Wood question

Subject: Wood question
From: Bert
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 12:27 PM

I was looking over a very old dresser that a friend had given to Tree. The drawer bottoms and side panels are of solid wood, possibly pine, they are rough sawn on one side.

There are three drawer bottoms about 33" x 15" x 5/16" thick. And four side panels about 24" X 15" and I'm guessing about the same thickness. They are all very stable, flat and in one piece. A couple of them sound really good when I tap on them, I suspect they all might if they were removed from the dresser.

Would these be worth stealing from her to make instruments from?

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: GUEST,Matt_R
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 12:37 PM

Don't know about that, Bert. Pine is not really a good solution for making instruments--it's too soft and easily breakable.

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Bert
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 12:43 PM

This stuff is really old and quite hard. Maybe it's not pine, dunno.

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Jon W.
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 12:58 PM

On the contrary, IMHO pine is fine for soundboards if the grain is straight and free from knots and the piece is quartersawn. I wouldn't be making any necks for streel string instruments out of it though. Here's a good web site to ask this sort of question: The MIMF.

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 01:17 PM

If I'm not mistaken the folks at Taylor Guitars made a passable guitar out of a shipping pallet. Check their website out for some more info. I think their point was that it's the luthier that makes the guitar good - not the wood used. The jury is still out as far as I'm concerned.

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Mark Clark
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 01:56 PM

Drawers were often made from plainsawn basswood or poplar. Not good choices for stringed instrument tops. The idea was to use less expensive materials where appearance was not an issue. Cracking was avoided by design, not material selection. Drawers were constructed so as to allow for dimensional instability of the materials.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Allan C.
Date: 10 Nov 00 - 02:08 PM

The really good drawers were made of two different varieties of wood. One variety was prone to shrinking as it dried and was only partially cured when used. Another was almost equally prone to swelling with the varying humidity. This made for excellent rabbet joints. The drawers held together beautifully. This kind of craftsmanship is only found in handmade furniture, though.

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: CarolC
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 02:36 AM

You might want to have the dresser appraised before you alter it in any way. If it has any significant monetary value, removing or replacing any of the original parts can render it virtually worthless.

This may not matter too much to you if you are more focused on making a nice instrument than in the monetary value of the dresser. However, think about how much really nice wood you can buy with the proceeds if you find out the dresser is worth some money and you sell it.

Good luck,

Carol

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Dave T
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 06:58 AM

I agree with Carol: have the dresser appraised first. However if you're bound and determined...
Pine can be used for tops on violins but I'm not sure about guitar. For one thing a six string guitar has about 165 lbs of tension applied to it through the strings and bridge to the soundboard whereas a violin has about 80 lbs or so. This is even worse for a guitar since it's larger and that tension has more leverage to work with to warp the top. The problem with a violin top is that it's carved into the arch from a piece (or bookmatched and glued halves) that's about 5/8" thick. Guitar tops on the other hand are around 1/8" thick so you'd have some room to work with there. However, assuming the grain runs lengthwise, if the pieces are only 15" wide you would have to make a OO size guitar if you wanted to use a single piece for the top: dreadnoughts are 15.5 - 16" across at the lower bout and OOO's are just around 15" (doesn't allow for any waste). The larger guitars would require you to saw lengthwise to get two pieces 15" wide x 5/32" thick and then bookmatch them. Since that would demand a perfectly straight cut and would only leave 1/32" margin in thickness, without accounting for saw blade thickness, I don't think there's enough material. All things considered, a smaller guitar with a slightly shorter scale length (say 24.5") might be possible.

If you decide to go ahead with the instrument, let us know how it turns out.

Hope this makes some sense,
- Dave T

PS - Taylor did make a guitar out of pallets, but that's really a promotional piece. I doubt the sound quality is really that great: as my grandma used to say "You can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear"

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 11:27 AM

wood for good instruments is carefully chosen.....even if you DO have a type that would work, getting a piece with the grain properly oriented and with no flaws is just luck....hardly worth tearing up a dresser just to experiment.

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Lady McMoo
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 01:56 PM

If you're set on destroying the dresser, it might be usefulto identify the wood if you want to use it for instrument making or something else. If you don't you someone who could do that, PM me - I might be able to help.

mcmoo

Subject: RE: Wood question
From: Mooh
Date: 11 Nov 00 - 04:55 PM

It's also not likely quartersawn, and there might be significant grain run-out. Mooh.