Messages

wow you guys are sharp, I never thought about the pieced together edge wire. Not good, meaning I should make a new one in one piece? Or I should bend the exposed ends of the edge wire in toward the center of the chair, is that what you're saying? Sorry to be dense, not sure how to bend edge wire once it's attached to the springs - don't I need to use a vise to bend edge wire? I am a wee lass of 115 lb, but I can always call for reinforcements...

The seat does have a loose cushion, so I can see how the way it is tied now won't look good, it will have a gap between the cushion and the front edge. I probably do have more questions, but for now I will take the seat apart and give it another try.

Much thanks to sofadoc and MinUph for the suggestions! I can see now what would go wrong if I left it the way it is. I will be taking it apart and reposting a pic before I move on.

Any comment on whether the 10" springs are the right size? Perhaps 8" springs would not be so difficult to tie and would have more spring (!) after they were tied? I believe the front edge wire height is about 6".

I figure the tops of the coils need to be just below the arm and back stretcher rails, so the front edge wire should be 1" above those? I do have the original height marked (black marker on the picture), but it would be good to know how to figure it out myself.

Hello!

I am reupholstering an old overstuffed chair (had horsehair for stuffing), and my question has to do with the coil springs.

I have tied coil springs maybe a dozen times so far (I do chairs for myself and for friends/acquaintances), I feel okay but not completely confident about the general procedure. On this particular chair, the springs are 10" high uncompressed, and to tie them down to where they were originally would compress them to 6" or less. I wasn't sure whether this was okay, because I've read that springs should only be compressed by 2 to 3 inches (on this forum and in other places).

Anyway, I was very fortunate to find an upholsterer near by who was willing to look at the chair, and go over the spring tying process with me. He was okay with the amount of compression needed. But, when we were finished tying the
springs, the edge wire ended up maybe 1 1/2 inches behind the front rail, not flush with it.

So - are the springs too tall? If they're not, does the whole job still need to be redone so the edgewire ends up directly above the front rail? Will this cause any problems down the road? Or can I just use extra padding there?

Here are a couple of pics that might help show what I'm talking about:
http://s1042.photobucket.com/albums/b430/mdyczewski/

Thanks for you help, I'd like to know the best way to tie springs.

Mary