Hi Guys,
Thx for all the nice comments.
I used pine from the box stores - the junck stuff - not clear.
The legs: 3-1x4's glued together. Cut them on a bandsaw and sanded on the Ridgid. The top was origionally, 4-1X8's glued and (Kreg) screwed to acheive a 29-1/2" width, but after jointing straight edges for gluing, I lost too much material and ended up buying a 1x6 to make up the difference, and ended up making it 32" wide (x 5' long).
I've used (box-store) pine for many projects. Sometimes you have to wade through a lot of boards to get some clear. straight ones for certain applications, but they work fine and people love the looks it offers.
The drawer box material is also pine, but for them, I bought what Lowe's calls "1x4 Pine Firring Strips" (8' long) which cost ONLY $1.50 (or there abouts). With these, there's a ink stamp on one side, but who cares - it sands off easily and surprisiongly, they are pretty straight with few knots - almost to the point of saying they are even straighter and clearer then the other stuff! The edges are rounded though (like a 2x4), so to edge glue them, you'd have to mill it off - either rip it off or joint them down. I plan to buy a lot of these for some raised panel work I have coming up. Hey... I might even use it to glue up for tops too!
A negative characteristic of pine appears during the staining process (using it for paint-grade stuff is great and it's cheaper that poplar!), and probably why few people want to use it(?). You HAVE to use wood conditioner to seal the pores, otherwise, it ends up a blotchy mess (sometimes 2 coats). Otherwise you'll spend lots of time "ligthning" and "darkening" areas on the peice during staining. But even at that, it just takes a little practice. Using poly as the top coat "toughens-up" the surface and makes it considerably harder which prevents it from denting so easily.
Anyways, thx again for the nice comments. Don't cha just LOVE WWing... So do I! Enjoy your day,
Bob
