Carpentry and Woodworking - Beginning Woodworking/Tools Question...

I am almost done with my basement finishing project and would like to take a stab at building some simple furniture for the newly finished space. Particularly I am interested in building:
a tv stand, a coffee table, a night stand, and possibly a book shelf.

The basement project as resulted in the purchase of a good number of power tools: miter saw, table saw, plunge router, finishing nailer, palm sanders, etc.

So first off do I need a planer, or I get by without one if I buy good wood. Does this mean furniture grade wood or can I buy decent wood, from lets say, home depot?

If you pick and choose your lumber closely, you won't need a planer.
Although it is very handy for ensuring all the lumber is the same thickness. I have also used left over prefinished 3/4" flooring pieces to make things that require smooth finishes for the top. You have the basics, so you should be good to go. A good drill press, router table, and brad nailer would help. The finish nailer probably uses 15 gauge nails, and you will want 18 gauge for the furniture. Titebond III makes rock solid joints. 50 or so pipe clamps are an absolute for any shop. You could get by with 6 or 8.

Be very careful with lumber from big box stores.It is rarely of very good quality.The quality can vary from location to location as the companies sometimes source it locally or fairly close to a warehouse,distribution center or number of store locations.These businesses are based on meeting pricing points not quality levels.If you have lumber sources that specialize in lumber or feature specialty and/or high graded lumber you'll find better product there but obviously pay more for it.

I've never had trouble with lumber from the big boxes, at least not with oak which is my medium of choice, BUT you'll pay a premium price for it. I bought my surface planer several years ago and now order rough lumber on line cheaper.

First off I am glad to see the the forums are working again. Apparently there were issues yesterday.

Thanks to all for the replies...

Regarding the sub par lumber, is it OK to buy it and then use a planer and joiner to get it straight and flat? I am assuming that the benefit from having both of these tools is that you can buy cheaper wood from the big box stores and work it straight/flat on your own.

I don't know that you find much rough sawn hardwood at your typical big box. I use my planer mostly with sawmill lumber. It's a lot cheaper than a lumber yard but it doesn't come kiln dried, so it's best to store it in a dryh location for 6 months or more.

I would think that you could do fine without a planer using the big box hardwood [other than price] Sanding should take care of any joint thickness issues.

I don't know that you find much rough sawn hardwood at your typical big box. I use my planer mostly with sawmill lumber. It's a lot cheaper than a lumber yard but it doesn't come kiln dried, so it's best to store it in a dryh location for 6 months or more.

I would think that you could do fine without a planer using the big box hardwood [other than price] Sanding should take care of any joint thickness issues.

I think that I have things all wrong...

So it sounds like issue with the wood that I can get from the big box is not something that planing can fix. You plane rough cut lumber, and the big box wood is not considered rough, just sub-par?

The furniture that I want to build (tv stand, coffee table) are all going to have that primitive look anyway, and I plan to use a black gel stain, so I am wondering if I am ok with big box lumber as is?

Now can I use pine? or should I stick to oak or another hardwood?

I don't think the lumber from the big boxes is "sub-par". Not sure where that is coming from. They all use the same suppliers, while granted, you will run into a bunch of crap wood occasionally. It is not necessarily tagged to the big box quality, but to the supplier.
Pine won't take stain very uniformly. Oak and poplar are good options, but quite a bit more expensive. If you are going for "rustic", then a light stain on pine and either real or fake "pegs" would look good. Marksr will be a better adviser on the finish.
Now that we know you want a "rustic" look, it won't matter about the way in which the wood meets. And planing would be counterproductive.

I don't think the lumber from the big boxes is "sub-par". Not sure where that is coming from. They all use the same suppliers, while granted, you will run into a bunch of crap wood occasionally. It is not necessarily tagged to the big box quality, but to the supplier.
Pine won't take stain very uniformly. Oak and poplar are good options, but quite a bit more expensive. If you are going for "rustic", then a light stain on pine and either real or fake "pegs" would look good. Marksr will be a better adviser on the finish.
Now that we know you want a "rustic" look, it won't matter about the way in which the wood meets. And planing would be counterproductive.

Sub-par is just what I have heard from many that I have had this conversation with...

What are real or fake pegs?

I was told that conditioning the pine would help it stain more uniformly. Is this the case?

I don't necessarily want to have the rustic look on everything that I build, but for the coffee table, the night stand, and the tv stand this will be fine.

