Need Suggestions For Wood

[triplefreak]

I want to build a tiered plant stand for my wife, using plans I found online.
But, the original stand is made of Cypress or Cedar, both of which I can't afford. What would make a cheaper substitute for durability of these 2 species? I need something that's water resistant & fairly stiff.
This will be an inside project, not subjected to the weather.

Thanks for any help.

[fredbelknap]

If it is going to be inside just about any wood will work. Just give it a good waterproof finish.

[lexrex]

Next in line is going to be white oak. If you buy it rough you might find it in the $3-4 per bd ft. range. At least in my experience. Unless you are looking for QS. Lots of wine and spirit makers use white oak for their barrels.

Note that Red Oak does NOT have the same properties (it's open poured and less dense) and is probably not a great outdoor wood.

[TDHofstetter]

I hate to suggest it, but I dunno what's readily (and cheaply) available in your neck of the woods.

Of all things you might not expect... black walnut is highly rot resistant. Of course, it's also live-plant resistant due to the ... what's the name for it? Juglone, I think... in the wood. It's a powerful herbicide that kills pretty nearly everything except walnut trees.

Lessee. What else? What wood do folks use for fenceposts where you live? Besides pressure-treat, I mean?

[sawduster]

What ever cedar is most native to your neck of the woods should be available quite economically. If cedar is too pricey, then white oak or walnut or what have you is likely even more out of range.

[imahic]

Might try some of Cody's bois d'arc or osage orange. There are a lot of fence posts around this part of the country still in the ground after decades. It is a pretty hard wood though from what I understand. Cody would be the one to tell you more about it. Until the use of metal t posts came into vogue, there were lots of bois d'arc posts used in fencelines.

Mike

[sawduster]

Jan 20, 2010 11:24:02 GMT -6 imahic said:

Might try some of Cody's bois d'arc or osage orange. There are a lot of fence posts around this part of the country still in the ground after decades. It is a pretty hard wood though from what I understand. Cody would be the one to tell you more about it. Until the use of metal t posts came into vogue, there were lots of bois d'arc posts used in fencelines.

Mike

What choo talkin about, Mike? Still lots of wood fence posts round these parts, Cedar, Bodark, maybe even some mesquite. ;D The town I live in, Cedar Park, used to have about half the population or more who either made a living (just barely) or supplemented their other income chopping and selling cedar posts. Even with metal posts driven into the ground they still use two or three smaller posts between the metal ones to staple the "bob waar" to in order to keep the spread the distance they want it spread.

Weren't but just a few years back that they decided to quit having the annual Cedar Chopper Festival.

[TDHofstetter]

Lots of (white) cedar 'round here, too... the farmers got tired of gathering up steel fenceposts that rusted off at ground level.

EDIT: The YOUNG farmers went to FIBERGLASS posts. For a couple of years, anyway. Them's flat NASTY.

[rrich]

You can always mill what you need from some KD 2x4. Cheap and usually decent wood. Lowe's has good quality stuff, at least out here.

[triplefreak]

Well, the only thing folks use for fence posts around here, in order of actual use: 1. Steel poles. 2. PT 4X4's 3. Concrete poles

They ran all the farmers out of the county years ago.
Osage orange is insanely expensive, & you can't find wide boards of it either. White oak is plentiful, but 95% of it is green. No kiln dried stuff.
Black walnut is equal to a house note in terms of cost per board ft.

The cheapest boards at the BORG are white pine. But, my wife wants it stained to match her cherry tables, and I know pine doesn't stain so well.

So, that brings us down to Melamine or plywood. Cherry plywood is ~$150 a sheet around here, if you can find it. Melamine is just tacky in my book.
I know I'm being picky, but believe me, if you were married to MY wife, you'd be picky too, whether you wanted to be or not.

[lexrex]

sheesh. Where are you located? Just curious. Melamine will fall apart from the inside out if it gets wet. I don't have experience with that but it's usually termite poop inside no?

You are probably looking at getting whatever is reasonably priced locally and using a spar varnish on it for water protection. You'll probably have to keep up with it from year to year.

[Ruffnek]

Pine will take stain pretty well if you use a pre-stain conditioner. I stained the Pine pie safe I posted in Finished Flatwork and it turned out nice, IMHO...very little blotching.

If the plant stand is to be kept indoors, just about any wood will work if you use a finish on it to seal out moisture. If it is going to be kept near a large window and get lots of sunight, you might consider a marine varnish with UV inhibitors.

[TDHofstetter]

Ya know... if this is for a plant stand, it's gonna' stay MOIST a lot of the time. So... why would you start with kiln-dried wood? It'll always be much wetter than that. Why not use green white oak? Air-dry it for a while & build it with wood movement in mind, and it'll be just fine.

[imahic]

Ah, sorry, I misread the OP original post. I thought he wanted it water resistant to put outdoors..My bad.

Jerry, you are right. There are still a lot of cedar posts being used around here also. But the majority use pipe corner posts and t posts for fence line. Still lots of rances around here and probably faster and cheaper to use the t posts I would guess. I stopped at a place off the road a while back and bought some of those cedar fence stays to carve walking sticks out of. Some folks use the larger cedar logs for porch posts also for a more "rusteeq" look.

Mike

[Stretch]

My neighbor was "refinishing" a table yesterday. I had to step in and help him do it right. Anyway, the table was made of Eastern Red Cedar. It had darkened with age and I almost confused it for cherry until I felt how light it was. ERC would be my choice. You should be able to find it pretty cheap.

[Leo Voisine]

If I was looking to save money - but still make the thing - I would use the pine from the borg - sand no finer that 150 grit - use stain preconditioner - then heavy coat it with stain - maybe twice.

I would line the thing with heavy plastic plastic to keep the dirt away from the wood. Maybe get the plastic liners. Use Spar varnish on the outsides.

[imahic]

might be able to find some small plastic containers and build the stand so the containers could be dropped in with out showing

[triplefreak]

I might try to price some poplar in my area. I know that's a decent hardwood & stains well. As for waterproofing it, I hate to use polyurethane, but that's probably what I'm going to have to do.
Maybe I'll use some satin finish poly on it.

Who makes a good wood stain? How's Minwax for a stain?

[Leo Voisine]

Minwax is a good brand. General finishes is too.

Poplar is an OK wood to use - I have heard and seen mixed reviews as to whether it stains well.

Poly is not a good choice for anything that will be is a constant wet environment or outdoors in the weather.

Perhaps you should consider a Spar Varnish.

Brand wise for spar varnish, Helmsman is not great but is better than poly, but it will absolutely not stand up to the sunlight when outside. Ephiphanes, available at marine supply stores is superior to Helmsman, but will have a dramatic effect on your wallet.

[Mark T]

On a recent project for a friend of the war department, I used that newfangled (well, not so new anymore) decking that is all composite. It mills fairly easily, is prefinished, and will stand up to plant jism and overflow from watering the plants forever.

May not be real wood, but it looks pretty darn decent.