Jake chair drawings

[rile]

I am getting ready to attempt a building of the famous Jake chair. But, I need some help in interpreting the drawings that come with the plans from the website. My problem is that I don't understand the measurements that seem not to fit decimal equivalents. For example, the "seat slat" drawing has dimensions listed as 27.00 by 1.55. What does the 1.55 correspond to in fractions? Am I missing something? One other item, each drawing has a scale at the bottom but some don't seem to fit the drawing. Anyone know what that is all about? Any advise is surely welcome.

[George]

1.55 is a "fat" 1 1/2 or a "shy" 1 9/16. There are other references in common use which would make it a CH over 1 1/2 or an RCH under 1 9/16.

Measure the perimeters of the thing and make it fit. Following plans is a theoretical exercise anyway. Practical is in making things that fit.

[LP]

It looked to me as if the drawing had been originally dimensioned in metric and then converted. In any case, none of the dimensions are really critical.

To answer your question, 1.55 is slightly under 1-9/16". When I did mine last year I just used 1-1/2" and all worked out fine.

Ignore the scale and use the listed dimensions. Knowing that 1/16" is .0625 decimal should help you convert any problematic dimensions.

FWIW I didn't like this chair. It's huge, and the back of the seat sits way too close to the ground for us old folks. A real chore to get out of it. For kids and younger adults it'd probably be fine tho.

[rile]

[LP]

I just drew the parts out from the dimensions on the plans, and for radius' I used whatever was at hand, mostly various size tin cans. The radius' were chosen so they would "look good" with no thought to the actual dimension.

IIRC, the one thing that was very slightly critical was the curvature on the top & bottom rear slat supports. I dont remember exactly how I laid that out but I'm sure it involved taking dimensions off the plan and drawing the radius with a pencil on a string.

Hope this helps