Anyone make furniture on here?

[SoulKiss]

No I am not asking who can put together an Ikea flat-pack, I mean take lumps of wood and turn them into furniture.

I have a couple of ideas but have no idea about what size of lumps of wood would be required to make it strong, but not over-done

For example a 750mm x 750mm footstool/seat, would you use 50mm x 50mm for the legs, ie 75mmx75mm

If there is someone on here and they are happy to discuss said things, let me know please :)

[Stenno]

Sounds like someone needs to watch the New Yankee Workshop ;)

Personally I would just compare other wooden working chairs.

[Specialone]

I used to make a fair bit, but Wideboy is a joiner ( machinist lol) so he's your man.

It depends mainly on style and construction not size of timber as much, some period chairs have legs that taper down from 1.5"-1" square.

[Quiff Wichard]

Wideboy is bob on.. you should see the chess boards he makes.. he is an artist. !!

speak to Gavin..

[Owenski]

Recently refurb'd a fair bit of stuff inc rocking chair and cot-bed in addition to making things from scratch for the babies room, nowt more satisfying than making your own stuff.

That said I dont know what Im doing as such, its mainly trial and error - YEY FOR DARWINISM!

[minimorecambe]

Wideboy is bob on.. you should see the chess boards he makes.. he is an artist. !!

speak to Gavin..

I second that - I have one in my living room :p

[DarrenSV650S]

Don't hand over any money to wideboy until you get the finished product. I commissioned him to make me a cheese board last year and still haven't heard anything

[Reeder]

Yeah, I heard he was a bit dodgy too.

[Sir Trev]

I made a four legged, woven rattan-topped stool when I was still at school. Took many years of constant use to fall to bits. As long as you have reasonable quality joints and good glue you can get away with reasonably light timber thicknesses.

Most of the time I stick to garden projects when ruining wood, mainly 'cos the nice hardwood I'd like to use for nice indoor stuff is so frikken expensive!!!

[Wideboy]

Yee I'd happly help in what way I can, legs on most modern items are 2x2 but as specialface said older stuff usually tapers. As for the tops, you would join it in equal sections I.e. a 800mm wide top would be 4 sections at maximum (personally) of 200mm joint together with an F joint and glued with the grain going in opposites with the section its glued to, its done like this to prevent twisting and bowing as the sections will move against eachother. Solid timber tops are usually and inch or more thick depending on what timber is, all timbers work differently.

There's never really a set size for components, when ever i make some thing I go to the sizes in think would suit and what quantity of materials I have

And darrens a fibber and smells of wee

[DDUK1974]

This guy is a furniture maker by trade he is S8it hot at it http://www.woodworksuk.com/

He's a bike nut as well (he's on the hunt for a 916 at the minute)

[454697819]

Yee I'd happly help in what way I can, legs on most modern items are 2x2 but as specialface said older stuff usually tapers. As for the tops, you would join it in equal sections I.e. a 800mm wide top would be 4 sections at maximum (personally) of 200mm joint together with an F joint and glued with the grain going in opposites with the section its glued to, its done like this to prevent twisting and bowing as the sections will move against eachother. Solid timber tops are usually and inch or more thick depending on what timber is, all timbers work differently.

There's never really a set size for components, when ever i make some thing I go to the sizes in think would suit and what quantity of materials I have

And darrens a fibber and smells of wee

use proper dimensions man... sheeesh

I design furniture as my job, if you want some drawings put together let me know....

[SoulKiss]

Thanks for the responses :)

Come the time I think I wouldto just pic brains/run ideas past people - really would like whatever I come up with to be my own, and dont mind if in doing it the way I want its not quite as good as it could be, just as long as its going to be up to the job.

Not having access to a workshop/specialist tools is probably going to be my biggest problem.

[Wideboy]

use proper dimensions man... sheeesh

I design furniture as my job, if you want some drawings put together let me know....

I use both imperial and metric, my stuffs so old its still in imperial :lol:

[embee]

It's going to depend a lot on what timber you're using, typical softwood these days isn't particularly strong in small sections, and you need to be picky about selecting straight grained sections free from large knots etc. I'd say a typical seat/smal table is going to be nominal 2"x2" legs, which will be nearer 1 3/4" planed (PAR, planed all round), and I'd use stretchers/rails between the legs if they were more than say 12" high.

If you use decent hardwoods, oak or something, then sections can be smaller just because it's a much stronger timber to start with.

As said by others, it depends a lot on how you're constructing it and how much loading is going into the joints.

I tend to go for heavyweight stuff, I can't be doing with slender. This was a garden table I did last year for someone, I'd picked up some cast iron gratings (chapel floor vents) and they commissioned the table from me. This used 100mm square (4x4) green oak, sturdy stuff. It weighs about 250kg all in. The oak wasn't that expensive, just under £100 from a yard in Corby, but came sawn so a fair amount of picking and sizing to be done. The joints are stub mortise and tenon, with big flatpack style bolting (M10 stainless bolts and 3/4" diameter stainless cross pins drilled and tapped)

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh268/Hi-vis/holiday081smudgeSmall.jpg

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh268/Hi-vis/IMG_4388Small.jpg

[xXBADGERXx]

Oh man , that is Niiiiiiiice , I would have something like that in my garden when done , durability over the years if left outside ?

[embee]

Oh man , that is Niiiiiiiice , I would have something like that in my garden when done , durability over the years if left outside ?

It's been oiled with tung oil several times, supposed to be the ideal stuff for oak, and it has a loose fitting waterproof cover (customer sourced it online) over it to keep rain off but allow air to circulate. It's gone through last winter absolutely fine. The oak is still seasoning and shrinking, I've had to give it a "service" and tighten all the bolts up, but that was partly why it was done in that way, to allow for movement. We've just re-laid the patio it is on so we had to move it a couple of weeks ago, no hernias.