Just Plain Wasteful...

 I suppose it might not be a bad point to drop a short history lesson before I go full-on into rant mode.  Back when I started this diversion into ... well, whatever the hell it's become, I was a new father, living on a tight-but-slowly-expanding budget, and so the original name of this thing was Daynotes On A Budget.  The Daynotes term was what Dr. Jerry Pournelle called his daily site, and others, such as Bob Thompson, Tom Syroid, Matt Beland, Brian Bilbrey, Dave Farquhar, and others, helped to popularize.  Chris Thompson, the fine fellow who found my links to his site, also contributed greatly to my daily enjoyment of those fellows.  As did Dan Seto, Dan Bowman, John Doucette, Bo Leuf, Sjon Svenson, and Bob Walder.  

In my own feeble attempt at admiration and writing regularly, I named it after them, and included my hoped-for efforts to keep things down a bit on the low side of budget impact.  And John Ricketson was another fellow who contributed to my love of reading these guys, and my own success here as he purchased the first domain this thing was hosted on.  Thanks to my bank, the bastards decided not to pay my debit card charge from Germany to my domain registrar, because they thought it was fraud - oh, and they chose not to let me know of that until it was too late, and one of the bottom-feeding domain trawlers scooped it up.  As they did with the second domain - you'd think I'd have learned by that time, but nope.  

So anyway, to the rant. I was reviewing the Family Handyman web site, where I go regularly for divertive relief - yes, I apparently just begat a word which should exist - diversion, into the more active form - divertive.  Anyway, when I loaded them up today, they punched up a project which I'd been asked, a number of times, to investigate and possibly produce for She Who Must Be Obeyed - that is, the lovely woman who, in a moment of sheer insanity in an otherwise extremely logical life, agreed to spend the rest of her life with me.  Now, I will grant that we do make wonderful, lovely humanoids in the old-fashioned way, but beyond that, I continue to serve daily in her life as a constant producer of stress, worry, and unusual, often unpleasant, smells.  So hey, at least you know I'm being honest.

I suppose I should explain, should that link expire, that my wife has been interested in raised bed gardening.  It started back more than a few years ago when we had our house.  That is, the House That Was Temporarily Ours.  The back yard was primarily a bowl of sorts - behind the house was a very busy local street, and we were next to the entrance of a fairly large housing development.  So the street started behind the house at the highest level, then sloped down, away.  The front edge of our front yard was below the back edge by a good five feet or so - which made the yard a bit of a challenge to mow.  

In the back yard, however, off to the south side, next to the six foot tall fence, there was a spot about ten feet or so wide, roughly square, that had been built up with landscape timbers and used as a garden.  When we got the house, the garden space had been woefully ignored.  A good friend brought over his tiller and tilled up that spot for us to put a garden in.  And while she could stand on the ground and manipulate the plants at nearly her waist height from one edge, the back of the garden - up against the fence, thus mostly a shadowed area, living up here in Da Nort Country, didn't produce well.

And we learned that if one tills a fairly long-ignored garden, one is extremely successful in propagating the weeds that had taken the place over whilst it was ignored.  And so the garden adventures did poorly.  We had done somewhat well with "Deck Boxes" I had built for her when we lived, for ten years, in our apartment preceding the house.  Lots of pots, made to look like they were in "boxes" I'd built out of scrap lumber and cedar fence boards - the fence boards functioned as faces for the exterior so folks outside would think they were proper plant window boxes.  They were set on top of the balcony railing that was a 2x6, which gave a good flat surface for plant pots.  If one is using pots for plants, one worries little about weeds, as one has total control over the environment.

Which is not the case when digging in the ground.  And we had considered building more raised beds.  Then the house went the way of the dodo despite my entire 401K and substantial help from friends whom we still owe in many ways.  

