Lesson Learned..."Cheap" air dried red oak

[Chuck in NC]

Bought about 200 bd ft at 1 dollar/ft about 8 months ago. Stuff had been curing for 5 years in "Bubba's" barn.

Now, I am making my son's bedroom furniture and the joy of a good buy has been dampened with the PITA of working with this stuff. The color and grain varies widely.

Some of the stuff is smitten with powder post beetle holes, which don't bother me visually at all, it just seems the holes appear in a location that will be visible/structural, like the outer edge of an external frame member.

I have spent so much time trying to match stock I have wasted what savings were there. I am close to the point where I abandon the stuff altogether for furniture and use it for cabs in the garage.

I seem to recall being warned about this (yeh, here I believe) but suffer from "gotta get burned once" syndrome.

FWIW I have bought air-cured cherry from a local saw mill and the stuff was well worth the money (paid 1.50/bd ft) and had nice grain and color.

I should have stuck with professionals.

[CajunRider]

Buying from Bubba is always a hit or miss situation. I am having about the same luck with T-boys down here.

[Danford C Jennings]

Chuck,

If you are certain this wood is infested with powder post beetles I strongly recommend that you go here: http://www.menco.com/powderpostbeetlepage.htm

While you certainly have my condolences on the "cheep" wood, this experience can turn out to be extremely expensive...FWIW.

Dano

[Sawduster]

At a $1.50 bdf for cherry, I would have cleaned out my savings account. I'm paying ~$5.50 or better for 4/4 cherry up to 10" wide. Over that, they get a "premium". Of course this is kiln dried and skip planed, but the boards do contain a lot of live wood from the outside of the tree.

[dcarter636]

Same here in Colorado, $7 for 6/4 hit-miss cherry with 20%-50% sapwood. At $1.50 it would make sense to gas up the pick-up and take a little trip East, see the folks, and collect 200-300 bdft of QS white oak and cherry.

[Cody Colston]

I hear you on the Cherry, Jerry. :)

It's closer to $8.00 per bd. ft. here in Tyler for 4/4 S3S, which is all that is available. Even at that, some of the boards might be 8" on one end and 5" on the other. The inventory is usually not large enough to pick and choose, either. :-(

I have seriously entertained the thought of making a run up North somewhere with my trailer and bringing back a load.

Cody

[ol]

An amateur built the Ark
PROFESSIONALS built the Titanic[/ol]

[quartlow]

I guess I won't tell you weterners about the 8/4 6 inch wide clear no sapwood piece of cherry I bought yesterday for $2.00 a BF, of course it was rough sawn though, Bet you don't want to hear about the 8/4 walnut he had there either


}> }> }> }> }>

[FireWrks7]

the nerve!!!!!


Anthony

[arcticfox46]

And I thought $2.50 b/f for 1/4 sawn Cherry was a good deal. I guess I got ripped off huh?

[rhull]

$2.50bf for QS cherry?? <drool>