First Entry door project . . . help?

[Larry Gipson]

My wife wants a new entry door and has picked a Mission style door she likes with a single side panel. We like qswo for the material. It's a standard 36" door so that helps a little I guess. I know this stuff is heavy. I've uploaded the door picture she found, but just pretend the panel on the right isn't there.

I'm thinking about using 10/4 material and have begun the search. That should finish up to around 2" thickness. The panels I suppose could be 4/4?

Where do I start? I've been reviewing all of the similar threads on this site. Should I go buy Norms video or whatever? I get that wood expands in width and not really in length. I also understand that the panels should float. Actually, I cut apart an old kitchen cabinet door and it had little rubber stops on each side to allow for panel expansion. Should I be looking for something like this?

Are there rail and stile router bit sets for something this large?

We've located a source for the glass and have picked a hardware set already.

The door sets back about 8ft from the roof line so only sees sun for about an hour on summer evenings (about the bottom 3 ft anyway). It's pretty protected from the rain unless it's really blowing, which is pretty unusual. It snowed here twice in the last 20 years, so that's not an issue. The temp ranges from 32F to 110F, depending. Humidity from around 15% to raining.

Taking any and all advice.

Regards,
Larry

[Peter Quinn]

Making an entry is a series of fairly simple but precise steps. Start with a drawing, either digital or long hand. Draw the elevations, draw the plan, draw the relevant sections at each intersection. The glass parts to the left/right of the door in an entry are called side lites for reference. You can break the thing down into a few simple stages. There is stock selection which is critical, stock preparation, which is easier with large equipment, particularly a long jointer given the size of the parts involved, there is joinery, assembly, sanding, sanding, sanding, sanding......oh and finishing. Freud makes an entry door router bit set that looks good, Amana makes one too IIR. You can also make this style of door square edge with little more than a TS and dado set, then apply a simple router made molding to dress it up.

Frankly the jamb, or door lining, the threshold, and the weatherstripping involved is more complicated than the door or side lite construction. The door/side lite is simply a large frame and panel unit. It helps to have a stout helper when assembling and working a 2" thick oak door. Either some one who really likes you, or some one you really don't care for will do nicely.:rolleyes: Flipping that door is going to hurt. Resource Conservation Technology has some pretty decent gaskets you can install with a thin kerf saw blade, and they sell some sweeps of different types for the bottom.

I can't recommend specific construction methods not knowing your shop tools available, but M&T is strong and reliable, loose tenons can be a simple option if you are set up to make them that deep, dowels are a reasonable method, particularly for the non operational side lite, but can also work for the door if done well. I'm talking 1/2" X 5 1/2" exterior dowel pins, not little furniture type stuff from the local wood craft.

Here is a link that demonstrates the use of the Freud set. http://americanwoodworker.com/blogs/projects/archive/2011/04/22/aw-extra-build-your-own-french-doors.aspx

There are lots of good door making discussions here in the archives, and a fairly recent one on page two presently with a few nice pictorial reviews of the process, so check that out too.

[Larry Gipson]

Thanks Peter,

I have read several of your posts on doors and you do seem to have quite a lot of experience with it. I appreciate the comments.

I'm sort of an intermediate level woodworker, I suppose. I have a Unisaw (with outfeed table), a bench dog cast iron router table & bench dog lift. This has a pc 7815 router in it. I also have an Agazzani 20" bandsaw, a Festool 1400 plunge router, A Festool jig saw, plus other assorted tools (disk/belt sander, spindle sander). I also have a Jet 15" planer. I do have a pretty nice dado set and 2 crappy ones :-)

I don't have a jointer, which might be important. I'll be looking for material with one straight edge. So far the Woodworker II blade has cut well enough I haven't needed anything else.

I'll be doing M&T joints.

I don't have any extra friends, so I'll be sure to treat the ones I have as nicely as possible. One in particular has helped me unload 2 bandsaws on 2 separate occasions - without asking. His wife took my wife to Mexico for a week, but then she brought her back.

