Outdoor Furniture (Built to Last) E-Book

Skills Institute Press

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 135

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Design and build beautiful wooden outdoor furniture sturdy enough to withstand Mother Nature with the detailed techniques and step by step instructions in this handy guide.

Leseprobe

© 2011 by Skills Institute Press LLC

“Built to Last” series trademark of Skills Institute Press

Published and distributed in North America by Fox Chapel Publishing Company, Inc.

Outdoor Furniture is an original work, first published in 2011.

Portions of text and art previously published by and reproduced under license with Direct Holdings Americas Inc.

ISBN 978-1-56523-500-7

eISBN 978-1-63741-552-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Outdoor furniture.

     p. cm. -- (Built to last)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-56523-500-7

1. Outdoor furniture. 2. Furniture making. I. Fox Chapel Publishing.

TT197.5.O9O982 2010

684.1’8--dc22

2010033919

To learn more about the other great books from Fox Chapel Publishing, or to find a retailer near you, call toll-free 800-457-9112 or visit us at www.FoxChapelPublishing.com.

Note to Authors: We are always looking for talented authors to write new books in our area of woodworking, design, and related crafts.Please send a brief letter describing your idea to Acquisition Editor, 1970 Broad Street, East Petersburg, PA 17520.

Because working with wood and other materials inherently includes the risk of injury and damage, this book cannot guarantee that creating the projects in this book is safe for everyone. For this reason, this book is sold without warranties or guarantees of any kind, expressed or implied, and the publisher and the author disclaim any liability for any injuries, losses, or damages caused in any way by the content of this book or the reader’s use of the tools needed to complete the projects presented here. The publisher and the author urge all woodworkers to thoroughly review each project and to understand the use of all tools before beginning any project.

Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER 1:Facing the Elements

CHAPTER 2:Chairs

CHAPTER 3:Benches

CHAPTER 4:Tables

CHAPTER 5:Swings and Gliders

CHAPTER 6:Garden Projects

What You Can Learn

Facing the Elements

By the nature of where it spends its life, outdoor furniture has to be designed, first and foremost, to withstand its toughest enemy —the elements.

Chairs

Outdoor furniture must be designed to rough it, and the Adirondack chair, chaise longue, and curved chair featured here are all up to the task.

Benches

Benches invite company, so here are three different styles with complete building instructions.

Tables

The patio table and the folding picnic table are excellent additions to any outdoor furniture ensemble.

Swings and Gliders

Pleasant and relaxing, a swing or gliding settee provides an ideal accessory to a porch or garden as well as offering interesting mechanical challenges to the home woodworker.

Garden Projects

The arbor, planter, and serving trolley presented in this chapter complement the furniture designs featured elsewhere in this book.

A Gallery of Outdoor Furniture Designs

Adirondack chair (here)

Curved chair (here)

Chaise longue (here)

Garden bench (here)

Bench with gliding base (here)

Keyedtenon bench (here)

Park bench (here)

Porch swing (here)

Octagonal planter (here)

Arbor (here)

Patio table (here)

Folding picnic table (here)

Serving trolley (here)

Tree bench (here)

INTRODUCTION

Long-Lasting Furniture

I’m going to do what to that lovely chair and table set? Well, I intend to expose it to the direct heat and ultraviolet rays of the sun. Then I’ll let it get soaking wet, freeze, and then thaw out with blasts of warm, dry air. And I’m going to allow this to happen not just once, but over and over again for the next two to three decades. Well, of course I am: I’m building a piece of outdoor furniture.

The question is, how can I possibly build wood furniture to endure such horrific abuse? To find some answers, I looked back to the principles and practices of the carriage and boat builders of the last century. It was, after all, these tradesmen who produced some of the most highly stressed and severely exposed—not to mention beautiful—structures known to man. If these trades could do that, I was betting they could build one heck of a lawn chair.

What I learned boiled down to this: These craftsmen asked much of every piece of wood that went into a ship or carriage, but they never asked more that it could give—and they did all they could to preserve its integrity. They chose woods that were inherently rot-resistant, being careful not to include sapwood, splits, pitch pockets, cross-grain, or other defects that might diminish its strength or longevity.

They cut the exposed shoulders of joints at water-shedding angles and applied bedding compounds like pine tar and Irish felt to the mating surfaces—strategies that helped prevent moisture from intruding, lingering, and nourishing wood-eating parasites. They designed channels, drain holes, and dams throughout the structure to encourage water to flow away from the wood. They avoided flat surfaces, bowing the tops of horizontal areas like rails and box lids to discourage puddling. And where fasteners were needed (though they minimized their use as much as possible by using wood wedges and pins), they chose metals that resisted rust and were not corrosive to the wood.

