If it’s still worth thinking about the cost-effectiveness of a homemade stool, then making a chair yourself is definitely justified: an ordinary common chair from a home workshop can look no worse than a store-bought one, but will cost 2-3 times less. This is if you purchase material “from scratch” without using accumulated reserves. And if you swing at the exclusive, what with a chair is quite possible for a craftsman mediocre, then the savings will reach simply unimaginable limits, see at the end.
There is one more important point. The chair differs from not only technically, as will be discussed later, but also ideologically. A stool is an essentially utilitarian product; It is generally considered bad manners to keep stools in the living room, preferably poufs. And a chair is one of the pieces of furniture that determines the face of the interior no less than a table, or even more. Subtle experts in etiquette judge a person's dignity by the quality and condition of his shoes, and the state of his affairs by the chairs in the house. If a person has the ability, time and desire to make a chair with imagination and taste, such as, for example. in the photo, then he deserves trust, even if he is still in cramped circumstances. And these are just the non-convertible chairs; folding and, say, step-chairs are a special class of joinery, which we will discuss later.
Note: the subtleties of high treatment sometimes reach the point of curiosity. This is how, for example, a certain British sailor lord put it about the first wife of Napoleon I, Josephine de Beauharnais: “In England she could become a real lady. Just look at the contours of her stern!”
How is the chair constructed?
Chairs are generally divided into 2 classes: living and dining. The difference is primarily in the seat; in the dining ones it is narrower at the back and a little higher. This was invented back in time immemorial, so that it would be more convenient for the servants to serve the feasters, and for them to sit upright for the sake of absorption more food and drinks. Structurally, a dining chair differs from a living room chair in that the legs are located lower; this is required to ensure strength. How the chair is structured in general and what the approximate dimensions of both are shown in Fig.
Dining chairs are not considered essential items these days; Most people make do with living rooms in all cases. A drawing with details of the structure of an ordinary living room chair is shown in Fig. Its feature is straight rear legs, which saves material and simplifies work. A physiologically acceptable sitting posture is ensured by arching the back. For the home handyman It is not difficult for an average level to draw up details based on it and general dimensions, and the subtleties encountered in the work are described below.
Note: blanks are collected in bags for batches of 4 chairs for the sake of convenience and accuracy of marking with a hand-held measuring tool. With this organization of work, the quartets of chairs turn out to be exactly the same, this is the first subtlety.
Why is a chair not a stool?
At first glance, it seems that the chair is just a stool with a backrest. But it’s the back that makes it completely different from a stool from a mechanical point of view: people lean on it, or even fall apart. If a stool can generally be considered something solid, working primarily on compression; well, even for bending and shear when rocking, then in a chair the loads from the junction of the longitudinal drawers with the rear legs are much higher, of a different nature and spread throughout the structure in a rather bizarre way. Therefore, by the way, as a rule, they do not install transverse legs in chairs: they will not work in the structure, only the excess material will go away.
The chair is finished using common methods for furniture: tinting with stains, varnishing, painting, veneering, upholstery. But technologically, chairs differ from stools in the following ways:
- The nature of most of the compounds used.
- The choice of wood - most of all.
- Assembly method.
- Soft seat device.
Joiner's tenon joints
To make a chair with our own hands, we will have to thoroughly master furniture (carpentry) tongue-and-groove joints. Basic information about them is given in the article about a do-it-yourself stool; Here we will mention something in relation to the chair.
Open connections and with through tenons in chairs for the sake of aesthetics are rarely used, as are connections reinforced with hardware: bolts, confirmations, self-tapping screws. A nail in a chair is like a car hood tied with rope.
The chairs are assembled using blind tongue-and-groove joints that are invisible from the outside; they are sometimes called miter joints. Assembly is done with gluing; wedging of tenons is often used, because They don't make regular chairs with removable legs. A chair with wedged tenons is more labor-intensive, but very strong and durable, because all parts of the connection dry out together.
How to make a blind groove (hole) for a tenon is shown in Fig. If you have a manual wood router, then you don’t need to pick out the excess with a chisel, but you need to drill the edges of the hole: it’s easy to “go away” with an end mill. In this case, the edges of the tenon are also rounded, but it will only be neater and stronger.
