Buying lumber (ie. wood for dummies)

[dbfletcher]

Ok, now that I finally have two machines that work reasonable well (mostly thanks to the rock), I ma ready to start doing some more interesting projects on other hardwoods. So far I have just carved mostly pine with the ocasional oak board from lowes thrown in.

I am a novice so my questions would be....

Where can i buy wood besides the bigbox stores? Should i just do a google search for sawmills? What do I want to ask for? I really want to get some maple, red oak, ceder, walnut. I'm thinking I can get away with rought cut lumber as typicaly i'm taking the surface of the board off anyways during the carving process. I'm in western PA near amish country (10 miles) so I have had others tell me to go find out where the amish cabinetmakers get there wood... but I dont want to offend anyone and I'm not real sure how the amish view us "outsiders".

Will most sawmills sell to the general public? In my mind I think I would be looking for boards in teh 6-12" width range, 1" thick and 8ft or shorter in length. Can I buy in small quantities (2-5 boards at a time or would have have to buy truckloads?

Any guideance would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to dumb things down as much as possible. I'm still not clear on most wood related terminology.

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

[PCW]

Doug,

I live close to a Amish community and I purchased some lumber not that long ago from them. They are good honest people to deal with.

I purchase 700 bf of rough sawed mostly clear ash lumber 10" to 12" mostly 10' in length a couple of months ago for $1.00 foot. It was air dried for 4 years. This lumber was rejected by the veneer buyers but you have ask yourself why. It was hard to find any flaws in the lumber.

[AskBud]

Ok, now that I finally have two machines that work reasonable well (mostly thanks to the rock), I ma ready to start doing some more interesting projects on other hardwoods. So far I have just carved mostly pine with the ocasional oak board from lowes thrown in.

I am a novice so my questions would be....

Where can i buy wood besides the bigbox stores? Should i just do a google search for sawmills? What do I want to ask for? I really want to get some maple, red oak, ceder, walnut. I'm thinking I can get away with rought cut lumber as typicaly i'm taking the surface of the board off anyways during the carving process. I'm in western PA near amish country (10 miles) so I have had others tell me to go find out where the amish cabinetmakers get there wood... but I dont want to offend anyone and I'm not real sure how the amish view us "outsiders".

Will most sawmills sell to the general public? In my mind I think I would be looking for boards in teh 6-12" width range, 1" thick and 8ft or shorter in length. Can I buy in small quantities (2-5 boards at a time or would have have to buy truckloads?

Any guideance would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to dumb things down as much as possible. I'm still not clear on most wood related terminology.

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

Doug,
I buy almost all my lumber (Rough cut) from a Amish Lumber Yard. They are nice to work with. Mine will cut and plane it if you wish, or need it. They also have lots of cut-offs most of the time.
Eli Hochstetler is my Amish Lumber Man. He may be able to direct you to the right people in your area. Go to my signature, below, and click on my HOME PAGE link then go to the Amish section and click. You will see the link for Hochstetler Lumber. You will find his page informative and his phone number is there, if you want to talk with him.


PS: I have a Planer and good Table & Radial Saw to get it ready for the CW/CC. Do not use Rough Cut stock in the CW/CC unless you have a sled.
AskBud

[liquidguitars]

Find out the price of wood by the "board foot " by calling lumber stores locally, ask for 60' to 100' volume, for contractors price " 20% to 30% off based on your return sales". keep your paper work for the next time to check per foot price as prices tend to float based on the mood of the salesman . Do not get wood from a Cabinetmaker in general unless you do work with him or need a odd type of wood.

S4S or S2S " not flat sawn" unless you have a good planer/jointer. 4/4 for a finished size of 13/16" or 8/4 for a finished 1.75" straight lined on one side.
dry to .06 to .10%

Hope this helps a little.

LG

[Hexe SA]

Some of my exotic lumber I buy on ebay. If you have a McCoy Lumber yard in your area the have nice Maple, Ash etc. Just bought a hard maple board 8 foot by 10 " wide and 1" thick rough for $3.99 a bf, came out to 6.5 bf. But if you live near Amish country, by all means go there first
Eva

[supershingler]

i aslo check the "materials" section of craigslist. i bought 185 bf of walnut for 1.50 a bd ft that had some waterstaining and dusty. a couple of trips through the planer and i have a pile of beautiful walnut. small town lumberyard usually stock some hardwood also.

good luck


kendall

[wasacop75]

I have checked with the local hardwood suppliers and get their cutoffs.
its usually very cheap (less $1.00) ft. and usually 2 to 3 ft long.

[dbfletcher]

Hmmm... I guess I need it dummied down a little bit more. When you are saying check with the local hardwood suppliers... I dont actually know what that means. I have a Lowes in my area and an 84 lumber. I did a google search for hardwood, indiana pa.... and i can't say that anything really looked all the 'local" (hour plus away). In the phone book there area bunch of "hardwood flooring" places, but nothing really for lumber.

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

[fwharris]

Hmmm... I guess I need it dummied down a little bit more. When you are saying check with the local hardwood suppliers... I dont actually know what that means. I have a Lowes in my area and an 84 lumber. I did a google search for hardwood, indiana pa.... and i can't say that anything really looked all the 'local" (hour plus away). In the phone book there area bunch of "hardwood flooring" places, but nothing really for lumber.

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

Doug,

Try "mill works"

this is what I got off of google: I did not look at all of them, just the first one..

http://maps.google.com/maps?rls=com....ed=0CBcQtQMwAA

[Chief]

Hmmm... I guess I need it dummied down a little bit more. When you are saying check with the local hardwood suppliers... I dont actually know what that means. I have a Lowes in my area and an 84 lumber. I did a google search for hardwood, indiana pa.... and i can't say that anything really looked all the 'local" (hour plus away). In the phone book there area bunch of "hardwood flooring" places, but nothing really for lumber.

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

Doug, check your yellow pages for saw mill. There are a lot of sawmills in PA; you just have to get a little out of the city.