Thread: Wood advice for newbie

-"Not sure about the wood for the actual box. Walnut maybe? I don't know much about different types of wood.:

Being an American who's never been to Oz, I can't comment on the qualities of the local woods there, but I'd pick something that looks nice and is not too expensive and just go for it.

-[Can someone suggest some types of wood that I could use. It needs to be soft and easy to work with - since I don't have a lot of skills. Jarrah would be great for the box but is way too hard!]

Soft and easy to work with... Hmm... Balsa wood is soft and easy to cut, we often used it in projects for our boyscout troup when we were kids, but I wouldn't want to try and learn to cut dovetails on it. The wood being soft, like pine for example, does not make it easier to learn on, but harder, in my opinion. That's because the fact that it's soft leads to a little more tearout from the teeth of the saw and edges of cuts getting crushed and taking tools marks more easily which leads to it being a bit harder to fit the way you want when you are done. So, I'd recommend a hard wood, not soft. Hard wood does not mean difficult wood.

-[Also is it hard to get this wood in bits that arn't too thick or long? I went into Cresent Timber (in Sydney Inner West) to get some ideas, but found the experience a little intimidating!]

For a box I generally start with one long board and cut it into six pieces: four sides, a top, and a bottom. Unless you want to mix and match a few different wood types. So, if you don't need it pre-cut to size picking up a board that is a bit long is not a problem.

Too thick? I wish I had that problem over here. I'd buy it thick and cut it down to size, bookmatched, if I could. My problem over here in Taiwan is that I can only find thin boards milled for shelving.

Ya' found it a little intimidating at Crescent Timber?

Arghh... Just carry a running chain saw with you as you enter the store and rev the engine each time you ask a question, they just might mistake you for a lumber jack and not be so cocky when you ask for service....

Aloha.

Hi,

Are you anywhere near trend timbers in Mulgrave (near Windsor). They should be able to help and I've had good service from then at the WWW shows.

Don't be too scared of Jarrah. It's may be hard, but it's not hard to work with and planes well without tearing out.

Have a look at Trend Timbers, Mathews at St. Marys or Anagote in Marrickville.

For a dark, reddish timber you could try red gum, bloodwood, blue gum, jarrah from Australia, or Paduak for something exotic (Africa). Trend timbers is a good place to start - I just bought a couple of small bits from them at the woodwork show.

If you want something reddish but not too dark for the sides try Sydney Blue Gum. It's not as hard as Jarrah. BTW I don't think hard is necessarily difficult to work with - for a start you can't get into much trouble oversanding it like you can with softwood?

For the top what about curly maple? I have a lovely piece of figured maple I bought at the woodwork show some years back for $20. It's about a foot square and over an inch thick so would easily make a top and bottom for your box.

Go to a good timber yard and ask for some samples then take them home and sand them and put a basic finish on them (ie just one coat of whatever you'll use). Then work out which one/s you want to use for your box.

My local timber yard have told me they will let me choose exactly which piece/s I want - eg I can unstack their entire stock of jarrah or maple or bluegum or whatever as long as I put it all back when I'm finished.

It shouldn't be a problem for the timber yard to cut the board to the length you want - one piece for the sides of the box and another for the lid/base.

Actually I have some samples I picked up while planning my current furniture project that are definitely big enough to make smallish boxes! One is a piece of Sydney Red Gum with a big split down the middle which would be easy to cut out and re-glue the halves back together then slice into two boards to make box sides.

Steph