Plywood Rocking Chair Under 30$

In this instructable I am going to build a modern style rocking chair using one sheet of plywood, with simple tools.

Made under 30$. *Excluding the cost of electricity and tools already owned.

• Hardwood Plywood board(4' * 8' ¾ " thick) - [approx. 23$]
• Template printed on paper (Single paper would be more suitable) - [approx. 1.8$]
• Measure Tape, Ruler (for measuring)
• Jigsaw (I used Bosch GST 100B)
• Chisels
• Drill
• Sand Paper [approx. 0.5$]
• Rasp File
• Sander (I used Disc sander on angle grinder attached to home made stand for it)
• Glue stick (for sticking Paper template on wood) [approx. 0.6$ ]
• Wood Glue [approx. 1.2$]
• Mallet
• Clamps
• Paper Tape
• Paint [approx. 1.9$]
• Paint brush, paint roller [approx. 1$]

*P.S. You don't need to print-out template and stick if using CNC for cutting.

*If Scroll saw is available, use it for more precise cut than jigsaw.

Designing the Chair with adequate back support that includes a lots of curves in the back rest.

The aim was to build a modern chair, choose a triangular shape for the arm of the chair,

The whole back rest of chair can't be made with all wood, as it would not fit in a single ply so, instead making 11 strips for the seating area. For keeping the strips together 3 supports are made one at top just below the head rest, one at lower back region and one at front. And a support for the arm of chair is made to keep it intact.

All this was done in Autodesk Fusion 360.

Once the model is ready in fusion, using Manufacturing tab of fusion 360 to fit all these pieces of chair into a single plywood of 4' * 8'.

There were a few setbacks at first but after few tweaks, Finally got a plan with all the pieces fitting into a single piece of plywood.

Printing out the template on paper, printing on single big paper was not available so printing the template on A3 pages.

The challenge was to arrange and stick the template printed on 27 pages with margin errors, Hopefully you'll get it on a single page.

Sticking the template on the board with glue stick, so it can be removed later.

The main challenge was to cut out the parts from the board, since no CNC or scroll saw was available jigsaw with smallest clean blade was used to cut the parts. For cutting the arm part, used drill first to cut a hole inside the triangular area of the arm then used jigsaw further.

Used drill to cut through the slots in the arm for the support pieces.

The slots that were loosened with drill were shaped with a chisel, similarly all the joinery areas of the parts were shaped up with chisel.

The curves of chair arm was also shaped with chisel since jigsaw couldn't cut through such curves.

Clamped together the arms of the chair using a F-Clamp then sanded it with 60 grit sand paper disc on the angle grinder - sander, sanded the insides of the arm with rasp file and 60,80 grit sand paper.

Similarly Sanding off the other parts that weren't cut straight or proper with jigsaw.

Sanding each joints with 80 grit sand paper, checking that each joint is appropriately cut and is ready to fit its counterpart.

Assembling the chair without glue to check all the joints and the structure of the chair, if all is good then proceeding further or else more chiseling/sanding is required.

After assembling the chair looks good and is rocking as it should be, so moving ahead.

The template is still on the chair which doesn't look good so, removing it.

The parts are ready to get assembled into a final chair.

First making sure that the correct part is handy to be glued and fixed.

• Gluing and fixing the leg support part first to the arms of the chair, using mallet to make sure the parts are flush fixed to each other.
• Similarly gluing the front and middle support parts to the arms, making sure that the parts are flush fixed.
• Then starting with the middle strip of the seating and backrest part, it slips sometimes due to the curves of the strips, using paper tape to tape it to the front and middle support after gluing and fixing it.
• Then gluing and fixing strips on either sides of the middle strip, and all the way with all the strips.
• Since the parts were cut with jigsaw the error in cutting remains, so using paper tape and clamp wherever needed to hold the parts together while the glue dries up.
• Gluing the top part to all the strips.

Wipe-off excess glue dripping out from the joints after fixing them.

Once the glue has dried up removing all the tapes and clamps.

Painting the chair, first with paint brush applying a layer of paint on the chair then immediately rolling over it with paint roller to have a even finish, applying two similar coats.

when the color has dried up the chair is ready to be used and rocked at leisure time.