Complete Guide to Buying Lumber (2015)
artofmanliness.com
artofmanliness.com
* knowing the maximum dimensions you can fit into your vehicle. Are you sure it'll fit in through the door or hatch and you'll be able to close it?
* knowing what cuts you can make at home, and which ones you need to have done at the lumber yard / big box retailer.
* if you need cuts done at the store, does that store offer that service? For example the Menards I shop at has an amazing selection of wood, but they won't cut any of it for me. The Lowe's has a smaller selection, but they do cuts for free.
* if you're having cuts at the store, make sure the saw is working before doing the hard work of choosing your lumber. Too many times to count I've spent 30 minutes getting all the pieces loaded on the cart and then noticed the "Out of Order" sign and had to leave empty handed.
* are you strong enough to lift the piece? Plywood comes in 4 foot by 8 foot sheets, and they can be heavy and awkward to move. A store employee can help you, but at some point you're on your own and will need to do it yourself, have some help, or fashion some tools to assist you.
* For cuts at the store, do you know what dimensions to tell the employee to cut at? Store cuts should be considered rough cuts than you true up later on. Make sure you account for this when dictating the cuts.
* Lastly, just assume you'll make mistakes early on. Luckily construction lumber in the US is pretty cheap, so you can afford a few lessons.
Also a fun fact I learned since our deck was originally built 15-20 years ago shortly after the switch-over to the new treated wood:
They needed to re-formulate the coatings they put on fasteners to hold up decent in the new treated wood. It took them a couple years to figure that out or at least for the knowledge to be widely known.
All the screws in our deck that I took out were corroded to the point that many of them looked more like toothpicks than screws when I removed them.
Also, you could check with your local lumber yard. Their products are often slightly more expensive, but also significantly higher quality. Plus, the one I go to will deliver for free within city limits.
A hand saw theoretically takes longer, but I also don't have to worry about my kids getting hold of it and killing themselves. If I was cutting plywood to size, I'd probably still get out the circular saw, but for basically everything else the handsaw is my tool of choice.
The trouble with the world today is that we're no longer allowing our kids to do anything useful for fear that they "injure" themselves.
So everyone grow up not really knowing even how to hammer a nail. I sympathize with your feeling having a kid myself, but without exposing them to even some slight danger, they will not grow up learning how to navigate the dangers in the world.
I’m sympathetic to your argument - but power tools aren’t ‘slight’ danger.
The point i'm making is that in high school we had wood and metal shop. Welding. Electrical. NONE of those classes exist anymore. And with helicopter parenting kids aren't learning them either.
The statistics don’t bear out that training or experience eliminates risk of serious injury. It’s even trivially disprovable with anecdotes - tons of experienced woodworkers have had blade touches and/or kickback-induced blade touches. Here’s 3:
https://www.woodworkingfunhour.com/blog/2020/1/16/015-matts-...
https://twitter.com/JimmyDiResta/status/318214766818635776
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fifjjacjLBE
If anyone is learning advanced shop safety, a few years ago I made the advanced survey that I wished existed: http://sawsafely.org/ . http://sawsafely.org/#injury-research-&-statistics has table saw injury stats. In an era of flesh-detecting table saws, using a table saw without it (other than weird special-purpose saws) means underestimating either the probability or the consequences.
For myself, every time I pick up a saw, I imagine cutting my finger off and it makes me take care.
When I aim the air nailer, I make sure my hands are further away than the nail length. I've had nails deflect on unseen defects inside the wood and poke out the other side where I didn't expect.
Regarding flesh-detecting table saws (which I fully support), there's a third possibility - lack of funds. Those things are seriously expensive. When the choice is not between sawstop and traditional saws, but instead traditional table saw or none, the traditional table saw can still be a worthy investment. It's all situational.
I had woodworking in high school, but no metal shop, no welding, no electrical. And most of the woodworking class was spent hand-sanding with worn out sandpaper from a drawer full - because the school didn't have enough funding to buy new paper each semester.
