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Thread: Adirondack chairs - your material of choice?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    Maine
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    Adirondack chairs - your material of choice?

    I've been making a bunch of these for family members. I've been using cypress as that was the wood recommended in the plans I'm using. Some of the parts on a chair made last fall are splitting! On one other part, the cypress seems to be separating at the growth layer. My wood was kiln dried and I'm somewhat puzzled over what I'm seeing.

    What wood do you use for your outside projects? And what does it cost - roughly - per board foot in your area? Thanks!
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    Jim Mackell
    Arundel, ME

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
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    Ft. Wayne, IN
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    I plan on making a set for my sister & brother-in-law and a set for us. I figure as long as I'm making setups to cut & shape the material for one set, I might as well make a second set. I plan on using White Oak, and then finishing it with General Finishes Outdoor Oil.
    "I've cut the dang thing three times and it's STILL too darn short"
    Name withheld to protect the guilty

    Stew Hagerty

  3. #3
    Cedar seems to be the overwhelming choice here in central Texas. Locally abundant. One of my customers makes (or used to) adirondack chairs out of Ipe. Expensive and tough on tools but they lasted forever.

    Erik
    Ex-SCM and Felder rep

  4. #4
    In 2008 I made 6 of them, one out of redwood and the other 5 out of cypress they are all still going and have been out in the weather for the last 7 years.
    I did have one arm that cracked on one of the cypress chairs but it was not a bad crack and I just left it, it has not gotten any bigger.

    I also made a test chair out of pine and it is still going but it does have a few cracks in it.

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  5. #5
    Join Date
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    I was recently at the Bitter End Virgin Gorda and they had a plastic (Azek?) beach chair I thought remarkable. It was comfortable, and designed to be built with a minimal number of sheets of Azek, minimal milling, and no visible fasteners. While not a fan of many of the engineered plastics, this caught my eye as a directional movement. Sorry about the crummy photo.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  6. #6
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    Jan 2007
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    central PA
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    1,774
    I've made a bunch out of Koma pvc fascia board if they're going to be out in the weather (left in yard all summer). I really prefer real wooden ones though, but anything wood isn't going to look new after a while if it's not thoroughly maintained. I made one for our screened-in back porch out of cypress and put two coats of spar varnish on it. It can only get rained on indirectly (laterally), same with sunshine, so it still looks great after several years. I was able to get cypress in 9 inch widths but it was around $5/sf I think.

    p.s. You may want to search for "Jake's Chair". It's the design I used and the chairs are VERY comfortable. I did make them two inches narrower as they are quite large in original dimensions, and I'm 260 lbs right now and have plenty of room at 25" wide.

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    Last edited by Rick Moyer; 03-27-2015 at 4:19 PM. Reason: added comment and pic

  7. #7
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    Central Illinois
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    Cypress. :-)

  8. #8
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    Aug 2009
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    Bulverde Tx.
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    I would use cedar.

  9. #9
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    Nov 2007
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    NW Indiana
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    3,076
    Built mine out of cypress and painted them. They are still greAt after 6 years.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    East Rochester, NY
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    I've used cedar and white oak. I prefer white oak tho' because I like the way it looks. does make a heavier chair too.

  11. #11
    I made some out of red cedar. They crack if you do not countersink the screws and also be careful of over-tightening. It is soft wood and easy to mill and lasts a good while.

  12. #12
    I have planned to build a few chairs like this this summer, I got some impregnated wood that's rated OK for outdoors furniture, the deck of my house is built from the same stuff so I have this "for free" so to speak, the material is pine. Otherwise I'd use surplus construction lumber. Reasons being it's cheap.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    British Columbia
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    I used the boards from my cedar fence that had been blown over in a windstorm. Fence was 15yrs. old already. I had expected the chairs to hold together for just a few years but more than 10yrs. later they're stil hanging in there. Don't bother varnishing because it'll just peel off from sitting outside. If you prefer color use an oil based exterior house stain.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    Virginia
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    For a mutual friend's restaurant/inn, a local woodworker made some Adirondack chairs out of cherry, which he painted; I thought that an unusual choice for outdoor use but he assured me that cherry was actually quite good out in the elements.

    Not. They started rotting at the screws and only got worse from there.

    I'm a bit surprised that the cypress degraded, but I don't have much experience with it for outdoor use; I guess I'd use either redwood or cedar, but if I had a bunch of inexpensive genuine Mahogany (I know, a contradiction in terms), that might be my choice.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2012
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frank Drew View Post
    a local woodworker made some Adirondack chairs out of cherry, which he painted; I thought that an unusual choice for outdoor use but he assured me that cherry was actually quite good out in the elements. ... I'm a bit surprised that the cypress degraded
    Cherry is not at all rot resistant in my experience, whereas Cypress ranges from moderate to extremely rot resistant depending on heartwood. Other local eastern hardwoods that are renewable (grows fast with no terminal pathogens ... yet) are Black locust (exceptional), Honey locust (moderate) and White oak (highly). I've used unprotected Black locust in outdoor projects with great success. White oak, at least in my experience needs protection. Chestnut is a wonderful wood to work, but in my experience (considerable) at least ethically should be evaluated carefully for use in that type of project. Chestnut sapwood seems to have very little rot resistance ... on par with Poplar. Heartwood would likely come from a century old reuse and I'd have to think carefully about using for an "ephemeral" outdoor furniture project.

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