Does "Nice" Timber come in thinner (3-12mm) thickness in perth area?

[adept22]

Hi , I am starting to dabble with timber making boxes and various bits and bobs, and I predominately use 3,6,9,12 mm thickness. At the moment the only options I have seen is either MDF, Plywood or Pine. I have looked at a few places around perth for some nicer timbers, and the thinnest I have seen yet is 18-25mm.

Is it possible to get other timbers in thinner sizes and if so can anybody point me in the direction of where I can look as I am at a complete loss.. I am not after any particular type of wood just yet, just something that's not Pine or MDF :)

Thanks.

[TongueTied]

Are you looking for veneers? Or solid stuff in the 3,6,9,12 mm sizes? You may need to make your own. Do you have a bandsaw and a thicknesser? If so, you can resaw some down to a thickness that is close to what you want and then use your thicknesser to get the final thickness you are looking for.

[BobL]

You will struggle to find anything less than 19 mm thick as it wastes a lot of wood to cut stuff thinner than that.
The expectation is anything smaller will be resawn from thicker stock.

Carbatec have small pieces of 10 mm thick Huon and Tassie Blackwood both of which are very nice timbers.
See https://www.carbatec.com.au/timber/timber

[adept22]

Yes I was preferring solid wood, though with Veneer can you get double sided veneer? that might be a possibility, but again I have not seen anywhere that sells that if anybody has an idea.

Thanks for that carabec link BobL that will be a good starting point, 10mm is definitely something I can work with.

Sadly I dont have access to a bandsaw or Thicknesser and the cost to purchase I cannot justify for re sawing my own stock.

[mark david]

I have had the same issue myself.
Most timber millers I have visited seem to only mill slabs and boards in the 25-50mm range.
Most furniture makers over here seem osessed with slab type furniture because it is popular and pretty easy to make.
If you make furniture like I do that has drawers and such then thinner timber is required for sides and bottoms of drawers etc.

The only solution as others have stated is that you basically need to resaw your own and there is no substitute for a decent bandsaw.
I have only recently bought a 2hp saw which can handle hard timbers such as jarrah and marri to around 250mm wide so I can produce sizes down to veneer thickness as required.

Where abouts in Peth are you located ?,I am southern suburbs and could resaw some timber for you if you are struggling.

[aldav]

Failing Mark being able to help you the local Men's Shed or, preferably, wood crafter's club would be a good place to introduce yourself to. Our Albury Wodonga Woodcrafters Club even has a Lucas mill and various bits of timber for turning and box making are always available.

Cheers,
David

[Mobyturns]

You have the option of finding a wood machinist who will re-saw and thickness to your specification if you supply the stock. Very few cabinet making shops have the machinery or interest in those jobs. At a cost of course.

[RoyG]

Adept22,

In the February and April 2016 Issues of "The Australian Woodworker" magazine, on the classified adverts page, there is the following For Sale notice:

TIMBER FOR SALE - WOLLONGONG
Blackwood, Jarrah, Myrtle, Blackheart Sassafras, Huon Pine ..... etc, etc ......
Small sizes for DIY box sets.
Phone: (02) 4285 2679
Mobile: (0415 267 753

I don't have any association with the seller, so can't vouch for them. Ring them up - they might be able to meet your needs. I'm sure that they'll be able to take an order over the phone and post it off to you - there's not much use in a business advertising in a nation wide magazine unless they do.

You'll hear many experienced woodworkers swear they would never buy timber over the phone or via the Internet, because they like to examine each board before buying, and select the specific boards that they want based on appearance, grain, etc. That's OK for a woodworker with lots of experience, but a beginner will be challenged trying to do that. So, until you get enough experience to know what to look for when selecting your timber, it's probably easier and safer to tell the seller what you want to make and let the seller guide you. The one point about timber selection that I would stress, is when buying (or cutting your own) thin board stock, try to get Quarter Sawn boards (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_sawing), as they are much more stable, and less likely to warp out of shape on you.

Also, for a long time, until around December 2015 I think, there was another timber selling mail-order business located in Gympie (Queensland) who were advertising a wide range of timber, specifically in thinner boards for box making. Unfortunately, the business does not have an advert in the recent issues of Australian Woodworker that I have on hand. I give my older magazines to a Men's Shed, so I don't have any older magazine issues to refer to. I've bought from them, and so has my neighbour, but unfortunately neither of us can remember the business name. If you can access an older issue of Australian Woodworker, you should be able to locate the company's name and contact details, or maybe someone on the forums can provide the necessary details..

Another possibility for mail-order or phone-order timber in Box Making thicknesses is Trend Timbers in Sydney (http://www.trendtimbers.com.au/box-making-timber.php). They sell some thin board stock. When I visited their shop about a year ago, I remember seeing a fair sized range of thin box making stock - whether those stock levels are being maintained is anyone's guess.

Another possibility is Tasmanian Distinctive Timbers (http://www.distinctivetimbers.com.au/index.html). They won't necessarily have the thin board stock that you want on hand, but they do say on their web site that they can handle small volume sales, and that they will mill to required thicknesses. Worth a try.

Yet another possibility is Billinudgel Woodworks (http://www.billinudgelwoodworks.com.au/) in far north coast NSW. If you ring Stan at Billinudgle, he may also be able to help.

Another thing to remember is that the milling of thin board stock is very wasteful for the miller. As an example, to take a 6mm thick slice of a much thicker board will probably loose 3mm in the saw kerf as waste, plus the board will be milled over thickness by say 2 mm so that the board can then be planed down to the required thickness. So for a single 6mm thick board, that's around 5mm waste or approximately 80% waste. (the actual amount of wastage depends on the thickness of the blades being used, and on the number of thin boards being cut from a single thick board. The high amount of wastage is why dressed to thickness thin board stock is expensive.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Hope that helps.

RoyG

[adept22]

Thanks for all the feedback and offers, Work has gotten has gotten a bit hectic and eaten into my hobby time, but once things settle down I can digest this and get back to making some woodchips soon :)