How do you buy lumber?

a blessing to not have high speed internet

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I'm forced to spend my time woodworking, or in the case of yesterday, crawling around the kitchen floor installing a dish washer

Re: How do you buy lumber?

Joe in a Cleveland suburb

I generally buy what I need from wherever I can find it. If I have to I'll go to WoodCraft.

I don't have room to have an inventory although I do generally have some cherry on hand - 20 or so rough cut boards. That's it.

Re: One of the advantages of inventory

Pete in Holland MI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMjTyLb-UcI

Here's a link to my engine in operation on the mill in question. Unfortunately, we were almost done with this particular log, but you can see the next log in que in the background.

Pete

Re: How do you buy lumber?

TomD

If you are a pro and have found a decent niche. You can mark up for the value of the lumber. Assuming you LV or whatever, actually had what you wanted. Of course the big version of this is pros that make money and can find everything they want at Home Depot (which also orders in). The biggest advantage is that you are basically doing just in time delivery, and using the store for your storage. I have a double height 42 foot garage, and and outside building I built for storage. It would be a huge reduction in headache if I had some else handle my stuff. So I suppose part of the way you could do that is by ensuring you keep that in mind when you set up your business

I mostly cut my own at this point. But one has to be willing to work in local woods. Given all the laws about foreign or odd species.

I also do guitars, that stuff comes mostly from specialty shops, though I have made instruments including parts from stuff my wife found in a worksite dumpster, as mentioned here. But this can fit the format outlined above where the project is built around available deliverable wood. In the past, people would buy logs, and some of those luthiers left large stacks of unused Brazilian that they never got to. Having a large stock is both a hedge against, and going long on regulatory risk when you are dealing with materials that may some day draw the attention of the feds.

When I buy quantities of local woods I used to buy wholesale from Oliver Lumber, which had a wooden building with outside covered storage that was the size of an airport. 500 dollar minimum at the time.

I am currently making an easel out of 2x material from the Home Depot and Lowes, as per the instructions. I had to make several trip to find 2x2s required. some were literally bent like hockey sticks. At some point when my recipient settles down, I will make her a better version. But at this point this is a lot easier to move around, and has a lot of features. If I do make another I may make it of metal, as the wood is such crap these days. I gather in areas with southern yellow pine it is still good.

I buy a lot of wood for boats also, and that is real moving target. Every project I seem to have to get new sources. If you are willing to pay 6 times what I pay, you can just buy Brunzeel.

Becomes a disadvantage when downsizing

Kneale Brownson

I had to sell 4-5,000 bd ft of lumber stored in my barn when when we sold the property. That hurt.

I squandered some Mb to see it

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

Too much tractor and not enough sawmill. You will never make a profit....too much labor running it

The carriage looks similar to a mill we once had a part interest in. Ran off a Chevy V8, belt driven like your mill. Is that an edger downstream of the head saw?

Re: How do you buy lumber?

AZ in Colorado Springs

I get 150 - 200 bd ft at a time, poplar, walnut, maple, and now some oak. I don't have a lot of storage space.

For the classes I teach, we use poplar, and I get that also 150 bd ft at a time. That lasts about a year, so it's plenty dry when I start a new class.

Re: a blessing to not have high speed internet

TomD

I can see that. Though I don't know where I could get internet slow enough these days. I am running sub 100 dollar computers, in some cases 40 dollar, and there is no dial up option around here.