5/4 or 6/4 -- What do I need to resaw and finish to 1/2" for making drawers?

[George Bokros]

I have not had stock resawn before so I am not sure what I need to purchase to have the mill resaw for making drawers. My gut tells me 5/4 should be fine but not having done this before I am not sure.

I am having the mill resaw it because I need 8" material for drawers and my bandsaw is not large enough to do it. I do not want to purchase a riser because I would also have to purchase all new blades also.

Thanks

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

If someone else is doing the work, you should ask them what they need. But I would think that 5/4 would work.

Have you considered edge gluing narrower boards to get your 8" width?

[George Bokros]

[QUOTE=Gerry Grzadzinski;2469332
Have you considered edge gluing narrower boards to get your 8" width?[/QUOTE]

I would rather not edge glue 1/2" for drawer boxes.

[Lee Schierer]

If you want 1/2" finished stock, it might be possible from 5/4 if the rough sawed surfaces are pretty flat. Assuming you will lose 1/16" for the saw kerf, you will only have 3/32' total material left for clean up, that is only 3/64" (.047") per side for clean up, which is pretty marginal. 6/4 will give you more margin for error and better clean up.

[Matt Day]

As Gerry said, if you're paying someone to do it for you, tell them what you want the finished width to be (1/2") and ask them what they need. I think they'd say 6/4 to be safe.

[Charles Lent]

6/4 starts to get expensive and is sometimes hard to find in the material that you want. Why not just plane 1/8" off each side of finished 3/4 stock and not re-saw at all. The 3/4 material is easy to find and usually the cheapest per board foot. Plus, you can likely do this yourself and not have to pay a mill to do it for you.

Charley

[glenn bradley]

I use 6/4 since the starting stock is rarely true and some milling after the fact is necessary. That being said, the two yards I prefer around me both stock 1/2" stock in a variety of materials just for drawer boxes so that might be an option.

[Peter Quinn]

5/4 is the snow balls chance if I were doing it my self and it came in pretty thick dimension, but I wouldn't never have a sub split 5/4 and expect anything usable for drawers. You need to have flat material for good drawers. If you start at 1 1/4"' you have to at least skim and flatten one face to reference the bandsaw fence, so now you are down to 1 3/16" best case, you loose minimum .090" between bandsaw kerf and cleaning up saw marks, let's say you are pretty close to 1 1/8" at that point split in two you have boards that are now 9/16" thick that you need to flatten across 8" over the length of your drawers.....see where I'm going with this.....basically very close to impossible with 5/4 for many drawer widths.

6/4 is where you want to be if you are intent to resaw. Depending on species it can be more cost effective to just buy 4/4 and burn it down to the 1/2" thickness. We ran ithe numbers both ways and it doesn't pay to resaw for us. In some cases you split 6/4 and get two planks so bowed over the length as to be useless, so your waste factor goes way up, thus 4/4 becomes ultimately more cost effective. Cheaper to kiln dry than thicker stock too, so in many species there is a premium as thickness goes up to accommodate drying costs.

[Peter Quinn]

Another thought, if you have access to a custom mill see if they can saw you 3/4 stock for drawers and dry it at way. I've spoken with a few commercial drawer subs and they can order whole lots of thinner material, not sure that would be possible or save you any money.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

In some cases you split 6/4 and get two planks so bowed over the length as to be useless.

+1
Been there, done that.

This is why I got out of IT.
Lessons learned in woodworking last forever.
Knowledge gained in the digital world last for two months.

[Mike Schuch]

Why don't you just buy some 3/4" x 8" stock and plane it down to what you want? It would probably be cheaper than having expensive thick stock resawn by a custom mill.

[George Bokros]

The mill I am going to charges $20 setup and 7 cents / linear fit to resaw. For me that would be about $23 to resaw. With the comments about the wood bannaning after resaw I don't think that is the route to go.

I am going to buy 4/4 and turn 1/2" of it into chips. I priced S4S maple 3/4" x 9 1/2" x 8 ft at $7.50 per lf so one piece is $60. On the other hand 4/4 from the saw mill is $2.59 / bdft so 4/4 x 9" x 8 ft is $15.54, NO BRAINER

[Larry Frank]

Just my thought but I use 1/2" material for smaller drawers and 5/8" for larger ones. Depending on the size of the drawer, I would use 5/8" especially since you are planing it down.

[David Eisenhauer]

" I priced S4S maple 3/4" x 9 1/2" x 8 ft at $7.50 per lf so one piece is $60. On the other hand 4/4 from the saw mill is $2.59 / bdft so 4/4 x 9" x 8 ft is $15.54, NO BRAINER"

I'm guessing the S4S is kiln dried and the sawmill lumber is not? Perhaps the smaller drawer sizes (as opposed to case sides, etc) will not result in problems due to wood movement, especially with a good-all sides finish on the drawers.

[George Bokros]

The material from the sawmill is kiln dried. I have purchased from them several them before and the material is top quality.

