A guy came into work a few days ago. He's a scrounger. If you want
something just ask and in a few days he'll have it for you. I asked him if
he could get a hold of some red oak. He said to give him a few days. On
Thursday he comes in and hands me a piece of barn board. It's 4 feet long
and about 6" wide. I take it out to the shop and run a plane over it. Sure
enough it's read oak. He says the guy has a couple of hundred of them and
he wants a buck a piece. Quick calculation shows about .50 a board foot.
It'll plane down to 3/4". I tell him OK

On Friday he shows up with a trailer loaded to the gills. HOLY CRAP!!
Where am I going to put all that? Now this is the part where I think that I
may have gotten screwed. The board he showed me was 4 feet long. The ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide. About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

http://musial.ws/big_pile_o.htm

In article ,
"PM6564" wrote:

A guy came into work a few days ago. He's a scrounger. If you want
something just ask and in a few days he'll have it for you. I asked him if
he could get a hold of some red oak. He said to give him a few days. On
Thursday he comes in and hands me a piece of barn board. It's 4 feet long
and about 6" wide. I take it out to the shop and run a plane over it. Sure
enough it's read oak. He says the guy has a couple of hundred of them and
he wants a buck a piece. Quick calculation shows about .50 a board foot.
It'll plane down to 3/4". I tell him OK

On Friday he shows up with a trailer loaded to the gills. HOLY CRAP!!
Where am I going to put all that? Now this is the part where I think that I
may have gotten screwed. The board he showed me was 4 feet long. The ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide. About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...



Sorry to say, but there's little doubt that you got screwed. I'm
surprised you were able to be taken in by such an obvious
bait-and-switch tactic.

I suppose you could sue the scrounger for misrepresentation, but all the
money would just end up going to the lawyers. I suggest you cut your
losses and give the oak to me.

You got screwed.
There's alot more stuff you can build with 4' boards. What the hell are you
going to make that's 9' long?


"PM6564" wrote in message
...
A guy came into work a few days ago. He's a scrounger. If you want
something just ask and in a few days he'll have it for you. I asked him
if
he could get a hold of some red oak. He said to give him a few days. On
Thursday he comes in and hands me a piece of barn board. It's 4 feet long
and about 6" wide. I take it out to the shop and run a plane over it.
Sure
enough it's read oak. He says the guy has a couple of hundred of them and
he wants a buck a piece. Quick calculation shows about .50 a board foot.
It'll plane down to 3/4". I tell him OK

On Friday he shows up with a trailer loaded to the gills. HOLY CRAP!!
Where am I going to put all that? Now this is the part where I think that
I
may have gotten screwed. The board he showed me was 4 feet long. The
ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide. About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

http://musial.ws/big_pile_o.htm

In article , PM6564
wrote:

The ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

How the hell are you going to turn them over to plane the other side?
You got 10 foot ceilings?

Tell ya what, out of the goodnes of my heart, and in the Christmas
spirit, I'll take it all off your hands for what you paid for it.

No, no, don't thank me... It's the least I can do.

djb

--
There are no socks in my email address.

"Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati"

How about you cut them all down to 4' lengths and I'll take your cutoffs
off your hands... All in the spirit of the holidays, of course!!
Mark

PM6564 wrote:
A guy came into work a few days ago. He's a scrounger. If you want
something just ask and in a few days he'll have it for you. I asked him if
he could get a hold of some red oak. He said to give him a few days. On
Thursday he comes in and hands me a piece of barn board. It's 4 feet long
and about 6" wide. I take it out to the shop and run a plane over it. Sure
enough it's read oak. He says the guy has a couple of hundred of them and
he wants a buck a piece. Quick calculation shows about .50 a board foot.
It'll plane down to 3/4". I tell him OK

On Friday he shows up with a trailer loaded to the gills. HOLY CRAP!!
Where am I going to put all that? Now this is the part where I think that I
may have gotten screwed. The board he showed me was 4 feet long. The ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide. About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

http://musial.ws/big_pile_o.htm

Wait until you plane one of the other boards and they all turn out to be
sweet gum. Just kidding. Sounds like a good deal to me.
--
Steve Harris
www.iilg.com

"PM6564" Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide.
About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

I knew sooner or later the boards from my barn would surface.... I
want them back... My cows are getting cold at night. grin

"PM6564" wrote in message
...
A guy came into work a few days ago. He's a scrounger. If you
want
something just ask and in a few days he'll have it for you. I
asked him if
he could get a hold of some red oak. He said to give him a few
days. On
Thursday he comes in and hands me a piece of barn board. It's 4
feet long
and about 6" wide. I take it out to the shop and run a plane
over it. Sure
enough it's read oak. He says the guy has a couple of hundred
of them and
he wants a buck a piece. Quick calculation shows about .50 a
board foot.
It'll plane down to 3/4". I tell him OK

On Friday he shows up with a trailer loaded to the gills. HOLY
CRAP!!
Where am I going to put all that? Now this is the part where I
think that I
may have gotten screwed. The board he showed me was 4 feet
long. The ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide.
About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

http://musial.ws/big_pile_o.htm

The ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Which leads me to ask you guys what lenght you guys
purchase (or cut) your lumber to when you store it...?

