Slat Chairs - Day 1

We have a very small camp at Pennsic. It is a small group of us close knit friends that camp together with our kids and most years the kids outnumber the grown ups. We like to keep it small and family friendly and the original idea was to be as period as possible. Of course we still have propane stoves and toys and crayons that are not strictly period but we try our best to keep the glaring mundane stuff out of site. Money and time are always a factor but every year we try to do a little better. This year we are trying to make our common areas more medieval looking. Our biggest offense (other than the Coleman lanterns) is our mundane camp chairs. I have a medieval looking chair I purchased a couple years back and that it is great for our dining table and it was definitely a splurge for me to buy it back when we had the means to splurge. We art thinking for the dining table we will try and get some 2nd hand or inexpensive new wooden folding chairs and that will look better than our current situation. This weekend we drove to my in-laws so we could take advantage of my father-in-law's most excellent woodshop in the basement and his considerable expertise to help us make a few slat chairs for around our fire pit.

In 2000 we had him help us make our canopy bed from a pattern we bought at Panther Primative (which is where we got the tent from) and we are still enjoying our bed. Last year I bought the pattern for the chairs and it took many months of nagging to get to this point today :) I was not really in on the discussion of what wood to get, and didn't go shopping with the guys so I can't get specific on the deviations from the pattern. I think it was just the thickness of the slats.

The pattern for the chairs we are making one "double wide" loveseat, and 2 adult size chairs. 

Frederick's material list

 

 This wood will be used for cutting the rails for the chairs the bottom picture is the wood for the slats.

The wood we used is clear white pine. It is really nice quality.

We decided to seal the final chairs with Thompson's water sealer so they can withstand many years of the harsh Pennsic weather.

Frederick glued the paper pattern for the chair rails to a piece of Masonite to make it a more sturdy pattern. (After this picture was taken we made him put on safety glasses!!!)

I got to use the chop saw!!!! My job was to cut 13 x 3 feet sections for the slats on the double wide chair and 26 x 18 inche sections for the 2 single person chairs.

Chopping away with my face shield (Safety first!!!)

 

 

My father-in-law setting up the router for me.

Frederick sanding down his template

 

 

The templates at the top of the picture and the wood for the "cleats" (rails that add stability to the chair) are in the bottom of the picture.

Drawing out the chair rails on the wood using his awesome templates.

I have moved on to the router. Both long edges on one side of the wood will be rounded. The edges will be rounded by my Father-in-law since doing the edges are way beyond my skill level.

Frederick is using the chop saw to cut down the chair rail wood to make it easier to work with.

Frederick working the band saw to cut out the chair rails. These chairs would have been so much more work if we didn't have all these great tools to help us.

Frederick sanding the chair rails on the belt sander. You can see all the sawdust in the air.

 doing the final sanding on the chair rails using a fine grade sand paper.

Frederick said I needed to put some muscle into it!

 

Frederick proud of his "bone pile".

Chair rails for the double wide chair.

 

Cleat slats all routed and sanded.

 

Slats for the single size chairs.

 

Chair rails for the single chairs

 

More slats for the single size chair.

Slats for the double wide chair.

 

Tomorrow we just need to finish sanding the chair rails on the belt sander, use the router to round the edges of the slats, drill holes for the screws put it all together then stain.