[Woodworking] lumber prices :faint:
 

i needed about 3-4 board feet of walnut today for a little project, and the local home depot does carry a limited supply of walnut, all 3/4" thick actual, various widths and lengths. find a nice board near the top of the stack, nominal 1x6, 7 feet long. quick math tells me that this one board will do nicely. it's sold by the linear foot. priced today at $6.62/ft times 7 feet = $46.34, and with tax, out the door, it's $50.25.

:faint::faint:

if i had gone down to the lumber place in Albuquerque, i think their prices are a little cheaper, last time i was down there, i glanced at the walnut prices, and they were about $8-9/BF. but if you factor in the gas cost to get there and back, you'll only save money if you buy a lot of lumber at once.

so i'll work on this next week, if it turns out cool, i'll post a pic. if not, i'll enjoy a really expensive fire. :slap:

ah, right, measure twice, cut once. and don't bleed on your work or your tools.

:DAB:

When I was a kid I remember my grandfather took a trip to Mexico with a flatbed trailer, from central Illinois, and bought an entire load of walnut boards of various dimensions but a lot of them. For a few years he kept most of them stored in our garage, took up an entire side of the garage. He said he bought all of it for $250. That was a lot of money back then but just imagine that same load of wood today, it would be IDK $100,000 or so?

He built lots of things out of those rough boards, including the grandfather clock in my living room. I actually remember "helping" him build that, it was his first - a prototype of many to come - and when he died he willed it to me.

flat bed worth?

8 feet wide, 10 feet long, 4 feet high = 3840 board feet. at $10/BF = $38,400.

smuggling drugs is more profitable, but illegal. so you better factor that into things. :DAB:

I just bought pecan firewood today, hoping it’ll last me another season of running the smoker, didn’t even fill up my 8’ wood rack and still cost $150 plus the roar of renting the trailer.

Talk about a WEIRD assed thread....today....current time.....

My son returned my call, he in Ca. and with his son/my G/S and so the are doing some woodworking, Tom bought some plywood and made some furniture out of it, going to buy some more wood and he is showing the kid how to make stuff.....

and you guys doing the same shit.....:seasix::hurray::hurray::lol:

last time i bought some 3/4" pre-finished plywood, it was $86/sheet. :faint:

Pic of Grandfather clock please......or he didn't build it:leaving:

DAB, have you ever considered contacting a logger and getting some butts (the very bottom, and widest part of the trees that they cut and discard before hauling their logs out? I watch the tv show swamp loggers, and it seems they generally are just a problem to dispose of.

That would give you huge chunks of solid wood to carve stuff from. I realize you probably don't have any forests too terribly close, but I wonder if it would be worthwhile to drag a trailer and bring some back

i don't keep a lot of stock lumber around, i get stuff as projects come up. only lumber that grows around here is either piñon pine or juniper. neither of which is very desirable for building things.

don't have a trailer. and even a bed full of stuff would cost way too much in money to make it worth the trip. 13mpg truck.

likely the reason shows and people like that have trouble getting rid of some stuff is that it isn't worth the transport cost to get it somewhere else. even if they gave it away, it wouldn't be worth the gas costs to get it from Louisiana to NM. 2000 mile round trip: 2000/13= 154 gallons of gas * $2.20/gal = $340. not including meals and hotels.

now i'm into this pile of rough lumber for $500. and i'd have to get it milled to usable sizes, and then wait 1-3 years for it to season/dry before I could use it for anything. that's a lot of time and money sunk with no idea if there is a payback later on.

my 2 cents.

:DAB:

You want ridiculous priced wood? Try and get a hold of some quality quarter sawn guitar neck material. Or god forbid a figured 21" x 14" hardwood billet suitable for use as a guitar top. Holy Poopies! :faint:

Probably a little less dangerous now that Trump is President. I haven't heard of Gibson Guitars being raided lately, so I guess elections have consequences after all.

https://i.imgur.com/1TftpyL.jpg

I haven't had it running for a few years. It still works just fine though.

:seasix:
We have one from my wifes cousin that he built.....holding it for my daughter

So, I know a guy...

What a mess that raid was. They confiscated guitars, wood inventory, etc., saying that they had a warrant, but they couldn't show it to Gibson since it was "sealed". I can't help but think that somwhere there are current or former Homeland Security clowns sitting around strumming their free Gibson guitars. Or building things out of rosewood in their workshops.

I have some rosewood that I bought back in the 70's before the rules took effect. I have no way to prove where or when I acquired it, so I probably can't sell anything I make from it. I also have some ivory & ebony salvaged from an old piano, which may have its own set of issues & restrictions.

gluing up today:

well crap.

messed putting in the juice groove. neglected to clamp things down, the router wandered off path, and i have a juice groove where it doesn't belong. will have to start over.

will re-cut this one smaller to get rid of the mistakes.

EH, take another pass and make it wider.....:seasix::dance:

If that were my cutting board, that little defect wouldn't bother me at all.

And I like Mrvette's idea of making the groove wider.

:seasix:Looks fine to me .....not enough to bother at all:seasix: