OK, I need the BT network again. I redid the kitchen floor in Bamboo a couple of years ago. Looks fabulous and has worn like iron. Now the DW wants me to make her a new kitchen table and sideboard and she wants it made with…Bamboo. I read online how stable it is, how well it takes a finish, holds fasteners solidly, etc…I know this from my floor! But what I can find is someplace to get in dimensional sizes. I can find plenty of veneer flooring and plywood /or Plyboo, but nothing dimensional.
So, I guess two questions: 1.) Has anybody out there used Bamboo in this manner and could give me any first hand insights? and 2.) Where can I get Bamboo lumber?
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark.
The real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light.
-Plato
Replies
While I haven't seen anything on the market other than what you've mentioned, I did get a flyer quite some time ago advertising the "potential of bamboo lumber."
It was from Clemson University and had to do with testing that they're doing regarding laminated bamboo strip lumber. There was no listing of retailers for the product.
Again, nothing hardcore to offer you, and I realize I'm being no help whatsoever, but it's an idea that it'll be out there someday.
Not what you want to hear, but you could take strip flooring, or the sheetgoods, or even the thicker stair treads, and rip and glue to get the dimensional sizes you need.
I needed pyramid-shaped bamboo caps for newel posts. They were about 11" square and maybe 3 or 4 inches high. I fabricated them out of leftover strip flooring. Not nearly the same scale you're talking about...
all I could find was this http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/monsterhouse/houses/tropical/tropical.html and it talks about a monter house table that was done using bamboo.
not sure if that is a recomendation or not......
could you build a normal table and use bamboo flooring as a "thick veneer"?
I use bamboo for privacy fencing.
There is an unwanted grove that has grown into a small forest and the property owner is more then happy for me to harvest and keep the stands under control.
It's basically mine for the taking and managing and I feel very fortunate.
This idea of slicing/dicing/processing of bamboo into an engineered product may take something away from this ecologically beneficial grass that has been useful in so many ways with less engineering.
Having said that, I'm all for bamboo as an alternative to other material.
Not trying to start an argument...
I believe that the part of bamboo that is used is narrow and hollow, so there isn't really such a thing as dimensional lumber. For boards you need to use the plywood. And for legs, you could use the bamboo poles available at many sources, including BambooHardwoods.com, which also sells furniture made from bamboo.
Teragren (www.teragren.com) hass 4'x8' panels which are all-bamboo. The face "veneer" is .1" thick or so. Make believe that you're working with solid lumber, but the only material you can buy is 4/4. You do things like fabricating hollow posts with four pieces of lumber, mitering the long edges. Because the face veneer is so thick, you can do things you can't do with conventional hardwood-veneer plywood -- like rounding-over corners. With careful design, it shouldn't be obvious that you didn't have real lumber to start with.
JB, Thanks for the lead! Went snooping around the website and found that they have 1'x6'x5/8" flat grain boards or 1'x6'x3/4" verticle grain boards as well as the veneer plywood. I also found a distributor near me, SE MI, and gave them a call. I should have sample pieces by the middle of next week in the mail.
The VG stock looks a though you could machine it just like any other dimensional lumber. I the DW and I like the samples, I'll order up a few pieces to play with and report back the results.We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark.The real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of the light.-Plato
I lined the inside wall of a couple of sheds in plyboo, it comes on pallets from China, nice stuff. If you are not near Kent WA (where you can get it occasionally in the free wood lot of the local aerospace surplus store) I have no idea where to get it free. <G>
Because bamboo is a holow grass it has to be ripped into thin strips and glued together to amount to anything of real size. One type of flooring is made with the thin strips layed on edge and glued face to face like the core construction of many snowboards. This in efect is solid stock because you can sand the face without going thru a layer. Granted its not gona be 1x8 or a 3x3 stock without some additional glue up, but the end result will be as close as anybody can get to 'dimensional' stock. Good luck and show us some pics when your done.
I've layed 3 Bamboo floors in the past year. One job involved finished stair treads. The flooring, as you say, was glued up strips making a 5/8" X 3 1/2" T & G plank with end match. Eco-wood, I think it was. Nice stuff.
The treads were 7/8" X 11" with the nosing a full inch. Again, built up strips.
We threw some scraps in a bucket of water last Spring and, as of last week, no delam and only modest swelling.
My tile guy is a longbow maker, has crafted several bows with bamboo and swears by it. He selected some of our long trim pieces to try on a new bow.