Southern Yellow Pine Furniture

[Chip Byrd]

Hello,

I have a nice stockpile of 2x12 - #1 SYP. I purchased it and stickered it in my garage for a couple months before building my workbench and some other shop furniture/jigs. The problem is (a good one I suppose) that I still have several really nice boards. I was wondering about using it for small furniture projects: stools, end table, etc. If I mill it and make sure it is sufficiently dry, would it be ok? Or will there be too much movement?

Thanks,
Chip

[Chris Hachet]

Should be great-I have built out of SYP and it seems relatively stable.

[Ken Krawford]

I just finished a porch swing and it turned out great. Go for it.

[Steve Collins]

Alot of the furniture I built for my home is made from construction grade yellow pine. I built all of the pieces right after purchasing it and have had zero problems in 20 years.

[Prashun Patel]

If it's good enough for a woodworking bench, then it's good enough for finer furniture in function. Whether it's good in form is your call.

[Jamie Buxton]

Construction lumber is generally sold soaking wet. Make sure your design allows for shrinkage.

In my neck of the woods, construction lumber is doug fir, so this might not apply to you. But 2x4s seem to be cut from the culls and the youngest trees, so the knot content is noticeably higher than larger-dimension lumber.

[Chip Byrd]

Thanks Guys, as I mentioned they are 2x12" #1 and are beautiful. And I have had them stickered for a good while in my garage. I thought it would be ok, but I have only been woodworking for a couple years so I thought I would ask. Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts.

[Cody Colston]

Construction lumber is usually dried to ~19% MC...not exactly "soaking wet" but not ready for working. Since you have had them stickered in your garage I expect the MC would be somewhat lower but not anywhere close to the 7% you need for indoor furniture, especially since they are 2" thickness. You could sticker them in a heated area for another year or so or you could have them kiln dried which is probably the best option.

Check the MC with a good pinless meter or cut out a section at least 1 ft. from the end, rip it in two and check against the freshly cut long grain with a pin-type meter to read MC at the core. BTW, even with properly dried lumber you still want to build to accommodate movement.

FWIW, I love the look of Pine furniture and #1 SYP is fine stock, indeed.

[Bill Rhodus]

Chip, I spent the bulk of my career managing a SYP mill and had the opportunity to use a lot of this material in my shop and around my home. There are a couple of things you may want to keep in mind such as; 1) it would be good to have your pine kiln dried as this will "set" the pitch in the lumber and prevent weeping, 2) Grain orientation is important for strength in SYP, 3) Growth rings per inch can vary greatly depending upon the environment in which the tree was grown and more per inch is always better, 4) Tools need to be very sharp for cutting mortices, dovetails, etc as the pine tends to crumble rather than cut cleanly with slightly dull tools. SYP can make beautiful furniture.

[Jim Rimmer]

I think it would be fine.

Bill Rhodus - thanks for some great info for anyone considering a project of SYP. I love Sawmill Creek.