This End Up furniture - Southern Yellow Pine

[ralitaco]

I have an old This End Up twin bed headboard and footboard. I have no use for that bed so I am thinking about repurposing it. According the the www, TEU uses primarily Southern Yellow Pine for their furniture.

I can disassemble the bed and have several boards. So I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions for what I can do with this wood?

TIA
Jim

 

[bob vaughan]

I'll often take apart furniture just for the raw material. Often the wood gets used as a secondary wood like drawer sides and backs, internal framing, and other things where screw holes or existing finish aren't an issue. Stash the boards for later use. Secondary wood on a project can eat up valuable resources.

Right now I'm taking apart a 1950's walnut desk for the panels, top, and secondary wood. The typewriter lift will probably go away.

 

[ralitaco]

Thanks Bob. I have a desk that is too big for our house and I am planning to use it as an assembly table and or an out feed table. However I did not even think about the species of wood it is made of. How can I figure that out? I guess I need to cut it to see.

 

[bob vaughan]

Most, not all, commercial office furniture will be veneered. A lot depends on when it was made and where. Veneered furniture panels stay a lot flatter than solid lumber furniture panels. Furniture factories are good with stains and dyes. They can make maple look the color of walnut. A few close photos will help with defining things. If the desk fits your shop needs as is, then there's no point in altering it unless it has a typewriter bay. That mechanism needs to go so that side will take big bulky items.

 

[Bill Clemmons]

As Bob said, it makes great "secondary wood" (e.g. skeletal frames inside a piece of furniture; drawer sides; internal bracing, etc., etc.).

 

[ralitaco]

Thank you both. Can SYP be stained without much problem?

Also is SYP the same as framing lumber which is all I have worked with so far.

 

[bob vaughan]

That SYP may or may not be actually SYP but it will be some kind of pine anyway. It will be useful where pine would be appropriate.
There's a vast difference between early wood (the soft part of the ring) and the late wood (the hard part of the ring). This makes staining problematic if you are looking for a uniform color. The late wood doesn't absorb stain and the early wood is spongy and absorbs lots of stain.
Because of the differences between early wood and late wood, what you have will likely warp if you try sawing it down the middle.
Put the pieces aside until a good use presents itself.
SYP is stronger framing lumber than that smelly spongewood sold in the big box stores that is marked SPF (spruce, pine, fir).

 

[bob vaughan]

Looks like an older planer in the background? I admire the work and material that went into those machines.

Good eye. Its a 1971 Powermatic 180 (18"). Its a school shop planer I got in 1996. It will produce 60-70 gallons of shavings per hour at least. Takes about an hour to change the straight knives. I wouldn't want to be without it despite having to walk around it all the time.