Resawing 8/4 to 4/4..is it worth it?

[Troy Turner]

So I've got a bed for my next project. My son wants to use Alder. I have no problems with it as I've worked alot with pine in the past.

Lumber yard here doesn't have any in stock and doesn't know where they will get some. All they have right now is red oak, birch, and ash.

I only need about 80 BF, but to get a discount from a reputable online retailer (in AZ) I can buy 100 BF and make out. Until I get to shipping :eek:

So I priced 45 BF of 8/4 with shipping and it came out to about the price of what I'd pay here locally for 4/4.

Would it be worth it to rip down that much 8/4? I have a bandsaw, t/s, planer, joiner and all the fun stuff to make it look good. I could probably go with local ash/birch, but I've always told them that's why I do what I do, so they can pick and choose what they want.

This is probably something ya'll do everyday, but this is my first venture to get away from the box stores and I'm already hitting a wall.

Thanks for any advice!

Troy

[Phil Thien]

Talk your son into something other than alder.

I understand having your heart set on something special like walnut, or QS white oak.

But what is so special about alder?

[Andrew Hughes]

I would look for some 5/4 rough stock if i wanted to build with one inch boards.After resawing i would expect to see 7/8 at best.If you started with pieces that were not too wide that would help..Alders nice to work sometime its called poor mans cherry .Good luck troy

[Ed Aumiller]

Buy the alder, after cutting it to 4/4 you will still have a lot of free lumber left over for other projects..... plus you can cut it to 15/16" about and it will plane down to 3/4 with no problem...
Do not know why he wants alder, but you have the equipment to do it, so do it...
If nothing else it will be worth it knowing you gave him what he wanted... PRICELESS... as the commercial goes...

As info, our daughter wants stuff made out of oak & I hate to work with oak, but make it out of oak simply because that is what she wants.....

[Scott T Smith]

I would look for some 5/4 rough stock if i wanted to build with one inch boards.After resawing i would expect to see 7/8 at best.If you started with pieces that were not too wide that would help..Alders nice to work sometime its called poor mans cherry .Good luck troy

+1. 4/4 boards resawn from 8/4 often cup afte resawing due to moisture differences between the shell and core of the board. You're better off buying closer to the end size that you want.

[Matt Day]

Troy,

You say you need 80 bdft of material right? If you want to use 8/4 and try to resaw to 4/4, you'll still need 80bdft of 8/4. I don't think you'll have a good result trying to resaw it down - the couple times I've tried it there's too much cupping after the cut then you loose too much material and all of a sudden you've got (2) 5/8" boards.

[John Coloccia]

I personally love working with Alder. It's one of my main instrument woods. I've actually had pretty good luck with alder staying pretty straight no matter what. Not really sure why but it doesn't seem to want to squirm around like other woods do.

That said, there is no way in the world I would resaw 100BF of alder when I could just buy the pieces I needed.

One thing that concerns me is you priced 45 bf of alder. Don't you need 80BF? Board feet is a volume measurement. It's a 1' square, 1" thick. a 1' square, 2" thick is 2BF. You still need the same number of board feet no matter how you buy it. Maybe I misread something, but I think there's a significant error your costing. That might make the local 4/4 far more attractive in all regards.

[Richard Dragin]

Typically 8/4 costs more per board foot than 4/4 so combined with the additional labor it is not worth it. As was pointed out already your calculations may be off. If you have the equipment to mill rough lumber you should be looking for other sources than the BORG and you should have significant savings. What type of bed design requires that much wood?

[Troy Turner]

Troy,

You say you need 80 bdft of material right? If you want to use 8/4 and try to resaw to 4/4, you'll still need 80bdft of 8/4. I don't think you'll have a good result trying to resaw it down - the couple times I've tried it there's too much cupping after the cut then you loose too much material and all of a sudden you've got (2) 5/8" boards.

Well, there's a good chance my math is a little fuzzy :p I was putting them in the shopping cart to get a quote and thought, hmmm, if I'm getting X pieces at 4/4, then I could just get 1/2 of X and cut them in half. The more I listen to ya'll, I reckoning that's not the case.


Talk your son into something other than alder.

I understand having your heart set on something special like walnut, or QS white oak.

But what is so special about alder?

We were at a furniture store getting him the mattress and they were selling the "rustic" furniture made south of the border. He really liked the look of it. It was just pine boards, stained, with no pre-treat, so it was blotchy and knotty. He really liked the look, so I said EZ :D

[Prashun Patel]

On the other hand... even if you buy 4/4, you'll need to acclimate/joint it/plane. With the 8/4, your effort is not drastically increased: resaw/acclimate/joint/plane.

But I definitely agree that you'll likely end up with boards < 7/8" final thickness.

[Troy Turner]

What type of bed design requires that much wood?

Richard - Here's the bed and the cutlist. Some of the parts are glued up to get to the final dimensions.
231685231686

[Richard Dragin]

That does add up. I'd use cherry.

[Prashun Patel]

Another good reason to use a common or "classic" furniture wood is that it'll probably be a short time until yr thinking about the rest of the furniture to accompany this popular style of bed. So, think about future availability too.

[Chris Padilla]

Well, there's a good chance my math is a little fuzzy :p I was putting them in the shopping cart to get a quote and thought, hmmm, if I'm getting X pieces at 4/4, then I could just get 1/2 of X and cut them in half. The more I listen to ya'll, I reckoning that's not the case.

If you need 80 bf, then you need 80 bf. It doesn't matter (to a certain extent) in what size the wood that makes up the 80 bf is (it could be one chunk of wood 8" thick, 10' long and 1' wide :) ). You typically pay a premium for thicker wood so just start with the 4/4 or 5/4 since you don't need 8/4 in the project.

My wife and I found a bedroom set in Restoration Hardware once made from alder and stained a greenish color. She really like it but before I bought the wood, she found something else she like better so I never got the chance to work with it.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

So I've got a bed for my next project. My son wants to use Alder. I have no problems with it as I've worked alot with pine in the past.

Lumber yard here doesn't have any in stock and doesn't know where they will get some. All they have right now is red oak, birch, and ash.

I only need about 80 BF, but to get a discount from a reputable online retailer (in AZ) I can buy 100 BF and make out. Until I get to shipping :eek:

So I priced 45 BF of 8/4 with shipping and it came out to about the price of what I'd pay here locally for 4/4.

Would it be worth it to rip down that much 8/4? I have a bandsaw, t/s, planer, joiner and all the fun stuff to make it look good. I could probably go with local ash/birch, but I've always told them that's why I do what I do, so they can pick and choose what they want.

This is probably something ya'll do everyday, but this is my first venture to get away from the box stores and I'm already hitting a wall.

Thanks for any advice!

Troy

one board foot is a piece of lumber that is 1 foot wide, 1 foot long and 1 inch thick. If you priced out 45 BF of 8/4, that will not turn into 90 BF of 4/4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_foot

[Cody Colston]

one board foot is a piece of lumber that is 1 foot wide, 1 foot long and 1 inch thick. If you priced out 45 BF of 8/4, that will not turn into 90 BF of 4/4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Board_foot

Correct. The board footage doesn't change just because the thickness changes. A bft is 144 cubic inches, regardless of dimensions. A 9 inch long 4x4 and a 6 foot long 1x2 are both one bft.

Also, you cannot resaw 8/4 (2") lumber into 4/4 (1") lumber. You have to account for the kerf width and then you end up with something less than 4/4, depending on what blade you use for resawing.