Editor’s note: Surprise! (we are also surprised). Our video “Build a Stick Chair” was completed early and is now available for purchase. The introductory price is $50 and includes a lot of extras (patterns, notes etc. – see below). After Aug. 31, the price will increase to $75.
Learn to build a stick chair using common woodworking tools and machines, plus kiln-dried wood from the lumberyard. This video, which clocks in at more than four hours long, has 18 chapters that cover all aspects of stick chair construction, from selecting the lumber to applying the finish.
Purchasers will also receive a digital file with full-size patterns for the chair shown in the video, which can be printed out at any reprographics firm or office supply store. Plus, notes on the sizes of the chair parts and sources for tools used in the video.
The videos can be streamed on any digital device connected to the internet. Alternately, you can download the video for offline viewing. The video is completely free of DRM (digital rights management) software and protections. That means it is portable among all your devices – laptop, tablet, phone etc.
Stick chairs are an ideal chair form for beginning chairmakers. Unlike with Windsor chairs, ladderbacks and other advanced forms, you don’t need green wood, a steambox, a shavehorse, a drawknife, a froe, a hatchet, a lathe or even a spokeshave. You can build stick chairs with kiln-dried lumber, a regular woodworking bench and mostly a drill, handplanes and a band saw. There are a few specialty tools (mostly inexpensive) that make the job easier, which are covered in the video.
We consider the “Build a Stick Chair” video as a companion to “The Stick Chair Book.” Not a substitute. The book took years of work to write and edit, and it goes into details that are impossible for a talking head to explain on a screen (plus it includes plans for five chairs). But the video shows bodily motion in a way that print never can. Some things about chairmaking are so simple if you can just see the process unfold before your eyes.
We’re not saying you should get both the book and the video. Instead, start with the one that appeals to you most. If you are a visual learner, the video is probably the correct choice. If you are first a reader, the book is what we would recommend.
Make a Stick Chair Video
| Introduction | 0:05:44 |
| 1. Select Wood for Chairs | 0:09:19 |
| 2. Break Down the Stock | 0:19:04 |
| 3. Make Octagons | 0:08:50 |
| 4. Taper & Tenon the Legs | 0:13:08 |
| 5. Glue the Seat & Drill the Mortises | 0:35:50 |
| 6. Make the Stretchers | 0:15:27 |
| 7. Make the Arms | 0:21:18 |
| 8. Mortises in the Arm & Seat | 0:18:27 |
| 9. Sticks | 0:12:32 |
| 10. Saddle the Seat | 0:22:09 |
| 11. Make Wedges | 0:03:28 |
| 12. Prepare to Assemble the Undercarriage | 0:02:38 |
| 13. Assemble the Undercarriage | 0:13:03 |
| 14. Prepare the Arm & Sticks for Assembly | 0:04:30 |
| 15. Assemble the Uppercarriage | 0:10:42 |
| 16. Shape & Install the Comb | 0:18:03 |
| 17. Level & Cut the Legs | 0:09:22 |
| 18. Finishing Up | 0:10:25 |
What’s Included with Your Purchase
• Streaming and full download access to all 18 chapters with no DRM (digital rights access)
• Download of the full-size patterns for the seat, arms, shoe and comb of the chair that can be printed out at any copy shop.
• Measured drawings of the two jigs shown in the video: the band saw jig for making octagons and the drilling jig for boring mortises in the arms and seat.
• A parts list, links for the tools shown in the video plus the recipe for the soft wax finished used on the chair.
So many awesome new things from LAP! My bank account is screaming no, but my heart is screaming yes. <3
It’s not a secret that you’re fond of hand tools, alas I’m not very proficient and I don’t have many. The book offers several hand and power tool options for creating chair components. Does your video do the same or are you using you primarily hand tools? Granted, I would thoroughly enjoy watching a chair build with hand tools but it wouldn’t help me much in my attempts. Thanks.
I do show options on the table saw and band saw when possible.
Ya6! Bought and downloaded. I’ll start watching tonight.
