Where O where has my lumber gone?

[Scouter]

Have a project I'm working on, trying to find something I thought would be simple - birch lumber. I can't find anyone who carries anything but ply. Normally I would just go with the ply and band it, but this project required a profiled edge, and never had much luck banding a profile. Any thoughts? Anyone know of a lumber yard near Pittsburgh?

[Bill Wilson]

Have a project I'm working on, trying to find something I thought would be simple - birch lumber. I can't find anyone who carries anything but ply. Normally I would just go with the ply and band it, but this project required a profiled edge, and never had much luck banding a profile. Any thoughts? Anyone know of a lumber yard near Pittsburgh?

Mars Lumber, about 30-40 minutes north of the city might have it.

http://www.marslumber.com/

[jteneyck]

Have a project I'm working on, trying to find something I thought would be simple - birch lumber. I can't find anyone who carries anything but ply. Normally I would just go with the ply and band it, but this project required a profiled edge, and never had much luck banding a profile. Any thoughts? Anyone know of a lumber yard near Pittsburgh?

I use maple edging/moldings with birch plywood.  Can't tell the difference under a dyed and/or stained finish.  

John

[FS7]

Have a project I'm working on, trying to find something I thought would be simple - birch lumber. I can't find anyone who carries anything but ply. Normally I would just go with the ply and band it, but this project required a profiled edge, and never had much luck banding a profile. Any thoughts? Anyone know of a lumber yard near Pittsburgh?

I have also edged birch ply with solid maple with great results. Depending on what you're doing you can keep the approximately 1/32" difference or plane down the maple. When I use this setup for table and desk tops I keep the 1/32" on the bottom to help ensure the carcass doesn't rack and stays square.

If you haven't worked with birch lumber before, I would recommend against it. I used it to make my mother a very simple printer table and it turned out to be a nightmare. It burns easily, blotches when staining, looks pretty dull, is super heavy and hard on cutters, and so on. I just don't like much about it. I bought it on a whim as the Google images of red birch (birch heartwood) looked wonderful, but the reality was not so great. My experience did not at all match what workability was supposed to be.

My local yard (Hardwoods in the Rough) doesn't have a great selection most of the time (at least not of the tropical hardwoods I prefer) but they always seem to have both yellow birch (sapwood) and red birch (heartwood) in good supply.

[Scouter]

I have also edged birch ply with solid maple with great results. Depending on what you're doing you can keep the approximately 1/32" difference or plane down the maple. When I use this setup for table and desk tops I keep the 1/32" on the bottom to help ensure the carcass doesn't rack and stays square.

If you haven't worked with birch lumber before, I would recommend against it. I used it to make my mother a very simple printer table and it turned out to be a nightmare. It burns easily, blotches when staining, looks pretty dull, is super heavy and hard on cutters, and so on. I just don't like much about it. I bought it on a whim as the Google images of red birch (birch heartwood) looked wonderful, but the reality was not so great. My experience did not at all match what workability was supposed to be.

My local yard (Hardwoods in the Rough) doesn't have a great selection most of the time (at least not of the tropical hardwoods I prefer) but they always seem to have both yellow birch (sapwood) and red birch (heartwood) in good supply.

I have worked with birch before. Our bathroom sink and medicine cabinets are made from it. The hamper we had gave up its ghost so SWMBO wants the hamper made to match. I got it the last time from a lumber mill in Forest County, but that's a bit far to go for one board.

The problem with banding, as I said in the original post, is that the edge has to have a profile to match the rest of the cabinetry, you can't band a profiled edge, the adhesive just doesn't hold.

[Scouter]

Mars Lumber, about 30-40 minutes north of the city might have it.

http://www.marslumber.com/

Thanks, I checked them out earlier, their "in store" sales didn't list it. Heck, it doesn't list anything. This time I (accidentally) hit "online sales" and it shows up. It's about an hour from where I am, but maybe I can find another reason to be in that area.

Not sure why, but most of the lumberyards around here have either closed up or switch to selling only ply or composite. The big boxes only carry birch in ply, same with Rockler and Woodcraft.

Again, thanks.

[Roly]

Agree with the maple as a close match, ash can also come close.  Roly

[FS7]

I have worked with birch before. Our bathroom sink and medicine cabinets are made from it. The hamper we had gave up its ghost so SWMBO wants the hamper made to match. I got it the last time from a lumber mill in Forest County, but that's a bit far to go for one board.

The problem with banding, as I said in the original post, is that the edge has to have a profile to match the rest of the cabinetry, you can't band a profiled edge, the adhesive just doesn't hold.

I didn't mean banding - I meant edging with solid stock (nominal 1x2 is pretty good for this). I would use loose tenons (the Domino) for this now, while before I would have done pocket screws on the underside of the plywood. It's not invisible by any stretch, though I suppose you could try to match the grain. An advantage of this is that you can use figured maple if you want for more of an accent.

[Scouter]

I didn't mean banding - I meant edging with solid stock (nominal 1x2 is pretty good for this). I would use loose tenons (the Domino) for this now, while before I would have done pocket screws on the underside of the plywood. It's not invisible by any stretch, though I suppose you could try to match the grain. An advantage of this is that you can use figured maple if you want for more of an accent.

Yeah, but for that I need the birch hardwood, hence the original reason for the post. If I can find enough for edging I can find enough for the project. I only need ~4sqft.

[Hank Knight]

I found your birch. All birch logs:

IMG_4355 by Hank Knight, on Flickr

IMG_4353 by Hank Knight, on Flickr