Wood purchase question(s)

[Anthony VanCampen]

I've got some money coming from overtime at work and I'm planning to buy some wood, the principal idea is to do some furniture making. Craftsman / Shaker stuff. SWMBO wants cherry, so some of the wood will be cherry, I have access to all of the heavier milling gear, planers, jointers dedicated RAS / Chop-saw. Away from my little shop, and plan on doing most of the rough work ahead of time. My question is how much of the total budget should go into sheed goods ply, mdf etc. several of the projects that I have in mind would go better with templates, jigs and fixtures to aid in fabrication and assembly.

Tigger

[toller]

Between 11.0% and 12.2% is the normal figure, but it can easily go as high as 13% if you use really thick jigs. Good luck.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

As much as you need. A 2 x 4 sheet of hardboard or 1/2" MDF is only about $5 or so. In the whole scheme of things, that is a small price to pay for the templates. I have some that I've used a few times already and will use again.

I made a template for chair arms. So far I've made two benches and a lounge chair and this year will make two, maybe four more chairs. The template has less than $1 in material. That would be a dumb place to skimp.

[Andy Dingley]

Sheet goods come from a shop, probably no more than a couple of miles away. They're bulky to store and you can always get more if you need them.

I like to have a sheet (as two half sheets, so I can move them in the car) of 4mm MDF for router templates, 10mm MDF and 1/2" birch plywood for making tool cases. Any more than that, I buy it as I need it.