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Winter Build Off 2022 - Get Ready

#81
Oak, poplar, and hard maple in the Home Depots here.

But then again, I don't even have to leave my neighborhood to have access to hard maple. It's everywhere. There are half a dozen guys within an hour drive with hobby milling businesses advertising on facebook, selling green rough cut hard maple for $1 a board foot or less. Green rough cut cherry is a splurge at $2/bf. Most of the country roads in this area seem to have been lined with norway maples 50-60 years ago, so those are all gigantic, covered in burls, full of spalt, and ready for removal before they fall over. Lots of good live edge slabs from those trees for coffee tables. Walnut is around too but a little hit or miss. And I'm in the foothills of the ADK mountains so good spruce is local, too.

I'll stop now before everyone gets jealous. :D:D:D
 
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#82
I haven't looked at hardwoods at HD in a long time. I always remember it being ridiculously expensive. It was always sold by the piece or linear foot.
They always have red oak and poplar. I'll have to stop by and see what they have and check prices while I'm out n about today.
ADK mtns? I've always wanted to see that area. I've been around the whole country a few times but never really visited NE NY,......and it's my backyard! I know that it's beautiful country up there. Maybe it's the idea that I have to travel in the direction of Albany and NYC, that always makes me head west instead when I explore. Maybe it's the smell wafting from that direction. I'll have to muscle through one day and go spend a weekend. My wife was looking at 1000 islands(?) Not sure how far up the river that is. Speaking of the river, I could throw a rock in it from where I grew up and I've only been to Niagara falls maybe 3 times. People come from all over to see it I guess. Shows how you don't appreciate what's in your own backyard.
Am I rambling again? My wife is sick, so it's someone else's turn to watch me.
 
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#83
To be fair, I'm near Syracuse, so a good hour and a half or two from the legit ADKs. They are worth checking out. A real local treasure. It's amazing how fast the scenery changes as you head in that direction - you can tell the minute you're in the Park because the trees change, the soil changes, everything changes. You can just go to Old Forge, Blue Mountain Lake, etc if you want to see the easy touristy stuff. Or go get totally lost in the high peaks region and you'll feel like you're on another planet. Perfect if you like seeing bears more frequently than people. Lake Placid gets a lot of attention but to me it feels like a town full of yuppy snobs who want to think they're in the outdoors rather than a place I'd actually like to go. The 1,000 islands is great too although a bit boring if you're not on a boat.

I spent a lot of the 2000's and 2010's right in your area for work. Grand Island, Amherst, Tonowanda, Brockport, Batavia, Pittsford... Though I haven't been west of the Finger Lakes in years except for the occasional steelhead trip to the Erie tribs.

I hope your wife feels better!
 
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#85
Neither of us are water/boat people. A friend of mine goes there for family vacas and suggested it. My wife looked it online and naturally the pics are all wonderful, so she said it looks nice. But I suspect we wouldn't have much fun in a place that requires a boat.
There's a subtle ridge/escarpment that's starts roughly from Rochester and runs west, parallel to the southern coast of lake Ontario. It used to be the old shoreline o the lake before it receded. What a lot of people, even around here, don't know is there in another ridge/escarpment that runs east/west, through the southern region of WNY. 12-14k yrs ago, after the ice started receding, there was a big lake that sat between these ridges and everything from grand island to Rochester was under water. Today, the central area that used to be the lake is flat as a pancake and the soil is layers of ultra fine clay/silt for as deep as you can dig. It's some of the weirdest soil I've ever seen. Very little topsoil, maybe a few inches, then 3' of a rusty colored clay that's super fine and almost like pudding when it's wet and below that is an even finer(like baby power) silt/clay that's lavender purple when it's wet and dries gray. And not a single stone or rock. There are just trickles of creeks now that weave through the very lowest center section of the area and they don't move very fast because it's so flat. Also, because it's so flat and all the creeks are so shallow, heavy rain for a few days causes the creeks to overflow. The area is so flat, that its like spilling a glass of water on a table.
Anyway, long story longer, we bought a largish piece of land a few years ago because it was cheap. But, because of the soil and wet climate, the majority of the trees that grow there are silver maple, pin oak, white swamp oak and cotton wood. The silver maple that grows in a seasonal swamp does not produce quality wood, the swamp oak grows fast for oak, but still takes 50-100 yrs to get big enough to be worth harvesting and the cottonwood grows fast, but it's poplar. The area is an over grown farm, so it's still mostly scrub and small trees. The big 100+yr old stuff is on the property lines and those are mostly swamp oak and waaaay too big for some mooyuk with a chainsaw to do anything with.
And I mindlessly typed for so long that I have absolutely no idea what my point was to any of this.
 
