Trash to Treasure wood source tips

[m_r_dxn]

Oily's post on the trivet from the trash inspired this post. We recycle at my house AND I'm a cheapscate on top of that, so everyone who will, share your cheap-o or re-used wood source!

One of MY favorite sources for wood is Goodwill. Ours has a whole isle just for wooden items like shelves and decor and you never know what else. Occasionally I find something that I just want to sand, refinish, and keep (one of my favorites is the wooden anchor shaped wine rack that I paid $2 for the other day). But I can always find several items that have good scrollable sized pieces of various species and thicknesses. Most items only cost a couple bucks too. Lots of times I can find log slices too. May have to scrape a picture or something off of it, but these usually cost around a dollar. Also, if you go on Saturday, everything's half off....so it's really cheap then.

Another possible source if you live in a town where there is roadside pickup, is lots of times I see larger furniture pieces on the side of the road for pickup (tables, bookshelves, ect...) Just for the price of your time in asking first, you can possibly tote off some very nice and would be expensive chunks of wood!

[dbfly]

Theres alot of logging in my area and saw mills. I use slab wood. the guy I buy my firewood from saves me the wide boards 8' long. I also scarff up any old furinture I see laying on the curb. The sides of old dresser drawers are nice there 3/8 to 1/2 thick 10" wide. I am also cheap I dont buy any wood and somtimes make my own stain

[Jim McDonald]

It is infrequent, but I do find some good cutoffs and irregulars in the wood pile at the Habitat for Humanity resale store.
I also buy some of my finishes there. A lot of times the finishes you get are label changes or the like and the prices are generally half of retail.

[oily]

Dumpster Divin' for fun and profit!

[Wood Dog]

Trash day.....early.

[oily]

Originally Posted by Wood Dog

Trash day.....early.

yup Thanks Giving

[BiPolarBear]

I'm a huge fan of Goodwill, but to be honest, I NEVER thought of going through the "wood" aisle. I'm gonna have to give it a look-see next time.

And Goodwill here in Atlanta has color coded weeks, everything with the color of the week tag is half price for the week.

Thanks for the great suggestion. Unfortunately, I'm so NOT a morning person that trying to find thrown out pieces is out of the question for me. I'd never make it there before the trash is picked up.

[greatdane2]

A lot of stores like Home Depot set an area aside around back that they throw broken pallets ect into a pile. Its self serve and free.
It is worth while looking at pallets. Some of them come from all over the world and so the wood might be scrap where it came from but not here. I have a whole rack of woods such as Mahhogany that is up to 8" wide and 1" thick.
Its a good idea to check for nails etc in used wood. a small nail might not do much when you hit it with the scrollsaw but a tablesaw can turn it into a missile.

[m_r_dxn]

GD, I'm gonna have to look into that 4 sure!

[greatdane2]

Small local sawmills are a great place to scrounge as well. I have been getting Cedar from one such guy.I get a lot of cedar blanks that are 1 or 2" thick. When he is cutting old growth cedar he cuts out the knots and if the knot is less than 3' from the end of a board, it is waste. 3 to 6' lenghts go for fence panels. So he sells it as firewood if he can but each time I show up to buy wood for decks etc. I also get more wood than I can use. He also saves big slabs from the butt end if the grain is special.
No matter what type of wood a mill might be cutting they will have waste. So try and find a small mill near you. Local contractors might help you find them as they don't allways advertise localy. Some of the guys here ship out everything they cut to overseas markets.