How To Estimate Rough Lumber

[tom cooper]

Hi all-
I am hoping for some help from folks who buy and use rough lumber for your projects. If you sketch out and calculate all pieces of wood needed for a couple of cabinet doors and face frames, say everything adds up to 100 board feet of wood IF everything was cut perfect with no waste (!!!ha ha !!!), what kind of multiple or factor would you use when ordering or buying a batch of rough lumber for the job?

I am just looking for a "typical" factor that may have worked for you before, realizing it ALWAYS will depend on what quality of lumber is available.

By the way, does rough lumber have different grades (silly question?); how would you judge one grade of rough lumber from another?

Thankyou if you can help.

[Jared Cuneo]

I usually go 20 to 30 percent more over the BF total if you buy FAS. Some might say 20% is crazy low :)

As for grades, sure....you can google hardwood lumber grades, but most of what you will see is FAS (firsts and seconds), 1 and 2 common.

FAS is generally 90% clear on one face or better. 1 and 2 common will have more defects, knots, etc.....your waste factor will be much higher, but these boards are lower cost....

My local dealers are far from mills, so we don't see much common down here, but you can save money by using these boards for narrow parts, internal case components, etc.....

JC

[John Thompson]

As Jared has already touched on, a definite..pin-point answer won't be had IMO. 100 board feet on paper won't relate to 100 board feet in actuallity. Wood does not seem to co-operate with actual.

I know the demensions of components of a piece I need before I hit the yard. I sort through inspecting grain.. knots.. checks.. lenghts and widths which will usually taper at one end. I prefer S2 or up in FAS for this reason as the surface has been revealed.

But.. if rough is where I find a better match for what I'm doing.. I won't compromise for convenience. I carry a small hand plane to slightly open and give me a better idea of what lies below the surface of rough. If they don't have everything I need that day.. I will make a trip back latter as my supplier is close and turns his stock and there's always day after tomorrow when another load arrives. I am patient which is a virtue IMO.

Anyhoo.. I know which board will supply an individual component. I know how much will be lost to knots.. checks.. bad grain.. etc. by hand selecting. I don't calculate without added at least 3" to a given piece for the first down-size cut to allow for planer snipe if it occurred. Once I have enough, if I do find it in one day.. I grab another couple of pieces to give me extra. If I didn't find all I needed that day, the extra comes when I return as I have never finished a piece that did not have another one planned far behind it. The extra is not really extra.. but insurance for the existing and becomes future stock in a holding patterrn as it awaits it's turn if not needed. :)

Good luck...

Sarge..

[Tom Veatch]

...By the way, does rough lumber have different grades (silly question?); how would you judge one grade of rough lumber from another?

Thankyou if you can help.

You might find this (http://www.ahec.org/hardwoods/pdfs/IllustratedGradingGuide.pdf) from the AHEC of interest.

[Jared Cuneo]

Oh, and there is nothing worse than getting to the end of a project, having to recut one board and you make a trip to the yard and find all of the boards that were the same color are now gone, or under a pile of new lumber... :rolleyes:

JC

[Jim Becker]

I agree with Jared's 20-30%, depending upon the species. You can never buy too much lumber, either...you will use it or in the worse case, you can sell it for at least what you paid for it or more in most cases. His point about color, etc., is very important and not just for running out of a match. Choosing the material for grain and color matching is a critical first step in the finishing project. No matter how skilled you are in joinery, etc., if you pick lumber that just doesn't go together, it's not going to be a pleasing end result. If, however, you choose well, a great project can become an outstanding project.

[tom cooper]

Thanks fella's-
I feel like I have been well schooled tonight! I was really expecting a mention of factor's like 75% to double on the "perfect" estimate. In fact I will probably go for double since this will be my first time dabbling with rough lumber. And as you say, it will eventually get used somehow.

And Tom - that looks like a terrific pamphlet, thankyou!

[Jim Becker]

Tom, I personally do buy 75-100% more than I need, but that's to both get a better price sometimes and in anticipation of other projects. And it means I have more to choice the "best" stuff for a given project. What's not the best from an appearance standpoint can still be utilized as secondary wood, so there is little real waste. I look at buying lumber as somewhat of an investment 'cause it retains value.

[Jared Cuneo]

That's a good point Jim, I get a 10% discount on 50BF, so that can really add up....and as long as you store the wood properly, it won't go to waste :)

JC

[David Freed]

The link that Tom Veach posted is good. The pictures help make the lumber grades much easier to understand than just reading the rules from the NHLA rulebook. One word of caution though. Many companies do not grade lumber strictly by the NHLA rules. One store may have much better quality lumber in a particular grade than another.
As far as grades are concerned, if you are cutting boards up into small pieces, you will get more usable lumber for your money if you buy 1 common lumber instead of FAS. Large flooring companies use 2 & 3 common lumber because they end up with more flooring pieces per dollar spent as compared with FAS prices. Many woodworkers see 1 knot in the middle of a board as a glaring defect to a perfect board, and that 1 knot is blinding them to all of the usable lumber around it. I am not a "woodworker", with the artistic eye that lets most of you make the beautiful things that you do out of wood. I guess that's why I see all of the usable wood around a knot instead of the knot itself.
I make custom flooring (long, wide, distressed, etc.) and buy rough lumber thousands of board feet at a time. If I need to make a long, narrow width floor, 1 common many times would be a more economical choice, even though there is more waste. For a long, wide width floor, FAS is my only choice.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

As far as a percentage to allow to have enough for a project, most cabinetmakers seem to allow 20-30% over.

Buying rough lumber can be tricky. Depending on how rough the suface is, you can get a rough board that looks just fine and then when you plane it up pops a defect that makes it firewood....some can be rough enough to hide fair sized cracks. And then you plane another rough board and up pops figure that makes you want to frame it and hang it on the wall. This is especially true for rough lumber that has aged for any amount of time. But the cost of rough lumber makes it amenable to having a more of waste over planed and edged stuff.