IL, WI, Where to get SYP: (Southern Yellow Pine)

[tkarlmann]

I think I have a solution!!!! Dougfir in IL!

After a lot of effort spent on this, I have been able to find some Doug-Fir!!!

Turns out Lowe's in my area has it. However, they do not necessarily know they have it. In the larger widths only, they have dougfir mixed in with SPF in their 2x8 and 2x10 stock, and I was looking at 8' stock. The dougfir is therefore priced the same as SPF! ...And of course it's all kiln-dired.

Just by good fortune, I spoke to a knowledgeable guy in my local Lowe's Building Materials that knew the difference -- hard to find these days.

You can ID dougfir in 2 ways:
1) A label indicates "dougfir" stamped right on the board. (Duh!)
2) Doug-fir is reddish in color compared to NWP; although I'm not sure if this is true for all
dougfir -- mine has the reddish tint.

Thanks sooo much to all who replied and helped. I think I'll just use the dougfir and perhaps look at SYP sometime in the future. No worries with my dougfir though for the workbench.

If this has helped anyone else out, let me know.

[Hoakie]

It has, I have been waiting to start my bench but ran into the same problem as you with looking for SYP in Iowa. Menards by me has Doug Fir and I will go with that when I get some other things cleared off my plate.

[SARGE..g-47]

Dour fir should be fine on top and makes an excellent base. I recovered several old 10" x 12" beams from an old civil war era warehouse being torn down in Atlanta years ago. Over 100 years after they were placed there the DF was straight as an arrow and tight, straight grain for the most part. Old growth DF was that way. The stuff being cut now is not allowed to age as back then so it does not get as large.

Demand has dictated that but.. I have seen some really good and well kiln dried at my local HD and I grab some on occasion to keep for the next base I build...

Good luck...