Hardwood for jigs / fences etc.

[exigetastic]

Having neared completion on the shed part of the workshop, I am thinking about the contents.

The stuff I've had to make so far has been pretty rough and ready from mainly from treated timber. This has meant I could get by with softwood battens jigs for housing joints etc.

Moving forward I'm going to be needing to be a bit more precise... reading lots of stuff on here and the 'net it seems hardwood is the material of choice for this sort of stuff.

Having never made anything from hardwood, let alone bought any, what would be an economical choice and easy to work with choice for a beginner. I'm thinking workshop furniture, fence extension for my mitre saw, that sort of stuff.

Si

 

[bjm]

Hi Si

A good choice would be beech - it works easily and is quite cheap (I think ~£24 cu ft?). Also, speak with the people in the yard at your timber merchants and they may have offcuts and will generally be very helpful.

Brian

 

[OllyK]

A good supply of 8-12mm perspex / polycarbonate is handy as well. We have a local supplier that makes signs, I nip in and beg the odd offcut either for free or a few pennies!

 

[Steve Maskery]

For workshop furniture I'd go for canary whitewood/tulipwood/american poplar. It's cheap, stable and easy to work. Not very hard though.

Once you start making furniture you'll find you have more offcuts than you know what to do with - some of my jigs are made from a mixture of maple, MDF, ply and cherry! OK not many have all in the one jig but you get my point.

A helpful local kitchen manufacturer is useful too for offcuts of Formica, great for making low-friction, hard-wearing surfaces. Do I gather from one of your B&Q posts that you are in Nottingham? If so, I can recommend Permabond down near the Showcase. I scrounge off them once or twice a year and they don't seem to mind at all.

S

 

[ByronBlack]

for a good cheap readily available material that is easy to work I would recommend Meranti or Sapele - available in loads of different PAR sizes and profiles and can be bought from almost any builders supplier or wood yard. Beech is ok, but in my limited experience seems to be quite prone to excessive movement and being heavy and dense isn't as easy to work as Meranti/Sapele.

 

[Paul Chapman]

People often throw away good wood in the form of furniture. It's worth mentioning to relatives that you'd like to see any furniture they are throwing out before they take it down the dump. Some of it will be veneered or very small sections that will be no good, but sometimes you get lucky.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[bjm]

ByronBlack

Do you have a special supplier - I had to buy some meranti from my BM a few weeks ago and I wouldn't have used the word 'cheap'!!

Brian

 

[Woodmagnet]

Look on freecycle too for furniture being discarded. :wink:

 

[ByronBlack]

Brian - my local 'BM' are usually my suppliers for meranti/sapele, as well as a local timber merchants/importers who sell pre-profiled stuff but also have a stock of par, and finally EO burtons who are my local 'hardwood' specialists, although they are a tad more expensive than the previous two it's still cheap - this is relative to hardwoods, if you are comparing with the pine, then I guess it wouldn't be classed as cheap.

 

[bjm]

Thankfully I don't use it very often, by choice, and I didn't need a lot. I can't lay my hands on the receipt but I seem to remember it worked out over £70 cu ft - admittedly it was PAR but that was with discount. Their advertised price is even worse.

Brian

 

[ByronBlack]

Brian, thats quite outrageous! I would definitly find a new supplier.

 

[bjm]

Thankfully it was only a small quantity and was worth it for the convenience - some jobs you just want to get finished! I just hate knowing I'm paying over the odds. As I said, I'm not a big fan of this timber anyway.

Brian