Wood Selection
2009.02.07
Schwarz encourages people to use cheap, readily-available construction lumber to build their workbenches. In his part of the country that wood is southern yellow pine, but he has mentioned building benches out of douglas-fir. Stay away from 2x4’s, he warns, go for the big 2x12’s which usually come out of the middle of the tree; then rip them down to the sizes you need.
You would think living here in Oregon, where the trees are actually grown and milled, that my local Home Depot or Lowes would have top-quality douglas-fir boards. Yeah right. Ok, so I admit I didn’t spend an hour digging through entire pallets, but really, the wood they carry is the wettest, twistiest, knottiest, gnarliest stuff you’ve ever seen.
Besides, I don’t think I could get sixteen-foot 2x12’s down the basement stairs. I’m not even sure I could pick one up.
So I thought about maple, and ash, and oak, and other hardwoods like that. The cost gave me pause.
Eventually I settled on salvaged 2x4’s from the Rebuilding Center. They have lots of old construction lumber pulled out of houses and buildings. There is a special section for what they call vertical grain fir. Essentially it is quartersawn and riftsawn. Most of it is tight-grained wood from old growth trees, and it has had decades to air dry and do all the twisting and warping it wants to. Of course the boards are pocked with plumbing and wiring holes, nail holes (and some remaining nails), splintered corners from the demolition process, and covered with years of dirt and grime and who knows what else.
If you’ve priced premium grade clear vertical grain fir at your local woodworking supply, it is surprisingly expensive. With rare exceptions these boards are not that clear, even without the construction defects, so the prices are much cheaper than finish grade fir. They currently charge $1.25 per linear foot for 2x4’s, more for 2x6’s and timbers. An eight-foot 2x4 would be $10. However, unless you’re only buying one or two boards, they usually make a best-guess estimate of how much you have, so the actual total cost can vary.
It is worth noting for comparison that some typical eight-foot 2x6’s I bought recently at Lowes cost me $2.84 for the entire board.
About a month ago I bought eight vertical grain 2x4’s for $70, and took them home in my Civic. Today I borrowed my friend Frank’s pickup and bought twenty 2x4’s of various lengths (mostly around eight feet), plus a 2x6 that’s about thirteen feet long. Apparently the guy who wrote up my ticket just couldn’t get the math right, because when I went to pay it only cost me $65! My calculation after I got home was that this should have been around $200.
2009.02.28
This morning Frank picked me up in his truck and we went out to Beaverton to see a guy named Tyler who runs Urban Hardwood Recovery. He salvages trees that people are having cut down, slabs the wood and dries it in his own kiln. Then he sells the wood to local woodworkers.
I bought a slab of 9/4 Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana). I will use some of this to make the vise chops. (Yes I added more stickers underneath to support the end.)
I also bought some 5/4 Oregon white oak, silver maple (Acer saccharinum), and Holly (Ilex aquifolium).
2009.04.05
I borrowed Frank’s truck again and made another trip to the Rebuilding Center. I wanted to get three or four better boards to use in the top. Additionally, I had decided to get some more 2x6’s for the legs. Originally I had planned to use the one 2x6 for the front of each leg and build up the rest with ripped pieces of 2x4. That would be a lot of extra work though, so I checked a couple weeks ago and they had a selection of 2x6’s. It was a nice warm sunny day today so perfect for hauling wood.
I bought three 2x6’s that were about thirteen feet long, and five or six 2x4’s ranging from eight to ten feet or so. My charge this time was a little under $100.
Workbench