Don't Make These Lumber Mistakes! | Tips for New Woodworkers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
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I imagine most people think wood is a fairly simple material. But the more you work with it, the more you can appreciate the subtle peculiarities of wood and what it takes to work with it effectively. Over the years, I've made a number of mistakes with regard to purchasing and cutting lumber and plywood and hopefully this list of tips will save you some heartache.
+ Wood Moves After Milling
+ Wood Can Move During a Cut
+ Plan for Expansion and Contraction
+ Don't Cheap Out on Plywood
+ Crap In, Crap Out
+ Buying Thicker Lumber and Resawing Is Not Cheaper
+ Shop Around for Best Price
+ Finish Doesn't Forgive Crappy Wood
+ Learn to Paint With Grain
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Every single new woodworker needs to see this video! As an amateur woodworker myself I’ve seen this happen first hand. Even today on my table saw I saw the off-cut wood bow out as I was cutting it. If only I had left enough margin on the stock to joint it again 🙄 But I’ve learned very early that a project is very fluid - the design has to change with the wood sometimes.
Love your channel and thanks for teaching an amateur all the way down in South Africa 🇿🇦 all these great lessons!
All your points are important but I quite appreciated your last section on "painting with the grain". I need to pay more attention to that.
Agreed. I literally thought, "Wow! What a difference that makes." I'm still very new at furniture making, but I never would have thought of that.
I just came here to say how much I appreciate your sense of humor, Marc! I imagine your thought process (or maybe you even said it somewhere) “ugh I hate clickbait-y videos, but they work, so fine, I guess I’ll try it. But darn it I’m going to poke fun at the whole concept at the same time”. Your thumbnails are awesome.
Another option for woodworkers is to find a local sawyer! :D We can mill up logs you find (or might have logs in stock, or lumber in stock) to whatever dimension you want them to be. Of course, they have to be dried before use and this can take time but meeting a local sawyer to secure a steady supply of material can be a great option!
Loved the Kyrsten Sinema curtsy when ya said, "work".
Wow! Nine tips AND a high school picture! My week is complete!😆
I really appreciate the “what I’ve learned” series of videos. Thanks Marc
It’s been a while since I’ve heard you say “stack the cards in our favor”. Good to have you back!
I am just starting out with my first trips to the lumber yards and living in a small country like Bulgaria where there are not exactly the type of businesses that cater to high end woodworking - your videos are a life saver for someone who bets almost all his cards on woodworking since my other field of work nearly vanished during the pandemic. Many, many thanks!
Dude. That high school photo. You are a brave man.
My dad owned a small sawmill when I was in high school. I remember trying to tail behind the head rig when someone logs had so much tension they would either bind the saw blade and cause it to want to lay over or they would curl so far away from the cut it was almost impossible to keep the board on the roll cages. Having been in woodworking for almost 30 years I can attest the same is true to the wood we use. Another thing to pay attention to when purchasing wood is grain direction. Is it quarter sawn or plain sawn and understanding how the wood moves accordingly. Great advice on getting wood that is sized to the project instead of reading it.
@@Robo.1776 if you're trying to purchase wood to resaw for projects instead of the right size you will waste more than you try to save from tension in the wood and in some cases due to case hardening from the kiln process. And understand the way wood moves (expands and contracts from moisture variances) will make a difference on whether you get quarter sawn or flat sawn wood
Your discussion of plywood was spot on. I bought a lot of birch veneered plywood that was apparently from Vietnam. The veneers were paper thin and came off easily, the cored were irregular with voids/overlaps and poorly glued causing lots of issues. I have never had so many splinters from any one material in my life! Fortunately, most of it was used to cover the walls in my shop rather than building something from it. I got a bunch of Baltic birch from the same source and it was very nice to work with.
Recently I bit the bullet and bought some Purebond maple veneered plywood from a local home center. It is almost as nice as the Baltic birch. The core is all poplar. My good sawblades are out for sharpening so I'm using an inexpensive Diablo at the moment and still had no chipout from the Purebond ply. The veneer is much thicker that the cheap birch veneered import ply and it handles beautifully. My wife was even impressed with how nice the French cleats looked in maple veneer.