It seems strange, but it is with tenons that amateurs most often have problems: it is difficult to saw a workpiece for it with a hacksaw without “scratching” the base of the tenon, and a tenon sawed at the base is an unacceptable defect, because the strength of the connection drops sharply. Deliberately under-saw and remove the fold (extra wood around the tenon) with your hands - the tenon may come out “plump” or oblique, which is no more acceptable. Therefore, it is best to make furniture tenons using a router with some simple devices, see video:
Video: k How to make a furniture tenon with your own hands
Wood for chair
The coniferous tree from which such good stools were made is definitely not suitable for a chair, even hard larch. Reason: any coniferous wood is straight-layered, and in the chair there are loads that can cause chipping along the layer - I would like to see less, but where can I go. Coniferous wood will only go into a chair in the form of plywood on the base of the seat.
For a wooden chair, use deciduous, fine-grained, dense, durable species: oak, beech, hornbeam, walnut, elm, rowan. Birch will be used for children's chairs; and birch plywood - for folding ones. Preparation conditions are general furniture: room dryness (8-12%), not chamber drying, impregnation with water-polymer emulsion or other harmless biocides, for example. high-purity mineral oil for furniture, oil-wax compositions, acrylic compounds for furniture.
Wood for a chair will cost less if you take it not sawn, but in solids, and cut it yourself using a circular saw or grinder with circular saw in a makeshift bed. For some products, e.g. bar stools, see below, you can’t do without an array, because... lumber of the required width is either not available or is very expensive. In this case, you need to know that solid wood is sold for decorative and structural purposes. The second ones are more expensive, because their mechanical indicators are standardized and checked, but decorative arrays are not.
The last thing to consider when choosing wood for a chair is that “decorative” defects are unacceptable. In a stool or tabletop, slanted, twisted, tightly fitting knots can be beneficial, ultimately giving a beautiful texture, but a chair made from such wood will soon break.
Assembly
A wooden chair is assembled without a seat twice: first dry and without wedges, and after adjusting the parts and checking the configuration by measuring the sides and pairs (oblique diagonals from the lower corner to the opposite upper one), finally with wedging and gluing. In both cases, the so-called. an apron made from the rear legs, back and longitudinal sides, and the “apron” is already adjusted to it, see fig.
Note: note the way the tenons are inserted into the front legs here and below when we get to the seat posts. With equal spikes, like in a stool, the sides of the chair do not cut into the legs, and there will not be adequate strength.
About frame details
All parts of the chair are made from solid wood. The temptation to make the rear legs prefabricated to save material is great, but don’t: they will soon break. It’s better to take up the set right away, marking the contours on the surface of the board according to the template with a shift. If the chair is for dining, then in this case the longitudinal drawers should also be slanted/curved, and the question arises: how to make tenons with grooves? It is very difficult to mow at home, and it is not necessary. You will have to spend a little more material, but oblique/curved drawers with straight tenons can be obtained without much difficulty from a board as thick as the drawer height, see fig.:
Only now you need to mill the tenons, using a mandrel with the required angle, and always in a bag: remove the fold from the long sides, transfer the bag and fold the short sides. The corners of the studs are rounded separately, this is no longer critical.
Back
The back of a chair, as you know, can be solid, hard, stacked, or soft. Solid rigid - just a curved bar. It is cut out, like curved drawers, as well as details of hard inlaid backs, pos. 1-3 in Fig.; We won’t talk about the backs of Viennese and other complex chairs for now. The back parts are assembled on spikes; We’ll leave chairs with backs with screws in museums of Soviet consumer goods.
For a simple soft back, pos. 4, need a straight top bar and maybe intermediate support(run, “backrest”). The base of the back is made of 4-6 mm plywood. They cover it in the same way as the seat, see below, but use foam rubber no thicker than 7 mm or use batting/felt. The soft padding is placed on glue, not reaching 15-20 mm to the edges. The decorative lining is sewn into a pocket, placed on a base with padding and stitched at the bottom. Place the backrest in the grooves selected in the top bar, rear drawer or purlin and rear legs; select the grooves by measuring the thickness of the back covered with fabric. The sequence of chair assembly changes:
- assemble the left (right) part of the apron with the back drawer, top bar and purlin for dry use;
- put the backrest, perhaps with adjustment;
- they complete the apron by installing the missing rear leg with its own longitudinal drawer;
- the front part is attached to the apron;
- after checking the configuration and final adjustment, they go through everything with glue (optionally with wedging) in the same sequence;
- The soft insert of the backrest is finally placed either dry, or with a minimum amount of glue added only to the grooves so that it does not squeeze out onto the fabric.