That said, I am better prepared for doing welding or electrical than my older relatives at my age, because I have access to youtube. It might be less reliable than learning it in school would have been, but I don't remember much from high school shop class anyway.
Even though I was using a tool with a very high tolerance for error, it was thoroughly impressed upon me that each cut I make requires consideration of the danger I am exposing myself to.
I use a $150 table saw today, and for every cut I make I run through a mental checklist to determine whether what I am going to be doing is within my own personal acceptable margin of safety, because that thing will not care one bit if my finger is in the way.
I'm all for safe tools, but my fear is that it grants a false sense of security for the user (in particular new ones), particularly when translating those skills to a new tool (another table saw in this case).
There's that promotional video with the hotdog where the saw doesn't even open a gash in it. Just pops right down.
That's nice and all for marketing, but the reality is that even Sawstops can mess up fingers pretty good. Sure, there's a far better chance of you keeping it, but still.
It's a last line of defense. A person really ought to act as though it isn't even there.
Nothing to be scared of, respected yes. to aid with straight cuts, you can clamp down a straight edge (2x4, level, etc) to let the base of the saw glide against. make sure what ever you are cutting has proper support so that the weight doesn't cause the material to sag at the cut (pinching the blade is big factor in kick backs and stalls)
i also find it similar to driving a car. if you look at the road directly in front of you, you'll swerve more than if you look further ahead. don't watch where the blade is cutting, but the notch in the frame of the base. you'll get the hang of it to the point you'll be able to cut a 4'x8' sheet of plywood length wise without issues
That's more accurate. I was probably overselling my fear of the saw. Mostly I find it to be more of a bother than it's worth for what I've been doing.
Really, a miter saw would be the power tool that would have been useful for me given the project's I've been working on recently. But also cutting a board to length isn't hard and it's kind of nice to see yourself get better making square cuts.
Edit:
Also thanks for the tips. Appreciate it.
Also just being enamored with the stuff I see on The Woodwrights Shop. Quick plug that PBS has the most recent ten season of The Woodwrights Shop available on their website [1]. I always changed the channel when I was younger and it came on. Not sure if it's just an appreciation that comes with age or if I just didn't give it a fair shake before, but it's really a great show.
Most of the projects I've done and did with my father when I was younger we done with a miter. If you're just making straight cuts on 2x4's, a miter is safe and easy to use. They are more expensive, but great tools, though they aren't as versatile as circular saws. Remember that every tool has a different job. If you have the money, it is always worth buying the tool than just winging it with what you have. I'll admit, and anyone that has used power tools will, that the close calls and dangerous stuff I've done is generally from a winging it situation. You shouldn't be scared, but you should always be paying attention and try to always use the right tool. Especially when the wrong tool doesn't work the first time. It is better to trade a few beers with your neighbor for a few hours with their tool than to get injured.
You should buy a large size "speed square":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_square
They are thick and have a lip so you square the lip against the edge of your board and that gives you a straight edge to run your circular saw against.
No clamping, nothing complicated - your non-sawing hand holds the square against the board instead of just holding the board itself and then the saw can just run along the straight edge.
I never pick up a circular saw without picking up the large speed square. Here is a video:
To neaten up the board, the mill usually then surfaces it on all four sides, shaving off the rough cut to leave a nice smooth surface. This takes off around a quarter inch per side. Thus a 2x4 ends up as 1.5" x 3.5".
It's a little strange, but makes sense historically and per manufacturing practice. Kinda like a "quarter pounder". But what's really inexcusable is that plywood is no longer sticking to its nominal size. A 3/4" thick ply is actually 23/32” thick. For a full table see: https://www.inchcalculator.com/actual-plywood-thickness-size...
That is still true today?
Wood products manufacturing is fascinating, and I could go on about various minutiae all day. AMA I guess?
