Invest in silver or lumber?

[fortyshooter]

Made a quick stop by Home Depot this afternoon to pick up two plain ol' typical rough looking treated 2x4x8's for a little project.
Was shocked at checkout to find they are now 8 bucks a piece with the tax. Cost to build anything is getting crazy!!

[Vaquero]

Yes sir.

RP

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

We are just about ready to build, but the lumber costs out there has different ideas.

In over 50 years of dealing with lumber in one way or another, I've never seen anything like it.

[dave77]

I have to make a new set of stairs for my front porch, maybe 3½ ft tall. Haven't bought any lumber since last Summer, I'll bet it costs me at least $200 for lumber and hardware.

[GunnyGene]

I rarely buy any wood at retail. Plywood if I have a cabinet project coming up or something like that, or an imported exotic (which is really expensive! ). There's a couple guys near me who run band mills, and occasionally some local land owner will have a nice tree they want to get rid of, plus I have about 20 acres of forest that I own with various hard and soft woods on it. Retail markup is ridiculous.

[fortyshooter]

I have some old wooden nickels that might be worth cashing in!

[Vaquero]

RP

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I rarely buy any wood at retail. Plywood if I have a cabinet project coming up or something like that, or an imported exotic (which is really expensive! ). There's a couple guys near me who run band mills, and occasionally some local land owner will have a nice tree they want to get rid of, plus I have about 20 acres of forest that I own with various hard and soft woods on it. Retail markup is ridiculous.

I agree with local timber, but drying it is another thing. I would be curious to know how you dry your lumber? Especially if you need to do some high quality workmanship?

[GunnyGene]

I rarely buy any wood at retail. Plywood if I have a cabinet project coming up or something like that, or an imported exotic (which is really expensive! ). There's a couple guys near me who run band mills, and occasionally some local land owner will have a nice tree they want to get rid of, plus I have about 20 acres of forest that I own with various hard and soft woods on it. Retail markup is ridiculous.

I agree with local timber, but drying it is another thing. I would be curious to know how you dry your lumber? Especially if you need to do some high quality workmanship?

It's not that hard. Just properly seal the end grain (includng knots, or complex grain structure such as a burl), within an hour or 2 of cutting, debark, stack, sticker, and weight it down, out of the wind and weather, and check it about once a week with a moisture meter. Oak is the most difficult of the common domestics due to the grain structure and will loose moisture much too quickly if allowed to exit thru the end grain. The biggest mistake people make is trying to rush the process. Takes about a year per inch of thickness to air dry for most hardwoods before it can be kiln dried, but that will vary according to the local climate. Longer in high humidity like MS, much faster in places like AZ - where you may have to have an enclosed area to control humidity and temp, or wrap the stack with a tarp to slow the process. Drying too fast wll result in excessive checking, and internal damage such as honey comb, splits, or severe stresses. It takes a lot of experience to learn how to dry various woods and cuts of wood, since there are many differences between species and even individual cuts. Much of the retail construction timber is poorly dryed due to being rushed to market, which is why you often see warped and split wood in retail racks at home improvement stores.

If you are planning to work from green timber and dry your own, I recommend studying up on the process. The USDA Forest Products Lab has good info about this and other aspects of wood: https://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplg ... gtr113.htm

Also, here's a couple useful on-line calculators for finding shrinkage rates for various woods, and other stuff you should know:

http://www.woodbin.com/calcs/shrinkulator/

http://www.woodweb.com/Resources/RSSoft ... ction.html

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I rarely buy any wood at retail. Plywood if I have a cabinet project coming up or something like that, or an imported exotic (which is really expensive! ). There's a couple guys near me who run band mills, and occasionally some local land owner will have a nice tree they want to get rid of, plus I have about 20 acres of forest that I own with various hard and soft woods on it. Retail markup is ridiculous.

I agree with local timber, but drying it is another thing. I would be curious to know how you dry your lumber? Especially if you need to do some high quality workmanship?

It's not that hard. Just properly seal the end grain, stack and stick it, out of the wind and weather, and check it about once a week with a moisture meter. Oak is the most difficult.

I've never tried drying, but isn't that about a 6 month process, basically speaking?

[cooperhawk]

I have some black ash that we cut here and a friend sawed for me. Ten years old and really nice hard wood.
As to investing, better make it silver because I can't get the wood I want.
I've had two pieces of Cherry veneer plywood back ordered for a month now.

[fortyshooter]

Well I can make change with a pocket of sawdust!

[GunnyGene]

I agree with local timber, but drying it is another thing. I would be curious to know how you dry your lumber? Especially if you need to do some high quality workmanship?

It's not that hard. Just properly seal the end grain, stack and stick it, out of the wind and weather, and check it about once a week with a moisture meter. Oak is the most difficult.

I've never tried drying, but isn't that about a 6 month process, basically speaking?

I just edited my previous post on this to add some more info that will help you if you decide to do this.

[Sir Henry]

I would say invest in wood, steel and lead.

[Rifletom]

Listen to Gene. He is wise.

[Vaquero]

I would say invest in wood, steel and lead.

Yes, and maybe some brass and copper.

RP

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Appreciate all the info, as I always am interested in things like that, but that said, I just checked back to my records the other day as I thought I remembered paying $3.98 for a Top Quality 2 X 4- 8 at Lowes, but I was mistaken. It was $3.14 and with my 5% Lowes, I was only paying $2.98 !!

Also I choice pick every single piece, which insures me of getting the best of the best.

Not sure exactly when the prices started going up, but this was in the Fall of '19.

Now if we can only get back to those prices, lol.