And your experience with the plywood is the reason why my biggest pet peeve is suppliers, and even woodworkers, calling ply Baltic Birch when it isn’t TRUE Baltic Birch 😂
Some good tips I hadn’t focused on before. Thanks.
Great point on buying boards for specific parts of the project. I do this every time I go to the lumber yard and yes it takes a little longer but man is it with it! Awesome tips Marc!
Glad to hear you say it, bc choosing just the right pieces of lumber for a particular component is always among the most time-consuming & laborious chores I face when doing a project. I just thought I was nuts. 🤪
I'm a joiner of around 23 years and even now I still like to be reminded about this stuff. Great advice as usual
So appreciative you explained the 8/4 v 4/4 resaw "myth." I was under the impression that 8/4 was the best way to go to maximize yield, and its just not practical based upon cost, let alone the time, effort, and toolage cost to be able to resaw wide boards.
Most of the time thicker wood has to be a higher grade to make the same size boards. You can start with 5/4 and mill the imperfections out of it for a 4/4 board, but it is alot harder to do the thicker you get. We had to explain this to a customer once that wouldn't understand that 8/4 juniper is impossible to get without bark/wane/knots.
Yup unless you need smaller boards
Yep. If you put yourself in the mind of the mill operator, it makes total sense. Delivering a lovely big timber is quite an achievement. Resawing flitches to get some residual value out of the smaller material is a good way to produce inexpensive lumber IN SMALL DIMENSIONS.
9 minutes of pure gold... so much information. Thank you.
U ARE A GENUINE TRUE CARPENTER ! 👍🏿👍🏼
Good tips. Luved the bloopers!
I did not see the nipple twister coming, and nearly choked from spontaneous laughter. Thanks man, after a workday like this, I needed that X-D
On a more on-subject note, I'm still fighting heavily to find any lumber around me - I'm in the Swedish south, and nearly all the places that sell lumber to private people are associated with DIY shops, which are... Not great. Both price and quality wise. Heck, finding anything that isn't pine or oak is like winning the lottery. It seems often that the greatest challenge I find, is just getting the basic materials to work on WELL before applying what meager skills I have to a project.
These tip videos are great. Thanks for posting it. Please keep them coming.
Excellent explanation
Been studying up on wood movement and this was a great bit of info to add to the knowledge bank. As always, thanks for sharing 🙏
This video speaks a lot to me. I ride that struggle bus every day! 😆
Thank you ,I thought it was me cutting the wood wrong, or that my table saw had something wrong , I was why is my wood bending or curve lol😂, i m new to this so
All good points Marc. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.
Marc. Another great educational video. I’ve really understood just how much wood moves since I started turning, leave a project on the lathe overnight and it’s out of round the next day.
One thing you can do to help minimize that overnight movement is to cover your piece. Some folks will put a grocery store bag over it and tape it. Personally, I think it helps more to tightly wrap it with Saran Wrap.
Really priceless tips, dude! Thanks a bunch! 😃
Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
Great tips Marc..........you sure did open my eyes to some very important info.......I am now, not questioning my choice of purchasing Baltic Birch plywood for shop cabinets/carts rather that the other options............Thank you!!
Conditioned lumber is also big help.
This exact topic was on my mind as I clicked on my subscription tab today...then bam! Thanks Marc!
Wood moving during a cut in mind blowing. This whole time I thought my table saw was just out of square.
Great advice Marc
Good video. Many woodworkers know wood moves. High quality laminated plywood's dry or not do have "board memory". The edge has a different moisture and stress levels than the center. On a long rip you will see the space where the saw blade passed through close up or spread out. To combat things like this on panels cut out over sized. Rest time to acclimate. Trim all edges as close to same amount as possible to finished size.
There is another place carpenters can misunderstand properties of wood and moisture. Rough framing lumber and fasteners relationship. Attaching something like dry wall use the shortest screw or nail within reason possible on install to avoid pop. Longer nails or fasteners that go deeper into the lumber will pop more than shorter due to the ratio of shrinkage changing from low at center to more at surface on all sides. Pop happens cause the tip stays put and the surface to tip area shrinks. the longer the fastener the more this happens.
