Hi all, I didn’t know where to put this question, and since it is about buying wood, I thought this the best place.
Does anyone have any general guidelines for how to calculate how much EXTRA wood to purchase for any given project? For example, I am building a bench that will contain 0.18 cubic meters of wood (roughly 75 board feet). Given flattening, squaring, cutting, off cuts that don’t fit the project etc, what is the best way to figure how much extra to buy? Is there a reasonable way to calculate the amount of raw wood that would be needed? NOTE: I can only get rough sawn with the edges on. My default is to buy 20% extra, which works ok, but I have had times when it was woefully inadequate as well as times when I’ve had extra wood coming out the ears.
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There are lots and lots of variables. With the information you have given here I would say double it!
If you can calculate the bf need for each part need in a piece you can get pretty close. But miscuts and faulty measurements can creep into it. In retrospect I'd say the percentage average is more like 25%. I tend to buy a few extra boards if it's not a really expensive wood. All the lumber yards are at least 7-8 miles away.
This is good solid advice. I tend to work a lot in the same species of wood. As such, I tend to buy 50% more than I need. The 25% guideline is likely better. However, I have made several projects out of the excess wood so it doesn’t go to waste. The only pain is more money out of pocket sooner rather than later.
This is the most efficient approach, in all sorts of ways: buy too much and save the left overs for future projects. If you let the amount of stored wood you accumulate dictate the next project, from time to time, even better. The project fits the stored wood-amount you already have rather than having to estimate how much wood to buy for a project.
On the other hand, many get a bit obsessive about grain matching, colour differences (or lack of them) and so forth. That probably can be solved by buying even more extra albeit of the "right" grain and colour shade. :-)
But sometimes you'll end up with a store of the same species of wood but with several different "looks", as the extras from several overbought project-amounts accumulate.
Personally I use only reclaimed timber, mostly hardwoods found in old first & second fittings that are being replaced with ticky-tacky stuff when a house or other premises refurbishment occurs. This means a much wider variety in the grain and colour shades of any particular species involved within my wood store.
I just live with it and somehow incorporate the differences in a larger piece. For me, perfection is not a requirement! That makes life in general, never mind woodworking, a lot easier. :-)
I love that suggestion of buying much more than needed! Now, to get my wife to agree :)
I only have reclaimed wood at the moment and it is both a blessing and a curse. Blessing: I live in Europe, am not a professional woodworker and yet I have access to hardwoods. Curse: because I can't count the number of times I've had to re-cut a plane blade due to a small piece of metal that I missed.
An immense amount of sq/in and bf scribbles all over a plan showing math's all over and a total that is 50% more than needed. I'm guessing there won't be any forensic accounting done. For that matter that tool you have wanted forever is absolutely essential for this build so you might as well bite the bullet and get it now. "It's only going to get more expensive later!"
You got this.
I'm in a similar situation - the only "lumber yard" even half close to me is a 35 minute drive away and is only open Monday to Friday......
Its dense here. That's a 45 minute drive at the wrong time of day.
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area (almost always crappy traffic), I don’t think twice if it takes me a hour to get anywhere, especially for things I like such as wood.
As mentioned earlier, there are lots of variables:
how far away is the lumber source;
do they let you pick thru the boards or do you tell them the bd-ft and they make up the bundle;
what grade is the lumber (lower means buy more)
what length is the lumber compared to the lengths you need;
are they likely to have more if you run short;
how much use and storage space do you have for left over bds.
I generally keep oak, cherry, and walnut in stock, buying it from a local sawmill and air drying it. If I am buying wood specifically for a project, I first make a cut list, then an oversize cut list (length in 6" increments, width in 1" increments being generous). Since I am able to know the lumber lengths and grade in advance, and pick out the boards, I then figure the number of boards of what length and width to buy. Then I buy a few extra boards of a variety of widths. I find it reduces stress to make extra parts as I go, both as test pieces and in case of something going wrong.
Buy enough to build 2 of them, whatever they are. So much time goes into setups that running extra parts makes good sense. If making one of something takes 20 hours making 2 probably takes 25-30. I have never had trouble finding a home for the one I like less.
I always buy more, sometimes way more. And then I get distracted by something different and buy that too. If you could see the shop it is very apparent.
