Thread: I did bad at the timber yard

Isnt it great when they dont treat you like a moron.

Im always being spoken to like a moron at timber places

"thats not cedar, thats rosewood....stoopid":confused:

Of all the timberyards i deal with they are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to service. Nothing is to much trouble im to far from Brunswick other wise id do it for you. Some forum member must be close

Wow, look at the colour of that African Rosewood - WOW!!!!

Going to be an awesome box.

cheers
Wendy

This is some Brazilian Walnut i got from Aust Furniture Timbers recently. Nice stuff, and what an increadable smell that fills the workshop and penatrates your clothes

Great looking wood Stickmangumby I might have to start exploring forgein timbers cause of you. Good contrast as well!

Your 13 mm is about 1/2 inch and is okay for rebates etc. The final box may look a liitle bit delicate but it should be strong enough. A lot of the books on building boxes recommend 1/2 inch stuff for the size of box you are aiming for so thats okay.

If you cut rebates with a circular saw the kerf is generally something around 3mm so there is enough left to plug things into.

The only thing I would look for is movement of the top of the box lid if it is that wide. What sort of construction are you thinking of using?

Lignum,
I am in love with the Braz Walnut. At school (30 yrs ago) we used this timber as if there was no end to the supply. I have a few small turning pen blanks to remind me of the school WW shop smell when planing and cutting. The smell is something that one can get hooked on. I have queried before and phoned around but could not source a supplier. Will contact your supplier to see if they will ship some to Perth.
Regards
Les

Hi Stickmangumby thingamy,

You might do it this way.
Band saw your maple, then instead of a tongue and groove, rebate the bottom half of it then rout a groove to match in the rosewood. (should be about 5ml. This will put the base of the box level with the bottom of the sides, so you get good strength despite the thin base. For the top, you'll just have to make a shallower rebate in the rosewood.
Hope this helps.
Incidentally, I have worked with African Rosewood before and it's a joy to work with. However, the sawdust you generate is bright orange!!!
Also, it will not stay the colour you currently have, but will oxidise rapidly to a dark claret colour with a striking black grain.

Regards

Rob

Originally Posted by lesmeyer

Lignum,
I am in love with the Braz Walnut. The smell is something that one can get hooked on. I have queried before and phoned around but could not source a supplier. Will contact your supplier to see if they will ship some to Perth.
Regards
Les

Les, im going back in a few days to see them, so ill ask about costs to Perth if you want and let you know. One of the wierd things was id be ripping it and the smell was fantastic, then for a split secong the most revolting pudgent smell would appear and dissapear as quick as it came:confused: Its like you hit pockets of something in the timber thats off. Strange

Thanks for the advice guys

I'm thinking I'll bandsaw the maple in half to have enough for the lid and the base. My only concern with that though is the one that Ivor raised... how should I join the two parallel boards of 10mm maple together for the lid? I'm doubting a butt joint would be strong enough!

Haha, also time is of the essence... the deadline for this present is next Wednesday :O I've really got to get it bandsawn and dressed tomorrow morning so I can get stuck into it over the next few days!

Thanks a lot everyone

Now that's what I call BAD!

Originally Posted by Stickmangumby

Thanks for the advice guys

I'm thinking I'll bandsaw the maple in half to have enough for the lid and the base. My only concern with that though is the one that Ivor raised... how should I join the two parallel boards of 10mm maple together for the lid? I'm doubting a butt joint would be strong enough!

Haha, also time is of the essence... the deadline for this present is next Wednesday :O I've really got to get it bandsawn and dressed tomorrow morning so I can get stuck into it over the next few days!

Thanks a lot everyone

Sticky,

I note you are are looking at 20mm thick timber on a box not much bigger than a sheet of A4 paper. Once finished, this may look a little heavy.

Instead of bansawing the maple in half, you could slice off a piece about 8mm thick & dress it back to about 5mm for the bottom. Cut this in 1/2 & if you have 2 straight & flat edges, a long grain to long grain joint should be ample for your needs,

Using this method will give you a 5mm bottom & leave you with more to play with on the top. I would think that a 5mm bottom should be plenty strong enough for a box of this size as a general rule of thumb.

Good luck

Steve

Ok, so this morning I went to the Wood Design Centre in North Melbourne, and they machined the wood square for me. I asked the guy there about cutting the maple in half, and he reckoned that it would be better on a table saw than a bandsaw, because there would be less waste. But given it was only 20mm, he thought by the time he cut it in half with the table saw it would lose ~3mm, then to machine each side square again it could lose another ~3mm a side, so each would be ~7mm thick, which I felt like was getting too thin for the lid.

So, now the rosewood is all square and good and I have something to work on, but I still have a dilemma with not having enough wood! I'm thinking maybe that I'll try to readjust my measurements so that there's enough rosewood for the base as well?

What do you reckon?

The kerf on my bandsaw is a lot thinner than that on my table saw. If he squared it up properly the first time round you wouldn't expect to lose another 3mm per side cleaning up after a resaw. Especially if done by a pro.

That board looked too wide to be resawn on my table saw.

Yeah, although I haven't used either a bandsaw or a table saw I was pretty sure that you would use a bandsaw for resawing a board in half widthways. He thought it would wander too much in the 20mm available, but I really wasn't into him cutting from both directions into the middle on a table saw then squaring it up again :eek:

Anyway, I'm stoked with how the wood looks But I still have the dilemma of not having a bottom for the piece and needing one pretty soon! Can anyone point me in the right direction? I think I'm just going to buy a bit more maple (although not birdseye for the base), but I haven't got time atm to go back to AFT. Is Bunnings likely to have anything decent/not too expensive?