But when we moved into our current rental home, I chose to develop my own version of raised-bed gardening.  That is, on a fairly tight budget, I purchased - back when lumber was what I would now consider to be extremely reasonable prices, a full sheet of 3/4" exterior-treated plywood, several exterior grade 2x6 and 2x4 pieces of lumber, and I built two nearly-sixteen-square-foot tables.  That is, I started with the rims of the table being 2x6 lumber - and they were made of 2x6s that had been cut into 47 7/8" lengths - that is, I cut them exactly in half.  Then I built them into a square by extending one end over the next.  Each 2x6 length had one end grain into which screws were driven from the piece next to it, and one end grain exposed, as screws were going through it into another end grain-piece.  

I design my woodworking projects to create as little waste as possible.  This also has the benefit - which I freely admit is the primary one for me - of being less expensive, more efficient, and more likely to be built.

Which is where the design of these raised beds drives me flat out nuts.  In looking at the plan, the first thing I noticed is that these raised garden beds are designed to be built with plywood panels which require a 73 1/4" long side, and a 23 3/4" end.  I will admit that this is a piddly thing, but if you are a novice woodworker, you're going to make the same mistake.  

I have a large number of saws that I use to cut wood.  I have two stationary tools, that is, they're table saws.  One is primarily designed for hobbyist working in miniatures, which is obvious as the tool sports the name "Dremel" on it - and the saw blade is 4" in diameter.  That means it isn't gonna handle 3/4" thick material well, especially not hardwood - unless it's small pieces I use it for when I'm making pens - that is, small pieces being also rather accurate.  My table saw uses an 8" diameter blade.  I also have several circular saws.  I have a pair of "jigsaws" which use a single metal blade that's about 3/8" inch wide, about 4" long, and bounces up and down to cut curvy sorts of cuts. 

I have two other power saws - a band saw and a radial arm saw - which are presently awaiting a bit of work to get them back into serviceable condition.  And I have a number of hand saws.  My current favorites in that area are based on the Japanese pull saw idea.  Most of us in this country think of a hand saw with a big wooden handle and a metal blade that is pushed through the wood to cut wood.  These "European" saws do their work by using teeth which are actually bent, slightly, out of line with the actual saw surface.  You can see this if you look down from the top of one of these blades, as you'll see little points sticking out either side of the blade.  Where the Japanese-style pull saws differ is in that they do not have this bend in them.  So for obvious reasons, they remove very little material from the cut, which tends to make them harder to use - the "kerf" is that space where the saw needs to fit, and European saws with those teeth bent slightly out, remove a little chip which makes the bottom of the cut a little bit wider than the blade.  

This "kerf" can vary in width on my saws from less than 1/16" of an inch to 3/16ths of an inch on my table saw.  And there are tools which you can use on things like my table saw to make that cut width even wider.  When you start looking for wider cuts, they are usually referred to as dados - that is, a slot cut into the wood where you want to slide something else - typically another piece of wood.  

But where am I going with all of this blathering?  Easy.  If you're following a plan such as I do when I make something, I make sure all of my dimensions are exactly as specified because you never know until too close to the end if that dimension is critical or a guide.  

And while in this case, it is a guide, the plans make the rather obvious mistake of ignoring the kerf.  So in other words, I go down to the local lumber yard and drop $77.48, which is the lowest price I can find pressure-treated 3/4" plywood full sheets for in my suburb with two big-box lumberyards with online listings you can eventually get to, I'm going to need two of those sheets.  

That's because when I go slice the 73 14" slice from the sheet, I'm going to be left with a piece - if I cut most carefully - that will be 22 5/8" wide left.  That is, it will be 1/8" short from what I need.  Now, in this plan, it will work, because you'll likely have enough "slop" left.  Assuming your plywood sheet is a full 96" long.  Some I've purchased are not.  And that is exceptionally frustrating when you're expecting to build something to specific sizes, and it doesn't quite work because your materials aren't what they say they are. 

Most lumberyards get past this by the clever trick "nominal".  That is, if you're somewhat inexperienced, and you go buy a 2x4 from a lumber yard, you might be surprised to find when you get home that piece of wood measures only 1 1/2" thick, 3 1/2" wide, and maybe only 92 5/8" long.  That's because, in the building industry, if you're building a wall, that wall has at the top and bottom, another 2x4 laying on it's side to connect the upper and lower pieces.  That makes your wall only 95 5/8" tall, but when you look at it, your ceiling probably drops a little bit down so you don't have a full 8' tall room, either.  Builders know these dimensions, and pretty much everything else is made to account for it - unless you're looking at sheet goods like plywood or drywall.  

