Thread: Stock thickness for finished dimensions? How does it work?

Those measurements for the headboard are pretty thick. it will be a good bed to hide under in WW3.
What a lot of guys do on this forum is cut (or thickness) roughly to size and then leave the timber to 'move'. I guess that's why it starts off at 50mm. A good timber yard will thickness it for you especially if you are buying from them.
Tell us what volume of the mag so we can look it up and be more help.

Carry Pine

You are correct you need to "Thickness" the timber to your final required dimensions.
I dont know what timber yard you are in but no quality timber yard sells dressed timber except to order the timber you should be buying is rough sawn and will need to machined to your requirements.

I also suggest you design the project yourself rather than use a stock plan that way you can make it to suit the material you have available.
Before you say you cant do it YOU CAN! There you have it the ultimate woodworking lesson "YOU CAN" the only thing you have to work out is the HOW!

Good Luck

Thx for the replies guys, and the yard is Warringah Timbers (I think, near Brookvale, Sydney) and the mag issue is No. 46 (June/July 2006).

I agree the result will be a solid bed ... especially if I use spotted gum or another hardwood ... still thinking about that ... but maybe mucking around with the dimensions just makes my initial problem worse (further customising what are basically translated US designs in the magazine ...).

Cheers.

Memoryman,
that magazine you are working from is such a scam! They call it "Australian", but it is just American Woodsmith with a few local ads and the dimensions changed to mm by some office kid with a calculator and a formula! The reason you are confused, perhaps, is because our Nth American colleagues almsot always start with roughsawn wood, so you are quite right, you need to plane and thickness it to get to the 'finished' dimensions.
Fifty mm is 2" raw stock, which of course finshes at 1 3/4 after planing (or 42mm +/-). Ditto for 38mm - read 1 1/2" rough stock (or "six quarter" as our buddies across the Pacific call it. You typically allow for a quarter of an inch (6.25mm) loss off any rough sawn board as you flatten and thickness it - that's why 1" ends up at 3/4" or 19mm by the time you get to make a cabinet out of it.

As Different sez - don't get too hung-up on exact thicknesses, and if you can buy wood dressed close enough to the 'finished' dimensions specified, take the simple way! Just adjust any critical measurements if the wood you end up with is a few mm more or less than the plan wants, so the mattress still fits.

(Having made a few beds, I would strongly advise getting the mattress you want to use and checking dimensions, too. The damn things can vary by enough to make them too loose or too tight if you just go with the nominal sizes in the catalogue! Others might have different ideas, but I've found about 20mm clearance all round, or a bit less, gives you room for tucking in sheets & blankets - more than that & you'll have a gap that looks a bit messy.)

IanW I think you are spot on with the mag comments ... working in IT I spend my whole day translating US-imperial-think (both senses of imperial) to Aussie ... but lets not dwell on that ... thanks for confirming what I suspected. I think I can adapt to whatever timber sizes I end up with, but I thought it would be nice to just follow all the diagrams for once ... not to be, I guess ...

Agree also on the mattress sizing ... another pseudo-standard if ever there was ...

Thanks again ... will post some pictures in a month or so ... to this thread ... cheers.

One more thing dont rely on measurement of the matress supplied by the bedding shop they will not measure it they will just quote from the brochure.
When you do measure the matress measure it lying on a flat surface not upright against a wall as they are often stored in bedding shops to save on space.

Ross

Ahh matress sizes.
we had a to do about that last time we baught a matress.

seem there are two major manufactures of matresses (apart from the small players) in this country... sealy and the other crowd ( froget the name_

anyway sealy's actual finished length dimension is about an inch or more shorter than the other crowd.

you'll probaly find that one lot make to a european sizing and the other to american or something equaliy silly.

and before you say get em to make a special.... tried that..... they made us two "special" longer matresses..... they were the same length as the original.
sent em both back and baught the other brand.

cheers

Originally Posted by memoryman

Thx for the replies guys, and the yard is Warringah Timbers (I think, near Brookvale, Sydney) and the mag issue is No. 46 (June/July 2006).

I agree the result will be a solid bed ... especially if I use spotted gum or another hardwood ... still thinking about that ... but maybe mucking around with the dimensions just makes my initial problem worse (further customising what are basically translated US designs in the magazine ...).

Cheers.

memoryman
call into Chatswood libarary and look at Jeff Miller's Beds : outstanding projects from one of America's best craftsmen : with plans and complete instructions for building 9 classic beds <!-- author -->
The catalogue says that the book is on teh shelf right now ! but OFFSITE which I think means you can look at it next day (the library is currently in temporary quarters while the civic centre is rebuilt) ring and ask
Jeff explains how to modify a design to fit the mattress you have.

also try Artarmon Timber and Boards for your timber (no affiliation)


ian

This may help

http://www.chadwickstimber.com.au/cg...school_project

Cheers,

eddie

Thanks everyone ... I will now be cautious about the mattress sizing, and note that they spread when laid flat ... tried to find the library in Chatswood today to get the Bed book ... but like everything in Chatswood, it wasn't where I thought it should be (will ring them).

And thanks Eddie for the timber projects link, its much better than most of the timber industry association ones I managed to find.

Cheers, memoryman.