The ongoing saga of bendy wood (lamination) - a sun lounger for the tourists. This is actually a proof of concept, as until someone lay down on it I had no idea if it would be comfortable or not. Luckily it has passed the lounging around test.
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There are a number of things badly wrong with it: I used the wrong (foaming polyurethane ) glue for the mortice and tennon joints, which seems to have opened them all up. Very gappy. The glue was a nightmare to clean up, and the finish (light oak stained varnish) shows up where I thought I had cleaned up the glue but hadn't. I hand cut the mortices for the legs so badly I would have started again if it was real work. I also stopped work to make a mortice gauge, I was so appalled by my lack of skill, but without a mortice gauge, I didn't mark out the mortice for the gauge very well, so it isn't brilliant. Seems to be a chicken and egg thing. Now I have a mortice gauge, I can make a mortice gauge properly.
Still, we have 64 mortices (60 cut with a router and jig, which on bendy wood was interesting), and lots of table saw practice. Also cutting tenons (or is it tennons?) on table saw, band saw, and a mix of the two gave me some good experience. I do know that I need another 2 slats at the head end, so the prototype (ie the next one) will be a tad longer. I also know I need more experience being accurate, so I need to churn out a few of these.
The really sad thing is that at no point, ever, will I lie in the sun on one of these. Still, tourists like that sort of thing, and bought sun loungers cost a fortune and only last 2 years before the sun destroys them. I am hoping for a better return on investment with this.