Variation in construction lumber roundover?
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Wood and Wood Preparation / Variation in construction lumber roundover?
- This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 11 months ago by Matthew Newman.
-
AuthorPosts
-
13 April 2019 at 3:54 pm #555941
I’m working through building the workbench and a problem I’m having is the roundover seems like a lot. My question is this, has anyone observed a difference in this between suppliers or quality levels. I had assumed with construction grade lumber it’d be pretty consistent but I’m seeing half inch round overs which means trying plane a 2″x3″ which started as 1.5″x2.5″ and then having to take up to an inch off to get flat sides is frustrating and quickly drops dimensions.
Am I just buying too cheap of lumber? The impression I got from the workbench videos is that Paul wasn’t planing it down nearly as much as I am. I guess outside of the workbench I probably won’t be using much construction grade lumber but I might have to replace some of what I’ve already got and am wondering if I just need to find higher quality or just buy bigger so the milled down version is closer to spec.
Thanks,
Matt NewmanMatt,
I believe that in the U.K. There is no round over on the construction lumber. I built my bench (US) out of 2×4 studs. If I were to do it again I would buy 2x12s and rip them to whatever dimension I needed for the bench. It would take care of the radius edge and save a lot of work with the hand planes.
Jim13 April 2019 at 8:38 pm #555943Over the years, I’ve used not that small amount of PAR round-over 45 mm thick Scandinavian construction spruce. The round-over has always been 5 mm. In addition, I have watched the manufacturing process, which is essentially ripping to width and thickness, and then finishing with planing and rounding over – all in one go. For a very short period the result is perfect. Then the warping sets in, starting after the cutting to length (no concern is given to grain direction and tension).
Rounding over after warping has begun will lead to inconsistencies. Perhaps that is what has taken place in your case.
/Sven-Olof
16 April 2019 at 11:16 pm #556074Jim, I was tempted to do that as well too and just rip things down on my bandsaw but I wanted to see if I could do it by hand, so far haven’t used any power tools on the workbench. That said I’m afraid my work surface might end up thinner than I’d like once I get it planed down so I might still do that.
Sven-Olof, I suspect it’s done to get sell lower quality piece of wood. The bigger the round over the more inconsistencies it covers up. I was at a more expensive home improvement store this weekend and checked out their construction grade lumber and found the cheapest stuff had a big round over and the more expensive a much smaller round over.
-Matt
17 April 2019 at 12:41 am #556084matt if you do not want to loose depth on your bench top you can always cut the roundover off on the long side you loose a 1/4″ per board but that equates to only one or two more for the top.
17 April 2019 at 1:11 am #556098deanbecker, that’s kind of what I’m doing. I already leveled off the bottom more or less so it will sit flat but looking over the top surface I’ve probably got a 1/8″ – 3/16″ and I’m already at 2 3/8″ so I guess that doesn’t put me that far out of spec to Pauls plans but with planing I’d like to have more of a buffer (being so new to it). I guess if nothing else it’s plenty of practice.
-Matt
-
AuthorPosts
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.