How do you straighten a warped piece of wood?

[LFS19]

The best bet is if you can find hotels and nightclubs changing hands ....fancy small bits
But for aroca or something like it its usually houses that are getting done up around town ..
Good time to go lookin would be a month onward before some large event ..
Keep at this and you will eventually find the motherload someday
That pic was before i filled the workshop (hammer)
and i've just about now got through the rest of it .
Got a metal detector on ebay following a thread here a while ago
Id say the neighborhood is wondering where all the strange beeping is coming from ..
One of the handiest things ive bought yet
Good luck

I'll be on the lookout.
Thanks allot for the tips; hopefully I can find something.

 

[LFS19]

Its the cheapest stuff that is no good for anything else, apart from that its o/k.

You need to keep a look out for stuff being thrown out of freecycle etc for old chests of draws wardrobes etc anything with real wood in.

Pete

Freecycle - I'll check that out, thanks.

 

[LFS19]

Honestly - you really must not gets wrong lots of times before you get it right. I realise it was a throw away line, but people do this so much: instead of working slowly and methodically to get things right at the outset, they accept that they will make lots of mistakes.

Years ago I spent a lot of time doing a piano performance diploma, and my teacher was an exceptionally good Russian pianist called Evgenia Startseva. The Russian musicians are brought up with an enormously tough workload. She drummed into me from day 1, "however slow you go, get it absolutely right first time" "if you don't do that, all you are practising is your mistakes". I applied this philosophy to everything after that. Including woodwork.

Yep.
When I started my C&G course some years ago I was totalcrap at first project - making half housing joints from bits of 2x1". I just kept on repeating it until it the results were passable. I made enough little crosses to kit out a very large pet's cemetery. They were getting better towards the end!
Oddly enough I'm now looking at music and see it as a very similar craft process. The reason I couldn't play anything much for many years is because it was all too difficult and I should have been sticking with the simple stuff. No shame in doing Baa Baa Black sheep up each string - in fact a bloody good exercise. Followed by "Happy Birthday" "The First Noel" etc etc. They may laugh but take no notice!

Indeed, wise words.
And yes, the same certainly applies to music!

I could do with doing a course really..
It's definitely good to be actually shown something, rather than watching YouTube videos and reading books for all of your learning.

 

[dzj]

Oddly enough I'm now looking at music and see it as a very similar craft process. The reason I couldn't play anything much for many years is because it was all too difficult and I should have been sticking with the simple stuff. No shame in doing Baa Baa Black sheep up each string - in fact a bloody good exercise. Followed by "Happy Birthday" "The First Noel" etc etc. They may laugh but take no notice!

Shinichi Suzuki based his music pedagogy on endless repetition of Mozart's Allegretto variants.
Listening to his students practice is akin to Chinese water torture.

 

[LFS19]

Is there anything inherently wrong with pallet pine? Or is it just the laborious nature of pulling the pallet apart and planing all the wood?

Not at all but you most likely can't make "fine" furniture out of it - unless you hit on a very good pallet!
It's good exercise and you can waste a lot of free wood getting your techniques sorted out.
Even better if you have a woodburner!

Indeed, though there's certainly nothing "fine" about my skill level, haha
It'd quite accurate to say the pallet wood and I were somewhat matched

And yes, I've gone through allot of wood!
All of it smells, looks and feels different too, so I'd imagine there are allot of variations in the types of pine from pallet to pallet.
Not sure what the different types would be called, though, or what the differences are.

Thanks

 

[LFS19]

Oddly enough I'm now looking at music and see it as a very similar craft process. The reason I couldn't play anything much for many years is because it was all too difficult and I should have been sticking with the simple stuff. No shame in doing Baa Baa Black sheep up each string - in fact a bloody good exercise. Followed by "Happy Birthday" "The First Noel" etc etc. They may laugh but take no notice!

Shinichi Suzuki based his music pedagogy on endless repetition of Mozart's Allegretto variants.
Listening to his students practice is akin to Chinese water torture.

Haha!

 

[Jacob]

Oddly enough I'm now looking at music and see it as a very similar craft process. The reason I couldn't play anything much for many years is because it was all too difficult and I should have been sticking with the simple stuff. No shame in doing Baa Baa Black sheep up each string - in fact a bloody good exercise. Followed by "Happy Birthday" "The First Noel" etc etc. They may laugh but take no notice!

Shinichi Suzuki based his music pedagogy on endless repetition of Mozart's Allegretto variants.
Listening to his students practice is akin to Chinese water torture.

According to legend, Porpora kept the young Caffarelli working from one sheet of exercises for six years, and then eventually declared: "Go, my son: I have no more to teach you. You are the greatest singer in Europe".
He was castrati too, which probably wouldn't help with woodwork - but you never know!

 

[Zeddedhed]

I think the key point is that made by Custard - essentially the likelihood of a decent outcome with any woodworking project begins once the tree has been cut down. You don't get much say in how the wood is processed (unless it's your tree) but it's at the selection stage that most gains are made.

