Try to find yourself a local lumber supplier or mill who gets a major portion of their revenue from selling wood trim.
We have a local company based in Aurora, Ontario called Royal Woodworking. Their primary business is supplying trim molding to the house construction industry, but they stock a great selection of dimensional lumber as well. They don't carry construction grade studs etc. but they sell 1 x 3s and 1 x 4s that are ideal for benchwork in both pine and poplar. The stuff is beautifully dressed.
Everybody usually associates poplar with being something akin to a weed. However, there are different types of poplar, and the stuff Royal sells is as straight as an arrow, totally knot free, and many times superior to the big box construction grade pine offerings. It is also cheaper than pine including the big box premium offerings.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Yeah, shop around. Sometimes you can find that situation almost anywhere, if supply waiting on the next load after the last shipment was picked over. It's worth figuring when the next load will come in and being there after it's unloaded
Poplar is good stuff. I use it for its toughness. Plus as you've noted, it's usually priced right, a premium wood at a bargain price
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
A third vote for shopping around. I buy my lumber from a lumber yard. The big box stores like Lowes, Menards, and Home Depot buy lumber for less by buying lower quality lumber. That is a fact, reported to me by a nephew who is a manager of a Home Depot store.
Rich
Alton Junction
I don't have any of the big box store near by. I have four Lumber Yards within a 15 mile radius their lumber is always good quality.
NP 2626 "Northern Pacific, really terrific"
Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association: http://www.nprha.org/
Santa Fe all the way!Has anyone else noticed the steady decline in the Quality of wood at the big box stores? I went to Lowes today to resupply and had to look thru a mountain of twisted, bowed, beat up 1x3's and 1x2's to find some reasonably decent pieces.
I've been hearing this same complaint for over 30 years.. It's one of the reasons some model railroaders started making their benchwork from plywood and others from steel.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
Most of the pine dimensional lumber sold around here at Lowe's and Home Depot seems to have been cut just last week, so much sap is oozing out. Much of it is from Canada, and seems to have been loaded and shipped the day after it was cut, with no curing or kiln drying at all. As it dries out it begins to twist and warp.
This must be a world wide thing. Here in the UK it's the same and has been for quite a few years. When I was building my benchwork a few years back I went through whole stacks at the big DIY stores trying to find straight pieces. It is, unfortunately, shop around. The big stores are cheaper but the straightness suffers accordingly. Same with sap. You can glue wood together with the amount of the stuff seeping from lengths of wood. There is a good lumber yard nearby that has a greater selection and is good straight quality..... but you pay extra.
Sadly, I don't think there's any alternative but go out and find decent lumber.
Santa Fe all the way!Has anyone else noticed the steady decline in the Quality of wood at the big box stores? I went to Lowes today to resupply and had to look thru a mountain of twisted, bowed, beat up 1x3's and 1x2's to find some reasonably decent pieces. I even looked at their premium pine section and other than less knots, it was just a twisted, bowed etc as the other. Makes it a bit trickier to build good benchwork with is junk. What are your thoughts?
I have a Home Depot and a Lowes near where I live and both have similar wood selections, and like you I search through the 1x3's and 1x2's and most are twisted warped pieces. What are my thougths? I don't like it but since the prices are pretty low and I am patient, I just take the time to look through the stack and 95% of the time I can find some straight pieces and go home happy. The worst thing for me is it takes maybe 10 minutes of my time to find a couple straight pieces.
I'm on a budget so I realize I can't expect to go in and find dimensional lumber all straight and true for low prices. I'm sure if i'm willing to pay more, I can find better quality wood. But I've been able to find enough pieces in the stack with patience that I'm good to go.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
hon30critterTry to find yourself a local lumber supplier
This is very good advice. I had a deck and screened porch built last spring. There was a huge delivery of lumber at the start of the project. Every stick was better than the best I could have found at Lowe's or Home Depot.
OTOH, I've been buying premium pine at HD for the layout. Although I have to reject every other piece I pick up, it's not all that hard to end up with enough decent stuff to bring home.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
carl425 OTOH, I've been buying premium pine at HD for the layout. Although I have to reject every other piece I pick up, it's not all that hard to end up with enough decent stuff to bring home.
richhotrainYou're doing well. The average is one in three.
I've always been above average.
richhotrain carl425 OTOH, I've been buying premium pine at HD for the layout. Although I have to reject every other piece I pick up, it's not all that hard to end up with enough decent stuff to bring home. You're doing well. The average is one in three. Rich
carl425
You're doing well. The average is one in three.
Heck, it's not uncommon for me to look at 10 or even 15 pieces before I find one that nearly true by sighting down it on both axis! But as long as I can find enough thats true, I'm happy. I often take one of the best pieces and use it to draw centerlines for longer straight sections in yards etc.
Mostly I buy 8 foot pieces as I can fit them in my car and it's a good compromise between length and cost.
cacoleMuch of it is from Canada, and seems to have been loaded and shipped the day after it was cut, with no curing or kiln drying at all.
Darn, cheap, Canadian imports!
I also am sometimes frustrated by the quality of available lumber. I see that better grades are available, such as the clear pines items sold at Home Depot. But I'm not about to spend the extra bucks for that. HD also sells poplar, but if I recall correctly that is also more expensive than the normal pine items.
