Wood on a Student Budget

Hi -

Any one have any suggestions on how to pick up wood on a student budget?

Thanks,

Matt

 

Depends on what kind of wood you want and what you want to make with it.

You could look for local small saw millers (think band saw mill) and either ask them to let you know when they have a good deal, or buy their seconds, or offer to help them saw for a few hours on Saturdays in exchange for wood.

If you can't do that then look for free pallets to take apart. You will have to be very careful to get out all the nails or just cut around them. Some appliances, machinery, 4-wheelers and other large bulky items come packed in wood crates. It may take a while to find a source. I have a friend who made a deal to pick up pallets from an importer. He gets some trash that he has to haul to the dump but, he gets some really nice exotic wood too.

The last option is to go primitive. Get in touch with the local tree trimmers and tell them what kind of wood you are looking for and to let you know where and when to come pick it up. You will need to have a reliable contact or answering machine, they won't waste time calling twice.

So, what kind or wood will they have? Usually smaller branches cut in firewood length pieces. Sometimes they will have larger trunk size pieces, if they know you well enough they will cut it to a size you can use. Three or four foot long pieces are not too hard to handle and you can make chairs, small benches, tables, really just about anything.

Learning to work green wood is a whole nother world. You will need wedges, a maul or sledge hammer, froe, draw knife, hand axe, hand planes, etc...

You may go so far as to make your own wooden lathe, shave horse and work bench.

So, what were you thinking you might want? Or what answers did you expect to get?

 

Around here on large item pickup day for trash, lots of people throw out odd pieces of lumber. Where remodeling is going on there can be a lot of wood dumped at the curb. Nails will always be a concern as well as possible lead based paint so you have to be careful using it. Old wood furniture, not suitable for repair and dumped as trash, also may have some good pieces of short wood. You just need to cruise the garbage route or keep your eyes open for that type of stuff when you are going to work/school.

 

Great Ideas

Thanks, Mike. Very creative ideas, which I hadn't thought of. Those were the kind of things i was looking for. I think I might try the pallet route. I can think of a few places to get pallets. As far as tree trimming, we mostly have mesquite in AZ - but there's a few other variety. I just dream of living back east someday among hardwood trees.

Anyway, thanks for the great reply. I got my brain juices flowing.

 

Well, not really creative. Just the only ways I had to get wood for about twenty years.

I still buy from a local saw mill, air dry and plane it my self. I save a lot of money that way. I have a big stack of walnut drying, some maple and a little sycamore. Just cut two big poplars and had the miller come pick them up, should get the wood back in a few weeks.

I'd be interested in some mesquite if you ever find a good deal on some larger pieces. I know it doesn't get very big, maybe some root balls to turn bowls from?

 

I get oak pallets for free and cut them up, plane them down to about 3/8th in. sand them down and make jewerly boxes, ring boxes or other small boxes from it. I can't make them fast enough. The hardware is cheap enough if I use any at all and any inlay is done with contrasting scrap pieces ie. black walnut, red or purpleheart, cocobolo, maple just what ever I have laying around.

 

I can find wood at restore stores, This is Habitat for Humanity store, and lots of left over wood, cabinets can be bought. Check for plywood in cabinets, to take apart, I found some 3/4 in.plywood that I used on project that were painted

 

Try local cabinet shops. Small cutoffs pile up and some shops may give them away.
Try flea markets for lumber, old furniture, shipping boxes, pallets.
Try sawmills. When they square up logs the offals are normally sold for firewood 10 to 15 dollars for a truckload. Lots of good lumber but it's green.
Construction sites for throw away building materials. They have to pay to get this cleaned up and hauled away.
If this doesn't give you enough let me know. I'll keep going.

 

it is depend on you if you want to purchase wood on low price, you can try local shops,old furniture shops,lumber market etc,This is depends on what kind of wood you want and what you want to make with it.