Seat
How the chair cushion is arranged is shown in Fig. with a drawing at the beginning. Unlike the seat of a stool, the upholstery in this case does not stretch as much when the sitter fidgets, so the inner upholstery of the base is not required. The base is made of plywood or a solid board with a thickness of 12-30 mm. But the seat of a chair is more difficult to clean than a stool, so the foam padding must be covered with felt or, worse, batting that absorbs sweat. Solid particles of dried sweat are subsequently squeezed out of the seat.
The upholstery of the chair seat also does not need to be secured as carefully as that of a stool; you can get by with pinning it with a furniture stapler without gluing. Cover the pillow with decorative fabric in the usual way, trimming the scars that form at the corners. But the cladding made as shown in Fig. will last much longer. If the chair is covered with much more elastic and expensive leather than fabric, this is a must-have option.
Laths or jibs?
Drawings of chairs most often show the fastening of the seat to slats, embedded in the legs along with the longitudinal drawers and additionally attached to them with self-tapping screws. This highly technological and low-labor method is widely used in industry, but for yourself it would be much better to lay the seat on the jibs, see fig. on right. The chair will be much stronger, the seat will get dirty less and will be easier to remove for cleaning.
How to install the seat?
A seat simply laid on top of a support frame loses all the advantages compared to a stool, and the chair frame experiences increased loads. Therefore, it is better to place the seat of the chair in a tray formed by the drawers; To do this, if the seat is on jibs, they are placed lower by the thickness of the base of the seat without a cushion. So that the front drawer does not interfere with the legs, it is lowered to the same thickness, which will only make the entire frame stronger, and the seat itself is moved forward by the thickness of the drawer or a little more. Then the front jibs cut into the front frame flush with its top.
About curly legs
I really want to put a homemade chair on curly wooden legs. This is not at all as difficult as it might seem, you just have to spend money on thick beams: for the front legs, taking into account the margin for processing, a 150x150 beam will do, and for the rear legs - from 250x250. How the figured legs on the bars are marked is clear from Fig. Basic conditions: you need 2 identical templates, with their heads and heels meeting on the inner (relative to the finished leg) edge of the beam. However, the convergence of the heels is not necessary, then they will turn out to be wide, like hooves, and the trace of their supporting surface will look like a horseshoe. The technology itself does not require art education: they simply remove the excess from the side of the inner edge and alternately from the outer edges.
Different chairs
We will assume that you now have a good idea of how to make an ordinary living room or dining chair. But there are a huge number of varieties of household chairs. Most of them are folding ones; I must say that folding furniture is now experiencing a rapid boom and is widely used not only as temporary, but also to save space and/or modify home design. Chairs play an important role here, see for example. video:
Video: folding chair as a solution for small apartments
Folding
Folding chairs, so to speak, classic look, both modern and ancient ones look similar, see fig. Until recently, their advantage was that when folded they take up little space. But, firstly, the tilt of the back of such a chair is not optimal. Secondly, the mechanism requires the shoes of the rear edge of the seat to slide into longitudinal grooves, which is rather complicated and weakens the structure. Therefore, patents for chairs similar to each other number in the thousands, and in the end the optimum was not found at all where they were looking, see below.
For example, an attempt to optimize the design of the original folding chair is shown in the following. rice.:
There is only one drawback, but it is fatal: the huge overhang of the seat forward relative to the line of support, which is why the first sitting on a new chair can end in failure in the literal sense of the word. Other designers have tried to make the folding chair more ergonomic or by making the rear legs with a bend, at the top in Fig. below, or by moving the joint of the spreader upward, below in the same place. In both cases, the design cannot be called simple and the dimensions when folded are “protruding”. And in the first case, the conditionally rear (i.e., connected to the sides of the back) legs cannot be made in one piece, which is contraindicated for any chair.
A solution was found relatively recently, and when you see what it is, you involuntarily recall the statement of T. A. Edison: “Everyone knows that this cannot be done. There is a fool who doesn’t know this, and it is he who makes the invention.” In this case, a plywood folding chair-slab, see fig. There is no need to describe it, and everything is clear. The double seat support distributes the loads throughout the structure. In addition, by drilling rows of holes on the sides of the seat, you can adjust the chair to suit the rider; There are such modifications on sale.