But what I wonder is exactly how "straight" the wood we buy needs to be. We are not building furniture. And in the case of L-girder construction perfection does not seem to matter much except for legs, and any twistyness here can be hidden behind a curtain.
I've had pretty good luck over the years at Menards, but I think they're pretty much in flyover country and may not be able to help those on the coasts much. Yep, sometimes a pile of the twisted, but a few days later they get new and I can find what I need.
maxmanBut what I wonder is exactly how "straight" the wood we buy needs to be. We are not building furniture. And in the case of L-girder construction perfection does not seem to matter much except for legs, and any twistyness here can be hidden behind a curtain.
Yeah, you're not building fine furniture when you do benchwork. The twisty ones won't work in most cases, but a lot of other stuff is merely cosmetic for our needs. You have to remember that 1x2 and 1x3 stuff is meant to use as lathing, spacers, etc, so these sorts of things are inevitable in these grades of lumber. That's why they're pretty cheap in the first place.
I think the trend toward "wet" lumber is driven by the costs of kiln drying. It gets the minimum and sometimes things don't turn out well, depending on the quality of the overall stack.
I think lumber quality is cyclical. Back during the housing boom, when lumber was in big demand, the big box stores got what seemed to be left overs, scraping the bottom to find enough supply. Then when the boom crashed, better stuff made its way into the discount chains.
I haven't bought lumber in years, so your observation tells me that the construction industry is soaking up supply of good stock once again.
- Douglas
The lumber is the same! As people go through it they don't bother restacking it properly and it gets uneven drying and warps in many ways. I get my lumber from HD and never have a problem but I tend to buy shortly after unstraped so my warpage is to a min. or in some cases, non existant.
I agree. The days of cheap, high-quality construction lumber are OVER, as most comes from "pine plantations" or second- or thrird-growth forests. However, look on the bright side; much of the old "good" lumber of decades past came from forests that were virgin timber, and in many, if not most cases, their pristine natural beauty was replaced by washouts, soil erosion, and wholesale slaughter of fauna, which took decades to replace, if they could be replaced at all.
However, the needs of the the modeler are laughably miniscule compared to, say the amount of lumber required to build even a small house, so why not use the best?
Hardwood is expensive, but dimensionally accurate poplar will yield a good result that will be very satisfying to work with and stay put for decades. Trim-quality clear pine will, also. Both will be expensive, but think of how much you pay for just as single car or locomotive?
One last suggestion for the diehard who insists on using building lumber: Get yourself a table saw with a fine blade, buy the lumber oversize, and rip it down to knot-free, straight sections yourself. Just make sure it's DRY; if not, you'll have to stack it and let it finish curing for another year or two.
I was told in the past that the best day to pick out lumber at Home Depot or Lowes is Wednesday or Thursday, they get restocked during the week and gear up for the weekend business. I followed his advice and found a much better selection to choose from that was not all picked over from the weekend do it yourselfers.
One of the things that struck me was how warped, twisted, etc the premium pine was. I was actually fed up with the regular pine and going to spend the 80% additional $$ for the premium, but it was just as bad as the regular, just minus the knots. There's a small Lumber yard in the next town over, I'll give them a try.
rrebell The lumber is the same! As people go through it they don't bother restacking it properly and it gets uneven drying and warps in many ways. I get my lumber from HD and never have a problem but I tend to buy shortly after unstraped so my warpage is to a min. or in some cases, non existant.
I've always thought that standing it up isn't helping either. It's going to bow under its own weight!
I went to HD to buy one x twos for outside. All they had was finger joint,
How long would that last?
cacole:
Ya, we Canadians deliberately ship crappy wood to the US, especially to the stores close to you!
We also ship the good stuff to those stores that still care about quality. If you are seeing junk on your racks blame the company's buyers, not the guys north of the border. Its the stores' choice to stock poor quality lumber, and its your choice where you shop.
By the way, we have the same issues with the quality of lumber in our big box stores too.
Well one thing is that contractors/pros get there early in the morning so if you want the good stuff you need to get there early as well. I am always there before 7;30 am and very seldom have quality issues.
davidmurrayHome»Model Railroader»Forums»Layouts and layout building New Reply Fill out the form below to create a new reply. davidmurray wrote the following post 1 hours ago:
It'll last a long time. No need to worry about that.
Look for a local lumber yard that always stores material laying flat down and not in standing open racks. Worked as a contractor for several years and always purchased lumber I needed to be straight and untwisted from a lumber yard. When shopping for cheap stuff go to the big box places. For what is worth, southern yellow pine is the worst material for twisting and general warping and not Canadian lumber.
In retirement I build furniture when I'm not "working on the RR." I get wood at mills, at independent lumber yards, and at the big boxes. The best prices, obviously, are at the big boxes . . . but you have to be prepared to sort through hundreds of pieces to find a handful of good ones.
Have fun with your trains
I have given up on finding straight (ish) 1x2. I ususally buy a 1x6 or 1x8 and rip it at home (have a good table saw). Otherwise as others have said, go to a local lumber/building supply, not big box type. Too bad we are in such a state when it comes to quality lumber.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!