Reliably square PAR timber online

[MaxHill]

Hi,

Pretty new to woodworking and one thing that frustrates me is the quality of PAR timber ordered online. I ordered some PAR pine from Fulham Timber Merchants for my joinery project. It is clearly better than B&Q and the like, but once and a while you just get some ridiculously warped timber.

I wonder if its just a normal part of life to have some of your order of planed timber to be warped and scuffed when someone picks it for you, or are there really good merchants out there.

Fulham timber are pretty cheap. Is this a matter of just choosing a more expensive merchant? I would really like to rely on PAR timber being square and true. I live in Bromley, Kent.

Any suggestions very welcome!

Thanks

 

[MikeG.]

Timber just isn't the sort of thing you should buy online (well, woodworking timber, anyway). You'll never get what you want until you can find a reliable place to go and search through the racks, personally selecting the stock you want. I'm serious.........give up this idea, and hand-pick all your own timber in future.

 

[katellwood]

Basically PAR stands for "planed all round" which does not require it to be straight or square. What you need to ask for is PSE which stands for "planed square edge"

 

[Phil Pascoe]

PSE also stands for Porn Star Experience apparently - you've probably a better chance of getting that online than stuff planed square edged.

 

[MaxHill]

Timber just isn't the sort of thing you should buy online (well, woodworking timber, anyway). You'll never get what you want until you can find a reliable place to go and search through the racks, personally selecting the stock you want. I'm serious.........give up this idea, and hand-pick all your own timber in future.

Yeah, I hear you. May well end up doing that.

 

[MaxHill]

Basically PAR stands for "planed all round" which does not require it to be straight or square. What you need to ask for is PSE which stands for "planed square edge"

Thanks. Did not know that PAR didn't require being straight or square.

 

[MikeG.]

Basically PAR stands for "planed all round" which does not require it to be straight or square. What you need to ask for is PSE which stands for "planed square edge"

Thanks. Did not know that PAR didn't require being straight or square.

Don't go expecting PSE to be magically straight! The reality is that there is very little difference, and in most of the places most of the time the two acronyms are synonyms.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

^^^ Yup. Semantics. In reality it probably makes little difference - if you want dead square stuff you'll need to check it and probably true some of it anyway. Find a merchant that's reliable near you that doesn't mind your pulling stuff out and looking at it - most are OK with this - and take a tape, a square, a saw and a CUTTING LIST with you. You will find pieces that have splits, bad knots and kinks in places that can be unimportant if you know where they are to be cut - it brings out the Shylock in me, I bargain for the flawed or damaged pieces.

(Being pedantic, they're not acronyms, they're abbreviations. Sorry. )

 

[MikeG.]

.........(Being pedantic, they're not acronyms, they're abbreviations. Sorry. )

Dead right. I was sloppy.

 

[John Brown]

I'm not sure there's any concensus on whether or not an acronym needs to be a pronouncable word.
I was raised to believe it to be the case, but have encountered other opinions.

I am, however, an active supporter of COCOA, the Campaign to Outlaw Contrived and Outrageous Acronyms.

I think I read that in Punch magazine about 45 years ago.