the beginning of each season to keep the wood
looking great.
Before you put these chairs in
the trunk of your car and head on down to the beach, be sure
to label the routing templates and put them in a safe place.
Trust me, once you’re spotted in public with these chairs,
you’ll need to get your hands on the patterns again.
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| PART
1 | PART 2 |
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