With the other projects I will have at home I also have some woodworking projects I want to jump into. I've finally acquired most of the tools I need to get back to a hobby I've missed for awhile. Checking some things out I ended up looking at some furniture that was built with coconut wood; an interesting grain pattern that reminds me of mahogany. With past projects I normally go with a natural finish (poly or some other clear coat) but most of what I want to do will be painted. I've only dealt with coco lumber for scaffolding, shoring and such. I was wondering if any woodworkers out there have used it for cabinets and any experience using it for finish carpentry. It is sometimes difficult to source wood and coco lumber is readily available. Shawn
My friend used it to build some cabinets 10 years ago. I rented his house for 3 years and it included those cabinets he made with coco wood. The cabinets seemed fine but every day I had to vacuum up tiny little piles of very fine sawdust. I was told it was made by bugs in the wood. Try as I might I never saw the bugs, never managed to kill them and it surprised me that the cabinets lasted as long as they did with the little piles of sawdust coming off them every day. They were still holding up after at least 5 years. I hope you find a solution to them bugs.
I have noticed that critters do like the coco lumber. Anything we have made of wood in our house was given a heavy dose of Solignum. If I end up using coco lumber for the woodworking projects I'm hoping Solignum will be enough. Shawn
As alot have said keep away from coco lumber as its only termite and boc boc food. Better use germalina.
Actually decided on using mahogany for the upcoming projects, the wife likes the grain and I worked with it many years ago when I first got into woodworking. I did build a workbench using rough cut 2X2 coco lumber and plywood. Not easy to work with rough cut wood, especially as green as it is, but needed to put the work bench together for the miter saw and a few other things...my back will thank me. Gorilla glue and screws it is solid, not the prettiest thing I've built but it will work. I do plan on drying out some of the coco lumber for a small future project, I am curious to see how it looks once planed, sanded and finished. Shawn
