Alder Chair Build Started.

I have some alder poles that I cut and peeled a couple of years ago.  They have been seasoning in the overhead of my shop for at least 2 years now.

I had always intended to use them to make a chair or bench for the porch but have never gotten around to doing so.  Well, this evening I decided to start working on one.

First I selected one of the thicker poles.

I then cut the thick end to the length that looked about right for the seat.

Next I threw together a guide to plane one side down flat.  This will be the gluing surfaces for the two pieces I plan to cut from it.

After planing it on my joiner plane I used the band saw to cut it in half.  Then I cut the side opposite of the planed surface off to create another gluing surface.

I matched up the two original gluing surfaces and glued them together.

After they are dry, I will run them through the joiner again to flatten out the seat surface as my bandsaw cut was free hand and not as strait as it could have been.  I will make at least one more of these for the seat.  I am doing the seat in two parts because I do not have a planer that will handle larger than 4 inches.  The final smoothing will be done by hand after everything is glued together.

After looking at it, the seat may be a bit narrow but we will see how it comes out.  I still have to figure out how to do the legs and back.

I don't claim to be that good of a carpenter but at least I am willing to try.  If it works, wonderful.  But if it doesn't, well, at least I enjoyed the process and perhaps I will learn something while I am at it.

Who says you cant teach an old dog new tricks?