FAQs

I’m having a hard time finding CVG grade western red cedar, where do I find it? It obviously depends on where you’re located, but I’ve found the best source around DC by far to be Hicksville Planing Mill in Clear Springs, MD and then Vienna Hardwoods in VA. While I was in New England, my source was Downes & Reader Hardwood in Stoughton. It just takes some calling around to find the right place, especially when looking for clear grade cedar. Start first by googling “hardwood dealers” near you and you’ll find a lot of them will have it, but if they don’t they will know who does (the lumber world is a small world).

The CVG grade western red cedar that you use is really expensive, do you recommend any alternatives? The clear grade cedar has gotten stupid expensive here recently. I’d recommend looking into STK grade western red cedar (select tight knot). The CVG definitely visually looks the best, but with STK you can just position the pattern to cut around all of the worst knots. Besides cedar, cypress, white oak, and even pine is fairly weather resistant (just seal up the end grain on the legs really well)

You recommend 1″ for the final thickness of the material, can I get away with using only 3/4″ thick boards? Making the chairs from 1″ nominal (3/4” thick) stock is definitely doable and will probably hold up fine but I much prefer the true 1″ thick material for a robust chair that will last forever. 3/4″ won’t be as strong but should be fine if you can avoid any really bad knots in the material that you choose. I’ve made some with rough sawn 4/4 that I could plane down and get ~7/8″ out of and those were still good but I personally wouldn’t go thinner than that. Some slight modifications will need to be made in the design to accommodate thinner material including changing the notch in the main leg so it’s only as thick as your material and moving the top back support down slightly to compensate for the difference between it and the top of the back legs where you fasten it in place.

I can only find 5/4×6, but not 5/4×8, what should I do? 5/4×6 is a common dimension for decking, so it should be easy to find in most places. The only piece that is the full 7-1/4″ width is the arms, so you can either slim down the arms (which I definitely don’t prefer) or just get a limited amount of 5/4×8 for just the arms and use 5/4×6 for everything else. If your only option is to go for 2×8 and plane it down or glue together to get a wider piece, I’d recommend planing it down because a glue joint outside (even with epoxy) is typically not good for longevity. Also, the wider boards are more efficient for layout.

How long should the boards be that I purchase? I recommend the longest boards that you are able to carry because, like the wider 7-1/4″ material, your layout will be more efficient with less waste. I typically work with 13-16′ pieces, but you can definitely build the chairs from 8′ lumber if that is what your vehicle can handle.

I don’t have a plotter or can’t get access to one, how do I print your plans? The plans do include a full scale template that you can print out if you have access to a 36″ wide plotter (places like Staples, UPS, Kinkos, Wallgreens, etc, do large format printing like this). Alternatively, I have included this same template broken down into regular 8.5×11 paper size (or A4) that you tape together to get the full template. Also, if you don’t have access to a printer at all, I’ve included a 1″ scale grid on all of the pieces so that you can eyeball the lines onto your wood template using a grid.

I printed out the 8.5×11 template and taped it together, but the dimension don’t match what you show on the parts plan, what’s going on? When you print out the template make sure that page scaling is set to “none”. Typically it defaults to “Fit to Paper” which would create a discrepancy in the dimensions.

Can I get a CNC file, or at least an SVG to use to cut out some templates on my CNC? Yes, the full size template that is included with the plans is a PDF format, but you can pull the SVG data off of this because all of the lines for the parts are SVGs.

How much epoxy and varnish do I need to buy for a chair? For the single chair with the footrest I end up using about 1/2 of the quart kit of penetrating epoxy and almost a full quart of Halcyon, but I lay the varnish on pretty thick doing about 9 coats or so, but you could probably get away with a bit less.

For assembly step 8 you show the back sub-assembly, but no dimension. How far apart should the back supports go? The dimension between the back supports is shown on page “Parts Plan 2”, the upper support should be centered on the upper screw hole in part G.

There are 2 shorter seat slats between the front legs that are missing from the parts plans, where are they? I include those with the regular seat slats (Part L) because I cut them down to final length during the assembly process since there tends to be slight variation from chair to chair and this ensures a perfect fit (also, see assembly step 12).