# "Boise Gold" lumber from lowes. Anyone have success with it?



## RussJohnson (May 30, 2013)

I'm working on a larger project so I wanted to get some less expensive wood. At my local Lowes I found some "whitewood" at an attractive price point and got three 6 foot boards.

When I got home and tried ripping them on the table saw the immediately began to warp and bind. After I was about 2 feet into the rip the board had twisted in on my kerf so much the two sides had reconnected. It was as though it was trying to repair itself.

I tried setting up feather boards, a half fence, even tried removing the reading knife and anti kickback pawls, but none of that helped. I was worried my saw(bosch 4100) was out of alignment, but I checked the blade and fence against the miter slots with my micrometer and they were fine. I then dipped into my old scraps bin and ran a long piece of pine through and it worked just fine.

I checked the sticker and this type of wood is called "Boise Gold #2". Anyone use this stuff and get similar results?

I'm aware that big box store's whitewood is just random softwoods from various lumberyards. Anyone have any whitewoods that they like?


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## CharlesA (Jun 24, 2013)

No expert on that wood, but I know with SYP, letting it sit awhile in your shop can lessen the twisting. I made a workbench out of it.


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## JustJoe (Oct 26, 2012)

Where in Lowes did you find this? Was it on the side of the aisle with the extra good stuff (by Lowe's standards), just down the way from the oak and poplar? Or was it on the other side with the normal piles of lumber? I ask because "Boise Gold" sounds like it's just a distro yard, and #2 is a grade of lumber - and not a good grade of lumber either.


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## racerglen (Oct 15, 2010)

Boise Gold sounds like something you'd smoke ;-)


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## Bluepine38 (Dec 14, 2009)

I always seem to need a 2X4 or two for a project, so I keep a few of these stored in the back shed under
a couple of weights. They dry out nicely in a couple of months and are not bad then. But otherwise they
seem to resemble the old remark about cottonwood timbers cut back when, if you make a stairway of the 
wood and do not nail it securely, you have an escalator.


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## RussJohnson (May 30, 2013)

JustJoe, it was by all the oak and poplar boards. They were 3/4 thick, 9 inch wide, cheap boards. I wasn't expecting much, but lumber that grabs a table saw blade like that seems almost unsafe and not worth buying again.

I used it the next day after I bought it home. Maybe that had something to do with it.


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