Est. 1998 — 27 years of woodworking knowledge
Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Joe in a Cleveland suburb
>Hi folks.
At the risk of sounding like an idiot... how do you know if what you are buying at the borg is syp or not? I've never paid much attention when buying 2x's for around the house type rehab work. Does it say syp or something?
Thank you.
Joe
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
wilbur
>Take a look at the lumber itself. You should be able to find a stamp on it that will tell you what species the wood is, and some information as to how it was processed. Most of the information is in acronyms:
S-P-F = spruce/pine/fir
DF = Douglas fir
GDF = Green Douglas fir
KD = kiln dried
Southern yellow pine is hard to come by here in central NJ, but I would bet that if you see a stamp that says "SYP" or something similar, that would be what you are looking for.
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Jack Guzman from Maine
>Most commercial lumber at the borg is stamped."SYP" is exactly how they stamp southern yellow pine.If not,get pictures of samples of it and compare.It's got a pretty distinctive grain,pretty easy to distinguish.---Jack
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
William Claspy
>Joe-
I've not seen SYP at the various Borgs here in Cleveland.
Bill
"Commercial Lumber" ???
Cooper Suter
>They might do things different in other parts of the country, but a big box would be the last place you'd find untreated good quality yellow pine around here (Ohio).
HD may have better grades of residential quality wood, but I'd never expect to find commercial quality wood at a big box.
Most residential framing lumber is SPF (spruce, pine, fir; should be taken to generically mean soft wood, not a particular species) or Hem-Fir (hemlock).
In the midwest at least, yellow pine (and douglas fir) are considered premium framing woods (and priced accordingly) and are only regularly used for long spans or in light commercial applications where there is more stringent engineering and oversight.
Locally, only the serious contractors yards stock a full line of yellow pine framing lumber.
I've had to special order #1 yellow pine
in the past if I wanted anything other than stair tread stock.
Coop
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Roy Anderson
>I have to concur. It's darned hard to get SYP in Ohio. The borgs in Cincy all have something called "whitewood" or SPF (spruce, pine, fir). I occasionally see some SYP in larger structural dimensions, but not #1.
If you can figure out how to get some good quality SYP, publish it here.
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Wendell @ Murphy, TX
>Here in Dallas, its labelled SYP. It seems to be the main construction lumber that the borgs here carry.
Wendell
SYP in Cincy
Christopher Schwarz
>Roy,
Go to the Home Depot and Lowe's off the Ridge Avenue exit on I-71. It's yellow pine a go-go.
Go to any Home Depot or Lowe's in Northern Kentucky (where I live) in Cresent Springs or Florence -- it's resplendant with SYP. I've bought thousands of board feet of the stuff from these particular outfits. It's clear, cheap and (relatively) dry.
Chris
Thanks guys.
Joe in a Cleveland suburb
>I was/am wondering because I'm thinking of trying a few of the things Chris has done in Woodworking magazine. SYP seems like a good cheap choice.
One thing I really need to do is come up with a good bench. One better suited to hand tool work. The bench I have now my dad and I made about 10 years ago. I think I could attach a Roubo (sp?) style top to it easily.
I'll look around next trip to Lowes and HD. At least I will know what to look for if they have it.
Thank you.
Joe
North of Kenwood is a desert
Roy Anderson
>Thanks, Chris. I'll turn to the south. Fields-Ertel is a wasteland.
Re: North of Kenwood is a desert
Christopher Schwarz
>It always has been a wasteland... (too easy, Roy!)
Seriously, if you ever need some help finding the primo stuff, just call me at work. The stuff is everywhere down here.
Chris
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Michael Brady
>I can intuit that the word "borg" is a reference to a lumber store, but where does the term come from. I have not heard that word used here in the Chicago area.
Re: "Commercial Lumber" ???
Jack Guzman from Maine
>Cooper,
Your post really confused me. When I used the word Commercial all I was talking about was the stuff sold in lumber yards and stores.The stuff that gets a stamp on it.I wasn't referring to any particular quality of lumber grade. The only SYP sold out here is pressure treated or stair treads.I was just giving him an idea on how to identify the species. That was his question.---Jack
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Steve Schoene
>Home Depot, Lowes, perhaps Menards have "assimilated" so many of the real hardware stores and lumberyards, that they can be thought of the borg collective as in Star Wars.
Don't Do It
Steve Schoene
>DON"T try to get framing lumber at the borg, unless its 10pm and you just need one 2x to finish the project. If you must, buy 2x10s so you can rip out the juvenile wood around the pith. In my local HD, on any given day there aren't probably ten 2x4s in total that don't contain the pith, and two of those will be waney.
SYP can be a really twisty wood so you should seek out the best lumber yard in the area, even if they close at noon on Saturday, or you have to go home sick to beat the 5:00pm closing time.
Star Trek not Wars.
Joe in a Cleveland suburb
>No. And I'm not a Treky either!
:)
Joe
SYP: Very Wavy, Pronounced Grain Pattern
Tom Colligan, Peoria
>. . . and here in Illinois, is available only in wider dimensions for joists.
I was told that almost all treated lumber is syp and goes to plants in Indiana for that treatment. FWIW, Tom.
I've found a lot of local variation...
John in New Mexico
>In Tucson, almost everything at Lowes and HD was green douglas fir, with the exception of SPF 2x4's and 2x6's in the shorter lengths. Here in NM, those same chain stores seem to carry mostly hemlock fir, mostly surface dry, with the same SPF studs. Now if I go to a wholesaler in Albuquerque, I get white fir which is a lot like hemlock, though not as strong for construction purposes. At this same wholesaler though, if I buy 2x10's or 2x12's they often have pine from AZ or NM as well, which is really nice wood as construction lumber goes.
So other than the grade stamp, I don't think you'd have any way of knowing what your local borg carries, just depends on whats available to them.
John
Re: I've found a lot of local variation...
wilbur
>There is local variation among the big box stores here in NJ as well. The choices here for dimensional lumber are either kiln-dried S-P-F 2x4's or green Douglas fir for 2x4 - 2x12's. I've found one Home Depot that carries kiln-dried S-P-F 2x6's, and this same one also carries kiln-dried Douglas Fir 4x4's.
If I go over the border to Delaware, the Home Depot carried hemlock fir exclusively, along with kiln-dried S-P-F 2x4's.
One day I'll swing by a Home Depot in Pennsylvania to see what they have.
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Bill Murphy/Reading,Pa
>I think it's an acronym for "Big Orange Retail Giant"....as in the color of Home Depot??? (but I could be wrong)
Bill
Re: Southern Yellow Pine at the Borg.
Mike Brady
>Trekkies with sharp tools is not a healthy mix. Stop scaring me with that kind of talk.