So, I mentioned my Adirondack chair idea recently. Before I fully committed, I wanted to see if the wood was even viable. I pried a couple representative boards off the fence to see what they would look like if I cleaned them up.

The fence is made from Western Red Cedar. I don’t know how long it has been up, but I would guess 30 years at least. While that is a familiar wood, it is not something I have done any kind of ‘fine(r) woodworking’ with. What I mean is as rough as the boards were, I wasn’t sure how good of chair they would make.

I think the nominal fence picket is 5/8″ thick. Once I surfaced the boards, they were more like 3/8″. Laminating three boards together, gave me approximately one inch of thickness. That means for the structure of the chairs, I will probably need two or three boards per piece. That is time to surface more boards, glue and clamp and waiting for them to dry.

Doing things in this way, means that the overall construction process will be much longer than the half day I was talking about when I introduced my thoughts. So, the initial idea was inspired by having the materials and the time investment is low. This gives me pause in actually committing to this. I really want to do it, but honestly, I cant invest the time (this summer).

There is a secondary concern as well. Since I am paying someone to dismantle the fence, I will only be able to get the boards if I am available when the work is done. I could ask to have them save panels, but I don’t want to end up with a bunch of extra waste either. Based on those factors, the go ahead with this project is still to be determined.

End Your Programming Routine: If this were strictly a business decision, the answer would be no. Time is too valuable and the timing is wrong. All things being equal, If I had a stack of lumber I would make time later. It is going to boil down to whether I am around to get the boards in the first place and then it will happen some time after I finish the siding this summer.