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Experience and Good Comments
I saw someone on the internet made a bear chair & table set and immediately fell in love with them, thus I decided to make a set for my son.
Outcome:
- A very happy son
- A very happy wife
- Bragging rights
Cost:
- about $30 (a single sheet of 4x8 plywood is $50, used half of the sheet; spray lacquer is about $5)
- About 2 days (day 1 = cut & glue; day 2 = sanding & finishing)
Tools used:
- Table saw (to break down the sheet of plywood into small pieces. A circular saw can also do the trick if you don't have a table saw)
- Jigsaw with clean cut blade (to cut first bear which was used as a template, also to cut the star & heart shape in the middle, as well as the back support profile)
- Clamps
- Router with flush bit (to duplicate pieces, and to cut dados)
- Router with round over bit (to smooth out the sharp edges)
- Hand drill with forstner bit (to make the eye of each bear)
- Random orbit sander with 80 & 120 grit sand paper (smoothing the surface)
- Wood glue
- Spray lacquer (multiple coats spray-on. Make sure the lacquer you bought is child safe when cured)
- 400 grit sand paper (to make the lacquer silky smooth)
- Tack cloth (final dust removal & wipe off)
Major steps:
1) Print out the template on multiple sheets of paper and glue the paper together. use double sided tape to glue each template onto the plywood
2) Use a jigsaw and carefully cut the outline of the bear. Make sure this piece is the way you like it because the next 4 pieces will be 95% identical to this first piece (in other word, imperfections from this template will transfer to the final pieces).
3) Clamp the template on top of a piece of wood that fits the full size of the bear, and use a router + flush bit to cut away. The product should be 95% identical to the template (sharp transitions on the template will be transformed by round corners, the size of the round corner depends on the diameter of the flush bit)
4) Repeat step 3 three more times
5) Drill the eye of the bear on to the template, and use this template to drill the eye at the same location for the rest of the 4 bears. ** TIP**: be sure to clamp a sacrificial wood on the underside (where the drill will exit). This is to protect the underside wood veneer from being crushed or lifted as the drill big comes out.
6) Cut the pieces for back support, seat top, seat support beam. Additional profiling and/or designs can be done on the back support piece if desired.
7) Use a round over bit with a router to smooth out the sharp edges
8) Trace the side of the back support, seat top, and seat support beam to the template. this will give a good idea on how long the dado should be.
9) Use a 3/4 flush router bit to make the dados. Make sure to completely cut through the template so that the dado location can be transferred to the final 4 pieces of the bear
10) Use a 3/4 flush (with bearing) bit to transfer the dado onto the 4 final bear pieces
11) Glue all pieces together, make sure to check 90 degree angles
12) Sand the surfaces and round edges to remove any sharp points
13) Wipe the pieces with tack cloth to remove any dust
14) Spray lacquer onto the pieces. Spray a new coat every 10 minutes. Spray 3~5 coats.
15) Let the lacquer dry (about an hour)
16) Use 400 grit sand paper to smooth all surfaces, wipe off the dust with tack cloth. Surface should be very smooth at this point
17) Apply a final coat of lacquer, let all pieces cure for 24 hours
18) Make the table (relatively easy compare to the bear chairs)
This location has a Sketchup file available for download, you can download it and print out the bear design.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Bear-chair-and-table-set-for-kids/?ALLSTEPS
download: "bear-chair-table-plans.skp"
Note the person on the website used dowel for stronger joints. I chose not to because I felt glue is sufficient enough, and it's much easier without using dowels :P
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