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Even if you chances are pick through it find the best ; I try to avoid You can usu-siightly bowed but correcting ?ao much effort. - st likely have a (boose from, leave at the store. I ve sorted out the I start to look at shop projects, concern, but if I'm umber for cabinet any other applicator a visual appeal, I

- rmd the straight or : pain I'll need.

on the project, you up with a strategy

- stock and getting a kek. The box below •iea of how to do this.

-; being nicer looking, for more stable, panels as well. Pointing, and Planing. -~tt is getting the boards --uared-up, and planed Overall, the process >nrular to working with hardwood stock. Ju» to begin by inspecting srd .again) for warping, ^rvd checking. At this

point, you can lay them on the bench and start roughing out the parts you need in chalk directly on the boards, as in the lower left photo on the opposite page.

This is a good time to identify the knots or other defects you'll have to work around. 1 reserve the best boards for the longer pieces of my project. This way, you can compensate for bowed or warped boards by cutting them into shorter pieces and eliminating any problems.

Once the parts are cut to rough size, you can move on to the jointer to square up one edge and one face. The difference here is that you'll also need to get rid of the rounded edges typical on dimensional lumber. Then, you can plane the opposite face and trim the opposite edge at the table saw. As you can sec in the photo at right, you'll lose a little more thickness and width in this process than you would with hardw(K)d lumber, so make sure to take that into account in your plan.

Joinery. Now that you have your boards flat and square, it's time to cut out the parts for your project and work on the joinery. The thing to remember here is that you don't want to get too fancy with "two-by" stock. Softwood won't hold an edge the way oak or maple will. But that doesn't mean you can't make a mortise and tenon joint or rout a simple edge profile.

eate Your Own:

«r the best ways to make "two-by" stock more e is to make a series of cuts at the table saw the straighter grain, as in the photo at right. 2r -tart by marking the boards in a way that will re straight-grained face. Then, it's just a matter :pr»g the stock on the table saw, rotating it to the best edge, and gluing it back together with -raieht grain surfaces facing up. > -a great way to make table tops that are both sfeble and better-looking. And using this method you to determine the thickness of the top just jdrusting the width of the cuts. So you can even «-r 5 top thick enough for a workbench.

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Sanding. You're probably already familiar with the tendency of "two-by " 1 umber to splinter at the cu 11 i ne. So after 1 cut out the parts, 1 plan on doing a fair amount of sanding. But sanding softwood goes pretty fast. You can move through the grits and get a smooth surface quickly using either a random-orbit sander or a sanding block.

The 'Two-by" Solution. By now you can see that dimensional lumber can be used as a great, low-cost material for your shop projects. It's durable, easy to work with, and if you're willing to take a little extra time and use your creative talents, it can be as attractive as hardwood. And since it's available just about anywhere, there's no good reason to put off building any of those shop projects any longer. A

raight-Grain Panels

Quartersawn Look. By cutting

the boards below to reveal straight-grained edges, you can reassemble them into attractive