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General Category => General Scroll Saw Talk => Topic started by: northie66 on April 21, 2010, 08:05:44 pm
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I usually only go to Home Depot because it's close and get poplar or oak... sometimes pine. I'm really not good at picking out woods. Is there any rule of thumb when it comes to wood and the good and bad of each kind?
Thanks!
Janet
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Hi Janet
What type of things are you making?
Barbara
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The wood depends on what you are making. Color, texture, grain, and ease of cutting the desired pattern are factors.
I get wood at Lowes and Home Depot. They have a nice selection of 1/4 and 1/2" wood for many scroll projects. Michael's crafts has Baltic birch plywood (use the coupons). I also get hardwood cut-offs at my local lumberyard. They gave me a half dozen two-foot pieces of various hardwoods for $5.00. A friend has a planer and planes them down to 1/2" for me.
Hope it helps.
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My favorites are Walnut, Maple, and Mahogany with some Pine and BB thrown in For the exotic stuff I travel down to the Woodsmith Store in Des Moines, and what little they don't have I get from Ocooch Hardwoods. The first 3 mentioned I can pick up at the local Menard's too. A little pricey. It's shrink wrapped so you have to be a little careful and check each piece to be sure the label underneath doesn't have flaws or knots. favorite trick of their supplier! They do let you pick thru the rack which is nice. I also have a local outfit that cuts their own trees, saws and kiln dries it. But they don't make up anything under 4/4 and bigger. Plus, since the trees are all cut locally it's all local woods.
Chips
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My favorite scrolling items are clocks. I prefer simple designs that show off the wood. I, primarily, use exotic woods that can be obtained from a couple of 'local' specialty shops - usually 3/4" thick - sometimes smaller and sometimes larger. My latest find was some curly purpleheart which is HIGHLY figured.
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Pine and Red gum the Pine I get from the local roof truss maker as of cuts it is a high quality the red gum I get from the
local aboriginal that can collect it from the local forest
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If you have a cabinet shop close by I have found small pieces of ash,cherry, and oak available in thier trash bin, nothing big, but free for the asking and great for small projects.
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If you have a cabinet shop close by I have found small pieces of ash,cherry, and oak available in thier trash bin, nothing big, but free for the asking and great for small projects.
Agreed! I have a friend who is a "high-end" finish carpenter who keeps me supplied in all the cherry I could ever use. He has also provided me with oak, english oak (very expensive - makes a great pen!), Hickory, Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba), and Ipe.
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so far all I've used is baltic birch. I've been getting mine from a seller on ebay for a few years. I haven't tried any other wood yet, not sure which to start with, some have said try walnut or maple, so we will see lol.
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I use pine from a local Building supplier of seconds & recycled timber.
I also make smaller items so I ask the members of the woodwork group for their off cuts.
I have some Red Cedar which has lovely grain in it from such a source.
I buy top quality ply, for word art, from a timber supplier not a hardware store such as Lowes in the USA or Bunnings here in Australia.
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I like exotic woods. Yes they are a bit more expensive, but I like to use them on personlized projects. I have used, purpleheart, zebra, paduak, holly, sapel, walnut, marblewood, canary, cherry. I guess I could go on and on. I have a place in Ft Lauderdale that sells small pieces of all this. www.constantines.com. I also watch ebay, there are some good deals in there. Contact me if you need any help
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I use a variety of woods,I use Aromatic Cedar,and Sycamore the most.Also Ash,Pecan Hickory and Mesquite.There is a saw mill in east Texas,who has great wood at good prices.We usually make 3 or 4 trips up there a year and pick up wood. You can check his mill out at www.mgsawmill.com He is located in Huntsville Texas.
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I have a lot of difficulty getting hard and exotic woods here in the UK, baltic birch ply comes from a sheet supply specialist quite near to me, they are all 8'x4' sheets, if i spend ?100 they waive there excess and deliver free and i get a lot of ply for my money, most of the hard wood and pine that i use i have given to me from building work or i get it from skips and off-cut bins or old furniture.
Ian
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don't forget schools that have shop classes. they throw away alot of scraps. and also home builders. if you stop by a lot where homes are being built they will usually let you pick through the scraps and if they are high end homes you could get some exotic woods. door manufacturers that make curved doors have to cut off the corners (more scraps). we have a place in california that makes manufactured homes that uses maple for the cabinets (scraps). We recently had a bowling alley being torn down and the demo guys let us go thru and tear out the bar, lanes & seats. Scraps are everywhere, if we don't get them they get recycled and SOLD back to us. Better to get them for free. MIke
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Whenever this subject comes up I feel very lucky to live here in Australia.
