Instructions for Cardboard Chair
1) Get some sturdy cardboard. The point of the chair is to be environmentally friendly though, so find some used cardboard somewhere instead of buying your materials
2) Cut out the back as a rectangle with the fold down the middle.
3) Cut a very shallow V from the bottom of the back to cause it to tilt backwards. About 1.5" at the fold.
4) Cut the sides. They are simple rectangles and will be mirror images of each other.
5) Choose how high you want the seat to be.
6) Cut slots in the bottom of the back parallel to the long edges to accommodate the sides. The slots should be less than the height of the seat chosen.
7) Cut matching slots in the sides. These slots have to be at an angle to match the tilt of the back, and long enough to reach down to the top of the slots in the back.
8)Cut the support beams and seat.
9) Fold the beams twice along their length to give a triangular cross section.
10) Cut holes to receive the beams. The holes should be triangular with the top of the triangle parallel to the bottom of the side. The fit should be snug. The holes on opposite sides should be the same, but front and back holes might be different if your beams' cross-sections are not equilateral (As seen in case.)
11) Cut a slot in the back at the appropriate height to receive the seat. Note that as the back slants and is bent, the slot is not straight (the halves should be parallel to the `V' at the bottom, and should be symmetric. The slot will have to be wider than the seat thickness because it's oblique, and the distance of the slot from the bottom is more than the distance of the seat from the ground.
12)Slot the back into each of the sides.
13) Push the beams through the holes. Pushing them outwards from the inside, both through one side first should be easiest.
14) Slide the seat through the slot in the back from in front. The seat should be supported by the bottom of the slot and the tops of the beams.
15) Cut arms in the sides according to your taste, comfort, artistic flair.
16) For extra strength, this model of chair has additional supports made of U-folded rectangles of cardboard. These help to stop the back and sides moving relative to each other about the weak slot joint. For each of these, (there are four- one at the top and bottom of each of the side/back joints). cut short parallel slots in the back (side) so that one falls on either side of the side (back). Push the U-shaped piece through both slots when the chair is assembled, to strengthen the joint as shown below.
