Newbie - finding the right wood

[mdurg]

Hi there, I am a newbie to woodworking. I am planning out an entertainment center and have some questions on wood selection. My only choices here in the Utica NY area (that I know of) are Home Depot and Lowes. I was thinking of using poplar and birch plywood. The finish will be a black.

My first question is that for legs in my design I will need wood at a true 2" x 2". The 2 x 2 at the store as you probably know is 1 1/2 x 1 1/2". What is the best way to get a real 2 x 2? Glue up (3) 1 x 3s and rip them to size?

Next question is using poplar with birch plywood. Will the stain color look OK using these 2 woods? Will using a black stain (minwax onyx) be more forgiving since it will (hopefully) be really dark? If the black stain really covers, can I get away with using cheaper woods?

My goal here is to make the entertainment center look like it fits with a Pottery Barn coffee and end tables. The Pottery Barn entertainment center costs $2700 and I'm sure I can come in under that number! Plus I think this will be a fun although difficult for a first project for me.

Thanks,
Mark

[LCHIEN]

you need to look in the yellow pages under lumber. Then look at athe ads for the keywords "Hardwood Lumber"
Check out these stores, they will have much greater selection in sizes of pieces and wood varieties and and better prices than your HD or Lowes.
Of course, you may very well have to plane and joint the wood, sometimes the lumber yard will do it for you for a slight additional cost. Also it will look terrible since its rough cut usually - and you have to be able to figure out on the spot how much you need when lengths and widtsh will be somehwat unpredicatble. But, still, it's worth it.

At least visit one and see whatits all about before resorting to HD or Lowes.

[zootroy]

It sounds like you want to ebonize the wood. I have tried the onyx stain and it didn't work very well, very uneven and I couldn't get it dark enough. To ebonize, I first dye the wood with a water based black anyline dye. I then use a dark gel stain (I prefer minwax walnut). I have never tried this with poplar. Poplar tends to be used as a secondary wood unless it is going to be painted due to the green coloration. Here is a pic of some shelves that I made to match those found in a "West Elm" catalogue.





The wood is red oak that was purchased at HD.
Hope this helps.
Jason

[Doug Jones]

For lumber sources go to your local home improvement stores, HD, Lowe's, Ace, etc. and ask the people in the wood area if they know of any sawmills or wood suppliers in the area. Find a near by cabinet maker and ask them the same.
Check out the link below. It may help you locate a wood supplier near by.
http://www.woodfinder.com/

Do any of these addresses seem rather close to you?
Wightman Specialty Woods Portlandville NY (43 miles)
Lakeshore Hardwoods Pulaski NY (56 miles)
Woodcraft - Latham, NY Latham NY (76 miles)
Joshua's Trees Stephentown NY (97 miles)
TRANSWORLD TIMBER Bennington VT (106 miles)
Bristol Valley Hardwoods of Rochester Canandaigua NY (108 miles)
Berkshire Products, Inc. Sheffield MA (113 miles)
Berkshire Veneer Company, Inc. Great Barrington MA (114 miles)
Deer Park Lumber, Inc. Tunkhannock PA (116 miles)
Olde Good Things Scranton PA (120 miles)

To get the leg size, yes I would laminate some stock then rip to size.

Color, testing is good, stay away from "Minwax Polyshades" if your worried about the match, then maybe paint is the best choice.

[JimD]

Mark,

Your plan is not bad but I agree with the others that it is worthwhile to find a hardwood dealer close to you. The "surfaced 4 sides" or S4S stuff at Lowes and Home Depot is priced very high relative to what you will find at a hardwood dealer. The plywood, on the other hand, may be cheaper than at a hardwood dealer. Since your project will be mainly plywood, your plan does not seem too bad. It would be nice to try examples of stain on some samples, however, and getting the samples at the big box stores of poplar is kind of expensive. Maple would be more durable than the poplar and a well stocked dealer may even have birch which is also harder and thus more durable than poplar. I think you may be able to get the stain to match OK between the poplar and birch plywood, my bigger concern is the softness of the poplar. For the little bit of hardwood you need for the edging, I would try and move up to maple or birch.

Finding suitable materials, expecially the first time, and trying out stain options are steps that I do not find as enjoyable but they are both steps that can make a big difference in the final result.

