Has anyone ever built a teak helm chair?

[JAGSARE1]

For the fun of it, I am thinking about building a pair of teak(or some other wood) helm chairs. I would appreciate any experience if someone has done it before. The seat base is easy but attaching the arm rests and back rest may not be. Any ideas?

[RI Builder]

Sounds like a very interesting, and also challenging project. In general, chairs offer the wood worker some of the greatest challenges because they not only have to be comfortable and functional, but also strong.

You may or may not be aware, but teak is VERY harsh on tools. Be prepared to replace you planer and jointer knives when done, as well as any saw blades and router bits you use - especially making two of them.

We do have some resident furniture makers on the forum though - Garret and Jamesbefishin

[JAGSARE1]

Thanks alot, that is the kind of info I was asking for. I did not know that about teak and it does not have to be teak. In fact, it could be another type of wood and then glassed over and painted. I would prefer all white chairs. I haven't figured out how to secure the arm rests to the seat and the back to the seat. I want the back to be removable.

[rwidman]

JAGSARE1 - 4/14/2007 3:56 PM

Thanks alot, that is the kind of info I was asking for. I did not know that about teak and it does not have to be teak. In fact, it could be another type of wood and then glassed over and painted. I would prefer all white chairs. I haven't figured out how to secure the arm rests to the seat and the back to the seat. I want the back to be removable.

I would suggest that you get a set of plans and make the chairs to the spscifications in the plans. There's some engineering involved that might not be obvious to an inexperienced person.

[jaccoserv]

The chair manufacturers (ie Murray, Release) use nothing but stainless self-tapping screws to fasten the armrests to the base. I think 3 or four.
Mahogany is probably your best choice if you want them white. I also would forego glassing. Resin would do the trick. A chair manufacturer would sell you the backrest pin brackets to allow for them to be removable.

I wouldn't be to intimidated by design, these chairs are pretty straightforward/low-tech.

I assume you are referring to traditional ladder-back style chairs.

[obbayer]

JAGS,

I made a helm seat for my boat a few years ago. I made a teak ladder back and teak armrests with a cushioned seat bottom and with a removable cushion for the ladder back. Sorry no pics right now.

Lining up the hardware was the hardest part. I found some arm and back brackets but they were not up to the quality of the seat I had in mind. I finally found brackets via a company called Estran whose web site appears to now be gone. Even then there were issues, the bracket quality was great but came in powder coated, I ended up stripping them, polishing and then taking them and had a bright annodize finish applied ($50).
I never did find real high quality hardware available retail to match what I had seen I some of the high end seats.
The ladder back was made of teak and the horizontal and vertical pieces were grooved to interlock, glued and screwed. The vertical pieces were thicker to take the load and the horizontal strips were thin maybe 1/4 inch. The teak arm rests were actually two parts glued together to get the thickness I wanted. This allowed a recess in the bottom to except the flat end plate of the arm bracket to hide that and enough depth to the wood to take 4 screws in each of those plates.
The bottom was just treated plywood to make it waterproof. I didn't want to make it too tough so that the upholstery shop could not staple to it. The bottom piece was layed out and recessed holes put in to take t-nuts for all the slider hardware bolts the back rest brackets and side arm brackets bolts.
I had a 4 inch cushion installed and the front edge was made seamless and rounded so when running the boat standing it was comfortable to lean your butt against.

Tips:

Check the width of the seat when installed centerline with the wheel hub. In my case the boat was an express with the helm to stbd, and I had to watch the width of the seat to allow the armrests to clear the side when rotating it 180 degrees (beer drinking mode)

Check how much throw you get on the slider you choose before making holes in the seat bottom, normally you'd probably center this fore/aft but doesn't have to be.

If your installing on a bridge your going to want the bottom of the seat to look good too when looking up from the cockpit.

Because of the cost of the teak and not wanting it scratched I supplied the upholstery shop with a plywood template of the ladder back for them to make a removable cushion. (turned out to be real good idea)

I made a template down the basement and made the seat fit me for the seat height, width and even the fore/aft and height placement of the armrests.

It of course wasn't as cheap as you'd hope with the hardware, teak and upholstery but I can't wait to do it again as soon as I can get the next boat.



Brian

[JAGSARE1]

Now that is some good info. Yes, traditional ladder back helm chair is what I want. Typical ladder back chairs are too large for the bridge of a mid-30 foot boat. I am going to downsize to fit. I am thinking about notching the seat so that the armrests fit the seat flush. That would cut down the width of the chair. I think the most difficult part of this is going to be the metal where the ladder back attaches to the seat.

[Wicho]

This is by far my favorite teak chair I have ever seen - though I haven't seen many..

http://www.sheaffermarine.com/V27_04-4.jpg

[XV2PS]

I am heading an outdoors furniture manufacture, specialized in wood and metal combinations and quite like getting involved in the technical part. I also (as you can see on my signature) have a bit of an idea about boats but that is just a side business. You can post here or email me a sketch, and I will be glad helping you in that design. You can see part of the boat work here:
http://www.imagestation.com/album/pi...?id=2105060324

[endoman]

Tim.
Any chance you can find a used one in ratty shape and re-do it?
I re-did a Pompanette 130 lb. class fighting chair 6 or so years ago. Took it apart, sent all the metal to a replating shop and did the varnish work myself.
The finished product looked brand new.

[Johnboy]

Call Sam or Jimmy at Release marine in Savannah. They may have some older parts that would work. They helped me restore an older fighting chair that needed to be wider to fit my wide self. They were very helpful.
Good luck,
John

[JAGSARE1]

Thanks again. I can't use anything existing because the overall dimensions of the chairs will be smaller than what is on the market. Remember, they will have to fit on the bridge of a 35/36' boat. I am going to a friends boat and measure his chairs and then reduce to fit what I need.

[Johnboy]

They had older hardware and some was for smaller chairs. They have moved into a new building and maynot have moved the out dated hardware. You would be surprised at what they had tucked away. I just thought it might help.

John

[JAGSARE1]

I'll try them, thanks.

[obbayer]

Jags,

Found a picture of the seat after all. This shows the back rest pad on but you can see the two turn buttons on the top to let it be removed. I'd take it off on fishing days and put it on for cruising.

[DDHAND]

We had someone steal the back rest off of a fighting chair and iI rebuilt the back. Had to call Lee in Florida (I think that was the mfgr) to get the ss ratchet bolts and the part that attaches to the back rest (it had a hinge setup that when loosend would ratchet to adjust the seat******.

Fairly simple to do and came out rather nice. The big update I made was shaping the backrest like a car seat to give a little more lumbar support. I used a piece of cardboard to make a template of the seatback in my car and used it to cut out the uprights for the fighting chair. It was a ladderback style and I beefed up the wood 2"x4" uprights and 2"x2" for the cross bars.

It turned out to be really comfortable and an unusual conversation piece.