Popular Post Bmac Posted September 14, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 This chair has always interested me, a true Danish MCM classic. It's a chair that has been in the back of my mind to tackle and last Jan when I moved my son into his new apartment, a number of remakes of this chair occupied the lobby of his complex. I was so happy to get a chance to sit in and inspect one. It's a comfortable low slung lounge chair that I think could be made with loose tenons (domino) as long as I could figure out the angles and dimensions. I've quietly been researching this chair for the past few months and I think I have enough info to jump in. Finding the plans and details of construction has been a challenge, but I've gathered up enough info to give this a shot. Here's the objective; I'm really excited to get back to working on a chair. I plan to make more than just one of these. I will start with a pair made out of cherry and may make a second pair out of walnut. Here are some links I've found to help me along the way; https://www.skyecooley.com/single-post/2016/04/24/Selig-ZChair-Prototype-1 https://www.lumberjocks.com/RossL/blog/series/22825 These are the most detailed links I could find, but I know some of you have better web searching skills than me. You guys were a huge help when I tackled the Maloof Lounge chair. So if any one has or can find any info to help me along the way I'd be greatly appreciative. Thanks for looking. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark J Posted September 14, 2020 Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 I can see your attraction, it really is a good looking chair, that's very Space Age. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted September 14, 2020 Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 This is going to be exciting. I think i like the Maloof chair you made better. That is not to say that i dislike this chair. I'd be happy with both! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmac Posted September 14, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2020 36 minutes ago, Chestnut said: This is going to be exciting. I think i like the Maloof chair you made better. That is not to say that i dislike this chair. I'd be happy with both! I agree on both counts, that Maloof lounge chair is a better looking chair, but I don't dislike this chair. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted September 15, 2020 Report Share Posted September 15, 2020 I like this chair a bunch! I’ll shore be following the build! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted September 17, 2020 Report Share Posted September 17, 2020 On 9/14/2020 at 7:50 PM, Coop said: I like this chair a bunch! I’ll "sho-nuf" be following the build! Fixed it for you. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bmac Posted September 22, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted September 22, 2020 Back at it. I've done about as much research as I could do. Now it's time to put things on paper. Started with a flat line representing a flat surface the legs will sit on. From there I transferred the heights of all the significant parts to the chair- seat, arm, and back of chair. These heights are marked in relation to the line and this is where I start. I also have lengths for the back leg/arm support, front leg, and backrest support. Also have the angles, from there got to this; A few key measurements here- you want the backrest to be parallel to the front leg. You can do that but having the joint surfaces (front leg and backrest joints, not armrest joint) of the backleg/armrest parallel with each other and cutting the same angle into the joint surfaces of the backrest and the front leg. Here's a pic of the backleg/armrest piece, notice the joint surfaces are parallel; So once I've got the right width and parallel sides I cut the arm rest joint surface; Next is cutting the correct angle and length in the backrest and front leg pieces; Side pieces all cut and patterns drawn on blanks; Confirming all matches with drawing; And finally bandsaw used to develop rough shape; Gluing up sides and fitting arm is next. Thanks for looking. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bmac Posted September 28, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 On to completing the sides of the chair. My plan is to glue up the sides, then determine joint locations for the cross pieces. I'll shape/sculpt the outer face of the side pieces, but leave the inside faces untouched as the 90 degree angles will help me with my joints. I'll only shape those inner faces once I have all the cross pieces fitted, but before glue up of cross pieces. One important guide for me is the back edge of the backrest support, this area is flat and will be a reference point for me with placement of the back rest. Here are the 4 sides glued up, minus the arms, they need to be fitted separately; Fitting the arms was very easy. Found the angle and all the chair sides matched perfectly with that angle. Here's an arm blank fitted to the side; A nice thing about this design is that the arm sits flush with the inside aspect of the other side pieces. As long as I keep that area flush I have a good reference point. Once the arm is fitted I cut out the blank using a template I developed; Started doing some early shaping to develop the contours of the arm; You can see from the above pic I opted to use a screw for this joint. I really wanted to use a domino, but I could not see an accurate way to do that. So this joint will be screwed and glued. Here's the first side fully assembled. You can see we are flush on the inner face; This is