Which (low cost) wood to learn/practise with?

[SlowSteve]

Hello all, I am new here but have been lurking for a while.

I've previously been a bit of a metal brasher and always found wood to be somewhat quarrelsome and determined to never to what I want it to. This has led to a fair bit of swearing over time and I have generally considered wood working to be a black art. However, Mrs SlowSteve demands many wooden things to be built, so it is time to practise and deal with fear of wood working.

Anyway, I need to get into the swing of things, and that means practise, but my local lumber yard seems to require a small mortgage to buy matchbox sized pieces of wood.


For practising (joints, drawers etc ) what do you guys recommend? Plywood? MDF?

Any suggestions, most gratefully received

Steve

 

[Mr T]

Hi Steve

I find poplar or tulip wood is good for practicing on. It's a hardwood but fairly soft, cuts easily with a fairly benign grain and it's one of the cheapest hardwoods.

The local yard may not have it but you could probably get a board from John Boddy's in Boroughbridge or Dufffields near Ripon. I'm not sure if there is a supplier nearer to York.

Chris

 

[Steve Maskery]

Plywood and MDF are great for many things, but practising joints isn't one of them.
Mr T's advice is spot on. Tulipwood (also known as American Poplar or Canary Whitewood) is a friendly material for a beginner and it takes a finish well, too.

 

[psycho_grizz]

You could always go for reclaimed wood and pallets. I got this jig made by Izzy Swan called the pallet pal, used to take apart pallets quickly and is fairly easy to make. You'll need to prep the wood with surface planer and thicknesser but in exchange I psychologically feel like I got an abundance of wood to work with so more enthusiastic about trying things out without feeling like it'll cost me an arm and a leg on materials.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

if you have access to a planar thicknesser it opens up all manner of possibilities in reclaimed wood. Skip rescues as well as wood that's been chucked in the council tip is all amazingly valuable if you can dimension and plane it. Old wardrobes are another great source. Add a bandsaw into that mix and firewood too becomes a perfectly convertible resource. I suspect however you're not that invested yet?

 

[tomf]

I think you would find it very hard/impossible to remove anything from a council tip. If you do you'll get arrested for theft, none of the people work there are allowed to give anything away either.

 

[psycho_grizz]

I got some luck asking the lads at the technical department in college, they got a few bits of wood they're always chucking out. A mate of mine tells me that travis Perkins give him their pallets for free. I tried canvassing local businesses and a lot of them tell me that they got to return their pallets. A recycling initiative or something

 

[lurker]

Find a local double glazing company and ask if you can look in their skip.

With the exception of sheet material most of my wood is acquired this way.

 

[blackrodd]

Even down here in deepest, darkest Devon, If you go around the newer industrial estates, there can be several pallets, stored outside and on asking, they are up for grabs.
The bigger and specialised pallets are returned to be re-used and tend to be colour coded.
As mentioned, skip raiding can produce some interesting stuff, and on asking, most people are happy to have them emptied for free!
But don't forget, taking without permission can still be seen as thieving!
Regards Rodders

 

[Rhossydd]

I'd avoid using poor quality ex-pallet wood if you can. It may be cheap, but it'll be tedious to process into workable timber.
The suggestion of find a glazing firm is a good one, also see if there are other small joinery companies that might be willing to sell off-cuts cheap. You only need short(commercially useless) lengths to practice joints on and they're likely to be getting rid of decent PAR stock which will save you a lot of trouble in preparation.

If you do have aspirations to make proper jointed woodwork with hardwoods. Treat yourself to a nice bit of PAR hardwood to practice on. Compared to slogging away with manky old pallet wood or pine, working with a nice bit of Oak, Beech or Ash is an inspiring revelation. John Boddy up the road from you in Boroughbridge are happy to sell small amounts of good quality PAR hardwood.