Materials for a Farm Table

[julian abram]

Some friends have asked me if I would be willing to build them a 9 foot dining farm table. I don't think I've ever built any furniture quite this "primitive" but was wondering what materials a person would use to build this. I see all over the internet folks building these out of construction grade fir or pine framing lumber but frankly using this type of material scares me. I'm afraid with seasonal changes the table will blow apart. Any thoughts on materials that would work well for this type of project?

[Al Launier]

I would suggest that if you aren't comfortable building this, because of the inherent materials, explain to them why you feel that way and what could result. What's the point in building something that you disapprove of that will haunt you afterwards, especially if you feel your reputation as a craftsman would be jeopardized?

[Mike Hoyt]

My lumber supplier has "furniture pine" which is dried and every bit as stable as the other hardwoods. Ive also had good luck with Ash if its readily available in your area as the variation in color make a pretty rustic looking table. That being said I have used construction lumber before on some pieces and have had decent luck keeping everything flat and stable using wider (2x10 or 2x12) lumber that I got from a real lumber yard that hasn't left the lift outside for a month or two....

[David Hawxhurst]

i thought "farm table" is more of a style than of a particular wood. with the rustic style oak would make a nice farm style table. not sure were the whole pine thing comes from but would suspect retail manufactures are behind most of it.

[Stan Calow]

At 9', are they planning to use it outside? That would make a difference in design/wood to me.

[Prashun Patel]

Assuming this is an interior dining table, I would not use construction grade lumber. What you save in the nominal price of lumber you will spend in effort to stabilize the wood and to wrestle it into a condition that looks worthy of a dining table.

While I would pick pine, qs oak, or ash for a more casualish farm table, you can really do it in any wood. The softer woods, in fact (poplar, pine) may be appropriate if the customer wants the table to age and show wear through use.

In general, I would pick stable, attractive wood, and let your design say 'farm'.

[Tyler Schroeder]

I would suggest looking for reclaimed wood retailers around your area - they salvage old timbers from buildings being demolished and resell them. You can get some amazing old growth wood with rustic character for cheap, and it ends up being a much better product than using construction-grade lumber.

[Chris Hachet]

Actually, softer wood is very stable-look at a wood movement chart from the forestry service. Construction grade lumber can build some fantastic stuff.

Alternately, nothing wrong with building this from dry better grade pine from a specialty lumber supplier.

I really wish that the people who build basic stuff like the Anna White crowd would use dovetails and M and T joinery at times, and I wish more formal wood workers felt free to build secondary furniture that was more casual. Stuff is a lot fo fun when it does not have to be perfect...

If you do use lumber yard pine, I would plane it down slightly so it was not quite so obviously dimensional lumber, and get rid of the stupid rounded over corners you see on the lumber yard 2 x stock.

[Danny Hamsley]

You also need to further dry framing lumber. It is dried to 19% which won't work well for furniture. As it continues to dry and shrink once made into a table, bad things can happen. I sell lots and lots of pine for furniture, particularly farm tables. I cut a good bit of it at 1 3/8" thick that will plane down to 1 1/4" and kiln dry it to 8% moisture content.

If you do use framing lumber, sticker it in a climate controlled out-of-the-way place in your house for about 4 weeks and it will dry on down to equilibrium with your house. Then, you can discard any boards that have issues like twist and warp.

[julian abram]

Fellows, thanks for all the good advice. I have discovered there is a furniture maker locally that uses southern yellow pine for projects. I'm going to see if I can purchase some SYP low moisture directly from him.

[Chris Hachet]

Fellows, thanks for all the good advice. I have discovered there is a furniture maker locally that uses southern yellow pine for projects. I'm going to see if I can purchase some SYP low moisture directly from him.

We have a lumber yard here in Columbus that sells southern yellow pine that is dry and straight. It is a joy to work with. You should wind up with a very nice table. Chris Scqartz wrote a few things about glueing SYP on his blog as it is so resinous. I often use marine epoxy with good results.

Good luck!