Again, thanks for the help!

[Peter Quinn]

I don't have a jointer, which might be important. I'll be looking for material with one straight edge. So far the Woodworker II blade has cut well enough I haven't needed anything else.

I'll be doing M&T joints.



My guess is you can get material flattened in your area by a good lumber yard or local millwork shop. The place I work does this for others all the time. Contractors, ambitious amateur wood workers, other door shops short on labor or that don't have as big a jointer. I flattened a pile of material just today for a small local shop. So it would be helpful to develop a sub for that, its really not the most exciting part of the process but its critical to get the material flat as possible. I built my first doors in my home shop with little more than a hand held router and a dado blade, so its doable. I'd start with the drawings though. Maybe even full scale on some 1/8" luan or similar.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi larry, I dont think you will need 10/4 to to net a two inch door esp quarter sawn with oak.You have many good sources for lumber by you.Call around for 8/4 rough and tell them you are making a door.If dont steer you to best stock ask to pick from a lift and look for straight flat one in the rough.White oak has been some of the most stable woods in my shop.Would not expect hardly any movement form good stock.Get your self a jointer you will need it.Build a flat assembly table thats important.And dont skimp on the hinges that going to be heavy.I built a dougfir door not to long ago and it was 2 inch thick 40 wide with divided lights.But i think yours will be crazy heavy.Looks like a nice door someone has good taste. Hope this helps. Andrew

[Jeff Duncan]

You've got some good advice to start you out. I don't make exterior doors in my shop....just too many places for things to go wrong:( I build a fair amount of interior doors though and one thing you want to think about is hardware. I've built 1-3/4" and 2-1/4" doors but not any that are 2", you'll want to check just to make sure the latchsets you want will work with a 2" door. Also with a heavy door like that I'd generally want to use 5" ball bearing hinges which will stick out a bit more with a 2" than a 2-1/4" door. Not a big difference, just stuff that you want to at least take into consideration in the design stage.

Another factor to consider is how you fabricate your panels. Some guys, especially in colder climates, will make the panels as sandwiches. You have a solid oak panel for each side of the door with a layer of insulating foam in between.

Lastly, (for now), you need to figure out how your going to do the glass. I know different areas have all different building codes so I can't speak to yours. In my area though you generally cannot have a single pane of off-the-shelf glass in a door. It has to be tempered glass for safety in the door and very likely even the side panels. Of course up here they're also usually insulated glass too;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Larry Gipson]

Hi Andrew,

I usually buy lumber from TH&H in San Diego. Their lumber is usually finished both sides with one straight edge. 8/4 is the thickest I've seen in their store and it's 1.75".

At first my goal was to use 2 1/4" for the door. I've never bought wood in rough form and haven't assumed I'd get anything more than 2" from 8/4 rough. I should ask I suppose.

Right now I'm going to have 10/4 shipped from the East coast. I've assumed this will be 2.5" rough, but since I can't pick through the stack to select the best pieces, I'm not sure what I'll be getting. Maybe I'll get 2.25" thickness out of it, maybe not. For sure I'll ask before I place an order after your comment.

If you know a good place to buy wood in Southern California, let me know. Everyone I've called in San Diego and LA counties has pointed me to Texas or New England for qswo or Florida for the 8/4 cypress I'm also looking for.

My wife does have great taste. :-)

Regards,
Larry

[Larry Gipson]

Hi Jeff,

I hope I don't go too far wrong. :-) I am trying to cover the bases.

The climate here is pretty mild most of the time I'd say. Southern California is famous for that. We're having a heat wave right now, though, and have seen 100F, 13% humidity days for about a week. It will be done by the weekend they say and we'll be back to cooling off a nights from ocean breezes. The Pacific is apparently colder than the Atlantic due to the jet stream. Anyway, a 2" wood door should be fine. It will be replacing a 1.75" wood door with worn out weather stripping.

