5/4 lumber dilemma

[bob]

I've got 450BF of white mahogany, all 5/4. It was the only thickness they had if I wanted the wood....My current project calls for 3/4 lumber. It is a shame to mill 1/2" off this wood and pitch it in the compost pile (not to mention inflating my cost by 25% per BF due to the waste). I was thinking of resawing into 7/8 and 3/8, then finishing down to 3/4 and 1/4 respectively.

Question: What should I do with a big pile of 1/4" white mahogany, 8 feet long and 5 to 11 inches wide? Can I glue it up into panels (how flat would they be?). My project is a kitchen hutch, so i do need some back panels and 1/4" would work well.

What do you guys do with 5/4 in a situation like this?

Thanks. Bob

[Larry Jaques]

On Sun, 23 May 2004 19:15:30 -0500, "bob" brought forth from the murky depths:

There ya go. Then sell the 1/4" on *b*y for the price you originally paid for the 5/4.

BTW, WTF is "white mahogany"?!?

========================================================== I drank WHAT? +

--Socrates + Web Application Programming

[Edwin Pawlowski]

[bob]

It is just what it sounds like. It is a variety of mahogany that has no color - it is white. Same tight, knot free grain as genuine mahogany, but slightly harder and denser. You can stain it just about any color you want and not have to deal with the reddish tinge of genuine mahogany. And it's cheaper than genuine - don't have to pay for the red color, I guess!

($1.96BF in case you were wondering).

Hmm. I hadn't thought about eBay. There probably is someone out there that would overpay for my wood AND pay to ship it across the country.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

At that price, I'd just plane away. Anything less than $3 retail is cheap these days.

[Larry Jaques]

On Sun, 23 May 2004 21:05:53 -0500, "bob" brought forth from the murky depths:

You misspelled "the beauty of genuine mahogany." there, bob. Do you add insult to injury and poly it, too?

Not a bad price for plain-Jane ewecallapeetus, but it AIN'T mahogany.

much prefer either genuine (or Aussie Swan River mahogany, jarrah.)

You betcha. And since nobody has ever heard of it, they'll bite hard.

gets $9.20b/f for 8/4 Better stack and sticker it after cutting, just in case.

========================================================== I drank WHAT? +

--Socrates + Web Application Programming

[patriarch]

"bob" wrote in news:66bsc.19949$ [e-mail]:

First off, look at your wood pile as a sunk cost. You will have spent the same cash, no matter where the pieces go that don't end up being a hutch.

You could veneer the thin resawn bits onto a good substrate, and use it to make the insides of cabinets, or for panels in frame and panel construction. Or drawer bottoms, or something. But you will be addingto the labor component of your project. And as long as that's a concious decision, hey, go ahead.

You're going to lose some thickness in the resawing, face jointing, and thicknessing anyway.

Or you could adjust you plans and use thicker stock. Many published plans seem to be set for 3/4 out of a sense of habit, almost.

Patriarch, who believes there are far more important things to be orthodox about...;-)

[xrongor]

if you wanted you could simply use the 5/4 and adjust other dimensions accordingly as required. its just a hutch. you'll have a beefy hutch.

anyway, something to consider that doesnt require much work.

randy

[BRuce]

jewelry boxes, drawer dividers, there is always uses for thin stock or laminate it for other uses.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

[Larry Blanchard]

And some projects that call for it look "clunky" and would benefit from a little thinner wood.

While I don't think you can get 3/4 and 1/4 finished out of 5/4, you could probably get 5/8 and 1/4.

[Stephen M]

I agree. As I design pieces, I avoind anything that looks like 3/4" I prefer if have a mix < 3/4" and > 3/4" components for visual interest. I just look at 3/4" measurements in some designs, and they are usuallt there because of stock availability, and not because they look proportioned.

Where thickness doesn't show, like a table apron. I start with whatever stock I have and plane until I have a smooth surface of the same thickness on all the matching parts. This can be as mucha s 7/8" when starting with

4/4 stock or greater than an inch or 5/4.

I like to think that some day someone will flip over a table or nightstand made by me and say "shee-it, that thing is build to see the extinction of the cockroach"

-Steve

I figure

[mike]

I would slice 1/16" veneers out of it. You could probably get as much for the veneers as the cost of the 5/4. Keep the veneers in a flitch , lay them flat and weight them down to prevent cupping. mike