Where to purchase blanks

Hi everyone, new user looking to stock some blanks so I have a small supply ready to go. Any recommendations on where to purchase blanks?

Plenty of hobby and craft wood on ebay. Lowes has smaller stock in poplar, maple, oak,etc. Woodcraft carries wood in smaller sizes as well.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PIECES-WALNUT-THIN-BOARDS-LUMBER-WOOD-CRAFTS-SCROLL-SAW-1-8-x-3-4-x-12/193005446914?hash=item2cf0056702:g:hIsAAOxykmZTKx0f

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Blanks for what? What material?

What size blanks? Often times you can cut your own and save lots of money.

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Wood; no specific kind of wood. just looking for suggestions on where to purchase wood. I’ve been going to Home Depot and I’m seeking other options and suggestions :slight_smile:

Wood. Right now the projects I’m about to start are all under 5’ x 5’

Long wood for shelves, and larger slabs for a few signs.

@MeghanHorn. You can start off with Home Depot and Lowe’s. They have Pine, poplar, and oak. Beyond that you will need to seek out local speciality wood suppliers.

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Feet? If you meant inches, you can find good, smaller stuff online. Inventables actually had a decent selection.

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I have gone to Lowe’s, Home Depot and Anawalt. If you go to the area where they cut lumber for other people they have scrap pieces that they often times will sell to you for a pretty good discount.

With Home Depot and Lowes it is often ply but if you are just practicing it works. Anawalt has a lot more specialty lumber scraps as well

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Thank you! I’m going to try Lowe’s and Home Depot since they are both local. Good idea for the scrap pile. I will look into that at both stores!

Thank you! Will check that out

Feet. So far my customers are requesting larger pieces.

Ok, so ordering online is probably not the way to go.
:slightly_smiling_face:
Where are you located? There’s probably a sawmill or distributor around.

Can I ask what you’re making that’s 5’ x 5’?

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If you are using material 5’ x 5’, I’d guess it’s plywood or some other sheet goods. A lumber yard will have 4’x4’ or 4’ x 8’ sheets on hand usually. If you are going to glue up solid wood panels, it’s cheaper to get lumber, a jointer, and a thickness sander or planer. You may want to investigate a woodworking shop and see how much it’ll cost there to have them glue and sand these panels for you. Investing in decent woodshop equipment can add up and sometimes it’s easier and cheaper to have somebody else do it. In the long term owning your own equipment can be a cost saver. My stuff is now 40 years old and still working.

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Meghan: You can get some blank wood stuff on Etsy as well.

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I have used Ocooch Hardwoods (https://ocoochhardwoods.com) in the past and highly recommend them. Especially for wood for inlays. For longer, planar wood that has been surfaced, https://blackforestsawmill.com has a limited but cost effective selection of popular hardwoods such as cherry and walnut. Their combo boxes are very cost effective. Other places I’ve heard of, but haven’t tried include Cook Wood (https://www.cookwoods.com/) and KenCraft (https://www.kencraftcompany.com).

As others have said, if you want 5’x5’, online ordering is really tough. Find a local dealer and special order it. The plywood from the big box stores is generally garbage. HD says they offer high quality baltic birch plywood (which is usually always 5’x5’), but I’ve never been able to find it at my local store(s). If you’re making a business out of it and you have the room, invest in a planer - it will save you 25%-50% on wood cost over anything that is S2S or S4S, but the quality of grain pattern is always a crap shoot until it’s planed (but that’s part of the fun of it…).

Hope this helps @MeghanHorn

-Tom

https://twitter.com/cyberreefguru

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Thank you. I went to Lowe’s yesterday, instead of Home Depot, and found some Pine and Red Oak that was pre-cut. Unfortunately I don’t have a truck so I couldn’t purchase anything that was not pre-cut because they only cut plywood in their store… Home Depot has cut things for me in store. I was a little surprised by Lowe’s not cutting anything for customers.

I probably won’t order online. I like to see and feel the pieces of wood as I purchase them.
I’m in Queens, NYC.
I am making pieces that are smaller than 5’ x 5’, none of them are actually that large. I am making a few signs and a few animal face carvings of people’s pets (hopefully I can get the engraving part right!).

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Thank you for your advice! Right now I have a lot of different saws and an orbital sander, as well as the X-Carve of course. I also have another router. A planer is on the list of next to purchase! I’m going to see about local woodsheds in the mean time. We plan to own a complete shop so that we do not have to rely on another shop for help, but to start off we might need to here and there…