We have a glass place located. They can make a 3 plate sealed sandwich with leaded glass in the middle if we want. It's not at all cheap, but they seem very competent and do this for a living. I believe this is the place http://www.bluedolphinglass.com/products.asp This was the first thing my wife and I agreed on, on this project.

Regards,
Larry

[Peter Quinn]

10/4 QSWO starts to get expensive because it takes so long to kiln dry. Thick WO often has problems with checks, both surface and honey comb type which are worse, pretty much makes a board useless. If the kiln pushes it even a little bit it can ruin it. WO doesn't give up its moisture easily, nor does it take it on easily, which makes it so stable. And at that thickness it may start to turn the corner away from QS on the edges at any significant width. Think about the size of tree required to cut perfect 10/4 QSWO. Big one. Maybe Scott Smith will chime in with his experience. Mine as a user, its not always the best idea. You may be better off with a stave core or laminate construction at that thickness. I'm in New England, I see 8/4 all the time, its usually not much over 2" rough and often tapers across its width, like a wedge (due to one edge being from near the center of the tree, one from the outside which means different rates of shrinkage) so its rarely a consistent thickness anyway. Maybe if you found a mail order willing to sort a lift for the thickest stuff? Might pay a premium for that, probably not a big deal if you are prepared to cross country ship that much oak anyway.

So my $.02. think about making or buying a white oak stave core and skinning that with 3/16" QSWO. Now you need a jointer, a BS, the list is getting longer! You can probably buy the staves, buy the skins or have them resawn by a quality yard. You don't need to spend $40K in tools to make one entry way if you are willing to have the stock prep done by others. It would be my preference to pick the stock my self for the skins.

[Andrew Hughes]

Hi Larry,MacBeath hardwood used to be right off the 91 and 215 fwy.That was my favorite place to go.I think they are still in n.Cal. I visit peterman lumber in Fontana they also have a large inventory.Austin hardwood in Santa Ana Has been there forever.There is a place in Carlsbad called tropical and exocits of Latin America.Mitch is the owner he may know of places more closer to you.And it has been hot.This is the time of the year where I see how much of my wood shop I can more in the living room before my wife throws me outside.:) If I were making a door right now I would get the wood and sit on it till the end of sept.Or after the last monsoons. Andrew

[John TenEyck]

I agree with Peter; I'd make the door using stave core construction. You have that big bandsaw which would be perfect for resawing the 3/16" or so thick face veneers as wide as you need. A couple of advantages of stave core construction is that you don't need to find (and finance) really thick stock; you can use 4/4 for all of it. And rather than use WO as the core, you could use LVL material and have a super stable core. Whatever core you use, you'll end up with a door that looks like solid WO that is more stable for less money. That's a winning combination in my book.


John

[Jeff Duncan]

Peter has it right on....I've built dozens of 1-3/4" doors with solid rift white oak and it is great for doors. Pretty stable and machines nicely....though hard on your tooling! Anything thicker then 1-3/4" I start looking a glued up stiles for paint grade or stave core for stain work.

Sizes do vary but I can generally finish at about 1-3/4" from 8/4 stock. It takes very careful layout and stock preparation though! Some woods do come a little thicker and it varies between batches, but I'd be very surprised if you could find 8/4 white oak that could finish at 2".


good luck,
JeffD

[Peter Quinn]

Just re-read the OP's second post, 20" Agazzani, no brainer. Stave core. Just need the jointer or an associate with one.

[Andrew Hughes]

One more place that comes to mind is Goby Walnut in Oregon.I think you can 10/4 or even larger if you call around.But like peter said its going to be pricey.Dont know any places for Cypress except my backyard.I have a nice pile of leyland cypress drying wont be ready for at least two more years.IF your interested in cedar easy creek in oregon has some of the best alaskan yellow cedar and red.Not a tru cedar more related to the cypress species.Good luck with your door show some pics when your done.

