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For the last few years, we had some of those plastic $20 Adirondack chairs in the garden. Well, the sun got to them, and the plastic became brittle.. (my story, and I'm sticking to it!)

Now I want to build some replacements, and I need to sound out an idea; for the parts of the chairs that are duplicated, like the side rails and arms, I plan to use some seasoned redwood 2x4's I have, by profiling the 2x4 (as usual, more 1/5" x 3.5") in one piece, and then ripping down the middle to make two identical pieces.

Will this work? Will 3/4" be thick enough for the side rails and arms of the chair anyway?

Matt
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PeteCon
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I agree with the Answer already posted by Ljk2000 that 3/4" material will probably prove sufficient. It's not ideal for every piece of an Adirondack but it should be good enough.

There is one additional concern however since you're ripping the wood down the centre (resawing as it's commonly referred to today), where there's a risk of the wood bending afterwards. Sometimes this happens because of stress in the wood being relieved and there's little to nothing you can do about that, it'll occur immediately after the wood is sawn.

Other times it's to do with unequal drying out of the two thinner pieces after cutting (because the original piece was slightly drier on the surface than in the interior) and this can be largely avoided. So I highly recommend after sawing that you immediately sticker the wood, with some heavy weights on top, and leave it for a couple of days minimum in your workshop to acclimate. Do not let it sit flat on a benchtop, you can virtually guarantee problems if you do that.

Graphus
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Yes, 3/4" thick should be just fine for the side rails and arms. It should be plenty sturdy and strong enough. I do not think there is much more to say to that....

Ljk2000
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