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poker table chairs

8K views 24 replies 13 participants last post by  jsdkdjd 
#1 ·
I got 10 of these chairs for free from a friend.









I want to have them better match up with my table, so I decided to remodel them with cloth backs and seats and encase the steel frame in walnut. At first, I didn't like that protruding edge along the upper part of the chair. Then I came up with an idea to use it to my advantage.
 
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#2 ·
Gave you a free coat too I see.

T
 
#3 · (Edited)
Project was started redoing the seats and back; I decided to cushion them. Luckily, I saved the foam from my poker table build; it was enough for several of the seats. Extra foam was gotten from JoAnn's.





The foam was spray glued to the vinyl, then covered with cloth and stapled down. Excess cloth was trimmed off afterwards.



The finished products:







All ten seats are done; two of the backs are done. In keeping with my theme of using red and blue card decks for my games, I went with red and blue suited speedcloth. The upholstering didn't turn out too bad, imo. I'll work on 5 chairs at a time; first the red set, then the blue set.



I plugged the legs with a piece of wood, as I intend to use casters on the chairs. The wood was formed to fit tightly and gorilla-glued into place; a slightly undersized pilot hole was drilled first before inserting the piece.
 
#6 · (Edited)
They call me the jigmeister at the woodworking club. A sample of the many jigs I'll be using to manufacture the chairs.



These two took a long time to make, but will be worth the effort. They keep the rear pieces parallel to each other and tight against the back rest while the rear portion of the chair is being assembled.



Dry fitting now.







Some of the legs have gotten bent out of position over time. I'm going to have to bend them back into place before assembling each chair.
 
#12 ·
First chair 95% done. A little touch up around the joints; fabricate and attach the top piece; install the casters; attach the seat. I used a couple of coats of low gloss tung oil finish and furniture wax.





The cross brace was covered with two pieces that fit against it when they were glued together.



To satisfy my OCD and maintain as much of the grain pattern for the two front legs, I split the piece in two on a band saw, then ran the rough edges once or twice through a jointer until they were perfectly flat before gluing them together around the steel leg. This way, you only lose at most 1/16" of material and it's pretty hard to see where the lines are. A table saw removes 1/8" and it's clearly visible where the cut was made.

The engineer in me was saying the rear stiles should come apart to allow replacement of the fabric, but I thought this would detract from the chair's overall appearance. I'm thinking about routing some type of symbol in the top piece, like a fleur de lis, diamond, etc. Since there are 10 chairs, I can't use the card suit symbols equally. Any suggestions are welcome.
 
#14 ·
More fabricating today.



Before attaching to the foam, I mark the direction of the cloth so that they're all right side up. Then I spray adhesive onto the foam and position the cloth. I learned that the adhesive doesn't bind the cloth very long to the foam, so I only sprayed right before I was ready to staple.



Stapling is getting easier now that I figured out the best technique. I butchered the first chair and I'll probably redo it since I have some leftover cloth. I can knock one out in around 20 minutes now.



After stapling, I glue the exposed edges of the cloth to the back, because I don't want there to be any problems when I fit the rear leg stiles to the frame. The frame fits inside the slot that is cut in the upper part of the stile. It's a fairly tight fit, and I don't want the cloth to back up and potentially be visible.



Spitting 'em out like watermelon seeds.

 
#15 · (Edited)
All ten chairs have been assembled, except for the top piece. One of the pieces had a flaw; instead of repairing the flaw, I decided to rout it out with a box bit. This is how it will turn out - I think it looks fine.



I had to make one more set of jigs to help secure the piece firmly to the chair. Four dowels - 2 per side - are used to keep it in place with the side pieces.



Here is the setup for gluing.





Now I have to figure out a way to eliminate the two square edges at the top corners.
 
#16 ·
This jig sets the front of the top piece flush to the sides. The top piece is secured to the chair using dowels; centers are located in the top piece with these pins.







Once the piece is positioned properly, I tap it with a hammer to fix the centers of the dowel holes to be drilled in it.



Then the sides are scored with a chisel to fix their correct dimensions.



The sides are trimmed using a Dubby. The piece is ready to be attached.
 
#19 ·
I wanted to eliminate the square edges. It took a while to figure out how to fabricate the curved pieces. I drilled out a 5/8" hole in wood, then cut around it with a bandsaw and sanded the sides square. Then I sawed and chiseled the piece into four pieces and used the best ones.







Here's how the chairs now look.





The last thing to do is make the pieces to attach the seats to the frame.
 
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