The lumber at a big box has already been planed and dried. There should be very little if any difference in thickness of any 1x

Pegs can be used instead of nails - drill a hole and insert a dowel. Some will countersink a screw and then insert a short piece of dowel to hide the screw head. Pegs/dowels were used to hold 2 pieces of wood together before nails/screws became common place.

Wood conditioner slightly seals the wood so there will be less variance in the finished color but it also prevents the wood from accepting as much stain = a little lighter in color.

RE: clamps

As mentioned previously, clamps are essential for securing woodwork after gluing.

I have about a dozen each of 2', 3' and 4' 1/2" pipe clamps.

If I need anything longer I use 1/2" pipe couplings (not unions) to join two (or more) clamps to get the length I need...

Having taken up woodworking in the last few years to maintain my sanity I find I have actually learned a few things: 1) You can talk about it all day long, but until your in the shop making the chips fly you won't learn much; 2) No matter how much you plan, you will make mistakes at first so start with cheap wood (pine, poplar, etc.); 3) Start with simple not too large projects, square corners, no moving parts (coffee table, end table, bookcases, etc.; 4) take a night course at a local tech school if for no other reason to learn that a kickback is not what you get for sending some business to a friend; 5) you haven't really lived until you've trapped a piece of wood between the table and your horizontal router bit (yes, a 14 inch piece of wood can accelerate to 120 mph in a 3 foot space); 6) Big box stores have fairly nicely surfaced and jointed boards but the species of wood is usually limited to red oak, poplar, pine and maple (at least here in the northeast); 7) Joinery (getting two pieces of wood to come together properly is much trickier than it looks, and much trickier than your spouse, brother-in-law, etc. can ever appreciate; 8) having done dovetail, biscuit, dowel, m&t, spline and a host of others, I think learning how to use a Kreg jig is the answer to many frustrating moments in the shop; 9) dust sucks; 10 people who do woodworking for a living and actually make a profit at it are at least demi-gods, and finally 11, if you have the patience for it, woodworking can give you some very satisfying moments.

Great post Billn...pretty much says it all about woodworking.

Having taken up woodworking in the last few years to maintain my sanity I find I have actually learned a few things: 1) You can talk about it all day long, but until your in the shop making the chips fly you won't learn much; 2) No matter how much you plan, you will make mistakes at first so start with cheap wood (pine, poplar, etc.); 3) Start with simple not too large projects, square corners, no moving parts (coffee table, end table, bookcases, etc.; 4) take a night course at a local tech school if for no other reason to learn that a kickback is not what you get for sending some business to a friend; 5) you haven't really lived until you've trapped a piece of wood between the table and your horizontal router bit (yes, a 14 inch piece of wood can accelerate to 120 mph in a 3 foot space); 6) Big box stores have fairly nicely surfaced and jointed boards but the species of wood is usually limited to red oak, poplar, pine and maple (at least here in the northeast); 7) Joinery (getting two pieces of wood to come together properly is much trickier than it looks, and much trickier than your spouse, brother-in-law, etc. can ever appreciate; 8) having done dovetail, biscuit, dowel, m&t, spline and a host of others, I think learning how to use a Kreg jig is the answer to many frustrating moments in the shop; 9) dust sucks; 10 people who do woodworking for a living and actually make a profit at it are at least demi-gods, and finally 11, if you have the patience for it, woodworking can give you some very satisfying moments.

GREAT REPLY!! Can I say AMEN to that!!!

That last post was great and reminded me of an incident that happened many moons ago. I needed a router that could turn a large raise panel bit so I went to the big box store near my house and asked one of the employees working in the tool dept for it. anyway I purchased what he recommended. When I got home I took it right out of the box put in the large bit and started to make my first raised panel door until I figure the router hit around 15, 000 rpm then bolts and nuts started falling off the router. when the router hit full speed I thought the world was coming to an end. You talk about a wake up call. If I would have research some I would have learned what to buy.

When you buy new tools make sure you know how to use them, know the tool limits, read the manual, ask people that actual use the tools your buying (most sales people at big box stores don't have a clue). and have fun :)

for what youre planning on building, a pocket screw jig is an essential tool to have. theres so many ways to utilize pocket screws. check out KREG.com, at least google kreg, i dont know if thats their webaddress. and ya, dont particularly like box store lumber. as far as clamps go, jet bar clamps are my favorite. pipe clamps are good for alot but they aren't truly square. if your gona make solid tops, a jointer will ensure tight joints that are held togeter with a) pocket screw from bottom, or b)biscuits (biscuit cutters are helpful too. i could go on and on but my girlfriends givin me the evil eye...