Which wood for face frames?

[ironhat]

I'm doing a little 'leg work' for a friend. He has a large family and rather than buy furniture he's making the best of his space with built-ins. On a tight budget I suggested that he make the face frames out of yellow pine for the boys room because it's harder than pine or poplar. Am I giving good advice or not?

TIA,
Chiz

[crokett]

I thought poplar was harder. Maybe not. I like working with it better than white or yellow pine though. I think it machines better and takes paint better.

[gjat]

I don't think it's harder than maple, but it's cheaper. I've used it successfully for kid's furniture.

[drumpriest]

Some species of yellow pine is indeed harder than many hardwoods. Maple is a great choice, if you are painting poplar or maple would work nicely, though I'd probably not paint the maple.

Poplar is very nice to work with, so it's a pretty good choice all around.

[LarryG]

The SYP (Southern Yellow Pine) we get around here is harder than Chinese arithmetic. One problem that would complicate its use for face frames, though, is that it can split very easily when you're fastening it right at the ends. In the good grades, it's about the same cost as poplar.

[ironhat]

The SYP (Southern Yellow Pine) we get around here is harder than Chinese arithmetic. One problem that would complicate its use for face frames, though, is that it can split very easily when you're fastening it right at the ends. In the good grades, it's about the same cost as poplar.

Thanks, Lary. I hadn't given the splitting a first, let alone a second thought. I think that I may try talking him into the (soft) maple and doing a stain and poly finish. He wants paint but, in my opinion, paint chips more readily and is far more visible when it does than stain and a clear finish. Maybe a Danish oil so that repair is easier to repair. The kids are young boys and probably a bit rough in their treatment of furniture.

Thanks for the food for thought, gets. Off to make my case.

Later,
Chiz

[Ken Massingale]

Danish oil is an excellent idea Chiz. It's the easiest to repair, next would be shellac.

[gonesailing]

cheap wood

Here in Albuquerque I found a small furniture manufacturing shop that works with red oak and curly maple. About the narrowest board he can use is around 3 to 4 inches, so he has a lot of boards that are 1 to 3 inches wide, 6 to 10 feet long that he has no use for. He sells the red oak at $.50/bf and the curly maple at $.75 a board foot. Since face frames are generally 1 to 2 inches this is ideal wood for that kind of work. You might want to take a look around the local area and see if you can find someone like that and help him our by taking his scrap wood off his hands :-). Sure made my cabinets for my new house a lot cheaper.

Just to brag a bit, found a guy down here with about 1400 bf of black walnut, some of it 8/4's that I bought for just about a $1 per board foot. Figure even if a lot of it is not usable, I still have a lifetime supply. LOML is thinking about a 2 inch thick laminated kitchen counter top sometime in the future.

Mike L

[cabinetman]

The SYP (Southern Yellow Pine) we get around here is harder than Chinese arithmetic. One problem that would complicate its use for face frames, though, is that it can split very easily when you're fastening it right at the ends. In the good grades, it's about the same cost as poplar.

I'll second the motion on SYP. The finish should be determined before picking a FF wood. For it's cost, poplar works well, but IMO not really a wood for a finished project unless it gets done dark. Clear fir isn't off the cost chart.

Actually FF's don't use up a lot of wood, so the cost should not be based solely on that. If a match is desired for doors or the rest of the cabinet, in a stained or clear finish, then there's a cost factor.



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