Which chapter shows you tapping a beech tree for water?
Talk about something for the weekend! Bought it and started watching already.
Cheers,
Mattias
Started watching. Thanks for making it!
A question (and apologies for probably being just too thick to figure it out), but how do I go about actually downloading the videos to my computer (or tablet, etc.)? I can stream them fine, no worries, but I can’t seem to find any menu item or button or similar that would allow me to also download them.
I see they’re on Vimeo, so could it be the “allow download” option hasn’t been turned on for them? Or should one use the “watch offline” function? Would that generate the download?
Not that this is of any major importance, but it would be nice to be able to watch them again, also in places where one has no connection to ‘t internet.
Cheers and many thanks already,
Mattias
Yup. I was right. I was too thick to figure it out, until I asked how, and then the penny dropped.
Turns out if, on the page where the purchase confirmation lik takes me, I click on the Vimeo logo in the bottom right corner, this takes me to the video on Vimeo where, just below said bottom right corner there is a download arrow, and a choice of download resolution.
Sorry to have bothered you about it!
Cheers,
Mattias
It took me a few minutes to figure it out too. Very easy once you’ve done it.
I figured I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get the visual cues, so I came to the comments section. Thanks for sharing, Mattias!
Sorry it is not obvious. You have to click through to Vimeo to do it.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-12-at-5.04.12-PM.png
https://blog.lostartpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Screen-Shot-2022-08-12-at-5.05.28-PM.png
Hope this helps.
Thank you, Chris! As I just said, I did find it myself just after posting the question (as tends to be the way that kind of cookie will crumble), but your answer is nevertheless much appreciated and may well be useful to others.
Part of the problem for me was that when I first tried to click through to Vimeo, it opened the file in the Vimeo app, as I have that installed, rather than in the browser, and in the app I couldn’t (and still cannot) see the download button.
In any case, the problem is now well and duly and truly solved, for help with which again my warmest thanks, so it’s back to the movie theater for me now …
Cheers,
Mattias
Bought the introductory package and downloaded the patterns, notes, etc. My internet is terrible and the videos keep pausing, so I want to watch them from my system. Now I have to plead ignorance. How do you download the videos?
Mattias just asked this question above and I answered with screenshots….
If you go to Vimeo, you will see a down arrow. After clicking, you will have the option of choosing the resolution. Once you select that, the video will download.
The down arrow isn’t on all browsers and platforms. The instructions Chris posted above seem to be universal.
Since I don’t own any machines, what would be an alternative to a bandsaw.
I’ll be using hand tools.
I have built a sturdy bench so I’ll have good work holding options.
I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to do this weekend. Now I know!
I have zero talent or skill when it comes to chair making. But by golly, I’m ok spending my life savings on the tools necessary to fail repeatedly. I’m reverse engineeering a Rocker with crazy proportions for my 1 year old grand daughter at the moment. It’s going great, other than I have a 5% idea of what I’m doing. I feel like this video will save the chair. I switched to hand tools in the midst of covid, wanting a deeper connection with the craft and desiring to save electrons, minimize dust and learn to reduce weight through thousands of tiny cuts and sustained blood loss. I have been obsessed with the idea of making a stick chair for a couple of months (since I decided without any training or teaching (but plenty of youtube) to make a Rocking chair) since I started the Rocker. I’m even more excited now. Between this video series and Peter Galbert, I am destined for greatness. Or at least a less disastrous failure. Thanks and all my best.
Download vs streaming. Is this either/or or are you purchasing the right to do both?
You get both.
Just a quick question…….watching online enters the land of constant buffering due to a slo-o-o-w download speed, so I try to download as much as possible, so it’s a great advatage having that.
But………..
I’m about to pull the trigger on the whole set, but both the trailer and the 10-min video about your tools in the shop have been down loaded here via Vimeo and have a pronounced time lapse between vision and sound.
Is this normal on Vimeo down loads?
Nope. The sound and video should be synced. We’ve never seen that as a result of Vimeo. It’s usually a hardware/audio card/video card issue.