Board feet is measured on rough green wood, you can’t really compare it to a volume of finished wood. A bench is a pretty simple object, it’s easy to figure each component and the quantity of wood necessary and plan the purchase accordingly if you can go through the wood pile and select your width and length. The main loss will come from not being able to use the total length of the boards, that is why some will buy double the quantity but those 2,3 ft leftover will be with you a long time and double the cost of raw material until you can use them. I aim for zero leftover and have been quite successful at it, it requires spending a few hours on the plans and finding which rough board length will be optimal when cut in different lengths for different components, I add 15% to the square footage required to convert to pmp and throw in an extra board.
I have been quite good at buying the right amount, with only a little left - I start with my big parts and work out where they will fit on the board and work my way down to the little bits.
Certain parts will need particular dimension timber, and others are less critical so can be popped in around others.
Take chalk with you to mark knots and blemishes and a tape measure then you can work out more easily where your parts will fit.
I have a lumber yard that lets me mess about as long as I want - I make a pile then they tot it up. I try not to faint, and pass over the credit card.
Everyone except the wife is happy. If you ask how much is it too often, then you get the 'go away' price. If you are nice you get 'trade'...
I agree. A few years ago,I built my workbench from hard maple. I knew it wouldn’t be cheap. I went to my regular lumber store - shoutout to Steve Wall Lumber - with chalk, measuring tape, and , most importantly, a detailed cut list. I inspected, measured, and remeasured many boards. I compared my cut list with the boards’ widths and lengths making a rough idea of cuts needed.
When my project was complete, I hardly had enough left to bother. I think I was lucky to a point, but you can minimize your waste with a lot of preplanning. Not sure every lumberyard will allow you so much time. But give it a try on your next big project.
I've found the biggest reason I have to buy too much is that within 200 km 0f me I can only get 4, 8, or 12/4 boards. Thickness is usually hit and miss, and rough boards generally have some twist or bow in them so needing a thickness between just under or just over a full inch requires going to the next and planing away a lot of wood. I've tried flattening and resawing but you have to leave enough to reflatten the piece you want. I've face glued the thinner cut off pieces but generally end up with just expensive, labour intensive secondary wood.
It helps to make a drawing. Then try and figure out what width boards make sense. For example, if you're building a chest that has 2" wide stiles and 3" wide rails, you have choices. Buy 3" lumber (if that's available) for the stiles and 4" for the rails. OR, buy 6" or 8" lumber and cut both pieces from it. Basically, you want to make an approximate cutting plan: try to fit the finished pieces as economically on the lumber as you can. If you use SketchUP, there are extensions that do that.
Maybe you think this is too much forethought, but ultimately, you have to figure this out in the shop anyway. Also, if you're concerned about things like drawer fronts that you want to look great, buy twice the wood you need for them so that you can pick the best looking parts of the wood.
Lastly, if you buy thick slabs like 8/4 or 12/4 and intend to resaw, you may find defects inside the wood. So either not worry about it and go back to the lumber yard if you need more, buy an extra 25%, or be ready to plane your wood thinner, e.g., .700" instead of 3/4 to eliminate defects.
To no poster in particular:
People invest thousands of dollars in woodworking equipment -- machines, and often enough hand tools to have been able to outfit three or four 18th century journeyman cabinetmakers. And then forget about the wood.
You need an INVENTORY of wood. A supply. An investment. Wood costs a lot of money. At any given point in time, you should EASILY have enough wood to knock out a 100 bd. ft. furniture project, if not two or three.
Don't whine about space, and use it as an excuse. I've had a thousand board feet of lumber stacked in a one and a half car garage and still had room to work. I had another 500 bd feet in the attic.
You can't open a bakery with a 5 lb. sack of flour.
Bite the bullet and buy wood. Buy until it hurts, then buy some more, then get busy building.
This is a fundamental aspect of woodworking as a major hobby (and certainly as a business) - the stock of raw material is crucial to an ability to make many things in many ways, often on a whim.
Personally I couldn't afford to buy a vast stock of timber .... but it wasn't hard to find and cultivate those who could obtain "waste" timber for nothing, from the immense amount of very well-matured wooden stuff ripped out of all sorts of places being refurbished purely in the interests of some new style or fashion. It's amazing (and perhaps should be a criminal offence!) how much beautiful wood is landfilled, burnt or otherwise wasted.
