Plywood Thickness for chair seat?

Frame, or solid?

On frame w/webbing chair seats I plane poplar down to 5/8" for the frame.

But for a bit more comfort try 1/2" plywood, with a slotted seat portion, for a little flex/give.

My favorite, if using an upholstered seat, is a frame made of 5/8" poplar, with webbing covered by the appropriate amount of modern padding and then the upholstery. Here's a picture of the bare frame, sans webbing, etc. to give you an idea of what I'm talking about:

Didn't know frame was even an option!

What do you mean slotted seat portion?

Didn't know it was this complicated. Neither of my chair books got into this. Thanks.

Adding to my previous post:

Michael Fortuned had an article in FWW some time back entitled "A Slim Comfortable Chair Seat" that had an interesting construction, particularly if you're going to do the upholstery yourself:

He uses a slotted 1/4" plywood seat and the design is ultra thin ... something I've wanted to try myself.

FWIW ... not knowing your chair design, I just thought it might interest you.

You simply cut multiple slots (front to back) about 1/4" - 1/2" wide and maybe 8" - 10" long, where your buns would be.

This imitates, after a fashion, the webbing of a traditional horse hair padded seat and does add a good deal of comfort.

Welp ... it's where the rubber hits the road, in a manner of speaking, and comfort is an important aspect of chair design.

If you don't want your guests to hang around after dinner, use thinly padded

1. Get two sawhorses and place them with the rails parallel to each other and the distance between the rails the exact distance between the chair legs.
2. Get a very fat neighbor over for "a few beers"
3. Lay a 1/4 sheet of 1/2" play across the sawhorse rails
4. Get fat neighbor to sit on sheet
5. If it bends, get 3/4" sheet and repeat and so on until sheet doesn't bend or sawhorses collapse

FoggyTown

I thought you might like to see what you have been building...

"FoggyTown" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m7g2000cwm.googlegroups.com:

You're not thinking like an engineer. You get the sawhorses as mentioned before, but if you can't find a fat neighbor, you'll have to get a laser caliper set to measure the displacement between a reference straight edge (square) and the deflection of the chair.

You know, this isn't going to give good data. So, you need the sawhorse and laser caliper, but also a force gauge. Hook the force gauge to the board, and pull it down until it fails. The force and displacement (and $2000 worth of new shiny tools) will then give you an accurate idea of what thickness to use. ;-)

Puckdropper

I like! ... a lot, it's my kind of style - functional, unpretentious and honest(ly), a chair. Can't wait to see the final. Well done.

hi good day. The standard thickness plywood for bending furniture is 15 mm to 20 mm? can i using 16 mm or 18 mm thickness?

This a joke right?