Wood choice and advice

[sws]

Hi all
Very much a newbie but looking for your sage-like!
Have previously done some basic stuff but mainly with ply. Looking to expand horizons and start with building a shoe rack and shelf similar to this https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/993568378/farrow-ball-industrialrustic-shoe-bench
Planning to use pse redwood or white wood (so first question is which is the best?) and laminate planks for sides and shelves. I can get 38x245(nominal so around 33mm in reality) and looking to have a final depth of around 350mm by 1200mm long. Would it be ok to laminate a 225 to a 145(ripped) boards to make up the width or should I go for 3 planks for stablility - ie rip the boards twice. Any advice beyond that gratefully received! Thanks.

 

[CaptainBudget]

By laminating I'm assuming you mean edge jointing?

Yes this is fine, but you need to make sure the wood is definitely fully dry before you start, or it will warp.

If you're buying from Wicks/B&Q/etc. you're probably not buying fully dried wood and I would suggest leaving in your shed, etc. for at least a couple of months to dry out before working on it.

This is less likely to be an issue if you are buying from a proper timber merchants/sawmill that caters to joiners/furniture makers instead of DIY/builders.

In my experience the redwood from Wicks/B&Q, etc. is a bit nicer than the whitewood as it's a bit more solid and doesn't ding quite as readily. I have also found it planes better (with hand tools). Neither however are ideal unless you give them plenty of time to dry out, and you'll inevitably have to square all the parts up after this as the chances of anything being straight/twist free, etc. are about zero...

 

[sws]

Thanks. Buying from timber merchant (who do hardwoods as well) so hoping will be better. Looking at it I may go for 25mm pse for slightly less chunky look and use 2x175mm boards. Will the thinner stock be more or less likely to warp? My experience of solid wood (as opposed to mdf/plyetc) is that it doesn’t like me and tries to turn into a corkscrew as soon as I look at it! But definitely want to skill up a bit!

 

[CaptainBudget]

Honest answer is how long is a piece of string...

It has more to do with how much moisture is in the wood when it is dimensioned by the mill than its dimensions, and also how it has been cut.

Quite often the more "builders merchant" timber is not dried sufficiently before it is sawn, it then "normalises" with its environment (drying further) and then moves.

Hopefully this article helps a bit:
Wood Movement


short answer: try and avoid any boards that are "plain sawn" or "live sawn" (See this link for more info) as they will want to "cup" a lot more, so if the finished panel moves after jointing it can end up badly cupped. This is generally quite tricky with redwood/whitewood as most of what is commercially available will be "live sawn."

Straight grained quartersawn would be ideal, but you're unlikely to find it; get the closest you can if possible (always pick boards out yourself from the timber merchants if you can...)