My wife has wished for a deck chair for a couple of years, but I haven't found the time to build her one until now.
The plans for this chair can be found at Popular Woodworking, they were issued in 2012, 100 years after the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
I made my chair out of elm which originally comes from trees belonging to my neighbor. They were among the first boards that I ever milled, so they have air dried for some 8 or 9 years now.
The construction of the chair went along OK, but with a few screw ups along the way, some were my own fault, and some were due to the cut list and plans.
It is not a quick project, but that should come as no surprise with 43 individual parts, of which 26 of them have to be shaped on the band saw.
As a finish I applied two coats of oil based marine varnish.
Since I will sign on the ship tomorrow, I won't be home for Christmas this year. I have therefore already given the chair to my wife, so now it is OK to blog about it, even though it is a present.
That is also the reason why I didn't blog about the build itself.
Titanic deck chair made of elm.
Congratulations! How did she like it?
ReplyDeleteIs elm a good wood for outdoors?
I think it looks great.
Hi Brian.
DeleteShe really liked it a lot. The boys are already trying to see if they can "conquer" it, but she is determined that it is her chair.
Elm is not super for outdoors, but I think that with a coat of varnish, it will be OK. Anyway it will stay inside until summer. At that time it will be placed on the porch.
Thanks
Jonas
It looks to be pretty "screwed up-less" to me.
ReplyDeleteSorry to read you'll be out to sea for xmas. 20 years in the US Navy and I spent 11 Christmas days at sea. Can you at least call or email the family?
Hi Ralph.
DeleteThe screw ups are not that easily seen, but the problem is that I know that they are there. The good thing is that few people will ever notice, but I am sure you know the feeling.
We can call and email the family, so that helps a lot. But still it isn't ideal, but that is just the way things work when you are a seaman..
A fine thing about the Norwegian system is that the companies really try to make sure that you alternate the Christmas between the two shifts that share a boat. So next year I should be home again.
Brgds
Jonas
Nice looking chair.The cultists do not always jive with the project and can make it difficult if the wood you have for the product isn't enough. I am in the process of building 4 dining chairs and built the prototype from 2 by stock to work out the kinks...hopefully.
ReplyDeleteHi Matt
DeleteI rarely use cutlists, but I wanted to play as safe as possible on this one. The problem was not so much regarding how much wood I needed, but two sides for the foot rest were supposed to be longer than the cutlist suggested. It wasn't a deal breaker, because I could fix it by shortening another piece, but I'll know that for next time.
Building a prototype is a great idea, but I didn't want to do it for just building one chair, but for your project of 4 it will probably pay itself off in a short time.
Good luck with your build
Brgds
Jonas
Hello Jonas - I will be building the same chair from the same plans. Can you give more information on the piece that the plans had incorrect? Which part and what are the correct dimensions? Thank you
DeleteHi Mark.
DeleteGood luck with the project. It is rewarding once it is completed.
I have tried to search my brain for what the mistake was, but it has been so many years since I made it that I can't say what the correct dimensions should be.
I am at the ship at the moment, so I can't look at the chair and at the plans right now and find the answer.
However, I looked at my old answer to Aymeric, (a bit further down in the comments here).
And it seems as the plan/cutlist for the two side pieces for the footrest was wrong.
Those two pieces should be a tenons length longer , so they can be tenoned into the back cross piece of the footrest. The drawings doesn't show this.
Also It is fairly important to remember to drill the holes for the brass insert in those two pieces prior to installing them on the footrest.
I am sorry to not be of more help, but it has been almost 9 years since I made it, and though I have a set of hardware for building another chair, I haven't ever found the time to do so.
Brgds Jonas
Nice looking chair.The cultists do not always jive with the project and can make it difficult if the wood you have for the product isn't enough. I am in the process of building 4 dining chairs and built the prototype from 2 by stock to work out the kinks...hopefully.
ReplyDeleteHi, what did you use as hinges?
ReplyDeleteThanks
Andrew
Hi Andrew.
DeleteI used the Rockler items that is suggested in the article about building the chair.
It is 6 pivot hinges and 4 sewing machine hinges for one chair.
Here is a link for the article at Popular Woodworking.
You need to log in or to create an account (free) to see the details.
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/projects/free-plans-titanic-deck-chair
Brgds
Jonas
How was your air dried elm to work with? I made a tool tote from elm and thought the wood looked great, but it did not plane well.
ReplyDeleteHi Jas
DeleteI think the wood works pretty nice, but elm is notorious for being hard to plane. There is a very high chance of interlocking and twisting grain, so planing is hard.
But if you find a piece of straight grained elm, it can be planed too.
