Summertime Sittin
Building a chair for outdoor use especially one that's built entirely of wood has two essential requirements. First, it must adhere to the mailman's creed resisting the ravages of mud, rain, sleet, hail, and snow. And second, it can't have any splinters. To meet the first requirement, the chair shown here is built with redwood and cedar. Both of these woods are weather resistant. However, they're also prone to splintering. So all edges are rounded over and sanded smooth to prevent any hangups....
CUTTING DIAGRAM Puk
redwood IVi S' t - 96 A Side Frame Legs 4 1 Vi x 2' i - 27 B Side Frame Arms 2 1 Vi x 2Vi 19 C Side Frame Stretcher 2 1 Vi x 2 Vi - 19 D Seat Frame Top Btm 2 1 x 2 Vi - 19 E Seat Frame Sides 2 l' i x 2Vi - 17Vi F Back Frame Top Btm 2 1 Vi x 2Vi - 19 G Back Frame Sides 2 1 Vi x 2' i - 12 H Support Cleats 2 1 Vi x 2Vi - 17 I Support Stretcher 1 IVi x 2' , - 16 J Bottom Stretcher 1 IVi x 2Vi 21 K Cleat Caps 2 x 2Vi - 14Vi I Seat Slats 5 V x 2Vi - 13 M Back Slats 5 x 2Vi - 7V position seat frame 2'...
Crosscut Blades 1
The crosscut blades I tested included a Sears 72-tooth ATB blade and a Freud 60-tooth Triple Chip blade. When crosscutting hardwood, the ATB profile on the Sears blade produced a fair amount of chipout on the top face of the piece, and a very large amount on the back edge. The Triple Chip profile of the Freud blade also produced a small amount of chipping on the top face, but there was nowhere near the amount of chipout on the back edge compared to the Sears blade. As far as the quality of the...
Quality Variations
Once you've decided to take the plunge and buy a carbide-tipped blade, the first thing you're faced with is determining the general quality of the blade . . . while it's sitting on a store shelf. Although many of the quality controls taken during the manufacturing process can't be seen, luckily there are a few tell-tale signs that indicate the level of workmanship. the plate. When a saw blade is bom, it starts out as a circular piece of very soft steel. This steel plate is hardened by tem...
Fooling Mother Nature
If I lived in a place where the sun never shone and it was dry and there were no insects, I wouldn't have had to think any more about protecting my outdoor furniture. However, most of us don't thank goodness live in places like that so we're faced with the task of fooling Mother Nature. Because the sun fades all woods including those with natural resistance to weather I wanted to add some color back to the wood which meant using a stain. Then I wanted to keep the water away from the wood that...