First Project and wow is wood expensive

[Larry Fox]

Solid wood is expensive especially quality wood which is why good furniture is so expensive. As others have said on this forum the cost of the wood is a small cost in the overall grand scheme of the project. Look at how much time you will spend putting everything together along with how much you have spent on tooling your shop and finishing supplies.

I agree 100% here. When balanced against the time, effort and care that goes into your projects the wood is a small part of it and not worth compromising on or working with sub-par materials. That doesn't mean that you need to use waterfall bubinga for drawers but the incremental increase in cost for tiger maple over standard maple for a project where I thought the tiger maple was called for would be a no-brainer for me. I build so few projects that I won't consider skimping on wood or finishing supplies - just not worth it and represents a false ecomomy for me.

[David Keller NC]

"(288 X 8 X 1) / 144 = 16bf....................................... I messed that up somehow... that's less than $100.... nice... now how did I screw that up? maybe I was thinking of 8/4 for doing book matching (higher $$ per bf than 5.25 anyways and I don't have a resaw blade...)"

It's easy to do - I didn't see your original post until this morning, but immediately knew it was way off. You'll develop a feel for the amount of wood that you'll need for projects pretty quickly to recognize whether you've made a mistake or not.

One other comment - you really should be buying 4/4 rough stock for panels in doors, and the finished panels should ideally be no more than 3/8" thick to keep the weight off of the hinges. You should be able to find a local woodworker in your area through either a club, or even through Sawmill Creek that can teach you to re-saw accurately. Assuming the 4/4 boards you buy are not badly cupped or twisted, you should be able to get two 3/8 planks out of one 4/4 board with room to spare.

Finally, about the plywood/mdf thing. There are certainly some applications where plywood and mdf are highly appropriate and the best choice - a painted kitchen, for example. However, what you have in mind is no place for plywood or MDF (tiger maple doors on a plywood carcass?). Moreover, you've going to find out pretty quickly that plywood is more expensive than solid wood unless you're talking exterior construction grade plywood.

Baltic Birch or apple ply is the minimum quality level for a nice piece of furniture, and it's expensive. Plywood with figured veneer will be extremely expensive. A better way to save money is to build the carcasse in a solid, matching wood of a lesser figure than your doors.

[Prashun Patel]

Am I dense? 2 x 32 x 26 = 1664 sq in / 144 = 11.5 bdft.
Even accounting for waste, how did you arrive at...er, nev mind; just read last post.

[Chip Lindley]

Yeah! DUHH! At least the error was in YOUR favor!

High cost of hardwood at *dealers* sends many woodworkers into the countryside to sawmills or other sources for rough lumber. I bought over 600 bf of cherry for $400 at a farm auction in '07. Bargains are out there if you have a means to haul your *booty* home!

[Paul Johnstone]

Hello!

So do they make curly maple veneered MDF core ply or do I need to get a good resaw blade and make my own veneered MDF doors?

I think I need to agree with the other poster on one point.. Why put such beautiful maple doors on an MDF carcass? MDF is really a poor choice, IMO.

I don't think you need to use baltic birch for good painted, but get a decent piece of plywood.. maybe shop grade or "B/C". It's really not that much more expensive than MDF... maybe $10-15/sheet. MDF sawdust is also much more damaging for your health than regular sawdust.

[Art Davis]

One of the biggest problems I have, as a beginner, is that the mistakes are so expensive because of the price of wood. Even doing things with poplar is expensive.

So I've tried doing things with fir as practice. But therein lies a fallacy, too, because soft wood just doesn't work like hard wood.

Don't want to waste wood with my surface planer, so I have tried working with standard one by material. But then surfaces don't match evenly and wood movement causes problems.

Clearly a lot to learn, and I guess education is expensive, hunh?

[David Keller NC]

"One of the biggest problems I have, as a beginner, is that the mistakes are so expensive because of the price of wood. Even doing things with poplar is expensive."

Hmmm - Not sure of your perspective on this, but a 6" wide, 10' long poplar board can be had in the East for about $15 without even trying too hard. That's really inexpensive by most people's calculations - about 3 lunches at an inexpensive fast food place.

Perhaps in Oregon a different selection other Poplar would be more economical - I've a feeling you could come up with quite a bit of alder, so-so maple, or other inexpensive hardwoods from Craig's list - there's always someone with a Woodmizer cutting up local trees and selling them cheap.

[Chris Padilla]

I'd like to address the bandsaw/resaw blade route. With wood getting pricey and large figured boards very expensive due to low supply, learning about veneering may be the way to go in the future.

I'd encourage you to visit VeneerSupplies and Joewoodworker and start reading up and learning about pressing veneers. There is a lot to take in.