I have a cramped shop... and can store up to about a 6
foot slab without any space problems...8 foot is too long
to "fit"... BUT most of the "wood" I do find seems to be
in the 7 to 9 foot range also...

which means I have to cut it ..to store it !

4 foot is too damn short for some projects and 2 foot much too short for
others...So It seems that I cut the slabs about 5 foot in lenght which lets
me store 5 foot sections and 3 foot sections...

Bob Griffiths

I would never consider cutting expensive hardwood to a random length, just
for storage purposes, without some prior planning.

My philosophy, more or less forced by a small shop space and limited budget,
is to let the lumber company store the lumber until I need it.

My personal experience is that it is better to buy on a project by project
basis, AND use a good cutlist program when buying. A good cutlist program
allows you to immediately chalk and rough cut for maximum utilization of
materials, and makes storage, and waste, much less of an issue.

At the cost of furniture grade hardwoods today, the savings by doing so can
be considerable, especially if you have to make a profit on the project.

Just my tuppence ...

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 9/21/03

"Bob G" wrote in message

Which leads me to ask you guys what lenght you guys
purchase (or cut) your lumber to when you store it...?

I have a cramped shop... and can store up to about a 6
foot slab without any space problems...8 foot is too long
to "fit"... BUT most of the "wood" I do find seems to be
in the 7 to 9 foot range also...

which means I have to cut it ..to store it !

4 foot is too damn short for some projects and 2 foot much too short for
others...So It seems that I cut the slabs about 5 foot in lenght which
lets
me store 5 foot sections and 3 foot sections...

Dear Steve,

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide. About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

Now if it were walnut, now that would be a gloat...

Good score!

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

Remove the "splinter" from my email address to email me.

Newbies, please read this newsgroups FAQ.

rec.ww FAQ http://www.robson.org/woodfaq/
Archives http://groups.google.com/advanced_group_search
Crowbar FAQ http://www.klownhammer.org/crowbar

Bob G wrote:

which means I have to cut it ..to store it !

4 foot is too damn short for some projects and 2 foot much too short for
others...So It seems that I cut the slabs about 5 foot in lenght which
lets me store 5 foot sections and 3 foot sections...

It's a real dilema isn't it? I have a growing collection of odd little
useless boards from where the place I cut it didn't work out quite right.

I'm thinking maybe laminate a lot of this together into turning blanks some
day.

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Swingman wrote:

I would never consider cutting expensive hardwood to a random length, just
for storage purposes, without some prior planning.

My philosophy, more or less forced by a small shop space and limited
budget, is to let the lumber company store the lumber until I need it.

I'll add to my last post... I don't just cut it at random for storage
purposes. I make a plan, figure out what dimensions I have to have, and
what dimensions I can use, and then I go shopping. I store only off-cuts.

My trouble has more to do with the nature of the material. I mostly use
walnut now, and walnut comes in extremely random lengths and widths.

If my cutlist wants a certain width and length, I have to be ready to change
it all around on the spur of the moment. Maybe I don't get the width I
need, and the longest length I need is longer than half the length of any
of the boards, so I have to get creative.

I don't see how a cutlist program would do me a lick of good. Not in
walnut, particularly. With other species, I'm more likely to find a dozen
boards that are within an inch of being the same size.

Besides...

[silvan@giganator] ~
-apt-cache search cut|grep list
lslk - a lock file lister
mingw32 - Minimalist GNU win32 (cross) compiler
mingw32-binutils - Minimalist GNU win32 (cross) binutils
[silvan@giganator] ~
-apt-cache search cut|grep wood
[silvan@giganator] ~
-

Linux ain't got no cutlist program, Chief. If it did, Debian would have
heard about it by now.

Maybe I should start one.

At the cost of furniture grade hardwoods today, the savings by doing so
can be considerable, especially if you have to make a profit on the
project.

Agreed, but I waste practically nothing. When a piece gets down to less
than one square inch, then it goes in the trash. Anything bigger than that
gets used somewhere, or stored for such time as I can use it. (I'm getting
into making wooden models of late, so small scraps are very useful.) This
stuff is *expensive*!!

