Douglas Fir uses ?

[Dusty]

Evening all , I am in the Middle of building my workshop / bomb shelter ! I am using Douglas Fir for the cladding , lovely 26mm boards and I have planed them all up , which may sound a bit drastic but that is the finish I wanted . Anyway , my point is it planes up beutifully , I acknowlegde it is still green from the saw mill , which makes it easier to work .

I have read a fair amount on the net about its uses other than cladding and glue lamming and there is very little regarding British / home grown as our neighbours accross the pond use it alot for joinery etc , but granted it is slower grown and generally comes from older trees so the growth rings are closer and denser . I know it is the same species but climate harvesting duration means we dont ge the same quality .

Apart form pallets and ply , is there anyone here that uses for any projects , the only reason I ask is that I have a great contact with a local sawmill and can get it for a bloody good price and it is pretty good and clean and he can supply better on request of less knots . Granted it will be green but I dont have a problem with stacking it and allowing it to dry as alot of my projects etc are always planned ahead , hence my oak stacks .

I have searched the net for example pieces but it is mainly amercian stuff .

Thanks in advance for any direction

Cheers Sam

 

[custard]

A number of quite cutting edge and fashionable American makers are starting to use Douglas Fir as a high end furniture wood. They favour old growth, quarter sawn boards with dense ring counts, and of course the boards they select are totally knot free.

 

[Mike.S]

I haven't used it but got quotes for Doug Fir to make replacment external doors and windows (50x50mm and 100x50mm typical section) but too pricey for the best quality (versus Redwood). Several of my original (1930s) internal doors are also made from Doug Fir.

If you can get decent qulaity Doug Fir at a good price and are prepared to store/dry it then I'd say go for it.

 

[shipbadger]

Probably not a use you were thinking of but I've used it to replace the timber floor and sides of an old railway wagon and have planks in stock for another. We use it as it's from local trees and the sawmill will machine to imperial sizes, we have enough bother with metric fixings in holes intended for imperial without timber that doesn't fit! So far we've gone through about £1200 worth of the stuff and been happy. The reason for mentioning it is that almost every plank, especially on the floor will need fettling to fit around bolt/rivet heads and this is hand work with mallet and chisel; a job we found fairly striaghtforward.

Tony Comber

 

[James-1986]

I've been led to believe that in terms of durability and strength imported douglas fir is superior to our domestic supply?

My work bench is made from douglas fir and I have used it quite a bit for exterior joinery and have never had any issues working it. My uncle reckons it will rot faster if painted. If you are deciding between douglas fir and redwood it can be a good choice as it seems to be more consistent, good quality redwood packed with turps can be hard to find.

 

[Jelly]

Douglas Fir is one of my favorite timbers to work with, It's excellent for general joinery of all kinds, and has better durability than the normal commercially traded softwoods (slower grown imported material is regarded as either moderately durable, and home-grown is slightly durable... this is due to a lower resin content in the faster grown material I believe), making it particularly good for painted exterior joinery* and duties where it could be expected to deal with intermittent moisture but not ground contact.

I used to buy home-grown material part-seasoned from the mill (which was in the forest where it was harvested). My experience was that it could be a little brittle once fully seasoned and then acclimatised inside a heated building to a fairly low moisture content, with sharp chisels and my preference for a more acute than normal grinding angle this was never a major issue. The other issue i noticed was the difference in density between the early and late-wood was pronounced, meaning tangentially sawn boards were prone to the early-wood being very slightly recessed from the late wood after planing, though this could be removed rapidly using a coffin smoother with a freshly sharpened blade (or any other plane which takes a fine shaving).

My advice would be to go for it and pick out boards:

• With as few knots as possible (the knots are usually very hard, and often either drop out or cause checks in the timber during drying).
• Which are close to radially sawn unless you want the specific aesthetic tangentially sawn softwood gives.

*Edit: James's uncle has a point, in that a badly degraded paint finish will funnel and trap moisture in the timber which will then cause rot, whereas unpainted the same moisture might well have been lost before it compromised the durability of the material. As with all painted timber, if the paintwork is not maintained, it will become increasingly susceptible to rot.