Wood Type Selection Help

[cabinetman]

If you look at many commercially-made stands for large aquariums, most (all?) use only 3/4" ply on end, just a thought for next time...

Before I made my first one, I went out to look at some in the stores. Can't remember seeing much plywood at all back then. A lot of junk... particle board, OSB, and MDF.
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[JimD]

Walnut is easier to work without burning than maple or cherry. Maybe a bit easier to burn than oak or softwood, however. I like working with walnut but the dust is poisonus to other plants and your sinuses may not like it. Air dried walnut or kiln dried that has not been steamed is better than steamed kiln dried. Some kiln operators inject steam to get some of the pigment from the heartwood over to the softwood. The softwood gets only a little darker and the heartwood gets kind of grey. If this is all you can get, you may want to stain it a little or at least give it a coat of linseed oil to darken it back up. The other thing to remember about walnut is sunlight bleaches out the color. If the stand will be in direct sun, you should think about a finish with a UV blocker - like a spar varnish for a boat or other exterior varnish. Another thing about walnut is that a lot of the solid wood comes from limbs because the trunk is so valuable for plywood. You can recognize limb wood because the dark pith in the center will be visible on obviously somewhat narrow boards. I have used these boards but they will be less stable than the trunk would be.

My bottom line is I would be careful about the walnut but if you can find nice wood it looks great. It is one of my favorites. It you can only find limbs that have been steamed, you may want to reconsider. Air dried walnut is more redish in a lot of cases and even has a purple tint. If you see steamed versus air dried, it is easy to tell the difference. Walnut is kind of sem-open grained. It is not closed like cherry but not really open like oak either. It also has a lot of figure sometimes which is even prettier to me than cherry or maple.

I find long mitered edges difficult to get to close up. I would rabbet it on the edges that will be less visible and try to get a good color match on the pieces that are joined. The joint will be visible but not to me objectionable. I find it both hard to cut good long mitered joints (router table may be easier than saw) and hard to clamp them. A spline or biscuits helps.

Jim

[oilag11]

Jim, again thanks for the very informative response.

To make sure I've got everything, the steamed kiln dried walnut looks a bit grey, and the wood from the limbs has darker marks in the center, correct? Is the limb wood okay to use if it isn't steamed?

I can see how the long mitered joint would be difficult. Could you elaborate on the rabbet joint - I think I'm clear on what you are referring to, but I'm not sure.

Thanks again for the help.