Wood Species


cts1085

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My local lumber store has 16/4 Ash in 8-12" widths. This will make the top and legs really easy to construct but will require a bit of work to break down the stock for smaller pieces. Since I will be doing all the work neanderthal style this will save me a lot of time planing. My biggest concern is transporting these 10' beasts without a truck.

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My local lumber store has 16/4 Ash in 8-12" widths. This will make the top and legs really easy to construct but will require a bit of work to break down the stock for smaller pieces. Since I will be doing all the work neanderthal style this will save me a lot of time planing. My biggest concern is transporting these 10' beasts without a truck.

Hey Derek, I'm in the bay area too. Which lumber store are you talking about?

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So, I'm considering going with Southern Yellow Pine due to price considerations and Schwarz's recommendation. If I wanted to buy the wood entirely in 8/4 lumber am i right in saying I need a total of 125 bf? And if that is correct how much would you guys recommend for the facepalm moments?

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So, I'm considering going with Southern Yellow Pine due to price considerations and Schwarz's recommendation. If I wanted to buy the wood entirely in 8/4 lumber am i right in saying I need a total of 125 bf? And if that is correct how much would you guys recommend for the facepalm moments?

The cut list is showing 127 bf, mostly 8/4, some 4/4, 6/4 and 12/4. I'd say 150 bf should cover a couple minor facepalm moments. I'm getting 200 in anticipation of several major facepalm moments. :)

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I ordered about 125 BF of 8/4. Tried my best to get 8" + widths too so I can rip them in half and get two pieces. So depending on the width you have access to, you may have more or less waste. And if I remember correctly, Jameel recommended 150BF, but 200BF if you want to cover face palms and have some left over.

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Aaron, The LVL is looking kinda nice to me.

Locally I can get the 11 7/8 x 1 3/4" x 10' for $44 each and am waiting on the price for the 14" version.

Have you been happy with the LVL?

I wonder what the mass difference is between LVL and for an example southern yellow pine? As I will not have a planer under mine. ;)

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Two new notes on the above post:

I am finding that the specific density of the LVL is directly equal to that of its veneers. This for me is nice as the LVL is made from the same material I was planning to go with in the first place. (southern yeller).

Also, I just got back a quote for 5.30 a linear foot for the 14" variety.

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Locally I can get the 11 7/8 x 1 3/4" x 10' for $44 each and am waiting on the price for the 14" version.

Have you been happy with the LVL?

I am finding that the specific density of the LVL is directly equal to that of its veneers. This for me is nice as the LVL is made from the same material I was planning to go with in the first place. (southern yeller).

Also, I just got back a quote for 5.30 a linear foot for the 14" variety.

That's a good deal on the 14" LVL, and you can get three 4" wide strips out of it too. With the 11 7/8" tall beams you'd only get two. I found the same thing on density - it weighs the same as Southern Yellow Pine. For my situation, the LVL was stiffer and able to perform the same as solid wood but was just 2 1/2" thick so I saved some weight.

I've been very happy with the LVL. I chose it for a specific situation, but there really haven't been any drawbacks vs solid lumber. I'd use it again for a roubo, no problem. It doesn't look as traditional, but I threw that out the window long ago. :) I was even trying to convince a buddy recently to use the LVL to make his leg vise chop. I really think it would hold up just fine, even in that stressful situation.

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I am in Northern Chester County, PA.

Cannot find any local maple in 8/4 and the best price for red oak KD is $5.00 BF, Whit oak, air dried is $8.00.

I found some 14/4 Ash but need to go to the yard to find out the price.

I really don't like looks of red oak, but 600 dollars plus for a whit oak is too expensive for me, I might pay that for Maple (which I have loved since 1954).

Any other folks in Norther Chester County had any better luck???

Steve Anderson "Nine9fingers"

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You can contact these guys by email and discuss prices, etc. I only dealt with them once, but they were easy to deal with and we worked out the whole thing by email, and then I drove out to pick up the finished order. They were happy to do custom resawing and milling for me. They look to be a little over an hour from you.

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There is a company on the east coast called www.mcilvain.com and they have reasonable rates on hard and soft maple, but do not carry ash. The only drawback is that you must buy 500 b.f. to get best prices and free shipping. I do alot of cabinets with hard maple so it ok for me. If you have any other projects that you are using hard maple for you can get good pricing there.

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MacBeath Hardwood over in Berkeley. I always find beautiful stock there but it can be rather expensive. Know of any other places worth checking out in the East Bay?

Earthsource is another good place to check out. They're prices are fairly comparable to MacBeath. I've been tempted to head over to the MacBeath in SF as they have rough sawn lumber.

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I just got my benchcrafted parts! Whoo hoo!

Now - for the wood - Marc - you indicated above that you ordered just 8/4 stock - can everything be built-up, resawn from 8/4? would it be easier/better to get different thicknesses? Inquiring minds want to know!

I am not sure I can be that specific (i.e. Min 8+" width, I might be able to spec Min 5"+) so I am going to look at 200bf (Soft Maple in my area is about $2.40 bf)

Thanks!

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Have had some problems in finding 'low-cost' maple.

1. Seller responding to 150BF 8/4 Maple,Cherry or Ash responded with Red Oak 8/4 @ 5.00BF and Whit Oak @ $8 BF

2.second asked for a cut list, so I sent him the Roubo List, NO reply, Contacted asking if he had 150BF 8/4 Maple. Ans NO!