Canvas
All the described chairs have a drawback: they are hard. Plywood, however, can be made soft, but the thickness when folded will increase. These chairs are suitable for a picnic, but for long periods of sitting you need something softer. The solution has also been known for a long time: chairs with a canvas seat and, possibly, a back. For example, in Fig. Below is a canvas folding chair for a summer house. The design is a little complicated, but the comfort pays for it, and when folded, such a chair is not much thicker than a classic one. True, the leg rests across the seat, but since, lounging in the shade, your legs are not tucked under the chair, this is not so scary.
Even more use is made of canvas and tarpaulin in fishing chairs; Lightness and compactness play a role here. But the usual fishing and tourist gear, pos. 1 in Fig., for hiking they are still bulky and the backpack drags noticeably. If you are going camping by car, you can take a fishing plywood folding chair, pos. 2. Its feature is an additional rotating plate on the back; On such a seat it is more convenient to languish during a sluggish bite.
For walking and in general in any case, the most convenient option is a tripod chair, pos. 3. This is not difficult to make with your own hands; as shown on the right in Fig. A tripod with bamboo legs is not felt at all in the backpack. If you can find a tight, durable rubber ring, like a wrist expander, then making a tripod chair is even easier: the rubber band is simply pulled to the middle of a bag of legs.
Bar chairs
IN Lately There is an increased interest in furniture for bars and cafes. In fact, there are no adjectives “barny”, “barnaya”, “barnoe”, “barnye” in the Russian language. It wouldn’t hurt, since these bars are everywhere you turn, but they really don’t fit into the system of the tongue. However, let the philologists be wise here, and we will assume that the bar stool exists and is worth making.
Furniture for bars “from this” and “from that” and with a markup “per star” has become boring to everyone. Inexpensive and fairly high-quality furniture for bars at an affordable price sells out well, and here a master individual entrepreneur or just an individual artisan can make good money.
A bar stool is generally tall, about dinner table, stool with footrest. The easiest way to make the seat base is from 2 plywood or solid circles with a thickness of 20 mm and a diameter of 350-370 and 250-270 mm. The smaller circle is the intermediate link for attaching the seat to the chair post, and the larger circle is the base of the seat. If it is hard, the circles are made from solid wood, ground and varnished; plywood bases are covered.
The soft seat of a bar stool is of the same design as for a soft stool, only it is immediately covered with decorative fabric or leatherette; It can also be done in leather if the customer pays. Decorative covers, especially on round seats, in the bar will slide off long before the end of the evening. The foam rubber for the seat cushion is as dense and elastic as possible, from number 35. From it you can make a pillow with a thickness of 60-70 mm, and from 45 - 50 up to 120-150 mm. The lower circle is attached to the support with self-tapping screws from above, and the finished seat is attached to it from under the bottom.
In Fig. above shows the detailing and assembly method of a massive, solid bar stool; Dimensions of parts 3 and 4 are in cm. Please note that part 4 is asymmetrical, because 4 parts 3 are assembled into a nest. In Fig. on the right is a lighter-looking chair with round legs. The basis of his seat is 2 identical circles with a diameter of 340 mm. The necessary strength is given to it by a ring leg together with exactly the same foot. It also shows methods for assembling and cutting out a leg with a footrest: in a 20-24 mm plywood blank, first drill holes to the diameter of the legs with a feather drill, cut out the inner circle with a jigsaw and cut off the ring along the outer contour.
Here in Fig. - a very stable and quite original-looking chair support in a bar made of planks. The base for it is made of plywood in the same way as the previous version, but it is placed on top. By carefully cutting out beveled grooves for the boards, you can give it the appearance of a solid ring, which is aesthetically pleasing.
What about the children?
No, we haven't forgotten about the children. It’s just that children’s furniture is so unique that it needs to be considered separately. Children, for all their imagination, are always pragmatists, naturally determined to survive in the future. That's why they are tireless researchers. So there is no particular point in “polishing” the aesthetics of a chair for a child: functionality and durability are more important here. It’s amazing how such a little thing manages to break very durable things. Maybe future scientists will understand; perhaps by reconsidering the fundamental laws of nature. Just kidding, kidding. We were all like that, we just forgot, and there are no indigo children at all.
