The one thing you forgot to mention is the wood with less moisture content will feel much lighter than the wood with higher moisture content. As always buddy 💯% 👍 🇬🇧. P.s I just bought a full ash tree that came down in a storm in 1989 and was sitting in a farm building after being milled, I've got 9 board's and each is between 4 and 5 inch thick and between 48 and 57inch wide in approx 12 to 15 ft lengths cost me £600. Upon checking the Internet I've saved a fortune!!!
I recommend the following: Go to the big box store a few times. If you're a homeowner who fixes up stuff around your house yourself then chances are you go to the big box store dozens of times each year. Each time you go, check out the construction lumber racks. Note whether they're full -- if they've been recently restocked -- or if they've already been picked through. Browse a bit and look for the best pieces of lumber. Sometimes you'll go shortly after they've restocked, and there may be very good lumber available. If the pile was restocked days ago and it's already been picked through, you shouldn't even bother buying lumber unless you just need a couple pieces. Simply come back another time. I think it can be very helpful to be able to glance at a lumber pile and know right away if it looks like there are a lot of good pieces in the pile or if it has been picked through a dozen times and it's literally all bad. If it's all bad then it's not worth it to buy anything -- come back. Working with bad wood is a waste of time and money. Also, you should learn what the stampings on the wood mean. In the 2x4 pile at HD, in my area, I generally see the following: SPF - spruce pine or fir -- usually white pine or soft spruce of some kind of soft fir unless there are additional stampings. Very soft. I would not use this for furniture, and I would generally not use it for construction on my own house (I'd use Doug Fir). I do sometimes use it to make utility racks or in cases where I want a very lightweight piece of wood that won't splinter, and I don't care about strength or weather resistance. SYP -- southern yellow pine -- stronger than SPF. Splinters. Splits easily unless you predrill holes before you screw. dense. decent for outdoor projects if you seal it with a penetrating wood sealer. If you're building furniture and you want the hardest "softwood" that won't dent easily and you care about denting more than you care about potential for splintering or cracking then get SYP. D-Fir -- Douglas Fir -- strong yet lightweight. Great for framing lumber -- probably the best framing lumber you can get in N America, although for beams and headers, if you're using natural dimensional lumber not an LVL, SYP is also good and neither is clearly better in all cases in my opinion. Hem-Fir -- some kind of western hemlock or western firs. Splits more easily than D-fir. It's OK in some applications, but it's not my favorite because it's splintery and generally not as strong as D-Fir, but sometimes you can get nice pieces and it can be OK if there's no D-Fir available. I cannot think of any time that I would prefer this to D-Fir, and I only ever buy it if I just need a utility 2x4 and there's no D-fir available.
@@davidgagnon2849 Sadly, the worse and worse the problem gets, the more frustrated people get and less likely they are willing to stack them back. When you have to go through half a stack to find 1 or two straight boards, who wants to stack them all back. I try to always restack them back, but I do have to admit that now with my had knees and shifting through all the lumber is extremely upsetting. When you go to 3 stores and all that lumber just ton find a few decent boards, the yea, what do you expect. What's funny is this video shows a board that was warped. But today, that would be considered gold. Problem is we need better lumber today. I just came from a video that went into why all the lumber is horrible today, and theirs a lot of reasons, but one of them is these big box stores are also trying to get us the cheapest lumber. So in essence they are part of the problem.
Time is the key. Picking takes time. Knowing when you can work around a defect expands the pool of acceptable boards. One other trick I use to avoid checks is to hold the board upright and bounce it on the floor. Listen for a “solid” sound (not a “twang”)
Your correct in pointing out if all else looks the same the lighter board will have less moisture. But also keep in mind construction grade lumber is usually only dried to a moisture content of 13 to 15 percent moisture content. As long as you design and build your (Indoor) projects with that in mind it will work out fine. I really like the way you present your information it's just a good stright forward presentation. Hope this helps. Thanks RCW
I've noticed that within a type of lumber at the store that some can be very much lighter, mostly in SYP. It has to do more with the TYPE of pine tree it was and/or where it was cut from the log. When I'm buying SYP, if I suddenly find a real light board, it's definitely a pass.
Months ago I was in one of the big lumber stores and was looking through the 2x lumber and noticed how crooked and twisted most of them were and the high prices. I asked an associate how much for a straight one and he said we don't have any. Today I was there and most were straight and even the plywood looked good. No voids even in the exterior grade plywood and no forklift damage.
Try and shop HD and Lowes on a Thurs or Friday. They usually replenish the wood for the weekend crowd. Don't expect good wood late in the weekend or early in the week because it'll likely be all picked over.
Some great tips thank you. I was really lucky and managed to get 300 full lengths of 2x4 from a builder that was taking down internal walls in an instrial building, had to chop a few inches of each end but the stuff is amazing quality compared to what you get nowadays. He also through in a load of rafters think they are 2x6 all for free, gave the guy £40 for fuel as he dropped them off at my house.
My big score was when I worked at a ski resort. We hosted a gladiator run and they built several large obstacles on the hills. Couple hundred crazy people, covered in mud, going over very simple climbing walls. People came and filled trucks and trailers with all the wood when tearing it all down. I was able to spend my lunch break and stowed a small stack. To get it home I spit it with a friend with a truck but it was all 12-15 foot 2x4s.
One thing to pay attention to is what lengths of boards you need for the project. If you look at an 8 foot board and it has a 1 inch bow in it, if you only need 2 foot pieces from that board, that means that the 2 foot sections will (optimally) only have a 1/4" bow in them. That may be well within tolerance if you are going to joint and plane it anyway.
You can get walnut and maple at Home Depot or Lowe's near you? I've never seen either in any of my stores or where I grew up another state over. I had no idea any of them carried them. My local hardwood section in Home Depot is red oak and popular.
I’ve found quite a few nice looking vertical grain quarter sawn boards in the 1x3 and 1x4 furring strips. I dig through the pile most times when I’m there.
I never feel bad sifting through the generally terrible lumber at the big box stores. One time a guy even said something to me. I stood up, looked at him and said, "If I was building a boat this stuff would be perfect". He nodded and walked away.
Great tips! Using larger lumber is also cheaper from my experience. HD/Lowes can be cheaper for hardwood depending on the quantity you need as well, especially for smaller amounts. I go to the hardwood dealer when I need a significant amount.
I'm going to be that pedant and point out that the board end you portrayed as quartersawn was actually riftsawn, which is a great choice for furniture legs since all 4 sides will be edge grain, no face grain. The main advantage of quartersawn is that it tends to dry well with little warping, and shows rayfleck on woods that have it, especially oak.
