Restoring Chairs

[Jo]

I am planning to do no more than one chair seat at a time. It took hours to get half the existing staples out and I lost interest in doing it before getting to the end.
 

I still fancy an electric stapler 

Jo

[Jasonb]

Air staplers are not that expensive and generally have a bit more power behind them and are more solidly built than the cheaper electric ones.

Good electric one will have some punch behind it but expect to pay about £300 not £30.

[Vixen]

Hello Jo

  Bump,  bump,   

In the past I have found an industrial quality upholstery stapler is essential for attaching a leather cover to the hard (oak ?) seat frames. Manual staplers don't seem have quite enough clout and they are tough on your wrists and forearms.

You may wish to consider something like a 'Clarke CSG1C Air Staple Gun - 3110375' from e-bay for about £40 and also a box of 6 or 8mm long upholstery staples. Please note; usual disclaimer:  I have no connection or business interests with e-bay, just an ordinary customer.

Cheers

Mike

[Jo]

Hello Jo

  Bump,  bump,   

In the past I have found an industrial quality upholstery stapler is essential for attaching a leather cover to the hard (oak ?) seat frames. Manual staplers don't seem have quite enough clout and they are tough on your wrists and forearms.

You may wish to consider something like a 'Clarke CSG1C Air Staple Gun - 3110375' from e-bay for about £40 and also a box of 6 or 8mm long upholstery staples. Please note; usual disclaimer:  I have no connection or business interests with e-bay, just an ordinary customer.

Cheers

Mike

Thanks Kim and Mike,

I did consider an electric or air stapler but have been talked out of using one by a professional Upholsterer. Lesley advised me that they push the staples too far into the seat frame and you will never get them out again. Her advice was to use a hand stapler with the staples that end in a sharp point (ceiltile staples) and finish them with a pin hammer.  I've tried it and it works 

Jo

The only reason I may consider buying an electric stapler is to avoid blisters

Edit: A friend is lending me an electric stapler in a couple of weeks 

Jo

[Jo]

A friend has offered to lend me an electric stapler but that is not going to arrive for another 10 days    but I decided to press onward.

The elastic has gone on the seat so it had to come off:



More staples to pull out. The corners of the seat frame were also loose so these have been stuck back together using epoxy resin (as it has a better gap filling property than white glue).

Then some new elastic can be added. Fixing on one end, pulling it to provide a bit of tension then stapling the other end. I noticed that the original ends were cut with a knife blade. My initial attempt to cut the elastic proved that I needed a better pair of scissors so my new razor sharp Fiskars came out and they cut the elastic like it was butter.



I was warned that the hand stapler might prove to be a bit hard on my hand and yes I am looking forward to the electric stapler turning up 

The bottom of the foam shows that while it is going a bit brown it is still usable:



The leather cover is a bit miss-shapened



and I believe I will need to flatten it to use it as the pattern for the seat cover but before I cut anything I will talk to the retired upholsterer on Friday at the sewing group     .

Jo

P.S. In the meantime I am also doing a major service on my Lawn tractor: I have repaired the front steering, today I de-rusted the mower blade guard. While at it I found the blades had seen better days and both drive belts need replacing. Good job I can't think of anything I need  because this service  is not cheap   .

[Kim]

Good progress on the chairs, Jo!   
And on the mower too!

Kim

[Jo]

A couple of weeks later, electric stapler to hand...

I mentioned I had purchased some leatherette. My friendly upholster also mentioned about using a hairdryer to remove creases or to help the fabric stretch and do not trim the covering material until after it is fitted. So having put one central staple in each side to hold the fabric taught the tricky task of stretching the leatherette not leaving any creases on the sides:



Initially I found the electric stapler could not drive the staples into the wood and that the hand stapler gave me greater control. Then I replaced the staples in the electric stapler with the shorter ones and they started going in easier. Which is better  The hand stapler provides better control and is getting the staples in nicely but I wouldn't want to do many by hand so I think there is a place for both 

The untidy messy underside is hidden under some lining material:



The lining material folds under and hides under a second ring of staples.



Then it is a case of lining up the pad with the chair and screwing it back in place and amazingly I found the screw holes first time 



One done, 5 more to go  then I will get my workshop back.

Jo

[Admiral_dk]

The result looks very good from here - hope you satisfiesd with the result too Jo   

Per

[Kim]

Beautiful job on the chair, Jo!  You should feel quite good about that result 

Only 5 to go, eh?  They'll go faster now that you've got the process down, right? 

Kim

[Michael S.]

Good work,
so the chairs can live another 20 years and longer. When I often see good chairs being thrown away, repairing them is a good example.

Michael

[Jo]

I am pleased with the first chair  . The Leatherette is proving to be a lot grippier than the leather when the chair is sat on.

They'll go faster now that you've got the process down, right? 

True  I managed to strip all the staples off of the next seat in about an hour. Once again all four corners of the seat frame needed regluing so another 24 hours for the glue to set 

Jo

[Bluechip]

......

 

.......       

Dave

[Brendon M]

Good job, although I reckon you could have used a mill to true up the seat surfaces before adding the -- 

 

[Jo]

Finished 


Six seat pads covered and three out of six chair frames broken to bits and re-glued. The other three chairs can wait as one of the tenons broke and I had to learn how to repair a tenon (with success )


Now I can get back to making some real swarf 

Jo

[Roger B]

Splendid    Can you come and work on ours (holiday in Switzerland  )