sunnywater
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 17, 2020 3:56:46 GMT -8
We are planning on buying the lumber we need for the framing of the walls of our 1959 Shasta Airflyte this week. We are doing a frame off and buying new skins.
My question is: The depth of the existing framing is 7/8 in. If we go with 1x lumber it will only be 3/4 in. We are reluctant to change the dimensions, especially in the direction of thinner since 7/8 seems a bit skimpy. If we buy 2x lumber that is a lot of wood potentially wasted.
Has anyone found ways to use the wood that is cut off? Other solutions, thoughts?
Thanks again, everyone! Gwen
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sunnywater
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 17, 2020 3:58:28 GMT -8
Also we are planning on getting pine. Is there any place that you would want a harder wood like poplar? Maybe the backing for the bunks or lights?
Gwen
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Post by danrhodes on Jun 17, 2020 6:56:20 GMT -8
If I had to do it again, I'd use poplar for my roof which is sagging due to the soft pine.
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nccamper
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Post by nccamper on Jun 17, 2020 9:29:17 GMT -8
I think pine is usually fine but I use heavier wood (as Dan suggested) for the framing on either side and around the vent to help reduce sag. I’ve also used harder wood on the door frame where the hinge screws in and along the lower piece of the wall which attaches to the camper frame. Although the last may be least necessary.
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datac
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Post by datac on Jun 17, 2020 9:57:08 GMT -8
Don't buy your lumber from a home improvement big box. You'll need to mill the lumber down to your preferred dimension, and you'll probably want to start with 5/4 to get you to a true 7/8" (4/4 S2S lumber is generally milled to 13/16" or thinner, which is shy of what you're after).
The quality of big box lumber sell is abysmal, and while it might be adequate for building a shed, it will cause you a bunch of headaches. How much money are you trying to save, anyway? Find a good hardwood retailer, even if you have to drive to the next town, and get the good stuff. Poplar is excellent, considerably stiffer than pine or other whitewood, and is actually a hair lighter on average. The few dollars extra it will cost is one of the best investments you could make.
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sunnywater
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 17, 2020 10:32:48 GMT -8
The quality of big box lumber sell is abysmal, and while it might be adequate for building a shed, it will cause you a bunch of headaches. How much money are you trying to save, anyway? Find a good hardwood retailer, even if you have to drive to the next town, and get the good stuff. Poplar is excellent, considerably stiffer than pine or other whitewood, and is actually a hair lighter on average. The few dollars extra it will cost is one of the best investments you could make. Thank you so much everyone for the helpful advice. We will definitely go with poplar based on the information here. Luckily there is a good lumber yard, that does a lot of millwork, close to us here. Haha, if we were trying to save money we would not have gone down to the frame to do a full restore! But I wouldn't trade a minute of it, we really want to create something worthy of handing down. Once we have had some camping fun of course! Thanks again, all the help here really helps to keep our momentum!
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ruderunner
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Post by ruderunner on Jun 17, 2020 16:01:09 GMT -8
You can buy say 2x12 boards and use a table saw to cut 7/8 inch pieces. Nice thing is you can get 2x12 up to 24 feet long if you need really long pieces.
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Post by danrhodes on Jun 17, 2020 17:02:09 GMT -8
You can buy say 2x12 boards and use a table saw to cut 7/8 inch pieces. Nice thing is you can get 2x12 up to 24 feet long if you need really long pieces. Just make sure you are buying good lumber though. I tried this with home depot stuff and it made banana boards out of every slice.
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idaho211
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Post by idaho211 on Jun 17, 2020 17:55:54 GMT -8
I went with a local lumber supplier. Found some douglas fir and had it planed to the right thickness. It is very hard and easy to work with. Use a table saw to rip the right width.
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sunnywater
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 17, 2020 18:49:38 GMT -8
I went with a local lumber supplier. Found some douglas fir and had it planed to the right thickness. It is very hard and easy to work with. Use a table saw to rip the right width. We were thinking of using douglas fir for the joists. Did you use it for all the framing?
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nccamper
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Post by nccamper on Jun 18, 2020 7:07:44 GMT -8
I went with a local lumber supplier. Found some douglas fir and had it planed to the right thickness. It is very hard and easy to work with. Use a table saw to rip the right width. We were thinking of using douglas fir for the joists. Did you use it for all the framing? I really like Douglas Fur in key areas. That's my wood of choice but it's not cheap.
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idaho211
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Post by idaho211 on Jun 18, 2020 16:58:37 GMT -8
I am using all douglas fir for the framing to repair on my Kenskill. It is so much better quality then what was originally used. It looks like the original was pine with alot of knots.
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sunnywater
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Post by sunnywater on Jun 18, 2020 18:00:41 GMT -8
Great advice, thanks again. Tomorrow were are going to call some of the lumber yards near us. One about 45 minutes away seems especially promising. We will look into the poplar and Douglas Fir. We had our front porch redone 25 years ago with Douglas Fir. It is exposed to Wisconsin weather year round and has held up really well.
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aslmx
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Post by aslmx on Jun 22, 2020 18:32:11 GMT -8
I used pine lumber that were crates from roof top air handlers on a job I was doing. All free 😇
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Post by wisconsinjoe on Jun 22, 2020 18:37:11 GMT -8
Thank you so much everyone for the helpful advice. We will definitely go with poplar based on the information here. Luckily there is a good lumber yard, that does a lot of millwork, close to us here. Haha, if we were trying to save money we would not have gone down to the frame to do a full restore! But I wouldn't trade a minute of it, we really want to create something worthy of handing down. Once we have had some camping fun of course! Thanks again, all the help here really helps to keep our momentum! You can buy 4/4 poplar and have it planed to 7/8". One side might be left "rough" but that shouldn't matter. That's how my roof rafters were made. They still sagged though. That's why in the scratch build I'm working on will have roof rafters at 1.5 inch.
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