On my first two pieces - King's Adirondack chairs

[bradleyheathhays]

I'm just starting off on my first two commissioned pieces, two of Mr. King's very fine Adirondack chairs. I visited this particular local lumber yard this past weekend as I thought they had some Eastern Red Cedar that would've worked well, but since it was only 4/4 I ended up going with their 6/4 Red Oak as that's what the owner suggested. I haven't seen anyone make one of these chairs out of Oak yet so I hope I haven't shot myself in the foot here. These things are gonna be SO heavy, but I guess that's why they have wheels.

Since I've never worked with anything this dense before I thought I'd write to ask about the ins and outs of working with this heftier wood. I've got some good machines to help get it done... table saw, router table w/ lift, thickness planer, jointer, band saw, belt sander, part templates, etc. So no excuse I can't make this happen! I've read some instances where these chairs can rack so I'm concerned using a heavier wood will make them more prone. These are both to be painted solid white (filling all screw holes with dowels) and I'm wondering if the liberal use of glue in all the joints would help any with it's rigidity. I haven't seen the idea mentioned one way or the other. I'd be glad to go through the extra effort of using glue but I'm actually thinking that it might not do a joint any good where the two surfaces weren't previously machined to meet each other exactly flat.

Also, I'm wondering about the finish coats. The clients are requesting white, and because they're well traveled they're imagining the Adirondack chairs they've seen at high end country clubs and they're wanting something that resembles those... and all I know to do is ask the pimple face kid at the HD paint desk for something exterior grade. Should I just do a color coat or do some kind of clear as well? I just don't know how this is best done for exterior furniture. I'd actually like to get some kind of paint gun and give that a go since I've got a big enough compressor to push one now.

Here's what I'm looking to make... All advice appreciated.

 

[okeydokey]

Just some rambling thoughts - I am not usually so pessimistic
If the weather in Lexington is a mixture of wet and dry the (oak) wood (and joints) will suffer the same so it will shrink and expand and unless it gets a chance to properly dry then rot and discoloration will set in.
However the wood is painted, e.g. external solvent or oil based or acrylic it surely will crack at every joint admitting water which will seep under the paint.
But hopefully not

Perhaps there is a Sikkens or similar product that would protect the wood but leaving it a natural colour.
Good luck with your project

 

[Sgian Dubh]

I visited this particular local lumber yard this past weekend as I thought they had some Eastern Red Cedar that would've worked well, I ended up going with their 6/4 Red Oak as that's what the owner suggested.

I'm a bit surprised the owner of the lumber yard suggested red oak, and sent you off with it, because it's classed as non-durable in ground contact. In other words, it's not a great material for exterior use. It wouldn't be my choice, anyway and if I was going to use oak I'd have selected a white oak, which is durable.

As to construction, just use good quality joinery if you can along with waterproof adhesive, but Adirondack chairs are pretty basic really generally needing no more than a few mortice and tenons and bits screwed together - they're never what you might think of as sophisticatedly put together. The 'heaviness' and the 'hardness' of red oak is not an issue as far as I'm concerned.

As to paint, which will almost certainly be your best option, I'm not sure what brands are available in the US now having moved away from there twenty years ago, but a high end brand of oil (solvent) based paint will offer good protection, probably better than any other finish. Whatever gets applied will need regular maintenance (sanding + repainting) every two or three years if the chairs remain outdoors all year round in tough conditions, i.e., lots of hot sun, rain, harsh icy and snowy winters, and the like, and I know you get all that in Kentucky. Slainte.

 

[Cordy]

@bradleyheathhay​

Go Eastern Red Cedar every time
much better for Adirondacks
The above are Pine, but my preferred choice now is Red Cedar -- much lighter in weight too !
I commit the sacrilege of treating with 2 pot Sikkens
I will post photo if I can find it later
good luck
John

 

[rs6mra]

@Cordy how much timber do you use towards a single Adirondack and what size do you normally opt for?
I have just made up the templates for mine and ready to go to stage 2.

 

[Cordy]

@

rs6mra; Hi Just measured the thickness of chair arms and back slats both about 22mm​

Instead of drilling and plugging the holes I used pocket hole joinery and drilled from the underside. More work but neater and better weather proofing.
Mr King's chair does nothing for me, far too many chances for water ingression.

LOOK HERE

Edit
I contacted Steve Shanesy to show him my effort. -- as per photo above
Although now retired from the editor position, he was kind enough to reply.

 

[Cabinetman]

Being an inventive and unconventional sort of person who doesn’t trust other people’s designs and ideas, I would want to build an adjustable one to check out the seating position. It also may be that your client may want his to be different to his wife’s? Custom made to individuals leg length etc, it might be a good selling point!
Turn up with an adjustable one, set it up to each persons personal preference and then make them individual.
Looking at this view of the chairs I think the parts will all be the same just fastened in different places.
Ian

 

[duke]

Ian we used to have a few adjustable adirondack/ muskoka chairs oh say 26 yrs ago and being able to set your back rest was the only way I could use them without pain.

 

[johnnyb]

I've made loads of these over the years and glue is basically unnecessary. Use deck screws. Carefully countersink and leave then on show(stainless works as well) the coach screws stainless. The paint is interesting because I can show the difference paint (on softwood the gray chair) v oil on hardwood(the reddy chair) over many years as the same chairs are sitting on my porch!
I sprayed them with barn paint(water based) two coats whilst in bits and one coat when assembled that left the many bits hidden by other bits fully painted. The final coat was just to even the colour and paint the screws.
The reddy one was hand finished and the first one I made(using spokeshaves drawknives planes etc) I always do this before speeding it up for subsequent ones. It always results in a really crisp tailored finish but takes an eternity!

 

[johnnyb]

These were sapele which took paint well. And also in the sprayshop.

 

[johnnyb]

Showing the same chairs from 2021 to this morning!

 

[rs6mra]

@johnnyb Assuming you use 6x1 timber, how many metres does it take to make a chair

 

[rob1693]

These werea couple I made using norm Abrahams plans available online from fine woodworking

 

[johnnyb]

I started redwood pine ones with par 9 by 1. Maybe 6 or 7m. Preferably 22mm sometimes 8 by 1 as it gives less sapwood. Don't use spruce it's poo.
Hardwood ones are from inch boards but they all finish at slightly different thicknesses. But thick (23-23mm) for the arms and structure. Then thinner for the slats is best(20-18mm) simply for the weight reduction.
It's all remarkably straightforward generally once you have a set of templates. The most complex thing is cutting and spacing the back slats which are both tapered and have tapered gaps with a circle based fan.
I can describe how I did it if your interested. These are the visual excitement in these really.