Building an Adirondack Chair, Part 2
The first post on my adirondack chair project left off with the cutting and assembly about 3/4 done. Since then, I have finished the remaining construction items including the back and seat.
On these last construction items I also made a few adjustments to the Rockler plans to suit my own taste and standards. The support brace pictured below was needed to correct a small amount of warp in one of the big boards in the chair back. Considering the distance between the screw point in the back support and the top of the back boards, this kind of brace would probably be a good idea to prevent future warping even if the back looked perfect now without it.
Another deviation from the plan was to use some 1×2 lumber for the seat, instead of 1×4s. The plan called for all 1×4s for the seat, but I thought boards this wide would have the effect of straightening the curve in the seat bottom, reducing comfort. Instead, I used 1×4s on the flat sections at the front and rear of the seat, and narrower 1×2s on the curved section between them. The chair bottom is very comfortable this way, and the variety of board widths in the seat bottom has a cool look.
This photo shows the chair fully assembled, except for the back brace– you can really see the small warp by looking at the shadow in the middle of the chair back. My assistant is walking with ski poles in the background:
All the assembly screws are countersunk to a depth that allowed me to cover them with Abatron Wood Epox filler. I prefer a clean, hardware-free appearance on chairs like this. I’m still a newbie with the Wood Epox, though, and I always seem to mix too much…
After a final sanding, the chair should be ready for staining. I plan to do that over the weekend, so check back for the unveiling of the finished chair in a couple days.
Tags: adirondack, Carpentry, chair
3 Responses to “Building an Adirondack Chair, Part 2”
Wow, looks great! Curious, did you use any of that gorilla glue when putting this together? I finally bought some for the first time last month to find out what all the hype is about. I had an old dart board case… a cheap one made out of fibre board and badly weathered. I literally bumped it hard and the whole thing fell apart! I removed all the staples used the gorilla glue and nailed everything together, clamped it up and now you could not break this thing apart if you tried!
Good question! I glued many of the joints using gorilla brand wood glue. It applies and cleans up like basic wood glue, but is supposed to be stronger and is intended for outdoor use.
Would there be a way to purchase the plans for the adirondack chair. I enjoy making them and giving them as a gift to family members.
Thanks,
Dick Butts