Once my "wood fairies" had been found and cultivated (often by agreements to use around a quarter of what they found for me as a piece of furniture made for them at no cost) I found the difficulty was obtaining enough storage space to put it all. Means can be found, though, from use of a friend's garage to stuffing the loft, under the beds and vertically stacked in backs of wardrobes.
Once you have a big stock, all sorts becomes possible. And you feel less leery of making experiments that might end up with a bit of true waste wood (lots of shavings & sawdust plus an item you feel inclined to hide from the observations of others). :-)
Yessir, it's called "woodworking" for a reason. It requires wood - a fact that irritates a lot of people to no end - the inveterate tool polishers, fettlers, and weekend metallurgists.
When a 'woodworker' can longer avoid questions from other members of the household, they break down and buy project stock, but "not one, damned board foot more than these U-Build-It plans say that I need." That pesky wood. Who needs it? "I just want to flatten plane soles on the weekend, and see which steel holds its edge the longest." 'Woodworking is hard, and that's no fun.'
Others swing the opposite way and throw a bottomless budget at a project until something eventually emerges, usually with a scrap pile that could have built five of the one, completed article. "Look at my wonderful craftsmanship." No, thanks. "Watch me learn-as-I-go on this $18/bd. ft. material." Nope.
"....then get building." ...more storage space. There, fixed it. At least in my shop.
I am inclined to agree with the sentiment. Mostly, anyway.
I too am an inveterate wood hoarder, and tend to keep enough of at least three species in stock to make a large project in each. Currently the floor in my dragon's cave is also full of some nice slabs I could not resist, my car park is full of drying trees I could not resist, and I'm off to see a man about some nice air dried walnut slabs, and if you think he's going to have any left afterwards...
I'm totally mad.
I end up giving some of it away but when lockdown came, I was in clover because I had more than enough to keep me busy and an extra day off a week to enjoy it.
I also love the fact that when the boss wants something - say a table, or a new loom or (today) just a scoop for the washing powder, I have ample supplies to go to the shop and return a while later with the desired product.
Totally agree on this, love working with cherry so I have 500 bf up in the rafters of my shop, only reason that I don't have more is the fear of the weight
I think this is a personal thing for the hobbiest and the right answer is whatever makes you happy. If you are in business, the answer may be different, but in the end is a compromise that let's the business run efficiently and make a reasonable profit. I'm a hobbiest so I don't have to worry about that. Personnaly I usually keep a few hundred board feet of lumber on hand necause at this stage in life I can afford that, have room to store that amount and would rather do that than run to lumber yard for every project. When I was younger I would try to buy just what was needed for the project and often made a second or even a third trip for more material because that was all I could afford at the time. Personally I think trying to use the material as efficiently as possible is more important in the end because it is a limited resource and I don't like to waste it.
It seems very inefficient to not have some extra on hand of every type of wood that you are likely to use. If I have a small project, I just go to my supply (I store my wood vertically with the edge against the wall, and it's very quick and easy to pick out what I need that way). If I have a larger project (say a chest of drawers), I go to the lumberyard and buy what I need for that project, plus maybe 25% more - and the extra goes into replenishing my safety stock. I guess my ratio of small to large projects is such that my safety stock doesn't increase in size over time.
I don't necessarily use only the new boards I just bought, sometimes boards that were in my safety stock are perfect when you actually layout the components you need. I have used a free online board optimizer a few times in which you list all the components and all the boards that you have, and it gives you the most optimum way to use the lumber. However, generally you can just layout the lumber on your bench or floor and, starting with the largest components, decide how best to utilize the lumber to minimize waste.
A good rule for buying wood is to add 15-25% extra to cover losses from flattening, squaring, and offcuts. For rough-sawn wood, consider leaning toward 25% since more material will be lost in milling.
I'd say at least 25% more if you're skilled, rarely mis-cut and have good stock. That doesn't describe me, so I probably go 50% extra. Also, keep in mind the length of the bulk of the pieces on your cut list vs the overall length of your rough stock. For example, if you're making a workbench that has a 5' top and you're buying 12' boards, you'll have 2' of waste on each board. Buy 10' boards and you'll have no waste, assuming good quality stock.
A good rule of thumb for estimating extra wood for a project, especially when working with rough sawn lumber, is to account for at least 20-30% extra material. This covers losses from flattening, squaring, cutting, and other waste like off-cuts.