Thread: Why is 25mm rough sawn so common?

When I was selling wholesale to the furniture industry at least 75% of our timber sold was 25mm thick. Keep in mind you cannot get two 25mm boards out of a 50mm sawn. And a 50mm sawn wont stay at 50mm when dry. Even today, on a much smaller scale, I am still cutting to order more 28mm boards, which dry to 25mm, than anything else. There is a bit of a trend towards slabs these days with furniture makers. It used to be slabs for slab furniture, but now they are using them as stock to cut their own requirements. Its funny watching them trying to wrestle them into their utes.
So, to get two 25mm finished dry boards we need to mill at 60mm. The air drying time will be approx two and a half years and the log yield decreases the thicker you mill. Kiln drying also takes longer which is costly both in power and down time. All in all, to green saw thin is a much better return.

25mm allows for milling down to 19mm which is a extremely common size for making furniture, if your require thicker the go for the next size up which I think is 50mm

Originally Posted by China

25mm allows for milling down to 19mm which is a extremely common size for making furniture, if your require thicker the go for the next size up which I think is 50mm

Sometimes you can get 32mm as I have done in the past.

The "3mm per side" rule for dressing really only holds for fully automated production machines where you have to allow for undersize or warped rough boards. I could generally get 21-22mm dressed and sanded from 1" rough sawn which is perfectly fine for desks and small tables.

Most common furniture timbers come in 1" 1.5" and 2" (25, 38, 50 mm rough or 19, 32, 45mm dressed), with some also available in 3" or larger

It can also depend on the mill it's coming from; our usual supplier for US timbers sourced from mills that were quite generous on sizing and very strict on grade (generally 2-3mm over thickness, 100mm over nominal length and their Comsel grade could often pass for Select), we have had other suppliers whose source mills for the same timber were...ummm...lets say disappointing.

Another weird thing is that Euro Beech always comes rough sanded both faces. Dunno why they do it, but they do it.

Elanjacobs,

Do you order and keep a stock of mostly 1 size, a mix of all the sizes or just order for each job as you get it? I've seen your work and you make some big stuff, I imagine you would mostly use 38 and 50mm?

Rusty,

Thanks I hadn't really thought about yield from the log, that would be a factor for the person sawing it for sure! Wrestling slabs into a ute? That's fine for red cedar, not so much for the eucalypts

I've since moved on, but we kept stock of Radiata, Vic Ash and US Oak in 1" 1.5" and 2". Everything else was as needed, but we'd generally order 10% more than calculated to allow for defects so there was always some stock of our regular species.

Ok that makes sense, are still making furniture or changed career entirely?

Changed entirely, now doing a fitting and turning apprenticeship with a company that specialises in small gears

Originally Posted by Austin_Turner

Wrestling slabs into a ute? That's fine for red cedar, not so much for the eucalypts

I liked it when heaving lumber. Man did it make me strong. Same with sheets of MDF.

Gained core and brute strength like an Ox....

Not so now!

Originally Posted by woodPixel

Same with sheets of MDF.

Gained core and brute strength like an Ox....

Ah MDF....great for the muscles, bad for the lungs

The reason 25mm is the most commonly available is its the most commonly used size.

Not a lot of serious furniture gets built in Australia anymore. And it doesn't really use that much wood anyway.

A kitchen on the other hand runs to about 1 cubic meter of wood, and most of that is either 3/4" or 7/8" finish. And we havent got to panelling or architraving or any of the fun stuff that uses wood in volume.

Originally Posted by John.G

The reason 25mm is the most commonly available is its the most commonly used size.

Not a lot of serious furniture gets built in Australia anymore. And it doesn't really use that much wood anyway.

A kitchen on the other hand runs to about 1 cubic meter of wood, and most of that is either 3/4" or 7/8" finish. And we havent got to panelling or architraving or any of the fun stuff that uses wood in volume.

I assume that a 7/8" finish comes from a 1.5" rough sawn board?

Cheers Yvan

Originally Posted by yvan

I assume that a 7/8" finish comes from a 1.5" rough sawn board?

Cheers Yvan

Not on my mill. That would be 5/8" to waste off every board. You need to be cutting much better percentages than that to turn a profit.

25mm rough sawn is an absolute pain for box making. If its dead straight with no twist you're lucky to get two 9mm finished boards, other than that you get an offcuts which is good for ?????

Whatever happened to the good old 28mm?