Hi guys,
I’m going out on a limb again. I want to build a set of dining chairs in mahogany similiar to Reitveld’s Z chairs. I plan to use 1inch thick mahogany joined by through dovetails. The dovetail joint from the front of the seat to the back of the base would be at 42 degrees instead of the customary 90degrees and would have a triangular wedge to reinforce the joint. How big should this wedge be? If a 200lb person sits on the chair and his centre of gravity is 10 inches behind a 2inch wedge then the relative moments ( 10in againest 2in ) would mean the joint would be subjected to a force of 1000lbs. In FWW 148 they tested 4″ wide dovetail joints and all failed around 1500lbs… If my chair is 16in wide then they should hold 4x1500lb=6000lbs so I have a chair rated at 600% of the expected load. Am I correct or have I missed something?
I couldn’t find the Reitveld Z chairs around so I am wondering if they were a just a cool looking but weak design?
thanks,
Shane
Replies
I've always thought they were very, very, cool-looking, but suspected they were extremely uncomfortable! Anyone ever sat in one?
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I don't see how you could make one entirely out of wood. Hiding steel brackets inside would be the only way to make it work.
View ImageWell they certainly look cool and it looks like the fulcrum point is the wedge behind the joints. Moving that would likely increase the strength but would detract from the design.
Steve - in Northern California
Steve,
I read a short description of the chair and it seems that the back to seat joint were dovetails but the z part was mitered and splined. Its an awfully risky undertaking - I just have to do it! Thats a great picture you have, does it give more details than what I have? I just realised from comparing your picture to the one I have that yours has visible joinery at the front edge of the seat while my picture shows a clean mitered joint with no visible spline. Have you seen this chair offered for sale at any website? Wonder what it would cost?
Shane
Shane - heres the link to the website where I found it. I didn't look much farther than the picture, there might be more information or maybe a lead or two.
http://www.treadwaygallery.com/objects2000Steve - in Northern California
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