[Sam Layton]

Hi Larry,

I am building a front door now. I am using riff sawn red oak. My door will be 2 1/4" thick by 36" wide. I am laminating the stiles and rails. My door will resemble your photo, but without the side lite. I made an I beam to laminate my stiles and rails. The I beam allows you to laminate flat, and offers excellent clamping. The lamination makes them very stable. I started off with 4/4 rough. I have three laminations to give me the 2 1/4".

238820


This will be my second door. The first was an interior, 1 3/4", with laminated stiles and rails. Again, I used 4/4 rough stock.

When I purchased my hardware, lock set, etc, it seems to me they specified 1 3/4", or 2 1/4". I don't know if either will fit a 2" door.

Sam

[scott vroom]

His wife took my wife to Mexico for a week, but then she brought her back.

I couldn't let that one pass by...lol

[Larry Gipson]

Thanks for the contacts Andrew.

I've called several of them.

Regards,
Larry

[Larry Gipson]

Hi Scott,

Yes, I've been told that I have a crafty sense of humor. At least I think that's what they were saying . . .

In this case, my wife was basically adopted by a Mexican family for the duration. She lived with them and went everywhere with them. Well, I guess they went everywhere with her. Everything there is about the family and she had her own entourage everywhere she went. They joked about the rich gringa that was buying everything in sight. "You should buy that" they'd say in Spanish. The most expensive thing she brought back was a $75 serape, hand made in a little artist town in the mountains outside of Morelia. I told her I wanted the "Clint Eastwood" look. It's a thing of beauty, but has no bullet holes in it yet.

The funniest part is that she had around 20 people take her to the airport. One lady even gave her a cake. What do you do with a cake on an airplane?

Regards,
Larry

[Peter Quinn]

If its a tres leches, you ask the stewardess for a bunch of forks and introduce yourself to your neighbors on the plane!

[Larry Gipson]

Hi Sam,

I haven't found a Mission Style router bit set for 2.25". Whiteside doesn't seem to make them. Freud does make a thick stock set, but has a round-over style that isn't Mission that I know of. Amana doesn't seem to go this thick. Eagle doesn't have a Mission style cutter, but only goes to a max of 2.0" if you extend their normal 1.75". Eagle, in fact, said to just do it with multiple cuts and other cutters to form a M&T profile.

Where did you get your shaper cutter?

Regards,
Larry

[Larry Gipson]

Hi Peter,

I never actually saw the cake. After carrying it in her lap on the plane and then carrying it in her lap in the car for about an hour, she forgot it at her friends house. I didn't find out until later. It was late as it took hours to get through customs and she was pretty tired. Happy to get home, though.

I guess this is where the expression comes from about "taking the cake"? Her friend ate it. :-) Serves her right.

I still haven't found a router bit set that will do this. I may have to go another way.

Larry

[Sam Layton]

Hi Larry,

I got my shaper cutters from Infinity tools. I have one set for cabinet doors, and one for entrance doors. I was just looking at Infinity tools, and they have a router set for passage doors, 1 3/8" and 1 3/4". In addition, they say if you use their extended tenon cutter, you can make the door as thick as you want. So, it looks like you could use their set with the extended tenon cutter, and that would work for a 2 1/4" door. That will give you a start to investigate further. They have the Shaker, and Mission style.

My Infinity shaper cutters are the only brand shaper cutters I have used. So, I can't judge by others. I am happy with their cutters, and would buy them again.

Sam

[Peter Quinn]

"Mission style" is just a square edge, no molded profile, you can accomplish this with very basic tooling. A TS with dado can make the panel grooves, any number of ways to create the stub tenons. I doubt you will find a matched set of router bits for this detail, but it shouldn't be a problem. I made my first carriage house doors with a slot cutter, started in the center and took multiple passes from each face to make the panel grooves on curved rails. Did you check CMT for a tenon cutting set? IIR they may have something, not sure e thickness range.

