All of the regular lumber at Home Depot and Lowes is bent, twisted, warped and not even the correct width and length. How the hell do you bend wood ? Saw some of this Poplar and it looks quite true and straight, nice stuff, more expensive though. I think even particle board would look good about now. HD and Lowes lumber is a freaken nightmare. I'm done with regular lumber. How can they get away with selling that crap ? It's one thing for the regular lumber to be warped but even the nice stuff is ridiculous. It comes down to Poplar or I think it's called Red Oak.
Anyone use Poplar wood ?
- Thread starter plecostic
- Start date
Poplar is considered a hardwood but, in reality it's no harder than pine. It's used usually in hidden areas (like drawers) or is usually painted since it's not as appealing in grain as oak, cherry, etc. Should work fine for aquarium furniture applications.
Are you looking for wood for the frame or to do the skinning of the frame you already made? If you are looking for wood to the build frame Home Depot usually has 2 different grades of framing lumber and then general building lumber. The bad stuff is the framing lumber. You need to get the lumber for general building I think its called Humphur stock but I could be wroung about the name. This wood is much strater has less knots. if you use the Humpfur suff it could be sanded with an orbital sander and would come up pretty good and wood not need to skin it. You could just stain this open frame and it wood look good. But if you did want to skin it with hardwood It will be ok to build the main frame with and then skin it with the nice stuff like yo are taling about "ie" Poplar or the red oak. You need to found what kind of cabinet grade plywood they have there. You would not want to get the Poplar trim and the use red oak ply wood or much worse pine or loaune wood.
For the frame, ok I'll check out that general building lumber, I"ve always had bad luck with home depot and lowes. I may end up having to get longer lengths and cutting them on each side until I get something straight. I do have Lauan 3/4 plywood and was going to skin with 1/8 or 1/4 Lauan, Lauan looks good and it's cheap.
What's wrong with using poplar? Poplar is light and strong. The only thing wrong with it is the price tag. To prove my point, here's a link to my buddy's build. He built a stand for a 400 gallon tank using poplar, and other types of wood. That stand is still standing after 3+ years of use. I've seen that stand with my own eyes. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...5-DIY-stand-for-my-400-gallon-tank&highlight=