red pine

[dan petroski]

anybody work with red pine?. my neighbor brought me a dozen logs that i ran through my mill. most of it, 650 bd ft, i milled into 2x but the grain looked nice so i milled some 1x also. i would like to make some sewing room cabinets and interior doors with it. what do you think?
they call this stuff lead pine here in northern maine as it weighs 500# bd ft. when green

[Lex Boegen]

It may leak pitch for a long time if air-dried rather than kiln-dried. I've never heard of this wood before, but if it contains that much water when green, there may be a lot of movement/shrinkage as it dries. Good luck, and I hope it works out for you.

[Conrad Fiore]

Dan,
You might find this informative.
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/usda/amwood/255redpi.pdf

[Neal Clayton]

assuming it's similar to longleaf pine, as suggested by the FPL, it'll be fine for such things but yes there's a lot of movement with sap-heavy pine species. some boards with heavy pitch deposits just wind up being culls. expect more waste than you're used to. for trim/cabinets/doors/windows/etc that require stability, it's a good idea if they're air dried to cut and fit parts in the winter when the air is driest.

for moldings or other such things that are to be fastened/joined by means other than glue, plan on using trim screws. modern smooth trim nails aren't strong enough to hold it.

cutting/sanding is a bit different as well. the boards react to heat due to the high sap content. don't oversand, or the grain can shift, making them rougher. 120/220 that's it. same goes for cutting, when doing profiles on molders/shapers. high feed rate, lower rpm. seems counter intuitive but they come out smoother that way, because the heat can raise the grain as the boards are cut, leaving a very rough result.

think about the machines they would've had 100 years ago when making softwood moldings and other things out of old growth dense pine. steam driven, low RPM, high torque. that's what you're trying to emulate for best results.