But I digress.  The plans for the raised garden will work from one sheet of plywood so long as you know there's going to be some wiggle room.  If I were to make these, I would start with cutting the plywood sheet to "split the line".  Most of the time when I measure for cuts, I'll make an almost V to mark the spot where I'm going to cut.  But it looks tipped a little bit.  The as-close-to-perfectly-vertical line will be the exact length I need.  The angled line, off to one side, shows me the side I want my blade to be on when I make the cut so the actual piece I'm cutting out will be exactly as I cut it.  That is, like last weekend, when I managed to lay hands on some inexpensive plywood for an up-coming shelving project my wife has requested for our off-site storage locker, I placed a vertical line exactly six feet, and another exactly 73 5/8" from the edge.  The second mark is because I know, through measurement, that the edge of my best circular saw's "foot" - that is, the metal plate that makes full contact with the wood I'm cutting - is exactly 1 1/2" from the edge of the teeth in my circular saw, and that cut is 1/8" wide.  So I could clamp a straight board on that 73 5/8" line across the board and then cut exactly 72" long pieces from these sheets.  I was then left with a 23 7/8" wide by 4' long strip from each of the five sheets.  

I next split the 6' long sections in half, the long way, so I have a total of 12 pieces of 1/4" plywood that are 23 15/16" wide by 72" long.  Each sheet will form the surface of a shelf that will be framed up out of 2x3 lumber (which is actually 1 1/2" thick and 2 1/2" wide) that will be a full 72" long by 24" wide.  Three of those slabs will form a shelf - the first surface will be 28" off the floor - that is, it will allow a 24" tall box to slide under the bottom of the shelf, which with the 2x3 bracing will actually be mounted to 2x4 legs (being stronger than the 2x3s) with the bottom of the bracing being 25 1/4" above the floor.  The next shelf will be mounted 56" above the floor, with the bottom 25 1/4" above the surface of the shelf below, and the top shelf - yeah, you got it, will be 84" - or a full 7 feet - above the floor.  

But wait, I hear you say, aren't your 2x4s 8 feet long?  Well, the design of this particular shelving unit will permit me to use "stud" 2x4s, which are not sent to a farm to breed when they get older, they're just those 92 58" long boards.  Which I will cut to a full 84" so I can slide boxes on/off without catching the portion that extends up.  And with the remaining 8 1/2" from the 20 2x4s that will form the legs for my 5 shelves, I may end up using them as braces for the shelves or for other projects.  I can always use chunks of wood.  Most likely, at least some of them will be pressed into use as parts of jigs I'm going to build to make the production of these 15 slabs, or 5 shelving units, as easy as possible. 

For example, I already know one "jig" I will be building will use a 3/4" piece of plywood from my garage (offcut from another job) and will have a pair of blocks on one end for a shelf end piece of 2x3.  That will be held in an exact 90-degree angle to a longer shelf edge - the 72" long piece - so that the 21" long end will fit to the side correctly.  And at exactly 21 3/4" down the way, another 21" cross brace will be held in a 90-degree angle so I can properly attach the first crossbrace.  

Huh?  Look at a capital F - that's what I'll build.  I need to build 24 of them.  And then connect each pair together.  One just like the F, one upside down and backwards.  When done, that gives me a 2x3 frame with braces that are centered every 2 feet.  Which is where more math comes in.

I'm building a shelving unit that is six feet long, seven feet tall, and two feet deep.  That is, each shelf is going to be 2 feet wide.  Now, back to math class.  Each shelf will have three shelves that are six feet long by two feet wide.  That is, each shelf will have 36 square feet of storage space.  But each sheet of plywood is only eight feet by four feet.  Or 32 square feet.  How in the hell am I going to get 36 square feet out of 32 square feet?  Simple.  I'm not.  That's right, I said "I'm not".  I bought the last five sheets this lumberyard had at $22.99 a sheet.  

