Cost of Wood and Charges per Board Foot

[janahartzell]

HI Greg, Not a problem. I tend to think people should know what I'm thinking when I'm writing. NE Iowa. Jana

[Andrew Barss]

: Reminds me of freaking New Jersey, where if you call from Mullica Hill : to Cherry Hill (less than 15 miles and in-state) for 55 minutes, : you'll get a bill for $250.

That's roughly $4.50 per minute. I can call central Mongolia for less than that! You need to switch phone carriers.

I'm in southern AZ, and can call anywhere in the US or Canada for under 5 cents a minute.

-- Andy Barss

[High Score]

Greg G. wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Here in central NC, I'm usually able to pick up walnut 4/4 S2S for about $5 per BF and soft maple for $4.

-G

[Greg G]

Oh, believe me - I don't live in New Jersey - the Garden State. I spent a year there in 2000. The greenish-blue well water and vast multitudes of scam-artists, and deer ticks had me racing back to the Southern Appalachians.

As for the phones - I believe one company held a monopoly on the land lines there... We're talking calls _within_ the state, out of state was different - the Feds get involved...

Greg G.

[Odinn]

Greg, What area of Atlanta? I'm about 40 mile ENE towards Athens and I haven't seen those prices anywhere near here.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Where are you located? Right now in CT I can get 4/4 walnut for $6 to $7 USD and none of the charges the OP described. Includes planing to thickness too.

[Mark]

I understand where you are coming from Greg. Seems like every time I turn around the lumber industry has found a way to squeak a bit more out of us. Plywood dimensions keep getting thinner and thinner ( I recently bought some 1/2" shop grade that was barely above 3/8). And my local hardwood supplier charges a "straight Lining" charge of 10% on all domestic lumber they carry. Claiming its S3S lumber. Can't figure out why they just don't add it into the marked price. It artifically makes the price on the rack look cheaper...marketing tactic I guess. Even then I have to joint it every time and usually end up removing more than 1/8" to get it true. I just got some 5/4 mahogany (s2s) and it was less than an inch thick. And the veneer on hardwood plywood is so thin these days that I reject a sheet even if it's got a "shipping" mark on it. I know if I try and clean it up by sanding the black mark off I risk burning right through it. And have you bought dimensional construction lumber lately? I see why more and more housing is using steel studs. Wood studs are expensive and crappy. Remember the reason a 2x4 stud is 3 1/2 by 1 1/2 is because the mill cut off the bad parts. Now days it would be a tooth pick. Mark

[Greg G]

Yeah, the sad thing is, I looked at every piece of 'cabinet' plywood in the place, there was a lot of it, and every sheet of 3/4" was 5 rough plys and the veneer was paper thin. Best looking stuff in there was some Baltic birch in odd sizes. I think it was 15 ply - Imported.

I'm going to have to find a better shop - preferably down a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere - owned by a guy who has been there 40 years, and who built and maintains his own equipment.

I actually went there looking for totally rough lumber. Honest to God 4/4 stuff. You end up having to surface it anyway, and their equipment alignment generally leaves much to be desired. A board edged at 87 degrees is wasted wood - not to mention that wave in the middle. And I _will_ take a dial caliper with me next time...

My first home was constructed of 2x4s that actually measured

1 5/8" x 3 5/8" - imagine that...

Greg G.

[Greg G]

I'm on the west side, 12 miles out from Buckhead. Know of a good place?

Greg G.

[Charlie Self]

We have a Verizon set up for $59 a month that allows unlimited calling within the U.S. and Canada. No time limits, not set times, zip, nada, zilch. It sounds a bit high at first, but even at nickel a word, you can run up some major charges when your wife calls her parents or siblinigs and yaks for a couple, three hours, three or four times a week (among the joys of aging parents is keeping track of their well being from several hundred miles away).

[Odinn]

I switched to VoIP (Sunrocket) over my high speed cable. $200 a year (that's like $16.67 a month), unlimited calling US and Canada. There is the issue of having no phone if the internet is out, but I have a cell phone for those few times when that happens.

[Odinn]

Georgia Hardwoods in Buford Atlanta Wood Products - South Cobb Dr and River Rd Peachstate Lumber in Kennesaw Suwanee Lumber Co. in Suwanee

You might want to check out

and look at the forum. Occassionally someone is selling lumber.

If you don't mind air dried rough lumber, check out

's located north of Buford.

[George]

NOBODY clear-cuts a hardwood forest with the expectation that it will be one in the future. Clear-cutting is for softwood. where it makes sense because the seedlings don't tolerate shading well.

I really doubt that it's much different down there either from a sivaculture or tax standpoint

[Leon]

Are you sure there is unlimited calling? I got a solicitation through the mail and there was a 100 minute limit for long distance.

[Leon]

Woops I am wrong. Unlimited calling it is.

[Duke of Burl]

Do they have the 911 thing worked out yet?

[Chris Friesen]

I can get that in Saskatchewan for $25CAD a month, $30 if I didn't already get high-speed internet from them too.

It's amazing how long-distance prices are dropping.

Chris

[Javier Henderson]

Sort of. Some, like ViaTalk, do. I use them, they're OK.

-jav

[Charles Self]

On my 21st birthday, I called home (Westchester County, in New York) from Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Cost of a 20 minute call was about $115. A long damned time ago, and at that time I was making, if memory serves, about $124 a month, net. Lance corporal, USMC. Big boost the next year, going to E4 and over 3. Up to $170 a month.

[George]

Yep, when it was one talk per copper pair there was more demand than supply. Economics 101.

How do they work the taxes? US folks have taxes to provide "essential service" to the poor, excise, connection taxes and 9-1-1 assessments. Do these internet-based outfits charge them, or do they fall under the "can't tax the internet" legislation?