rough shaping of the arm, still have a ways to go but I was going to use this side as a guide for the other sides. Here's a pic of that first side piece with some of the shaping completed, really starting to come along; Finally, on the inside face I started marking out some reference points/lines for the seat and the back rest. Here are the details with these lines. The backrest needs to sit at the midline of the top of backrest support, but since the backrest support widens as you go down, I don't want the backrest to stay on the midline of the support. This is where that flat surface on the back of this support is so critical. I strike a line that starts on the midline at the top, and then that line stays parallel with the back surface of the support. This line represents the midline of the backrest and where it will joint the side support. The next line represents the top surface of the seat. This meets the backrest at a 105 degree angle and the front of the seat will end up 12" off the floor; I drew these on all the inside faces of the side pieces. A quick note, you may be able to tell I'm using some knotty cherry. Since I consider these prototypes I'm ok with that. I've done this with other chairs and sometimes in the end they look fabulous with the extra character. I do have some epoxy filling to do. Thanks for looking. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted September 28, 2020 Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 Very nice! What are you using to shape the arms/legs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmac Posted September 28, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2020 1 hour ago, pkinneb said: Very nice! What are you using to shape the arms/legs? Roughing it out with the Festool Ras 115, then cleaning it up and refining with rasps. Finally a random orbital sander with an interface pad. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bmac Posted October 3, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted October 3, 2020 Angles, angles, angles, this chair is all about angles. With that said I'm very pleased with how this is progressing, it seems like I have the angles pretty well figured out. As I mentioned earlier there are a few things to get right with this chair, namely the front leg parallel to the back side support. Making those joint surfaces parallel on the backleg/arm support is key with that. Keeping the backside of the side back support perpendicular to that joint is also key. So after emphasizing those points again, here's my progress so far; All the sides are completely glued up, last step was attaching all the arms; Reference lines were drawn on the inside faces of all the sides. Top pic shows the top and bottom of the seat and how a line that will represent the midline of the backrest intersects the seat. Again that line is parallel to the back of the back support. The bottom pic shows where the seat frame hits the front leg and the vertical line represents the midline of the front cross support. Domino is centered on that line; Here's the front support in place, I cut the top edge of this support to match the angle of the bottom of the seat frame, you can see that in both pics; Next is the seat frame in place and again I cut the angle in the backside of the seat to match the backrest frame. Amazingly, the front and the back angles where identical, that tells me I'm spot on with my angles and that the front leg and side back support are parallel to each other. Here you can see how the seat frame matches the back line and sits flush on the front support. Next it's on to the backrest frames. Holes drilled at the midline of the top and bottom rails; Roughing out spindles; Trial fit; Sanding and shaping one set of spindles; So to be as authenic as I can be, I'm matching the shape of the original spindles, this is more work than if I just spun round ones on the lathe, but I like the look of these. Right now I'm trying to decide the best way to attach the back of the seat to the bottom rail of the backrest. I have a few ideas, but I'm still thinking on that. I will use dominos to attach all cross pieces to the side pieces and I plan to simply glue the seat frame in place. Thanks for looking. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gee-dub Posted October 3, 2020 Report Share Posted October 3, 2020 Thanks for taking us along. That thing looks like a blast to make. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bmac Posted October 8, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted October 8, 2020 Big step forward with this chair. All the pieces have been cut and all domino joints completed. Was able to do my first mock up and see how the chair looks. I did find a few missteps on my part, but for the most part I'm very happy with the look and the way all the parts fit together. The missteps have been noted and will be corrected in my next set of these chairs (I plan to do 2 in walnut when completed with these). Here's the chair assembled, minus the back spindles; Here is my biggest misstep, my bottom back rail was not wide enough. When you look at the original Z Chair, this rail sits higher above the back seat. for my next chairs I added 3/4" to the width of this part on my cut list. In turn I had to shorten my spindle length 3/4". Increasing the width here will not only make the chair more authentic, it will also give me different options for joinery of the back seat to the back bottom rail; The way I glued up the seat frame was done to develop the best arraignment for gluing it in place. Here is a shot of the front part of the seat, I have long grain against long grain in the front leg