Replies

1. 
   SawdustSteve | May 25, 2008 05:53am | #1

   Remember, a 2 x 4 WAS 2 x 4 BEFORE it was planed smooth. If you trim off those nice rounded corners, you will be down to 3" in width while still retaining the 1 5/8 'thickness. So... you will need 4 2x4's to make up a 12" finished width if you are laying them 'flat' or 8 if you're standing them on edge.
   SawdustSteve

1. 
   iamrip | May 25, 2008 06:02pm | #2

   So I should pretty much add an extra 25% to what I need? 

1. 
   SawdustSteve | May 26, 2008 06:00am | #4

   Depending on the quality of the wood... knots, sapwood, end checking etc, I use 15% to 25% as my target. If you need to do VERY careful color / grain matching, as in a set of chairs, it could go as high as 40%. ( That's the number a famous name craftsman uses) I've been lucky and never had to go over 25%.
   SawdustSteve

2. 
   Henley | May 25, 2008 07:32pm | #3

   Not sure if on the same wave length but.
   I Give myself an extra inch for squaring the overall board. Then the
   kerf plus 1/4 or so for the individual pieces.

   Over all (as in extra for mistakes) that depends on the project and the price of the material.
   At this point I tend not to get much extra, but there are those day's when I'm running to the lumber mill for two board feet.

3. 
   daverichards | May 26, 2008 01:42pm | #5

   Since you mentioned that you drew your bench in SketchUp, I thought I would chime in here. If you draw the lumber at actual dimensions and use components for each piece of wood in the bench, you can get a cutlist right out of SketchUp using a free plugin. The cutlist will give you the lumber requirements in board feet and list sheet goods separately.

   It sounds like you're using construction lumber for this so you could add up the length column to get the total length. This would give you an idea of how many boards you'll need before you add your allowance for waste.

   The way construction lumber looks at the yards around here, I would end up with a bench with 2 feet on the floor and two on the wall. :) Pretzel wood.

    

   
   

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   Edited 5/26/2008 6:43 am ET by DaveRichards

   
4. 
   saschafer | May 26, 2008 04:26pm | #6

   This isn't directly related to the question you asked, but....

   Irrespective of the width of the boards you need, you'll likely only get two good boards out of a 2×12. The reason is that the center section of the 2×12 is generally from too close to the center of the tree to yield straight, flat lumber.

   When building from construction lumber, I assume that at best I will get boards that are 1-1/4" thick.

   -Steve

    

1. 
   iamrip | May 27, 2008 06:01pm | #7

   Thank you everyone! This has been very helpful.  There is a lot of information here and I feel quite a bit better about going to the lumber yard.