Jim

[mdurg]

I'd like to skip planing rough wood for now as I don't have a planer now. I don't even have a table saw yet although I am pretty much set on getting a BT3100. I had looked at the Sears equivalent because it comes with the router accessory and mobile stand. But at $200 more than the Ryobi it's a little steep. I went to Sears last night and "rocked" it and didn't like the motion of the stand. I figure I could build a more solid but mobile stand at a later point for the Ryobi. As for a router table, I may make a custom drop-in to a workbench I just built. I'm not going to be carting the saw all over, I just need to be able to roll it out of the way as I have a very small area for a workshop - approx 12' x 16'

Using the phone book and website provided, the nearest place seems to be around 30 miles away! So I'll have to phone to find out if they have what I'm looking for before I go. The only oddball pieces I need are the true 2' x 2'. Everything else will be using standard sizes e.g. 1" x 2" face frames, 3/4" plywood.

Jason, thanks for the tip using dye. That is the look I'm going for. Where would I get anyline dye? Is there a commerical name brand out there? Maybe I should stick to red oak as it's readily available and doesn't seem to be that much more expensive than the poplar.

[LCHIEN]

red oak is very porous if i recall hearing correctly. Wouldn't that make a bad choice for staining.

[mdurg]

Thanks for your replies. I have one more question regarding the TV tabletop. It will be 18" x 45" x 1" thick (this will match the look of the other Pottery Barn stuff I have). If I make the top out of plywood that size, should I use edge veneer to hide the plies? I have fears that I won't get this stuff on correctly and it will fall off after a while. Does the iron on stuff work?

Thanks,
Mark Durgee

[zootroy]

You can get anyline dye at most online woodworking stores. I get mine here:

http://www.constantines.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=1992

As Loring said, red oak is very porous, but dye and get stain with a possible coat of shellac mixed in do a good job. Regular stain on red oak is a hard sell for me. I'm not sure that red oak is your best choice because of the open grains.

I don't know about water based dye on ply. I've never tried it.

As for edge banding, I would frame the ply with hardwood before I tried any iron on veneer.

[JimD]

I use iron on banding on melamine particle board. It stays in place pretty well but is not nearly as durable as solid hardwood. If you do not have the clamps to hold the solid wood edging in place you can use small brads (but they will show a bit). I would use the excuse to buy some pipe clamps.

If you stain oak you emphasize the somwhat wild grain that you get on typical rotary cut oak plywood. If that is the look you want, it can be attractive but would be very different from stained birch plywood. The porosity of red oak is not a big problem with staining other than the stain will collect in the pores. For plywood, the stain will only go a little into the wood because the oak veneer is only about 1/32 thick.

Jim

[Russianwolf]

for a good sorce of surfaced lumber, try www.woodworkerssorce.net they have all surfaced 2 side and can do 3 sides I know. The price differential between them and lowes is pretty good, but not the best.

If I recall, most of pottery barn's furniture is made in indonesia, so I would imagine that the wood is philipene mahogany which accepts stains very evenly.

[mdurg]

[quote]Originally posted by zootroy

You can get anyline dye at most online woodworking stores. /quote]

Just glancing again through the pottery barn catalog and there it is as plain as day... "analine dyed a rich black"

Off to order the dye now...

[Russianwolf]

just realized I left out a "u" in that website. But here ya go

http://www.woodworkerssource.net/Mer...oduct_Count=12

100 BF of Red Oak, S2S for $418 shipped to your door. Add another $25 for straight lining one edge, and It's not a bad price when compared to Lowes, etc. Not the greatest as I said, but not bad. And the quality of the lumber is supposed to be pretty good. They did a write-up in one of the magazines a while back and they were impressed with the quality.

[Bruce Cohen]

Mark,

I suggest you get your hands on the following book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155...lance&n=283155

It's well worth the price and will give you more info then you may want about wood.

I've been into woodworking for over 30 years, got the book about 6 months ago and still learned stuff I didn't know about after all these years.

It's well worth the price and it's written in "real english" so that everyone can understand it, no matter what level you're at.

Bruce

[Pappy]

Another wood that would fit your intended use/finish is Sycamore. I used some to face frame the last MDF storage shelves I built. Very clear whitish wood, almost no visible grain pattern, hardness similar to Poplar, and light weight for a hardwood. It is also fairly inexpensive.

When I get into the Airstream I am going to use it for all the face frames and structural frame requirements. Large surfaces will be 1/2" Baltic Birch where strength is needed and 1/8" birch ply where it isn't, like the panels for the walls.