Is that the large version prototype of the Crucible center finder hanging on the board in the background in several of the chapters? We appear to be able to see both sides of it from one chapter to the next.
Probably.
These chapters are wonderful. I built a stick chair last spring, largely using your book book, but seeing you run through the different tasks is enlightening. Years ago, I used your Roorkee chair video to make a couple of those, heavily relying on replays, and I suspect watching these chapters before making the next chair will help keep me centered with each step. Thanks for making the video.
I have the book and it’s a treasure. Now I have the video . . . sort of. Being a klutz, I can’t figure out how to download the video segments. Instructions please.
Chris answered this above: https://blog.lostartpress.com/2022/08/12/new-build-a-stick-chair-video/#comment-81890
Hopefully it’s not obvious but does anyone know what magnification you use to get full size plans? When I go to Staples I’d kinda like to avoid the trial and error scenario.
The plans are at 100 percent.
The first time I printed mine out, at a local UPS place, they printed it at 90% full size. I caught it after I made all the patterns. Ugh. Then I took it to Staples and they got it right. I did verify with a ruler before I left.
This may be blaspheme when discussing stick chairs, but any thoughts on making one of these into a rocker in the future? Or, perhaps a special design for a stick chair rocker?
I know of only one stick chair rocker. And it likely was a chair that was later modified.
I’m personally not a fan of rocking chairs (the reason is in the book). But I welcome any and all attempts to make these chair fit your needs.
Good morning- I have been trying (5 times) to buy your video. Have the book and love it. Living in Canada, it’s really confusing. On one hand, the site takes me to a separate page which quite correctly says if I want books or tools, go to Lee Valley (I do) but videos and PDFs can be bought on the normal site. Yet when I put in either my U$ visa or my C$ visa, the site wont accept them. I’d happily buy this product if somebody can help me do it.
Hi Andy. Sorry you are having trouble. Send a note to help@lostartpress.com and they will lend a hand.
Is the pattern for the video chair the same as one of the several that I bought as a package of full sized paper patterns? If so, which? Don’t want to print it at the office store, if I already have it. Love the video and the book; they go well together.
Nope. It’s a new design.
In the chapter where you fit the stretchers and drill the holes for them, I would have liked to have seen you actually put the stretchers into the legs etc. Do you have to pry the legs apart to make this happen? What about with the medial stretcher? Pry the two sides apart?
The legs aren’t glued in yet, so I simply remove the legs from their mortises and put the undercarriage together. You can see this in the chapter on assembling the undercarriage. If I have misunderstood the question, please let me know.
Got it, thanks very much.
Have the book, but enjoying the video as well. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I wonder how many a video is worth!? I must say though, when you grabbed your Lie-Nielsen #8 to true up the seat pieces I was somewhat taken aback. I’ve read your tool chest book and many of your blogs and past writings about the wonders of a jack plane here you pick up a $550 plane that is longer than the work. I get that it is nice and wide and with a cambered blade you can minimize the number of strokes to bet things mate up, but really? Or were you just showing off a birthday present?
About 15 years ago I saved my spare change for a few years to buy that plane, and I make no apologies for it. It is my jointer plane, and I use it for all edge joints, whether for a seat or an 8′-long tabletop.
In that same time period I’ve gone through at least five $1,000 laptops.
No apology necessary! And I apologize if I sounded annoyed or offended!! I’m a big fan of having nice tools that are “right” for the job at hand. One learns, works, learns some more (hopefully) and it is OK to do something differently than what one did earlier based on that. I have a nice Veritas bevel up jointer, but I’ve learned (from your tool chest book) that isn’t the best to try and camber the blade. (found an old treatise online about why that is so.). So I dredged up an old Type 9 Bailey #7 that I’m trying to get in working order, but I’m keeping an eye out for a nice #8 or 608. As for laptops, can’t help you there other than to say my 4-year old MacBook Pro is doing fine (but it certainly cost more than $1k). And I’m going to overcome my fear of chair-building this year thanks to your blog, book and now, video. Thanks so much for that.