The only wood I buy at a hard ware store is 3/4" pine.... everything else comes from our club. ( Albury-Wodonga woodcrafters) . The club doesn't buy it either.. it is usually given to us by people who heard about the club. They give us a call to tell us there's a tree down somewhere.... only thing we can't do is cut it down ourselves. We are so lucky one of our members lets us store the timber on his land since it takes such a long time to dry. The club even has a mill... once a months of so member can go and help cut what they want... the club just charges a minimal fee to keep up the equipment and to add a bit to the income.
Another bonus is that we work with local timber. We get to see it from it's natural log shape all the way to the finished product. It's magical. We can also decide right there how thick we want the wood. We have a jointer, thicknesser and anything else we need in the club rooms... yes... there is a lot of work involved, but it's very satisfying too.
There are of course member who will mail order wood just to add to the variety, but there really is no real need to.
One of our members planted trees over almost 40 years ago, when I buy some timber from him it makes it special.. I can tell people that I know the man who planted the wood for the ornament I'm giving them.... and now it's extra special because he lost most of them in the bushfires last year.
I'm always so suprised to find out that there don't seem to be many clubs like ours in the US?
Juvy
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hi there been busy i am lucky my cousin has his own saw mill he gives me all i wantwhen he runs the logs through i use all tassie timber like blackwood celerytoppine blackheartsassi huonpine myrtle dogwood and many others i have just finished the (wildwood designs )birds of paradise clock iam wateing for it to dry then illsend you a picture of it talk to you allsoon tassie :)
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About ten years ago I had a friend that had a saw mill and he took care of me and loaded me up to the ceiling with all the hardwoods that I could store and I don't know if I'll ever run out . This is great for it's all been air drying for all this time and keep in the dry> Maple , white and Red Oaks and lots of other hard woods , in small projects I never run out for sure ..........Marshall
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I get my small stuff from HD and Lowes. Got a bit of Ash from the local Rockler store at $2.50 bdf and thats also where I get my BB from.
I use pine for practicing techniques and just trying to get reaquainted with scrolling and my new saw.
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If your overwhelmed with all the different wood out there this site may be of help.
http://www.connectedlines.com/wood/wood64.htm
Jeff
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I use Lowe's for poplar, oak and thicker plywood. Most everything else I buy from Sloan's Woodshop (their website is on Steve's site). They are easy to talk to and work with. It is nice to be able to talk to someone and not just click on a picture. Great service and good prices.
Barry
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Free works for me--I have been real lucky getting oak , walnut, pine from people in the area--When someone gives me wood I usually make them something from it. Some one is always dragging old furniture to my garage. I take it apart and have a lot of good lumber. I also get some 1/8 BB from a cabinet shop--I never let a piece go to waste--Richard aka thumbs
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hi all as a later post said its hard to find hardwoods here in the uk.i pull lots of bits of old furniture out of skips and gardens always ask 1st just in case. 100% free. you can get some strange looks form pepale when you say can i have that.also ofcuts of hardwood flooring when some one has had a new floor put down you can get small and bigger bits
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If your overwhelmed with all the different wood out there this site may be of help.
http://www.connectedlines.com/wood/wood64.htm
Jeff
that is a great site thanks ,it answers a lot of questions
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Hello Janet
I've tried oak & pine from the big box stores. I have found them to be to dry. I'm very lucky that I have a small lumber store about 2 miles from were I live. The guy that owns it sells old barn lumber, and he saws up all different types of felled trees. Thats where I buy my cherry & walnut. He sells 4/4 & 5/4 boards of different widths & thickness. I never knew you could make crafts out of malberry, but he sells it. And not a bad looking wood at that. Just a little word of advise, always wear a face mask when cutting or sanding wood. I got the worst sinus infection of my life when sanding walnut. 8) Dave
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There is a saw mill about 75 miles away and deep in the woods that we go to buy our wood from. Most is rough cut and still has bark on it. Very nice people, but a pain to get to.
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I get some of my wood from Woodcraft, Woodworker's Source, and a cabinetmakers lumberyard. I have ordered some off the internet too. Here is a reference link for good information on the woods:
http://www.woodworkerssource.com/wood_library.php
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I use 3mm Russian Birch or 3mm Finnish Birch almost exclusively.
Living in Ottawa, I can drop at Lee Valley for the Finnish birch and I get the Russian birch from a wood wholesaler near my home. It is worth checking with wholesaler, if you can find one. Some will sell to the public with no minimum size order and the prices are great.
Edgar