Plans for child size rocking chair?

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472
Location
Goodyear AZ
My neighbors asked me to make a rocker for their small childs birthday. I've searched quite a bit on the web and only found one set of plans and the chair looks pretty cheesy. I usually prefer to design stuff myself, but I've never made chairs before so the learning curve would be pretty steep, and they need it rather quickly. Maybe I could take full size plans and reduce the dimensions by, say, half? I guess what I really need is the proper dimensions and proportions for a typical childs chair. Would greatly appreciate any help or opinions. Cheers. Barry
 
There are a few childs chairs listed here, but didn't see any rockers. Also size may depend on the age of the child. Might have better luck taking a few measurements when he or she is sitting and add a few inches for growth. The rocker I had growing up had a seat that was about 10" X 10", 12" tall back, and about 10" off the floor to the seat.

Will post any additional links or info I come across...good luck
 
Thanks Darren, Thats the plan I saw too. It's not really to my liking but maybe I can make some modifications to make it look more attractive. Thanks again, Barry
 
If you go the route of reducing an adult sized plan don't use 1/2 as the multiple(??). If you reduce dimensions by 1/2 you end up with a chair that occupies 1/8th of the physical space of the original (1/2 * 1/2 * 1/2). I have made a couple of adirondack chairs in child size and 3/4 appears to be a reasonable guideline, finishing up with a chair that occupies about 42% of the space of an adult chair. In my experience, any child capable of sitting independently in a chair will not be swamped by a 3/4 size and by the time that they have grown out of it they are best served by an adult sized chair.
 
Just yesterday I saw a child's rocker for sale at a local flea market. Don't know the price. But if cheap enough, I could buy, take apart and ship to you. You could use as a guide to make a nice one.
 
I made this little rocking chair for my grand-niece's first birthday.

B Chair 2.jpg


The original chair was featured in Wood Magazine, back in 1993, and back then I made one - in red oak - that adhered to Wood's plan, which had a plain, flat seat, and the arch, front legs, and the rockers glued up from 4/4 stock.

For this one, I deviated a bit from the plans. I used cherry, and cut the legs (8/4) and rockers (12/4) from solid stock. The back legs/arch, I laminated up from eighteen 3/32" strips. I also added a piece to the lower front of the seat, to thicken it a bit and give it a better appearance, and I contoured the surface of the seat to make it more comfortable.

All in all, it was a fun project. We'll see how well it lasts under strenuous 'kid-testing.'
 
...How did you get the back arch so perfect? Did you have a form and then pressed your laminate strips together?

DKT

Exactly! I made a form from several layers of mdf, screwed to a plastic coated backer board. I also lined the form with cork and plastic packing tape (to keep the glue from sticking to the form) -pretty much like David Marks does it on his shows.

The strips were soaked in hot water for a few minutes, then coated with Weldwood (resorcinal-type) glue - for its long open time - and then put in the form and clamped up. Lots of clamps! I let it dry over a weekend before removing it from the form, and had virtually no springback.

Here are a couple more pictures of the chair:

B Chair 1.jpg


Bear insert.jpg
 
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