During Covid the local Home Depot had imported fine select pine 1x8 x8ft boards cheaper than regular 1x8 x8ft pine boards. So for clarity : (1) Claymark select pine 0.75x7.25 inch x8 ft boards from New Zealand 🇳🇿 with no knots (2) usa pine 1x8 x8ft boards with knots everywhere and some warped. So i used the lower cost boards for shelves item (1) This was not some sale thing or accident. They actually had all the new zealand 🇳🇿 premium select pine priced lower than goober usa pine boards. Technically the usa boards seemed denser so maybe stronger.
The reality of big box lumber is that grading rules allow up to 5% under grade in each lift. When the lift is put on the shelf at the big box store it is picked through by DIYers until all that is left is the 5% garbage from two or three lifts. When you buy a whole lift of lumber you get the all the boards not just the ones that were left after being picked over. But not many of us can afford or even need anywhere close to a whole lift of lumber.
I have recently found a "prime" stack of 2x4 in a big box store. It's rare, but it happens. A little more expensive, but much dryer and straighter to work with.
Recently I have noticed the S4S hardwoods at Lowe’s and Home Depot are not all the same thickness. I first ran into this a few years ago when building a toy box for my granddaughter. In gluing up the top couldn’t get the boards to align, then figured out why. Each was a different thickness unless from the same original longer board. I had to thickness plane all down to the thinnest which was quite a waste of time, and in some cases changes the fine dimensions of joinery.
@@EveningWoodworkerI recently noticed the same thing. Luckily I discovered it before I left the store. I don't recall ever having that problem before.
I always sight my lumber selections and I always stack what I leave behind as close to how I found it if not better because it is the correct thing to do. I am not that guy that makes a mess of the stack!
I had to dig to the bottom of a stack to get some dry fir pickets 😅. Stuff was literally just stained, probably not even ready to put out, so i had to find the stack from the previous shipment at the bottom.nobody wants to bend down to floor level repeatedly, so odds are, the bottom row may be both dry, and un-picked through
one of my biggest tricks is I look at where they store the bunks of wood before they are put on the sales rack. homedepot and lowes tend to store at least 2 bunks inside and they consistently move the ones outside for more uniform exposure.
I typically don't use construction lumber for furniture. It's not made for that. The moisture content is usually too high. However, if I were to being using this, I would first let it dry out a bit and check it with my moisture meter until it reaches around 9 to 12 percent moisture content. Secondly, I would cut my pieces into rough length and recheck the moisture content. If I have a lot of lumber, I would stack and sticker it for the drying process. This could take time, so be patient with it.
Excellent tips on the grain, this will be helpful. I had just worried about straight which is hard enough to find, but this is another level of searching.
The pith is called the heart center. Also getting a larger board to make smaller boards out of it isn't always good idea. The knots are measured for how much displacement they take up out of the board size. So for a 2x12 to meet the grade of a 1 and btr. A knot can be as large as 3 inches so if you make a 2x6 out of it that knot would take up 1/2 of the board which makes that board a economy grade board. So don't assume just because the board is larger the knots are smaller. Also the board he picked up has the heart center in it. Which all knots start from the heart . So again if you have a knot that is 3/4 inch in that 2x12 that runs to heart it's ok in that 2x12 but you take and make a 2x6 out of it that same knot will take up 1/2 of the displacement of the narrow face which makes it a economy grade board
It is virtually impossible to find good lumber at the big box stores. I just put all new treated wood on my deck to replace old boards. I think the stuff must have been 70% wet. I did get straight and not warped 18 foot long boards. I space them with a 10d nail. They dried over the summer and you can now stick your thumb between them. Gaps went from less than 1/8 to 3/4 inch. I could unscrew them and put them down again with small gaps and be able to insert another whole board.
I wish my HD and Lowe's had Maple and Walnut. All we have is poplar and Oak and I don't like the poplar they have. Good tips though on finding better construction grade stuff.
Make sure to check the barcode to ensure the numbers match. Went to HD last night and they had half the lumber mismarked and almost all the piles had different boards in them mixed together.
It's not a temperature difference you're feeling for, they are all the same temperature because they're all in the same ambient conditions. The difference is in the thermal conductivity - more moisture means it will draw the heat out of your hand faster, making it *feel* colder.
@@EveningWoodworker It's the same reason why the granite countertop in your kitchen feels colder than the wood cutting board on top of it. They are both at room temperature, but the granite feels colder because it pulls the heat out of your hand faster than the wood.
Hey thanks for the tip with the hand temp. Did try it with my wife last night and she felt cold to the toutch so according to you she was moist , and you are right ; SHE WAS . 🤣😂🤣👍👍👍
The last time I needed 2x4’s - to thicken parts of some window frames - I went to a professional building material wholesale, but I left without any wood; there was not one single straight beam to find. They where all warped or bent. I ended up buying a discount pack of four 8 foot long 2x4’s in a hardware store, which where perfectly straight and even cheaper than the ones at the professional store.
Really good video. (Finally some one sighted down a board and showed what it looks like. I am so sick of endless videos of some yahoo making some step by step 'mystery project' that is only 'revealed at the end' to be.... something utterly pointless. Show what you're going to make and I'll decide if I want to watch you rip boards like it's magic. ) Home Depot up until about ten years ago used to have really nice spruce 2x3s then it all went to SPF most of it cut out of skinny trees. Another great source of really good lumber is salvaged lumber. I've got a really nice Greene & Greene style cabinet I made from ripped 2x4s from the back of my old house. It's fine grained Douglas Fir that was 60 years old. Of course there are nail holes, rust stains an occasional hole for wiring (easy enough to hide by careful selection. You will need to use a metal detector to find and pull all the nails, and then rip and plane it. It is essentially furniture grade, and because it's been in a wall for 60 years it's low moisture.) If you do find a pile of good boards at Home Depot, or anywhere, buy as many as you can carry. If it's a lumberyard make sure you put the stack back together before you leave, and yeah also do that at Home Depot. And don't hog the pile if someone else needs some. And if you ever come across Alaskan yellow or white cedar and they're all twisty. Buy all of it. It lays down flat with no effort and is absolutely beautiful wood. I bought out a stack 30 years ago, made a table, deck, few other things. All still good. It was being sold at a discount because all the boards were twisted. I bought a couple, they were beautiful and easy to work with so I went back and bought as many as I could carry.
I put the boards on the store's concrete floor and see if they lie flat. Look for gaps. Then rotate them 90% and do it again. I often do groups of two or three and take the best.
