Lumber Questions Greenhorn alert!

[Trent Flemming]

Hello All,

I am in the planning stage for building my own kitchen cabinets and have some general questions.

• Why would you purchase 4/4 rough lumber that needs to be planned and surfaced when you can get Select & Better already surfaced for less money per board feet? I guess this could be a geographical issue. I live in East Texas and a local lumber place sales 4/4 Red oak at $4.05/bf and S&B at $2.55/bf.
  
• What is the difference between 4x8 VC and 4x8 BC?
  
• I know I want to utilize plywood rather than MDF for the cabinet carcass, but I’m not for sure if I should use Birch, Oak or Poplar. The Oak is considerably more expensive per sheet, but I’m curious if it is worth it.

Thanks for the help.

Trent

[Matt Moore]

"Why would you purchase 4/4 rough lumber that needs to be planned and surfaced when you can get Select & Better already surfaced for less money per board feet? I guess this could be a geographical issue. I live in East Texas and a local lumber place sales 4/4 Red oak at $4.05/bf and S&B at $2.55/bf."

-Because, getting rough lumber to your location and letting it adjust to your environment before working it can greatly reduce the amount of movement of the wood after it is cut.
-I find that 4S wood is not done as nicely as I can do at my home shop.

[Justin Bukoski]

are you sure that $2.55 is for a board foot and not for a linear foot? Also, s4s wood is usually not flat and and square.

[Joe Jensen]

As Matt said, wood I surface ends up much flatter and straighter than the wood that is surfaced by the lumber supplier. Here is my prep process;
1) Cut the rough sawn wood to rough length and width
2) Use jointer to flatten one side
3) Use planer to get board smooth on both sides and a consistent thickness. Make sure to have the total amount removed on each side by the jointer and planer is equal to minimize wood movement.
4) Use jointer to create one flat edge. I used to do this at the same time as jointing one face, but I've found some wood will even move side to side when planing.
5) Rip to final width on TS
6) Cut one end square
7) Cut to length

With this process, my glue ups are so flat I start with 120 grit on a random orbital sander.

[Jason Beam]

As Matt said, wood I surface ends up much flatter and straighter than the wood that is surfaced by the lumber supplier. Here is my prep process;
1) Cut the rough sawn wood to rough length and width
2) Use jointer to flatten one side
3) Use planer to get board smooth on both sides and a consistent thickness. Make sure to have the total amount removed on each side by the jointer and planer is equal to minimize wood movement.
4) Use jointer to create one flat side. I used to do this at the same time as jointing one face, but I've found some wood will even move side to side when planing.
5) Rip to final width on TS
6) Cut one end square
7) Cut to length

With this process, my glue ups are so flat I start with 120 grit on a random orbital sander.

I use the same process, Joe. I usually don't rip on the TS, though.

My reason for the face joint > plane > edge joint is two fold: One for the reasons you specified. The second is because grain direciton will always bite me in the rear. I still haven't mastered the process of choosing which face to joint so that the grain direction will be right for the edge I want to joint. I get a lot of SLR stock and it's far easier to joint that edge than the rough edge, sometimes. Planing before edge jointing gives me full control over feed direction on my edges. Sure it's an extra trip ... but i'm not on a deadline

[Trent Flemming]

Gentle bump to see if I can get some responses on questions 2 and 3. Thanks for the input on #1. I checked with the lumber supplier and they said the pricing I qouted was Bd/Ft.

Trent

[Justin Bukoski]

There is no reason to use oak over the others unless you like the way the oak looks and you think it will be visible. More important are the number of layers in the plywood. Baltic birch is really good for carcasses because it has more layers and no voids making it more stable and allowing it to hold screws better.

I would take a look at melamine if I were you. You can face the outside of the cabinets with wood you like and it leaves you with a nice, durable finish on the inside. The pieces go together very easily with melamine screws or biscuits.

[Jim McFarland]

VC is a reference to the plywood core (veneer core) while BC is a reference to the exposed face material grade. Google "VC plywood" and you'll get several good references explaining aspects of plywood core and grades.

Face material choice depends on look you want for the finished cabinets. Poplar is fine if you'll ultimately use paint as your finish. Oak is good if you want to stain (e.g., the "honey brown" look). Birch is fine if you like the look of the grain and you apply a clear finish -- I'm no expert finisher but I've had problems with stain "blotching" with birch -- I'm sure others get better results!