Making furniture.

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rlharding

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In the last two days I have scored big at the local 'Restore' (Habitat for Humanity). I purchased some fabulous, S4S true 3/4 x 6 x 30 Cherry, and some true 3/4 x 6 x 42 Oak, cherry and a few boards of maple.
The longer boards were $2 and the shorter $1.

Initially I thought it was fabulous for a shop workbench, then I thought that it was waaaayyyy to good for that and I should build furniture.

Pulling out my Arts & Crafts, Mission furniture books I ran in to my 1st problem: I don't have a clue how to convert a cutting list into board size to see if I have enough wood.

What do I do?

thanks!

Since I only have a small amount of maple I am going to make some butcher blocks. I am working with 3/4 x 6. Do you think 16x 12x 2 is too much? Any 'ideal' size that you would recommend?
 
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I always start with the largest piece in the list and work towards the smallest. If you're real close on sizes, I mark out the rough dimension of the part right on the board with white chalk, and make notes in chalk. The chalk will disappear with sanding. If you bang it around too much they will also disappear, watch that. If you need to glue up parts, do that early in the process. You can match color and figure easier when you have more boards to choose from.
 
LOL! I never thought it was that easy! Thanks. I am thinking that I may make a library table out of MDF to use as a template. I'd rather make my mistakes there.

r
 
Ruth, I'm guessing you are talking about butcher block cutting boards. The cutting boards I've made have been about 1 1/4" thick. They feel nice and solid and I think allow enough thickness for sanding and refinishing in the years to come. A 2" thick board that size would be pretty heavy.

If you want to check out my blog, one of my posts is on making an end grain cutting board.
 
I found a really neat program a while back, you put in the size of your lumber and then input all the pieces on the cutting list. It lays things out the most efficient way, you can specify how wide the saw kerf is, how much extra space you want on the cuts, etc. There is a free version, and then one with more features you have to pay for. I'll try and track it down if you want, or you can probably find it with google before I do.

SMW
 
Thanks Keith, I will look at your blog. Tn-Steve, that would be the perfect programme, I will do a google and see if I can find it. Andrew, I will most likely make it 1 1/4 as per Keith.

Thanks guys!
 
Go with your first thought and make a workbench! It doesn't matter how nice the wood is, a well made workbench will be passed down for many generations. I made mine with hard maple and Honduran mahogany. Just my .01 cent (used to be two cents, but with this economy and all!)
 
Ruth, a couple of thoughts:

When making fine furniture, optimizing the wood is very secondary to selecting the best grain match and making it look right. A technically `well constructed' piece with poor grain matching may look worse than a poorly constructed one with very good grain matching.
Another thought on wood usage and optimal use of material -- here's a scenario to illustrate the point. Let's say you're making a 24" X 20" table top that's wider than it is deep, so the grain runs with the 24" side. For simplicity's sake, let's also say all the boards have the same straight grain, color, and look so that order is irrelevant to the glue-up.
With 6" wide boards, you'd optimize material by ripping one board to 2" and gluing it to 3 6" wide pieces. If the seam is visible, it'll look less appealing than if you used 2 6" wide boards and 2 4" wide boards OR 4 5" wide boards. Moreover, you're likely to have to joint the edges to get 'em true for a solid table top glue up, so it's likely the 6" boards won't yield 6" wide final pieces.

The point being lumber is typically the least expensive part of the project. The tools and YOUR time are what costs -- even if it's only opportunity cost. Therefore, I'm suggesting if your goal is to build yourself fine furniture from your fine lumber find, don't sacrifice quality for material optimization.

Wood that's been sitting around typically moves. That is, even though it's S4S, it's likely it's no longer square and true. If it is, you're rather lucky. Carefully check that all four sides are square to one another and there's no crown, cup, or bow in them. If there is, you'll need to mill it square. Otherwise, when you attempt to do the glue-up for something like a table top, you'll have a heck of a time getting nice tight joints.

None of the above is meant to discourage you. It's meant to make you think about the process and what you're looking to achieve. Work from your desired end result backwards through the process to make sure you start down the road that will produce what you're after. When I build a piece of furniture, I expect to yield 20% waste and always get more raw material than I think I'll need.
Hope that's useful.
 
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Gary, very, very useful. I checked some of the edges and they are just off true. I do have a jointer, albeit a very old one, probably antique. I guess I should give it a tune up.
The responses have all been helpful and I have been thinking and rethinking this. When I 1st saw the wood I thought that it was fabulous, cheap, and would make a great work bench. When I went back the next day and got another bunch they put out, I started to think about furniture.....many moons ago I worked in a cabinet shop and have always wanted my own shop and to build mission/arts & craft. I built my last home from scratch and this time, I am not building it but will be restoring a Victorian - when I find the right one. So I have imagined building my own furniture. All of the wood is spectacular, yet you are right. I need to get some space made so I can lay them all out and actually see what I have/what will work together in a setup.

Thanks all for taking the time to give me your feedback.
 
rlharding said:
Since I only have a small amount of maple I am going to make some butcher blocks. I am working with 3/4 x 6. Do you think 16x 12x 2 is too much? Any 'ideal' size that you would recommend?
Click to expand...

I happen to like a good, substantial cutting board. Especially if it is one that
looks so good it stays on the counter all the time. The one I have now is
12 x 18 x 1.5 and it's a piece of kitchen furniture. Looks good.
I'd have no problem with 12 x 16. It says "This kitchen gets USED". I'd put
a good oil finish on it, put a loaf of bread and a good knife on it and call it
finished. :biggrin:
 
Good find Ruth, and the money will go toward a good thing, I wish I could offer some advice but I can't, all I can offer is encouragement and hope you have fun making things with the wood.
 
cutting

I didn't a program name in a post, but SketchUp is one a lot of people use. There is a free version that you might look into. I've never used it but people in my local group do and seem to swear by it. Great point someone made about optimizing wood grains and pattern.

http://sketchup.google.com/
Good luck on this!
 
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