When driving to the store: turn on your car AC or heat and pump air directly onto your bare hands. your hands will get very dry. Park close to the lumber entrance and go straight to picking boards. You can very much feel the moisture of every board. Or... just get a moisture check thingie 😆
Lol hardly. The floor is anything but flat. I discovered that when every single board came off as bent on the concrete but came off as flat on the concrete just a few feet away.
I started off woodworking following low-cost craft tutorials, and I would dig through so many 2x4s and furring strips probably drove the employees nuts!
unless you are willing to pay several times more, you are NOT going to get PT which is dry - it is treated with a high water content preservative and is NOT dried after treatment - often it is so wet that it will 'leak' when you drive a nail in it - they sell kiln dried after treatment lumber but it is super expensive compared to the commonly stocked PT - normal PT takes months to air dry and must be space stacked and weighted or it will warp, twist, bow, and curve ( and probably will even if stacked properly for drying )
The finer the grain the better the timber will be. Look at the end of the stick and you will see the difference between the various sticks. Fine grain means easier to work with, is lighter and usually straighter and more stable.
Great advice. Picking through big box store lumber drives my son crazy. I’m sharing this video with him. Maybe he’ll give me a pass next time. Better yet, actually use the knowledge and stop saying “just pick some boards already Mom” 😁🤞🏼
The lumber that has the pith in it comes right out of the center of the tree, known as Juvenile wood. The part of the tree that grew like a weed when the tree was young. Very poor quality and very different than the part that comes when the tree is more mature. Avoid juvenile wood if you can. Another good idea is as you pointed out, buy larger boards but buy them ahead, take them home and store them indoors a while and let them acclimate for your next project.
It would never occur to me to go to HD or Lowes to buy lumber to make furniture with. If you go to a hardwood dealer you will find great lumber at great prices and if you are only looking for soft wood they will probably have a great selection. Before you go to a hardwood dealer learn proper etiquette, understand how lumber is priced, ask permission to pick through a stack and return the stack better then you found it.
I pick out some juni as well. If everybody only gets the cherries, prices will go up in the long term. So I take a note of al the boards I need. Because most of the times, you can cut around the knots. When I picked the junk; I go to a employee or that store and ask: " Hey, I've got some junk from your pile as well, what's the discount? I varies between 10-60(!!)%. How about that?
If the box stores let you pick thru their lumber , be kind enough to put it back neatly not like it was dropped from the top rack and bounced twice. It helps keep the lumber straight and it's easier for the next guy to pick thru it also. Common courtesy.
At my Home Depot and Lowes, about 90 percent of the 2x4s are pith pieces. This means that someone is culling the good boards and leaving mostly bad boards for the home centers. I just need to find where the stores are that are getting the good lumber.
I am not a fan of 2x4s for furniture projects...these are mostely white pine and light weight, not as strong, dent easily. My favorite wood at HD or LOw is the SYP of larger dimensions, like 2x10 or 12, due to their lower cost than those hardwoods. The SYP like these are more likely to have better quality boards if you look for them in the stacks. They are stronger and denser than those white pine. Plus, the wood grains look nice as well, and age nicely into that tan colored wood even without using any stains.
IDK. Doesn't matter where you go even if you pick the straightest boards out of the middle of the stack the moisture content is so high that a few days after you bring them home they dry out and turn into cork screws while doing so. You have to use the lumber within 24-48 hours it seems.
If you can not afford good timber then go to any shipping company and pick up some pallets . Usually the timber in them will be so much better than the junk garbage shops foist upon you at massively inflated prices for timber so bad lumber yards reject them .
Someone has to sell the bad stuff eventually. + I don't recommend buying anything from the big box stores it's always better to go out of your way to get the better lumber. Only wood I needed for my big project is done 4x4s I went through the pile to get some most of the dry ones was all warped so I just brought good wet ones home and put bricks under and in top of each one and let it day for 2 weeks they all came out perfect hardly any warpage and fully dry ready to use. Just be sure to add some kind of weight on top as that is what's going to help the most to prevent warping wile it's drying.
4x4s are tougher because they like to use the center of the tree regardless. For those I just try to get ones that are straight with low moisture. Although on one furniture project, I've just given up and made a 4x4 by gluing together two pieces of poplar.
I put the lumber back after doing the dance I call the "Home Depot Shuffle." The workers are appreciate, will be likely more helpful, and are more tolerant of my humor: "You know you can charge more for all these live edge boards?"
My suggestion: NEVER buy lumber at big box stores. My local lumber yard (Larsen Brothers Lumber, San Leandro, CA) was established in 1882. It is closer than big boxes, has plenty of friendly, knowledgeable, and unionized employees, great lumber, and good prices.
You just have to find the best/straightest ones you can at HD and then plane down at least 1/16 on each face. As long as the moisture content is low, they shouldn't warp too much.
Several years ago I had a Home Depot employee come up to me after fumbling through a stack of 2x6’s for like15 minutes, he asked me if I needed any help finding anything. I told him that I was just trying to find some good straight boards. He said “well they should all be good and straight since that’s the select grade A lumber. I told him that the select grade A didn’t mean squat as far as them being straight and that yes they should be straight but I had just handled over 3 dozen boards to find 6 decent ones. Needless to say that guy wasn’t particularly happy with me but it was clear that he didn’t know a thing about wood.
You are absolutely right, just because the lumber is a premium grade, does not mean it won't change shape when it dries out or takes on moisture. As far as people being knowledgeable about wood, some people don't know a 2 x 4 from a donkey's tail.
Years ago, at a HD in Massachusetts, I was looking for 2x4s in a stack that had been thoroughly gone over. I had to dig deep to find an even borderline board. I asked the expert HD worker to pull out all the trash and bring down a new load. He refused in a rude manner. So, I simply threw every crooked board out into the isle so I could get to the few possibly ok ones on the bottom. Of course you know what happened. I was “banned” from HD. Oh, I was so sad! Went to a local lumber yard where they meticulously sorted through the stack and put the perfect lumber into my truck for me. Cost maybe a bit more for each board, but saved me a lifetime of irritation as I have never returned to HD in the past 25 years.
If you can find straight Lumber now it's a miracle Lowe's is the worst Home Depot isn't much better remember years ago you could pick good Lumber now it's cut so fast the quality of lumber is gone
when HD, Lowes, etc start selling dimensional lumber in red oak, maple, hickory, teak, aromatic cedar, mahogany, walnut, etc I'll keep this advice in mind - but, considering the tiny amount of actual furniture grade woods HD and Lowes carry and the 3 to 5 times more they charge compared to actual hardwood suppliers, I'll still avoid them
From a frequent lumber customer: I don't have time to pick through the pile for straight wood but do it out of necessity! I certainly don't have time to put the pile back together! If you don't want a pile of twisted lumber on the floor, get a better supplier!
