Thread: Box making timber?

There are some specialty timber suppliers who sell online. I have bought box thickness Huon Pine from such an online seller in Tassie. I know that others are in the business. you might just have to google something like "specialty timbers". Here is one such seller in Queensland ... McNab's Slabs & Craftwood Box Timbers Species Available Have never bought from them so I cannot vouch for them but at least it shows that there are more than one of these specialty timber sellers around.

You can also get some interesting offcuts from various industries at very low prices/free. e.g. manufacturers of cedar window blinds will use cedar that is very well machined at thin sizes like 10mm or 12 mm or even 6mm thick. I have made lots of boxes from just such materials.

BTW, I have also made one or two pretty nice looking boxes with dovetailed joints from that thin pine that Bunnings sell and then varnished it with a strong dark varnish. Came up very nice.

Of course, the annual wood shows always have box thickness timbers for sale.

Thank you so much! It's really a pain in the ass to find wood that thin grrr... But I'll till looking around thanks!!

Many/most of us buy larger pieces of timber and resaw/thickness etc ourselves. If you plan to be doing this for a long time, it's worthwhile eventually getting a bandsaw, jointer and thicknesser or wide drum sander.

Much more satisfying preparing your own, and you'll end up with better results. Often the online box timbers will have twists and bows etc, or vary a little in thickness.

The main reason, though, is that you'll save a small fortune. Prepared box timber is not cheap, by a long shot. The cost of bandsaw, jointer and thicknesser would quickly be offset by the savings.

Here's another online supplier, in Tasmania. A sponsor of this site, too.
Hopefully they're doing OK with the current Tas fires: -
Misan Craftwood items - Get great deals on Guitar, Sassafras items on eBay Stores!

Edit: I just noticed that Misan are on holidays until Tuesday.: -

WE ARE CURRENTLY ON LEAVE AND WILL OPEN THE STORE AGAIN ON 8th JANUARY 2013

Jovian, Do you have a thicknesser? Floor boards about 10 to 15mm thick are available from the people who do this kind of flooring work. They always have lots of offcuts. Generally the boards need to have a couple of mm shaved off the back and the edges need to have the jointing spline taken off. All of my boxes are made from this source of timber.
Terry vk6pq