Math is hard, damhikt!

[Magpie]

Ok, so lemme see if I get this right.
Board feet is thickness x width x length / 144

SO given 3/4 inch thick wood

6 inch wide boards--12 inches long gives you .375 board feet
24 inches long gives you .75 board feet

10 inch wide boards--12 inches long gives you .625 board feet
24 inches long gives you 1.25 board feet

Therefore, if aspen is 2.50 a board foot, the 10 inch wide, 24 inch long board will be $3.13.

Is that anywhere close to right? If that's true, then I'm grossly overpaying at the borg ;p

[Jediscroller]

You're definately grossly overpaying at the borg, hehehehe. I never buy lumber from the borg (unless it's an emergency). I get aspen for $2.75 a bd. ft. One thing when buying lumber by the bd. ft. to remember though is that board feet is calculated on rough cut lumber. 3/4" wood would typically be 4/4 (1" thick lumber). So, with your examples above, 6" X 24" is actually 1 bd. ft. of S2S or S4S (surfaced 2 sides or surfaced 4 sides). Most lumber yards will surface and joint an edge for you for around 15 cents a foot.
Your 10" X 12" is actually .83 bd ft, 24" Long is 1.66 bd. ft. which would be $4.15, or if you had it surfaced on 2 sides by the lumber yard it would be about $4.45.
If you really want to see how big a rip-off lumber at the borg is, compare their oak and maple prices with lumberyard prices.

[Magpie]

I'm beating my head on the wall as we speak. I just assumed hardwood would be way more expensive than the clear pine I've been using, especially considering the cost of shipping and handling. Boy, was I wrong, not to mention the cost of stain and the time to use it right.

The only place I've ever looked at wood prices was Woodcraft, since they are the only place within 100 miles of me that sells a variety of hardwoods, so when I was browsing through the wood section of this board I bookmarked some sites to check for online shopping. Imagine my horror when I found I could get maple and ash and a host of other lovely woods for about half of what I'm paying for craft pine. I only looked at Sloan's and Ocooch so far. Calculator in hand, I now set off for more shopping! Thanks so much

Edit: I forgot to say, thanks for explaining the S2S thing, I had no idea what that was. S2S would be good enough for intarsia, right? since I'm gonna sand the bejeezus out of it anyway.

[azbison]

take a look at woodworkerssource.net

I happen to live in town and can go to their showrooms and they are very helpful and have a ton of wood. I also had them ship me some cherry and it was packaged and shipped very professionally.

[Magpie]

They have some lovely stuff but the shipping would kill me, about $24 to ship 5 board feet to my house, hehe

[Barefoot1]

Here is a link to a great resource - http://www.woodfinder.com/index.php
btw - great thread topic and information!!

[Mick Walker]

Magpie, don't know where you are located but here is another for you to check out. www.heritagewood.com

[MONK]

The WOODFINDER web site is great.

[Jediscroller]

Yep, S2S would be plenty fine for intarsia. Another one for your to check out would be Niagara lumber. You get the bd ft. price including shipping based on your zip code.

[workin for wood]

The best deal at the BORG is for 12" wide lumber, even though it's still more expensive than the national average. If you do the math, as the boards get skinnier, the per foot price goes up dramatically. Most lumber yards do not calculate board feet so specifically. There is a ruler used that calculates board footage. A 10" wide board at lowes is not 10" wide, more likely 9.75. But on the BF scale ruler, it is 10. Wood is always rounded up, so 10.25 wide is 11. Same goes for the length, although the length is rounded to the nearest half foot.