adirondack design questions

[Rob Price]

See my earlier gloat for the Ipe I scored... now to make some chairs for the new deck (the deck is NOT Ipe- do I look like Bill Gates?)

Norm's design seems to get general high praise as being a comfortable chair and being easy on materials. His most current plans have a flat front to mate up with the leg rest. I'm not sure I want to do the leg rest. I think I like the rounded edge up front. He also uses some pretty wide slats across the back. To me, some thinner slats across the back would be more comfortable. Plus, I'm using decking that has been dressed at 5.25 wide, and if I cut the slats at 3.5 that gives me a bunch of 1.5 waste strips. Instead I'm thinking 2.5 slats for the back to get better use of my materials and thinner for chair. I found a sketchup model by "JC" which is a wider version of Norm's chair with thinner seat slats i can play with.

I have also seen Jake's Chair highly recommended. To me, Norm's design looks a little simpler to build, but I think I'm going to use the same basic slat pattern from Jake's Chair across the back, and round the front off like Jake's Chair- or just build Jake's Chair. Any sketchup models out there of Jake's Chair?

Any other thoughts from anyone who's tried both?

EDIT: I found this website http://www.twistedknotwoodshop.com/jakes-chair.htm, that has some CAD drawings of Jake's Chair. Unfortunately the free viewer they link to is for Windoze, and I'm on a Mac. Anyone out there have the ability to convert these to a Sketchup friendly view? Just curious. Thanks.

[Rick Moyer]

I've made probably 16 Jake's Chairs over the years and I highly recommend them for comfort. I also think they look better than most other adirondack chairs. I think you're right in your wanting narrower slats, as this will allow a little give; thereby making the chair more comfortable. I suspect if you search for Jake's chair you should be able to download the patterns and instructions. I don't have a link for you. I have not built any other designs so I can't compare.
If you do go with Jake's chair design, I have found that the original size is a bit too big (I am 250 lbs.). After making a few, I narrowed the subsequent ones by about 1 1/2 to 2 inches. I think my seat slats are now 25" instead of 27 1/2" on the original design. Of course you have to change all the other l-r pcs. accordingly. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

Oh, another thing. A place to prop your feet up is nice, but it will require quite a bit more board feet. You could probably make that call after making the chair(s).

[Bill Huber]

There are tons of different plans out there, the one I settled on was the Lee Valley ones, they really set nice. I did find that I liked them about 2" wider then the plans called for but that was about the only changes I made.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...158,46162&ap=2

I used Cyprus and Redwood, I made the most out of Cyprus, they really look good now after being outside for the last few years. I used brass screws on the Redwood but that cost just to much so I then went to deck screws.

C-chair.jpg R-chair.jpg

[Von Bickley]

Rob,
I have used Norm's plans for several chairs and have been well pleased with the design. My suggestion for you would be to make a set of templates for the arms, legs, curved back piece, and support for under the arm. The templates will take a little bit of time but will really help in building your chairs. They will also come in handy for future chairs.

One other suggestion..... If you are building these chairs from Ipe, build them in place so you won't have to move them. That is some heavy wood......


Rob,
What part of GA are you in? I'm in SC at exit 39 on I-20....... Not far from Augusta.

[Jeff Monson]

I will 2nd Bills recemmondation, I have built 2 of the Lee Valley chairs, I really like the patterns. I built a foldup model last summer from the same plans. Very comfortable also.

[kent borcherding]

there are many good designs, VERY IMPORTANT to keep the space between the seat boards about 1/8" spacing .

reason small children will want to climb up on chair or get off chair , if spaced to wide small fingers can become caught.

I was second old`est of 11 children , I may sometimes be too cautious , but I sure enjoy all children.

[doug faist]

I'll second the motion on building Jake's Chair. I've made them from Pine, Cyprus, Redwood and Mahogany. The Cyprus chairs seem to weather best; no finish, just keep them on a firm surface where they aren't sitting in pools of water after a rain.

Comfortable as all get out and the arms are wide enough to hold your elbows AND your favorite beverage!

Have fun with your project.

Doug

[John A. Scott]

A few years ago I made a couple using Scott Masi's plan in FWW (May/June 1999 #136) with some minor modifications. I used mahogany and liked how they turned out.
Chairs.jpg

[Rob Price]

the Ipe I have is all decking, so it's 5.25" wide, and I noticed a lot of the parts for Jake's chair require much wider lumber. I'm sure I could modify things here and there, but as these are my first chairs I'm still wrapping my head around how everything goes together so I'm going to stick with Norm's plan but with narrow slats across the back- since his uses basically 1x6 lumber. Instead of a 3.5" slats for the back, I'll rip what I have in half and not have a bunch of waste. I'm thinking I can get 3x1 5/8" slats out of each length of board for the seat. Plus, with Norm's plans, I can just barely get two chairs out of what I have without buying more lumber. I got this batch left over from a friend for about $2BF, if I need extra it's gonna cost me full price. Trust me, I'm not the 'experiment with Ipe' kind of guy, this lumber basically fell into my lap.

I did make templates of all the curved pieces out of some scrap 1/4 ply I had lying around. I'm going to build the first chair to be sure I don't want to tweak the design or anything (I may widen out the chair a bit) before I build the second.

Wish me luck. My brown trim head screws came in from McFeely's and they are a perfect match.

[Rick Moyer]

Since this is the maiden voyage and the price of a mistake is high, you might consider buying some really cheap lumber equal to your Ipe b.f., and make a test version. That would allow you to see if you have enough, modify anything you need to, and also see if the design is acceptable.

[hank dekeyser]

Since this is the maiden voyage and the price of a mistake is high, you might consider buying some really cheap lumber equal to your Ipe b.f., and make a test version. That would allow you to see if you have enough, modify anything you need to, and also see if the design is acceptable.

I couldnt agree more ! When I work out the bugs on a new design, I'll grab whatever I can find, pallets, scraps, cut-offs, anything. Also you don't need to do a "full" piece. Instead of an entire seat or back just do a 2" long section to work on the spacing or whatever ?? Just a thought.

[Geoff Potter]

+1 on the Lee Valley plans. Here is my version built as a rocker with Cypress.

[Andrew Gibson]

I used the plan from popular mechanics... http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...sign-questions
I modified a couple smaller points and added the lobster claws... at the request of my Fiancé's Aunt.
The chair turned out quite comfortably

[Rob Price]

Okay, thanks again for all the input. The first chair is done. I stuck pretty close to Norm's plans except for skinnier back and seat slats. I just finished wiping on a bit of teak oil. I know some people say Ipe doesn't need anything, but I've also heard it can gray like any other wood, so hopefully a little bit of this every year will help.

The chair is absolutely comfortable. I'm thrilled. I'm a big guy (6'6" former defensive end) and Norm's chair seems to be on smaller end, but I fit in this chair no problem, the 27" wide Jake's Chair must be a throne.

The side picture is probably most representative of the color. You can't tell from the pics, but each matching slat across the back was ripped from one deck board, so the grain is symmetric across the back. (tall to tall, med to med, small to small etc). I also ripped the seat slats and kept the slats in order so the grain flows across three slats at a time.