Where to buy good wood for laser cutter

[Caroline Evans]

Hi,

I've been scratching my head about this for a while, so I figured this forum would help me out a little. Where do you guys typically buy your wood for your laser cutters? I have a 40 Watt Epilog laser, and I love to make wooden earrings and other fine detailed items. I've started to go into a few larger items, but I've found that my supplier for wood (I buy them from the distributor I bought my laser cutter from) is far too expensive for me to make my products profitable if I were to sell them since they take up a few sheets of wood and each 12"x24" sheet of wood with 1/8" thickness is $25 and 12"x24" sheet with 1/4" thickness is $30 (do you think these are reasonable prices?).

I live in Canada, and shipping from the USA is almost impossible and I've been to Home Depot, Lowes, Rona, Lee Valley, P J White Hardwoods, etc, to look around for cheaper material, but every sheet of wood I get is either too solid for it to be able to cut, it burns more often then cuts, or the sheet is too flimsy/brittle to use for detailed work.

Do you guys have suggestions for where I should go to get my wood? Is there a specific type of specialty shop I should look for? I've also been having trouble asking for the specific type of wood. I know maple, alder, cherry, red oak, walnut and others are good for cutting, but when I show the wood I get from my laser cutting shop to other suppliers, they generally don't know what style of wood it's made from. I get answers like "veneer plywood", "hardwood", "layer plywood", "solids", "domestic solids"... etc, so I'm very confused.... What type of wood do you normally use? I would love to know so I can figure out how to ask my suppliers on the phone before driving across town to find out they don't carry what I'm looking for.

If necessary, I can take a photo of the material I have to show you what the wood looks like.

Thanks so much,

Caroline

[david minnery]

I have 2 local sources that deal with hardwoods and sheet goods (plywood).
I engrave maple, cherry and walnut and plywood. I engrave both veneer core maple ply and a mdf core maple ply. The only difference is what's in the middle - many layers of thin maple or mdf. They are both high quality and leave great results. I buy the ply in 4'x8' sheets and cut them down.
Establish a relationship with 1 or 2 suppliers, let them know you will be a repeat customer. My suppliers are great and have been very helpful. Some places will cut sheets down and even surface the lumber down to the size you need. But, you will be buying in bulk to get a good price, for me delivery is free.
Hope that helps, a good supplier will be happy to educate you on all the options.

[Robert Willing]

Here is where I buy most of my exotic wood and some domestic wood. http://www.bellforestproducts.com/ they also ship internationally. You my want to call them and check what their policy is, on there site they state a shipping policy. They are located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Their web site is very informative as to where exotics come from and have pictures as well.

[Roy Harding]

You don't mention exactly where in Canada you are located. I live in Terrace, BC - a community in north-western BC which is considered by some to be "semi-isolated".

I can get some lumber (red cedar, yellow cedar, sub-par birch and aspen) from local sawmills, but for anything else, I shop online and have it shipped. The dealer I use is located in BC, so I don't know if they'd be appropriate for you. They often have specials on shorts (lengths of lumber 4 - 6 ft long), for a very good price, even factoring in shipping costs. I buy a lot of red oak, walnut, cherry, and maple shorts from them. Sheet goods, however, are an entirely different matter.

The two local building centres are construction oriented and do not stock sheet goods that are appropriate for anything much beyond utilitarian uses. I don't use a lot of sheet goods in my work, but when I do need some, I travel 5 hours (each way) to the nearest Windsor Plywood, located in Prince George. Of coUrse, I don't make that trip for a single sheet of cabinet grade plywood! My trips there are multi-purpose and occasional - usually planned weeks in advance.

Perhaps if you tell us where in Canada you are located, we might be of more help to you. Oh yes, I think there is a laser sub-forum here at "The Creek" - try posting your question there, as those guys may be able to make specific brand recommendations for you - I don't have a laser, so I'm not aware of the requirements.

Edited to add: the laser forum is here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forumdis...ngravers-Forum