Cheapest place to buy 1300 frames?

In my experience the budget frames are composed of the parts that get culled during production of clear or commercial frames. I haven't ever measured moisture content in them, but suspect they are the same as the commercial frames . They usually have a knot in a location that will either cause frame failure or makes the frame look ugly or they have a twist in the top or bottom bar because the section it was milled from was not quarter sawn.

They are perfectly fine frames if you are like me and don't care if they have a knot hole in them somewhere. I cull out all the parts that have bad knots where two parts of the frame join together...

With half of the frames i ordered assembled now. I have not found any rejects. knots or end bars that split. If anything I am finding only a few cosmetic type flaws at most. but they have all assembled just fine and are square and flat. I am not using a jig for these. all the pieces fit together very well and are consistent. I actually expected some rejects but am not finding them.

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Originally Posted by bluegrass

Nowhere in about 18 months, prices have gone up too much, it is more worthwhile to buy woodenware.

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Didn't you have tornadoes or a hurricane up your way last year? Lumber prices always go through the roof in the region of a major storm system, as demand is up for repairs. They occasionally stabilize at a lower level in a few months.

Mann Lake $1014.00 for 1300 frames and free shipping.

Western bee @.64 = 832 plus shipping
seconds @.42= 546 plus shipping
order 100 extrra of the economy and you will have way more than 1300 good frames.

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Originally Posted by Mr. C

2) I'm trying narrow foundationless this year.

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kelley's is going to have 1-1/4 frame for sale in june

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Originally Posted by pascopol

Why don't you check your Dadant local branch, I believe they have a store in Illinois.

Shipping will be much less or if it is not far from you, you can pick them up. Their commercial grade frames are very good, and I believe Western Bee Supplie makes the frames for Dadant anyway.

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Dadant owns Western bee supply all of there wood is cut by western bee supply

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Originally Posted by Mustang

Dadant owns Western bee supply all of there wood is cut by western bee supply

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You would think with Dadant being sucessful and all they would tell Western how to sell stuff. And not charge outragous shipping charges. They have lost so much bussiness because of it.

Shipping costs what it costs. It would cost me as much to have the same order shipped from Dadant in Paris Tx via UPS as it would cost me to have it shipped from Western Bee via freight, I had them run the shipping costs for my order. Because of speed at which I need items, either I or a friend will run to Dadant in Paris to pick my order up tomorrow - it is slightly cheaper than having UPS deliver it and much less risk of damage. I still can get the budget frames and boxes that are NOT in Dadant's catalog in low quantities, they are breaking pallets for me, and at the great prices and no shipping, I ordered more boxes than I would have.

Freight costs what it costs. Pallet space is more the issue with bee stuff than weight (which is the issue with my regular line of work.) But Western Bee cannot control freight costs beyond their choice of carrier, and their customer service in researching what my costs would be was superb. If I wanted a really really large quantity of their items, and had more time, I would not hesitate to have it trucked in. Mann Lake's free shipping isn't free, it is in every one of their prices, and the reviews I got on those Budget boxes aren't looking so good.

Gypsi

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Originally Posted by FlowerPlanter

You would think with Dadant being sucessful and all they would tell Western how to sell stuff. And not charge outragous shipping charges. They have lost so much bussiness because of it.

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Respectfully, as pointed out by someone else here, shipping charges are what they are. Western Bee procures quotes from 4-5 different carriers who tell us what their liftgate charges, drop charges or whatever other charges will be. That's what we quote the customer. Fair is fair - it is our belief that everyone pays what they should pay - we don't increase the costs of our products so we can "offer" discounted or free shipping when somebody somewhere is really going to make up that difference. And usually, that's the hobbyist who only needs $20-$50 worth of supplies. Is that fair that they should absorb those added costs? We think not.

We grit our teeth at what the cost of shipping can be to some areas - particularly back east, but there are ways to combine shipping costs and everybody comes out ahead. We currently see these tactics being used in Colorado, Missouri, Alaska, North Carolina and a host of other states bordering the Mississippi River.

