I've been doing some light wood hobbies and found that I really enjoy it. I've been watching a lot of youtube and decided to go through the course of one of the guys on there. I got some plans and went to find some plywood and 2x4s. I went to Lowe's first and found that they have a lot of what I don't want and the stuff that I need is $40-50 per sheet. Is that normal for 3/4" plywood?

I stopped next door at their competitor and they had similar stuff at $30 per sheet but the kid there kept trying to give me OSB instead of plywood. That place looks like a ghost town. Very low stock on hand as if they are going out of business.

So, where do you get stuff for woodworking projects? Price is a factor but I really do want to learn more and actually do these projects.

Normal

Decent cabinet grade plywood can be in the $70-$100 dollar range

Avoid Big Box store lumber. It sucks.

Go to an actual lumber yard, the kind where lumber and building materials ARE their business and they sell a little hardware on the side.

If you haven't already, educate yourself on lumber and plywood grades.

Basically, plywood (NOT OSB or chipboard or particle board) comes in CDX (One side C grade, the other D or worse) which is fine for sheathing, A/C (one side A grade the other C) Paint grade and Cabinet grade. I've built some nice stuff out of paint grade birch veneer by picking through the pile a bit. There are other grades such as Marine grade but that covers the most common stuff.

Dimensional pine come in #4 sometimes call boarding board, #3, #2 which is sometimes used as paint-grade trim and Select which is really pretty, and priced accordingly. Poplar is also nice for trim and tends to have fewer knots for equivalent grades.

Finally, shop more than one lumber yard. We have two in the immediate area and what one grades as #2, the other would call select. For similar prices. The one with the cheesy select sells #3 that I wouldn't build a dog house out of.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Avoid Big Box store lumber. It sucks.

Go to an actual lumber yard, the kind where lumber and building materials ARE their business and they sell a little hardware on the side.

This ^^^^^

I absolutely will not buy lumber from a Lowe's, HD or Menards ever again.

When the µBarn was being built the builder and I made a slight change in how the trim coming down the roofline would transition to the soffit. That ended-up leaving him short by a small bit of 2x8 for trim work. He had already told me he never gets lumber from those places. But, I said, "One 2x8? Surely I can find on decent 2x8." He shrugged.

Spent a God-awful bunch of time sorting through their stack of 2x8's, trying to find one that wasn't either pre-split, obviously about to split, cupped seven ways from Sunday, twisted, warped, bowed, or of such a grain as it would soon be one-or-more of those.

With help from one of their guys I searched and searched. Finally settled for one I thought would be "ok."

Yeah. Right. The minute my guy hit that with his saw it cracked, then literally fell apart.

Luckily it was to be covered by aluminium trim, so he took his stapler to it, put it back together, and put it up.

Never. Again.

Used to be you could cull their stuff for moderately decent wood. I've got some 2x4 out in the garage that's probably 20 years old and still straight as, well, straight as a board. I treat those like they were gold-plated.

When we had our home rebuilt, the contractor sourced all his lumber from a lumber yard. He said 1/2 the lumber he got from the box stores were warped to the point of being unusable.

Unless I need something exotic, Lowes or Home Depot does the trick.

Yeah, you gotta dig through a buncha crap, but that's anywhere I've ever been, big box store or not.

GA. Hardwoods or Suwanee Lumber are where I get my wood.

I got a seven 2x4s and a sheet of 3/4" plywood at 84 Lumber. Still cost me $50 for all that but it was less than Lowe's by a long shot. This is just for a quickie workbench so it doesn't have to be top quality. Their boards were straight but a got a few notched bits. No deal breaker.

They don't carry everything though. It's the type of place that wants to sell a truckload of stuff all at once. From the looks of the bare warehouse out back they drop ship most of their sales.

Peach State Lumber in Kennesaw/Acworth GA. And a cool rare/exotic place in midtown Atlanta.

HD for dimensional pine lumber.

I believe Lowes sources lumber via contracts with regional mills so YMMV. Our local store usually has fairly good stuff for stick lumber. I do find that the local privately owned lumber yard can often beat their price but has limited selection for legnths.
A few issues I have with Lowes is the lack of structural lumber (#2 pine vs the weaker "whitewood" for framing) and the poor storage of their plywood that allows it to warp in the bundle. IMO, their shelving board is falsely upgraded and outrageously priced. Also it seem they are going away from the old grading system for plywood for some new fangled one.

Nothing necessarily wrong with lumber from HD, Lowe's.
Just inspect it.
Lumber is just a commodity like anything else.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Nothing necessarily wrong with lumber from HD, Lowe's.
Just inspect it.
Lumber is just a commodity like anything else.

$50 for a single sheet of low grade ply is what's wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
$50 for a single sheet of low grade ply is what's wrong.

Yup, but that's what 3/4 plywood is going for at anything above CDX grade.

I have done a lot of projects from 3/4 oak plywood from Home Depot with good results. Had to sort thru a lot of sheets but found some nice ones. $50 bucks for a decent sheet of oak or birch is not bad. Also used a lot of rough sawn oak that I planed down and edge glued.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:
$50 for a single sheet of low grade ply is what's wrong.

Yup, but that's what 3/4 plywood is going for at anything above CDX grade.

$50 isn't "low grade" plywood.

Get familiar with the lumber yards in your area, and you'll find that prices don't vary wildly. If you're looking for a "finish grade" interior ply, birch or otherwise, it's not going to be cheap, and frankly, $50 isn't bad.

You're just starting out. When you get to where you want to buy 8/4 Rock Maple, then fret about cost.

You'll need to sift through a stack of 2x almost anywhere, and keep in mind that "big box" stores seem to have shit lumber because everyone and their brother has already finger fucked every piece in that pile.

last time I bought birch plywood (2 years ago) I was getting paint-grade for a bit less than $40 and shop-grade around $32, I think.

Google for cabinet shops in your area, call them and ask if they will sell to you in full sheets or whatever.

I'm in the process of replacing my stairs and opted to check out the local lumber shop, needless to say I'm never buying lumber anywhere else. Of course, A 2x4 or some shit wood may be the exception simply out of convenience.

quote:

Originally posted by mark123:

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
Nothing necessarily wrong with lumber from HD, Lowe's.
Just inspect it.
Lumber is just a commodity like anything else.

$50 for a single sheet of low grade ply is what's wrong.

Well, I said it was a commodity.
You said in your post it was $50 for plywood AND 2x4's?
So what is it? and what was the grade and type of wood?

No, it was $50 at Lowe's for one piece of terrible plywood. At 84 it was $50 for everything. A better piece of ply and seven 2x4s. At 84 the boards were actually pretty straight as well.

I'm going to check Carter Lumber next. Hopefully, they'll have a wider selection. Thanks for the info.