Wood

[bcdennis]

Ah the good old days right.  Seems like just a few years ago I could get Eastern Cedar at a reasonable cost , cut to custom width and thickness.  But have you seen the prices lately?  Shipping, in some cases, costs more than the board itself.  I live in the High Desert of New Mexico.  I can get Poplar, Red Oak and Basswood rather easily but its hit and miss on the rest.  When I make it to Albuquerque I raid and buy as much as I can otherwise I am at the mercy of the internet. 

Any good places with reasonable prices for Walnut, Red Cedar, Purple Heart, etc.  I like boards 3/4 thick and as wide as I can get them. 

[Sycamore67]

Ocooch Hardwood is a place I have used.

[WayneMahler]

Ive heard a lot of great things about Ocooch.  Here is another link you may want to look into. Woodworkers Source . Never used them but the state flat rate shipping. 

[Rockytime]

I made my first order to Ocooch. Should be spelled OUCH to be accurate. I'm not complaining about the prices but just the price of wood in general. I live about 25 miles from Woodcraft and there are no bargains there. One a month they have a sale on a couple of varieties of wood and if I am in the neighborhood I will purchase some. I get my 1/8 and 1/4 inch BB there but I just usually go to Lowe's or HD and satisfy myself with Poplar and Oak. Living on a fixed income causes me to be judicious in my spending.

[Dee]

3 hours ago, bcdennis said:

I live in the High Desert of New Mexico. 

I also live in Farmington.  I got some 1 by's cedar boards from Builders First Source on the corner of Scott and San Juan Blvd.  They are fantastic people to work with.  

[spirithorse]

Sorry any suggestions I could make would just be second-hand from other people's recommendations

but, how cool is it that you could possibly meet another scroller in your home-town? I sure wish I could

meet some of the members from this forum.

God Bless! Spirithorse

[OCtoolguy]

7 hours ago, bcdennis said:

Ah the good old days right.  Seems like just a few years ago I could get Eastern Cedar at a reasonable cost , cut to custom width and thickness.  But have you seen the prices lately?  Shipping, in some cases, costs more than the board itself.  I live in the High Desert of New Mexico.  I can get Poplar, Red Oak and Basswood rather easily but its hit and miss on the rest.  When I make it to Albuquerque I raid and buy as much as I can otherwise I am at the mercy of the internet. 

Any good places with reasonable prices for Walnut, Red Cedar, Purple Heart, etc.  I like boards 3/4 thick and as wide as I can get them. 

There is no easy answer for that question. From what I have found, the best way to "save" money, Ha!, is to try to order as much wood at a time as you can. That brings the shipping down a bunch. I have been putting my projects together and ordering wood to do them all, at the same time. Buy the wood that is. I've got enough wood stocked up now for a lot of projects and my shipping costs were much more in line with the cost of the wood. Luckily, I've got a pretty good source about a hour from me and they work with me on shipping because of that. If I really need something quick, I can drive up to them but with the traffic and cost of gas, I don't do that often. The name of their company is: Cherokee Wood Products in Upland Ca. They have a website at: CherokeeWood.com. I have also ordered from Ocooch and they are excellent and fast. Very good to work with either of these companies.

 

 

[Scrappile]

My problem with Ocooch wood is every piece I have bought that is less than 1/2" thick, cups quickly after unwrapping.  I stack as I should and after I take a piece out it starts cupping.  I dampen it on the inside of the cup as they say, weight it to let it dry and as I am using it it will cup again.  So I don't know how to keep it from cupping other than to cut it in stripes and glue it back together with the grain reversed on every other stripe. 

 

[OCtoolguy]

4 hours ago, Scrappile said:

My problem with Ocooch wood is every piece I have bought that is less than 1/2" thick, cups quickly after unwrapping.  I stack as I should and after I take a piece out it starts cupping.  I dampen it on the inside of the cup as they say, weight it to let it dry and as I am using it it will cup again.  So I don't know how to keep it from cupping other than to cut it in stripes and glue it back together with the grain reversed on every other stripe. 

