Thread: Finding the right type of wood for the project

You could always use pine for the carcass and thick plywood for the top. Pine is a softwood, but from the looks of it, you are using inch thick stuff, and its going to take a lot of pens to do enough damage to be noticeable/a problem. I would use pine because its cheap and easy to work with, then once you have sorted out all the foibles, replace the top with something more durable or visually pleasing. Or stain it. Use wood that doesn't have structural imperfections (loose knots etc). This is for home use, correct?

I would treat this as a learning experience and try and source the cheapest wood. You will not feel so bad if you do happen to stuff this up and have to get more of the same wood.

Unless you have quite a few tools that will help you to cut timber to size and make it square so you can join the boards up into a panel, then I'd stick with plywood. I think you might be underestimating the difficulties of muddling a desk like this from boards.

Many hard wares stores will cut plywood sheets for you - work out the dimensions of every board and get the store to cut it for you. Then you can assemble. You can get plywood in many different timber species and add a timber strip to the edge of the plywood from the same species. That will make it look like it is from real timber.

Trav

Hi Marxtai,
As Trav said, joining boards to make wide, flat, panels is probably something to learn a bit later in your woodworking career. It's not easy to do without a few necessary tools, though it can be done with minimal equipment. It sounds like you are a newbie, so probably not endowed with a shop full of gizmos, so at this stage of your experience and tool availability, man-made sheet goods makes more sense for a job like this. Not only will they be flat (assuming you buy decent quality goods), but they will be of even thickness, and can be glued & screwed together easily to make strong joints.

That's the practical advice, but you may choose to go the impractical route, and that's good too, it will take longer and there are a few more pitfalls, but the end could be much more satisfying (and the beginnings of an obsession with woodworking - be careful! ). But if you do decide to go ahead with solid-wood construction, I would advise you to get hold of some books & read a little about cabinetmaking & making joins in solid wood before proceeding, because solid wood can't be stuck together as simply & easily as sheet goods, so you will have to allow for that in your final design.

There are many ways to go about the task - you may be able to buy pine panels or have them made up, to avoid plunging into that demanding task straight up. You can scrape by with a few basic tools, or begin amassing a shopful, or use tools provided by a club, or take a woodworking course and use this as your project. Getting some on-the-spot help & advise as you go along could save you much time and endless frustration. You could be in for a very productive & instructive Winter........

Good luck,