Comparing the cost of wood

[Kris Avonts]

Hello all,

 

Many topics in this wood discussion forum relate to finding the precious wood we all like to use for our ship models. It is not only difficult to find a supplier but also not easy to compare the cost of different offerings.

 

So, I thought about making a small app that can calculate the cost per weight unit for a specific piece of wood. That makes comparing cost per kilogram or pound a little easier.

 

It looks like this:

 

The first 2 items ‘Wood supplier’ and ‘Product name’ are not used for the calculation but it can come in handy to remember later where your found what.

Next you need to select the wood species of the piece you want to make the calculation for. There are some wood species already defined in the wood-cost.cfg file, but you can always add some more using the ‘Add new species’ button.

Then it is time to enter the dimensions of the piece. Although it looks complex at first sight, I tried to make entering the numeric data easy. You can only enter digits and a decimal separator. You move to a next field with the TAB key. If select inch for the units then the additional fields for entering fractions get enabled. You can mix inch fraction with inch decimal dimensions.

As a last item you enter the cost of that piece of wood and check that the currency selection is the correct one.

 

Clicking the ‘Calculate cost per weight unit >>>’ will then display a cost per weight value for that specific piece of wood. And in the output window below a summary line for that piece will be added.

 

Better then much explanation, I can show what it looks like when used in Europe:

 

And this is for the English speaking users:

 

You can see that there can can be significant cost differences based on size and/or wood quality.

 

I add 3 files that you can put in one folder of your choice. A double click on the exe file will start the calculator.

 

wood-cost.exe

wood-cost.cfg

plank.ico

 

I hope it helps you making the right choice when ordering some ‘costly’ wood.

 

best regards,

   Kris