 

I have had the same problem with Cherokee. Nature of the beast.

 

[Sycamore67]

Plain sawn wood in thinner pieces tend to cup.  It is the nature of wood and worse with some species than others.  Quarter sawn wood is much less likely to cup or warp.

 

[bcdennis]

18 hours ago, Dee said:

I also live in Farmington.  I got some 1 by's cedar boards from Builders First Source on the corner of Scott and San Juan Blvd.  They are fantastic people to work with.  

Do you hit any of the Craft Fairs around here?  The cedar I find around here just doesn't work well with the Fret work I do.  I like the Eastern Red Cedar mostly for its color but also it holds up well for intricate fret work.  I do go up to Durango Colorado and get Aspen.

[Dee]

I did take my wood items for the first time last year.  I mainly make puzzles and toys and games for Toys for Tots.  The items left over as well as all the money is mostly donated for the kids at Christmas.  

However for the last umteen years I did do a lot of fairs with my jewelry.  I've only been scrolling for about a year, ( give or take a couple of months)

I agree about the cedar here. I used it for simple ornaments for Toys volunteers as a Thank you gift from our coordinator.  Don't think I have tried aspen. How is it and is it affordable.  Since all my work is given away finding a place to buy good wood at lesser prices is needed information.

[Woodmaster1]

I am glad I have several sources for wood. The woodworking club for domestic hardwood reasonable price because we cut and kiln dry our own. The woodworking store I demo at for exotic hardwood, and two other dealers for exotic and domestic hardwood. There are several other places in the area to get hardwood. Indiana has an abundance of places to get hardwood there are several sawmills to choose from. Eastern Red cedar is $2.00 a board foot from the club we had a member bring back a load from Tennessee.

Edited February 12, 2019 by Woodmaster1

[Hermit]

Dennis I've not purchased from these guys yet but plan on it soon. They aren't far from you and offer free shipping.

https://www.woodworkerssource.com/

[Sparkey]

I have also bought from Ocooch a few times. Great selection, good prices and shipping.

[tomsteve]

On 2/8/2019 at 6:33 AM, Sycamore67 said:

Plain sawn wood in thinner pieces tend to cup.  It is the nature of wood and worse with some species than others.  Quarter sawn wood is much less likely to cup or warp.

 

even when i have plain(or flat) sawn thats down to a low moisture content(6-10%) it cups. them internal stresses really come out.

[zimmerstutzen]

I do more turning aND I found places to scrounge wood for dirt cheap or free. (Furniture factories, saw mills, commercial wood mills etc)  what these on line outfits charge is obscene.  For valentine's day, I scrolled a bunch of hearts from 3/4 poplar that I milled myself from 4x5 poplar cut offs from a pallet makers scrap pile.  I painted them red, put them on lengths of dowel and presented Mrs with a bouquet of hearts.  Wood was free.

[OCtoolguy]

On 2/7/2019 at 12:10 PM, Rockytime said:

I made my first order to Ocooch. Should be spelled OUCH to be accurate. I'm not complaining about the prices but just the price of wood in general. I live about 25 miles from Woodcraft and there are no bargains there. One a month they have a sale on a couple of varieties of wood and if I am in the neighborhood I will purchase some. I get my 1/8 and 1/4 inch BB there but I just usually go to Lowe's or HD and satisfy myself with Poplar and Oak. Living on a fixed income causes me to be judicious in my spending.

I'm so glad I'm not alone Les. I complain all the time about the cost of stuff and since getting into this hobby, the material is the most expensive thing we must have.

