We Built OSB Dining Chairs! With Template

We are getting pretty creative with this week's project, OSB Dining Chairs! Super fun. So for materials, we are using OSB plywood and 1 sheet will make a chair and a half, depending on how you lay it out. We could have gotten 2 full chairs out of this, but we laid it out wrong, oops! So, you'll need 2 sheets for 4 chairs.

We created full-size templates for you to use for this chair and they can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/Diningchairstemplate

Supplies

- 2 sheets of 4x8 OSB panels

- wood glue

- clamps

- pin nailer/screws

-Flush trim router Bit

-1/2" Round-over Router Bit

- finish of your choice

Step 1: Templates

We made templates for these chairs and you have the option of ordering a physical template made out of MDF or a printable version. You can get those here! This also comes with the set of plans. There's also a template on how to lay out the chair profiles on the OSB sheets.

First off, we can go ahead and trace those templates to the OSB.

After we traced as many templates onto the OSB sheet as we can, we can grab our circular saw and start cutting. Because we are trying to maximize the use of the plywood, we had to trace the templates out in tricky situations when it comes to cutting. Dylan had to make a lot of these plunge cuts with the circular saw, and that's a little advanced. Stick to the jigsaw if you're not comfortable with the circular saw. After we used the circular saw to cut as much as we could, we then came back with a jigsaw to finish up where the circular saw couldn't. These pieces are also getting cut about 1/4" oversized all the way around. This way we can router off the edges with a flush trim router bit and get the piece to the exact dimensions we need.

Step 2: Using the Templates to Router Out OSB Pieces

We are going to attach the original MDF templates to the OSB pieces with a few screws and take them to the router to finish them off. You could tape these pieces together, but since OSB is such a random pattern you will hardly notice the screw hole and you can always come back and fill them in if you are too worried about it.

Using that flush trim bit at the router table, we can clean up the edges and make them flush to the template. Remember that we need two of each template, so after the first one is routered out, we can attach that OSB piece to the other matching side. This is so we have a more sturdy "template" to do the next one. Then just repeat the process for the other two sides.

Step 3: Sand

When they are all routered, we brought out the belt sander with 80 grit to take away a lot of the OSB texture. Then used the orbital sander with 120 grit to sand smooth. You want to do this to every side, but not the edges quite yet. We will do those at the end when the chairs are assembled.

Step 4: Glue Up the Sides and Cut Out the Back and Seat

Back in the shop, it's time to glue the sides up. Laying down the outer side piece first and then the inner piece on top, we traced around the inner piece so we know not to put glue where they don't overlap. Then took them apart, laid and brushed on the glue, put them back together, and used our pin nailer to hold it all together while they dry. After the second side was done, we clamped them all together for about an hour to let dry.

While those dry we need to cut out the seat and back of the chair using some scrap pieces. We wanted the back of the chair to be a little different and have the OSB pattern be turned 45°. Could you tell that OSB has a pattern? It's kind of like an up and down type of thing. So we cut those back pieces accordingly on the table saw.

Back on the router table, we rounded over the seat edge where your legs come over and the opposite side so it would slide right into the sides. We also rounded over the seat back on one edge so, again, it would slide into the side pieces just about perfectly.

Step 5: Dry Fit

Now we can put it all together for a dry fit! When we got it all together we noticed we needed to cut down the seat a bit and then angle the top of the back piece before we glued up. Also, we want to add a little stretcher underneath the seat and we wanted to inset it. So we used a chisel to cut away material for that piece to sit into. This is updated in the templates, so no worries!

Step 6: Final Glue Up

Now the glue up! We put glue in the side pieces and slid the seat and back into place. We also used pin nails here to hold it together while the glue dries. Just having the glue and pin nails is plenty strong, but you can totally screw some finish head screws into place if you wanted.

Step 7: Sand Edges

After the glue dries, we came in and sanded the edges down with the belt sander to get everything smooth.

Step 8: Finish

For the finish, we decided to use the Total Boat Penetrating Epoxy to make sure all the OSB particles are put down and stay down. Then, after a few layers and a few days of drying, we sanded one more time and we are done!

Step 9: All Done!

We now have some dining chairs that we made for the Modern Dining Table that we also made. The apartment is slowly, well it's pretty much filled with things we have made and I love it!