The best material for a children's chair is birch or birch plywood. Its relatively lower strength in this case is not a hindrance: the parts are shorter and per unit area cross section less stress is required. But to assemble children's high chairs on confirmations with plugs or dowels, pos. 1 in Fig. It doesn’t stand higher, like adult furniture: they will break it, pick it apart, unscrew it. This design is suitable for a chair for growth, with an adjustable seat and footrest, pos. 2. It would be best to make the children's chair quick-assembled without fastenings, pos. 3. It will be taken apart - no big deal, it won’t take long to collect. And he (she) will only have more intelligence and spatial imagination. So we give in Fig. drawings of a children's prefabricated chair, and in addition to it - a diagram of a folding chair for very ignorant children. For a dad whose saw and hammer don’t fall out of their hands, repeating it probably won’t be a problem.
Note: also in Fig. Below is a children’s chair “adult-style”, on a frame and self-tapping screws. For some reason, boys like these more and they break them less.
Ladder chairs
Both children and adults will find a chair that turns into a ladder useful at home. The first - so as not to rummage through a dusty pantry and not risk breaking my wife’s jars when pulling out a stepladder. The second is to climb to the second floor of a bed or children's corner. This is especially important in small apartments, where there may simply not be room for a stationary ladder. In general, if necessary, in Fig. – drawings of an adult ladder chair; the legs, of course, do not have to be curly. A children's ladder chair of the same design is obtained by proportionally reducing the dimensions, except for the thickness of the steps.
Hedgehog under the skin
With the best, honest intentions and on a reasonable basis, without any psycho-engineering tricks. Take a look at fig. on right. Cool, yeah? Especially if you ask about the price of 1 (one) product. All the furnishings of a decent bachelor's one-room apartment, including a refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, microwave and electric boiler, cost about the same.
The reason is the high labor intensity of such a chair, which cannot be mechanized or robotized. Or giving in so tightly that easier with your hands do. Highly qualified and highly paid.
But, by the way, the technology for creating such unspeakable beauty is ridiculously trivial, it just requires a lot of attention and accuracy. The materials are also ordinary - wood, plywood, fabric, foam rubber. Large production areas and complex equipment are not required; a garage or shed will be enough. This is the “hedgehog under your skin”: you can do it yourself at home!
Unfortunately, it is not possible to give even a cursory description of this chair in a review article: its volume and labor intensity are quite consistent with the nature of the object. But, let's hope that we will have another opportunity to tell you how at home with average family budget make a chair worthy of a royal palace with your own hands.
Well, with a start. I made my first stool.
It all started, as it should be, with dry, uncouth logs that were discovered in the attic at the dacha
Having cut off all the excess we get blanks for future legs
I decided to attach the drawbars to the legs using a dovetail tenon - a very reliable tenon connection that does not loosen over time. On the milling table I made grooves in the legs of the required length and shape.
Well, on the same milling table I made the corresponding tenons on the sides. To ensure that the drawers fit more tightly into the grooves in the legs, they are rounded with a chisel or file.
The legs are attached with a regular straight tenon. The stool leg is almost ready.
I forgot to photograph two more important stages - softening the edges and sanding. Using a special cutter, I made 6 mm roundings on all edges. And one more important stage is grinding. I have a special machine for this. I used 80 and 120 sandpaper.
Because there is no heating in the workshop, then in such cases it is recommended to carry out gluing at home, keeping the parts for a day at room temperature and humidity. That's what I did.
"Rehearsal" before assembly. It is important that the parts fit together. Because according to the instructions there should be no more than 10 minutes between applying the glue and applying pressure. Therefore, there will be no time to adjust the parts.
Wood glue is applied and the structure is tightened. We wait.
Glue leaks are eliminated sandpaper, then the finishing coat is applied. I decided not to cover them with anything. Let them smell like wood.
Starting a new business is always difficult. It took almost nine hours to make the first stool. It seems incredible. Every movement and new stage raise a lot of questions and require deep thinking. Here you won’t be able to do it “in place”, as in welding. The entire product is designed immediately as a single whole. The situation is aggravated by the ease with which you can ruin a part and throw all previous efforts down the drain.
Now I'm thinking about more complex products.
It can be very difficult to cut grooves accurately and to size. To make the legs of tables and chairs, milling, jointing or drilling machines with special devices and moving tables are used. In the absence of stationary machines, the grooves are cut with a manual milling cutter using a stop.
To cut a groove, you need to adjust the entire system of tables and clamping devices by eye, and the first time you almost always get an error. After additional adjustments, the error is eliminated and parts can be completed. It is difficult to hold a hand router with your own hands, and sometimes vibrations cause mistakes and drift towards the stop, especially when hitting a knot.
