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Yikes! My favorite lawn chair has seen some better days!
It broke in the middle of a mortise. I've repaired a similar break on other
lawn chairs, but I know, in time, they will break again.
So I'm going to replace this rocker with a laminated
piece of wood. The multiple laminations and glue lines will make the rocker
strong like plywood, and will be good looking as well. I still have the
other rocker in one piece, I will use this for making the "bending jig"
that my new rockers will be made in. |
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First I planed on 8 laminations at .187" thick (1.5"divided
by 8) but it seemed to stiff to bend easily so I felt I needed to add a
few laminations, thus making all the laminations thinner. 1.5"divided by
10 laminations equals .15"each, this seemed to bend more easily. The number
of laminations is a "judgment call", you want them to bend easily, but
you don't want to apply glue to millions of strips of wood either! Trial
and error I guess.
I used the good rocker as a pattern to make the bending
jig. It's a little tighter (in it's radius) than the old rocker,
thats because when the clamps are released after it cures, the wood will
tend to spring back abit.
The form is very simple to make. It's just a piece of
2X4 screwed to a piece of plywood. The little strips of wood just keep
the assembly up off the plywood so air can circulate and aid in curing.
I spray a few coats silicon on the jig to prevent the assembly from bonding
to the jig. |