@@brettbarager9101 you need to pick through the wood at every store or lumber yard. It's considered arrogant, rude and impolite to leave a pile behind messed up. It depends on the project if you need square or quarter sawn wood of course. And when you have a knot in a board, I'm pretty sure you also need 2 smaller pieces, so you can cut the knot out. This way; you can ask for a discount on that board. That's how you behave as a professional word worker. You sometimes also pick the junk when you can use it. Don't forget: wood is a natural product. Brett: You behave and act like a millennial or genZ person...
@@VineV-DutchHome Depot and Lowes do not offer any discounts on bad lumber and if you ask for one they will not help you. If you order materials to be delivered, they grab the ugliest pieces off the top FIRST to get rid of them, leaving you with a pallet load of unusable trash. Those employees don't care about the difficulties contractors have to deal with. You obviously do not work in the trades. Restacking the bad boards on top of the bundle does nothing except put them in the way of the next guy who now has to pick over all of the crap that's already been picked over, and if he restacks, then the NEXT guy has to pick over them again, in an endless cycle... this is why I throw my cull pieces all the way to the back, or if there's open space in front of the bundle, put them all the way at the bottom in front. So the worker after me can reach straight to the untouched lumber without the termite food in his way. No responsible person would ever put them back in the stack.
Brett and Blood,👍🏼. Vine👎🏻. I PAID FOR GOOD LUMBER, AND I’M ONLY TAKING GOOD LUMBER. If you’re giving it away, then sure, l’ll take trash. Nothing else, I can burn it…
This is why I mill my own lumber. I hate digging through the shitty bunks at lowes and home depot. Those employees like to say passive aggressive shit about it lol
American wood is hilariously bad. I used to pick through dozens or a hundred sticks to find one good one. Luckily Lowe's got some german larch in just before I built my last house, and it was heavenly.
Boss : I sent you to get lumber four hours ago ! Employee : Oh I was watching a video on RUclips on how to pick lumber so here's the three 2/4s and a moisture meter....😳
Good tips! Also, take gloves, stack onto a flat cart if you can, and put everything back nicely when you're done. Don't just toss it to the back of the pile as you go.
I wouldn't completely avoid wide boards with the pith down the middle. If I can tolerate the waste, I'll sometimes seek those out, then rip those boards on both sides of the pith, resulting in two quartersawn (and thus fairly stable) boards. I'll then use such lumber for non-critical areas since it's not as structurally sound.
There is no " best " lumber at big box stores . Construction lumber on the west coast is mostly from hybrid fast growing Doug Fir trees . Look at how far the growth rings are apart . this very unstable lumber and dry or not will always be less than furniture grade .
I think it just depends on what kind of furniture. If I'm building a bunk bed that I know the kids are going to be rough on, I don't usually want to use the nice hardwood. For fine furniture, hardwood is the only way to go.
I was totally unaware of this. My approach was eye line sight only.. thanks 😉
M knight Shamayaln twist- im actually building a spiral staircase so i just use the stuff on top
The one thing you forgot to mention is the wood with less moisture content will feel much lighter than the wood with higher moisture content. As always buddy 💯% 👍 🇬🇧.
P.s I just bought a full ash tree that came down in a storm in 1989 and was sitting in a farm building after being milled, I've got 9 board's and each is between 4 and 5 inch thick and between 48 and 57inch wide in approx 12 to 15 ft lengths cost me £600. Upon checking the Internet I've saved a fortune!!!
Nice! Now you need a portable mill!
@@EveningWoodworker don't go there I've been thinking about it on and off for the past several months 🤔
Board’s - board _owns what_ ? I think you mean BOARDS.
I recommend the following:
Go to the big box store a few times. If you're a homeowner who fixes up stuff around your house yourself then chances are you go to the big box store dozens of times each year. Each time you go, check out the construction lumber racks. Note whether they're full -- if they've been recently restocked -- or if they've already been picked through. Browse a bit and look for the best pieces of lumber. Sometimes you'll go shortly after they've restocked, and there may be very good lumber available. If the pile was restocked days ago and it's already been picked through, you shouldn't even bother buying lumber unless you just need a couple pieces. Simply come back another time. I think it can be very helpful to be able to glance at a lumber pile and know right away if it looks like there are a lot of good pieces in the pile or if it has been picked through a dozen times and it's literally all bad. If it's all bad then it's not worth it to buy anything -- come back. Working with bad wood is a waste of time and money.
Also, you should learn what the stampings on the wood mean. In the 2x4 pile at HD, in my area, I generally see the following:
SPF - spruce pine or fir -- usually white pine or soft spruce of some kind of soft fir unless there are additional stampings. Very soft. I would not use this for furniture, and I would generally not use it for construction on my own house (I'd use Doug Fir). I do sometimes use it to make utility racks or in cases where I want a very lightweight piece of wood that won't splinter, and I don't care about strength or weather resistance.
SYP -- southern yellow pine -- stronger than SPF. Splinters. Splits easily unless you predrill holes before you screw. dense. decent for outdoor projects if you seal it with a penetrating wood sealer. If you're building furniture and you want the hardest "softwood" that won't dent easily and you care about denting more than you care about potential for splintering or cracking then get SYP.
D-Fir -- Douglas Fir -- strong yet lightweight. Great for framing lumber -- probably the best framing lumber you can get in N America, although for beams and headers, if you're using natural dimensional lumber not an LVL, SYP is also good and neither is clearly better in all cases in my opinion.
Hem-Fir -- some kind of western hemlock or western firs. Splits more easily than D-fir. It's OK in some applications, but it's not my favorite because it's splintery and generally not as strong as D-Fir, but sometimes you can get nice pieces and it can be OK if there's no D-Fir available. I cannot think of any time that I would prefer this to D-Fir, and I only ever buy it if I just need a utility 2x4 and there's no D-fir available.
That's a great overview! You should make a video on it!
Thank you!
re: shuffling through the pile of wood at Home Depot.
"If they had better lumber, I wouldn't have to do that."
Nice dig!
You even need to do that in the lumber yard.
Please be considerate and restack neatly after you've selected the boards you want.
@@bombocropper5142 Yes. That's one of my pet peeves. If not stacked, it contributes to bent/twisted sticks of lumber.
