Top 10 Insanely Cool Woodworking Projects

Find Your Perfect ONLINE JOB

Woodworking is a satisfying and rewarding hobby or career. So if you are going to work with wood, you should learn a little about the selecting of lumber.

The selection of the kind and grade of wood to be used is always important. Consideration should be given to the prominence, character, location and strength of the wood needed for any work. It is possible at times to obtain just as satisfactory results with a very cheap low grade of wood as with an expensive high grade. Very often also a higher grade of a cheap wood can be used to better advantage than a lower grade of an expensive wood.

In general lumber is graded as follows:

Number 1. This grade is practically perfect though in large dimensions small blemished may be allowed, restricted to one inch of sap, a small sound, or a small discoloration per board.

Number 2. Two sound knots, an inch of sap and one other blemish are allowed.

Common boards. This grade allows three or four sound knots per board, but two-thirds of one side must be clear stock.

Culls. This is the lowest grade. One-half of each board must be usable.

There is no objection to using a grade of lumber containing sound standard knots in work where stress is negligible, such as siding, trim, casing, partition, out-buildings, cabinets, closets, book-stalls, shelves, etc.

For framing where light, stiff wood is wanted, the soft woods excel. Also where heavy, steady loads are to be supported, yellow pine, spruce etc., will answer as well as hardwoods that are costlier for the same amount of stiffness.

It should be noted that different kinds of wood may be used for the same purpose.

There are also modified wood such as laminated wood, plywood, resin-impregnated paper-faced plywood, wood-fiber board materials, rigid boards, other fibre material boards, and wood base plastics.

To get the best results, use the right wood for the project.

Learn MORE at Popular Mechanics


To help with slow website load, we have put all photos for this article here: View photo gallery.