I bought $20 worth of wood and shaped it and everything, but I don't know if it is a very reliable wood. I bought it from Home Depot, however it was in the scrap/returned pile, and so didn't have a label, does anybody know what kind of wood this is by looking at it?
http://picasaweb.google.com/E.Steininger92/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCPGziOypl9XxvgE#5308306812922090466
There are a bunch of pictures, just use the arrows and magnifying glass.
THanks!
a kind of pine… probably
a kind of pine… probably larch
that is what I feared… do
that is what I feared… do you think I should go thru the trouble of replacing it with plywood?
Why Ply?
Why replace it? You’ve invested effort in what you have, so a replacement has to have a significant advantage to make furtrher investment worthwhile.
Ply won’t be significantly lighter.
Ply may be slightly stronger, but is the base you’ve built stong enough?
Ply won’t look better. In fact it will probably look worse. Most ply is designed for its construction (mechanical) qualities, not its finish. You can get nice looking ply, but it won’t be cheap.
Ply will be more stable across a wide range of environmental conditions. Do you really care?
Pine (aka Deal) will be fine. It’s a standard type of wood for robust furniture. It will take some knocks and not loose its finish.
The big problem with modern softwoods is that they are kiln dried or vacuumed to remove moisture rather than allowed to dry naturally. This makes them prone top warp and split in the early part of their life. By now that’s either happened or it won’t.
I’m only a jobbing handyman, so I’m sure CtC can put this far better than I.
Hmmm, you may be right, but
Hmmm, you may be right, but I am putting multiple layers of coatings on here so astetics isnt a big deal. And it is made to support greater than 150lbs, so I hope you are right.
150 pounds?!
Oh boy. Your challenge is not in the material, but in the construction. Those metal brackets, no matter how many, will not protect your bot against buckling or even folding flat.
At the very least put a diagonal from corner to corner. A full plate across the opening would be even better. Inside the opening, fitting squarely, even even better better.
You guys are close…
Actually that is Vermont Sugar Pine. The bracket thing is right, the diagonal thing is right but I would use Binz instead of kilz. --You can get it in a rattle can. (Spray Paint)
One thing you do have to worry about is splitting and cupping though. Wood from Home D is stored above a nice moist concrete floor. Now that it is in your warm dry house, it will tend to move a bit. I would wait a month or so to see what it is going to do before any finish work.
Your house may be dry, but
Your house may be dry, but mine ain’t. Damp rising through the floors is a major problem here. There’s a bit of floor by my kitchen window that has been visibly wet all winter.
Shear forces on the “box” are going to be the problem. The brackets look puny and the screws won’t have a lot of bite. Some diagonal bracing, or better still, closing one side with a wooden panel would imaprt far more strength.
Hmmm I will leave it in my
Hmmm I will leave it in my hot basement for about a week and see if it has changed… good call ctc!