@@davidgagnon2849 Sadly, the worse and worse the problem gets, the more frustrated people get and less likely they are willing to stack them back. When you have to go through half a stack to find 1 or two straight boards, who wants to stack them all back. I try to always restack them back, but I do have to admit that now with my had knees and shifting through all the lumber is extremely upsetting. When you go to 3 stores and all that lumber just ton find a few decent boards, the yea, what do you expect. What's funny is this video shows a board that was warped. But today, that would be considered gold. Problem is we need better lumber today. I just came from a video that went into why all the lumber is horrible today, and theirs a lot of reasons, but one of them is these big box stores are also trying to get us the cheapest lumber. So in essence they are part of the problem.
Planning a project and edge-gluing 2x4s is my cheapest bet. This video came along at the right time for me. Thanks!
Time is the key. Picking takes time. Knowing when you can work around a defect expands the pool of acceptable boards. One other trick I use to avoid checks is to hold the board upright and bounce it on the floor. Listen for a “solid” sound (not a “twang”)
That's a good one! I need to try that!
Can partially confirm this. "Thud" instead of "Boing"... Exception to this is when the board is so wet, even when warped it will still "thud"
Your correct in pointing out if all else looks the same the lighter board will have less moisture. But also keep in mind construction grade lumber is usually only dried to a moisture content of 13 to 15 percent moisture content. As long as you design and build your (Indoor) projects with that in mind it will work out fine. I really like the way you present your information it's just a good stright forward presentation. Hope this helps. Thanks RCW
I've noticed that within a type of lumber at the store that some can be very much lighter, mostly in SYP. It has to do more with the TYPE of pine tree it was and/or where it was cut from the log. When I'm buying SYP, if I suddenly find a real light board, it's definitely a pass.
Months ago I was in one of the big lumber stores and was looking through the 2x lumber and noticed how crooked and twisted most of them were and the high prices. I asked an associate how much for a straight one and he said we don't have any. Today I was there and most were straight and even the plywood looked good. No voids even in the exterior grade plywood and no forklift damage.
Ha yeah some days are good and some days are crap!
Try and shop HD and Lowes on a Thurs or Friday. They usually replenish the wood for the weekend crowd. Don't expect good wood late in the weekend or early in the week because it'll likely be all picked over.
Good tip...I didn't know that
Also, ask the lumber guys there when they are going to replace the stack
Some great tips thank you. I was really lucky and managed to get 300 full lengths of 2x4 from a builder that was taking down internal walls in an instrial building, had to chop a few inches of each end but the stuff is amazing quality compared to what you get nowadays. He also through in a load of rafters think they are 2x6 all for free, gave the guy £40 for fuel as he dropped them off at my house.
My big score was when I worked at a ski resort. We hosted a gladiator run and they built several large obstacles on the hills. Couple hundred crazy people, covered in mud, going over very simple climbing walls. People came and filled trucks and trailers with all the wood when tearing it all down. I was able to spend my lunch break and stowed a small stack. To get it home I spit it with a friend with a truck but it was all 12-15 foot 2x4s.
That is one of the most informative videos I have seen in a long time! Direct, Too the point, and no stupid background music. Well done Sir!
One thing to pay attention to is what lengths of boards you need for the project. If you look at an 8 foot board and it has a 1 inch bow in it, if you only need 2 foot pieces from that board, that means that the 2 foot sections will (optimally) only have a 1/4" bow in them. That may be well within tolerance if you are going to joint and plane it anyway.
Great point! That's a good way to use warped stuff that you already have too.
Maybe using bracing to straightening out the warped part.
You can get walnut and maple at Home Depot or Lowe's near you? I've never seen either in any of my stores or where I grew up another state over.
I had no idea any of them carried them. My local hardwood section in Home Depot is red oak and popular.
I guess it depends on exactly what they choose to stock... some places have redwood lumber, but I've never seen that in my store.
I’ve found quite a few nice looking vertical grain quarter sawn boards in the 1x3 and 1x4 furring strips. I dig through the pile most times when I’m there.
Nice! If you are okay digging, they're there.
I never feel bad sifting through the generally terrible lumber at the big box stores. One time a guy even said something to me. I stood up, looked at him and said, "If I was building a boat this stuff would be perfect". He nodded and walked away.
and you are the reason it looks like that not the lumber quality [please ]
Great tips! Using larger lumber is also cheaper from my experience. HD/Lowes can be cheaper for hardwood depending on the quantity you need as well, especially for smaller amounts. I go to the hardwood dealer when I need a significant amount.
Yeah my hardwood dealer is a lot farther away too so sometimes I don't wanna go that far for one board.
You can actually buy small amounts of hardwood on Amazon for pretty reasonable prices. Although you don't get to see it before buying.
Great tips. A couple of those pieces could have been a semi-circle. WOW!!! Thanks for the tips on your website.
I'm going to be that pedant and point out that the board end you portrayed as quartersawn was actually riftsawn, which is a great choice for furniture legs since all 4 sides will be edge grain, no face grain.
The main advantage of quartersawn is that it tends to dry well with little warping, and shows rayfleck on woods that have it, especially oak.
Yeah technically you're right but that was the closest thing I could find in the stack!
@@EveningWoodworker fair enough.
Thank you! I'm building a bathroom vanity and this is just the information I needed.
Glad it was helpful!
I learned to go straight to the 2 X 6 boards or wider. Most of the 2 X 4s at Lowes are just terrible.
During Covid the local Home Depot had imported fine select pine 1x8 x8ft boards cheaper than regular 1x8 x8ft pine boards.
So for clarity :
(1) Claymark select pine 0.75x7.25 inch x8 ft boards from New Zealand 🇳🇿 with no knots
(2) usa pine 1x8 x8ft boards with knots everywhere and some warped.
So i used the lower cost boards for shelves item (1)
This was not some sale thing or accident. They actually had all the new zealand 🇳🇿 premium select pine priced lower than goober usa pine boards.
Technically the usa boards seemed denser so maybe stronger.
*تسلم ايدك يا فنان بجد تحفه*
“Maybe we can get them to stock better lumber” 🤣😂🤣
It’s scary to think of what is inside the walls of some of the tract homes.
The reality of big box lumber is that grading rules allow up to 5% under grade in each lift. When the lift is put on the shelf at the big box store it is picked through by DIYers until all that is left is the 5% garbage from two or three lifts. When you buy a whole lift of lumber you get the all the boards not just the ones that were left after being picked over. But not many of us can afford or even need anywhere close to a whole lift of lumber.
