Will wood movement in this project be a factor??

Question

I'm making a butcher block top for a coffee table. It's going to be 2.5 to 3 inches thick. I'm using 8ft whitewood 2x4's from Lowe's. The pieces will be laid with the endgrain facing top/bottom. As a visual, it's going to look like little squares & rectangles side by side from a the top view, thus I'm gluing up 2.5 to 3 inch pieces side by side.

I've heard that 2x4's (non-treated) are still pretty wet at the store and need to dry out for a long period of time to prevent wood movement.

Will I need to take that into account since I'm dealing with short pieces side by side in the butcher block top? Or can I get to cutting & clamping with the 2x4's straight from Lowe's (or any other home improvement store)?? This is an air conditioned living room coffee table, and I'd like to prevent any splits from ever occurring.

Answer 1

Here's the problem with exposing end-grain. As you must know or you wouldn't have asked a good question, wood shrinks ans swells. So, if you take a 2X4 it will shrink and swell in the "2" and "4" directions but not in the 8' direction. Once you cut the 2X4's into 2.5" or 3" pieces and place them all together they will shrink and swell in all the directions you don't want and not in the way you could tolerate.

Yes, wood movement will be a big factor in your project but since it will be small (coffee table instead of living room) it shouldn't be a huge issue. Go for the kiln dried if you can afford it. Let the pieces sit in the air-con room for a week or two. Glue 'em good, clamp 'em good, and get a finish or at least a sanding sealer on all sides as soon as you can.

A couple other tips; since end-grain is more difficult to sand be extra careful to align the pieces top and bottom ahead of time. Also keep in mind that the corners of an end-grain table top will chip easier so you might want to work a solid edge around the top.

Answer 2

i can guaran-tar-tee ya, the pieces are going to seperate. whitewood, actually a HD term, usually refers to radiata pine. depending on where you live, in 2x4 dimension it will either be a pine or a spruce at a box store. much too soft for your purpose. for what you are trying to do, you need a dense, tight-grained low moisture wood like maple, ash, lyptus. you can buy it online dimensioned as you need it. try web search for hardwoods. or rockler.com

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

cut all the pieces and then let them lay around for a month where its dry.

Answer 4

Butcher-block is customarly hardwood.

You will not be happy with what you can make out

of softwood '2 x 4's.

Expect that end grain to split easily if only 3" deep for

the 4-6' span of a typical coffee table.

You'd have to 'rabbit in' structural wood.

Answer 5

I agree that the swelling factor is an issue in this matter.  Something my dad did when making a similar project is he made a gorgeous frame out of wood with the "pieces" already glued together inside it.  There was about 1/8" (or less) from the top of the squares (or in your case, 2x4 ends) to the top of the "frame.  He used a clearcoat (kind of like a polyurethane, I just thought of it as "thick varnish" as this was years ago) overtop the entire thing, sealing it in.  You would have to make sure the back is equally as sealed.  It looked gorgeous.

Keeping the wood in the room you are going to be placing the furniture in for awhile is a must.  I would wait to cut the pieces until after it's sat for awhile to allow the wood to adjust first.

Answer 6

kiln dried wood still has a moisture content between 5% to 7% so you are still going to get shrinkage as it continues to dry out. you want very dry and very tight grained wood for that kind of top. i suggest poplar or a very hard wood like walnut. the tighter the grain the better since they will move the least.

Answer 7

If possible, bring the material into the room where the table will be (your living room)  and leave it for a minimum of a week.  This allows the wood to become accustomed to the room's temperature and humidity levels before being glued.  

After the one week, cut the wood into the desired size and glue together.  Glue together in small sections, then glue two sections together, etc. Make sure to use bar clamps or pipe clamps with softeners to form a tight bond between the pieces of wood. Otherwise, you will end up with pieces falling off and out of the table top.  Leave clamps on for a minimum of 24 hrs before combining sections.

Answer 8

not if you use klin dryed wood