 

[Bill WIlson]

Wood costs are very much a factor of geographic location.  Fortunately, I live in an area with an abundance of native hardwood.  There are small, independent sawmills and lumber yards dotting the landscape in Western PA.  This means that lumber is typically much more abundant and relatively affordable around here.  Imported woods are still expensive, but we do have multiple local sources for it, so we can pick out our own and avoid shipping costs.  I know that many folks, in different parts of the country, do not enjoy this luxury.  Best recommendation I can give is try to find a local dealer.  If that doesn't pan out, then look for local businesses, like cabinet shops or millwork shops and try to find out where they get their lumber.  Some places may not share that information or their supplier sells to commercial clients only, but perhaps the shop would be willing to let you order through them.  I've never tried this, but I have heard of people doing it successfully.  You need to establish a relationship with someone on the inside.  If nothing else, you may be able to score some of their scraps and cut-offs.  It's worth a shot.

[OCtoolguy]

29 minutes ago, Bill WIlson said:

Wood costs are very much a factor of geographic location.  Fortunately, I live in an area with an abundance of native hardwood.  There are small, independent sawmills and lumber yards dotting the landscape in Western PA.  This means that lumber is typically much more abundant and relatively affordable around here.  Imported woods are still expensive, but we do have multiple local sources for it, so we can pick out our own and avoid shipping costs.  I know that many folks, in different parts of the country, do not enjoy this luxury.  Best recommendation I can give is try to find a local dealer.  If that doesn't pan out, then look for local businesses, like cabinet shops or millwork shops and try to find out where they get their lumber.  Some places may not share that information or their supplier sells to commercial clients only, but perhaps the shop would be willing to let you order through them.  I've never tried this, but I have heard of people doing it successfully.  You need to establish a relationship with someone on the inside.  If nothing else, you may be able to score some of their scraps and cut-offs.  It's worth a shot.

Unfortunately, I live in a a God Forsaken place where they cut down trees to make parking lots and high-rise section 8 housing. No sawmills here because there are no trees. Well, except for the pine trees but they are being killed by the pine bark beetle. No forest management here.

 

[danilou7]

You could look at Bell Forest products, https://www.bellforestproducts.com.  I use a lot of 1/8" wood for projects and I've never had any issues with the wood cupping, not saying it won't. That could be determined by the humidity in your area.  I've never had anything shipped to me because they're only 1 1/2 hours away so I make a run about every 2 months (I live int he UP of Michigan, so everything is at least an hour away).  Super great people to work with and an extremely large amount of exotics to choose from.

[Woodmaster1]

I went with club members to pickup 600bdft of cherry today that the club bought for less than $1 a board foot. The cherry we picked up today added to the cherry we bought two weeks ago our inventory on cherry stands at  1100 bdft. The next wood we are getting is 8 10foot logs of sycamore that's at least 4' across. That should make for some nice looking quartersawn boards. I can't wait until we have a sawmill day to cut the logs.

[OCtoolguy]

19 hours ago, Woodmaster1 said:

I went with club members to pickup 600bdft of cherry today that the club bought for less than $1 a board foot. The cherry we picked up today added to the cherry we bought two weeks ago our inventory on cherry stands at  1100 bdft. The next wood we are getting is 8 10foot logs of sycamore that's at least 4' across. That should make for some nice looking quartersawn boards. I can't wait until we have a sawmill day to cut the logs.

I'd sure love to be there to experience that. I love watching sawmills in operation. I went to a steam tractor show a few years back and they had a big old steam tractor out in the field with a long long belt running to a sawmill. They were milling lumber from logs. Fascinating to say the least. 

 

[Woodmaster1]

3 hours ago, octoolguy said:

I'd sure love to be there to experience that. I love watching sawmills in operation. I went to a steam tractor show a few years back and they had a big old steam tractor out in the field with a long long belt running to a sawmill. They were milling lumber from logs. Fascinating to say the least. 

 

We have a sawmill day in the spring and fall. We take the boards and put them in a solar kiln until they are dry. It is a great experience we usually have 10+ members help. Last spring we cut 28 walnut logs, some oak and poplar all donated to the club.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Woodmaster1