Our good Canadian lumber is going to Japan and the USA. We are left with the oversupply
You tube needs a button to acknowledge irony, cuz dammmm!
maybe, but then enjoy your double priced lumber
I have recently found a "prime" stack of 2x4 in a big box store. It's rare, but it happens. A little more expensive, but much dryer and straighter to work with.
Did you buy the whole thing?
@@EveningWoodworker No, but I would love to, but I don't use pine that often in my humble hobby work. They had 3 big bundles in stock.
Recently I have noticed the S4S hardwoods at Lowe’s and Home Depot are not all the same thickness. I first ran into this a few years ago when building a toy box for my granddaughter. In gluing up the top couldn’t get the boards to align, then figured out why. Each was a different thickness unless from the same original longer board. I had to thickness plane all down to the thinnest which was quite a waste of time, and in some cases changes the fine dimensions of joinery.
That's a good reminder to never trust the thickness unless you verify it
@@EveningWoodworkerI recently noticed the same thing. Luckily I discovered it before I left the store. I don't recall ever having that problem before.
I always sight my lumber selections and I always stack what I leave behind as close to how I found it if not better because it is the correct thing to do. I am not that guy that makes a mess of the stack!
I had to dig to the bottom of a stack to get some dry fir pickets 😅.
Stuff was literally just stained, probably not even ready to put out, so i had to find the stack from the previous shipment at the bottom.nobody wants to bend down to floor level repeatedly, so odds are, the bottom row may be both dry, and un-picked through
The bottom can be a good place to find good lumber!
The best way to avoid bad lumber at Home Depot is to avoid shopping for lumber at Home Depot.
There's some truth to that...
Legendary commentn
one of my biggest tricks is I look at where they store the bunks of wood before they are put on the sales rack. homedepot and lowes tend to store at least 2 bunks inside and they consistently move the ones outside for more uniform exposure.
I typically don't use construction lumber for furniture. It's not made for that. The moisture content is usually too high. However, if I were to being using this, I would first let it dry out a bit and check it with my moisture meter until it reaches around 9 to 12 percent moisture content. Secondly, I would cut my pieces into rough length and recheck the moisture content. If I have a lot of lumber, I would stack and sticker it for the drying process. This could take time, so be patient with it.
Excellent tips on the grain, this will be helpful. I had just worried about straight which is hard enough to find, but this is another level of searching.
I won't remember any of this next time I need it, but it was great video!
Great and useful video!😊
The pith is called the heart center. Also getting a larger board to make smaller boards out of it isn't always good idea. The knots are measured for how much displacement they take up out of the board size. So for a 2x12 to meet the grade of a 1 and btr. A knot can be as large as 3 inches so if you make a 2x6 out of it that knot would take up 1/2 of the board which makes that board a economy grade board. So don't assume just because the board is larger the knots are smaller. Also the board he picked up has the heart center in it. Which all knots start from the heart . So again if you have a knot that is 3/4 inch in that 2x12 that runs to heart it's ok in that 2x12 but you take and make a 2x6 out of it that same knot will take up 1/2 of the displacement of the narrow face which makes it a economy grade board
It is virtually impossible to find good lumber at the big box stores. I just put all new treated wood on my deck to replace old boards. I think the stuff must have been 70% wet. I did get straight and not warped 18 foot long boards. I space them with a 10d nail. They dried over the summer and you can now stick your thumb between them. Gaps went from less than 1/8 to 3/4 inch. I could unscrew them and put them down again with small gaps and be able to insert another whole board.
Oh man, that's bad.
Great advice. Thanks
Look at those 1/4 growth rings.
Perfect for making pulp and paper.
I wish my HD and Lowe's had Maple and Walnut. All we have is poplar and Oak and I don't like the poplar they have. Good tips though on finding better construction grade stuff.
Thank you for sharing these tips
Make sure to check the barcode to ensure the numbers match. Went to HD last night and they had half the lumber mismarked and almost all the piles had different boards in them mixed together.
Some great information my friend 👍
It's not a temperature difference you're feeling for, they are all the same temperature because they're all in the same ambient conditions. The difference is in the thermal conductivity - more moisture means it will draw the heat out of your hand faster, making it *feel* colder.
Thanks for the clarification... they definitely feel different though.
@@EveningWoodworker It's the same reason why the granite countertop in your kitchen feels colder than the wood cutting board on top of it. They are both at room temperature, but the granite feels colder because it pulls the heat out of your hand faster than the wood.
so dig thru the stack of hundreds of pieces, pick the best(laughing), plane it to remove warping, rout it to repair the edges. gr8 advice. thx so much
Man, this was GREAT information. Thank you SO MUCH.
Glad it was helpful!
11/10 video thank you.
Like you said, i watch grain, straightness and buy 2x10's and 2x12's and rip them to width...
Hey thanks for the tip with the hand temp. Did try it with my wife last night and she felt cold to the toutch so according to you she was moist , and you are right ; SHE WAS . 🤣😂🤣👍👍👍
Oh man... you went there
I had Lowe's pick and deliver boards for a deck. The board's were so curved i considered changing my deck plans into a circular deck
Bwahaha! That's pretty bad
The last time I needed 2x4’s - to thicken parts of some window frames - I went to a professional building material wholesale, but I left without any wood; there was not one single straight beam to find. They where all warped or bent. I ended up buying a discount pack of four 8 foot long 2x4’s in a hardware store, which where perfectly straight and even cheaper than the ones at the professional store.
You just gotta find them wherever you can!
Really good video. (Finally some one sighted down a board and showed what it looks like. I am so sick of endless videos of some yahoo making some step by step 'mystery project' that is only 'revealed at the end' to be.... something utterly pointless. Show what you're going to make and I'll decide if I want to watch you rip boards like it's magic. )
Home Depot up until about ten years ago used to have really nice spruce 2x3s then it all went to SPF most of it cut out of skinny trees. Another great source of really good lumber is salvaged lumber. I've got a really nice Greene & Greene style cabinet I made from ripped 2x4s from the back of my old house. It's fine grained Douglas Fir that was 60 years old. Of course there are nail holes, rust stains an occasional hole for wiring (easy enough to hide by careful selection. You will need to use a metal detector to find and pull all the nails, and then rip and plane it. It is essentially furniture grade, and because it's been in a wall for 60 years it's low moisture.)
If you do find a pile of good boards at Home Depot, or anywhere, buy as many as you can carry. If it's a lumberyard make sure you put the stack back together before you leave, and yeah also do that at Home Depot. And don't hog the pile if someone else needs some.
And if you ever come across Alaskan yellow or white cedar and they're all twisty. Buy all of it. It lays down flat with no effort and is absolutely beautiful wood. I bought out a stack 30 years ago, made a table, deck, few other things. All still good. It was being sold at a discount because all the boards were twisted. I bought a couple, they were beautiful and easy to work with so I went back and bought as many as I could carry.