The problem becomes even more complicated if the part is single, or the groove is located at a large distance from the edge of the board.
Original idea
The table recommended in the article is light in weight and small in size. It is quickly transferred, rebuilt and allows you to select grooves with great accuracy, high quality and without errors. Working with a manual router using the proposed table becomes simple and safe.
Important! The advantage and peculiarity of the idea is that using transparent plexiglass material it is very quick and convenient to install the structure, aligning it with the marks on the blanks.
The table presented in the article for hand router easy to do with your own hands.
Preparing for work
In order to make a table structure for a manual router, you must have the following materials and components available:
Materials
| Name | Type and dimensions, mm | Quantity |
| Scotch | 1 | |
| Double sided tape | 1 | |
| Fluoroplastic plate | 300x300x20 | 1 |
| Plexiglas | 500x500, thickness 6-8 | |
| Adhesive for plastic |
Accessories
| Name | Type and dimensions, mm | Quantity |
| Countersunk screw | M8, length 30 | 6 |
| Countersunk screw | M8, length 60 | 2 |
| Furniture bolt | M8, length 60 | 4 |
| nuts | M8 | 6 |
| washers | M8 | 6 |
| wing nuts | M8 | 6 |
Tools
List of tools used in the manufacture of a homemade device:
- ruler;
- cutting knife;
- thick felt-tip pen;
- pencil;
- finger cutters 10 mm, 16 mm;
- conical cutter;
- manual frezer;
- carpenter's square;
- clamps;
- 8 mm;
- head for chamfering on a drill;
The process of making a homemade table
Advice! To protect against chipping, tape is placed in the slots. For this purpose, they also protect the places where holes are drilled in plexiglass, using a drill with a chamfer head.
After this, the tape is removed. Using a simple felt-tip pen, draw the line of the slot so that it appears clearly.
Two strips measuring 500x50 mm are cut from plexiglass to make guides for the milling table. The edges of the guides are ground to reduce friction.
Next, in the lower side of the plate for the platform, 3 holes are drilled on both sides. This operation is performed with a drill with a chamfer head. Countersunk head screws will be inserted into these holes from below. 3 holes are cut accordingly on one of the plexiglass guide strips. Then connect one guide to the platform and attach nuts and washers.
A conical cutter is installed on a hand router. The router is pressed against the platform, the end of the cutter is aligned with the line in the center of the platform, and the bolt is clamped on the guide. Repeat this operation at the other end of the guide and tighten all the bolts. Screw the second guide in the same way.
Thus, the manual router slides along the plexiglass platform along the guides, which rigidly fix it on both sides, preventing errors and errors.
Then, using a milling machine, a groove for the cutter is cut, having previously marked its dimensions on the platform with a felt-tip pen. Since its width should be 1 mm larger than the largest available finger cutter, the groove is made in 3 passes.
At the next stage, it is necessary to make equipment from polystyrene for attaching the limiters. The limiters move and are fixed on the limiter base, which is mounted on the table platform.
- Cut polystyrene blanks on a circular saw.
- The grooves are milled.
- Drill holes for fastening.
Grooves are milled into the blanks of the stops and inserted into the bases by threading the screws into the holes of the grooves. If necessary, protruding screws are cut off with a grinder and the burrs are smoothed with a file.
- Drill holes in the clamping bars.
- A milling cutter is used to select a countersunk for the heads of furniture bolts.
- Insert bolts into holes.
On the back side of the platform, bars are inserted so that the bolts fit into the grooves for fixing the table. Wings are screwed onto furniture bolts and limiter screws.
The design of the milling table is made by hand and is ready for use.
The procedure for using a homemade table
Milling of bars
- The workpiece is installed from below, covered on both sides with pressure bars and clamped. Using markings on the plexiglass of the platform and marks on the block, the structure is oriented so that the center of the block is in the center of the platform. The wings of the pressure bars are clamped. After this, the structure with the workpiece is clamped in a carpenter's vice.
- Using markings on the bars and a conical cutter, the limiters are set and fixed.
- Moving a hand router along the guides from one stop to another, changing the depth several times, select the grooves.
Milling grooves on a board
To carry out this operation you will need double-sided tape. The clamping bars are removed from the device.
- Make markings on the board with a pencil, glue tape to the board and press the platform to it in accordance with the markings.
- Install and press the limiters.
- The groove is milled.
