Cedar Adirondack Chairs

[Mike O'Reilly]

Hi All,
Here a couple of Adirondack chairs that I have been working on.





Still need to stain/seal them. I am open to suggestions. I am also thinking of cutting down the table a couple of inches as well.

Mike

[John Keeton]

Nice patio set, Mike!! Is that the northern white cedar?

I agree on cutting the table down some. Much more comfortable setting a drink down on a surface lower than the armrest.

[Mike O'Reilly]

John,
I am not really sure. Lowes is selling it as Western Red Cedar. I bought a bunch of it on clearance. I will say that it has a lot of lighter shaded wood in it and it is really dry. I pre drilled all the screws to avoid splitting.
Mike

[Tony Perrone]

I have a chair that my great grandfather made out of nothern white cedar still in great shape. My dad is 70 and said he has baby pictures of him in the chairs, so I think you will have them for a while. I keep thinking of taking one apart and making a patern but I haven't had the time.

[Jim Terrill]

It looks like you used the plans for Jake's chair? I built the exact same thing out of Lowes cedar, though the wood I used is definitely eastern white cedar. I changed the plans by narrowing up the chair by 6" and finished it with Australian Timber Oil, they look great. I have gotten lots of compliments on them and one of my first projects once I get my router table up and running is to make a template and make a few more.

[Mike O'Reilly]

Jim,
How was the Australian Timber Oil? Is it easy to apply and does it hold up well? I bought the plans on ebay and made the templates like 4 years ago so I kinda forget who designed them.

Mike

[Jim Terrill]

Jim,
How was the Australian Timber Oil? Is it easy to apply and does it hold up well? I bought the plans on ebay and made the templates like 4 years ago so I kinda forget who designed them.

Mike

I only put on one coat and the wood was still soaking wet when I put it on, but it held up fine for a year. I'm going to put on another few coats this winter to get them ready for the spring, but even my single coat has held up well. I used shop rags to apply it and it came out well, pretty easy to apply.

Would have preferred to have the wood nice and dry before I built the chairs, but I was in a bit of a time crunch. FWIW, Lowes in NH and MA don't seem to carry the cedar decking anymore, which is disappointing, since that's what I built mine out of and it was pretty cheap.

[Mike O'Reilly]

Thanks Jim. They carry the Timber Oil at Lowes correct?

Mike

[Jim Terrill]

Yes, it's in with the stains. I bought a few small cans to find a color I liked, then bought a gallon.

[Mike O'Reilly]

Thanks Jim.

[Cody Colston]

That's a nice looking chair set. I made mine from Aromatic Cedar because that's what is abundant around here and I got it for free. Either one should give years of service with a little maintenance.

I agree on lowering the table a couple of inches, too.

[John Thompson]

Great job Mike as they look great. I would lower the table also as it would just seem more natural reaching down than across.

[Brad Westcott]

Very nice work. Should make the afternoons sitting outside a pleasant experience.

Thanks for sharing.

[Toby Peterson]

Mike - Nice work. Very nice. I have made 4 adirondack chairs. The first was made out of dimensional lumber becuase I had a lot of scraps at the time. It was rather crude, but the neighbor wanted it so I sold it to him for the cost of materials. The wind blows like crazy where we live, but that chair has not budged an inch.

The second one came about when my other neighbor tore off his front porch to build a larger porch. I reclaimed the wood and gave him a porch warming gift out of the wood from his old porch. They thanked me by saying they would like a matching table.

The third and fourth were made out of cedar and I painstakingly finished them to a glassy smooth surface (tung oil/poly). I'm not a finish expert, but these have held up pretty well. These chairs were given as gifts to my g/f's parents.

My only recommendation for your chairs is to put wood plugs in the screw holes and cut and sand smooth. If you don't want to do all the holes, at least do the armrests - especially at the end where people put their hands. I think you'll be glad you did.

One last thing, as people tend to hoist these by the arms, I found it a good idea to securely fasten the arms to the legs and the leg braces. You may have done this as it's hard to tell from the photos.

I enjoyed looking and sorry for the long post. Toby

[Mike O'Reilly]

Toby,
Thanks for the feedback. I used treated deck screws to avoid the rust situation. I like the idea of plugging the ones in the arms. Next ones I make I was considering pocket screws from below to avoid any holes in the arms.

Mike