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steve900
4th January 2005, 01:29 PM
hi, hope i'm in the right place, has anyone brought timber from the usa, i'm thinking of buying a small amount of timber from Rockler say about 20 to 30 kilos, seems cheap, i know i will have to pay GST here, has anyone got an aprox price on postage and anything else i should expect say from customs/quainantine etc,
thanks
steve

Kev Y.
4th January 2005, 03:33 PM
Steve, Welcome..

I have not purchased ANY timber from Rockler, but I have to ask.. WHY?????

Can't you find anything locally that will do instead?

Surely by the time you pay freight costs, and currency exchange it would be far cheaper to buy from a local supplier.

dazzler
4th January 2005, 03:54 PM
Steve

Postage from the states will k k k k k k k killlll you. Go to ups.com and type in the approximate size and weight and they will give you the price.

If you must do it get it loaded in a container that is being brought into the country and throw them a few dollars. Often car importers are happy to do it to fill up the container a bit.

good luck

Yamamanama
4th January 2005, 03:58 PM
I haven't bought anything that weight from the US but if postage costs from the UK are anything to go on then you'll be paying a fair old whack for that much. 60 kilos of stuff are on their way here from the UK and the postage on that lot was some $990. That's economy surface mail by the way.

zitan
4th January 2005, 04:03 PM
Hi Steve;

I had a shipment of about 50lbs of wood (one kiln dried small log flitch sawn) sent from the States, no problems at all. Took roughly 60 days by sea, cost roughly $100USD in shipping (this wood was worth it though). You know how heavy NZ MAF is on importing organic material, but so long as it's not pine or raw, green stuff it should be OK.

dazzler
5th January 2005, 10:35 AM
Hi Steve;

I had a shipment of about 50lbs of wood (one kiln dried small log flitch sawn) sent from the States, no problems at all. Took roughly 60 days by sea, cost roughly $100USD in shipping (this wood was worth it though). You know how heavy NZ MAF is on importing organic material, but so long as it's not pine or raw, green stuff it should be OK.
Hi Zitan

can you tell us which shipping company you used?

cheers

steve900
6th January 2005, 10:18 AM
Thanks for the info, i checked with ups.com, tis a tad exspensvie, what i am looking for is timber about 3 foot long 1/8,1/4,3/8 inches thick and 3 to 6 inches wide, making small boxes, frames etc. i don't have much room at home i work from a garden shed. if i had a band saw i could cut timber to size, but no space. any ideas on what sort of bandsaw would do the job and not wear out

thanks again
steve

craigb
6th January 2005, 10:30 AM
Steve,

You might want to give Trend timbers in Sydney a call. They have special boxmaking sets of Australian harwood timbers. AFAIK, the timber is dressed and 1/2'' thick.

Try this link:

http://www.trendtimbers.com.au/

Just checked the site. The thicknesses are 8 9 or 10 mm.

zitan
6th January 2005, 11:35 AM
Dazzler;

I always try to go with USPS rather than FEDEX or UPS. That lot of timber I had sent over was about 33 x 8 x 8" or roughly 10BF sent USPS. I think a lot of the expensive shipping methods go via the free port of Frankfurt rather than on ship or plane direct from LA.