The following figure shows work done with a hand router on bars and boards. The result of assembly on tenons is also shown. All dimensions were perfectly accurate, and the process lasted for an hour.
Conclusion
A homemade table for a manual router is simple to make and has a low cost. Along with this, it is quickly installed on the part and easily and accurately performs manual milling work. Using this device in the workshop, you can significantly increase the productivity of a carpenter.
Video
Probably every man, at least once in his life, had to make a stool. Perhaps this is the simplest piece of furniture, but when creating it, certain difficulties arise: how to make the structure stable and durable, what materials to choose, how to process it ready product? This article will talk about self-production stool of simple design.
In order to make a stool with your own hands, you will need a set of the simplest carpentry tools, minimal woodworking skills and some free time.
Production time: 6-8 hours.
Necessary materials:
- 8-10 scraps of boards with a length of at least 500 mm. At least 25 mm thick and at least 80 mm wide. Suitable waste lumber of any deciduous or coniferous species, if possible well dried
- PVA wood glue (moisture resistant grade D3 if possible)
- wood screws 70 mm
- stain and furniture varnish.
Tool:
- Electric jigsaw
- Hacksaw with fine teeth for carpentry work
- Rasp set
- Hand router (if possible)
- Drill
- Plane
- Sanding paper with grit P80, P120, P180
- Set of chisels of various widths
- Screw clamps 400 mm long or more - 2-3 pieces
- Ruler, square, pencil.
Making legs
Select from the available materials suitable for making the legs and side boards. There should be no dead (falling out) knots or cracks in them, since these are the most loaded parts and the strength of the entire structure depends on them. Carefully ensure that there are no old nails, screws, etc. in the boards, as their presence can lead to tool breakage and even serious injury.
Using an electric jigsaw, cut out 4 legs for the stool and 2 drawers for connecting the legs in pairs from the existing boards. Such a cross-shaped connection will significantly strengthen the structure and give strength to the entire product. When calculating the length of the legs and drawers, keep in mind that the height of a standard stool is 450 mm. And the dimensions of the seat are 350×350 mm. You can proportionally change the size of the stool to suit your purposes - for example, for use by a child.
As you can see, the legs have a slightly curved shape, so that all four legs are the same, I recommend making a template from thick cardboard. Carefully trace the template with a pencil and cut out the legs along the resulting contour with a jigsaw. Process all sides of the resulting parts sanding paper, and if you have a hand router, additionally use a 2-3 mm radius cutter.
Using a drill and chisels of different widths, select the grooves in the legs. To do this, first drill out the two outer holes, thus forming the rounded edges of the groove. The drilling depth should correspond to the length of the tenon, and the diameter of the drill should correspond to the width of the tenon. Then use the same drill to make more holes between the formed edges of the groove. Make sure that all holes are strictly aligned. Use chisels to remove the remaining wood (“bridges” between the holes) until a smooth groove is obtained.
Note. If you have a hand router, the task of making grooves in the legs can be greatly simplified. To do this, a template of a suitable shape is made from plywood or plastic 4-5 mm thick. The template is fixed to the part, and using a groove cutter with a copy ring installed, a groove of the required depth is selected.
The tenon can be made using a fine-tooth hacksaw (for finishing work), chisels of different widths and rasps. First, use a hacksaw to roughly form the tenon by cutting away the excess wood from all four sides of the drawer. Then, using chisels and a rasp, make roundings at the ends of the future tenon. When forming the rounding of the tenon, I highly recommend not to rush; on the contrary: it is worth trying the tenon to the groove more often to obtain the tightest possible connection.
Remember: the strength of the connection depends on how accurately the tenons and grooves fit together.
Work on handmade The tongue-and-groove connection requires a certain skill, and you may not succeed the first time, but if you plan to engage in woodworking in the future, I recommend that you start practicing on such simple products.
Note. You can make making a tongue and groove joint easier by using a method that some call "foreign tenon". As you noticed, making a groove using a hand router is not that difficult. When connecting to a “foreign tenon”, grooves are made in both parts being connected. And the tenon is made separately and inserted with glue into both grooves. The required number of tenons can be easily made by cutting a block of the required section with the edges rounded with a radius cutter.
Make rectangular cutouts in the drawers for further cross-shaped connection of the drawers with each other. To make it you will need a fine toothed hacksaw and a chisel. The width of the cutout should correspond to the width of the drawer, and the depth should correspond to half the width of the drawer.
