Router Table Depot Blog: Stock – The Budget Breaker Router Table Depot

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Monday, September 8, 2008

A short trip to any of the big lumber stores and mega-glomerate hardware chain outlets will quickly illustrate the most daunting problem for any amateur woodworker. Once you have accumulated the necessary saws, planes, routers, drills and other tools necessary to shape and join wood, the price of stock to work with can be positively mind numbing. An inspection of prices at the above sources for a simple board of red oak will reveal a price of some $6.00 per board foot. Cherry (when and where available) is even more expensive and White Pine is only slightly cheaper. It is small wonder that even the professional wood shops have substantially reduced their dependence on dimensional lumber in favor of plywood, particle board, MDF and other such derivatives of the forest.

The good news is that good stock need not be so expensive. The fact is that these prices are not reflective of the wood itself so much as the cost of transporting it. If you look to other sources for stock and are willing to put some effort into the process and be a little flexible, good workable lumber can still be had at reasonable prices.

The key to locating good sources of stock is to think locally. In other words, remember that the main factor in cost at the lumber yard is transportation, so try to eliminate that cost by utilizing sources where either the cost of transportation is eliminated (by using locally grown and sawn timber) or by reusing lumber already transported to your area.

by: Router Table Depot

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