Been working on making a cherry version of my Fit Lounge Chair. First one I made before I knew what a CNC was. For this one the CNC was used for precision location cutting of bolt holes and joinery between four stretchers and the side parts. Also to cut joinery to connect short sections of cherry to make the longer side pieces.

Dry assembled today to verify that the folding geometry works as designed. Lift the front of the seat frame and the rear legs fold down against the frame. It all folds up flat for easy carry/packaging. Still to come are the canvas tensioned seat support, back strap lumbar supports, and back canvas for the cushion to lay against. All that and some sewing.

4D

Cool design. Appears it will be very light weight and make for easy transportation.

More details since the above photo.

Cam Levers to pull the seat canvas tight.

Cover plates for the back straps.

Cover plate and slot under the front seat stretcher.

All the above screw down into threaded inserts.

All stretchers have two tapered tenons on each end for mating mortises in the side parts.

All that is left to do besides some sanding and a finish is the canvas seat support and the canvas back support.

4D

As the pins that slide in slots are trapped in place, I'm making one side of the frame removable.

Pockets for square nuts:

Holes for bolts what will draw the tapered tenons tight:

I only have one bolt on hand that is long enough, so a pack of 20 more are coming from Amazon and should be here Wednesday.

The wide opening of the nut pocket will be filled with cherry plugs.

4D

CNC sure makes the design and construction amazing!

55 minutes ago, lew said:

CNC sure makes the design and construction amazing!

Very true. Although it took a few revisions to get my Probotix CNC tuned for furniture creation. My other tools still get some exercise when I'm building things though.

Nut recess need plugs to cover them and make sure the nut doesn't drop out.

First to find a scrap of cherry and cut around the vector that made the recess using the CNC.

Second to cut the plugs free using my bandsaw.

Third step to glue them into the pockets.

Last step to sand them flush.

Two more stretcher ends to do, but they'll wait until the screws arrive to verify the holes align with the nuts. If not I can remove the nuts and egg out the hole until I have good access for the threads to find the nuts.

4D

1 hour ago, 4DThinker said:

wait until the screws arrive to verify the holes align with the nuts

I was wondering about the alignment.

1 hour ago, lew said:

I was wondering about the alignment.

This was an extreme case. The nuts are 1.25" from the end of the tenons. In most cases where I've done this the nuts are within 1" of the end of a tenon or board edge that I want to screw down. I clamped the stretchers vertically in my CNC and used a 3/16"d end mill to pocket 17/64" holes 3/4" deep as a starter. Then used my hand drill to deepen the holes. Cherry is relatively soft though and I could tell looking that I missed center on a few of them. Not a critical mistake fortunately.

Edited May 19May 19 by 4DThinker

To pull the seat support canvas tight I wrap it around a 1/2" metal rod then use the cam levers to tension it drum tight. The 1/2" metal rod needed 1/4 ends to fit into the cam lever holes. I put a milling bit in the router and clamped the rod vertically in a V-block between the jaws of my bridge vise.

Once both end were done I verified the fit:

The chair now has 2 coats of Teak Oil on it. The back leg and front frame stretchers are glued in on the left side, and screwed down tight on the right side.

The elastic lumbar straps are now installed between the front frame sides. I may have to replace the plywood that holds them in with something stiffer.

Canvas is next. Putting it off as long as I can. I ordered a cushion for it from the jungle store.

4D

Edited May 26May 26 by 4DThinker

progress; looking good

Canvas seat support finally done. Rather than sew the edges I used iron-on hem tape.

Drum tight. A single 76" long strip of canvas that starts above the front stretcher, wraps over the front, then over a 1/4" dowel that is trapped in a slot by the cover plate. Continues back over the front of the stretcher, over the rear 1" dowel, under to the 1/2" metal rod between the cam levers. Then heads back to the rear dowel and over it, forward to the front stretcher, over the front edge and around the trapped 1/4" dowel before ending over the front and atop the front stretcher.

I installed the canvas with the cam levers loose. Once trapped under the front stretcher a flip of the cam levers pulls the canvas drum tight. You can see the metal rod is bending a bit under the tension. I may have to replace this aluminum rod with a steel version, although checking my original oak prototype the steel rod also bends a bit under the tension of the canvas.

The reason for this tensioned canvas is so that with a thin cushion you never "bottom out" or feel a hard surface.

Next to come is the canvas back support.

4D

Neat tension system

I needed to use some straight pins to help hold the hems down while ironing them down. The pins I've had for 1/2 century though and the plastic package they were in had started to decompose. Thus this little Pins box as an addendum to this project.

The box I'd previously made, but this use for it require the v-carved text on the top and some tongue oil finish.

4D

Edited June 2Jun 2 by 4DThinker

Love it! I would make one modification- a method of keeping the lid shut if the box is dropped- don't ask how I gained this bit of wisdom

A good idea, Lew. The box lid has a tapered inner rabbet, and essentially wedges tight. I haven't dropped it to test, but suspect it would stay on 90% of the times dropped. The crumbling plastic package the pins were in was notorious for "leaking" pins as I carried it from one place to another. This box I'm sure won't leak pins. 😉

4D

Edited June 2Jun 2 by 4DThinker

To avoid having to dig out my sewing machine, I used snaps rather than sewn on Velcro strips to hold the back canvas on the chair frame. Thought I had all the gear I needed to install snaps but couldn't find it. Order a heavy duty snap kit from the jungle store and finally have the back canvas mounted.

The canvas starts by snapping to 4 snaps, 5" apart each, embedded on the face of the top stretcher. It drops down then wraps the top stretcher and over the snaps. then down in front of the lumbar straps, around the wood dowel, around the bottom rear stretcher and snaps to itself.

I have a cushion I ordered for it, but don't like the fit. I need to visit the local stores to see what they have for outdoor high back chairs.

4D

That is awesome, you definitely put some thinking into this one and it shows👍

17 hours ago, 4DThinker said:

I have a cushion I ordered for it, but don't like the fit. I need to visit the local stores to see what they have for outdoor high back chairs.

4D

This will sounds crazy as heck, but what about a chaise cushion turned with the long side as a back?

3 hours ago, Fred W. Hargis Jr said:

This will sounds crazy as heck, but what about a chaise cushion turned with the long side as a back?

I've looked at every variation of cushions including those for chaise lounges. For my original made 45 years back I made my own. For my redwood version (made 15 years back) I bought one for high back chairs from my local Target and tweaked the dimensions so it would fit. For this one I matched the dimensions of the redwood version assuming I could find that same cushion again, but apparently what is available changes every year. I've just ordered one for rocking chairs that appears to be the right width and height. I'll have to wait a week for it to show up to verify.

4D

Edited June 8Jun 8 by 4DThinker