Mark,
I've made up quite a few sets for various vehicles, and I would encourage you to do the same. Work carefully and slowly and you'll get good results. Here's a table of woods that work well, as well as ones which you should not use. This is only because you can't always get what you want. At least a few of the below should be available in Minnesota. I've made wood farm wagon parts as well as truck slats, and I learned most of these the hard way. Some of them may surprise you!
Good woods I've used, with *** being best, and * being fair :
***White oak heartwood- avoid lighter sapwood. reacts with iron hardware, so use galvanized or stainless. Tbis is first choice in my shop. Very hard, strong, and durable outdoors. Wine barrels are made of this because it is impermeable to water, and thus, almost rot proof.
***Black locust- VERY HEAVY, hard on machinery, may be too hard to work easily. Common pasture tree, with thick brown ropy bark and tiny compound leaves arranged in rows on the twigs. Gets flat seedpods that resemble chinese snow peas or mimosa pods in fall, almost a weed tree in some areas. Latin name for this wood means "only have to make it once"...LOL! (kidding)
*** Honey locust- this is the tree with the vicious long thorns all over the trunk and limbs that will puncture truck tires. Very hard durable wood. Common eastern forest tree. Often used as shade trees, you can get these in your local shopping center if you're quick!
The lethal thorns, some as long as ten inches, are so copious and hard to get rid of that they make you take a bag of them home when you buy some of this wood.
**Honduras Mahogany- common boat building wood, finishes well. Strong. Good choice! Expensive!!
***Burmese teak- almost indestructible, needs no finish. advice: if you use teak, invest in carbide saw blades and tooling, dulls regular steel very fast! You WON'T believe how much teak costs now!!
**mulberry- very durable, but seldom available in long pieces. Used as mudsills in old cow barns. Lasts hundreds of years in ground contact if kept reasonably above water line. Too hard for termites!
**black walnut heart- (very durable outdoors, but a bit more brittle than oak. Fine for truck slats!
***American chestnut- making a reappearance in the lumber trade, THIS DURABLE WOOD IS EXCELLENT FOR TRUCK PARTS...
Doesn't get any better. Lighter than oak, almost as strong, rot proof, finishes well, fastens well, saws and mills well, good when wet. Used as railroad ties before creosoting came along.
***long leaf pine heartwood- splintery and hard to hold finish on, but strong and very decay resistant. Can last 200 years or more unfinished outdoors, but expensive and hard to find. Avoid sapwood and watch for resin pockets
*White Spruce- used for scaffold planks, strong and weather resistant. Has large messy resin pockets
*shortleaf pine heartwood- native of mid atlantic forests, finishes well, strong, cheap (sometimes called "two-leaf pine" due to its characteristic twisted double needle sheath. Most pines have three to five needles to a sheath.
*sassafras- has natural oils which resist decay moderately well, a bit soft, but good enough for sideboards, and cheap!
**eastern hemlock heartwood- common eastern tree, has very tough heartwood, takes finish well, strong and decay resistant when finished. Don't use bare.
**Norway Spruce- (common as cut christmas trees)this ubiquitous cone bearing ornamental grows to large sizes and makes good all purpose building lumber. Finishes well, and is cheap. Must be finished to use outdoors.
** Douglas fir - available as flooring, good strong wood, must be finished outdoors. A bit on the splintery side when bare
woods NOT to use- ### is worst, # is not as bad
###cedar any kind except eastern red (aromatic) cedar, which is almost as strong and heavy as the oaks. The various cedars and junipers, usually bunched together for lumber trade, are too soft and weak for good seats or sideboards. Although cedar and juniper finish well, and are durable outdoors, the stuff just ain't strong enough, period. Build boats with cedar. Build trucks with oak!
### the red oaks- water permeable end grain, very decay prone
## eastern white pine- (pinus strobus) Not strong enough on long spans, such as seat slats. Fasteners will actually crush this wood when tightened. moderately decay resistant. Will sag between supports.
### yellow poplar (tulip tree) (liriodendron tulipafera)
this is the eastern tree that gets the tulip shaped (flower) seed pods on it. Actually a magnolia, it contains beautiful clear straight wood. Although it is common in straight clear long lengths, and cheap, it is splintery, brittle, and rots readily. Avoid this one, even if tempted!
###any of the domestic maples- (acer sp.) Maple is hard and heavy and strong, and tempting to use as truck parts, but don't do it...maple rots very readily.
## ash- (baseball bat wood) whether it's white ash, brown ash or black ash, this wood excels for springy parts, but NOT exposed to weather.It decays too fast and the grain shells out badly when wetted and dried, or exposed to impact and sliding wear, making nasty killer splinters
### plantation grown southern yellow pine- (pinus home-depotus!!) LOL! this is the generic "deckwood" used for decks, fencing, etc. Available at most home centers, is cut from trees which are WAY too small for good planks. Cups badly, oxidizes badly in sunlight, seeps resin all over everything, won't hold paint, warps and twists. Avoid like plague! GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO ATTRACT YUPPIES, WHO WILL COME IN DROVES AND THROW ZIMA PARTIES ON YOUR TRUCK, SCRATCH YOUR PAINT, PEE IN YOUR GAS TANK, AND LEAVE GARBAGE ON THE SEATS.
###redwood- durable as anything on earth, but hopelessly weak and brittle for truck parts and the like. avoid!
## Hickory- strong and heavy, but must be kept finished or rot will destroy it fast! Don't expose directly to wetness. Probably our strongest domestic hardwood, by quite a large margin, but suited better to frequently replaced parts, as it rots so readily.
This list is not all inclusive, but you should find it helpful. I'll give you the correct latin binomial (linnaeus) for any of these, if you need it, in cases where you want to specify a certain species. Just email me offlist. I didn't want to clutter with non-od stuff.
One caution on buying oak: red and white oak are often cut together and sold as "oak". If you're not sure what you're buying, don't throw your money away. Local sawmills, stairbuilders, better home centers, and local architects are good leads for finding white oak and the less available species. Avoid using reclaimed dunnage or pallets, as the wood in these is green, and of log run quality, and full of hard steel nails and staples. You'll be working so hard to get them apart, pieces intact, that you'll be better off just paying fair price for good lumber.
Last, I have catalogued references for wood sources in most any part of the US. Most will ship small mail orders. Let me know where you are and I'll try to match you up. If you want to do it yourself, go to a good newsstand and buy a copy of Taunton Press's "Fine Woodworking" and follow the ads.
Cheers!
lumber-Jack (ah, so that's why they call him Jack!)
In a message dated Mon, 7 Jan 2002 7:10:02 PM Eastern Standard Time, "mark fisher" <fishmeok@worldnet.att.net> writes:
> I'm buiding up some troop seats for my M715 using brackets from a 6x6. I
> need to either make or buy the wood slats- any recommendations for wood
> types, where to buy, etc?
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