For framing (softwood) lumber, you want to find a local lumberyard. Their prices will be more competitive than you expect (my local supplier is about 5% cheaper than Home Depot!), but what you're really going there for is the night and day difference in quality - boards that are supposed to be straight will actually be straight! Their hours are usually not convenient for a DIY-er (8-5 M-F, _maybe_ 8-noon on Saturday), but they'll usually deliver for free or a reasonable fee, and these days most of them will do business over email.
For hardwoods, you want to find a hardwood lumber supplier. These are pretty narrowly targeted at woodworkers, furniture makers, and cabinet makers, and don't sell much besides hardwoods and cabinet-grade plywood - you wouldn't even buy a 2x4 at these places. But they'll carry species and sizes of wood that neither a big box store or a normal lumberyard carry - you want some 4/4 wormy maple to build a tabletop out of? They'll be the only ones that have it.
As for finding these places, the best thing to do is just do some googling and ask your friends/family/coworkers. These places don't advertise much so it's not particularly obvious to a beginner how to find them or that they even exist.
For 1x and 2x softwood at big box stores, assume that the 10% of pieces that are the most accessible have been picked over and rejected by previous customers. If you just need strength, take almost anything, but if you want nicer-looking boards, be as picky as those who shopped before you.
Not here in California. All big-box lumber is always less expensive than any lumber yard. I've never seen it otherwise.
This has been super convenient for me. I email the guy at the lumber yard, "Hey, I'm thinking about doing X. I think I'll need these supplies. Can you get me a quote?"
He responds with a price list, maybe some substitution suggestions, and we barter back and forth a bit until I say "Yes, please order that for me." Then if it's a special order, he'll say, "Great, I'll let you know when it arrives."
It's a very satisfying process. Plus I always send pictures after I complete the project, which I think both of us enjoy.
We learned woodworking in school, and had a really great teacher throughout the years. I later started playing guitar, and use a ton of what we learned when building or fixing my instruments. Currently working on a mahogany body, and it's very soothing work.
it's one guy and various volunteers working to restore a >100 year old wooden sailing yacht. while he isn't even trying to teach wood working, i've learned quite a bit, and he's certainly caused me to reevaluate what can be accomplished with wood.
You will receive the crummiest batch of warped, twisted, banana shaped boards. You're getting all of the rejected pieces that the smart people rejected.
While I typically bemoan the time I spend hand picking lumber at the lumber yard, it is always time well spent - even the high quality material (kiln dried, clear, etc.) has a very wide range of quality and defects.
I just had 45 1x8s delivered from the local lumberyard. After they dropped it off, they said, "We have some more in stock still, so if you find any that are bad, let us know and we'll swap them out. They all looked good to us though"
Having now gone through all of the wood, they were spot on. It's great wood.
1x8 and so on is usually of decent quality and relatively uniform.
There is so much more about lumber to know than this. It's a mistake to (only) consider big box stores for lumber.
If you like to learn more about wood, wood grades, milling, drying and working wood, I can wholeheartedly recommend the "wood talk" podcast with Marc Spagnuolo, Matt Cremona and Shannon Rogers, as well as the "lumber industry update" podcast by Shannon Rogers. They all have great YouTube channels too.
Agreed on going to a lumberyard or specialty wood store for hardwoods. It's great fun to check out coco bolo, ebony, zebra wood if you've never seen them before.
This was quite a revelation when I first tried to build something with 2x4's. They weren't 2"x4"!
The lumber is indeed 2x4 at rough cut, but when you buy S4S (surfaced four sides) lumber, it's been surfaced down smooth. That process takes some material off, leaving you with the half-inch discrepancy.
In my experience those are much more prone to warping, twisting, and splitting as they continue drying and acclimating to the destination environment.
However, I often buy a nice clear 2x10 (or 2x8 or whatever) that has pith down the middle, and then just rip it into 2x4s that avoid the pith. The overall quality of the wider boards tends to be much better than the garbage that gets made into 2x4s at the mill.