I would recommend everyone buy used furniture. We (my partner and I) furnished our apartment for next to nothing with solid wood furniture. Our queen sized pineapple bed made in the 60s from solid wood cost us $35 and is easily the most solid/best bed we've ever owned.
Why new furniture doesn’t last long
181–190 of 194 posts
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not unless you've got the space, I have a shed I put stuff in and let anything on it starve to death. You have to plan on for it
Bed bugs can go for ages without feeding; the only real way to kill them en masse is extreme heat—e.g. the dryer. There are services that come and seal your house up and then essentially pump 125F heat into it, to kill the bedbugs (bugs @ 120F, eggs @ 125F). If suppose if your shed gets to ~125F in the summer, should be good. Point being: heat > time-since-last-meal for bedbugs. (unfortunately I am speaking from expe…
Thank you for saying it. Bed bugs can go literally three years without eating. Using the mixed-toxin (different bedbug poison for each treatment, minimum 2 treatments) approach usually works, but the only way to definitely kill existing bugs and eggs is to get every part of an object to over 125f. AFAIK, 125f is the instant-death point. That is, any bug or egg the hits 125f at all is dead. Otoh, 113f requires 90 minutes of exposure before the bugs are killed, and the eggs require 118f for 90 minutes.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Anyone in the US (without a physical disability) can DIY a shelving unit for vinyl records better than IKEA for well less than $1000 USD. Takes a little time, portable power tools and box level, a few fasteners from online/DIY stores and access to premium lumber. Easy and cheap access to quality lumber in North America is one of our strong points, might as well take advantage of it. Helps if the lumber supplier does…
The know-how to do this is somewhat of a lost art with the newer generation of adults.
It really isn't. As long as you can watch YouTube and maintain the confidence to ruin some material while you're learning, it isn't difficult to pick up.
And once I tell that to whichever zoomers or younger person I'm talking to (this talk usually happens while we're at whichever Home Depot-analogous store is physically closest to their home, while I'm getting them set up with a Starter Toolbox), they usually take to it just fine.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do both. I have gear thing anyway, but thankfully I’m about done with the hand tool acquisition. I bought a subset of the Lie-Nielsen catalog that I use (after trying out some other brands and not being impressed) and now I don’t really have any hand tools to buy. I’d love to have an antique jointer, a nice wide planer, a nice sawstop cabinet saw, and an antique bandsaw… but I’ve got the cheaper or modern analogs.…
Lie-Nielsen and Veritas are the two brands of hand tools that will ruin you for others. Lie-Nielsen being the absolute best in recreation / refinement in traditional design, and Veritas answering the question of “what if we rethought the design and made it really well?” Sawstop saw is a good call. IMO kickback is scarier than amputation, but most saws have decent mitigations against kickback and nobody but Sawstop is…
I actually like the Lie-Nielsen planes much more than the Veritas planes, I can’t stand the Norris adjuster. I want to be able to change the aggressiveness of the shaving without knocking the blade out of alignment and about half the time I knocked it. Not a problem with the LN planes. I also like the LN steel more, I bought a bunch of the PN-V11, and with the exception of keeping the low angle jack as a special plane for curly grain (I have a 50 deg blade in it, it’s almost a scraper) I have been selling the others after getting the 4,5,7 LN ones. I would like a Veritas large rabbet plane for fielding panels, LN doesn’t make one.
I have the Veritas plow plane and it’s great, my favorite plane they make.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#185All I can say is that I'm grateful for family who have given us antiques. When I've had to buy furniture, it's a sofa from Ikea (my husband is very hard on furniture and our two dogs are not much better), a solid wood headboard from a thrift shop, a something with veneer to be made into bathroom vanity, and a lovely antique sideboard for a kitchen island.
