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If all you have is a single bundle of say 1000 b.f. you can have it dropped. the lumber is bundled in one stack and the truck has a tilting bed. they drop it like a dump truck drops dirt. Cheap and does not do as much damage as you might think.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rader Sidetrack
Cleo,
I think I would like your work. At just over or just under 6 feet per box depending on joint style your either working with very rough stock or turning out a very nice piece. I'm guessing the latter, but there is an art form to either method.
A bit on the issue of expected losses. I will not argue with Cleo on his experience at all. There is a lot of sorting that goes on before lumber goes from a mill to home depot.
As an example. I found a source for slabs of walnut burl.Now walnut burl of the correct quality sells for a lot of money. a few hundred dollars per board foot in some cases. I got 500 lbs of it for $250. After drying. cutting into usable pieces and throwing out what was not even close to good enough. I had 25 lbs of high quality maple burl. about 250 lbs of lesser grade burl and the rest was pure waste. But that 25 lbs was worth about $2000. Lots of work. two band saw blades and a whole lot of headache later. I decided it was not worth it. I have never done it again. I have paid as much as $100 for 6 cubic inches of wood. That works out to $2400 per bdf. and have no question it was worth every penny. IT was not Walnut. it was Huanguali.
http://www.chinese-furniture.com/cgi...li.html&id=105
The piece i bought does have the ghost faces which is very expensive. but not only that but the figure was on a scale that would work for a writing pen. I produced a pen from it that I will not sell. but I do offer it for $2000 if I can locate the materials. It is limited edition gold nib fountain pen that has never been written with.
The style of pen is the Emperor and in this tradition. I named the pen Shǐ Huángdì which means First Emperor.
Just a bit of a story that shows how extreme the search for wood and what is considered waste can get.
Just as important is how they are measuring it. I was buying red oak up the road and lined up a pick up bed full. They laid it out side to side and measured across the face of the boards, multiplied it by the length. The boards were not dimensional (edges not straight) so with all the openings in the stack as measured I must have paid for ‘air boards’.
When I buy I have always had ‘one straight edge’ so I do not pick the width. You can pick minimum width but the more you spec the more the price goes up.
Not likely. My comment was in response to the scenario posed by KevinR.Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Y
Typically, a semi trucks hauling lumber are simple flatbeds. No tilt mechanism, no rollers like you might see on a local delivery truck. Semi trucks generally require a forklift to load/unload.Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinR
Saltybee...Maybe I wasn't clear. I normally get one box, and some other pieces from a 10 foot board. The cost per box is what is normally $6.00. And yes, the cypress I get is .80 per board ft, and it is rough saw, and often it is very rough. I select the better pieces for boxes, the lesser for bottom boards, tops, etc, The last source I tried turned out to be a bust. Too much of it is almost worthless. It was banded, and I did not break the bands before I loaded it and brought it home. , But, it is his loss. I won't order any more.
Someone above said go and look at it, and I second that.
cchoganjr
minz you are correct. There is a whole different ballgame about measuring wood. From one source I ordered, 11 inch wide, 7/8 thick, 10 feet long, well, they calculated those boards as 10 board feet each. When it actually contained just a little over 7.5 bdft. Some mills calculate their rough stock the same way finished lumber is calculated. A stack of 2 X 4, 10 feet long, 10 ft. wide does not contain 200 board ft.
Someone above said the price goes up as you put restrictions on what you are buying. That is very true. Cypress for .80 a board ft is no where near as good as $2.00 per board ft. But you can still come out on cypress boxes at $6.00 each.
cchoganjr
We have 2 local multy store local lumber yards, a Lowes and a Depot all within a 5 mile radius. You would not expect to find the same board called the same grade at any of the four. Each is a little different grade to grade or month to month. You have to look or get a very good price unseen.
Saltybee...agreed. I have been stuck by buying unseen.
cchoganjr
Cleo
do you sell any cypress tops ? I have the metal for them.
Mustang..Contact me at cchoganjr@scrtc.com Let me see what you need.
cchoganjr