I need to find a 5' by 5' piece of wood

[Stalker0]

So my group has embarked on the creation of a gaming table. However, Home Depot doesn't carry any 5' by 5' by 1/2" pieces of wood. The largest they have is 2.5 by 4 by 3/4". The combination of multiple pieces we would have to cut out and adjust was just a little too expensive. Is there a place I can go to pick up the wood I need that's not crazy expensive?

 

[sjmiller]

So my group has embarked on the creation of a gaming table. However, Home Depot doesn't carry any 5' by 5' by 1/2" pieces of wood. The largest they have is 2.5 by 5 by 3/4". The combination of multiple pieces we would have to cut out and adjust was just a little too expensive. Is there a place I can go to pick up the wood I need that's not crazy expensive?

Look up lumber yards in your local phone book. However, I can pretty much tell you that a 5 foot square by half inch thick piece of wood is pretty much impossible to find.

What I do when I need large sizes for tables, chests, and whatnot, is this. I buy a number of fairly wide pieces that are at least 1 foot longer than I need, and a bit thicker than I need. I put the pieces through a planer to smooth out the top, bottom, and the long sides, leaving the ends for later. Using a biscuit cutter I cut several slots along the length of each piece and join them using biscuits and wood glue. I use bar clamps to hold the pieces together and let them cure overnight. At that point you can use a template, or compass, or whatever means of measuring you like, and measure out the table surface. Cutting a piece that big is usually outside the scope of most people's workshops. With a proper jig you could cut it square on a table saw, but it will require a couple of people to do it properly.

Hope that helps.

 

[Celebrim]

5'x5' peices of wood are basically impossible to find because all the trees of that size which can be cut down generally have been cut down.

You possibly could get it imported from Indonesia or Brazil and contribute to the clearing of the rain forests, but it would probably be fairly expensive.

 

[joshuakanton]

Use plywood and then sand and paint the top.

 

[kenobi65]

Use plywood and then sand and paint the top.

Even that could be hard, since 4' x 8' is the standard size for a plywood sheet.

Even "real" furniture rarely has a single piece of wood anywhere close to that size. As noted above, you'd need a source tree that's at least 5' in two dimensions, and very few trees in commercially-logged areas in North America get that big anymore.

I have a large dining room table (about 4' by 10'), but the top of that table consists of four separate pieces of wood (2 "halves", plus 2 leaves).

 

[Maine-iac!]

bonding two or more pieces of wood together should'nt be an issue, no matter what size they are. if you don't have the tools to do so, you are back at square one spending a lot of money.

 

[Stalker0]

5'x5' peices of wood are basically impossible to find because all the trees of that size which can be cut down generally have been cut down.

You possibly could get it imported from Indonesia or Brazil and contribute to the clearing of the rain forests, but it would probably be fairly expensive.

Well, I'm at least comforted to know there's a logical reason why there are no 5' pieces of wood.

 

[Shadowslayer]

I have to ask if its important to have it be 5 feet wide. A 4x6 table, which is what I built, has been more than enough for us. Just bought a 4x8 piece of pressboard, got em to rip 2 feet of the end and added some metal folding legs and some sand and paint. Think I blew 30 bucks CDN in total...I already had the paint though.

Just depends how fancy you want to get. Mine's painted green and bears the autographs of anyone who ever played on it. (I encourage graffiti )

Ignore me if there's a reason for the 5 feet that I'm missing.

 

[Jarrod]

Like they said...

4' wide is easy to do with plywood or particle board. For a table top, I'd actually suggest plywood rather than "real" wood - it's a lot more stable. Avoid particle for anything that might get wet.

Stability... wood "moves". That is, it expands and contracts as the humidity changes. This happens mostly over the width, and slightly (and ignorably) over the length and thickness. But the width is a problem. Say you glued up a 5' wide panel (the bar clamp and biscuit idea above), then screwed a piece of wood perpendicular (say, for legs). The table top will contract when it gets dry, but the legs won't - and you'll get cracks. That doesn't happen with plywood.

If you want to do the 5' wide wood, the terms to look for are "edge joined". It's easy to do with proper tools (tablesaw to start with), and a pain in the neck to make look good if all you have is a circular saw. I'd be happy to offer advice, but if you haven't done woodworking it's probably not worth the pain.

Having said that... plywood. Take a couple of sheets of 4x8 ply (standard size) and laminate them. The "top" will be a 4x5 piece and a 1x5 piece - and then the same on the bottom, but with the joint opposite. Use a lot of glue and some cinderblocks and it should come out fine. If you start with 1/2" ply, you'll end up with a 1" thick surface.

 

[pawsplay]

What you want is two pieces of particle board. It's sturdy, cheap, and easy to work. It also takes a veneer well if you want to cover it.

Otherwise, you'll have to make some butcher block, which involves clamps, glue, and a surface sander.