25mm thick DAR Pine

[Mr Big]

Hi All,

I'm looking to find some timber for building a tool chest, and looking at the plans I have it calls for 25mm finished thickness of the timber. Now as it's a tool chest I'm aiming to get whatever is cheap, but in ringing around I have found a slight problem. No one seems to stock 25mm thick pine, I can get 19mm 38mm and 50mm.

Now all I'm really looking at is whatever I can find that is the cheapest and plenty of places have offered to mill me the exact thickness from 38mm thick boards, but that seems wasteful and certainly adding unnecessary expense over stock that has already been finished to 25mm thick.

So my question to you all out there is where can I find this mysterious 25mm thick DAR timber, I'm happy to move to a hardwood, but my main aim is the cheapest timber I can get in that thickness around Sydney. What would be your suggestions to ask for.

(before you suggest rough sawn stock I don't yet have the funds for a thicknesser or planer so that option is out for now)

[rustynail]

Could you drop back in thickness to 19mm as this is a standard size and readily available.

[Scott]

I've got plenty of it here, but it's not going to help you since I live in Melbourne. I use it mainly for toys etc. I scored this from a stair manufacturer as offcuts so I reckon you could get it from a stair place in Sydney as they use 25 & 32mm thick Pine DAR for treads and risers.

Other than that, Mathews Timber (http://mathewstimber.com.au/) in Melbourne stock plenty of it.

Hope this helps :)

[ian]

can you post a picture of the finished box, or a link to the plans?

It may be easy to modify them to use 19mm boards

[swk]

I second Rusty and Ian.
I made a couple of largish size tool chests (300x300x700) with 19mm, solid as anything.

Unless the plan has some complex corner jointing or something (which you could still work around) 19mm is plenty thick enough for the walls of a tool chest.

And it will be a tad lighter than 25mm, which is a good thing.

Regards
SWK

[Mr Big]

The tool chest I'm looking at making is basically the traditional cabinetmakers tool chest eg(chris schwarz anarchists tool chest, Howards how to tool chest, ben seaton tool chest) and all plans are based around 1 inch or 7/8th inch thick boards and from what I've been able to find they recomend against 19mm as being too thin. The finished size of the chest is likely to be around 950x600x600 give or take a few cm.

With that in mind I think the stairs sound like a good option, but I'm certainly open to any other ideas that are out there.

[joez]

A lot of places that sell rough sawn timber also offer a thicknessing service. In Melbourne I pay about $1 per meter to have all my stuff run thought a double sided planer.

Try ringing around places that carry rough sawn timber, I sure you will find someone.

joez

[rustynail]

The tool chest I'm looking at making is basically the traditional cabinetmakers tool chest eg(chris schwarz anarchists tool chest, Howards how to tool chest, ben seaton tool chest) and all plans are based around 1 inch or 7/8th inch thick boards and from what I've been able to find they recomend against 19mm as being too thin. The finished size of the chest is likely to be around 950x600x600 give or take a few cm.

With that in mind I think the stairs sound like a good option, but I'm certainly open to any other ideas that are out there.

My tool chest is 850x550x550 Its 18mm kauri, dovetail joints. Made it when I was an apprentice over 40years ago. It has seen the world by both air and sea and is still holding together. Doesnt do much moving around these days but Im sure, if it heard the call, it would be up for another tour.
You're not going to put jackhammers in it, are you?

[Greg Ward]

What's the timing?
What are the widths you need and total lengths?
I've got some 150 x38 boards of pacific maple that would be OK at $20 a 2.4 metre length, dressed on one side, all you would need to do is find someone to thickness a bit off the other side. (see the Marketplace sale for photos)
I can arrange 25mm thick boards DAR in those and other various timbers, but not until next month.
Greg

[Mr Big]

If I'm honest with myself timing is anywhere from 1-3 months at the moment and I've really been testing the waters with real timber yards and it seems that most places are charging around $8/m for 150x25mm pine/oregan which seems pricey considering that the 19mm pine comes in at $3.90ish/m for the same width. Maybe I'm just dreaming

I keep hearing about how bunnings is real expensive for timber yet in checking out the prices it seems they are on the cheaper side for the things they stock and the only reason to go elsewhere is to get a better range of timbers. with 190x19 radiata pine coming in at $12 for a 2.4m length it would seem that in simply buying the usual 50% extra I could ditch all the knots and still come in with a final price of under $100 for everything I need. Thanks for the feedback on that one Rustynail. and while I know that it has been referred to as crapiata by some, do I really need to use anything else for a tool chest that will be painted.