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/

Hello there,

I would never consider cutting expensive hardwood to a random length,
just
for storage purposes, without some prior planning.

The last walnut I bought ($0.80 BF) was clear 4/4, 12" wide and 16' long, I
had no choice but to lop some off to even get it into the garage sideways...

David.

"Silvan"wrote in message
Swingman wrote:

I would never consider cutting expensive hardwood to a random length,
just
for storage purposes, without some prior planning.

My philosophy, more or less forced by a small shop space and limited
budget, is to let the lumber company store the lumber until I need it.

I'll add to my last post... I don't just cut it at random for storage
purposes. I make a plan, figure out what dimensions I have to have, and
what dimensions I can use, and then I go shopping. I store only off-cuts.

That's exactly what I was saying. Note my post did not address storing
"off-cuts", it addressed storing material for a project..

Like most woodworkers, I experience the quandry of having a difficult time
deciding what to keep and what to dispose when it comes to "leftovers" about
every six months or so, when the pile gets too big to ignore.


My trouble has more to do with the nature of the material. I mostly use
walnut now, and walnut comes in extremely random lengths and widths.

Luckily (maybe not pricewise) that is not the case here. Locally, there is
not much difference in lengths and widths available between walnut and most
other types of hardwood. Good FAS, no matter the hardwood, is expensive!

I go to great lengths to recycle walnut ... I routinely take the scraps from
a local sign company and joint and plane them into project useful material.
I've basically paid for a jointer doing just that.

If my cutlist wants a certain width and length, I have to be ready to
change
it all around on the spur of the moment. Maybe I don't get the width I
need, and the longest length I need is longer than half the length of any
of the boards, so I have to get creative.

I don't see how a cutlist program would do me a lick of good. Not in
walnut, particularly. With other species, I'm more likely to find a dozen
boards that are within an inch of being the same size.

Besides...

[silvan@giganator] ~
-apt-cache search cut|grep list
lslk - a lock file lister
mingw32 - Minimalist GNU win32 (cross) compiler
mingw32-binutils - Minimalist GNU win32 (cross) binutils
[silvan@giganator] ~
-apt-cache search cut|grep wood
[silvan@giganator] ~
-

Linux ain't got no cutlist program, Chief. If it did, Debian would have
heard about it by now.

Maybe I should start one.

Ahh .. yes you should. A good cutlist program, as well as a good design/shop
drawing, whether it be CAD or hand drawn, forces you to plan ahead ... to
the benefit of the project, and the bottom line.

I use CutList Plus Gold, and it is very easy to juggle the size of inventory
stock in just a few seconds to get maximum benefit. A truly valuable program
if you do a lot of projects.

At the cost of furniture grade hardwoods today, the savings by doing so
can be considerable, especially if you have to make a profit on the
project.

Agreed, but I waste practically nothing. When a piece gets down to less
than one square inch, then it goes in the trash. Anything bigger than
that
gets used somewhere, or stored for such time as I can use it. (I'm
getting
into making wooden models of late, so small scraps are very useful.) This
stuff is *expensive*!!

For some of us, including most hardwood dealers, there is no such thing as a
"scrap", at least until it forces itself upon you in such a manner that
there is no room left but to do something about it..

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 9/21/03

"PM6564" wrote in message
...
A guy came into work a few days ago. He's a scrounger. If you want
something just ask and in a few days he'll have it for you. I asked him
if
he could get a hold of some red oak. He said to give him a few days. On
Thursday he comes in and hands me a piece of barn board. It's 4 feet long
and about 6" wide. I take it out to the shop and run a plane over it.
Sure
enough it's read oak. He says the guy has a couple of hundred of them and
he wants a buck a piece. Quick calculation shows about .50 a board foot.
It'll plane down to 3/4". I tell him OK

On Friday he shows up with a trailer loaded to the gills. HOLY CRAP!!
Where am I going to put all that? Now this is the part where I think that
I
may have gotten screwed. The board he showed me was 4 feet long. The
ones
on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.

Let's see...268 boards. Average 8' long. Average 6" wide. About 1078
board feet. $268.00 Hmmmm about .25 a board foot...

http://musial.ws/big_pile_o.htm



I notice that in all the replies, everybody was so envious that they forgot
to state the obvious....

"YOU SUCK!" (You lucky dog.) ;-)

"PM6564" wrote in message
....

Now this is the part where I think that I may have gotten screwed. The
board he showed me
was 4 feet long. The ones on the trailer are all 7 to 9 feet long.


You should have refused them. What can you build if the boards are all
different lengths?
You just can't trust to give an honest product anyone these days.
Ed

http://pages.cthome.net/edhome

Can I have the phone number of your scrounger please? I promise I'll return
him.