Adirondack Outdoor Furniture :: Chairs, Tables, Garden Benches

The Shape of Things to Come

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Well, I finally got around to sketching three new table and bench designs. I did a little 27" side table (above), a 36" bench (below) and a 47" bench (bringing up the rear).

Each piece is constructed with mortise and tenon joinery, has a "floating" top and doubled stretchers (triple on the 47" bench) that connect the lower side rails together to give the piece some added rigidity.

These are perspective drawings so things don't look rectilinear when they really are. And I haven't rounded over the edges in the drawings so the edges look sharper than they will be when the prototypes are actually built. And, as always, I build prototypes in order to tweak the design. So these drawings are preliminary sketches. The final product is likely to be similar, but not identical, to what you see here.

It's breezy and cold outside, but I'll be in my cozy little shop beginning work on the prototypes. Hope to have more to show you soon.

Technorati Tags: Outdoor furniture , Adirondack furniture

February Update

Brian Brown at PajamaMarket reviewed our little website back in September, but I only found out about it this week.  I enjoyed his review, if only because his critique was so accurate!  I sent Brian a note discussing the virtues and demerits of Typepad as my blogging platform, and he posted the whole thing with his comments here.  (Blogging software is a whole nuther topic for another day.) 

Anyway, Brian's review gave me the impetus to post an update for the pleasure of our carolina-adirondack-news-starved readers.  So here it is. 

With global warming and all, things have been pretty pleasant around here the past couple of months.  Which makes me nervous because I like a little cold, a little snow, a little reminder that we have real seasons with real transitions between them.  Still, upstate New York probably isn't feeling the same way I'm feeling about the weather.  I suppose crazy weather is here to stay.

With the milder temps, I'm hoping to be in the shop this weekend doing a winter cleaning: sweeping, vacuuming, waxing and adjusting the engines of commerce.  And I'm hoping to get my sturdy little shop helper to join me (though he may have a game).  We've got lots of things that need attending to that typically get pushed aside in warmer months.

New Chair Design

Not really so new.  Not really so different.  The changes, in fact, are pretty subtle.  The front leg is a little wider and now mirrors the curve of the end of the back leg.  And some of the parts are beefed up a little bit.  But it's really the same chair. 

I drew this late last spring but have continued to build the standard chair.  If anyone is interested in a chair patterned after this design, just let me know.

Garden Bench Design Details

We’re offering the new garden bench in a 36" length which fits nicely with the 47" square dining table. But we’ve also done the bench in a 47" length for a set of 5-foot tables. The 47-inch bench is pictured above.

These garden benches incorporate a few design features I want to highlight. The first is the batten which you see peeking out at either end of the bench top. This is the thing that makes bench and table tops “float.” The slats of the bench top are fastened to these battens. The battens are then screwed to the frame of the bench.

This makes for a very secure method of construction and allows the slats to move without damaging the frame. Besides the structural benefits of the floating top, I’ve always liked its look. It works well with the new bench and table designs.

Garden Benches and the Mitered Leg

In a previous post we described the floating top and the edge profile we use in our benches and tables. Today we focus on the mitered leg.

A mitered leg is formed when two long pieces of wood are cut along their length at a 45-degree angle, then the two 45-degree surfaces are glued together to form a 90-degree angle. In the photo below, you see three sets of glued up legs for an order of benches. Above them is a set of table legs, a little longer and little wider than the bench legs. (By the way, that’s the frame of a prototype adirondack rocker next to the dining table legs.)

There are several excellent reasons to use mitered legs in outdoor furniture. In most conventional outdoor furniture, bolts are used to join legs to frames. Over time, these can work loose and weaken the joint. We’ve all sat on chairs or benches that highlight the I’m-Beginning-to-Fail Wobble. They don’t inspire confidence.

Our furniture is different. You can’t see it very well in the photograph below, but a little shelf called a “rabbet” was cut into the tops of the legs before the leg blanks were glued up to form the finished leg. The frames of the bench or dining table rest on these shelves.

(Technically, these shelves significantly reduce the “sheer” forces operating on the screw and glue joint and make the leg/frame joint quite strong.) So when you sit on one of our benches, your weight is not only resisted by stainless steel screws and waterproof glue but also by the shelves on the legs. On other benches, the bolt does all the work.

Bonsai/Garden Plant Stand: Developing a Prototype

I’ve been kicking around an idea for a low plant stand, pot stand, bonsai stand or knights-who-say-ni shrubbery display stand. Since this little stand is still in development, now's a good time to describe the process we use in developing a prototype of a new product.

The first step is the drawing. This was done on the proverbial napkin, but unfortunately that napkin has gone the way of all napkins so you’ll just have to imagine that there was a napkin and it had some scribble on it that resembled the stand and leave it at that.

The next step is to rough out the shape on some scrap stock. That’s what you see here. This produces a 3-dimensional object I can look at from all angles and modify as desired.

Continue to Part Two

Bonsai Plant Stand Design: Part Two

Once I’m satisfied with the shape, I make a template, use it to trace the design on scrap stock, then cut it out on the bandsaw. Here (sitting on the sunroof of the MINI Cooper to give it the pond effect) is the rough shape with notches cut out on one side for the battens and some scrap on top to simulate the deck of the stand.

Continue to Part 3 :: Back to Part 1

Bonsai Plant Stand Design: Part Three

Here’s another view of the same shape in sunlight. (I’ve marked the right side of the piece where the notches should be sawn out.)

The completed stand will have an identically-shaped piece maybe 12-18" behind the first piece and the decking will run parallel with these shapes. The slats of the decking are screwed to battens (the two ends you see protruding on the left of the picture). The battens, in turn, are screwed to these shapes. Should be pretty sturdy.

Once we decide on a final design, the template will be modified to reflect the final design. It can then be used over and over again.

Of course, the photos simply show the design in the rough. In the finished product, the wood will be milled flat and sanded smooth, the edges rounded over, the top slats rounded over and undercut, and a finish applied.

So that’s how a basic design begins. Pretty simple really (and a lot of fun).

Back to Part 2

Outdoor Furniture as Studio Furniture

We design outdoor furniture as if it were indoor furniture. By that I mean we think about it’s visual appeal as much as we do its function. Of course, being outdoor furniture, it has to stay together in a sometimes harsh environment so we don’t ignore that problem. But the first thing we think about is an appealing, distinctive design. In that sense, we're building a studio furniture/outdoor furniture hybrid. It' not typical home and garden fare.

So, while our company is Carolina Adirondack, we really have no interest in building just another adirondack chair in plastic or pine. That stuff has its place. Satisfying work means designing what you build and building what you design–beginning with rough drawings, then figuring out the joinery (how to engineer the piece to make it sturdy), then coming up with an orderly method of construction. That makes the shop a happy place to live and work! That's how we want to spend our time.

So if you're looking for something beautiful, well-built and distinctive, please give us a call! We'll be happy to build you the kind of furniture you'll really enjoy.

New Site for Adirondack Furniture

Well, we finally got everything migrated to the new website today. As I mentioned in the About Us section, we are experimenting with weblog software to make it easier to update this site with new products and timely information about what we do and how we do it. Woodworking is very satisfying, and part of the pleasure is sharing the process of designing and building a new piece of furniture with others.

So the plan is to open a window into the goings-on of a small shop and see where it leads us. As always, if you ever want to talk shop or order some furniture, just give us a call at (336) 577-3079.

Good Help

Here's the lead assistant in the shop, contemplating the rain and his sister's directions on a recent trip to Asheville.