I've been doing lottsa resawing of walnut for veneering in my current Tansu project. I've really enjoyed it and have learned a lot.

[Montgomery Scott]

$5.25bd ft doesn't even come onto the radar for expensive wood. I've paid up to $500/bd ft for flawless high grade desert ironwood burl; the most expensive of my ~60 species of wood I have on hand.

[Blake Barr]

A couple things. First on the MDF carcass, it's a cost issue, my sister is paying so I really have no choice. A painted $26 MDF carcass will make her happy and keep costs down. Also the cabinet is being specifically built to fit into a corner so down the road when it's moved there will be a chance to "do it right"

Secondly the cost doesn't shock me when it's in the $100ish range. I was expecting that but when I miscalced the bf and came up over $200 I was a little shocked...

I do se myself buying from mills in the future and I know there are some around so on my next projects (some end tables for the family and a plasma TV cabinet with lift) I will probably shop around for wood considering the amount I'll need.

On resawing, I'm intrigued and would love to do it now but my bandsaw needs some investment before it's resaw capable. It's a rockwell/delta 28-200 with a 1 1/4hp motor iirc but there is no fence and all the blades are 1/8" or so. I need a resaw blade and a fence at least and I just don't have the money right now to get it set. I'd also like to get the 12 1/2" riser for it...

Anyways thanks for the feedback! I love forums, I started in car audio which led me to woodworking (I assure you my first pure MDF woofer box was a horrendous visually but at least it was airtight) years ago buy researching and asking questions via forums. I love the wealth of knowledge available and the amount of people willing to pitch in good ideas...

[Neal Clayton]

One of the biggest problems I have, as a beginner, is that the mistakes are so expensive because of the price of wood. Even doing things with poplar is expensive.

So I've tried doing things with fir as practice. But therein lies a fallacy, too, because soft wood just doesn't work like hard wood.

Don't want to waste wood with my surface planer, so I have tried working with standard one by material. But then surfaces don't match evenly and wood movement causes problems.

Clearly a lot to learn, and I guess education is expensive, hunh?

art, this is where you should be taking advantage of the computer age .

i build plenty of things that are beyond my ability to visualize in my mind, without 1000 and 1 errors. but the computer doesn't lie, nor does it forget.

if you draw out something in sketchup and have machines capable of the accuracy needed from the drawing, the rest becomes very manageable.

btw, if you could save wood by not using jointers and planers, people wouldn't buy them. you can't. i don't buy surfaced lumber but even if i did i'd expect to have to square them myself.

[Scott duprat]

Make sure to check out the slabs section, white pine and soft maple. Also there are two other dealers in that area. One is Northand Forest Products, Kingston. Northland is smaller, northeastern hardwoods, no exotics, prices on par with Highland. The other is Goose Bay Lumber/sawmill, on route 4 Epsom, a little fatrher north but worth the drive. Mostly local woods, lots of Maples, some softwoods, boat building supplies. A little more pricy, but some unique stuff. Turning blamks also.

Always been treated good by Highland. Remember to acclimate the wood as it may be kiln or air dried, it is in basically a barn.

Have fun.

[Art Davis]

art, this is where you should be taking advantage of the computer age .

i build plenty of things that are beyond my ability to visualize in my mind, without 1000 and 1 errors. but the computer doesn't lie, nor does it forget.

if you draw out something in sketchup and have machines capable of the accuracy needed from the drawing, the rest becomes very manageable.

btw, if you could save wood by not using jointers and planers, people wouldn't buy them. you can't. i don't buy surfaced lumber but even if i did i'd expect to have to square them myself.

So---what kind of computer software do you use, Neal? Sketchup? And the next question---how do you use it?

Art

[Chris Padilla]

Google Sketch Up and start with the online tutorials, Art. Everything is free except your time (and that may be as well!)

It isn't difficult to work but like anything, you have to play with it to get comfy with it.

[Blake Barr]

Make sure to check out the slabs section, white pine and soft maple. Also there are two other dealers in that area. One is Northand Forest Products, Kingston. Northland is smaller, northeastern hardwoods, no exotics, prices on par with Highland. The other is Goose Bay Lumber/sawmill, on route 4 Epsom, a little fatrher north but worth the drive. Mostly local woods, lots of Maples, some softwoods, boat building supplies. A little more pricy, but some unique stuff. Turning blamks also.

Always been treated good by Highland. Remember to acclimate the wood as it may be kiln or air dried, it is in basically a barn.

Have fun.

Thanks! I'll be looking into other places for my next project. It was interesting, definitely not what I had in my mind but I was able to find the maple I wanted without help and the prices where what I had anticipated from their price list...