DIY plywood chair: drawings, manufacturing instructions

Wood-laminated board, better known to us as plywood, is widely used both in finishing work and in furniture production. And one of its most unique properties is the ability to create almost any bend. This allows you to create unique aesthetic designs and use the material more efficiently.

In this article we will look at how plywood is bent in industrial and domestic conditions.

Unusual furniture made of bent plywood

Bending methods

There are two ways to bend plywood, which we will discuss in detail.

Tip: When using either method, do not place the grain of the top veneer across the bend. This can trigger a break.

Bending of layers during gluing

Bendable plywood using the production method
This technique is most suitable for production and consists of the following:

Special curved molds are used, heated by steam and electric current.
They contain veneer sheets glued with fan glue and bent into the required position, the moisture content of which does not exceed twelve percent.
There they remain until the glue dries enough to firmly hold the new shape of the material.

Bent plywood for school chairs created in special factories.
At home you will not find the necessary equipment and therefore you can limit yourself to the following actions:

Glue several thin sheets of plywood with wood glue.
With your own hands, bend them at the angle you want.
Fix the edges with epoxy mortar.

Wood-laminated board in the process of bending

Wait for it to completely harden.

Bent-laminated plywood products of various shapes.
The method is quite good, but you need to remember that it requires thin veneers both in production and in home production. If you already have a ready-made thick plywood board, then move on to the description of the next method.

Bending a sheet of plywood after gluing

Bending a thick sample of wood-laminated board
A thick product will not just bend. It requires special processing to soften the material and make it more pliable. And only after this can the plywood be bent by placing it in a pre-prepared curved template.

The following types of processing are possible:

The factory uses industrial steam units for this purpose.
At home, you can use steam from a kettle for small parts or household steam generators.

Steaming with a kettle

Large sheets should be soaked in hot water to give them elasticity. It is very important at this moment to ensure that the wood-laminated board does not delaminate. Here you can go two ways:

Soaking in high temperature water

Moisten the workpiece with a generous amount of H2O, bend it slightly and iron it. Wet again, bend and remove moisture. And so on until the plywood takes the proper shape.

You can also heat the product in an oven to a suitable state. But this method is fraught with the appearance of cracks in case of overheating.

Plywood material, which is pliable after the selected treatment, can be bent in the following ways:

Place the plywood into the framing template. It is very reliable and neat, but it needs to be done first, which requires additional costs and effort. For fixation in this case, prepared spacers and a belt system are used.

Special design for bending particle board

Use a steel strip. You tie it together with a wood-laminated board and bend it into any fancy shape. The metal will reliably keep its shape. After this, leave the resulting structure until it hardens completely.
Using cuts. This is especially useful for particularly thick products. Apply a series of cuts at the bend site, allowing the bend to be made much easier. Place the workpiece in the position you need and fill the resulting gaps with adhesive solution.

Plywood that is bent at the cuts

Buy or make it yourself

There are many advantages of furniture (including stools) made by yourself. These include:

the ability to make a stool with a unique design . In furniture stores, the choice of models is limited, so you can only get a unique design that no one else has by making it yourself;

You can make truly unique stools

saving money . When making a chair or other furniture, the material is chosen by the craftsman himself, so if plywood is used for this purpose, the finished product will be relatively inexpensive;
gaining experience working with wood . Every day, template furniture is losing its popularity, and original designer products are gradually taking its place. Therefore, making chairs with your own hands is a unique opportunity to practice a new craft;

Design features of the stool

ease of manufacture . For some people, the process of creating a stool from plywood may seem very difficult, but if you strictly follow the instructions and follow the recommendations, then even without special skills you can create a masterpiece in just a few hours;
an opportunity to pleasantly surprise loved ones . Furniture made by yourself can be an excellent gift for a loved one. It is much more pleasant to receive such products, because they are made with your own hands.

Plywood stool - photo

Note! To ensure that the finished product matches the design of the room, it is recommended to use the same upholstery fabric that is present in the house. It is not necessary to look for an identical material - you can choose a fabric of a similar color or with the same pattern.

Stools should match the style of the room

Reasons for using bending methods

Using the methods listed above, you can achieve any smooth shapes that will hold firmly after the workpiece dries. This way you can create arches in doorways and rounded corners between walls. But today, bending plywood sheets is especially widely used in furniture production.

This allows:

Minimize the number of traumatic angles. This is especially true for rooms where children live. Since their restlessness often causes dangerous contacts with the corner surfaces of ordinary furniture.
Increase the aesthetic significance of the interior. Because it is much more pleasant for the eye to observe smooth rather than sharp transitions. Sliding surfaces calm and improve your mood.
Give greater solidity to the object and get rid of sometimes a huge number of fixing parts. This significantly enhances the strength and reliability of the structure.

