Wood Grain Help?

[Scooterman]

Hello all, I'm making a stand & have a question. OK, I'm making a 2X4 frame & the long 2X4's going across on the horizontal & each 2x4 has wood grain top to bottom with the close & finer grains on one side & going to the other side the grain opens up with less. Which do I put on the top with the weight pushing down against the grain, the close finer grains or the larger grains? Does that make sense?
Thanks for the help, I'll probably need more as I go so thanks again.
Your friendly neighborhood mod. Scooty!

 

[mmkeeper]

You want to look for the bow in the 2x4. then you want the high side up so it will straighten under the weight.

 

[Krish]

LOL Scooter! I have no idea what you mean about the grains being different. What kind of wood is it? I usually use furr and it seems to be the same all around. Hopefully the RF carpenter Ron will stop in soon. Good luck sorting it all out

 

[Detri]

You want to look for the bow in the 2x4. then you want the high side up so it will straighten under the weight.

The grain of the wood doesn't really matter until you get into laminating wood. You want the grain in opposite directions. This is more for warping. Other than that. Try to use the bow to your advantage. High side up.

 

[Scooterman]

Way cool thanks for the help, tonight I finished the basic frame, I still have more to add but that will come soon. Eventually I'll make a new thread with progress & pics, then I'll let the critics help me out

Guess I need to add the black eye I got today while picking out lumber, oh man!

 

[bpiermat]

I would put the finer grains on the bottom... Wood is weak in tension.. so for a piece of wood in bending stick the best part (finer grain) of the wood on the bottom.


Ben

 

[dnjan]

Clear, straight-grained wood is actually stronger in tension than compression. It's just that tension failures are catastrophic, while compression failures generally just result in increased deflection (which could also be catastrophic if the increased deflection ends up over-stressing a tank seam).

If you are using 2x4's that are relatively clear, follow the earlier advice concerning lining them up so that they are "bowed up".

Strength shouldn't be an issue. We broke some clear 2x4's in the lab last week. 28" span, loaded in the middle. One of them took over 6,000 lbs before it broke.