Here's more lumber education for you.  Plywood is usually the more expensive sheet good when it comes to building things.  You will find multiple grades of plywood, and we'll go into those in a bit.  But there are other materials.  You'll hear terms like MDF, Hardboard, Waferboard, and particle board.  MDF is a product called Medium Density Fiberboard.  Obviously, you see where MDF came from.  And it's a useful product for things that do not need to handle structural weight, but require hard, finish-able surfaces.  That is, it can take paint well, and forms a good working surface for things like a desk.  

What?  Why not plywood?  Well, now you're making me jump into plywood grades first.  Most commonly, plywood is surfaced with a softwood.  That is, pine or birch logs are loaded onto a special machine which rolls them, and a very long blade shaves a 1/16" thick layer off the log as far down as they can go.  That's why, when you look at plywood, it has the grain patterns that look so strange.  They're not cut wood, they're shaved wood.  

Plywood is made up of - believe it or not - these "plys".  How do we get so much strength from 1/16" layers?  Well, back to wood grain.  All wood has grain - it's made from the wood growing.  So to make it even stronger, what they will do is take more logs and cut thicker layers from them and when it comes time to put them together, they'll lay the sheets down so that the grain runs in different directions - usually 90 degrees - so you have a layer that the grain runs vertically on top of a layer where the grain runs horizontally.  Typical 3/4" plywood is 5-7 layers, though some are as many as 12.  The layers are sprayed with glue and stuck in a very large press which heats the layers so they stay together.  Then they're trimmed down into the finished size.

But when we talk about grades of plywood, it has an awful lot to do with those outside layers.  Most of my projects use what's termed "ACX" plywood, which means there's an "A" surface - a good one.  And there's the other surface, which is the C layer - it's guaranteed to be flat, will probably have minimal "voids" - knots, holes, etc. - but it's good enough.  Most projects, you only see one side.

Higher grades of plywood are usually sanded, ready to apply a finish, then there's the stuff that's got the top layer made out of nicer trees - oak, cherry, walnut, etc.  All sorts of pretty woods can be put on top of all manner of less expensive woods to make pretty things.  As I'm making shelves, my intention was to use the least expensive materials I could find that would be structurally sufficient to hold things. 

Often this means I can go all the way down to waferboard.  This is a product made from large wood "chips" - not like the stuff you might walk on in the local park, but larger pieces.  They're also dropped into a mold, glue is added, and they're pressed into wood.  This stuff isn't as strong as plywood, but it is strong enough.  If your home was built after the 1970s, there's a good chance the floor under your feet, your roof, and maybe even your outside walls contain some of this waferboard. It does what it needs to do.  And it's usually the least expensive sheet good in the lumberyard.

However, when I was in the lumberyard last weekend, right across from the 1/4" "Handipanel" sheets this particular lumberyard was selling for $22.99 a sheet, I could get 1/4" waferboard sheets for $37.99.   That's right, folks, same thickness, same size, just $15 more for the privilege of less structural strength.  My best guess is because those $22.99 sheets came in on a previous load that was much less expensive, and they did not see the point of raising the price on that sheet.  So I got mostly lucky.  Had I been quicker on the draw, I could have gotten enough lumber to do the whole project like that.  But they only had 5 sheets.  And if you're following along with the math, I needed 180 square feet of plywood.  And I was only able to get 160.  So what's next?

Well, I went to the other side of the aisle, decided that was a non-starter, and went back a little bit to where the $27.99 half-sheets - that is, a 4x4 sheet - of waferboard set.  I grabbed one of those.  And then, just 4 feet short, I picked up one 2x2 piece of 1/4" handy panel which was $8.99.  Which was where this place really makes their money because they could take a 4x8 sheet of 1/4" plywood, and cut it into 8 2x2 sections.  Doing the math, that would be $71.92 for a $22.99 piece of plywood.  

Go figure.  

But anyway, I'm careful with my measurements, and I'm careful with my plans.  I will guarantee you if I ever built something like this, it would be sized to make the best use of the materials.  And please my wife.