Selecting Lumber

Shawn, you are going through the hardest part of the project right now, coming up with the right wood. In our part of the country pine is by far the cheapest, unless you are looking for clear pine with no knots. Clear pine is priced about the same as red oak for us. Let me suggest for your first project go with pine. Both Lowes and HD carry what they call laminated pine which is 1"x3"'s that have been commercially edge glued together. You can buy these in 12"-24" widths, 4'-6' in length. They are available in thickness's 3/4" and 1-1/8". The boards are fairly accurate on the thickness, minor sanding is all you will need to do. Buy yourself a 1"x3" of poplar, an inexpensive hardwood to use as a straight edge. By clamping this across your work you will have a guide you can follow using your router to cut the pieces to size. Make life easy on yourself and choose a project you can build with 3/4" lumber. This will be the least expensive way to get started. See if there is a cabinet shop near you. Many will be happy to size your boards for a small fee or some time spent pushing a broom. Visit your Rockler and Woodcraft stores. This is a good way to meet others in your area who may be willing to have you work with them on home projects, people who will likely already have the jointers and planers that make our lives much easier! Woodcraft & Rockler have store sales flyers you will want to sign up for. Woodcraft features a different wood each month for a reduced price. That sure doesnt hurt! And when the weather warms up perhaps you can toss your router into the car and head up I-75 to Detroit and we will make some sawdust. Good luck.

reds_21 said:

alright guys, this is shawn (reds21). i have a question about the lumber again. i was just at home depot and i found some pine. the confusion i had was that they had white pine and some others. i found a peice of laminated pine which was the exact size and all that i needed but is there anything wrong with laminated pine?? compared to a "normal" pine? when i looked at it closely it looked as if there were a bunch of strips of pine all glued together to make the 24 x 48 peice of lumber. can anyone give me any information on this wood wether it is good or not?

thanks
shawn

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Nothing wrong with that pine. I used it in the library centre I built (photo attached). The nice thing about that product is that you can buy it in widths to suit your project requirements and if you don't have jointing capability, wide clamps and patience to join boards into wider panels (my situation 4 years ago when I built this) it allows you to continue. If you can do all of the foregoing then buy the cheaper, narrower pine boards and have at it.

Now that I have a jointer, planer and a number of Bessey clamps, I would buy it rough and do the board preparation (unless I was in a rush and the client was paying for the materials and I was donating my time, as in this case).

Shawn, the laminated wood will actually have less tendancy to warp than a straight cut piece of wood. This is because the smaller pieces have the growth rings reversed when they are glued together. If you look at the edge you will see every other board the rings curve up, the alternating ones curve down. Wood tends to warp in the direction of the curve. With smaller curves, and the curves alternating up and down the wood stays straighter. This will work very well for your project. Remember when you are ready to put finish on your project that pine tends to look blotchy unless you use a sealer before applying the stain. Most companies sell a product called pre-stain, wood conditioner or sanding sealer. A light coat of one of these products before applying stain will give you a much more even finish. Choose one manufacturer for all your finishing products and follow their directions. This will give you the best end results. Buy only enough finish for the project you are working on. Yes, you save money by buying the finish in larger containers, but you have to store them. Your next project might require a different finish, and this can turn into a big storage problem before you know it. Furniture will often have a glossy finish. Items like jewelry or keepsake boxes, shelves, candle holders will usually have a semi gloss finish. You can buy spray polyurethane in either finish and it's easy to get great results with the aerosol cans. Yes, it costs a bit more but there is less clean up, and it goes on right every time. One more thing, be sure to seal your project inside and out. If moisture can escape from one side of the wood faster than the other it will cause it to warp.