Thin ca glue to seal end grain on chairs? Or epoxy?

Billm0066

Bill
User
I finished building adirondack chairs made from cypress. I was going to epoxy the feet but thought about using a thin ca glue instead. Or maybe ca glue first and then brush on a little epoxy over the top. Thin ca seems to do well to soak into wood, it just doesn't have a long dry time. I don't have a penetrating epoxy, just the regular stuff and honestly I don't want to spend any more money on these chairs. Chairs turned out great though. I used the plan from jackman works which has a built in ottoman thats stored inside the chair.

FYI I hate cypress. Will never work with it again if given the choice.
 

joec

joe
User
I love cypress, but you have to try to work with quartersawn if possible. Especially on arms and seat boards. The flatsawn cypress can actually "pop" a grain up off the surface and can make for a rough surface that you cannot sand away. I cut myself on one of these raised grain once.
 

Jeff

New User
Jeff
I love cypress, but you have to try to work with quartersawn if possible. Especially on arms and seat boards. The flatsawn cypress can actually "pop" a grain up off the surface and can make for a rough surface that you cannot sand away. I cut myself on one of these raised grain once.

I'm curious. Where do you get quarter sawn cypress? I've used flat sawn cypress and never had a problem with it.
 

joec

joe
User
I would just take the wider boards and cut the QS part off the sides to make my arms etc. If you have a wide board, and willing to waste some Cypress, just cut 4-5 inches of the side that shows the most QS feature. On a typical 1x12, the middle 4" section is most likely flatsawn and most likely to have the flat sawn grain feature I was speaking about earlier.
 

sawman101

Bruce Swanson
Corporate Member
I question on how well the CA will stand up to the moisture that will come to affect it over time. I just don't have much confidence in CA for that purpose, but if you do use it, be sure you buy the CA Flex type. Regular CA has no give, thus the humidity will cause the wood to move, but the regular CA's won't give, thus stressing in the wood will fracturing the bond. That happens even inside your home. The CA Flex has some elasticity, thus the bond is less likely to fracture. A weather proofing sealer applied annually would more likely work the best to help prevent end splitting.
 

JoeH

New User
JoeH
I used regular 5 minute epoxy and it has lasted 10 years outside. Just replaced it on both of my mahogany adirondack chairs about 2 weeks ago. I used masking tape wrapped about 1/8" above the ends of the chair the legs to create a small dam to pour in the epoxy. It doesn't really take much epoxy as the leg footprint area is quite small and only 1/8" thick.

Joe
 

Billm0066

Bill
User
I used a little thin ca and epoxy is drying now. Boards were bought at Lowe’s so didn’t have a lot of choice in material. Had to pick through a lot of bad boards to find anything decent. Next time (there won’t be a next time) I will spend extra for erc. Chairs are amazing though so happy with them. Just very time consuming with so many pieces and many steps for every piece.
 

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