Wood and other construction materials

hilary,

 >supply stations). I would like to know if anyone has any strong
 >feelings about good woods and bad woods, types of sealants, or
 >things to look out for

sorry I have nothing to suggest about shelving; I've been most  curious
about that myself.  I downloaded a good deal of material from CIN on
books and paper, but not, if I recall, on wood.  As soon as I can get
the material organized into a database, I will search through it to see
if there's anything relevant, but it will probably be quite a while, as
time is scarce of late.  [If anyone else wants a copy of this, when it's
done, let me know]. In any case, I will forward your query to the wood
list on envoy as soon as it gets going (which may be too late to help
you). You might start with CAN #31, which has a summary of a CAL(?)
workshop, that dealt with such things tangentially.

One thing to keep in mind: don't trust the carpenters.  My tables, which
cost a minor fortune had the following problems: 1) the carpenters
misread some dimensions on the plans and placed the built in light table
about a foot in from (instead of at) the edge 2) the surfaces were
inadequately braced, and so bow down about 1/2 inch at the center,
making it virtually impossible to use the tables for flattening 3) the
electricians *forgot* about the wiring that was supposed to be built
into the legs of the tables (so, when no one was looking, they
cannibalized one of my extension cords and jerry rigged some wiring that
is all but useless (to say nothing of hideous)) 4) on one cabinet they
reversed the height and width measurements, making it high and  narrow
instead of low and wide.  All in all, keep an eye on them at all times
(these were not, by the way, SU carpenters, who are *too expensive*.
right).

Best wishes, w.

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                   Conservation DistList Instance 1:1
                   Distributed: Tuesday, May 17, 1988
                        Message Id: cdl-1-1-009
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