Tongue and groove lumber is, as its name suggests, designed to fit snugly together, with the tongue planks fitting cleanly into the corresponding groove slots of the groove planks. Tongue and groove lumber is best used for flooring, subflooring, siding, and paneling.
When working with wood, looks are everything, and just because it has been surface milled does not mean it will look great. Learn to look beyond the surface of rough-cut cypress lumber, and see the potential beauty in the product once you have worked your magic on it.
If you're buying wood for a project, you're probably going to hear the term kiln-dried. This simply means that the wood has been artificially dried in a kiln to accelerate the removal of moisture from it. This ensures that the wood is uniformly strong and aesthetically pleasing.
When processing rough-cut lumber, plane the board to its finished thickness (preferably using a thickness planer). It’s recommended that you flip the boards over each time you make a thinner cut, as this removes equal amounts from each face and helps maintain the overall flatness.
While board lumber may deliver a certain aesthetic, for general building and surfaces that will be painted or covered, plywood is a better option. It is less expensive and takes less time and materials to install.
If you have a swimming pool or outdoor spa, privacy fences protect you and your property from unwanted visitors – human and animal. However, because wood fencing eventually deteriorates, use rough-cut lumber for construction, so that, when the time for replacement comes, your costs are kept low.
A lot of woodworkers are doing projects on thin materials budgets, which makes rough-cut lumber a great buy. Since rough-cut lumber is cheaper than finished lumber, you can get a lot more material for your money, and have more of a margin for error.
Softwood comes from coniferous, commonly referred to as evergreen, trees. Only about 25% of all softwoods are used in woodworking; this may be because of the closed-grain small pore nature of softwood, which is so subtle that it is almost unnoticeable in the finished product.
Are you wondering how cypress can be so resistant to so many things? The wood produces an oil that acts as a natural preservative. At the same time, the oil also allows the wood to resist fungus growth, insects, and weather.
Pine is often used in furniture making because it is malleable and easy to stain. There are many different types of pine, such as ponderosa, white, yellow, and sugar pine. Pine is a soft wood, and because it is so easy to work with, one of the more popular types of lumber.
Looking to find rough-cut lumber for table legs? You might want to look for a blank that is rift sawn, or cut so the grain runs diagonally. This means that all four sides of your leg will have the same straight-grained pattern.
If the rough-cut lumber you are buying is green, then remember to choose boards that are larger than what you will need, as green wood will shrink while drying. Also, make sure you have a covered area to store the wood, so it can dry properly.
Care to guess the location of the oldest living hardwood tree in existence? That would be Tasmania, Australia. This ancient tree is a variety of Mountain Ash. Currently, it stands over 329 feet tall.
When it comes to buying rough-cut lumber, kiln dried lumber is a good option (although it requires a bit more of an investment). The kiln drying process will kill the eggs of insects in the lumber due to the high temperature, eliminating pest problems.
When working with a plank that is a narrower width than the others used in your project, you can create a balanced look to the finished product by placing the narrow piece in the middle and building out from there in both directions.
Measured meticulously in inches and cut according to width and length, dimensional lumber that is rough cut is the best for building and home framing. The most common cuts are "two by four" although there are also “one,” “three” and “four by four cuts,” as well as larger sized customized cuts.
Sanding wood may be your least favorite building task, but it's a necessary step to ensure a smooth, high quality finish to your woodworking project.
The first step in preparing rough sawn lumber is to dry the lumber outside. The general rule when it comes to properly drying the lumber is that each board will require one year of drying time for each inch of thickness.
Redwood and cedar have long been favorites for woodworking, but these woods come with a lot of labor and a hefty cost. Cypress is in the same family as redwood and cedar, giving you the same benefits for a fraction of the cost.
Hardwood lumber grades were designed by the National Hardwood Lumber Association (NHLA) to give the furniture industry a way of measuring (through mathematics) lumber in terms of clarity and defects. Essentially, hardwood grades are based on the size and number of clear pieces of a cutup board.
Times change. In the past, pecky cypress was either bypassed or harvested logs were abandoned in the forest. Today, the unique texture created when the interior tunnels are exposed during milling makes pecky cypress highly desired for select uses.
A major drawback of using finished wood for a project is how limited you are with the dimensions available. In many cases, choosing a rough-cut piece of lumber may allow you to get more accuracy than you could otherwise achieve.