With the price of fuel increasing for common carriers as well as the rest of us, we may see prices rise more - but from Western Bee's perspective, the costs you will see rise will be shipping, not on the products themselves. Hopefully, this increase we've seen recently in fuel will subside.

Best Regards,

Rick Molenda, Gen. Mgr.
Western Bee

Have any of you heard of uship.com? A friend recently used it to ship a vehicle from TN to TX. He paid for the vehicle and had it delivered within a few days using uship.com at a very reasonable rate. I have looked into the site, looks like you post what you are wanting to ship, and people place bids on it. You can usually find very reasonable rates with it if you are not in a huge hurry. It appears anyone can bid on the delivery of the packages. The packages can be anything from pets to packages to vehicles, etc. Some bidders are commercial drivers looking for jobs but some are just normal people looking to make a few extra bucks on a trip that they already had planned. Just a suggestion, hopefully it can help someone out.

Phillip Spearman

I live in NC, and I use western usually via dadant, but the point being, its cheaper, way cheaper than Steve at brushy will ever be, and more importantly I won't get them poorly loaded, have half a load fly off on an 8 lane, and hear Steve finds it amusing. I digress, Im a fan of western. If you dont like shipping, man up, get in the cab and go pickup a load!

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Originally Posted by Skinner Apiaries

I won't get them poorly loaded, have half a load fly off on an 8 lane,

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The responsibility of a load being properly secured lies with the driver.

Good news odfrank, when I spend thousands of dollars, it still dosent go to steve. So? Comp me 50 bucks of foundation? or Dadant gets the money? Yes. Dadant gets the money, lots of money. Thousands and Thousands. And why? Because they wanted to give me work value for a couple boxes of foundation. Moral of the story? I try to satisfy my customers, why? So what if it costs me 10 bucks, they might spend 5000 dollars with me, over that 10 dollars, or not.

Side note, I buy from brushy when I need a jacket. They do make *cough* buy, a nicer hood veil than dadant. And I like the lower spring tension in their smoker bellows. But that's pretty much it.

As a formal commercial truck driver I agree that the way you are loaded is the drivers responsibility... If your load is un-secured and flies off of the truck the excuse that somebody else loaded it isn't going to get you out of a ticket... and the company who owns the truck doesn't pay the ticket for the driver either.

On U-ship: They are a Rip off... You can hire a broker to ship your load for half of what your quote on u-ship would be... I recently shipped a vehicle up from South Carolina... The lowest quote on U-ship was 1800.00, the highest was 2600.00. I hired UTi to broker it and it was sitting in my driveway in 24 hrs and only cost 925.00

and several thousand dollars later, I may be wrong, but they still lost. woot. When in doubt, fly somwhere and rent a Uhaul.

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Originally Posted by bluegrass

As a formal commercial truck driver I agree that the way you are loaded is the drivers responsibility... If your load is un-secured and flies off of the truck the excuse that somebody else loaded it isn't going to get you out of a ticket... and the company who owns the truck doesn't pay the ticket for the driver either.

On U-ship: They are a Rip off... You can hire a broker to ship your load for half of what your quote on u-ship would be... I recently shipped a vehicle up from South Carolina... The lowest quote on U-ship was 1800.00, the highest was 2600.00. I hired UTi to broker it and it was sitting in my driveway in 24 hrs and only cost 925.00

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We had very good luck with uship.com. The guy who picked up the load was a commercial driver looking for a back load. He picked the vehicle up from central TN the day after purchase and delivered it to south/central TX the day after that for $700. Fast shipping, fast response, and he arrived hours before he was scheduled to. No complaints here, they provided a great service and we never felt as if uship.com was ripping us off. Dont get me wrong, some people did bid outrageous rates ($2500), but we chose the cheapest one ($700).

Phillip Spearman

You got lucky to catch a back haul. I haven't ever received a reasonable quote on U-ship, in the future I will only use a broker.