3. Third respond to the 150BF with the answer, Have three board, want more!

Finally drove out to Hearne & Hearne in Oxford, PA got 8/4 Soft Maple 8/4 KD for $4.25 BF.

Great people to deal with.

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I just got my benchcrafted parts! Whoo hoo!

Now - for the wood - Marc - you indicated above that you ordered just 8/4 stock - can everything be built-up, resawn from 8/4? would it be easier/better to get different thicknesses? Inquiring minds want to know!

I am not sure I can be that specific (i.e. Min 8+" width, I might be able to spec Min 5"+) so I am going to look at 200bf (Soft Maple in my area is about $2.40 bf)

Thanks!

For the 8/4 just remember that the goal is to make a 4" thick bench top, so ideally your would want boards over 8" so you could get two strips out of them. If you have 6" wide boards you'll have a lot more waste since you will only be able to use 4" and discard the other 2".

The only parts of the bench that require 12/4 stock are the dovetailed endcap for the tail vise, and the moving chop for the leg vise.

For the shelf boards you only need 4/4 but you can always resaw from thicker stock.

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I just joined the Guild and excited about building the Roubo Bench. I actually purchased the plans a while ago with visions of building the bench which would be my most ambitious project yet and when the Guild project came up that was exactly the motivation I needed to get off the fence. I am really excited about this project and also learning from everyone while building. I am a novice woodworker, mostly focused on home improvement projects and some small scale projects such as a media cabinet end tables. I am still working on building out all my cabinets and storage in my garage workshop.

I have a question about wood materials. I was thinking of maple but wanted to potentially mix in some other dark colored hard wood for some contrast, either on the top or for accents on the base. A few species

I was thinking of include Purpleheart, Walnut or if I really want to break the bank and the weight scale IPE. Do you have any thoughts on these species of wood. I realize the expense will be considerable but my investment in time will be even greater and I want to build a bench I can hand down for generations.

Thanks for your insights and looking forward to getting the build on

Kev

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I came to a decision last night on my bench. I've decided to go with Douglas Fir for my bench. I was all set to go with Maple, Ash or some other hardwood. My current bench is Douglas Fir, and it has held up nice over the years. Sure the top dents easier than a hardwood would, but that has never affect the performance of the bench. I also really like the look of Douglas Fir. I'm also going full-out Chris Schwarz on my bench and doing through and dovetail leg tenons on my bench. I'm still going to use Benchcrafted hardware, but just not do the split top design.

Mike

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Well, that was a good read! Gettign to the end of all the posts has really given me a lot to think about. I am new to woodworking and have done some limited bench work so not really to surre what to use. Price is my issue so probably going wiht Douglas Fir, Poplar or Ash.. I cannot find any maple for under 4.25 and most at the 5 - 6 price range.

If you buy 8/4 then mill and cut in half woulod the thickness not be reduced to about 3.5" to 3.75" for the top? Or is 8/4 thick enough to account for the milling?

Stephen.

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Just checked with the wood store and over 100BF of 8/4 ash and soft maple are the same price $4.49 USD and they have 12/4 ash but not 12/4 soft maple at this time. I've worked a lot with maple but never ash. The ash feels "rougher" than soft maple, I'm thinking it might make a "grippier" top than soft maple, the ash looks to have more figure, I'm not sure I like that for a work bench but as the cost is the same and if they work close to the same I may go with the ash or I may use soft maple and use ash for the needed 12/4 parts.

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Well, that was a good read! Gettign to the end of all the posts has really given me a lot to think about. I am new to woodworking and have done some limited bench work so not really to surre what to use. Price is my issue so probably going wiht Douglas Fir, Poplar or Ash.. I cannot find any maple for under 4.25 and most at the 5 - 6 price range.

If you buy 8/4 then mill and cut in half woulod the thickness not be reduced to about 3.5" to 3.75" for the top? Or is 8/4 thick enough to account for the milling?

Stephen.

Stephen, the boards are on edge on top, so it's the width of the boards that counts here for how "thick" the top is, not the thickness of the boards. since they're on edge, you can use thick or thin ones, but you'll have to keep gluing them together until you get to the required width of the table top. No matter what width your boards are, you'll trim them to the 4" needed, which on edge will be the thickness of the bench top.

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Taking delivery of my Ash and Walnut this coming Wednesday after I inspect it at the lumber dealer (M.L. Condon in Stormville, NY). The salesperson I spoke to offered to pre-pick the lumber for me which I could then "tweak" upon inspection. I asked for the clearest and straightest boards possible, straight edge ripped and slip planed to 1 7/8".

A question I have before my inspection... How much do I care about knots - small and large? When I've picked lumber in the past it has mostly been smaller boards for smaller projects and I have been lucky enough to either pick lumber without knots or work around them. How much of an issue would they be for this project? I imagine they wouldn't be great for the top but might not pose too much of a problem (other than an aesthetic one) for the base. Any thoughts?

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Just checked with the wood store and over 100BF of 8/4 ash and soft maple are the same price $4.49 USD and they have 12/4 ash but not 12/4 soft maple at this time. I've worked a lot with maple but never ash. The ash feels "rougher" than soft maple, I'm thinking it might make a "grippier" top than soft maple, the ash looks to have more figure, I'm not sure I like that for a work bench but as the cost is the same and if they work close to the same I may go with the ash or I may use soft maple and use ash for the needed 12/4 parts.

I'd check around, I'm going with 8/4 Ash, and got it for 3.39.

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