Try to assemble the resulting parts “dry”, that is, without glue. Check whether the tenons fit well with the grooves and whether the planes of the parts being connected coincide. If any shortcomings are identified, you have the opportunity to correct them. Carefully coat the tenons and grooves with PVA glue, and join the drawers to the legs in pairs. Compress the resulting glue with clamps and leave to dry. Usually the glue dries completely within 24 hours. You can read more about the drying time and the necessary drying conditions on the label of the glue used.
While the glue dries, you can start making the seat of the future stool.
Select several scrap boards of suitable width and thickness. Work them with a plane and sandpaper until you get an even shape. Special attention Pay attention to the edges that are to be glued - they should be perfectly smooth. Please note that the seat will have two sides: front and non-facing. When assembling a shield, make sure that all possible defects (cracks, knots, etc.) are located only on the non-front side - this will significantly improve appearance products.
Try to assemble the resulting shield “dry” without glue, but using clamps. If everything fits together normally, you can start gluing. Coat the edges well and clamp the resulting shield in clamps.
Final assembly
After both glues have dried, you can begin the final assembly of the stool. Remove the clamps, remove any remaining glue that has protruded, and inspect the quality of the gluing of the base of the stool and the seat. Cut the seat to the required size, carefully sand all surfaces and, if desired, round the corners with a small radius. If you have a hand router, remove a small radius of 2-3 mm along the contour of all the ribs. If you don’t have a router, remove the chamfer with a plane and sand it with sanding paper. You can connect the two halves of the stool base using an adhesive connection on a dowel. Drill two coaxial holes in the center of the slots in the cross-shaped base of the stool. The diameter and depth of the hole should match the diameter and length of the dowel you have. Standard sizes dowel - 8×30 mm. Coat the holes and groove with glue, insert the dowel and fasten the parts with a clamp.
You can also attach the stool seat to the base using dowel connections.
After assembly, give the stool a final sanding using sandpaper. In this case, the numbers of abrasives should increase sequentially: P80 - 120 - 180.
Cover the resulting product with stain and furniture varnish. The product will have a beautiful appearance and will be protected from environmental influences - moisture, wear.
A stool is necessary and useful thing in any home. Therefore, now we will look in detail at how to make a wooden stool with your own hands. The best choice for making a wooden stool is oak, which is very beautiful, and most importantly durable material for furniture.
DIY wooden stool
1. First you need to plan four bars measuring 40x40x440 mm on a jointing saw machine, which in the future will be the legs of the stool.
2. Then, in exactly the same way, you need to prepare four blanks for the legs of the stool (30x20x280 mm) and for the drawers (20x50x280 mm).
3. To make a seat, you need to plan three boards and connect them together using the lining method. Connecting grooves can be made using a hand router, and the boards must be joined using PVA glue.
The result should be a square monolithic board measuring 360x360x20 mm.
4. Using a shaped cutter, you can remove the edges of the corners to make the seat of the stool comfortable and beautiful.
5. You will also need to prepare four fasteners from oak bars, which will be needed so that the seat is firmly attached to the stool frame.
6. After all preparatory work You can start making grooves on the legs and tenons on the drawers.
In order to avoid confusion with the drawers and legs, you need to number everything. Since the distance between the legs in this design is 240 mm, the cut for the tenon must be made at a distance of 120 mm from the middle of the drawer in both directions.
Tenons can be made either with a router or with a chisel.
7. Once the work with the legs, drawers, tenons and grooves on them is completed, you can start working with the legs. The difference will be that the grooves on the legs are closed at the end, and not open. The distance between the upper part of the leg and the lower part of the drawer should be 270 mm, which will give strength to the stool.
8. After all the grooves and tenons are ready, it is necessary to assemble the frame of the stool in order to check it for distortions. It is necessary to ensure that the tenons fit tightly into the grooves, but without using strong blows, since oak is strong, but can split when wedging. Therefore, it is better to check everything carefully in advance.
9. After all connections have been checked, you need to coat everything with PVA glue and assemble the stool frame.
10. On the legs, at the joints, you need to drill holes and hammer wooden dowels coated with glue into them. This will help strengthen the connection and prevent it from becoming loose.
11. Now all that remains is to attach the seat to the stool frame. On the inside of the seat, it is necessary to screw the connecting bars using self-tapping screws so that the seat fits flush into the frame. After this, you need to screw these bars to the drawers.
