Originally Posted by
Martin Wasner
As far as throwing away material. I don't know how much time it would add, but if I buy 500 bd/ft of premium soft maple at $2.30 per bd/ft, surfacing I think costs me $0.15 per bd/ft, or $75. A total of $2.45 per bd/ft, or $1225 for the bunk.
Say I throw away 10% because of crook, bow, or twist, which to be honest is likely a high number, but in the realm of reality. Like I said, doors are picky, nothing else really is on the straightness of material. Face frames are the sum of their parts and usually straighten crooked material out in their own, bowed material the box will straighten out. With doors, you use up the best material first for the longest parts and work your way through the pile.
I pretty confident I can not rough cut, face joint, plane, then size length, edge joint, re-rip, final size width and deal with the swarf and sharpening on the dimensioning of 500 bd/ft of lumber for $125. There's no guarantee it'll be flat/straight tomorrow either. Better odds though, yes. Wood is feisty like that sometimes. I'm curious what the electrical cost would be too. I'm sure it's not huge, but it'd be in there. Dust collection is my biggest hog of electricity.
I haven't worked at that many cabinet shops. I only worked in two before going on my own, and I have helped out a few others temporarily when things were slow for me just starting out. Nobody I worked for regularly surfaced their own material. But that's strictly cabinet shops. I never did fine furniture, or pianos are anything really outside of regular residential cabinets. My view on woodworking is rather finite and limited to cabinetry.
When you're really pumping product out the door, waste is inevitable and must be controlled, but it also needs to be weighed and measured against what is profitable.
Most of the wood tops I make are solid material. I'll usually get that material skip planed and face joint it, just to make the glue up easier and save some passes through the widebelt. Tough to fight twisted up 8/4 white oak wood top into submission, unlike a 3/4" thick face frame with not much width to the parts.