After that, again as Custard said it's mainly down to acclimatisation and storage.

I have several colleagues (joinery and small scale furniture) who regularly moan about the problems they have with wood movement. When asked they'll mostly tell you that they buy timber in as needed for a specific project and pretty much start work straight away. In nearly every case this is a BAD IDEA.

I understand that for most people storage and tying up cash for ages is a problem, but it's the single biggest thing you can do to minimise problems later on.

I NEVER build furniture until the wood has had a MINIMUM of 1 month acclimatising in the shop, sticked as has been previously mentioned.

So keep using pallet wood - nothing wrong with it at all. Learn how to discern the good bits from the bad bits. Store it well, allowing air to circulate until it reaches the desired moisture content and then crack on.

Good luck.

 

[dzj]

According to legend, Porpora kept the young Caffarelli working from one sheet of exercises for six years, and then eventually declared: "Go, my son: I have no more to teach you. You are the greatest singer in Europe".
He was castrati too, which probably wouldn't help with woodwork - but you never know!

Yes, one never knows what radical steps those dedicated to the preservation of the craft might undertake.

 

[Jacob]

Lee Nelson would provide the kit for DIY. You'd be bankrupt but sing like an angel.

 

[LFS19]

I think the key point is that made by Custard - essentially the likelihood of a decent outcome with any woodworking project begins once the tree has been cut down. You don't get much say in how the wood is processed (unless it's your tree) but it's at the selection stage that most gains are made.

After that, again as Custard said it's mainly down to acclimatisation and storage.

I have several colleagues (joinery and small scale furniture) who regularly moan about the problems they have with wood movement. When asked they'll mostly tell you that they buy timber in as needed for a specific project and pretty much start work straight away. In nearly every case this is a BAD IDEA.

I understand that for most people storage and tying up cash for ages is a problem, but it's the single biggest thing you can do to minimise problems later on.

I NEVER build furniture until the wood has had a MINIMUM of 1 month acclimatising in the shop, sticked as has been previously mentioned.

So keep using pallet wood - nothing wrong with it at all. Learn how to discern the good bits from the bad bits. Store it well, allowing air to circulate until it reaches the desired moisture content and then crack on.

Good luck.

That's certainly food for thought, I didn't realise that at all.
Is there a way to tell when it's ready to use? It's just I'm not sure what the desired moisture is, haha

Thanks for the tips!

 

[Jacob]

I think the key point is that made by Custard - essentially the likelihood of a decent outcome with any woodworking project begins once the tree has been cut down. You don't get much say in how the wood is processed (unless it's your tree) but it's at the selection stage that most gains are made.

After that, again as Custard said it's mainly down to acclimatisation and storage.

I have several colleagues (joinery and small scale furniture) who regularly moan about the problems they have with wood movement. When asked they'll mostly tell you that they buy timber in as needed for a specific project and pretty much start work straight away. In nearly every case this is a BAD IDEA.

I understand that for most people storage and tying up cash for ages is a problem, but it's the single biggest thing you can do to minimise problems later on.

I NEVER build furniture until the wood has had a MINIMUM of 1 month acclimatising in the shop, sticked as has been previously mentioned.

So keep using pallet wood - nothing wrong with it at all. Learn how to discern the good bits from the bad bits. Store it well, allowing air to circulate until it reaches the desired moisture content and then crack on.

Good luck.

That's certainly food for thought, I didn't realise that at all.
Is there a way to tell when it's ready to use? It's just I'm not sure what the desired moisture is, haha

Thanks for the tips!

Just use it and you soon get a feel for stuff thats a bit damp. It tends to be "seasoned" in that it's been around for some time, but may be "wet" which isn't the same as un-seasoned, and dries out quickly

 

[LFS19]

I think the key point is that made by Custard - essentially the likelihood of a decent outcome with any woodworking project begins once the tree has been cut down. You don't get much say in how the wood is processed (unless it's your tree) but it's at the selection stage that most gains are made.

After that, again as Custard said it's mainly down to acclimatisation and storage.

I have several colleagues (joinery and small scale furniture) who regularly moan about the problems they have with wood movement. When asked they'll mostly tell you that they buy timber in as needed for a specific project and pretty much start work straight away. In nearly every case this is a BAD IDEA.

I understand that for most people storage and tying up cash for ages is a problem, but it's the single biggest thing you can do to minimise problems later on.

I NEVER build furniture until the wood has had a MINIMUM of 1 month acclimatising in the shop, sticked as has been previously mentioned.

So keep using pallet wood - nothing wrong with it at all. Learn how to discern the good bits from the bad bits. Store it well, allowing air to circulate until it reaches the desired moisture content and then crack on.

Good luck.

That's certainly food for thought, I didn't realise that at all.
Is there a way to tell when it's ready to use? It's just I'm not sure what the desired moisture is, haha

Thanks for the tips!

Just use it and you soon get a feel for stuff thats a bit damp. It tends to be "seasoned" in that it's been around for some time, but may be "wet" which isn't the same as un-seasoned, and dries out quickly

That makes sense.
Thanks