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#86
I also had a huge population of green ash on the property. It's supposed to be slightly less hard and dense than white ash, bit most people probably couldn't tell them apart. So, potentially valuable for building.
Anyway, I had a county soil/water guy out there to do some surveying and approve a spot for a pond (because I'm in an area with a lot of protected wetlands) and he commented on how all my green Ash was healthy. It's pretty much decimated here because of the green ash borer beetle and disease. I was really excited that I would have a large stockpile of ash for the future work shop. Then, just last year, they all died. Seemed like over night. They were all relatively young, so I guess it took the beetles a few extra years to find them.
So, nothing really useable on the property except the cottonwood and a few of the medium sized oaks. But nothing for instruments.
Unless I can make cottonwood basses with oak tops and oak/cottonwood necks. Maybe I should see if I can get that to catch on?
 
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#91
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Menards maple
 
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#92
We don't have Menard's here. I think that's a Michigan/Ohio region thing.
We do have a Rockler. Not sure how many states/regions they're in, but I just stopped there and bought a maple board.
I then scooted down the street to Lowe's and their prices are exactly double of Rockler.
$28 at Lowe's for a 1x8x4' maple board.
I bought one that was identical at Rockler and twice as long for $28.
Even the poplar is double the price at Lowe's. With that, I'll assume HD is the same as Lowe's and won't even bother looking.
All instrument lumber will be purchased at Rockler from now on.
Also, last time they gave me a 15% discount on a $160 piece of wenge for no reason. And they knocked off $3 today because I bought a cheap $7 plastic glue bottle holder.
 
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#93
My local woodworking store is a Rockler affiliate store. The closest Rockler is a solid 45 minute drive one way with no traffic (typical traffic pushes it over an hour), up near Seattle. I try to avoid that entire county if at all possible, so I stick with my affiliate store that is a quick 20 minute trip from the house. I'm very happy that I found them and consider myself lucky that they are so nearby. They have a very nice climate controlled indoor hardwood lumber yard that usually has some pretty cool selections -
Screenshot 2021-08-19 114706.jpg 330642_485711211447191_1694970673_o.jpg Screenshot 2021-08-19 114721.jpg Screenshot 2021-08-19 114734.jpg
Prices are "going rate" so there's very little wiggle room, but there's also very little gouging. They keep a very large white board on the wall that lists all prices for each species in board feet, and that's the price, period. But it also makes it very easy to check their prices against anyone else. The "back room" has large boards, more rough cut stuff like your S1S (that's the first pic with the really tall stuff), while the front room has the finish cut stuff and smaller pieces, typically all of your S2S and S4S and stuff will be in the front room.
EDIT TO ADD: Most of the stuff in the front room is marked per item, so some of those pics that price you see listed on them is the price for the whole board.
They also have a small "bin" that has smaller "project boards" in the 6x12 to 8x14 range, typically 3/4" thick. This bin is awesome if you like making cutting boards out of really fancy species! Then they also have random burl chunks but the sizes of those tend to be more in the "wood turning" range and not big enough for guitar slabs. They have had a few guitar slab sized ones, but the cost is counter-productive for me. They also sell tools and equipment. Anything from turning gouges, CA glue and sandpaper all the way up to router tables, drum sanders and lathes.

Aside from that, they are good people, very knowledgeable and very helpful. It's more "family owned and operated" by some old-timey woodworkers in that "grandpa" age group. If Bruce owned a woodworking store, this would be it, no joke, that's the vibe and the attitude when you walk in the door. So I like them and try to support them as much as I can. I buy my wood turning stuff there. I buy my wood working stuff there. I buy my fancy lumber there. And occasionally I take something that I made down and show them what I did with stuff I got from them, they like that sort of thing. :cool:
Driving an hour to Rockler in the county I don't like is a rarity, but sometimes must be done. There are times when my affiliate store just doesn't have it and I can't wait. What can you do?
 
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