[Peter Quinn]

" I priced S4S maple 3/4" x 9 1/2" x 8 ft at $7.50 per lf so one piece is $60. On the other hand 4/4 from the saw mill is $2.59 / bdft so 4/4 x 9" x 8 ft is $15.54, NO BRAINER"

I'm guessing the S4S is kiln dried and the sawmill lumber is not? Perhaps the smaller drawer sizes (as opposed to case sides, etc) will not result in problems due to wood movement, especially with a good-all sides finish on the drawers.

im guessing the $7.50 price is from a builders supply or big box that subs out 3/4" S4S to stock in retail for contractors and home owners that don't have custom capacity regarding dimensioning stock. I remember chocking when a guy in front of me at a local builders supply was checking out with a small piece of poplar that rang up at $85....I could have bought 6X that amount for the same price rough and easily 3X that amount S4S at my lumber supplier. If thats soft maple, thats a pretty reasonable cost from the mill for KD material, bit less than I pay here, if thats hard maple its a lot less than I pay here for KD all sap white hard maple that we usually use for drawer stock. David raises a good point, you want to be sure you know what you are getting and you are getting what you want at that price.

[George Bokros]

The material is soft maple.

[Lee Schierer]

I priced S4S maple 3/4" x 9 1/2" x 8 ft at $7.50 per

Too bad you aren't a little bit closer to me. There are two suppliers near me where kiln dried s4s maple 3/4" x 9 1/2" is 6.10 per foot for lengths up to 10 foot.

[David Eisenhauer]

Good to go. KD soft maple and poplar have been my go-to drawer side materials for 30 years.

[Barry Block]

Just a note, I mill all my lumber for drawers twice. Especially if it was resawn. I mill once to a rough thickness, wait a day, then hit it on the jointer again and then plain to finished thickness. As aother creeker posted it is very important to work with flat stock.

[Robert Engel]

5/4 gives yourself some room for you're own milling.

You need it because cupping is the biggest issue when resawing.
I would sticker it immediately after its sawn and use cauls and clamps to maintain flatness.
Leave it alone for at least a week.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I have not had stock resawn before so I am not sure what I need to purchase to have the mill resaw for making drawers. My gut tells me 5/4 should be fine but not having done this before I am not sure.

I am having the mill resaw it because I need 8" material for drawers and my bandsaw is not large enough to do it. I do not want to purchase a riser because I would also have to purchase all new blades also.

Thanks

If you have access to a mill or someone with a mill, why resaw 6/4 (or 5/4) boards. If the have log stock, why not have them cut 3/4 (quarter scale), 1" true (or maybe 3/4" true) thick boards. They would be able to produce more from the log, at less cost, and cost less than resawing an expensive 6/4 board and planing away a bunch of material.

[Peter Quinn]

If you have access to a mill or someone with a mill, why resaw 6/4 (or 5/4) boards. If the have log stock, why not have them cut 3/4 (quarter scale), 1" true (or maybe 3/4" true) thick boards. They would be able to produce more from the log, at less cost, and cost less than resawing an expensive 6/4 board and planing away a bunch of material.

The issue as it's been described to me is how easily can be 3/4" size be adjusted at the mill and how willing are they to track this material through the drying process. Some mills I understand are quite easy to adjust sizes, some not so much, and having to monitor just a small pile of thinner stock as its dried can turn off certain operators. I've been told it's possible but you have to be in for at least 1000bf from many mills to get an order custom sawed and dried. On a limited basis the cost of dealing with the thinner material may outweigh any savings versus 4/4, so it's a maybe but not a forgone conclusion.

[Anthony Whitesell]

It depends on the mill (the establishment, not the machine). If you are going to a large mill operation then everything you state is likely true. At the smaller operations, it is very easy to adjust for this. Having a mill I know I can cut any size with the exception of the last board. The last board on the bed must be a minimum of 1" true, but 4/4 works better. It also depends on how much board stock is needed.

[Mike Schuch]

The mill I am going to charges $20 setup and 7 cents / linear fit to resaw. For me that would be about $23 to resaw. With the comments about the wood bannaning after resaw I don't think that is the route to go.

I am going to buy 4/4 and turn 1/2" of it into chips. I priced S4S maple 3/4" x 9 1/2" x 8 ft at $7.50 per lf so one piece is $60. On the other hand 4/4 from the saw mill is $2.59 / bdft so 4/4 x 9" x 8 ft is $15.54, NO BRAINER

Maple for drawer sides?

[Martin Wasner]

Buy 4/4 and just grind it down. Soft maple, surfaced to 13/16", and straight lined one edge goes for about $2.30 around here for the select and better. Paint grade soft maple goes for about $1.95. The time alone spent resawing isn't worth it in my opinion. Glue your panels up at 13/16" then plane them down. Much easier.

I wouldn't fret too much about material twisting up either. You're making drawers with it. In my experience, you can run some pretty tweaked material and make a straight drawer, especially on taller drawers. You've got a lot of structure and joint holding everything straight once assembled.

[Larry Fox]

You don't say what you are doing but, for me, unless it is a very special piece with a small number of drawers and I want to have the dovetails done by hand I find drawer making to be thankless work. If you are building a kitchen, dresser or something like that you can't beat these guys: http://www.newenglanddrawer.com/

Economics of scale is a wonderful thing sometimes. My next choice would be to go with 4/4 and just plane it down to where you want it. Out where I am soft maple is pretty inexpensive and plentiful so planing away a decent amount causes me exactly 0 heartache of any kind. If you are dead-set on resawing for a bookmatch or something like that, I would go with 6/4 to be safe. Based on my experience, 5/4 is cutting it way too close and the most likely outcome is two pieces that are too thin for your purposes.

[Jim Dwight]

My go to material for drawers is 1/2 Baltic birch plywood. I cut dovetails in it but I have to back cut. That is no big problem. I avoid glue up and cost is reasonable. Drawers were OK with my late wife, I think they will be OK with wife #2 too.

I tried 5/4 once and the result was not pretty. I got some drawers out of it but they were not 1/2 thick. Lots more work.