Shopping List

[Tom Bender]

Buying lumber for the next project means taking a list to the mill. Here's how I configured my list. First I calculated the board feet of each species and thickness, including an allowance for waste. But boards in the rack are not labeled in board feet so I calculated how many inch feet would be needed. Inch feet are inches wide x feet long. (ex: 80 inch feet would be satisfied by a board 8" wide x 10 ft long or one 10" wide x 8 ft long) At the mill boards tend to be 10 to 12 ft long and I will be cutting them shorter. To allow me to guesstimate if the boards will work I also noted the common lengths needed. This list was easily handled and worked well.

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[Jim Becker]

It's really important to consider board width and grain pattern as part of your shopping list to insure that the material meets your intended purpose and needs to avoid excess waste...some project components may demand wide stock and others may be fine with narrower stock, but for the latter, you don't want boards that are slightly too narrow to get "two" of something side by side when the grain pattern works for that. And sometimes you need to cut components out of a board "not parallel" to the mill edge. All these things unfortunately tend to increase the total board feet that need to be purchased if one wants to not only have enough material in general, but also enough material to make the project stand out because of grain and color that works together. And the wallet gets lighter... :) :D

[Larry Frank]

I typically order 25-50% more board feet than I need. I buy at the mill and look for the type of grain pattern I need. At home, I lay the boards out and use my cut list and mark the boards with chalk to get the best fit and grain.

[Phil Mueller]

I shop for wood with a list of components, their rough size, and desired grain vs bd’. It usually leads to a lot of searching, more cost, and higher amount of cut offs. But as Jim said, I’m looking for grain look and consistency more than efficient use of a board.

Cut offs can be used for secondary components like drawer runners/kickers, drawer sides/back, internal support frames, etc.

[Jim Becker]

I typically order 25-50% more board feet than I need. I buy at the mill and look for the type of grain pattern I need. At home, I lay the boards out and use my cut list and mark the boards with chalk to get the best fit and grain.
That pretty much mirrors how I do things.