Fritz Lang armchair
I found this machine in a distant corner of our garden. Obscured by plants it was slowly disappearing behind the foliage. Every time I passed by it the old iron was looking at me as if saying: make something of me!
So I did.
It reminded me Fritz Lang’s dark, poetic visions. Originally casted to do laundry it looked to me as a framework for postindustrial-brutal armchair.
To remove it from the garden and take to my workshop was a small project in itself. I paved temporary road with plywood, to roll the machine to the shop.
In a pile of wood which Peter has left me I found some ancient, thick and heavy timber. Some of these pine stock are damaged by worms and weather. Judging from signs of tools used to form them they were cut to form lumber some 80 years ago. Perfect stock for this project.
I’ve chosen these which have most damaged wood - worm traces, when exposed, will decorate this old wood.
Edges cut at -2 degrees for jointing.
My circular saw is not big enough to cut all the way - I finished cuts with handsaw and planed the surfaces with block plane.
Foundation for the chair will be these two huge wooden cylinders which used to press laundry. I needed to remove part of the mechanism, to keep it connected to the frame. I started gently, with small hammers.
Nope! Some more bang was needed.
Apart from this episode all other parts which were screwed could be disassembled without brutal force - with some WD40 and normal wrenches all screws, after so many years, turned eagerly.
Of course all threads were non-metric!
Of coincidence they were exactly the same as on old keel-bolts on Meritaten - UNC!
Interesting construction details: centric hole in the cylinder is rectangular, to prevent it from spinning. Wheels are blocked by steel brick hammered into axis’ cutout.
While at it and already dirty as hell I started cleaning this old iron. I didn’t want to remove the patina, only to clean them from debris and birds’ shit. After a while they emerged in their iron greatness.
Before & after picture for comparison. Wood on the cylinder scraped with a blade, exposing fresh wood.
I had to cut out cranking mechanism, to free up the wooden cylinder and to have a crank possible to re-assemble on the frame.
Moved back to wood work. Once wooden sit was formed it was screwed to both cylinders. Screws are hidden in the wood, plugged with teak plugs, matching pine knots around.
Plaining started with rough, aggressive scrub plane. This is to quickly remove deteriorated surface and wood areas too heavily damaged by worms. Also to equalise thickness of adjacent boards - none of these had the same dimensions.
Smoothing plane followed. In waiting for sanding the bottom part was left assembled.
Back-rest forming. I wanted to maintain the form of springs which were mounted in the machine. Originally I planned to attach these springs to the back-rest but decided to wait with that until final assembly. Wood was marked with appropriate radius to match the springs, in case they do come to be mounted.
Router bit was too short to cut all the way but useful to determine exact curvature for further hand-cutting.
Saw cuts to finish the circle. Side-elbows chiseled to form rough shape.
Rasp and round-files were employed to finish the cut.
Very top of the back-rest was heavily deteriorated. This is where user’s head will rest so I wanted to have clean wood there. Recessing it into delicate, rounded shape would form space for back of the head. Aggressive planing took care of wormed wood.
Grinding and sanding followed. I removed or rounded most surface-deteriorated wood so that it does not catch clothes. I wanted to give soft, pillow-like form to the wood, to neutralise a bit heavy, industrial form of iron frame.
Once sanded both assemblies got oiled. I use raw linseed oil with turpentine. Oil will preserve wood and give it colour, turpentine will deter whatever fauna from entering old worm channels.
Thirsty wood it was - it took almost 2 litres of my mixture.
Soaked wood was left to dry before final assembly.
Back-rest pieces are connected with oak beams. The whole assembly is attached to the sit with brass hinges and bronze screws. No big risk for galvanic action here but I kept the job according to the book.
Of course - hinges are of different size. Bigger hinge spans over area which was heavily deteriorated and planed thinner so I needed more support here. The second hinge is just what I had.
Besides: symmetry is aesthetics of fools!
Frame got its toothed wheels back. Since long axis holding main wheel was now cut I needed to somehow keep it straight. I’ve left rectangular end to the axis so it will not drop out of the frame. To hold it in place I initially made simple spring holder.
That obviously did not cut it so I replaced stainless with leather belt. Much better and less pronounced.
The only remaining job before assembly was to make leather belt which will hold the armchair parts at proper angle. Old belt was sanded to remove previous finish. I punched hole pattern in the middle, to match toothed wheels nearby.
Waxed to protect it from weather.
Put into service, matching the frame quite nicely.
Done!
Small porch in front of my workshop is now complete with proper chair.