[Mel Fulks]

I have done some doors by biscuiting square stock together then drilling 1/2 inch holes all the way through the stiles and about 2 and 1/2 inches into the rails and putting in birch or maple dowels (not luan).I drive the dowels through a non cutting squisher plate or drill a slightly oversized hole so that they go in easily .Slightly watered down yellow glue is put in the holes and on the dowels and tapped in QUICKLY.If your biscuit joints are clamped up fully tight this method works.A highly talented cabinet maker who preferred to use mortise and tenons showed it to me when we were both employed by a guy who was not going to buy any of the needed equipment or allow us to cut joints by hand. Oviously on furniture we blind drilled the holes and this was along time before biscuits.I have had to suggest this to employers who only occasionally got inquiries about doors and had no suitable equipment. I made sure they understood that the dowels would show on the edges.Just the biscuits are fine for the muntins. We nailed and glued in moulding. If you prefer square edge you can groove the pieces and cut stub tenons on the saw and skip using the biscuits.But don't forget to put in the panels. Peter,we value your posts and cyber friendship. Disagree but please please don't have a heart attack.Best Regards.

[Peter Quinn]

Looks like the CMT set maxes out at 1 3/4" too. http://www.cmtutensili.com/show_items.asp?pars=RB~8/900.628~2

I'm coming up zero on matched router sets to make 2 1/4" doors square edge as far as the cope and stick. Even the infinity sets Sam pointed to don't have an extended tenon cutter for the square edge set, I'm guessing because you can make the square edge cuts any number of ways. BS, TS (dado, tenon jig, single blade with two cuts each side), router table. Only a shaper is really going to give you a square edge matched set in one pass at that thickness. I wouldn't let that detail slow you down.

Mel, If my present boss caught me drilling the dowel holes from the outside of the stiles post assembly on stain grade work he would choke me by the neck. :eek: Can't say I've never done it at home but only on paint grade. No heart attacks here, I agree to disagree. Keeps things interesting and diverse. Lots of ways to fry every chicken!

[Larry Gipson]

Well, maybe I don't need a jointer? There's an interesting thread here:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?6136-Tod-s-Top-Tip!

A guy made a simple jig for straightening boards on a table saw. Duh.

[Sam Layton]

Well, maybe I don't need a jointer? There's an interesting thread here:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?6136-Tod-s-Top-Tip!

A guy made a simple jig for straightening boards on a table saw. Duh.

Larry, you need a jointer... To build a door... You need a jointer... Just my opinion.

Search Craig's list, and you can find a jointer at a good price.

Sam

[Peter Quinn]

So, that gets you a straight edge on a not flat board. Takes out the major bow, good enough for making moldings or floors, but not door parts. You still have to flatten the faces of all your parts, parallel the opposing faces, and create a straight edge at 90 degrees to the flat reference face. All this before you square the ends of your stock, cut to length, and shape your parts. You could use a planer sled, but I have no experience with how effective that is over the 80"-8' of most door stiles, my intuition says no bueno. Sam is right, you need flat stock to make doors. So either you need a jointer, you need to sub this out, or you need to get real familiar with hand planes. Worst case you have just the stiles flattened for you on a jointer at a millwork or lumber yard, and you wing it on the rails. Not my preference, rather every things was flat for real, but it might work.


Can't wait to see the pics of your new jointer.:rolleyes:

[Scott T Smith]

Hi Larry. Thank you for your call and e-mails last week. I think that you've really picked out a nice door design, and it ought to look pretty slick when it's finished.

Peter asked me to chime in with my thoughts re 10/4 QSWO, personally I would stay away from it.

QSWO shrinks about 12% in thickness from green down to 8%MC. Thus, to net 10/4 QSWO after drying, you have to start with a rough sawn plank that is close to 3" in thickness; ie 12/4.

Drying rates are determined by green thickness, not dry, and 12/4 oak in the kiln will require around 7 months of dryng time. The only economical way to produce it is to mill it in the fall so that it does not surface check during the first few months of drying, and then air dry for over a year, then go into the kiln for 6 - 8 weeks. It would be extremely expensive too.

8/4 on the other hand can be dried from green below 10% MC in around 4 months in the kiln.

What I haven't seen mentioned is the possibility to laminate two 4/4 QSWO boards together to achieve your desired 2" thickness. You should be able to easily do this by starting with 5/4 stock. If you started with bookmatched boards, the flat sawn grain pattern on the edges of the boards would be a very close match, so from the edge one would be hard pressed to tell that it was a glue up. You would have the appearance of a solid wood door (indeed, it would be solid!), and 5/4 material is a lot less expensive than 10/4.

Re the moulding profile for cutting 2" stock, one approach to consider is to purchase a universal moulding head for your shaper and then having a company (such as W.R. Moore Profiles) custom grind a pair of profile cutters for you in the pattern that you want. Probably around 100 bucks for the profile cutters, plus seventy-five bucks for the moulding head (G2606 from Grizzly is good for up to 3").

Ditto the comments re the jointer; although if you purchase S2S or S3S (or even skip planed) QSWO stock that will somewhat reduce the need. A Festool track saw will also eliminate the need to edge joint the material too.

Best of success to you on your project. Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of assistance.

Regards,

Scott

[Larry Gipson]

Thanks Scott,

This has been a really useful thread. I've learned quite a lot. Thanks again for the personal help.

I do know a fellow with a General 80-200L with the helical carbide head who will sell it for $1900. He also has a 15" planer for sale for the same amount. The tools have been sitting for a few years without use. I know this because I bought my bandsaw from him and it's just like new. For the same price. . .

Anyway, if I buy a jointer, I don't think I'd use it more than a couple times a year, sort of like I use my planer. I'm hoping I can buy something less expensive, perhaps a Grizzly. Or perhaps something in good condition used. Not being a jointer person, there are parallelogram planers and self aligned cutters and a slew of jointer types to consider. I'll need to research this more, but it really appears the helical head technology has a better resale value right now. What do you think of this one: http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-x-72-Jointer-with-Spiral-Cutterhead-and-Mobile-Base-Polar-Bear-Series-/G0656PX

I just keep getting in deeper and deeper :-)

[Sam Layton]

Hi Larry,

I just keep getting in deeper and deeper :-)[/QUOTE]

I know what you mean. It always seems that one thing leads to another. I don't know about the jointers you mentioned. I do know that General makes quality machinery. I am talking about the Canadian made, I don't know about General Int. I have a General 14" planer, and it is great. You always hear good things about Grizzly. Off the top of my head, $1900 sounds high, I don't know... For me, bigger is better. I would say 8" up. I think for making your door you want the longest bed you can get.

I try to buy all of my lumber in the rough, so I use my jointer on every project. It is always a pleasure to work with straight and flat material.

If you don't think you would use a jointer after your door is complete, and you are up for a little drive, you are welcome to bring your stock to my shop for jointing. It would probably take a couple of trips for rough jointing, and final jointing after glue up. It appears that you live a couple of hours from me. Just another option.

Sam

[Scott T Smith]

Thanks Scott,

This has been a really useful thread. I've learned quite a lot. Thanks again for the personal help.

I do know a fellow with a General 80-200L with the helical carbide head who will sell it for $1900. He also has a 15" planer for sale for the same amount. The tools have been sitting for a few years without use. I know this because I bought my bandsaw from him and it's just like new. For the same price. . .

