Thread: Indulge a young fool (price of wood)

Dunno about the cost in OZ, but be sure to add 5 to 15% for waste. Sometimes more, depending on the design and what size timbers are available. Purchase the timber with the design dimensions in mind to minimize this.

Originally Posted by Kontra

I will freely admit that I am a horrible wood worker, I do however enjoy sitting down with pencil and bit of paper and having a go at designing bits of furniture. I’ve built nothing although I would like change that one day.

Currently I’ve been having a go at a bed, it’s fairly simple (once I get my skills up on AutoCAD I might upload a design or two), the picture I’ve got in my head has a lot of highly figured wood, aka $$$(If I ever get around to making it or having it made I figure it might as well make it something the kids would want to inherit).

I don’t have much of an idea about the cost of timber let alone highly figured stuff so if someone here could give me an idea of the cost for some of the timber, I’m not sure of how much would be needed for the whole design either so I was thinking I’d use the final size of the headboard too compare prices; 200 cm x 90 cm x 5 cm ish slab (if that quantity is available?) or planks to join together?

I'm not sure which wood definitively but the shortlist is;

Amboyna Burl
Walnut Burl
Maple Burl
Oak Burl

as you can see I like Burls, so if anyone could tell me how much these bits of wood would cost and where they could be obtained I'd be most grateful? I've tried searching but didn't really get that far, If anyone knows of a wood that looks similar feel free to suggest it
yours sincerely,

Ed, young fool.

Welcome...

I would suggest that it impossible to even get your wish list in solid timber burls. Typically, burls are seldom over 500mm in diameter (can be bigger but not big enough to build a bed!) The other problem is that burls can have voids and weaknesses that could not take the stress. Further, even if you could find enough burl material to build a solid bed from it, it would be sooooooooooo expensive!

So what you need to consider in your designs is to use these timbers as veneers and then you can get some beautiful results...Least that is what I would be doing if I wanted to make a bed with burl material.

Anyways, welcome to the forum and I hope you get to build some of your designs.Why not post your designs so that the forum members will be better able to give you some guidance.

Regards,

Chipman

Thanks for the advice fellas

Originally Posted by Chipman

Welcome...

I would suggest that it impossible to even get your wish list in solid timber burls. Typically, burls are seldom over 500mm in diameter (can be bigger but not big enough to build a bed!) The other problem is that burls can have voids and weaknesses that could not take the stress. Further, even if you could find enough burl material to build a solid bed from it, it would be sooooooooooo expensive!

So what you need to consider in your designs is to use these timbers as veneers and then you can get some beautiful results...Least that is what I would be doing if I wanted to make a bed with burl material.

I'm definitely open to using veneers; I got the woods that were similar to the idea I had in my head from looking at around ~700 veneers, can veneer be stained as thicker wood?

Originally Posted by Chipman

Anyways, welcome to the forum and I hope you get to build some of your designs.Why not post your designs so that the forum members will be better able to give you some guidance.

Regards,

Chipman

I seem to be getting the hang of Autocad so I'll try to post some drawings in the next couple days.

Ed

Be game..buy some of each.

Kontra

Yes, you can stain veneers but to me that would be a crime to spoil exotic veneers like that with a stain unless you have a very good reason to do it. You want the beautiful grain and patterns to show so only use a varinish.

Regards,

Chipman

You might find some nice myrtle or gum burled logs which have just been sliced 'through and through' giving you the usual natural edge gained from a slab, but with the burl figure running through and around the edges up above where your pillows will be, just using it as a feature where you really need it. Whether you go something native/solid or exotic/veneer, I hope you have a well paying paper route, or your mum & dad are loaded

I was recently quoted over $15000 / cubic metre for American Walnut (not burl). I shopped around and price came down to $9000/cu.metre. Finally settled for Cherry at $4000 / cu metre. Moral of the story is watch out for sharp operators who see a neophyte coming and flog the price. I have no problem with someone making a profit - just an issue of them making it all off me!

Originally Posted by rowie

. Whether you go something native/solid or exotic/veneer, I hope you have a well paying paper route, or your mum & dad are loaded

I did have a paper route; I got about $10 bucks for folding 300 newspapers, 4 inserts and then delivering them, maybe I'll head west to the mines...
At those prices I think it'll definitely be a veneer now back to Autocad...

Alot more than you could afford