Hi all, I'm looking to build a room divider 6 feet high by 18 inches wide, using 1 inch by 1 inch wood. The plan is to paint the frame white, and fill in the frame with wallpaper. Can anyone recommend a good wood species that will stay true and not warp over time? Thanks in advance for your help.
Poplar is a standard hardwood to use when you're planning on painting or covering it. It's the species that's used for a lot of the upholsted furniture. It's relatively cheap and takes paint well.
When you say 1" square wood, you'll be asking for 5/4 (say five quarter) stock. That's a hair over 1", but it's as close as it comes without having something milled.
RSince you are painting it, you don't need to be picky about appearance. Almost any wood that had been Kiln Dried should be OK to use. Maybe you can find something in the Molding isle at the hardware store or lumber yard. You could also rip the pieces off of some Shelfing stock.
Poplar would probably be a good choice but most woods are stable once completely dried, especially once sealed with paint. Red Oak would also work well, as it is harder than poplar and may be stronger considering 1x1 construction (which I question but will ignore that since I can't look at your actual idea). Less likly to split from the fastners or crack along the grain.
Huh? Wood is constantly moving. Not taking that into consideration when building is asking for trouble.
Instead of wood, consider MDF since it will be painted. Compared to wood, MDF is very stable dimensionally. Plywood is a good choice aside from the edges. I don't know that it will fit your design.
Any properly dried wood will be reasonably stable, but all wood moves with changes in temperature and humidity. For paint, pine and poplar are often used as they are reasonable in price. Ed
According to PipeDown :
Poplar's advantage is not only is it very stable under strongly varying conditions (it's why it's the preferred material for wooden screen doors), it's _real_ cheap to get in large clear pieces, easy to machine, stain or paint.
Even KD'd (allowing for acclimatization too!) few woods are as stable as poplar.
With the proper joinery, poplar will be _less_ likely to split than an open grain wood like oak, less likely to distort a light frame than most other hardwoods, and a heck of a lot cheaper than oak.
There's a reason why they make wooden screen doors out of poplar.
If you wanted more strength than poplar, I'd recommend maple (or even birch), but only if it's been seasoned/dried/allowed to acclimatize for a long time[+]. And I wouldn't use it where the climate changes radically.
[+] The maple for our plant stand acclimatized for over 5 years. That's the story I told my SO, and I'm sticking to it!
Wood like any material (even metal) is subject to thermal expansion but sealed dried wood (excepting defects like knots and checks) should not warp or split just sitting in a typical indoor setting.
By stable I did not mean "perfect and dimentionally unchanging" I mean it is unlikely to split, warp, check or crack. Sure any piece of wood can have a hidden defect but afterall, I was generalizing
According to Edwin Pawlowski :
It sounds as if he's building the room divider as a "panel" with 1x1 framing, and some sort of panel material. Short of making the panel out of something big and heavy (like 3/4" MDF), perhaps the simplest/cheapest would be 1x4 poplar plus 1/8" or 1/4" hardboard tempered on both sides. If properly sealed _both_ sides and at the same time, it should stay stable.
Incorrect. Construction-grade 2x4s are kiln dried, too. Trouble is, the moisture content standards are different for construction-grade softwoods and furniture-grade hardwoods. A 2x4 marked "kiln dried" absolutely is unsuitable for the OP's described purpose.
Maybe...
Doubtful, as most shelving stock is not a full one inch thick.
You've gotta be kidding. Red oak is a very poor choice for anything that's going to be painted, unless you don't mind that coarse grain showing through umpteen zillion coats of paint.
Doubtful again. I'd rather be driving nails into poplar than oak, especially if I wanted to avoid splitting it.
No matter what wood you choose you need to look for wood with straight grain. Mahogany is a wood that holds its shape so well it was used for slide rules. You would probably have to settle for Philippine mahogany which is not nearly as stable. Another good wood and very light (weight) is western red cedar. A third wood that is light but rather soft is redwood
Wood moves very little with temperature. It's humidity and moisture that cause it to expand/contract. Obviously, with higher temperatures, there's likely to be more humidity so the two do go hand in hand in a funny sort of way. Interestingly enough, as wood ages, it moves less even in the presence of humidity. We're talking in terms of years here. Paint generally seals off moisture pretty well, hence the movement is limited. I would recommend that whatever you do to the exposed wood, you do to the other sides as well if you want to ensure it doesn't move.
I've always found it interesting that homebuilder's and such talk about houses "settling". It's actually nothing more than the change in moisture in the wood that causes your walls to crack and the odd popping sound. If they used well dried wood in the first place, this would be minimized. Cheers, cc
He's talking about a 1" x 1" frame with a panel (presumably ply). A 1x1 frame isn't going to move enough to even think about even in if it were left unfinished and used in a Chinese laundry. His only worry would be warping of the verticals if there are no center rails in the frame.
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Thanks for the info...it was useful to me.
Well, when I built mine, I used copper pipe and canvas, but if you're going more traditional japanese...
It's more important to pick out individual sticks that are straight-grained and knot and check-free than to use any particular type of wood. Even pine would work, except that you'd probably need some sort of bracing at the corners. If you want to avoid that, I'd use poplar, or if you're willing to spend a little more, maple. But *NOT* the figured maple that people spend so much money of for panels!
Other people were commenting on what wood takes nails better. On this scale construction, don't use nails at all. Either use tennons and peg it, or pre-drill and use wood screws.
Are you sure you don't want to use silk or printed cotton muslin, instead of wallpaper? How are you planning to attach the membrane anyway?
--Goedjn
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