That's good to know; I'll keep my eyes out for the alaskan yellow or white cedar.
Great info. Thanks
If you do shuffle through the stack, please make sure the board you leave behindr are left flat.
Good point, don't leave it in a disheveled pile.
Thanks. Good tips 👍🏻
I put the boards on the store's concrete floor and see if they lie flat. Look for gaps. Then rotate them 90% and do it again. I often do groups of two or three and take the best.
As long as you trust that the floor is flat!
When driving to the store: turn on your car AC or heat and pump air directly onto your bare hands. your hands will get very dry. Park close to the lumber entrance and go straight to picking boards. You can very much feel the moisture of every board.
Or... just get a moisture check thingie 😆
Great tips, thanks!
I set the board on its edge on the cement slab floor. If there is no gap between the edge and the floor, that edge is straight.
Lol hardly. The floor is anything but flat. I discovered that when every single board came off as bent on the concrete but came off as flat on the concrete just a few feet away.
I started off woodworking following low-cost craft tutorials, and I would dig through so many 2x4s and furring strips probably drove the employees nuts!
Yep I'm sure I'm on a list somewhere for that same thing!
this is a fantastic video, especially with PT wood which can twist into a knot in just a week or two.
unless you are willing to pay several times more, you are NOT going to get PT which is dry - it is treated with a high water content preservative and is NOT dried after treatment - often it is so wet that it will 'leak' when you drive a nail in it - they sell kiln dried after treatment lumber but it is super expensive compared to the commonly stocked PT - normal PT takes months to air dry and must be space stacked and weighted or it will warp, twist, bow, and curve ( and probably will even if stacked properly for drying )
The finer the grain the better the timber will be. Look at the end of the stick and you will see the difference between the various sticks. Fine grain means easier to work with, is lighter and usually straighter and more stable.
Good advice, well done. Cheers
Great advice. Picking through big box store lumber drives my son crazy. I’m sharing this video with him. Maybe he’ll give me a pass next time. Better yet, actually use the knowledge and stop saying “just pick some boards already Mom” 😁🤞🏼
Ha! You gotta get your money's worth!
I worked at a place like this for a while. It's rare to find 20 straight boards out of a brand new bundle
Great tips. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome!
Great information!
The lumber that has the pith in it comes right out of the center of the tree, known as Juvenile wood. The part of the tree that grew like a weed when the tree was young. Very poor quality and very different than the part that comes when the tree is more mature. Avoid juvenile wood if you can. Another good idea is as you pointed out, buy larger boards but buy them ahead, take them home and store them indoors a while and let them acclimate for your next project.
Thanks! I've never heard it called juvenile wood before but that makes sense.
It would never occur to me to go to HD or Lowes to buy lumber to make furniture with. If you go to a hardwood dealer you will find great lumber at great prices and if you are only looking for soft wood they will probably have a great selection.
Before you go to a hardwood dealer learn proper etiquette, understand how lumber is priced, ask permission to pick through a stack and return the stack better then you found it.
I pick out some juni as well. If everybody only gets the cherries, prices will go up in the long term. So I take a note of al the boards I need. Because most of the times, you can cut around the knots. When I picked the junk; I go to a employee or that store and ask: " Hey, I've got some junk from your pile as well, what's the discount? I varies between 10-60(!!)%. How about that?
That's not a bad idea especially if you only need smaller pieces!
If the box stores let you pick thru their lumber , be kind enough to put it back neatly not like it was dropped from the top rack and bounced twice. It helps keep the lumber straight and it's easier for the next guy to pick thru it also. Common courtesy.
If the wood isn’t good enough for you, what makes you think the next guy wants it?
At my Home Depot and Lowes, about 90 percent of the 2x4s are pith pieces. This means that someone is culling the good boards and leaving mostly bad boards for the home centers. I just need to find where the stores are that are getting the good lumber.
I am not a fan of 2x4s for furniture projects...these are mostely white pine and light weight, not as strong, dent easily. My favorite wood at HD or LOw is the SYP of larger dimensions, like 2x10 or 12, due to their lower cost than those hardwoods. The SYP like these are more likely to have better quality boards if you look for them in the stacks. They are stronger and denser than those white pine. Plus, the wood grains look nice as well, and age nicely into that tan colored wood even without using any stains.
Good News!👍🏻
Thx dude, good to know
IDK. Doesn't matter where you go even if you pick the straightest boards out of the middle of the stack the moisture content is so high that a few days after you bring them home they dry out and turn into cork screws while doing so. You have to use the lumber within 24-48 hours it seems.
Get 2x12 with pith in middle, cut that out and you've got two nice VG boards.
Most of the time when I shop for wood at Lowe’s or HD the wood is actually wet especially the treated lumber.
a lot of what I build is made from pallets but this was very informative.
thanks for posting.
If you can not afford good timber then go to any shipping company and pick up some pallets .
Usually the timber in them will be so much better than the junk garbage shops foist upon you at massively inflated prices for timber so bad lumber yards reject them .
Thanks, great info
Someone has to sell the bad stuff eventually. + I don't recommend buying anything from the big box stores it's always better to go out of your way to get the better lumber. Only wood I needed for my big project is done 4x4s I went through the pile to get some most of the dry ones was all warped so I just brought good wet ones home and put bricks under and in top of each one and let it day for 2 weeks they all came out perfect hardly any warpage and fully dry ready to use. Just be sure to add some kind of weight on top as that is what's going to help the most to prevent warping wile it's drying.
Putting the weight on top while it's drying is a great idea to reduce the warpage!
Good advice, l do the same thing. But after sorting through a bundle I always take the time to restack what I moved around.
That's really nice of you... the Karma Gods will bless you!
Do a video on 4x4 using that principle
4x4s are tougher because they like to use the center of the tree regardless. For those I just try to get ones that are straight with low moisture. Although on one furniture project, I've just given up and made a 4x4 by gluing together two pieces of poplar.
@@EveningWoodworker they warp just as bad if not worse
I put the lumber back after doing the dance I call the "Home Depot Shuffle." The workers are appreciate, will be likely more helpful, and are more tolerant of my humor: "You know you can charge more for all these live edge boards?"
Haha! That's great!
My suggestion: NEVER buy lumber at big box stores. My local lumber yard (Larsen Brothers Lumber, San Leandro, CA) was established in 1882. It is closer than big boxes, has plenty of friendly, knowledgeable, and unionized employees, great lumber, and good prices.
