Fuzzy Wood, can't smooth for lamination bench top

Oh,I did buy some from Lowes. They cleaned up nice

I too work in IT, and am down on 2nd on Tuesdays. Small world.

The stock wasn’t any better at Lowes. I had 10$ to home depot, so I bought some there, but Lowes is closer and picked up the rest when I was ready for it. It was all about the same. Lowes carried Doug for mostly. I am not sure what I got at home depot, but it was whiter.

When laminating the top, you only need to plane it to the point of being able to squeeze it together by hand. If you can hold the cup back, glue and a clamp will.work just fine. Really you are just removing what little machine marks are there.

Yes, all edges were chamfered. I just planed it down once it was laminated, but you don’t half to. Get a scrub plane for this. AA smoother will work, but it will take much longer.

I haven’t noticed any twisting. We do get a lot of moisture, but it is changes that mess with it. My bench stays in my garage (which is insulated) and it usually doesn’t fluctuate that much over short periods. I will probably have to true it up eventually, but haven’t in the year it was made.

If you have more questions, message me and I will send my email over

Devin,
I did the same thing except I also got mine from Lowes. I spent hours trying to get the surfaces to mate the rounded corners were a problem for me because I did what we all are taught to do is let the wood acclimate to your shop before using it. This was a big mistake here in the south since our humidity is considerably higher and to me box store lumber is wetter because it is stored outside in the elements. The stack I picked through had been brought in that morning after a hard night rain so it was all wet. I thought letting them set in the shop would let them dry some what I was not expecting was how they would bow, twist and wind which was the reason my hours of flattening them. If they are the least bit wet I would recommended at least getting the top together as fast as possible because when glued together there is less chance of the above mentioned problems. Not saying that it cant or wont happen but two boards glued together makes it hard to twist, bow and wind than one board sitting by itself. Just some problems I ran into when I built mine. Next bench will be some thing different but at least this got me woodworking. Also check the top because on mine I had to send a few hours getting it flat after I got it all glued up because this was my first project with only hand tools I had to learn as I went so the top was not even across.
Branko

Lowes carries green 2×4 and kiln dried. Do you know what you got?

Look at the stamp on the board. It should have “KD” or “KLN” if it was kiln dried, and “GRN” (and I have seen just “G” before) for green.

Kiln dried will (obviously) be better and twist less. Good luck on the build. Post pictures when you are done

I’m sure you have tried, but based on your photo alone..it really looks to me like your against the grain. A portion of material to the lower right of the dark knot looks fine, the rest looks against the grain. Is this how the material looked when you got it? or was it smooth, the roughened up after planing? Maybe I’m just totally missing something.

Funny thing to me is those boards are produced from the Stimson mill literally 3 blocks from my house. They only produce 2×4’s and only for Home Depot. I guess inland northwest hospitality is fuzzy boards shipped throughout the region.

Hem/Fir is a mix of wood in a single unit of boards. Not a species. So a unit is comprised of hemlock and fir. Hemlock(what we call White Fir here) essentially is garbage for anything other than studs(stud grade is nearing the bottom of the desirability scale). I can literally put 1/4 thumb nail marks in seasoned hemlock heartwood. Weak.

If you absolutely want something better…I would return what you have, and maybe spend twenty cents to a dollar more per board on wood that is labelled “#2 & btr SPF KD” (grade 2 or better spruce,pine,fir-kiln dried). IMO Doug Fir is best out of the conifers, they fetch the highest price most of the time.

Personally I have a hard time listening to lumber jockeys at big stores, drones.