Watt's Up Musings of an original geek

September 23: Gluing is underway. I’m using a 2″ paint brush to apply the glue liberally and then weights or clamps to hold the pieces together. I am doing all this work in my garage. I’ve used up 1/3 gallon of glue so far and I have yet to start the chair. All other pieces are glued together though.

After completing the chair I now have only 1″ remaining in the glue gallon. Whoa! The chair just ate up the glue. I got to say that gluing the 50-60 chair pieces was not a lot of fun. Now I know why I don’t do a manufacturing job. The repetitive nature was getting to me during the last 8 pieces. I grabbed anything that would weigh the chair down. Since Matthew has moved in with us we have stored some of his stuff in the garage, for example, some old soccer trophies and barbells.

From September 17-22: I went out and bought cardboard to construct a big (human rideable) amazing rubber band car. There is a nearby company named Eco Box that sells cardboard in double thickness 4’x8′ sheets. I bought 10 sheets, then we strapped them my car roof with Kathy’s help, and drove them home. The next night I created a plywood template of the chair.

Meanwhile Mike sent me and I received twelve gigantic rubber bands and four 1″ roller bearings. A few days later I laid out the car pieces and I used the template to layout the chair.I had underestimated the amount of cardboard. So I went back and got twelve single thickness 36″x48″. This gives me about 84 chair pieces (30 double thickness and 24 single thickness). Also it just so happens that the single thickness flutes go the other direction from all my double thickness ones. So I plan on interleaving them for strength. Next I cut the cardboard using a reciprocating saber saw and a knife blade. The jigsaw with the knife blade has been my tool of choice. I can power cut 5 double or 6 single sheets at one time. Also I’m using 16d nails to hold the 5 or 6 sheets together and keep them somewhat aligned. I have also used a hole saw for the bearing filler rings (aka washers) and the holes in the wheels. I cut 5 double thickness sheets at a time to create all of the frame/floor pieces (12″ x 5′) and chair pieces using the chair template.So the next step is to start gluing them together. Before I do I did a test with (1) Elmer’s white glue, (2) hot melt glue, and (3) contact cement. After letting them set up for about 90 minutes I asked Kathy to try to tear them apart. She was easily able to separate the contact cement – that was the worst in her opinion. The next two were tougher, because they were about the same, but she felt that the size of the connecting surface area was larger for Elmer’s white glue – so Elmer’s it is. Next I went out and a bought a gallon of Elmer’s glue in preparation for these efforts. Oh, I also got three oak 1″x36″ dowel rods for axles.When done I had a pile of scrap cardboard.