Santa's Adirondack Chair Workshop

This project was largely inspired by our teacher Dave Holzwarth, who brought one of his own built adirondack chairs to class to help exemplify all of the different ways we could build and create throughout the brand new Makers course. We all fell in love wit the idea of building our own chairs, and soon made it real. These chairs are great for indoor and outdoor sitting, and all of the students involved immediately fell in love with the idea of making something durable, unique, and personal for either themselves or their loved ones during the holiday season.

At the beginning of the project, we all split into separate groups and began cutting the large pieces of wood into their specific intended shapes. We cut out the main pieces for building the structure of the chair, and individually shaped the arm rests and leg supports.  Above you can see Dylan and Shugo shaping the arms!

Beatrice was one of our main wood cutters. She took the 10ft long pieces of wood and split them into their appropriate lengths. 

Once the wood was cut, we sanded the edges to make them smooth, soft and ready for use. 

Once all of the pieces were cute and sanded, we began the assembly. Some people worked individually, while others worked in teams. We constructed our chairs using mainly glue, screws and nails. 

The bodies of the chairs began to take shape very quickly. We got all of our measurements from the original built by our teacher Dave Holzwarth. 

Once the body of the chair was finished, we constructed the back and assembled it. We then sawed a symmetrical curve into the top to add a nice smooth touch to the outdoor chair. Michael became a pro.

Each of our chairs looked very similar when we were done with construction. But thanks to our wonderful shopbot and laser printer, we were able to customize the backs and put in any text or picture that we wanted. Above, Brooke used the laser to carve a monogram and a small picture into the wood. Creative!

Here's a closer look!

Throughout the process we all learned how to use tools we had never touched before. For some, it was the first nail they'd ever driven in themselves, but for others, the only new territory was the laser cutter. We all became comfortable with using various tools such as: hammer, drill, jigsaw, nail gun, chop saw, track saw, palm sander, shop bot, and laser cutter. This project was a great way to really explore all the options the maker space provides. 

Here's a short video about our production process: