1st Large Hardwood purchase...feels great

[Pete Hotard]

Well I know most of you folks that live up North usually have easy access to hardwood lumber, but down here along the gulf coast the story is much the opposite. Despite the numerous hardwood import/export companies in Mobile, AL there is no one that I know of that sells directly to he public (outside of the BORG stores). Came across a guy on Craigslist advertising some Jatoba, wrote it off for a while expecting it to be someone selling unused flooring packages or something. Finally called him today and went to check it out. Turned out to be 4'x4'x4' pallets of 5/4 and 4/4 rough cut Jatoba, random widths and the only drawback was it was all cut into 4' lengths. Picked out a pack around 250 bdft and it only cost me $200. Let me tell you that it feels really nice to finally have some decent stock on hand for different projects, and to have enough to where I'm not coveting every little 4" scrap piece I cut off of it. I think I got a pretty good deal, maybe I didn't but I'm happy and I guess that's all that matters.

This guy's shop(s) are another story for another day but I'll just say that he probably had close to 100,000 bdft of various hardwoods, an entire shop full of woodworking machines, none newer than probably 1950. He had a Jointer that was bigger than my kitchen table. The biggest powermatic bandsaw I've ever seen and at least 4 or 5 lathes of all sizes. I told him I was impressed with his 48" industrial thicknesser and he took me to another shop where he had a thickness planer that looked like a locomotive. It was bigger than my truck. Sorry for the long post but this was a brand new experience for me

http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy104/petehotard/4D144CE5-8EA3-43B2-8830-F62EA8284D64_zpsssw98atf.jpg (http://s782.photobucket.com/user/petehotard/media/4D144CE5-8EA3-43B2-8830-F62EA8284D64_zpsssw98atf.jpg.html)

http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy104/petehotard/8DF90564-AE11-4A49-8224-793F84B7EFA3_zpsglanwbwc.jpg (http://s782.photobucket.com/user/petehotard/media/8DF90564-AE11-4A49-8224-793F84B7EFA3_zpsglanwbwc.jpg.html)

http://i782.photobucket.com/albums/yy104/petehotard/B661D5AD-28AB-431B-9F52-22575F7DED45_zpsydow0ylr.jpg (http://s782.photobucket.com/user/petehotard/media/B661D5AD-28AB-431B-9F52-22575F7DED45_zpsydow0ylr.jpg.html)

[Mike Heidrick]

Awesome score! I paid 2/3 of that for just 8 pieces of 1/4X8X36 6061 aluminum just now LOL.

[Michael Mahan]

Now that's a Hardwood Gloat ! :eek:

[HANK METZ]

Gloatable, yes, very gloatable indeed! :cool:

[eugene thomas]

I think safe to say ya did good. And he also let ya pick through...

[John Conklin]

Wow, that really is a great deal! I'm afraid I would have broken the springs in my truck trying to haul away as much as possible.

[Don Jarvie]

Go buy more of some other type. It's nice to have stock on hand.

[Bruce Page]

Nice score! We're a little better off here in Albuquerque, there are a few hardwood suppliers in town but they all want an arm & leg for it.

[Keith Hankins]

Congrats on the score. You will love having an idea for a project and just going to the pile and getting what you need. I've been buying in bulk for a long time now and its the only way to go if you can store it. I generally buy 500bf at a time. I love cherry and living in PA while plentiful, I found that they love it and price it accordingly. I found a guy on craigs list with 500 bf for $3.00 a bf. I called and took it site unseen. Sadly the dude passed away so I'll never get another deal, but sill appreciated it when I scored. Took two 5hr round trips to get it all, but its worth it. Don't forget to post some pics of the projects. Cheers!

[Matt Day]

Wow, pretty sweet!

Please tell us you took pics of the shop too?

[Phil Thien]

Wow that is an awesome deal. The 4' lengths wouldn't both me in the least.

[Dave Lehnert]

Nice score.
I like to get a load of Hardwood and have on hands. Comes in handy when you just want to go down to the shop to mess around with a small project.

[Jim Andrew]

Bet if you get outside the city you would find several guys with bandsaw mills.

[Mark Engel]

The nice thing about the 4 foot length, it fit real nice into the bed of your truck.

Great score!

[Pete Hotard]

I wish he was selling more of his stock on hand, but it seemed like this stuff was all he wanted to part with. I plan on staying in close contact (some may call it stalking) with him. I'd just love to work with him and have him toss some pearls of wisdom my way. The only problem with finding people with bandsaw mills, is I don't have the storage to dry any of the stock. I'll try and get y'all some pictures of the shop when I go back

[Peter Quinn]

Nice score, can't beat the price. Round here jatoba is a bit over $6/bf presently, so you paying under $1 is pretty sweet. Course you won't be able to make bed rails with shorts....but there are a lot of things that don't require any parts over 4', and you could mail order a little long stock as a supplement. Enjoy that!

[Tai Fu]

I got about 50 board foot of maple for around 250 dollars... I thought that was cheap too.

[William C Rogers]

Very nice buy. I bought a load of maple the same size and you can do a lot with it. Easy to join and plane. Well here in Haubstadt (Evansville area) I was having the same problem finding rough lumber and exotic lumber. I have not found a lot of woodworking in this area. I actually made a trip back to Northwest lumber in Indy last month to get some mahogany. I finally stumbled upon a web site where this guy has all kinds of rough lumber including exotic. Needless to say it is nice to have a source. I will be going there this week to get some 8/4 mahogany. Not gloat prices, but a good value.

[Tai Fu]

If anything it is harder to get general lumber than exotics. I just found an exotic wood dealer in Taiwan who sells a lot of various wood from Asia and Africa and they have large quantities of african blackwood at seemingly good prices (possibly poached stock from China though, so I don't know about it). I'm making guitar necks out of these maple however... I originally bought them with the intention to make furniture out of it but 50 board foot of maple makes like a million guitar necks.