Conquering Fuzzies in Construction Pine

[TReischl]

I am with the times Larry. I have not seen any high end furniture in Find WoodWorking with nasty knots in it, or streaky mineral stains. Someone may be "pitching" this junk as being "in fashion" right now, maybe his Dad was selling orange shag carpet in the 70's ???

[larrybadgett]

I am with the times Larry. I have not seen any high end furniture in Find WoodWorking with nasty knots in it, or streaky mineral stains. Someone may be "pitching" this junk as being "in fashion" right now, maybe his Dad was selling orange shag carpet in the 70's ???

TReischl
You'r predictable, I guess I can give you that!

[TexasCowboy]

[quote="TReischl"]Hello Tex,

A while back I read somewhere that only fine grained woods like walnut and cherry are "cabinet" grade woods. Of course, when I read those sort of articles, I always think to myself "Who set THAT guy up as the Judge of what should or should not be used?" Really nice stuff can be made out of oak when it is quarter or rift sawn. Good example of that is the Craftsman style furniture that was built about a 100 years ago. If the furniture maker selects the wood carefully, it can look really look good.

Then again, I have seen horrific stuff made from red oak, with wild grain running all over the place. It might look good in a hunting lodge though? But in a regular home, it just looks bad.

As for wasting a valuable resource? Well, pallets have to be out of something, and not all red oak is suitable for furniture. What I think happens is that a lot of borderline or even less than suitable red oak gets sawn into "lumber" and is put up for sale. The commercial dealers are probably a lot more scrupulous about their grading.

I was in a store a couple of days ago, looking at $9-10/bd ft cherry that had knots and stain streaks in it! I asked where it had come from? The clerk told me that a local sold it to them. I said "You expect people to buy this at this price?" He said "Yup, where else they gonna go?" Nice.

I have had people request that wood with the dark mineral streaks. I have a source of wood that puts even really good wood within reach. However, I also buy it rough sawn and run it through my 15" planner to get it smooth and the proper thickness. I pay less than $2 board foot for red oak, and $2.50 for hard maple. I can get walnut for less than $5 bd ft and cherry for about $4 bd ft. Mahagany is the most expensive I've ever bought at $10 bd ft.

[sawmiller]

would love to get $2/bdft for red oak
from the small sawmill point of view, lots of it goes out at .60-.80/bdft or less
frequently pays better to keep it in a railroad tie, than cut into boards and a pallet stock 6 x6 or 4 x 6.
hopefully within the next year , i will be kiln drying vs air drying. then i might get $1-$1.50/bdft.
dan

[jimwill2]

Where is your sawmill... I'd love to buy red oak at that price!

[TexasCowboy]

would love to get $2/bdft for red oak
from the small sawmill point of view, lots of it goes out at .60-.80/bdft or less
frequently pays better to keep it in a railroad tie, than cut into boards and a pallet stock 6 x6 or 4 x 6.
hopefully within the next year , i will be kiln drying vs air drying. then i might get $1-$1.50/bdft.
dan

A local sawmill charges 31 cents bd ft to cut logs. But then it still has to be kiln dried. I buy my wood from a place in Houston Texas

[sawmiller]

i'm bumping my charges to .32 due to gas prices, and steel going up again ( blades )
but thats for cutting your logs, buying logs is another story , prices go up and down...
ahh well, i'm in west tn by the tn river, but i'm sure there is a small mill somewheres around you, with some air dried wood in a shed out back
dan

[TexasCowboy]

i'm bumping my charges to .32 due to gas prices, and steel going up again ( blades )
but thats for cutting your logs, buying logs is another story , prices go up and down...
ahh well, i'm in west tn by the tn river, but i'm sure there is a small mill somewheres around you, with some air dried wood in a shed out back
dan

I envy you your sawmill. I had lots of oak trees die during the drought. Some of them quite big. about 2 foot in diameter or larger. I have 37 oak trees I want removed from my pasture. I have nearly a hundred on my property. Getting them down isn't so much a problem as getting them to the mill, and then I have no way to dry them and no place to store them for several years while they air dry.

[TReischl]

Hello Tex and SawMiller,

Been following your conversation. Especially the part about what you pay and or charge for wood. That is exactly what has me annoyed about this part of the country! It is just nuts around here.

I get it about certain boards having "interesting" features and being used for special projects. But when a whole stack is nothing but knots and streaks that is a different story altogether, it is just grade B or C lumber being sold at premium prices because there is no competition.

About ten years ago I bought a walnut log in northern Wisconsin. After he sawed it for me, several of the planks on the inside had these "knots" where the tree had grown around a branch that had been cut off about 40 years earlier. He did not want to charge me for them! I said no, they were really great pieces. After several years of air drying, I made some great jewelry boxes from those pieces and gave one of them to his wife, he was amazed. So, yes, I get it about special pieces. But those same pieces could not have been used in most furniture.

Anyway, this is sort of getting away from core of this thread. But it is interesting, so who cares?

[TequilaTony]

Hi Ted,

I've been reading your post and am interested in your thoughts. Over the course of the last couple years, I started down the CNC path. Started with a smaller home built baltic birch frame and am now using an 8020 4x8 platform. My router is 2.2k 3-phase/220 liquid cooled. Late last year, I carved a sign my wife designed in a 1in pine round purchased at a big box store. One thing led to another and within a month we were up and running, selling signs on the internet.

The pine has had its challenges. Getting stock that is flat is a challenge. Getting stock that is the dry enough for carving is a challenge. Most of our stuff is v-carved with my main bit being an Amana RC1102. I'm amazed at people running at such high IPMs. I started high but eventually settled at running at 30ipm in order to get the level of quality I was satisfied with given the intricate stuff we are doing. Now that the Christmas rush is over, I'm investigating feeds and speeds again. I tried hardening the pine with thinned shellac base sanding sealer but cannot honestly tell a difference. Running at higher speeds appears to fracture the wood vs. carve. And, 30ipm seems too slow.

Is there a window between ultra low IPMs and 400-500ipm where things look noticeably worse? Would love to trade info

Tony

[Will Williamson]

Have you ever tried to raster cut, at 25 to 30 degree angle? I have had good results.

[TReischl]

WOW! I cannot believe this thread has been resurrected.

Will, I have raster cut at 30 and 45 degrees and quite often got good results. But it sometimes depends on the model.

I am loathe to mention this cause I am not a whiner, but. . . .there is software that always cuts in one direction when rastering, of course the return trip is wasted time, but for critical work? Pretty darn good. BTW, that other software does not do some things that Aspire does either. Some very important things. Using a one direction only approach a person can set up the cut so it is never going against the grain.

Tony, lately I have been running my spindle at about 10K, that seems to help a lot. One of my to do things is to find some standard HSS router bits. Yup, I know they dull faster than carbide, but they also are much sharper. I am thinking they will cut much cleaner than carbide. If I can find straight flute then I can sharpen them myself.

I hate dealing with the fuzzies!