Each parent sooner or later faces the problem of acquiring children's furniture, and a highchair in this case is no exception. Moreover, the market with similar products offers us a fairly wide range, but there are often some difficulties when choosing. In particular, which material to prefer? The tree in this fight naturally wins, but the price of such a product leaves much to be desired. You can buy a plastic stool, but it is not too pleasant to the touch and not always comfortable. There is a solution: do-it-yourself highchairs.
High chair appointment
The use of this piece of furniture has some features that depend on the age of the child. You need to start accustoming the baby to the stool at the moment when the child can already sit on his own (usually this is about 6-8 months old). At first it is used exclusively for feeding, and only then - for sitting during creativity or other activities. Today, baby chairs, made with their own hands, which can be used for a child, are of two types:
- simple chairs that can hold even an inexperienced baby;
- transforming chairs that perform several functions simultaneously.
With age, the child has a lot of hobbies that require a certain amount of time in a sitting position on a chair. The main function, however, is to use it to sit at the table, including the dining room. A highchair, made with your own hands, taking into account all the wishes, will become a favorite for your baby.
Necessary materials
It is very easy to make a highchair with your own hands, it is enough to strictly follow the sequence of actions and have at hand all the necessary tools and materials. For manufacturing you will need:
- several bars that have a cross section of 50x50 mm;
- bars with a cross section of 25x25 mm;
- bars with a cross section of 25x50 mm;
- board with a cross section of 25 mm;
- self-tapping screws;
- drill / driver;
- screwdriver (if necessary);
- sandpaper.
Since the stool is intended for use by children, it is worth remembering the high quality of the material and its safety for health. It is also necessary to think over what the sizes of a highchair should be. Do it yourself with your own hands to make this piece of furniture, using only those bars that have a flat and dry surface. Only subject to these rules will the life of the stool be significant.
Preparatory work
Before you make a highchair with your own hands, drawings of parts must be done. Before you begin, you must carefully prepare the workpiece. The material should be dried, then walk with sandpaper on its surface. The latter must be done until the workpieces are perfectly smooth. This is necessary to exclude the possibility of injury to the baby.
After preparing the material, you should make a schematic drawing, the so-called sketch. If you make a highchair with your own hands, try to make drawings as simple as possible. Then during the assembly you will not have any difficulties.
Leg assembly
You need to start making high chairs with your own hands from the bottom of the future product, namely from its legs. You will need two wooden blanks 27 cm and 52 cm long. These parts of the stool need to be carefully processed using special tools for working with wood - a workbench and a planer. All four sides of the bars must be brought to a size of 40x40 mm. For ease of processing, you can safely use a vise, between which you can stick a block. In order to avoid dents, precautionary measures must be taken, in particular the use of gaskets made of thin aluminum or plywood, having previously given them an L-shaped shape. After processing the legs of the future highchair with a planer, you need to make markings and remove all unnecessary parts with a jigsaw.
Assembly of crossbeams and backs
At this stage, the design of the back of the product, as well as the corresponding crossbars, is performed. The blanks for the crossbars should be about 17 cm long, and for the back - 16 cm. When cutting the crossbars and backs, a tolerance of about 5 cm should be made. This should not be forgotten, since they are extremely necessary for further processing. The processing process itself is similar to the previous procedure. As a result of all the actions you should get bars with the following parameters:
- 10x15 mm;
- 20x20 mm;
- 20x45 mm.
To sit, you need to take wooden boards, there should be two. Moreover, the dimensions should be as follows: 150x250x25 mm. These boards need to be laid out on four sides. Clearances are not allowed. After the edges are processed, the sharp corners of the boards need to be rounded. Various patterns will help you with this. In the end, these blanks must be worked out with sandpaper, especially with regard to the ends of the bars, which as a result should be perfectly smooth.
Production of lock elements
This step involves the following steps. First of all, using a drill, in accordance with the existing markings on the legs of the future highchair, you need to make holes that are not through, but blind. To facilitate the implementation of this task will help everyone known tool - a chisel. Using this device in combination with a chisel, all excess wood must be removed from the resulting grooves.
Choosing a method for fastening parts
Before assembling all the parts directly, you must select the method by which they will be attached to each other. There are several ways:
- with spikes;
- using glue;
- with the help of nails;
- wedge method.
The latter method is the most popular. This requires on the spikes that are located on the crossbars to make a cut on the entire length of 5 mm wide. The wedges should be about 5 mm shorter than the grooves, but it is recommended that their width be made larger by 0.5 mm. Before inserting the crossbeams into the grooves, the wedge must be mounted in the cut, and then assemble all the details with a mallet. This will lead to the fact that the wedge will expand the spike and loosening of the chair will not threaten.
Final assembly of the product
After all the blanks are cut out and their surface is quite smooth, you can safely proceed to the final assembly of the product. You will receive more reliable highchairs, do-it-yourself additionally coating all their joints with PVA glue. It is necessary to start the assembly with the frame. For this you will need bars of 15x15 mm in size and screws. After the frame is designed, you can mount the board, which will act as a seat. Before this, it is advisable to make holes in the bars for self-tapping screws. This is necessary so that when assembling the stool, namely when fastening the fasteners, the product is not damaged. The bars themselves need to be attached exactly to the inside of the crossbar, and only then install the seat itself.
You can also make your own children's high chairs with your own hands, such as in the photo below.
You can finish the job by coating the entire stool with varnish, having previously painted the product in the desired color.