Reply To: Using American Construction Grade Lumber
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One thing I’ve encountered with construction lumber is that it can come from rapid growth trees with hard, thin rings separated by wide, soft or almost spongy material. This can make it extremely difficult to chop a mortise or do other of cuts across end grain without encountering torn or even crushed fibers. It can also mean a piece that is more easily bruised or dented. Neither of these things should put you off. Just be aware of them. If you chop a mortise and see crushed, torn grain at the ends of the mortise, be aware that it isn’t entirely you and may be unavoidable without extraordinarily sharp tools. The good news is that it does not matter one bit. The end grain in a mortise has little effect on glue strength. Glue strength really comes from the face grain glue surface, which you will be able to pare cleanly. If you didn’t know that, you could frustrate yourself.
If you are selecting construction lumber from the stack (or dealers) and have a choice between two pieces, one of which has more tightly spaced growth rings, you might favor it.
One thing that confuses me is that it sounds like you are planning to glue up 2×4 for width in places like aprons where you could wider material, even 2×12. If so, why not just get the wider material, but perhaps I’ve misunderstood.