Chair modification pt. 5

So, the chair is finished and getting a lot of use in the loggia. It isn't perfect, but a fairly successful conversion anyway.

The tops of the legs were rounded with a chisel and block plane. Eveything got a light coat of raw linseed oil and beeswax, hopefully the birch will darken to match with age.

The upholstery job was easy, with foam from an IKEA cushion (IKEA gets a lot of hate, but 19 kr for a chair's worth of foam cushioning plus cotton for two shop rags is a great deal.) and some nice patterned blue fabric. The fabric was far and away the most expensive part of this project, but there's enough left for a throw pillow or two. The foam was contact cemented to the plywood, and the fabric drawn and stapled in place.

Chair modification pt. 4

With the mortises cut and the legs mostly shaped it was time to glue the chair up again. This included regluing the back, which had some gaps.

I used hide glue for the first time with this project. It was a little thick, I think, which filled the joints and made them a little gappy. Live and learn.

With the frame glued up I could go ahead and cut off the tops of the legs, as the tenons now wouldn't bust out the endgrain. At least not yet!

Then I could shape the recesses to accept the seat.

I decided to reglue the whole thing, as the gappy joints just didn't look right. Succeeded better this time.

I salvaged this piece of 12mm plywood from a dumpster for the base of the seat, and used the pattern pictured in the previous photo to get the shape right.

With a quick coat of wax and the upholstery draped over the seat, this is what it looks like.

Chair modification pt. 3

To taper the legs, I marked the both tapers on both sides in pencil, and took them down to the workbench.

I notched the start of the cut with a chisel.

And just ripped down the line, holding the piece in the vise. The sawn face was then planed smooth on the bench. To shape the slight angle on the outside edges, I marked the depth of the cut with the cutting gauge, planed down along the corner to the mark, and then flattened the face. Neglected to shoot that process, though.

Chair modification pt. 2

With the legs cut out and surfaces prepped, it was time to undertake the only real joinery of this project: cutting the mortises for the seat rails' tenons. These were nine millimeter wide, and would have to be located on the same location as the original chair's legs.

On site, I marked the height of the two tenons using a knife and a square.

I then marked the dimensions of the mortise from the original legs. I don't have a mortise gauge, so I just used my homemade cutting gauge, taking multiple passes after marking both legs.

With the mortises marked, I took the legs to my workshop and marked the cut more heavily with a knife.

I chiseled out a recess to guide my cutting, and then drilled pilot holes with an 8mm bit, hogging out as much waste as I could.

Clearly I don't have a 9mm mortise chisel, or any mortise chisel for that matter. I don't even have and 8mm or 9mm bench chisel, but the 1/4" chisel did admirably for the ends and the width, while the broad sides were pared down with a 3/4" chisel.

The front rail fits just fine!

I took the front subassembly upstairs to mate it to the rest of the chair. The side rails needed to be cleaned a bit of excess glue, and the mortises lightly shaped, but the final fit is nice and tight.

In situ. Next: shaping the legs, gluing it up, making a seat, finishing.

Chair modification pt. 1

The first step in modifying this chair for our space was removing the front legs to see what sort of shape the tenons were in. Getting the legs off in good shape would also provide me with a model of what the replacement legs should look like.

This step had to take place up in the apartment, as I couldn't put a kettle on down in the storage area. A little hot water poured on the joint softened the glue right up.

The chair knocked apart without any trouble.

Here's the shape of the upper part of the leg I will have to reproduce.

I started by smoothing up the stock I got for the front legs. The pair I'd hoped to retrieve from a dumpster were buried under a ton of junk by the time I got back there, but I found a nice piece at a hardwood reseller right in the center of Stockholm. Working at a proper bench for once is a pleasure! This planing stop mortised into the benchtop was a revelation.

Being too wide, I needed to make it squarish, and started the long rip with my plow plane and a 1/8" iron to make a pair of grooves to lead the saw.

I sawed at the bench rather than pull the sawbench out from under the tool chest. I need to make a smaller sawbench to keep up front. The sawing took 15 minutes, and while it is hard birch I probably need to sharpen the saw. This is my converted crosscut to rip saw, and I haven't sharpened it since reshaping the teeth. I then got out the crosscut saw and cut it in half. Two legs to square up and get ready for mortising.

While I was sawing I clamped down the remaining part of the chair to remove the back legs. Here I needed to use a little toolbox saw as I was working at the bench and didn't have any space behind me.

As suspected, cutting off the back legs went right through a couple of tenons. 

These joints don't look too healthy, either. I'll have to take them apart, clean them up, and clamp everything together again. Then I'll cover the exposed mortises with a piece of felt or something for it to ride on when resting on the windowsill.

And here it is! This is what the chair will end up doing when completed. 

Future project: chair modification

The "loggia" has quickly become our favorite room in the apartment. The kitchen sofa with proper cushions is very comfortable, and we have equipped the room with cozy lighting. My wife's folks recently brought down the round birch table, a very nice piece. But the room lacks seating opposite the sofa, unless one perches on the marble window sill.

We've had the idea of adding seating here by modifying a chair with extended front legs, and back legs removed behind the seat, so that it may rest on the window sill. The idea of buying a perfectly fine chair with the purpose of chopping up isn't very appealing, though, and with my current skill set it would be difficult (and expensive) to pull off a custom number.

I spied a pair of square section, tapered  birch table legs in a dumpster the other day, and thought that they may work for chair legs (the legs will need to be extended off a standard chair length by about 11 cm). Lacking a chair for the project, though, I left them where they were. The next day, however, I found a perfect candidate chair left out for garbage pickup in our neighborhood.

I first thought the chair to be birch, but on closer inspection I realize it's beech. Whatever it is, it's not in great shape, which makes butchering it for this project easier on my conscience.

The front legs are almost square section, about 40x40mm. The chair's been abused, as this busted mortise can attest.

Even this part of the back is cracking.

The plan is to:

• Make new, longer tapered section front legs and mortise them to accept the existing tenons.

• Cut off the back legs below the seat's apron, and level the side and back aprons.

• Refinish the entire chair with wax.

• Make a new seat, probably from plywood, foam sheeting, and a scrap of fabric.