Replies

1. 
   zanderzone44 | Jun 06, 2019 12:06am | #1

   I live in southern VA and found that Steve Wall Lumber sells cypress and I am in the middle of building an Adirondack Chair myself using cypress. I have not used it previously but found that it is nice to work with but I noticed that my boards had lots of built in tension when I tried to bandsaw out the rough template shape. To maximize grain appearance and strength, I ended up having lots of scrap. Anyways, Steve Wall can send you the lumber if you do not find a local source. Good Luck!

1. 
   user-6551837 | Jun 06, 2019 09:41pm | #3

   Thank you, Zanderzone44, for your suggestion on this source of cypress. Based on your suggestion, I've checked out the website of Steve Wall Lumber. I'm glad to know about them, especially since they ship 20 bf bundles.

2. 
   rob_ss | Jun 06, 2019 07:37am | #2

   I made up this plan in Western Red Cedar.

   I am so pleased with the look and feel of it.
   It is the perfect outdoor chair as it is ridiculously comfortable without any cushions.
   This chair does not depend on screws for strength as all the load-bearing bits are glued and loose-tenoned and the parts that use screws don't carry much weight and they are I think plenty thick enough to hold without cracking. Certainly they have lasted 4 months outside without any issues. You could easily beef up the back lower support and even the back rail with some imagination on the bridle joints if you were concerned.

   With the Cedar I had the following issues (first time working with it)

   1. I smelled great after working in the shop!
   2. It is VERY soft so quite unforgiving of any bits lying around. Also unforgiving of anything but the sharpest chisel.
   3. You need to have a care with short grain on the curved legs as splintering is a risk. I ended up slightly undersize after correcting this.
   4. Even with a very good quality new router bit some tearout occurred making the slats. These are forgiving of sanding though so not a big issue. I can't spot the ones that are very slightly thinner.
   5. Cedar can vary in colour a lot. I bought only just enough for 2 chairs so had to make this work. If you can find a really dark piece for some of the slats it looks amazing.
   6. Cedar is very lightweight - this makes moving the chairs really easy. They will not blow away though.

   There were some errors in the free online plan so be careful - the back slats need to be 3/4 inch not the 1/2 inch stated (Tom uses 3/4 in the video) and I had trouble getting a 14 degree compound on the back lower support to work. I calculated it at 1.3 degrees and used 1.4 for a perfect fit assuming a decimal place error in the plan. This was one place where a test piece in pine saved my bacon. With 14 degrees, the chair would not sit square.

   If you were really worried about the screws then you could use dowels instead. I'd set up with screws first then remove them one at a time and drill for a dowel. Tedious but looks good in contrasting colour.

   So having made two in Cedar, I'd go for that, but I cannot personally vouch for longevity.

3. 
   user-6551837 | Jun 06, 2019 09:46pm | #4

   Thanks much, Rob_SS, for describing your experience with cedar. Very useful information. The light weight is an important feature I had not considered.
   I've not yet decided on which wood to use but red cedar is much easier for me to get locally than cypress, so I'm leaning in that direction.

4. 
   [email protected] | Jun 07, 2019 05:02pm | #5

   Its true that cypress has a reputation for rot resistance, but that, I think applies to first growth heart wood. What lumber yard are selling as cypress is not the same stuff. I made the mistake of using some on a repair to an older structure. Even with it being painted and elevated far from the ground it started to rot in a few years.

5. 
   user-7001732 | Jun 08, 2019 02:14pm | #6

   gates milling in gatesville nc is a good source for cypress phone number is 800.682.9663 nice people to work with