I had to saw most of the wood on the bandsaw, and I tried to use my compass plane for removing the first coarse irregularities from the sawing, but after that I sanded the rest.
Brgds
Jonas
How was your air dried elm to work with? I made a tool tote from elm and thought the wood looked great, but it did not plane well.
ReplyDeleteNice looking chair Jonas! A great Christmas present for your wife and I'm sure she is thrilled.
ReplyDeleteHi Greg
DeleteThankd for the nice comment.
My wife really likes the chair, but sadly the season for a nice long rest on the porch with a gin and tonic is quite a few months away. So until then she will have to relax in front of the wood burning stove in the living room instead.
Brgds
Jonas
Nice, that this one project that I have been wanting to do for a while. I have seen a few different versions of this project thru the years. Here at the Maritimes museum they have a reproduction of the original that they have, and you can sit in it. Ever since I sat in it I have been wanting to do it. Maybe this new year Ill find the time.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas to you and yours. like Ralph and you I know all to well what it is to be away for the holidays, except mine was not at sea but in some "remote" exotic locations... :-)
Bob, the former cold war warrior
Hi Bob
DeleteI am glad that I made it, because it looks nice and it is very comfortable to sit in. I guess all the subtle curves on the back and the seat is the reason.
The hardware is much more expensive than what is described in the article in Popular Woodworking. I think I paid 170$ for hardware for two chairs. But I haven't been able to find those pivot hinges anywhere else.
Merry Christmas to you and yours as well. We will do all we can to have a cosy Christmas out here. Su we will make some cookies and try the best we can to find the Spirit.
Brgds
Jonas
Great Jonas, I really like it. I have had the popwood article and plans for almost 2 years now, as this project is on my to do list! Now I have to do it! I have to make 2 of them...
ReplyDeleteHello Aymeric.
DeleteI originally wanted to make two chairs as well, but I decided that it was a good idea to make a single one first, in case somethings weren't exactly as they should be according to the plans.
I don't know when I'll make the second chair, but I have made some really nice templates out of some 1/4" thick pine.
So I can pretty easy mark up the materials for a new chair.
The hardware for two chairs was 170$ as far as I remember, but I haven't been able to locate the same type of pivot hinges anywhere else.
I used some 1 1/2" and 2" brass screws as well, I had some already, but they would also add to the cost.
My worst screw ups were all on the foot rest:
The two sides pieces for the foot rest are too short if they are made according to the plan. They should have a tenon on the back end which will go into the rear cross piece. I had to correct this mistake by making the front a bit narrower.
Also the same two pieces should have drilled the holes for the threaded brass inserts before they are mounted on the foot rest.
I had missed that part, even though I had read the instructions a couple of times. So I had to beat disassemble the sides by means of a hammer to be able to drill and install the threaded inserts. This caused the holes to be not exactly identical in their positions.
I had also missed the part where they suggest that you shouldn't cut any tenons on the band saw, but rather wait with them and to them with a hand saw.
Apart from that it is pretty much straight forward.
I didn't time myself, but a conservative guess is that it took me around 40 hours to complete a chair.
All my wood was rough sawn, so I had to joint and plane it to the correct thickness first, that is included in the time consumed.
Have fun with your build
Brgds.
Jonas
Awesome project! Everything looks great. Like you said, the only bad part is waiting for the warm weather to come so you can use them properly.
ReplyDeleteI hope you and your family have a great Christmas!
Your Friend,
Bill
Hi Bill
DeleteThank you.
I am beginning to think that I'll have to make a second chair after all, but I don't know when..
I am back on the job, and we have got a new charter (YEAH), so right now we are at an oil field in the middle of the North sea, and the weather is not exactly being cooperative.
We still have to visit 2 or 3 more platforms on this run, but with a bit of luck we will be in port for Christmas Eve.
I too hope that you and your family will have a merry Christmas and a happy New year.
Your friend
Jonas
For anyone stumbling across this in the future ... I'm here 10 years after the last comment .. the Titanic Deck Chair article was in issue #109 of Popular Woodworking from July 1999. I couldn't find it in the 2012 issues from the 1995-2013 DVD.
ReplyDeleteHi Dave
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on where the plans are. I just checked the link that I entered in one of the earlier comments, and Popular Woodworking has apparently made it a members only site to gain access to it.
I am pretty sure that it was at some point reprinted to the 2012 issue, since I didn't subscribe back in 1999 :-)
I hope you make the chair, it is a rewarding project.
The only drawback to it is that the chair occupies a lot of space, and even when it is folded it isn't exactly a camping chair.
To protect the chair, we always move it to a storage room in the barn when the autumn weather comes.
Brgds Jonas