While I don’t intend to build America while sitting in my lawn furniture (I don’t even intend to be awake), I do want the fruits of my labors to serve my family for many years. To that end I employ much of what I have learned from these long-gone tradesmen. And, so far, that chair and table have remained lovely, continuing to do the job for which they were intended—while living happily outdoors.

- Jim Tolpin

A builder of outdoor furniture and boats, Jim Tolpin is also author of several books about woodworking and furniture making. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington. He is shown here inside a tinker’s wagon that he built many years ago from Douglas-fir and tongue-and-groove pine.

Rustic Furniture

Trees have been my neighbors for a quarter century. My book on rustic furniture, a dozen years in the making and essentially about “tree art,” was researched and written within the Adirondack forest, in a clearing of the museum grounds that was home to me and my family for 20 years. Our next home, where I write this, is in the woods. Doe and fawn, vixen and pup, have made their careful way through the mixed forest and its tender undergrowth of moss, ferns, and wildflowers, unaware of my spying on them from my study window. On clear days, the sun glints on Long Lake, relieving the sultry shadows in which the house is usually cast.

The Adirondacks have many features that make the area an incomparable natural treasure. People play in its waters, climb its mountains, seek its solitude, and search out the wildlife that roam the forest. For me, the Adirondack forest reigns supreme. Nearly unbroken and extending roughly a hundred miles north to south, the forest nurtures all that swims, crawls, and flies. The forest has shaped the region’s culture and does so even today. Once, thousands of men and women worked in the forest, cutting its trees while living in crude log shanties miles from home, family, or any real town. Today, although logging occupies far fewer people, it remains an important Adirondack industry—and the forest a dominant presence in residents’ lives, shaping a culture that is different and distinct from rural cultures elsewhere.

That outdoor furniture, especially of the twiggy kind, should be a product of this forest environment is not surprising. What more natural furnishings should spring from the forest? Perhaps more surprising is the style’s popularity among urbanites. It was a craft that was practised nearly everywhere in the American East between 1825 and 1900. Rustic benches and garden houses were assembled in Manhattan and shipped wherever there was a buyer and conveyance. The resurgence that began in the early 1970s continues, to my pleasant surprise, to this day.

This rustic craft jogs a memory made of our arboreal heritage among the builders and buyers. Who knows why someone purchases a chair of branches and roots for an apartment 30 floors off the pavement? In any event, that lonely chair, a talisman of nature in the city, can perform its therapy as long as there are forests to visit and dream about.

- Craig Gilborn

Historian Craig Gilborn, the former director of the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, is a builder of outdoor furniture and author of Adirondack Furniture and The Rustic Tradition, published by Abrams. He lives in Long Lake, New York.

Natural Beauty of Wood

I was actively involved with repairing all manner of camp furnishings when an antique dealer friend convinced me to make my first chair. After taking the plunge, I spent three years researching before I attempted my first piece. That was many years ago, and I still have it: a split post-and-rung model.

Now I build mostly “twig” furniture, the kind with the bark still on. The various indigenous woods I work with provide me with color, form, and texture, allowing an artistic freedom of expression virtually unlimited by straight lines. Originally this work evolved to complement my lifestyle, and it has since become a very rewarding sideline, providing a business and personal recognition far beyond anything I ever dreamed of.

Working with wood in its natural state is particularly challenging. Much preparation and thought goes into every piece I build. A thorough knowledge of the wood I intend to work with is a must. As an example, if I want to have natural bark on a project, then I am restricted to harvesting my materials during a few months in the cold season. Also, tools to work wood in its natural state are not readily available. More often than not, figuring out how to do something takes longer than actually doing it. One of my biggest problems is storage: A stash of natural stock for chairs takes up far more space than milled limber.

There is always some detail that challenges my abilities and ingenuity to execute it, whether I am working with one of my own designs or something I’ve received from some architectural firm. Often when I am in the forest during my daily activities, I find my eye captured by a special curve some sapling has grown into and a piece of furniture will take form, piece by piece, in my mind. I can often see the finished product before I even harvest the unique form that caught my eye. Then, it may be three weeks, sometimes as much as five years, before the materials are dry enough to work with. I may consider subsequent designs, but I often go back to the original one I saw. The actual hands-on work required to make the piece may take a few hours or weeks, but when it’s finished, it always leaves me with a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, temporarily drained of the artist’s creative spark and overwhelmed by the natural beauty of wood itself and the warmth it provides.