Beautiful examples with streamlined lines and without fasteners

Simplicity, convenience and comfort - do-it-yourself folding furniture

It is worth noting that a beautiful plywood chair can perform not only a decorative function, but also a practical one. Especially when we are talking about folding chairs, which, due to their compactness and ease of assembly, will be useful for any summer resident or fisherman. The design of folding plywood furniture we offer is quite simple and allows you to make a chair with your own hands quite quickly and with minimal financial costs.

As the fitter Mechnikov said in the well-known film, when the experienced swindler Ostap Bender is trying to get his goods as quickly as possible - “Money in the morning, chairs in the evening!” So in our case - having spent very little money in the morning, by the evening you can get a comfortable plywood chair with an unusual design.

Tools and materials

Tools for working with plywood

To create one chair from plywood you will need:

a sheet of moisture-resistant 20 mm plywood measuring 60 by 90 cm;
construction corner;
scissors;
paper;
Sander;
marker;
screwdriver or screwdriver;
electric jigsaw;
drill;
fastening hinges or bolts with sleeves;
varnish for woodworking;
drawing of a folding chair with a photo, which can be easily found online and selected to suit your taste.

Tip: Birch wood is an ideal material with high strength. It can be easily processed, which allows you to create stylish decorative furniture elements. This type of bent plywood is widely used in the production of school chairs, kitchen furniture, etc.

Manufacturing stages

Folding chair

Drawing of a folding chair made of plywood

Drawing of a folding chair made of plywood, option 2

The drawing of a chair selected from a photo on the Internet must be transferred to cardboard or thick paper, and then cut out the templates of the parts.
Attach the cardboard blanks to a sheet of plywood and trace with a pencil or marker.
Using a jigsaw, cut out the chair parts along the pre-marked lines.
The resulting workpieces should be carefully sanded using a machine or special fine sandpaper. Particular attention must be paid to the cut lines.
Using a drill, drill holes for mounting the hinges.
Lay out all the elements of the folding chair on a smooth surface according to the diagram and assemble them together.
If desired, the finished chair can be opened with varnish and veneer glued to the ends.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Ready-made folding chairs

In the same way, you can make a table and chairs for school or home, which you can not only take with you to nature, but also install on the veranda, in the garden or dining room, decorating the interior of a country house. Show a little imagination and we are sure that your design solutions will be appreciated not only by family members, but also by guests at home.

Plywood chair

Plywood rocking chair

The long-awaited evening or day off is approaching, when you want to take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday work, sitting comfortably in your favorite chair. After all, you must agree that one of the important components of a comfortable pastime is comfortable furniture. A rocking chair made of plywood will allow you to quickly relieve tension from your entire body after a busy day at work, relax with a book in your hands, or, rocking almost silently, indulge in pleasant memories of the events of the past day.

And what could be better than independent production of comfortable furniture that would fully meet your individual needs? Some people think that making a chair or armchair from bent plywood is a rather complicated process. Many people don’t even know where or how to start.

In fact, you don’t need to be a professional furniture maker or designer in order to build something special and beautiful. Today in RuNet you can find quite a lot of ideas with photos and videos that will help you choose exactly what you like most and will best fit into the interior of your room. Having figured out with our help what needs to be done and in what order, you will easily cope with this task.

Stages of making a chair

1. Drawing

2. Cutting out the details

3. Assembling the seat

4. Attach the back

5. Attach the armrests

The chair is ready

We find online drawings of the parts of the furniture we need to make with our own hands. Please note that you should choose models whose design has the smallest number of connection points - despite the fact that plywood with laminated sheets is quite strong, it is still more susceptible to destruction from dynamic loads compared to solid wood.
We transfer the diagram of the rocking chair onto a format sheet with exact adherence to scale.
We place the resulting paper patterns on plywood and make precise markings on it in strict accordance with the blanks.
Using a jigsaw, we cut the structural elements made of plywood as accurately as possible.
Using a sander, we process the surfaces of the structural parts of the rocking chair, rounding their edges and removing small fractions of wood from the plywood.
We carry out antiseptic treatment of plywood sheets.
The structure is assembled in accordance with the diagram of the selected drawing. First, you need to glue the necessary structural elements together and then strengthen them using self-tapping screws.
The finishing of the rocking chair is done at the discretion of the craftsman. You can give preference to a seat covered with foam rubber or fabric, or simply varnish the chair. Much will depend on where your new furniture will be located.
For greater reliability, special springs should be installed on the supporting parts of the rocking chair.

With this our chair is ready. If necessary, you can improve the drawings of standard models, modify them to suit your parameters or dimensions.