help on a shadow box table for my FFA shop project!!!!?

Question

i need to know what kind of wood would be best for me to work with or use. i am building a 32 1/2 x15 x19 shadow box table..i don't know if maple or ceder or some other wood is best please help.

Answer 1

The doc has a point however there is a difference in wood. Soft wood as it is called is not recomended because ( I assume that you want this to look good) soft wood has lots of blemishes and will take more time sanding and wood filling.

My opinion is use a hard wood. I personaly like poplar because it is smoother and will take stain or paint verry well. The big reason is that the peices you buy will be square and straight (square and straight will make your project look alot better and more profesinal)

Any #1 grade hardwood will do thay are all mostly straight and square.

Answer 2

First of all no offense to you or any other answers "BEST" is a relative word.
This is an FFA project; and perhaps not meant to ever be an heirloom piece that will remain in the family until your grand children have grand children.

Obviously Hardwoods might be nice; but why bother. Cedar/ Redwood/ any Conifer wood is relatively inexpensive; easy to work, can be finished in VERY nice ways; and do the same job.

If you have a design in mind; use the design with any species you choose. I have to say this also. If the table happens to be THE SHOWCASE, and not what you're presenting IN IT,,, then someone is missing the point.

You can create a table (as the project intent) that will look as sweet in a softwood; as any hardwood will give you. Just my old time two cents.

Steven Wolf

Answer 3

This might void out it being a shadow box, but I have a coffee table that has a glass top, and I didn't like it, so I painted the underside of it a cool design, and the top looks really good. I think you could make this coffee table something more sentimental with my idea. If you and your boyfriend both like to paint or draw, I think you should spend the day taking pictures of something you would like to paint, a cool tree, maybe a building that has sentimental value, whatever. Take lots of pictures, then decide on one that you will both use (no fighting, this is supposed to be fun!). If the glass can be removed, then remove it, and on each side of the underneath of the glass, each of you paint whatever the picture is of, but you have to each paint the same picture. You can paint a black stripe down the middle if it is one piece of glass. Let your paint dry, then go over it with some primer, and when you turn the glass over, you will have this amazing piece of art on your table, one that reminds you both that even though you might see the same thing differently, there is beauty in both points of view. You could also put some string lights under the glass to make your art glow. If this is too cheesey and poetic for you (i tend to do that) then you could put books that you love in there, your boyfriend could frame some of his tattoo art and lay the frames in a haphazard way. Or you could lay some string lights on the bottom, cut some tinted plexiglass to put over it, then find a really cool piece of wrought iron wall art, place it over the plexiglass, and you have a cool accent there as well. If you do anything with lighting, I would cut a hole in the bottom of the table to run the chord through, and maybe cut a hole in your area rug underneath, so you can run the wire under the table & rug, then under the couch to a socket out of site of the little one. If you wanted to be really funky, you could make a diorama of your house and your family. Get miniture furniture that looks like your furniture pieces, get a ken and barbie and modify them to look like you and your husband (ken covered in tattoos).

Answer 4

I'd go with Maple or Oak.