I'm happy to be proved wrong, or maybe I've just read to much on the net from american prices which are very cheap

[ian]

If I'm honest with myself timing is anywhere from 1-3 months at the moment and I've really been testing the waters with real timber yards and it seems that most places are charging around $8/m for 150x25mm pine/oregan which seems pricey considering that the 19mm pine comes in at $3.90ish/m for the same width. Maybe I'm just dreamingno comment on your dreams, but for a finished thickness of 25mm the timber yard will start with a 38mm board and turn 13mm of it into chips. $8/m is buying you the 38mm plus machining

It's a little more difficult when it comes to dovetailing, but you could make the sides and top panel from 17mm ply and use 19mm thick stuff for the skirts. The ply will bve stiff enough

you'll need to glue up around 5 boards if you want a true 600mm width -- and then once you've flattened the sides, the finished thickness might be around 30mm anyway
and once the chest is full of tools you won't be able to lift it, so does it matter if you make it from 38mm stuff?

[China]

"I'm aiming to get whatever is cheap" Things have certainly changed in my day your tool chest was constructed from the finest timber you could get and to the highest quality possible

[Mr Big]

AS to the quality question, I think it's horses for courses. Take the Japanese for example, their toolboxes are very basic in style and structure using nails of all things. It would be considered inappropriate to use fine woods and fine joinery on a tool chest. There's also the other extreme of making something from figured mahogany and exotic inlays etc.

I fall more towards the Japanese side and for a tool chest, should I really be spending significant time and expense on what is essentially a user type item that is there to do a simple job.

Ian, thanks for bringing up plywood as I haven't considered that and might give it some thought over the weekend.

[rustynail]

If you are going to paint it do it in plywood with a timber plinth on the bottom. You could afford to come down quite a bit in thickness with ply 12 or 16mm would be fine. An 800x500x500 in 12mm ply full of tools can be carried but only just.

[swk]

Continuing along on the 19mm theme, here is a picture of one of those (smaller) chests I mentioned earlier. A bit hacked around now.
As others have mentioned (and I hinted at before), the weight can be an issue. One of the reasons I picked this size was it seemed to me at the time (a few years ago now) that this size would be about the maximum I could safely handle myself*
Just for fun, I went out and weighed them just now. The box in the picture (which has some of the tools up on the bench so is partially empty) came in at 23kg. The other was 28. These are weights that are not really good for lumping around by yourself. From the pix you can see I keep these boxes on a chipboard plank with castors on the back. Makes it easy to roll the box in and out from under the bench

A chest with 4x the volume is really a fixed piece of furniture. With that in mind
I have also used 19mm for the carcase of bookshelves etc and they take a heap more static load than these tool boxes are ever likely to!
I had a look again at the Anarchist toolchest that you mentioned and noticed that the internal trays were supported on staggered pieces of what looked like ply. These will increase the stiffness of the end anyway and with a bit of thought could be incorporated into the corner joints to beef them up too. As rustynail says even a bit thinner ply should be OK. And thin ply can always be stiffened up with judicious use of battens inside (if need be).

Also (back to pine) I pretty much go to where I will get the wood from and hand select the best stuff. It is quite reasonable to cut to avoid knots etc too. I have been away from woodworking for a while and am only getting back to it, but I noticed my local Bunnings wood selection seemed of generally poorer average quality (although there were still some useable pieces) than when I used to frequent joineries.

Regards
SWK

*I have a brother who is a couple of years younger than me who has been unable to properly work since he was about 40 due to back injuries. You only get one spine to last a lifetime, wear it out wisely.

[Mr Big]

so after looking into prices I'm going with using 70x25mm non structural pine which I'll glue up into boards for the tool chest and thickness down to 25mm. The reason I'm going for solid timber is that this tool chest is really a practice exercise in dovetailing and basic joinery for me and plywood doesn't really allow for that very well.

Now while this timber is full of knots and holes taking into account the waste factor I believe I can get all the lengths I need out of it free of knots and still come in under $100 for all the wood.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[Mr Big]

Just to reoPen this thread briefly. I was wandering through mitre ten and they had some 'case pine 200 x25' which measured out at 223 x 28 in actual thickness. Now this stuff is 3.99 per meter rough sawn. Given this is nearly exactly what I have been looking for does the price sound ok?? It's not clear stock as there are a reasonable number of large knots in the 5m planks