Kiln Dried Pine For Bench?

[Derek Arita]

I'm making a bench for an entry way. To save some money, I'd like to use kiln dried pine 2x4s and 2x6s from HD. Once machined, will the parts move on me or will they be fairly stable? I know I could use poplar, but even that's more expensive than I'd like. Besides, I want to just lightly stain and poly this bench, so pine will be a better color, in my eye.

[Jamie Buxton]

The usual spec for kiln-dried construction lumber like 2x4s and 2x6s is that it is dried to 19% EMC. That's low enough that mold won't grow on it. However, in your home it is likely to dry down to 9% EMC or so. As it goes from 19% to 9%, it will shrink, and it may cup and warp and such. Those bad behaviors won't be as bad as if the lumber was completely green to start with, but they will be there. On the other hand, if your design can accommodate a lot of shrinkage, you can be okay.

I agree -- poplar is not a pretty wood. Pine can be much nicer.

[Art Mann]

I have made a number of outside projects using pressure treated pine from big box stores. Even if it is kiln dried, I will sticker it and let it air dry for a couple of months in the loft of my shop. I will then plane it down by 1/8" or so to straighten and square it and make it of uniform dimensions. I would recommend you do the same. You can't count on construction lumber to be dried adequately or milled accurately. If you do that, I don't think you will have any trouble with subsequent movement.

[Kurt Cady]

Buy 2x12s and rip them down. You're much more likely to get stable lumber after drying

[Danny Hamsley]

Once down to below 20% moisture content, you can dry pine very fast and it will behave well. You could put it in a hot attic or sticker it in an out-of-the-way place in your house and use a box fan to blow on it. If you did that for about two weeks or so, it should be good to use with minimal additional movement. Pine dries much faster than hardwoods, especially oak.

[Curt Harms]

All good advice. I found some 2X3s at one of the borgs, I think the blue one. They had old-growth like rings, 20+/inch. After doing the joint/joint/plane/rip routine, they stayed nice and straight. Re Poplar, you can get some pretty nice looking stuff, there's a finishing schedule around that makes poplar look very much like cherry to the untrained eye. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that a lot of "solid wood cherry" furniture is really poplar or alder.

[Derek Arita]

All good advice. I found some 2X3s at one of the borgs, I think the blue one. They had old-growth like rings, 20+/inch. After doing the joint/joint/plane/rip routine, they stayed nice and straight. Re Poplar, you can get some pretty nice looking stuff, there's a finishing schedule around that makes poplar look very much like cherry to the untrained eye. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that a lot of "solid wood cherry" furniture is really poplar or alder.
It's that finishing thing that always messes me up. I end up painting poplar.

[Prashun Patel]

If you are willing to surface and mill 2x4's, then you might consider scouring Craigslist for hardwood lumber. There are some good deals to be had if you are willing to take non-spec'd quality.

Even if you are lucky to get stable construction lumber, it'll take a lot of hunting to find pieces that don't look like they were made from 2x4's. Consider the next aisle over and use the 1x stock they have in various widths. It'll save you some milling, and it'll be a little more WYSIWYG.

Unsolicited advice: There's no such thing as a free lunch; the $$ saved on the raw lumber is paid for in effort and time to cull it down to usability. I'm guilty of not following my own advice, though,.

[Chris Hachet]

It's that finishing thing that always messes me up. I end up painting poplar.

Nothing at all wrong with painting furniture. Much of the vaunted furniture of the glory days of the eighteenth century and nineteenth century was painted. In my plans for future projects, I want to build a painted lowboy in the queen Anne style. It will be made from...poplar.

I have had good luck with Poplar using good lumber, a hand plane to scrape rather than excessively sand, and Watco oil followed by Waterloo wiping varnish...it can look very mellow after it ages.