Got a hobbypak from Internet Lumber

[radhak]

First time for me - received my hobbypak of cherry from Internet Lumber. $139 for 20bf shipped, just on the edge of too-expensive.

The wood is in very good shape - 7 boards of exactly 6 ft long (they were not kidding when they said it'd be between 5 to 7 ft long) . Width 5" to 8". But for one board, all are very straight and square. That one makes up for the rest - it's twisted out by almost 3 inches at one end . I will have to crosscut it much smaller to salvage much usable out that. Still, I am happy - At least I don't have to worry about planing/jointing.

Tried buying lumber locally, but then could not find anybody willing to mill it for me, even for payment ! Now I know the 'net is still my friend...

[blame]

whoa 6.95/bdft hmmm seems kinda high but i'm used to taking logs to my neighbor for .20/bdft but i also have to plane and joint them but i get to pick the way its cut so if it doesnt turn out pretty its my fault lol

blame

[LCHIEN]

if you count shipping, that's not too terribly bad.
Buying on eBay it was experience that shipping about doubled the net price of the wood.

[ragswl4]

I have purchased lumber from them and was happy each time. While the cost may seem high, for the quality of the wood I find it to be inexpensive compared to what I have to pay here locally in SoCal. They also have a big variety.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

One of just a few good things about living in PA . . . cheap cherry, maple, walnut, etc.

Honestly at that price I would expect all the wood to be perfect.

Try Groff and Groff in quarryville PA. They mill and ship and have awesome stock.

Where are you located? Have you tried woodfinder.net for local dealers? I can't believe some local lumber yards will not surface for you at around $.25 per bf. Heck post here or sawmillcreek or woodnet and offer someone $5 per BF for cherry and you should find local folks who will sell it to you for that. Watch the classifieds at Woodnet. They are always doing lumber runs through GA and FL.

[radhak]

Y'all have touched a raw nerve.

Have a local lumber yard who only gives raw stock (Whittelsey) . But no milling service shop on the YellowPages are ready to entertain the idea of surfacing my lumber, somehow conveying the feeling that this was a very unusual request... You have no idea how much i envy you PA guys (where i used to live before i got into woodworking ). Even sellers on ebay and other lumber auction sites are mostly in that area.

After deep diligence, a couple of months back I had lined up a couple of millers from yp who promised to do it at around ~$50 per hour. ie, they would not commit to a per-bf rate, just calculated by whatever time it takes. But when I finally called them last week, one of them had sold off his shop (phone is dead), and the other simply says, 'sorry, we don't have the time'.

So i bought this lot of cherry as an experiment, just to see how i fare.

Thanks JS, had not known of Gruff. They seem slightly cheaper than what i paid, but have to call them for shipping charges. By my extensive research of all other internet sources, Internet Lumber have proven to be the cheapest, unless I am willing to purchase 100bf of wood. Me, I have too little space in my garage for a Planer or a Jointer, forget about that much lumber .

and yes, i need to frequent woodnet / sawmillcreek more often.

[JimD]

One of the places I use is 100 miles away. I get 25 mpg, possibly less pulling my little utility trailer (haven't measured it). 4 gallons each way at nearly $3/gallon is over $20. Depending on how much wood I buy, shipping starts to look not-so-bad. I have to take off work to buy wood from the guy that is closer. I like looking at the wood and picking out the boards but getting to where they sell wood and hauling it around is not the most enjoyable part of woodworking - paying for the wood is about the least fun. I could use some 1/2 inch thick poplar but the cheapest way I've found to get it is to plane down 1 inch (3/4 planned) poplar. I can buy 1/2 inch but with shipping it is more than the 1 inch.

Jim

[Garasaki]

Local cost of cherry is 7.50 / bf here. In the ruff... (well skip planed).

I bought some last year, haven't got around to using much, but I will say it is beautiful wood. Perhaps even worth that much!!

[radhak]

I am with you on the hassle of actually going out to purchase. My lumber yard is open only weekdays 9 to 3pm - so bang middle of work day. And surfacing it is additional. So all in all - might as well get it from the internet and grin and bear the high cost for the sake of convenience...

[ragswl4]

Another source that I use. They have stores in Arizona so its much closer and saves shipping costs for me. Wood was more but shipping was less so it was about even in cost with Internetlumber.com.

http://www.woodworkerssource.net/

[L. D. Jeffries]

Internet Lumber

GLOAT Hate to do this, but, tommorw, if it doesn't rain, I'am going up to the old farmstead barn and load up a couple hundred bf of cherry. This was cut and band-sawed a couple of years ago. My shop's cherry storage is getting low. If I remember correctly I paid about $100 to have a thousand running feet sawed. Of course I haven't factored in the labor of cutting down the trees. Like I said, sorry gang but just had to tell this little story.

[blame]

ragswl4 i did not mean to offend you in any way i was just appalled at the price we have to pay to get something nowadays sorry if i upset you it wasn't intended

blame

[Jeffrey Schronce]

If I remember correctly I paid about $100 to have a thousand running feet sawed. Of course I haven't factored in the labor of cutting down the trees. Like I said, sorry gang but just had to tell this little story.

Wow! I assume you had to take it to the saw mill cause I can't get someone to set up a bandsaw mill for that, much less run 1000bf! $.10 a bf aint to bad my friend!

Seeing the money that Mike Morgan is making on his lumber runs I see a group buy and a bs mill!

[Jeffrey Schronce]

Mike Morgan is making a west bound lumber run going through the midwest. He has threads on SMC and WN. He's got some nice stuff.

[L. D. Jeffries]

Internet Lumber follow-up

Wow! I assume you had to take it to the saw mill cause I can't get someone to set up a bandsaw mill for that, much less run 1000bf! $.10 a bf aint to bad my friend!

Seeing the money that Mike Morgan is making on his lumber runs I see a group buy and a bs mill!

Sorry Jeffery, I neglected to say that we have a local band-saw portable mill guy that we hire. All in all there were three of us having lumber sawed, guess we must have sawed 10K feet of lumber in two and a half days. This guy is really good and "fast". If you are on the slab crew, believe me you will work you butt off! He has a portable computer controlled mill that does it all, powered log lifters, with a 35hp Honda engine. It can handle just about anything; we had some old pine that measured over 28" across the butt. "piece of cake" for this outfit.