Help With Pine

[Saint Simon]

As a relative beginner I need help with pine. Am I wasting my time trying to use wood yard pine for cabinet making? I am currently attempting a wall cabinet with a dovetail carcass for which I have bought 8"x1"pine from a non-specialist wood yard. I am still at the preparation stage and having enormous problems getting my boards flat. I plane them flat one day and the next they have cupped a further 2mm. I left them untouched in the workshop for a month before starting.
Will my boards stop moving eventually or am I chasing a moving target? Is this an inherent problem with this kind of wood and should I pay out for wood from a specialist supplier or move on to hard wood?
Advice please!

 

[Chems]

You may be better off using pine from a proper yard. I use FixBoard pre-laminated pine boards and if your careful it comes out very nice, you can work with it like sheet material rather than having the join all your boards before you start.

 

[jlawrence]

Simon, it sounds to me like your pine might have too much moisture in it.

8 inch wide boards will warp - at least in my limited experience they will.
I'd rip the boards into smaller widths and then rejoint them (personally I alternate grains when jointing) and I find this stops boards from moving as much.

 

[PowerTool]

I've started using redwood from my local timber merchants - better quality and much more stable than pine/whitewood from DIY stores.

P.S. - welcome to the forum

Andrew

 

[Grinding One]

That cheap stuff will move itself to the USA before it will help you get a project together....I used some in a carving I had done,it is still trying to roll up after it had finish on it.It is wet and drying it will take forever and it will still move.Thats why it is only good for crateing and firewood.

 

[woodbloke]

As a relative beginner I need help with pine. Am I wasting my time trying to use wood yard pine for cabinet making? I am currently attempting a wall cabinet with a dovetail carcass for which I have bought 8"x1"pine from a non-specialist wood yard. I am still at the preparation stage and having enormous problems getting my boards flat. I plane them flat one day and the next they have cupped a further 2mm. I left them untouched in the workshop for a month before starting.
Will my boards stop moving eventually or am I chasing a moving target? Is this an inherent problem with this kind of wood and should I pay out for wood from a specialist supplier or move on to hard wood?
Advice please!

Welcome to the forum. Crown cut pine boards will always tend to warp away from the log centre until really dry and even then may still move a fraction. I'd leave them in a cool room for a lot longer than a month (leave them 'in stick' to allow good air circulation) and then try re-machining them. Although pine is relatively cheap it's not the easiest of woods to start with as it needs super sharp tools to make the best use of it - Rob

 

[MikeG.]

It really is worth perservering with pine Simon.

It will teach you everything you need to know about wood and it's fickleness, and is reasonably attractive and attractively reasonable (hey, that's not bad, is it?! I made it up myself!!!).

It may be, however, that the batch you have got is just too damp. Your only chance is to bring it all indoors and dry it out slowly (don't pile it in front of a radiator!!!!!). Stack it so that air can get all around it. It may take a few weeks, I'm afraid.

Mike

 

[bjm]

I agree with Mike but also, if your workshop is in the shed/garage the wood will never dry sufficiently for use indoors. It's best to bring it inside to acclimatise before taking it back to the workshop to work on. I'd also avoid using single wide boards - better to glue-up narrower boards to reduce movement.

Brian

 

[OPJ]

Also, make sure that the "pine" you buy for furniture-making is actually redwood, which is a joinery-quality softwood. It's very different for spruce, which is a cheaper, often sold as treated and is only really suitable for odd jobs around the garden!

 

[bluezephyr]

SS, How straight is the grain when you look end on?

I only work with pine, I tend to only cut up what i will be assembling that day.
My laminate boards stay lovely and flat in my moisture free dark container, If i were to leave a board on the workbench overnight i can guarantee it would be cupped by morning, Same with laminate oak sheets too from past experience.

Machine and play the very same day