Anyway, if I buy a jointer, I don't think I'd use it more than a couple times a year, sort of like I use my planer. I'm hoping I can buy something less expensive, perhaps a Grizzly. Or perhaps something in good condition used. Not being a jointer person, there are parallelogram planers and self aligned cutters and a slew of jointer types to consider. I'll need to research this more, but it really appears the helical head technology has a better resale value right now. What do you think of this one: http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-x-72-Jointer-with-Spiral-Cutterhead-and-Mobile-Base-Polar-Bear-Series-/G0656PX

I just keep getting in deeper and deeper :-)

General does indeed make nice equipment, but I know a couple of different people that have the model of Grizzly jointer and they love it. You might let him know the price on the Grizz, and ask him if he would drop his price.

If you won't use the machine much, it would be worthwhile to take Sam up on his offer. It's always great to meet fellow woodworkers and SMC members!

[Larry Gipson]

I bought the Grizzly Go490 with helical head. This is apparently an 8" jointer with a parallelogram design. Now if I figure out where to store the sucker :-)


I also bought some router bits from Infinity yesterday. I hope there's enough to make this work. I bought their Shaker set, but it only goes to 1.75". They don't sell a longer arbor and honestly, I'd be scared to use a 5/16" diameter arbor at that length anyway. With my luck it would chatter and make a not so good cut. But... all of the cutters can be taken off the shaft and reassembled anyway you want. To use the set on this, I'd have to take the top cutter off and replace it with a spacer. I also bought another 1/4" cutter and a shim set which can be used to make a 1/2" mortise cut. So I can cut the Shaker chamfer and a half inch slot in the stile, then flip the board over and run the other side. I also bought the extended tenon cutter, which will allow me to make tenons of any random length while cutting the matching chamfer in the rail. If all this crap doesn't work, I also bought the opposing 15 degree chamfer bit to use instead of the set. Then I'll make the mortise with my spiral upcut bit.

A bunch of toys to play with and no way to ensure success at this point, but entertaining I guess.

Regards,
Larry

[Andrew Hughes]

Good choice on the jointer the H Head is nice to have.Good luck with the Router bits i mean in a good way.I myself have never been able to wrap my head around the proper set up for door set cutters.I use mortice and tenons joints with draw bore pegs.Then apply molding inside around the panels.Cope and stick for glass are mind bogging enough for me.Did you find your wood yet?

[Larry Gipson]

Hi Andrew,

I've been talking to a person on the East coast about wood, but haven't heard a price yet. I'm afraid the shipping costs will be prohibitive.

I called around the local area again, this time assuming 4/4 (for a massive glue up as Sam does) and found both rough and planed material available for $5 to $6 range.

There's actually a really interesting place out in Anza that sells reclaimed wood I'd like to visit. They don't have the white oak my wife wants, but do have some really interesting materials for future projects.

http://www.tulepeaktimber.com/site/main?page=Home

These guys aren't very far from us and would be a fun drive in the desert. They seem to be really interesting characters (like me?).

[Jeff Duncan]

Hi Andrew,

I've been talking to a person on the East coast about wood, but haven't heard a price yet. I'm afraid the shipping costs will be prohibitive.

I called around the local area again, this time assuming 4/4 (for a massive glue up as Sam does) and found both rough and planed material available for $5 to $6 range.

There's actually a really interesting place out in Anza that sells reclaimed wood I'd like to visit. They don't have the white oak my wife wants, but do have some really interesting materials for future projects.

http://www.tulepeaktimber.com/site/main?page=Home

These guys aren't very far from us and would be a fun drive in the desert. They seem to be really interesting characters (like me?).

Ouch....that's pretty steep for oak! I'd call a few other places, that's more than double what we pay in the Northeast!

good luck,
JeffD

[George Gyulatyan]

If you don't mind the drive to LA, you should check out Bohnhoff lumber. Everything they sell is rough though, so you will need a jointer and planer to mill. They have a great selection, great people and the best prices around AFAIK. QSWO would definitely not be an issue. Give them a call.

[Andrew Hughes]

Bohnhoff is the lumber yard is LA i was trying to remember.Great place.