Liked, subb'ed. That was some next level advice. Never thought about grain so much. Thanks
Thanks!! A lot of interesting information.
Hello, WW
Thank you for this excellent video and I greatly appreciate what you have described as i have encountered most if not all of these conditions. Worst part is when you start with perfect pieces and after machining you end up with nothing but warped and twisted pieces.
There are a lot of things that we still don't understand about wood like:
1- How long does it take for lumber to acclimate?
2- Why same wood pieces expand and contract differently?
3- Not sure I agree with calculation of how much oak piece of certain width should expand and contract. A good example is wood flooring. In my mother old house, the humidity various from 19% in winter to 85% in summer. The floor violates every rule with heavy coat of polyurethane on one side and nothing on the bottom side. If I follow calculation of expansion and contraction, that floor should bust and smash into the walls in the summer yet every year I measure less than 1/4" movement.
Again, thank you for excellent video and for recommendations. They help but not always effective. Regarding plywood, plywood warp over time and changes in thickness in contrary to common belief that plywood is a stable material. Anything made out of wood is never stable if humidity is not under control. I follow all the rules and sometimes still end up with warping, twist, and anything but flat and square.
The bit about ripping long lumber. I first learn of that while splitting 2x10s for my bench top. Wow! Some of them looked like pretzels after that. A few of them had so much tension they could not be safely cut all of the way.
Love watching ur videos 😬👌🏽
Great Vid!! Well done.
Good tips!
I've been using pallets to make furniture for the garden.
Great video!!!!! Thanks
Always nervous when I go to buy wood. Thanks for the tips.
Thank You..Love your videos & the bloopers at the end.. Watched video while connecting flights at Denvers Airport. Keep up the good work!!
Phoenix people, the 1/2 priced lumber store he speaks of is Spellman's hardwoods.
That's the one! :)
Cheaper than Timber Woodworking in Mesa?
@@normgraham6658 More 'n likely. They only deal in lumber, and only your standard species, nothing exotic. Last I checked which to be fair was 2018, 8/4 Walnut was $9.30 a board foot.
Awesome tips Marc! As always very informative and bloopers are funny too!!
Good post
Yep!
Great tips, thanks for sharing. When you were in Arizona where did you purchase your hardwoods?
Very helpful.
I had to go back and attempt freeze-framing like, 15 times to land on that high school photo. Good stuff. r/blunderyears ?
That was fun to see!
You always have great advice. I’ve been watching your videos for awhile. Thank you
Great tips Marc!
Thanks buddy!
8:08 Great nips Marc!
@@Zav hahaha 🤣
Heh. Watching you saw that long, thin board on the tablesaw brought back memories of my only injury at the table saw. We ran out of 1x2s (trailer manufacturing) so I had to cut up some 2x4s to make them. Of course that saw's kickback pawls were lost years ago. Started slicing a badly case-hardened 2x4, which started warping badly, and it caught the blade and kickback city.
A standard tablesaw is 36" tall, my inseam was 37". Guess where I got "punched"?
Coworkers and foreman got a great laugh out of it, I didn't think it was quite so funny!
Love your videos!
I first learned about "case hardened" wood after resawing a 5/4 piece of cherry that was supposed to become the frame for a box. It bowed so much that the last 1/2" of the board split on it's own before it got through the bandsaw blade. Made one hell of a sound - like a gunshot. Scared the crap out of me. The board was about 36" long and 9 Inches tall. Putting the two pieces together afterward there was a 1-1/8" gap in the middle. Talk about wood movement! :-(
thanks
Wood!… the final frontier, these are the voyages of TWW🙂
There certainly is a LOT to this craft.. I have learned quite a bit from you Marc, and thank you ! My projects are better from it, for sure.
Been watching you for years, always excellent knowledge even videos from 15 years ago!
I appreciate that!
Can any Colorado folks or Marc, recommend a store that has a good selection of walnut at fair price?
thanks!
Holy cow your jointer is HUMONGOUS
Great info as always!! There is always something to learn from you! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
You mentioned that in AZ you found a store that sold lumber at a better price vs your original source. What is the name of that store/business?