Union, huh. I'll boycott.
I would love to have you picking through all my piles of lumber,i would send you somewhere else
Where can I find furniture quality 2x4s? I didn't know I had other options than lowes and home depot.
You just have to find the best/straightest ones you can at HD and then plane down at least 1/16 on each face. As long as the moisture content is low, they shouldn't warp too much.
Several years ago I had a Home Depot employee come up to me after fumbling through a stack of 2x6’s for like15 minutes, he asked me if I needed any help finding anything. I told him that I was just trying to find some good straight boards. He said “well they should all be good and straight since that’s the select grade A lumber. I told him that the select grade A didn’t mean squat as far as them being straight and that yes they should be straight but I had just handled over 3 dozen boards to find 6 decent ones. Needless to say that guy wasn’t particularly happy with me but it was clear that he didn’t know a thing about wood.
They always ask me if I need help finding boards and I always say no because my standards are much higher than theirs!
You are absolutely right, just because the lumber is a premium grade, does not mean it won't change shape when it dries out or takes on moisture. As far as people being knowledgeable about wood, some people don't know a 2 x 4 from a donkey's tail.
Years ago, at a HD in Massachusetts, I was looking for 2x4s in a stack that had been thoroughly gone over. I had to dig deep to find an even borderline board. I asked the expert HD worker to pull out all the trash and bring down a new load. He refused in a rude manner. So, I simply threw every crooked board out into the isle so I could get to the few possibly ok ones on the bottom. Of course you know what happened. I was “banned” from HD. Oh, I was so sad! Went to a local lumber yard where they meticulously sorted through the stack and put the perfect lumber into my truck for me. Cost maybe a bit more for each board, but saved me a lifetime of irritation as I have never returned to HD in the past 25 years.
If you can find straight Lumber now it's a miracle Lowe's is the worst Home Depot isn't much better remember years ago you could pick good Lumber now it's cut so fast the quality of lumber is gone
when HD, Lowes, etc start selling dimensional lumber in red oak, maple, hickory, teak, aromatic cedar, mahogany, walnut, etc I'll keep this advice in mind - but, considering the tiny amount of actual furniture grade woods HD and Lowes carry and the 3 to 5 times more they charge compared to actual hardwood suppliers, I'll still avoid them
Next house I build I’m going to use engineered wood studs. Consistently straight, consistently sized. No wane, no knots.
From a former lumber guy, if you pick through the pile put it back together. The lumber that is wasted as a result of tumble stacking is legion.
From a frequent lumber customer: I don't have time to pick through the pile for straight wood but do it out of necessity! I certainly don't have time to put the pile back together! If you don't want a pile of twisted lumber on the floor, get a better supplier!
@@brettbarager9101 you need to pick through the wood at every store or lumber yard. It's considered arrogant, rude and impolite to leave a pile behind messed up.
It depends on the project if you need square or quarter sawn wood of course. And when you have a knot in a board, I'm pretty sure you also need 2 smaller pieces, so you can cut the knot out. This way; you can ask for a discount on that board. That's how you behave as a professional word worker. You sometimes also pick the junk when you can use it. Don't forget: wood is a natural product. Brett: You behave and act like a millennial or genZ person...
@@VineV-DutchHome Depot and Lowes do not offer any discounts on bad lumber and if you ask for one they will not help you. If you order materials to be delivered, they grab the ugliest pieces off the top FIRST to get rid of them, leaving you with a pallet load of unusable trash. Those employees don't care about the difficulties contractors have to deal with. You obviously do not work in the trades.
Restacking the bad boards on top of the bundle does nothing except put them in the way of the next guy who now has to pick over all of the crap that's already been picked over, and if he restacks, then the NEXT guy has to pick over them again, in an endless cycle... this is why I throw my cull pieces all the way to the back, or if there's open space in front of the bundle, put them all the way at the bottom in front. So the worker after me can reach straight to the untouched lumber without the termite food in his way. No responsible person would ever put them back in the stack.
Brett and Blood,👍🏼. Vine👎🏻. I PAID FOR GOOD LUMBER, AND I’M ONLY TAKING GOOD LUMBER. If you’re giving it away, then sure, l’ll take trash. Nothing else, I can burn it…
As a former HD customer, if they didn’t try to charge top dollar for crap wood, I might.
Good tips. Now if we can just get lumber prices to come back down to Earth. 😒
Yeah especially that plywood too
With the rising cost of lumber
It’s hard to believe that it
GROWS ON TREES !
🤣Funny
This is why I mill my own lumber. I hate digging through the shitty bunks at lowes and home depot. Those employees like to say passive aggressive shit about it lol
If you have a mill or access to one, that's a much better option.
American wood is hilariously bad. I used to pick through dozens or a hundred sticks to find one good one. Luckily Lowe's got some german larch in just before I built my last house, and it was heavenly.
Now I just gotta figure out how to get a bunch of it back here over the pond!
Its because we send our best timber to China.
Boss : I sent you to get lumber four hours ago ! Employee : Oh I was watching a video on RUclips on how to pick lumber so here's the three 2/4s and a moisture meter....😳
Tell him you were fighting with two other guys over the three good boards in the stack.
@EveningWoodworker 🤕😂
Is this the guy that was just on Forged In Fire?
Yes! Thanks for watching both this and that!
Good tips! Also, take gloves, stack onto a flat cart if you can, and put everything back nicely when you're done. Don't just toss it to the back of the pile as you go.
That's some very good big box stores manners... I salute you sir!
Interesting. I buy 2x3 mainly and I have to hunt to find anything. In fact if I applied ALL of your parameters I'd never buy anything in HD!
Yeah I've had days when I just give up and ask them when the next pallet is coming in.
I wouldn't completely avoid wide boards with the pith down the middle. If I can tolerate the waste, I'll sometimes seek those out, then rip those boards on both sides of the pith, resulting in two quartersawn (and thus fairly stable) boards. I'll then use such lumber for non-critical areas since it's not as structurally sound.
That's a really good idea... just cut out the pith!
There is no " best " lumber at big box stores .
Construction lumber on the west coast is mostly
from hybrid fast growing Doug Fir trees . Look at how far the growth rings are apart . this very unstable lumber and dry or not will always be less than furniture grade .
I think it just depends on what kind of furniture. If I'm building a bunk bed that I know the kids are going to be rough on, I don't usually want to use the nice hardwood. For fine furniture, hardwood is the only way to go.
Yes , you are right . i should have made that clear . i got off on a tangent because of my distaste for the west coast lumber industry . apologies
Home depot has walnut stock?!