- Thomas Phillips

Thomas Phillips is a woods manager in Tupper Lake, New York where he restores outdoor and rustic furniture.

A coating of spar varnish is brushed onto a back slat of the backyard bench shown at left. To help you apply an even coat that will shield the piece from the elements, use a good-quality brush.

FACING THE ELEMENTS

While makers of indoor furniture need to consider the swelling and contraction of wood due to seasonal changes in relative humidity, outdoor furniture builders must also allow for the fact that their pieces will occasionally be drenched in water, dried by the wind, and baked by the sun. With appropriate materials, design, joinery, and hardware, you can fashion pieces that will be as durable and longlasting as any indoor piece.

Choose a project by reviewing some of the styles and types of outdoor pieces that have been popular with woodworkers. Then, select a wood species that is naturally decay-resistant. The chart here rates various woods in terms of their capacity to weather the outdoors. Refer to here for information on calculating how much stock you will need.

Keep in mind that some of the same substances in decay-resistant woods that ward off rot can also give rise to allergic reations in builders and users. Redwood, for example, can cause respiratory ailments, while teak can produce skin and eye allergies. Western red cedar can trigger all three types of reaction.

The basic rule in choosing a joint is to avoid one that will trap water and eventually rot the wood when the weather is warm, or split the joint apart when it freezes in cold weather. Many outdoor pieces rely on joints like the half-lap that, when reinforced by screws and glue, are sufficiently durable while allowing water to drain away. Any hardware you use should be stainless steel to avoid rust. You should also use waterproof adhesives, such as epoxy or resorcinol.

Once your outdoor piece is ready for the yard or garden, the last step is to coat it with a weather-resistant finish. Here present information on the variety of finishes suitable for the outdoors, from glossy polyurethanes to a natural, unvarnished finish.

Two coats of waterproof polyurethane provide an extra measure of protection for an Adirondack chair made from Northern white cedar, a decay-resistant wood.

Selecting Wood

Few decisions are as important to building outdoor furniture as the choice of wood. The chart below rates several species in terms of resistance to decay, strength, capacity to withstand shock, working properties (like planing and sanding or drilling, gluing, and fastening), and relative cost. There is no one ideal choice. Although a wood like teak combines strength with excellent decay resistance, it is very expensive, and difficult to find and work. Pine, however, is readily available and economical, and is easy to work, but most species are highly susceptible to decay and relatively weak. Many woodworkers consider native species with superior strength and decay resistance, such as cedar and white oak, to be a good compromise.

Keep in mind that the same qualities that make a wood like teak tough on blades and cutters will yield sturdy furniture.

Wood For Outdoors

Whichever species you select, take the time to choose your boards carefully. Avoid lumber that is cupped, bowed, or warped in any way. For maximum stability, choose air-dried lumber with a maximum of 20 percent moisture content. The wood should contain as little sapwood as possible because the sap will attract wood-eating bugs.

Calculating Board Feet

Ordering lumber by the board foot

The “board foot” is a unit of measurement used to calculate the volume of a given amount of stock. The standard board foot is equivalent to a piece that is 1 inch thick, 12 inches wide, and 12 inches long. To calculate the number of board feet in a piece of wood, multiply its three dimensions together. Then, divide the result by 144 if all the dimensions are in inches, or by 12 if just one dimension is in feet.

The formula for a standard board:

1″ × 12″ × 12″ ÷144 = 1 (or 1″ × 12″ × 1′ ÷ 12 = 1)

So, if you had a 6-foot-long plank that is 1 inch thick and 4 inches wide, you would calculate the board feet as follows: 1″ × 4″ × 6′ ÷ 12 = 2 (or 2 board feet). Other examples are shown in the illustration. Remember that board feet are calculated on the basis of the nominal rather than actual dimensions of the stock; consequently, the board feet contained in a 2-by-4 that actually measures 1 ½-by-3 ½ inches would be calculated using the larger dimensions.

Nominal and Actual Softwood Lumber Sizes

Nominal (inches)

Actual (inches) Surfaced Dry

1-by-2

   ¾-by-1 ½

1-by-3

   ¾-by-2 ½

1-by-4

   ¾-by-3 ½

1-by-6

   ¾-by-5 ½

1-by-8

   ¾-by-7 ¼

1-by-10

   ¾-by-9 ¼

2-by-2

1 ½-by-1 ½

2-by-4

1 ½-by-3 ½

2-by-6

1 ½-by-5 ½

2-by-8

1 ½-by-7 ¼

2-by-10

1 ½-by-9 ¼

3-by-4

2 ½-by-3 ½

4-by-4

3 ½-by-3 ½

Joinery and Hardware