FINISHED

My finished chair, the framework has been finished to P150 sandpaper grain, then finished off with 3 coats of teak oil. The back legs strengthened with screws but disguised with doweled pieces of the dark wood to match the top. The chair screwed onto the metalwork underneath, and the metalwork screwed on to the back legs of the frame. There is also three metal clips fitted around the bottom of the frame for support.  

MAKING THE SEAT

To make the seat I glued four pieces of plywood together with a large circle cut from the bottom piece to hide the metal joins underneath. When these were dry I turned the piece on the Lathe to get my desired shape. This was a slight curve dipping in from the edges to the center. After I had shaped the seat I sanded it down starting at sand paper grain P60 working all the way to P320. Then I applied a couple of coats of bees wax to finish. 

CIRCLE CUT FROM THE BOTTOM PIECE

FULLY SHAPED AND SANDED WITH A THICK COAT OF WAX ON

HALFWAY BUFFING TO SHOW TO FINISH OF THE WAX

FULL FRAME READY FOR THE METALWORK

After I had shaped the tops of the curved frame and sanded all of it to P120 grain this is what it looked like. I was now ready to start making the metal work shapes for the underneath. During this process I hammered lengths of metal to give a beaten appearance, these would then be bent into a twisted shape curving from the bottom of the front of frame meeting the back two legs and the center seat frame. After all the metal pieces were in shape I used the angle grinder to cut them down to length and sand them down, before welding them all together. 

SHAPE OF THE FRAME WITHOUT ANY METALWORK

FINIAL TOP JOIN

To join the top of my chair I had to cut a triangular piece of pine to the correct angles so that they would fit nicely with the curved frame underneath, to clamp it on tightly I had to screw the frame but the holes will be filled with small pieces of the darker wood. When this had fully dried I then used the Radius Sanding Jig the round off the top so that a darker piece of wood could slot in. When all these pieces were dry I used the detail sander to shape the pieces to my desired shape. 

CLAMPING THE UNDERSIDE PIECE

TOP PIECE HALFWAY SANDED DOWN (FRONT)

BOTTOM PIECE HALFWAY SANDED DOWN (FRONT)

TOP PIECE HALFWAY SANDED DOWN (BACK)

FULLY SHAPED READY TO SAND TO P150 GRAIN

IDEA'S FOR JOINING THE TOP

I tried out these two methods to try join the top point of my chair but didn't they work. The first included shaping a thin sheet of metal to sit on top and securely hold the frame top together. To do this I bent a piece of wood to have a 90 degree angle and then gradually cut a triangle from the center to shape the curve around, but this then misshaped the angle it would sit on top therefore would not work. The second would involve using the detail sander to shape the tops to point which would meet and then have wire wrapped around them. When I tried this on some separate pieces of wood the join was not strong enough and just pulled away.

METAL WORK TRIAL

DETAIL SANDING AND WIRE TRIAL 

HERE YOU CAN SEE THE FULL LENGTHS OF WOOD 

WOODED PIECES WITHOUT WIRE

JOINING THE BACK LEGS

To join the back legs I had to correctly identify the angle at which they would sit flat to the frame and hand saw out a block of the corner to then clamp onto the frame. Once the glue had set I then shaped the tops of these legs to blend into the frame using the detail sander and then hand sanding and sanding the full thing up to P150 sandpaper grain. 

CLAMPED (FRONT VIEW)

CLAMPED (BACK VIEW)

SHAPING THE BACK LEGS

I repeated the earlier process described to thinly cut the strips of wood, I then shaped one leg to my desired shape that I had planned out and then the other, but in a mirrored curve. This would then match and suit my theme of a symmetrical design.

SIDE VIEW OF THE CLAMPING PROCESSES

FRONT VIEW TO SHOW THE CURVES

GLUING THE FRAME IN SHAPE

After the glue had fully set I then flipped each piece over so I could then start putting the frame together and sanding it down. I started with the orbital sander and then gradually used finer sand papers when sanding by hand. The bottom is temporally screwed together but will eventually have metal clips with metalwork underneath.

TEMPORALLY TAPED TOGETHER AT THE TOP

TEMPORALLY DRILLED INTO SHAPE AT THE BOTTOM 

FULLY GLUED FRAME

I have repeated the same process earlier described to complete the gluing of the frame. Continuing with clamping up the wood dry to then gluing to make sure to achieve the correct curve.

HERE YOU CAN SEE THE OUTER FRAME GLUED TOGETHER

HERE IS THE INNER FRAME WITH ONE SIDE GLUED AND THE OTHER DRYING

DRY RUN OF THE FRAME

After I had shaped each individual length of wood I could then start putting together my chair, this is the left hand side of my chair but was glued upside down so that I could clamp the shape easier. During dry run process I had to work out where every individual clamp would go so that there wasn't any gaps from the wood pulling away.

HERE YOU CAN SEE THE LEFT HAND SIDE ROUGHLY CURVING INTO SHAPE

HERE IS THE LEFT SIDE CLAMPED UP AND DRYING WITH THE RIGHT SIDE IN PLACE FOR GLUING AFTER

SHAPING THE INDIVIDUAL PIECES

After I had cut down the lengths of wood for the main out frame section, to achieve a sharper curve I had to soak each piece with hot water to soften the fibers in the wood which then allowed me to curve and clamp it around this half circle block to then dry so that it would keep its shape.

CURVING THE WOOD PIECES

STARTING MY CHAIR

My initial starting point was to cut down lengths of 2x2 pine wood to around 2mm thick, this would allow me to then bend and curve to the position that I wanted.