Where would an "Average Joe" get hardwood boards for cabinet making? I'd like to get a hardwood like Red Oak or somthing like Aspen. Stores like Lowes and Home Depot just don't have a selection. Is there a better national source? I'm located in Maryland.
Phone book. Lumber. Hardwood suppliers - Retail. Expect 1/2 to 1/4 the price of the big box stores.
hi there are a lot of places in md to choose from. go to woodfinders.com and take a look.only a few are listed. there many more.where in Maryland are you?
len
You might just want to check around at other box stores. I found some stock more hardwood than others. There are lots of internet places but by the time you get it shipped it gets pricy.
Check the phone book for hardwood suppliers. Some will joint and thickness plane for you at a nominal cost. You usually have to buy the entire board also. not just three feet cut off. Some will have 50 to 100 varieties to choose from.
There are lotsa sources on the net - I haven't ordered from these, but seem like a professional outfit. to get a break, you have to order 1000 bf, worth it to find someone to share the cost. I just cut the qtr sawn White Oak SAB price from $7.50 to $5.50/bf. Schroeder
More information would be helpful. I would make kitchen cabs out of plywood with hardwood faces. The hardwood I would use would be 4/4 rough. drawer parts would be a secondary wood like popular. If your looking at HD for harwood then you are looking for dressed lumber. Most saw mills and internet sources are selling rough lumber. Lumber yards and HD big boxes sell dressed lumber and sheet goods.
Look in the phone book under "lumber" or "hardwood". You're looking for a hardwood lumber yard, which is different from a softwood lumber yard (Home Depot is an example of a softwood yard, for certain values of "example"). There should be a number of hardwood yards in the area. They generally aren't really set up as retail operations and may be pains in the butt about small orders, but if you find one that you get along with you'll be able to get just about anything you want.
There are a few online sources, but generally they're very high compared to a local yard--I'd reserve them mainly for small pieces for accents or whatever. Online, is one source that has a very wide selection but not the only one. There is a service, that attempts to find particular products and species in a given location but it's not all that reliable--still it's worth a try.
You have all given some great insight. Henry makes a great point about using plywood sides and just making the faces out of hardwood. I still will look for a local supplier first and then for online hardwood sources. I'm going to checkout woodfinder.com right now.
I bought my first home almost a year ago, and I quickly learned that the more DIY skill you have the more power you have to make your house a dream home.
I really like c> snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
That works but be careful about the edges. Make sure you don't have to, or accidently, do any sanding on the plywood. That "oak" is about a millimeter thick. We have a lot of home build red oak stuff here since my wife and I like wood. Don't give up on the big box until you check a few. Some had pretty extensive inventories here while others had very little. I do have a good hardwood guy here that I get more exotic wood from but the borg was a lot better on S4S red oak.
Hey badaczewski, I live in Maryland too (up near Hampstead) and two locations come to mind immediately; Reisterstown Lumber 410-833-1300 and Kopps 410-374-9055. I just picked up a nice piece of 4/4 oak for some candelabras from Kopps on Saturday. They had a good selection of rough and planed lumber. Where do you live? By the way, I built all of my kitchen cabinets from red oak. i used a lot of scrap flooring for the drawers and face frames. The lower cabinets have plywood carcases but the upper wall mounts were built from 4/4 boards, 12 inch wide. All of my friends said I "can't build kitchen cabinets". I guess that maybe these aren't cabinets then.
Marc
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:
Marc,
I'm living in condo at Germantown, MD. I'm trying to really modernise the whole place anywhere I can. The closet store to me is called Exotic Lumbers, Inc
I also was planning to go with Red Oak ($2.75/bdft from Exotic Lumbers) because its heavily used in manufacturer cabinets and its cost effective. But, I started leaning toward Ash or Popular also because it has less grain and might look more contemporary.
marc rosen wrote:
2.75 is a pretty good price for Red Oak, particularly if the minimum purchase is reasonable.
Exotic Lumber is a great place!
Proces don't seem out of line, particularly since mailorder usually has minumums. Actually, checking out their specials page, their prices are pretty good. They are definitely open to small orders - you can go in and buy a single board. Good luck trying that though. When you see their selection, it'll be difficult to restrain yourself.
Unless you're planning on painting these cabinets, I'd stay away from poplar.
Good luck with your project!
Renata
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