Kid's Chair - Need Design Advice

[BrentDH]

I am building a set of two chairs and a table for my grandkids.  I found this plan on-line from the Anna White website.  Everything there is a little crude because it is built with construction lumber, but the plan is good and with some refinement and by using solid hardwood the final product should be fine.

I am building it out of solid oak and have all of the parts complete except for the seats.  I am at the sanding step so I have not glued anything together yet.  Everything is mortises and loose tenons.  I have glued up blanks for the seats but have not started cutting them to shape yet.

So the solid hardwood seat is where I need some advice.  It seems to me that the grain in the seat should go front to back.  With the part of the seat in the back wedged between the back legs I am anticipating expansion problems where the seat will want to push the back legs apart as it grows with humidity.  The original plan used some plywood product so it was no big deal for them.

As I see it, I have two choices.  One, I could leave a 1/16th gap (make that 8" dimension 7 7/8") on each side which will look to the casual observer like I couldn't make an accurate cut.  Two, I could run the grain side to side and the expansion would be in a direction that is not confined.  I plan to use "Z" fasteners in a slot to hold the seat on.  

One more caveat to option two.  My chair seat blanks are done and the long grain dimension is a little under 11 3/4" which is actually too short to give the 1/2" overhang in the plan.  It would be closer to 1/4" by the time I trim the blank to final size.

One more less desirable solution would be to cut the 8" rails off to 7 1/2" to "buy" back the overhang but mortises the mortises are already cut and that would change their depth. 

What would you do?

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[cme4dk]

I would do option 2.  If for no other reason the edge grain will be smoother on the kids legs then the end grain.  1/4 inch overhang is not a big deal although a 1/2 inch overhang will look better.

jay

[Alan S]

I agree that 1/4" overhang should work fine.

Another option that would allow expansion room for front-to-back grain orientation would be to cut small dados in the insides of the legs to house the expansion.  This would make it invisible, and the legs seem solid enough that they'd be plenty strong still.

[Bob Vaughan]

I would do option 2.  If for no other reason the edge grain will be smoother on the kids legs then the end grain.  1/4 inch overhang is not a big deal although a 1/2 inch overhang will look better.

jay

Agreed.
I just looked at some I did in April and that's the way a ran the seat grain.

   

[BrentDH]

Agreed.
I just looked at some I did in April and that's the way a ran the seat grain.

Those are very nice. Too bad I didn’t ask here before I started because I like your plan better. Much sleeker. Mine are a bit clunky.

Do you have some approximate dimensions handy?

[Bob Vaughan]

Those are very nice. Too bad I didn’t ask here before I started because I like your plan better. Much sleeker. Mine are a bit clunky.

Do you have some approximate dimensions handy?

I did two sizes to compensate for growth, one set for parents, one set for grand parents.

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