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PostPosted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 10:14 pm 
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Hey Folks,

Those of us who are of sufficient age will remember the above title as the late President Reagan’s favorite phrase during negotiations with Prime Minister Gorbachev, in the Cold War period of Detente. While my relationship with magazine editors is not exactly Cold War epic, I do think that President Reagan’s favorite phrase is appropriate.

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It’s no secret that, with some exceptions, I use other people’s designs for most of my work. I generally prefer to do the woodwork, and leave the design work to others. However, this practice does have inherent risks. In this case, I built a dock chair from a plan published in an old magazine article. The chair looked good, and potentially comfortable, and the knockdown & nesting feature was intriguing.

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The problem arose when I used the downloadable, full sized plans for the leg profiles. Although the photos in the article showed the chair parts nesting, when I made it from the provided profiles, the parts would not nest. Checking back to the article, the chair in the photos was clearly not the chair of the downloaded plans. The author had even mentioned that he made aesthetic “adjustments” to the plans. IMHO the truly guilty party in this malfunction is the magazine editor, who did not insist on a chair made from the “adjusted” plan. Once I compared the templates that I made, it was clear that one would not fit inside the other.

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Therefore, I advanced upon a protracted struggle with reverse engineering the chair in the magazine photos. It took me three failures, and numerous adjustments to the intersection between the final shapes before I was satisfied with a chair that was both comfortable, and functional.

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The prototype is not for sale, but the next few will be. If you’re coming to the Pig Out this weekend, you can try it out for yourself. Oh, and if you think that yellow is an odd color to accompany the unfinished cedar, then try to imagine the cedar in a weathered grey color. :wink:

Cheers,
Tom

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Last edited by tms on Wed Jul 12, 2017 11:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 3:12 pm 
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Location: Cypress, TX
Tom,
I used to do some Civil War re-enacting with my full scale 10 Pounder Parrott Rifle. It was a big cannon that I no longer have.
I made all my camp furniture. I also made two chairs exactly like the one you made but I just can't find the pictures.
What I did find was the table pictures that I made, My bed that I made out of cedar logs that I cut down and some stool pictures also.

When I made the chair, I copied one that someone else had made but I also had some drawings that I can't find either. I'll keep looking.

Here is the table. It also folds up in a neat way.
Zulu


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 3:47 pm 
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Tom,
I found my plans for the chairs. they are at this link.
Zulu

http://www.scouters.us/chair.php#anchorTOP

And table plans.

http://www.craftsmanspace.com/free-proj ... -plan.html

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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 5:44 pm 
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Location: Skagit Co WA
My Dad made a folding camp stool that's quite like a miniature of your table, Zulu. I've been meaning to reverse engineer it and build a few more. They're really handy to carry around and have a seat when you need one. I seem to be needing one more often these days.

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Cheers - Dennis


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PostPosted: Wed Jul 12, 2017 8:33 pm 
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Hey Zulu, Dennis,

It's my understanding that Union cavalry riders kept a small version of that table as a camp stool and mounting block. It's on my list of projects, I need a cocktail table to go with the steamer chairs I made a few years ago.

Cheers,
Tom

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 5:27 pm 
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I think the yellow is great, weathered cedar or fresh.
And a very nice design. Too bad for all the pain.


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PostPosted: Thu Jul 13, 2017 7:36 pm 
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Hey drstrip,

I hope it didn't sound like the reverse engineering was a painful experience, in fact, it was very satisfying. The original design not only didn't nest, it just wasn't as comfortable as I thought it could be. During my trial and error process of finding what works, I got feedback from everyone I could convince to sit on my latest experiment. The result is a much more comfortable chair for the average person, and one that nests when knocked down. :D

Cheers,
Tom

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Mohandas K. Ghandi
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PostPosted: Fri Jul 14, 2017 4:11 pm 
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Location: Broken Arrow, OK
Tom,

Great looking results. Satisfaction level high = Successful project.


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