Title definitely feels like a missed opportunity

Thank you very much.

Yellow pine does have something of a dramatic grain; the springwood is a pale cream but the summerwood is reddish brown. The varnish I used actually toned it down, believe it or not.

The drawer front is made form the same plain sawn 1x6 as the top, hence the cathedral grain. The face frame is made from what was left of a really unfortunate 2x8 I bought to make legs out of for another table, it was full of defects and cracks, but happened to be rift sawn so it presented that very straight grain.

The only thing I know about that plywood is it isn’t clad in pine, it’s what’s left over from a pantry cabinet. But I think it finished up nicely. The grain doesn’t match but at least on the A (outer) side I think it came out about the same tone.

Thank you.

You mean like this? This was a spruce 2x4 I bought at Lowe’s for a few bucks. I’d intended to use this as a keyboard tray on my desk. These days I mostly use it as shop clutter.

This was one of the first things made after getting my jointer and planer, back there. I glued up that panel, put it through my planer, it was dead flat. I turned my attention to routing the grooves in the breadboards, and then when it was time to mill the tongues on the ends of the panel, it had already warped to the point it rocked on the table saw.

The cause of this calamity is moisture. Wood absorbs or releases moisture trying to equalize with the local humidity. If you’ve ever taken a kitchen sponge out of the package, and it’s perfectly flat and rectangular, then you soak it and it swells up, and then when you come back and it’s dried out it’s all curled up at the corners, you’ll have an intuitive grasp of wood movement. It changes size, and quite often shape, as it absorbs or releases moisture.

Construction lumber is not dried as much as furniture grade lumber is. The average SPF 2x4 might measure 15 or 20%, the 4/4 pine at the cabinetry supply store will measure like 8 or 9%. Build something out of construction lumber, and it has more drying to do to reach equilibrium with the air, meaning it will twist more.

I got bonus movement in my panel up there because I resawed a 2x4. Much like you and me, a board is usually driest on the outside and wettest in the middle. Resaw it into halves and now you’ve got two brand new 1x4s each with a dry side and a wet side. One side of the board is suddenly going to do a lot more drying than the other. Helm, set course for the twist system, maximum warp. Engage.

The way a board is sawn out of the log will also effect how it moves. Construction lumber is almost always plain sawn: take a tree and slice it lengthwise like deli meat. In most boards this produces the funky cathedral grain on the faces and the arc-shaped end grain you can see in the top and drawer front of my nightstand. Because of the asymmetry in the growth rings when cut like this, these boards tend to cup as they dry. Quarter sawn lumber is more complicated to make and wastes a little more of the tree, but the growth rings run more or less straight through the board. You’ll see straight grain on the faces, like on the face frame of my cabinet. This doesn’t warp as much because the forces inside the board will be more symmetrical.

So, with all that in mind, here are some things you can do to reduce warping and wood movement in your projects:

• Buy properly dried lumber and keep it dry. It is possible to dry your own lumber, but it takes eons.
• When you buy lumber, bring it into your shop and let it sit around for at least a few days to equalize with the conditions in there before you do much of anything to it.
• For applications that require high stability, shop for quarter sawn boards.
• Some species are more stable than others, know the properties of the wood you’re working with. wood-database.com is a great resource for this.
• When planing a board, try to remove material from each side of the board if possible to minimize the asymmetrical “inside wet, outside dry” effect.
• If you must resaw a board, resaw it a bit thick, give it some time and let it dry and warp, and then plane it flat again.

Another request for making the same project out of an exotic hardwood from another hemisphere. Why would I build anything out of mahogany when the state I live in is lousy with black cherry?

If I can learn how, I bet you can.

Endangered hardwood shipped in from the other side of the planet? Nah. Depending on the budget I would use walnut, white oak ebonized with iron acetate, or something like beech stained with india ink.