area. I realize the grains are not parallel, meaning I have a cross grain joint. Nevertheless this beats an end grain joint. Also the front part of the seat will be glued to the front cross piece under the seat; The other seat to side area is another long grain joint with the orientation of the grain aligned slightly better, again avoiding an end grain joint by the way I glued up the seat frame; Finally, I needed a way to reinforce the joint for the back of the seat, seat to the bottom back cross piece joint. As I showed in the previous post, I angled the back edge of the seat frame to match flush with the face of the bottom cross piece. In the original chair I found out through my research that the joint in this area was reinforced with 3 dowels. I considered 3 dominos as a solution but decided against that. I also considered a shallow dado but that would likely interfere with my spindle holes. If the bottom cross piece was wider I could have avoided that problem, but that is not a solution for this chair. So in the end I decided to glue a "ledge" onto the face of the back bottom cross piece. The ledge will be a surface for the seat frame to sit on and be glued to. The ledge is cut to match the angle of the seat as it connects to the bottom back cross piece. Here's a pic to better visualize what I mean; And this shows clearly the angle developed in the ledge; So I've got all my joints/construction/pieces completed or figured out. Now it's on to full time shaping, sculpting and sanding. I'll sand everything to 320/400 after shaping and glue the chair up once sanded. There will be a few challenges with glue up but I think I have those figured out. Thanks for looking. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bmac Posted October 19, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted October 19, 2020 Well the sanding, shaping and finishing is done. Glueups went well and I'm pretty happy with the contours. Used Osmo as the finish, 2 coats. Chairs were delivered to the upholstery guy today; Side shot, pretty happy with the shape and look; A few pics of the contours and shape, not as intricate as the Maloof Rocker; And right before loading in my truck, the two chairs sunning themselves; I'll come back around to these once the cushions are made. Thanks for looking. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark J Posted October 21, 2020 Report Share Posted October 21, 2020 At the risk of being redundant, great work. Is this your first go with Osmo? What do you think of it? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted October 21, 2020 Report Share Posted October 21, 2020 Very nice!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted October 21, 2020 Report Share Posted October 21, 2020 These are great looking. I'm excited to see what the upholstered result looks like. I'm sure that you are as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmac Posted October 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted October 21, 2020 @Mark J, I have used Osmo before. Used it on the Hank Chairs and on some other pieces. I do like it, esp love the fewer coat it requires. It is a little hassle using Osmo on a piece with all the nooks and corners these chairs have, and my hand was cramping up with all the scrubbing of the finish in different directions and angles. I see myself using the hard waxes more in the future, maybe the hand cramping will stop as build up my scrubbing hand. When I do my Maloof stuff I like to be as authentic as I can be, so I use his finish. Probably unnecessary to think that way, but in a small way I think his pieces require his finish. @Chestnut, it's always an impatient time waiting for the upholstery to be done. I'm also excited to sit in them, I haven't done that yet. But I'll keep myself busy making the pair of Walnut Z-chairs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted October 22, 2020 Report Share Posted October 22, 2020 Now that’s confidence in the strength of your work, to the upholstery guy before sitting in them! Fantastic job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick S Posted October 24, 2020 Report Share Posted October 24, 2020 Very well done! You are definitely the chairmeister! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Bmac Posted November 16, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted November 16, 2020 Well, happy day when I pick up chairs from my upholstery guy. Very happy with the result, the fabric looks really sharp with the cherry. The chairs are very comfortable, very comfortable. Couldn't be happier with these. So lets put a bow on this build; I'm in the middle of building two more out of walnut, I'll show those when done. It was fun to get back into building chairs. Thanks for looking, 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhighlander Posted November 16, 2020 Report Share Posted November 16, 2020 Awesome, @Bmac! Those look great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted November 17, 2020 Report Share Posted November 17, 2020 Man! Those are sweet! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted November 17, 2020 Report Share Posted November 17, 2020 As usual..... Ya done good young'un, damn good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted November 17, 2020 Report Share Posted November 17, 2020 Beautiful Bmac!! I was watching some crime show on a late 70's case recently and they had a chair very similar I told my wife I know a guy who just made a couple of those. Really glad you didn't go with orange cushions though LOL 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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