Newbie looking for wood to work with

Hello Everyone,

I just purchased a few tools today in hopes of making some wooden furniture. Now I need the timber to work with.

I'm on the pension, so unfortunately do not have a lot to financially work with, and am looking for timber yards that won't break the budget.

I have several projects in mind, and may require different types of materials to work with. Any help regarding the matter would be much appreciated.

Some of the projects that I have in mind include the following:

- patio double bench and table
- sewing box
- pencil case
- shoe rack
- book case
- square chest, that will double up as a seat

I live in Melbourne's Hampton Park, and am looking for timber yards located relatively close. I heard that there is a place in Oakleigh that sells timber at very reasonable prices. Not sure of the actual business name though.

Thank you in advance for any help heading me in the right direction.

http://www.tileimporter.com.au/

This may be the place you heard of.

Rob

Thanks Rob,

I'll check them out Monday (if they aren't open tomorrow), and see what their prices are like.

I appreciate your advice :)

Hi Isa
can swing past and check these guys http://www.alewistimber.com.au/
they stock all standard species ( hardwood / pine) plus few others that you dont really see in bunnings / masters etc

Thank you for that bit of information Prle77. They don't seem to be too far from Oakleigh... how are their prices though?

Had guests over today and have other commitments Monday as well unfortunately... so I couldn't do what I'd intended to today. If nothing pops up on Tuesday, I'll head over that way and see what's on offer, God willing.

Thank you to everyone that helped me thus far.

I'm still all ears with regards to wanting to learn about acquiring timber economically, so if anyone knows any tips that they could share, it'd be much appreciated ;)

The place I mentioned isa, has lots of building materials in the outside yard, building materials mainly means wet , or a high moisture content , inside the only dry timbers you can get, mainly are radiata pine 290 x 19 and under in the width , there is 50 x 100 stud type stuff inside , not sure how dry. there is some nice KD hardwood in about 35mm and 45mm that's the thickness width up to 150 maybe ? there can be some Jarrah as well . they have chipboard and , there are some other timbers if you look around .
The Radiata is cheap but its not A grade clear stuff either , some boards come close and plenty are knotty .

When you go in you can walk around like the place is your own and measure and sort what you want , the guys are busy and they sort of don't want to know you until its time to pay. Avoid early morning because it can be traffic jams inside with the tradies picking up for their days work . You wont find cheaper wood than Tile importers , but you get what you pay for . if you want to go up market a bit into the solid cabinet wood range look at Britton timbers in Dandenong or Mathews in Knoxfield. Both are good for quality local and imported hardwoods and softwoods , Mathews are are better for a beginner wanting to look and feel the wood first though, so the price is higher , Britton's are better on price but are not into letting beginners look through the wood really . you would have to ring and ask them that . I just order off them and they deliver. and the price is cheaper because of that.

If you want to go real cheap , drive around the industrial estates and see the packing crates some businesses leave outside . most of the time its waiting to be taken away as rubbish . its well worth asking them first though . Some of the stuff I see is pretty good , big pine boxes with lots of wood in them. You will spend some time pulling this stuff apart and de nailing, and you wont get cheaper than that.

Rob

I built my workbench from timber from tile importer, all tas oak, for about $300. Has been a few years since I was last there but also found some nice jarrah and great prices for plywood and mdf. The clamped up Frame on the bench is jarrah from there.

Hmmm, this thread has been here for a while, but I thought I'd add my 2 cents anyway:

When I started to do woodwork I started with pine. It was a miserable experience. My father had horrid, cobbled together blunt (hand)tools and the coarse
grained Northern European pine I had access too had very stark contrasts between hard and very soft layers. The results were not pretty.
Tear-out, uneven surfaces, ragged end grain.... the tools in the school wood workshop were no better. It was discouraging, but fortunately it did not put me
off for good.

So coming from there I'd say: try some timber that has more uniform grain, fine grain - soft or hard don't matter so long as your tools are sharp. The first
times I put a saw and a chisel to some demolition-yard sourced NZ Kauri and some Jarrah were a revelation. Macrocarpa would be a good choice also, it
usually is very 'good-natured'.