Tips on buying rough lumber

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Jason,

Don't know where in Western Ohio you are but I've been happy with Seifker Sawmill near Elida, just a little west of Findlay. They'll let you pick through the stacks and help you pull what you want. Take a flashlight because the storage area doesn't have the best light.

Cliff

[George Bokros]

I live near Hopkins airport.i don’t know where in western Ohio you are.i bought some rough lumber at Yoder lumber in Berlin Ohio.all in all pretty happy.paid a little extra and they hit skip plane and straight line rip cut

Jim, I am south east of Cleveland. I have purchased from Yoder also but found a great place in Middlefield, Bylers Kiln Drying. Most stock is partially planed so you can see grain and color. 4/4 is usually ~15/16 so easily finished to 3/4. Price is a little higher than Yoder but it is closer for me at least and the partially planed is awesome for color and grain. I believe it is also straight line ripped.

[glenn bradley]

It takes a while to start looking at material for the parts it will yield instead of looking at the board as an end-all entity unto itself. If the board has the drawer fronts I want and I end up with scrap for no-show parts or other small projects it is a win-win.

[Jim Andrew]

There are more bandmills being bought and put into use all over the country, including urban areas. I bought mine 15 years ago, and now there are several in my neighborhood. Have set up a solar dryer in a insulated container, using solar panels and a furnace blower, now am building a solar kiln. See adds on Craigslist for lumber for sale, including S4S. My plan was just to supply my own needs, but will have a semi load left when I am gone.

[Ole Anderson]

My local mill (Armstrong) will face and mill to thickness very reasonably while I wait (and help). I have them leave it 1/16" over my final thickness. It saves a lot of work and wear and tear on my Delta lunchbox planer. Not to mention the issue of reducing by a factor of 4 the amount of chips I have to deal with. Their pricing on straight line ripping isn't as good, and I would have to wait for that, so I deal with that myself. Before trying to edge joint your boards, cut closer to finish length and it will be a lot less passes through the jointer.

If you are not too far from Michigan, it might be worth a trip to Armstrong Millworks, good people, but cash or checks only. https://armstrongmillworks.com/
http://armstrongmillworks.com/woodtypes.aspx

[Tom Bussey]

I buy from a local small sawmill and the wood is kiln dried and skip planned to around 15/16. What I look for is the application I am going to use it on. I tend to prefer riff sawn wood for stiles and rails. Even if the boards are flat sawn there are boards that are going to have more riff sawn areas than other. I know I will get a lot of stacik about this but I was watching a you tube video and the guy was complaining about the board closing up at the back and overloading the saw and tripping it. And that was after he spent much time getting then perfectly straight. Well wood grows with stress in it and one can also get kiln dried wood that is case hardened so I tend to figure a bout a 20% scrap rate and I cut my pieces about 1/4 inch wider than I need and an inch or two longer and then let the board set a few days and that lets the molecules move to where they want to and also helps it to acclimate to the surrounding ares as far as moisture content goes. Then I start flattening and straightening and so on.

So I don't buy wood to fit my jointer or planner. If you buy a board 5 inches wide and you need two pieces 2 wide and the board is cupped you end up with more wood to work with if the board is cut in half Buy the time all the edges bet machined you will use up the 20% and a thin kerf saw blade will not save you any wood because what is left will be thrown away.

Buy the wood to fit the project and buy a couple extra because of color match.

[Robert Engel]

If buying air dried lumber direct from a sawmill, the first thing I check for is evidence of beetle damage. Easily overlooked. Look for bits of sawdust.

[John K Jordan]

There are more bandmills being bought and put into use all over the country, including urban areas. I bought mine 15 years ago, and now there are several in my neighborhood. Have set up a solar dryer in a insulated container, using solar panels and a furnace blower, now am building a solar kiln. See adds on Craigslist for lumber for sale, including S4S. My plan was just to supply my own needs, but will have a semi load left when I am gone.

When I set up my Woodmizer, also about 15 years or so ago, I started getting logs and sawing a lot. I used a lot for barn/shed siding, purlins, etc. I ended up with stacks and stacks of wood air drying, far more than I could use. I started giving it away and still let a lot go to waste - I have a bunch of cherry in the barn loft now, no PPB damage.

Now, I mostly saw when putting up a new building or if someone brings logs we cut them up for woodturning. 8/4 to 12/4 slabs are nice for that! The problem is storage space. I guess I could sell wood but I'm not sure I want a job.

JKJ

[Jason Winterrowd]

Wow I did not expect so many responses. Thank you all for the tips and advice. I live close to Frank Miller lumber in union city Indiana. I buy most of my plywood there and they have a good selection of lumber also. I think they skip plane everything in their retail store. Thanks again!!!!

[Jim Andrew]

John, my plan this spring was to buy a aluminum high cube 48 foot container, and move my dried lumber into that. Vertical on one side for shorter lengths, and stacks on the other side for the longer boards. But this covid thing hit, and price of cattle has dropped into the toilet so that plan is on hold.

[Todd Solomon]

There’s some good information here. I buy all my wood here.

https://www.woodworkerssource.com/

Thanks for the info Mark. I priced it out to ship to CA, and it adds roughly $3 per board foot for the order I had quoted. This depends on quantity purchased of course.

Question- have you ever had them pick the boards and ship to you? If so, what was the quality of the boards and the service?

Thanks,

Todd

[Mark Daily]

That "Project Planner Worksheet" looks like a handy tool (if I were that organized)

Matt

Im usually only that organized when somebody else is paying for some really expensive wood, lol!

[Joe Wood]

My tip is,

double check for staples before you start planing it down!

[Mark Daily]

Thanks for the info Mark. I priced it out to ship to CA, and it adds roughly $3 per board foot for the order I had quoted. This depends on quantity purchased of course.

Question- have you ever had them pick the boards and ship to you? If so, what was the quality of the boards and the service?

Thanks,

Todd

Todd, I live about 20 minutes away so I drive over and pick out all my lumber. In reading the online reviews, most are very positive about the quality of the wood selected and shipped as well as the packaging.

They have a good crew of really helpful people working there so I think they will take care of any problems that you might encounter.

Of course, I would only buy from there if you can’t get it locally as the shipping does add up.

One service that I always use is straight-lining one edge. That gives me one edge that is straight the entire length of the board so I don’t have to do it myself. Well worth the cost which is $.25/bd. ft. I think it should be per linear foot but I’m not the boss.

[Jim Dwight]

I find it hard to face joint boards and get them really flat and still have enough thickness left. twist is one reason why. So I like to cut to rough length and width to minimize the distortion I have to remove with the jointer. Wide boards for the tops of projects or other large areas that will be fastened into the piece are not normally face jointed in my shop. They just get run through the planner. Gluing up the top flattens them some and fastening into the project finishes it.

I would rather buy wood with a few knots or other flaws at a good price than completely clear at a significantly higher price. In my area(SC) I found cherry for $10/bd ft (planned) to $3.50/bd ft. The cheaper material had a few flaws but not many. I would expect to pay $5/bd ft for clear cherry.

When I find good wood at a good price I buy extra. Sometimes it isn't really extra if I have problems. I do not but narrow wood when I want narrow pieces if it's the same price. It is terribly easy to rip a piece out of a wider board. Some places charge more for wider boards. In that case, I would buy narrower pieces if that is what I need. I pick wood based upon the color and grain, not the width.