I managed to salvage two aluminium chairs this week that were thrown out as rubbish and thought to myself that they were too good to see them go for scrap or rubbish and thought i could see potential in them for my own use at home, they had a plastic rattan weave as the seat and back support which had perished badly and i guess this was the reason for them being consigned to the dump – I couldn’t see that happen so decided to try and see if i could give them a second chance, i asked the owner if they would mind me taking them and was delighted they agreed – i’m sure if they see them on my blog or instagram they will wish they hadn’t ? so i loaded them into my van and took them back to my workshop for a completely new life in St merryn
I stripped off the rattan and cleaned up the frames so i could see where i wanted to go with these chairs – (this is picture one)
I then had to decide on what to do and how i intended to tackle them – i love combinations of wood and metal so decided that a wooden seat and back support were required with these chairs but what wood ? – well there is only one really suitable for outside – CEDAR
I made a former (picture two – this is the former for the seat component) for both parts to use when gluing up to create the profile required and then machined some cedar down to 2.5mm and 3mm – the 2.5mm layers were used to glue four pieces together for the seat supports and the 3mm pieces were used to glue three pieces together for the back supports – as always now i use Titebond 111 ultimate wood glue applying a generous coat with a roller and applied rather a lot of clamps to ensure each layer had sufficient pressure where needed
(the seat supports are the glue up in picture three)
I then shaped and cut the components to size,(fourth pic) sanded them and sanded them again working through the grits of sandpaper to get a really good finish and they were then ready to fit the frames, (pics 5 +6) i laid them out onto the frames and drilled carefully for a self tapping stainless steel pan head screw, fixed them in and the result was very satisfying and extremely comfortable (pics 7 + 8)
I applied three coats of Liberon garden furniture oil in a teak colour and then wire wooled the frames and applied a metal wax for added protection for the frames in this salty environment (pic 9)
They are now in use and i am very pleased that i spent the time to give these chairs a second life.
