Festool Contemporary Zigzag Chair Brochure

Festool zigzag chair brochure

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proect numer

high style plus utility in a

contemporary zigzag

It was a revolutionary design in the 1930s, but not everyone can

afford to sit on a piece of art. We work the best features of the original

Zigzag chair into a stylish and completely accessible chair

 y d a v i d d u n d a s

you can actually pull up to the dinner table.

he original Zigzag chair designed by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld in the 1930s is an iconic

piece of artwork. The cantilevered, Z-shaped chair looked deceptively simple but employed

masterful joinery and was hailed as a sublime example of minimalist design. It was not a chair you

would want to use for, say, everyday dining.

Nevertheless, with modern adhesives and joinery techniques, it is feasible to build a com-

fortable upholstered dining chair both reminiscent of Rietveld's Zigzag and strong enough for

everyday use. Our chair's cantilevered frame also gives it a slight comfortable

" ensuring that all the faces are square to one another.

Crosscut the parts for the feet, legs, seat side rails, back stiles, and back rails

from the 4' lengths according to the cut list. It is easier to achieve a consistent

length for the matching parts if you clamp a stop to a crosscut sled or use a miter

springiness.

To withstand structural stresses, the chair's

side assemblies must be made from a strong

hardwood such as jarrah, maple or white

oak. The seat cross-rails and the slip-seat

frame can be made from a secondary

hardwood. The chair's miter joints are

reinforced and locked with floating

tenons, epoxied, and pinned with brass

screws. We designed this chair to be built

using the Festool Domino tenon joiner.

Getting started

The visible parts of the chair can be made from an

8' board of 6"-wide 6/4 hardwood. Plane the board to a

thickness of 1

" and rip it into three lengths 1¾" wide. For

ease of handling, cut the three lengths in half to yield six 4'

lengths. Plane and joint each 4' piece so as to finish 1

gauge with a long fence and an adjustable stop. Mark

out 38" radius curves on the top edges of the back

Page 1 The chair’s miter joints are reinforced and locked with floating tenons, epoxied, and pinned with brass screws. We designed this chair to be built using the Festool Domino tenon joiner. " and rip it into three lengths 1¾" wide. For "x...
Page 2 rails, and bandsaw away the waste from their front faces. Use a random-orbit sander with progressively finer sanding disks to smooth and fair the curves. The hidden parts, the seat rails and the seat frame components, are made from an 8' board of ¾" x 2½" second- ary hardwood.
Page 3 | 0 5 . 0 7 tools, hardware & materials Festool Domino joiner, festool.com 6 x 19 x 40mm Domino (16) 10 x 23 x 50mm Domino (2) "...
Page 4 mortises 6mm x 19mm x 20mm deep unless otherwise noted Foot " " 3" " " " " " " End face of back rail " " ˚ miter face 25mm deep " 4" w w w o o d c r a f t a g a z i n e c o M ˚...
Page 5 proect numer grain of the back rails, seat rails, and stretcher are all centered in their end faces. Gluing the side assemblies Before you start to glue up the side w o o d c r a f t m a g a z i n e | 0 5 . 0 7 assemblies, bandsaw the waste from the underside of the feet and sand all the (Fig.
Page 6 feet on a level surface and clamp it (Fig. 9) until the epoxy has set When set, clean away the epoxy squeeze-out, give the chair a final sanding and finish with four coats of Fig. 10 Minwax Wipe-on Poly. shows a close-up of a finished miter joint.

Project number 70