That said, I totally feel the pain of the gap in the market. Not sure how people manage.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lie-Nielsen and Veritas are the two brands of hand tools that will ruin you for others. Lie-Nielsen being the absolute best in recreation / refinement in traditional design, and Veritas answering the question of “what if we rethought the design and made it really well?” Sawstop saw is a good call. IMO kickback is scarier than amputation, but most saws have decent mitigations against kickback and nobody but Sawstop is…
I actually like the Lie-Nielsen planes much more than the Veritas planes, I can’t stand the Norris adjuster. I want to be able to change the aggressiveness of the shaving without knocking the blade out of alignment and about half the time I knocked it. Not a problem with the LN planes. I also like the LN steel more, I bought a bunch of the PN-V11, and with the exception of keeping the low angle jack as a special plan…
I prefer the Veritas a little myself, but the few times I’ve had hands on LN… well, they’ll get no disrespect from me. Both fantastic premium options IMO.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#187My biggest issue is that, like so many markets, there is a "missing middle" created by this downward price pressure. For the most part if you want a piece of furniture (ie a nightstand), there are two categories. Either you buy the Amazon/Wayfair version made of pressboard for $100-$200, or you can find a solid wood heirloom version for $2,000+. The domestic plywood or cheaper solid wood options are no longer mass pr…
There are furniture stores that cater to that missing middle. Places that sell solid oak furniture. Places that sell quality Amish furniture. Sure, it's not IKEA cheap, but it's also not heirloom expensive.
You just have to know where to look. And what to look for.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
The know-how to do this is somewhat of a lost art with the newer generation of adults.
It really isn't. As long as you can watch YouTube and maintain the confidence to ruin some material while you're learning, it isn't difficult to pick up. And once I tell that to whichever zoomers or younger person I'm talking to (this talk usually happens while we're at whichever Home Depot-analogous store is physically closest to their home, while I'm getting them set up with a Starter Toolbox), they usually take to…
Probably just a bias. The generation I speak of would not be found anywhere near a Home Depot or hardware store.
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder why you consider it a problem. Mdf and variations are much more stable, don't warp due to humidity. For non-premium furniture it's a perfect choice.
MDF bubbles when it gets damp, and completely crumbles away when it gets wet. The price difference between plywood and MDF is not significant; $45 -> $60 in my market, and OSB is even cheaper at $30 (all prices, 4'x8', 1/2" sheets) Why MDF is used, I'll never understand.
So that, as I said in my neighbouring comment, "you could pay twice". Why make a piece of furniture that in the end will cost you, the manufacturer, the same but will decrease your sales by about three times because the end product would last three times as long? To recoup the losses, you'd have to charge to the point that you move into the high-end part of the market but at that point you could just as well use solid wood (in fact, you're expected to by the customers).
Re: Why new furniture doesn’t last long
#190My biggest issue is that, like so many markets, there is a "missing middle" created by this downward price pressure. For the most part if you want a piece of furniture (ie a nightstand), there are two categories. Either you buy the Amazon/Wayfair version made of pressboard for $100-$200, or you can find a solid wood heirloom version for $2,000+. The domestic plywood or cheaper solid wood options are no longer mass pr…
I would expect to pay $40 at most for a nightstand, and a quick look at Amazon confirms my guess. I would also expect it to last decades, and if it failed, to fail in one of a few very predictable ways(Mostly fasteners stripping out of sawdustboard) which can be both repaired, and avoided at the design stage for not much extra money.
I've never really experienced this "bad furniture" phenomena. Maybe because I have more thrift store than new cheap furniture, but I also wonder if style doesn't have to do with it.
I mostly go for the fake rustic look, but I suspect more minimalist or Bauhaus stuff has more issues, since those styles are almost specifically meant to say "Look at the great material we use, this thing would totally fall apart if we took shortcuts".
I also tend to go for the really cheap stuff, which I suspect might be more reliable than what is sold as mid range now. I have some drawers in the front room that are literally nonwoven fabric drawers, in a metal frame. I'm not sure what the failure mode would be other than directly taking a hard hit, it doesn't really have any of the weak points I'm used to seeing.