Buying wood for delivery

[foxtrotfall]

Hi all,

I'm a beginner woodworker in Leeds and I'm struggling with sourcing wood for my projects. I don't have a car, so I can't get to timber yards, and I can't find suppliers that will 1) deliver, and 2) deliver affordably. Most places I saw that did do delivery only did so for companies (eg. "Spend £950 to qualify for delivery") or with shipping costs upwards of £50.
I live near a Homebase, and I saw they sell some wood, but it's expensive and they won't deliver it either - not sure if I can grab a taxi with a bunch of wood boards with me!

I got tools, I got some terrible deck wood because it was the only thing I could find online and I am now powering through my first project with this. But surely there must be a better way to source the materials? Do I really have to have a car to get into woodworking?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Nicholas

 

[xraymtb]

Delivery is always going to be expensive just because of the weight and volume of wood however there are plenty of places that should be reasonable (SL Hardwoods for example). Perhaps you need to look at hardwood suppliers outside your area?

Others options might be hire a van for a few hours, ask a friend, even get a man & van for an hour or two.

 

[marcros]

i found that a man and van was often the cheapest option- I got a shed from homebase that way. but you may also find that it only costs a couple of quid more to pay the timber place to deliver, particularly if they are local. It depends greatly on what you want to make though- if you want to make small boxes and bookends, a courier will be fine. if you need long and/or heavy boards the options are fewer.

British hardwoods are worth a look. Tell us a bit more about your project and we can probably advise better. I do not find Leeds particularly good for timber.

 

[transatlantic]

I'm also interested in this. My worry about delivery is that you're most likely going to get the wood that no one else wants. I'd recommend still going down to the yard so you can pick out what you want and have them deliver that.

As a hobbyist. My plan is to save on delivery by buying a bulk load of "generic" timber a couple of times a year. By generic, I mean common sizes, or large sizes which I can hopefully mill down to the right size for whatever project. I don't know how well this will pan out though. it may have warped too much when I come to use it.

 

[custard]

Hello Nicholas, welcome to the forum. I'd always recommend buying your own timber in person if it's at all possible. Obviously in your case it's not possible so you need a plan B.

Surrey Timber has a webshop where you can see photos of individual boards and order them by post,

http://shop.surreytimbers.co.uk

You can also telephone Kevin at Surrey timbers and he'll advise you about other boards that haven't made it onto the web site.

English Woodlands Timber is trying to move in the same direction but they tend to be geared towards slightly larger quantities and South East delivery.

If you're a beginning woodworker you can also help yourself by sticking to smaller size projects and also confining yourself to as few timber species as possible, so that a surplus from one project can be carried over to the next and you don't mind carrying a bit extra in reserve. American Cherry is a good choice for a new woodworker, it's kind on your tools, widely available, reasonably consistent in terms of colour, not horrifyingly expensive, and it's reasonably stable. It can sometimes tend towards blotchiness when finishing but there's no such as the perfect wood and American Cherry ticks more boxes than most.

Good luck.

 

[Peter Sefton]

Welcome to the forum, I understand these guys deliver at a reasonable cost.

http://www.britishhardwoods.co.uk/timbe ... packs.html

Cheers Peter

 

[mickthetree]

Nicholas

Give Kirk a call here:
www.exotichardwoodsukltd.com
Lovely bloke. Tell him what you are doing and looking for and he will sort you out. I ordered 1 x 1"x6" and an 1 x 1"x8" AB walnut boards from him a few weeks ago after I was let down by a local supplier to me and was in a rush. FYI he works in inches which is fine for me, but would be worth working out what you need in inches before you call.

Delivery was £15 for one board, but he said that I could get two boards in the same delivery so I ordered another to make it more cost effective. Turned up next day by UPS all shrink wrapped. If you cant get to a supplier yourself then I think that is pretty good value.

My walnut planned, sanded and finished.

Hope this helps.