San Jose, CA

[Michael Parr]

Not sure if this is the right place but the other thread had a lot of interest. I too am returning to woodworking. I am looking for a good price on plywood and some hardwoods. I was way over paying at the saw dust shop for birch plywood. I am making garage and laundry room cabinets.

[Myk Rian]

You might edit your post title to indicate what you're looking for, instead of being your town. May get more interest in it.

[Victor Robinson]

Never been to the San Jose location, but Macbeath in Berkeley and SF are pretty good. Large selection and decent prices.

[Matthew Hills]

Not sure if this is the right place but the other thread had a lot of interest. I too am returning to woodworking. I am looking for a good price on plywood and some hardwoods. I was way over paying at the saw dust shop for birch plywood. I am making garage and laundry room cabinets.

MacBeath's (http://macbeath.com/) in (east of 880) -- is decent place. Smaller than their northern stores, it mostly targets south bay contractors. Make sure your volume is off before visiting the website.

PALS (http://www.pals4wood.com/contact.html) in South San Jose -- on my list as good place to get prefinished plywood. Haven't bought anything from them.

Global Wood Source (http://www.globalwoodsource.com/) (off Brokaw) lots of specialty woods (just saw their announcement of claro walnut; will have to check it out). You can see a Dave Marks visit on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5orS-JIavKA).

The materials section on Craigslist occasionally has some listings for guys selling air-dried stuff (usually located near Gilroy or the Santa Cruz mtns)

Southern Lumber (close to PALS), the Sawdust Shop, and the area Woodcrafts round out the other places that I occasionally check out. Some other lumberyards will also carry some useful plywoods and a small selection of hardwoods (I tend to buy my baltic birch from Bauer Lumber in Palo Alto, just because it is close to me)

Oh, did I forget the red oak and birch at Home Depot and Lowes? :-)

Matt

[Michael Parr]

Victor thanks I think it is up to date now.

Mathew that is 3 places I have not heard of.

[Randy Walton]

I managed a lumber yard in Campbell until I retired. We were not real competitive on hardwood plywoods or solids. Matthew gave you some pretty good locations and suppliers. You'll find that grades and prices vary all over the board. One of the places mentioned has some terrific lumber but is very expensive.
One other one you might add to your list is Aura hardwood. They always seem to have decent prices on baltic birch and hardwoods. If you're talking large quantities of lumber and plywood send me a email I'll give you a couple of contacts.
Randy

[Dick Mahany]

Michael,

Another excellent place is Aura Hardwoods on Phelan Ave close to Southern Lumber. They have every kind and grade of plywood that most of us ever need. They supply cabinet shops and contractors but will sell retail. They also usually have a pretty decent supply of hardwood. Just don't expect a pretty retail showroom.

Regards

[Roger Jensen]

I found Aura has the best prices, but I've not been happy with their sheet goods. I don't know where they import it from, but it is uneven and inconsistent from sheet to sheet. Someone told me there are two ways to make plywood, with voids in the laminates or slightly overlapping the laminates. The Aura version is slightly overlapping, resulting in uneven sheets. Pull out a sheet and look at the side and you'll see what I mean.

I think MacBeath's has the best combination of price/quality. The San Jose (Milpitas) store has a decent selection of sheet goods, but not much hardwood. If you need hardwood drive up to their So SF store. Much more stuff. The Milpitas store is closed Saturdays but the So SF store is open till 3:30 on Saturdays.

Roger

[scott vroom]

Macbeath, IMO, is the best source of hardwood and sheet goods in the Bay Area. SJ location is OK for sheet goods, but their SF location is best for hardwood. I would avoid Southern Lumber in SJ....VERY expensive for HW and sheet goods.

[Floyd Mah]

PALS is the most pleasant place, at least the Emeryville store, that I've ever bought wood from. Most of the other places allow you to practice your invisibility without interference. My experience at PALS was:
1. When you walk in, the person behind the counter greets you in a friendly fashion and offers help.
2. When you ask for a piece of wood that is on the top of a twenty foot stack, strapped with steel strapping, they get it down for you, unstrap it, and tell you to find the piece that you like. I almost fell over because this was so outside my usual experience.
3. The prices seem to be reasonable, the selection is very good. Odd or large pieces that would appeal to woodworkers seem to be plentiful. The lumber is stacked vertically so that you can judge the whole length of a board with minimal muscle power. This is different from M*cB**** where stuff is laid out horizontally in deep shelves and you can only wrestle with the board by the closer end and cannot see the far end. Because the wood is not stacked so deep, you don't have to worry that someone will get upset that you've left a mess.
4. If it matters to you, they seem to be very concerned that their sources are not stripping the earth of irreplaceable resources.

Their specialty is hardwoods and some hardwood plywood. No construction grade materials.

[Michael Parr]

Thanks for the info

Since I am painting the cabinets I can go with a C3 Birch

PALS and Global both had it for 33/34$ a sheet and 30 or 40 dollars for delivery (5'5" makes it hard to handle a 4'X8' sheet without a helper)

[Chris Padilla]

I've purchased a lot from PALS...good stuff...good folks. I only wish they were open on weekends!!

[Jamie Buxton]

I've purchased a lot from PALS...good stuff...good folks. I only wish they were open on weekends!!

The Oakland yard is open on Saturday. I know that's a long drive when you already live near to the San Jose yard, but...