Mahogany score and question

[Matt Roth]

176911

I picked this up for what I thought was a pretty good deal this afternoon; 65BF of dimensioned mahogany ( mostly 9/4 and a couple 10/4) for just north of $4/bf. I have plans to build several vanities amongst other projects in the near future; all with mahogany, so I was happy to find a deal. Since my plans call for this to be used mainly for panels, face frames, and drawer fronts, I never would have purchased stock this thick. (it's going to make me a bit sad cutting these down)

That said, it's now sitting in the shop and I want to make use of this with minimal waste. 3/4" is the thickness needed for most of my projects, which would leave considerable waste if I resaw each of these down the middle. Unfortunately, there's not quite enough material to get a third 3/4" board out of each of these. I thought about face gluing a few of these together and resawing to closer to final dimension. That would keep the waste to one piece per glue up. Any other ideas? Thanks!

[Chris Padilla]

What kind of equipment do you have access to?

The first thing you should do is think carefully about exactly what you need from the stock so that you don't do extra work. I'm not sure I'd exert the effort to turn already sizable planks into even larger hefty planks.

If you're careful about the setup with your bandsaw and jointer, you can minimize the waste. Perhaps the thinner stock can be used as veneers.

[Peter Quinn]

I have another idea. Put that material in your lumber rack and go buy some 4/4 material for current use. Thats a great deal on that material, save it until you can actually use it. It would be a shame to turn that nice pile of thick mahogany into FF material. Otherwise you could get your two 3/4" pieces and use 5/8" panels from the left overs?

[Victor Robinson]

You should be able to get (2) 3/4" and (1) 1/2" board out of each board after resawing, right? 1/2" would be handy for panels.

[Matt Roth]

Equipment wise, I have 16" band saw, table saw, 8" jointer, and a lunchbox planer. I'm liking Peter's idea of putting it in the rack and buying more suitable material. I'm having a hard time justifying cutting this nice stock into toothpicks. On the other hand, I can't think what project in the foreseeable future where I will use this. I guess the 1/2" leftover would make fine panels.

[Matt Day]

I agree with Peter too. Cutting up that nice thick stock would be ashame. I would think about gluing them up for a nice thick table slab or something along those lines, and of course for leg stock.

When I've resawed, it seems that even though the kerf of the bandsaw may be only about 1/16", after planing both sides of the cut that kerf turns into more like 3/16" to 1/4". So two cuts would leave a little more than a 1/4" piece of "waste" from a 9/4 board.

[Tony Bilello]

Dont feel bad about cutting up the wood. If that is what you have then that is what you use. If you start saving wood for special occasions you will end up a wood collector and not a furniture builder. I only save wood for special 'stuff' if the grain is exceptional and I have none in that category right now.

[Micheal Roth]

Great score on the mohogany, but why do you want to hate on Purdue? :D

[Dan Friedrichs]

Dont feel bad about cutting up the wood.

+1. Boards don't grow as 4/4 - someone just cut them up for you, so there's certainly no harm in doing it yourself.

Are you sure you really need 3/4" finished? Could you get the same look if you were able to make, say, 3 5/8" boards?

[Matt Roth]

Great score on the mohogany, but why do you want to hate on Purdue? :D

I'll further explain the decor to appease any Boilermakers. I took that poster home with plans to frame and place in my office after we clobbered Purdue. Purdue beat us that night, so it got stuck to the wall in the garage.

[Frank Drew]

If you start saving wood for special occasions you will end up a wood collector ... I think that can certainly happen (don't ask me how I know :D), but balanced against that are the prospects of easily finding dimensional Mahogany in the future, say if he needs some leg stock.

[harry boyer]

I'm a fan of mahogany. I like to book match for glue ups. Table/desk tops, flat panels 1/4" for frame and panel work. I recently bought 240 board ft. of 8/4 genuine mahogany. Chair seats, bench parts, sculpted forms, legs. Like someone said, plan ahead. You might want to buy some 4/4 material for frames etc. To me thicked is better. Make some veneer to cut down on the waste. Just my thoughts.

[Van Huskey]

What I would do is just use it, unless I had some projects planned that would use the thicker stock. It is a shame in some ways but you didn't pay thick stock prices.

I would resaw veneer off it until I could split the remainder to 4/4 and end up with 2 4/4 boards and a bunch of veneer BUT I would only do it as I needed it, I would not process it all since you might find a project that the thicker stock would be needed for.