Buying Lumber on the Internet

[Michael Causey]

Is this a common practice? Buying sight unseen appears to be risky, but delivery to my house is very appealing.

This is a company I'm considering.

www.woodworkerssource.com/index.php

[Scot Ferraro]

I have bought online before and had good luck with Bell Forest Products. They matched color and grain on Birdseye maple for me and I was pleased with the delivery.

Scot

[Don Bullock]

Michael, I've only bought a few things through them. Some of their packaged deals are pretty good price wise, but I guess I'm far to particular on the wood I buy. I purchased some of their 8/4 walnut turning blanks that were long enough for table legs. I specifically requested that they select four pieces that would match well enough for my purpose. Three of the pieces I got matched pretty well but the fourth was much lighter than the others. I decided to order another set of four to see if I would get a darker piece to match. Again I asked for a set of matching pieces. In that set I got one dark piece and three lighter ones. In the end I have two sets of walnut that match well enough to use as table legs, but I wasn't happy that they ignored my request for matching pieces in each set.

While I haven't had an occasion to buy more wood on the Internet I am tempted to purchase specific pieces or from mills that are in an area where they have highly figured wood available that I can't find locally. Like I said above, I'm very particular on the wood I buy and having someone else select my wood isn't what's best for me. While the wood available here in Southern California is usually more expensive I have a wide selection available from numerous lumber yards. Our biggest problem here is that we're far from the source of almost all types of hardwood and no matter how we buy wood (Internet or locally) there is a lot of shipping cost involved. I know that others have been successful purchasing wood from the Internet. Perhaps some can give you some tips they use to get what they want from vendors.

[Bill Huber]

I have bought a lot from them and only had one problem. I got some 8/4 maple and one of the planks had a really bad area in it, I emailed them a picture and they shipped me a new plank right out, great service.

I have bought maple, walnut, purple heart and some cherry and have been very happy with them. I can get most here in the area but by the time I drive around to find what I need and the gas it is just some time easier to get what I need from them.

[Paul Symchych]

I live about 5 minutes away from their Tempe store and go in regularly so naturally have not used the internet.
In general I will say that their stocks of the more common domestic lumbers is nothing special and prices are a bit high. For these i often wind up going to Timber Woodworking Machinery's lumber yard in Mesa AZ although they don't stock anywhere near the variety of woods.
The more exotic woods at WWSource are generally of very good quality and priced accordingly. They have the only extensive selection of exotics in my part of the PHX valley.
They are decent people to deal with. It wouldn't surprise me if calling your order in to talk to someone would be the best way to go.

[Prashun Patel]

I've ordered from Bell a few hundred BF sight unseen walnut, cherry, curly maple, mahogany. Every single board was great and what I expected.

Internet shopping from reputable sources (IMHO) will kill you on shipping, so I only find it worthwhile to buy for several projects @ once.

Also, don't forget to ask about shorts and excess stock. Sometimes you can get good deals if yr willing to take what they have instead of what you want.

[Montgomery Scott]

I've bought quite a bit of wood from internet sources and have had a few gripes, but overall it's been a positive experience. I avoid dealing with woodworkers source as their prices are far higher than other sources I've dealt with for what I would consider "ordinary" lumber not even considering shipping.

Shipping can be a real killer so use http://woodfinder.com/ to see if there are sources closer to you.