Kiti-making a chair for Tiny House Tanzania Episode 8
Now with that said this last year's episodes that I watched at home had one thing I did not like very much. They would show ideas for the tiny house as a group of pictures then highlight one or two of them. There was no followup online so when I went to their website there was no additional pictures so I could see the items better or information on how to make them or buy them. I was a little disappointed in that because they had some chairs they pictured that could be hung on the wall as art and I wanted to make them.
BTW: Kiti is Swahili for chair
I did however find some pictures of chairs like that for sale but no instructions on how to make them. The more I looked at them the more I was positive they used some special hardware anyway. The one Iiked the most was a wood chair that folded flat to be hung on the wall and had something that appeared to be woodburning designs for the artwork part.
So I decided to try and make one. The first problem of design was to consider making it from wood or metal. Wood would be heavier, metal would limit the type of artwork I could do and would not be as comfortable. Not to mention the hinges would have to be welded and they are so tiny it would be likely they would evaporate from the heat.
I decided the first attempt would be almost all wood and we would see how heavy it really was. In the states, that would not be an issue but here the wood only comes in a couple of sizes and is not kiln dried as much of the wood in the states is. Add to this fact the wood is more dense it will be much heavier than something I could build in the states with plywood and smaller dimensional lumber that is stronger than what is available here.
I started by picking the five best 1 1/4" x 4" board I could find. These had already been planed down on the 4" surface and allowed to dry for several months. I first planed down the uncut edges as it was still rough wood/bark on those edges.
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| hopefully you can see the difference between planed and unplaned |
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| even these four would not align perfectly against each other. |
I first cut a piece of the fifth board to go across the four that will make the chair. After planing them down on the edge I ended up with a 15 inch surface instead of the 16 I wanted but it will work. I cut a 15 inch cross piece to hold them together and used the bar clamp to pull the end closest to me together. After that I cut straight across both the brace piece and the surface boards to get a straight edge to start working from.
I then put the bar clamps on either side of my next cut at 2 feet.
I also had to remeasure my brace pieces to account for the steel pipes that would run down the edges. I placed the pipe brackets I would be using along the edge and then remeasured at just under 1 foot so I will cut the remainder braces at 11" as that will accommodate.
I made similar cuts and braces for the seat at 16" and the leg at 16". I also marked all my pieces so I knew which side was to be where and what they were for.
The base or foot was cut at 18" because it needs to equal the seat plus 2" so the pipes from the back of the backrest will come down to that board. In addition I made this brace the full 15" and made my final cut along the brace and surface boards.
Next came putting on the hinges so each piece would move from a flat board to its position in the seat. Because the only hinges to work with on this are small and set for the 3/4" wood screws the same ones that I shear most of the heads off of I decided to do one hinge per board instead of just two to give it some extra strength in the seated position.
I gave it a test after every set of hinges to make sure I had them facing the correct way.
Next I wanted to attach the furniture pipe (1/2" sch 20 pipe) using the brackets I measured between earlier. I also added extra brackets here to make sure it was strong enough in case one screw broke.
Next I drilled holes in the brace piece on the foot or base for the pipes to go into.
As I set it up in the seated position I noticed something I was worried about and assumed would happen and that is the fact that the pipe in the holes did not keep the forward hinged pieces from continuing to move or hinge so it would need additional pieces to keep that from happening. I decided to use my plethora of cup hooks and some plastic coated wire to reinforce it like we did our steel bridge for competition back in college.
Now the test to see what it looked like if it was hanging from the wall.
Unfortunately the hinges between the backrest and seat create a bit of gap. In addition while I can pick it up and hold it for 10 minutes while Isayah figures out how to press the camera button I am not sure I would trust the local bricks used to make the wall to hold the weight for any length of time much less the impact of taking it off and putting it back on the wall hooks. I do have some better anchors for this which you will get to see in about two weeks but the brick itself is not that strong I am afraid.
My next attempt will be to mix metal and wood to create something. In addition I am going to be working on what type of art work will survive the varnish they use here. I was hoping to do some woodburning but that takes an enormous amount of time using a magnifying glass or charcoal and a nail since they don't sell electric woodburners here in 240v.
This would however look really great with one chair hanging flat on the wall either side of the window and then a table with similar artwork below the window itself. I hope to keep that idea alive in the next attempt. For now this chair will be used to test artwork and for me to sit on in my "office" at the medical clinic.
Hope you enjoyed this version of Tiny House Tanzania
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