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Builders Showcase: Chesapeake Lounger

03.14.12 By //
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I promised myself I would build this lounger for my 52nd birthday and on March 11th (my birthday) I completed it. So you can see, this project has meant more to me than I can ever express.

I want to say that I never buit anything in my life that did not come with Ikea-like instructions. This was a labor of love and very satisfying.  I want to thank you so much for these amazing plans. This lounger is going to provide many relaxing moments in the sun reading and relaxing. BTW, its much bigger than I thought. I look forward to start building the double lounger  next weekend. I'm sure I'll be able to cut down my build time in half.  Thank you for an amazing experience! I found my new hobby!

Estimated Cost 

Overall these plans are very easy to understand and very thorough.  The cost was accurate almost to the dollar. Word of warning though, double check the cuts.  I had my lumber cuts done at Homedepot and they screwed up the 30 slats and use two-inch hinges for best fit. I recommend that you buy: 1-Kreg right angle clamp and 2- kreg small clamps,and two boxes of 100 each 1.25 inch pocket hole screws to make your life easy and get a great fit in your build. 

Length of Time 

Altogether it took me 22 hours over 4 days at an easy pace.

Lumber Used 

I would like to make a couple of comments on the plans and maybe a tip or two for anyone considering this project. First, I noticed the plan did not include a rear interior frame so I added one to add extra rigidity. Also, the added rear interior frame allows the back rest stand to slide under the back rest without touching the ground.

I tried to show as many angles on the rear interior frame so you can see the placement. Basically, it sits just under where the back part of the original interior frame is placed. The dimensions are 26” wide and 21.75” long (or built so it fits flush with the bottom end of the front interior frame and the bottom of the last adjustment block support.

Secondly, the instructions and drawings on adding the legs did not make any mention of how the legs will be attached to the frame until Step 8. The picture in Step 8 has vertical pocket holes showing on the length part of the exterior frame (you need these to attach the legs), but when building the exterior frame in Step 1 there is no mention of adding those vertical pocket holes. This becomes a serious problem when you get to step 8 and there is no way to attach the legs to the frame using the Kreg jig. My fix to this was to attach 4 custom cut small blocks of wood with Kreg pocket holes (attached to the frame with 2 wood screws for each block) to the end areas of the inside of the external frame.

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