Tanks
Hi….. what about the teak oil use it before you safe the cut wood do you think 🤔 will save the wood please give us your suggestion. Thanks 🙏
Great tips, Marc! I hadn't thought of painting with the grain before!
Great tips thanks! also learned a few of these the hard way especially milling and letting it sit made that mistake.
8:08 some things you can’t unsee 🤣
Thank you for the suggestions. Make a lot of sense.
The cool T-shirts this guy has! I'm going to break into his house and take at least 50.
Marc, good wood working tips. Plywood is something you really have to look at . Like how many layers does it have? Thanks for posting and sharing.
I liked the video when I saw your high school “ hair” picture! Great stuff Marc
Excellent advice. Your vids are awsome! Looks easy to post like you do but there is art in that and not just in your woodworking skills. Thank you
As always, great tips. All things i've been frustrated with before...you'd think i would learn, but i'll revisit most of these from time to time. Also not seeing anyone giving you grief of any kink here, so i might just for fun. Love your Colorado shirt, worn like a true import to the state...something only us hoity toity natives would ramble on about!
Thanks for the great video and tips.
These were wonderful tips...thank you! Out of curiosity, where do you tend to get your hardwoods and plywoods in the Denver area?
It was really informative and helpful 👌 Thank you so much!
Sir, I love the sponge example and it is far too true to call around to get the best price. Those two tips alone should be an eye opener that can make a difference.
I just bought a bunch of lumber from a auction, about $1000 worth for $60, had a lot of exotic pieces, and one split just on the way home and sitting over night in my tuck. Its crazy how wood does react.
Excellent info as always. You are definitely a trusted source. Honestly I think you deserve your own TV show. I'd watch it.
You're so right about wood prices varying even across town and at the same chain stores. Here we have like 6 Lowes' in driving distance and 2 Home Depot's and of course an upscale store specifically for woodworkers and yes prices go up and down. Luckily through diligent research (i.e. Being cheap) I found a hardwood supplier that carries Baltic birch at a better price along with, of course, hardwoods and I also found an Urban Sawmill...their term but it's appropriate. They only deal in Appalachian hardwoods (cherry, maple, pecan, walnut, hickory, etc) and their prices are much better than specially shops and they have their own kiln which is enormous. The guys there are great and easy to deal with. I bought a 13 in x 11 ft x 1 in piece of hickory that they planed flat for me for $54. Unbeatable!
Hit the Closed Captions button and change the language to English and sit back and enjoy the translations !! Thanks for the tips, great stuff!
Great information! Thanks again for a useful video
Really great information. Thank you!
best I found is Siberian birch plywood
you got a sub! Thanks!
Love the school pic!
Very enjoyable Marc, the presentation was very well done.
It is worth just keeping in mind that even in antique and "vintage" furniture you see these and similar mistakes made. I've seen old pieces where the wood working and moving had gradually torn the pieces apart over time. The original maker had ignored or underestimated the movement the wood would be susceptible to.
Correct.
Good video! Also, know the difference between long grow lumber and short.
Hi...i am from Brasil and begining with woodworking. Do layer of any finishing can avoid wood movement?
You could have also mentioned that it is worth going through the stack to find the quarter sawn boards and those with a grain direction that is likely to stay stable. It is also worth taking a moisture meter with you to the lumber supplier to check the actual moisture level of the board. It may have been kiln dried to below 10 but you have no idea how long ago that was and the wood can take on moisture in the rack unless the supplier has a humidity controlled building.
I live in Arizona. I think I know the stores of which you speak!!! Great for exotics you can't get anywhere else, but much cheaper options out there for domestics!
When milling pieces that are relatively fresh, and then stacking to air, it can help to paint over the ends of the boards, as that is most of the evaporation occurs, as well as splitting. Not a huge cure, but definitely helps.
Yes, that's why when installing stain grade base I like to completely smear glue over the miters and scarf joints. It seals the end grain.
I found this very interesting. It has been my practice to allow a few days or a week between resawing and dimensioning and to dimension oversize initially and then finish to exact sizes after allowing a few more days for the timber to settle and " relax" between each stage. Maybe I have been wrong!
Great stuff, Marc~!! Thanks for sharing~!
Great advice.