The original design had a notch on the front leg under the seat that was a stop for the folding chair. Since that notch would serve no purpose in a fixed chair, I smoothed out the notch in the design file before generating the toolpath to cut that template. My CNC has a small bed, so I had to split the the template into three pieces. In previous projects where I've had to do this, I've made puzzle piece ends to join the pieces. I found them to be a little fussy, so this time I went with flat ends for simple butt joints with Dominos.
I cleaned up the retaining tabs with a flush-cut bit at the router table.
Rinse and repeat for the arm and seat templates. Each is a two-piece templates.
All three templates ready to go.
There aren't any natural registration surfaces on the components to easily position them correctly (and I didn't introduce any artificial marks before cutting them out on the CNC). So instead I transferred some measurements from the design to the templates in order to get them positioned correctly.
After looking at the assembled templates and comparing their shapes and proportions to many, many photos of the original chair, I felt like my templates seemed a little "thick" in places. Rather than adjusting the design and cutting new templates, I just used the oscillating belt sander to tweak the existing templates until they looked "right". Maybe later I'll try to reflect those changes back into the design (approximately).
Once I was satisfied with the template shape changes, I was ready to get some lumber prepped. That's up next.
I'm glad to see that you are at it again. I've also got the itch to make some patio chairs of similar design but do not really know where to start. I will be following along for inspiration.
BTW, I see that you are using Vcarve for your CNC. Have you tried using the tiling feature for machining pieces too large for your machine. I've used it a few times by sliding the pieces through the Y axis. That might allow you to machine the long sections from a single piece of material rather than having to join them. The key is creating a means to slide the piece precisely between tiled sections. I usually machine alignment holes in my CNC spoil board or a fixture that is clamped down to the bed and use corresponding alignment holes in the waste areas of the material.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
I couldn't find plans and I doubt they're available. This chair never went into full production, so there aren't many in existence. They were built in the 1950's by Johannes Hansen and were given the designation JH 510. You can find them on auction sites for a pretty penny (usually, already sold). I used the best side photo I could find and the general chair dimensions to work out the shapes.
Thanks, Splint! The templates are great for replicating shapes - to a point. If it's a narrow template, flush cutting on the router table can be a scary experience, and I did have a couple of them on this project. I'll share on the next post.
Lazyman commented about 2 hours ago I'm glad to see that you are at it again. I've also got the itch to make some patio chairs of similar design but do not really know where to start. I will be following along for inspiration.
Thanks, Nathan, I'm glad you're along for the ride. The mental energy I've spent on this project working out the construction details rivals any I've done in the past. It doesn't look like a difficult design to build at first glance, but once I started walking through the stages in my head, there were some aspects that had me scratching my head for a while. Even early this morning my sleep was troubled because my mind was trying to work out a particular weaving issue that I anticipated. But I believe I've got the solution, thankfully.
Regarding the tiling - yes, I've done that in the past and used dowels through the blank into the CNC bed to relocate the work. In this instance, I only had a small section of template MDF to work with, so piecing the templates was my only option. Also, I do tiling so infrequently, that it always takes me a while to get it setup. For templates, I'm totally satisfied with the results of breaking up a part into a few pieces. But for actual parts where I have long stock, it can be worth it. I did that on my Z-chair build.
petey makes a good point, since youve done all the hard work in creating the templates you could probably sell them to others wanting to make it. but is the chair copyrighted ? making it for yourself is no issue selling to others might be !
working with my hands is a joy,it gives me a sense of fulfillment,somthing so many seek and so few find.-SAM MALOOF.
You can copyright the artistic or sculptural features of a woodworking or furniture design, but you generally cannot copyright the functional, utilitarian shape of the furniture .
I know you can copy a painting but dont forget the signature!
The functional part might be covered by a design patent. One search said that the Wegner design copyrights do not expire until 2077 -- 70 years after his death.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
