Fashion a rocking Muskoka chair out of composite wood

No time to rest
With the shaped pieces done, it’s time to make the seat slats, backrest slats, rear vertical support and the front caps. Since all of these parts have straight edges, they don’t need templates.

You will need six pieces for the regular seat slats, each one 21⁄4" wide x 20" long. The easiest way to make the slats is to cross cut three pieces of decking lumber to length, then rip the pieces to width. The seven vertical slats for the backrest start as 21⁄2" x 31" pieces, but taper down to 17⁄8" wide at the base, creating a fan shape on the backrest.

Start by cutting all of the pieces to width and length, then use a tapering jig on the tablesaw or a hand plane to cut the taper. The curve at the top of the backrest is actually cut after the chair is assembled, so leave all of the verticals at full length for now.

When cutting the slats, you’ll end up with one sharp edge and one factory-rounded edge. Duplicate the rounded edge by putting a bearing-guided 1⁄4" roundover bit in a table-mounted router and raising it just enough to take the sharp corner off of the boards. Use the same set-up to ease any other sharp corners on the other chair components as well.

Finish up by cutting the arm braces to the dimensions in the drawing from a piece of scrap, and saw a full-width piece of decking to 11" for the backrest vertical support.

Don’t get puzzled
With 34 pieces all cut and sitting in a pile, it looks like you have the world’s biggest jigsaw puzzle to put together. Thankfully, once you get started putting everything together, it gets much easier to visualize the final assembly.

There are two key components that make this chair work. The first is the use of 3⁄4"-diameter Roto-Hinges. These unique hinges are essentially two pieces of hardwood and a small washer on a central shaft. The configuration of these hinges allows the two halves to rotate independently of each other, and they’re a great piece of hardware to use anytime you need something to pivot. I did find some of the hinges to be a little loose for this chair, but they were easily tightened by placing the flared end of the metal shaft against my metal vise and tapping the other end with a hammer.

The other unique components are two torsion-rod assemblies that hold the base together. I made these assemblies using standard 3⁄4" copper pipe, 5⁄16" threaded rod, 5⁄16" washers and lock nuts. The copper is braced between two components and a threaded rod is passed through the components and the pipe. As the nuts are tightened on the rod, the tension tries to compress the pipe. The result is a very rigid support between the components.