Best place to buy scale wood?

[Ulises Victoria]

Hello all. I've read some information regarding my present kit didn't come with enough wood. Trying to be one step ahead, where do you recommend buying scale wood, preferably already cut to size?

 

Thank you in advance.

 

[Maury S]

http://www.hobbymillusa.com/       Best around and a good sponsor of MSW.

Maury

[Ulises Victoria]

Sweet!!! 

Thank you Maury

[jml1083]

Another vote for Jeff Hayes at HobbyMill. Dealing with Jeff is always a pleasure.

[gjdale]

Yep, can't go past Jeff at Hobbymill. Even with exorbitant postal rates (not his fault), it's still great value. Quality and service are second to none!

[Ulises Victoria]

Too bad they don't accept PayPal or CC as payment method. Hard to believe a company dealing with internet orders, relying only in checks or money orders, when setting up a PayPal account is so easy.

[Captain Al]

Tell me more about Pay Pal. I live in the dark ages. I have a cell phone but not much more. A computer of course. So lots of internet businesses are asking me to pay by PayPal, and I've resisted. To me its just another way for someone to hack in and get either information or actually steal money. Am I wrong? How does it all work and what are the protections? Is it really worth having an account for maybe two to ten purchases a year?

[Jay 1]

Many smaller vendors don't use PayPal because PayPal charge businesses (~3% + $0.30 per transaction--international can be higher due to currency conversions) fees for accepting customer payments. This is just one more overhead expense from the business' perspective and if the business' margin is tight, these added costs can be killers. Brian's suggestion probably is the easiest way to go. With that said, Jeff is great to work with and his wood and service are stellar!

 

Cheers,

Jay

[Ulises Victoria]

Tell me more about Pay Pal. I live in the dark ages. I have a cell phone but not much more. A computer of course. So lots of internet businesses are asking me to pay by PayPal, and I've resisted. To me its just another way for someone to hack in and get either information or actually steal money. Am I wrong? How does it all work and what are the protections? Is it really worth having an account for maybe two to ten purchases a year?

PayPal is the widest accepted internet payment method in the world so far. There has to be a reason for that. Your PayPal purchases are guaranteed. If you don't get what you ordered or have any complaints, PP refunds your money. Of course they have to charge something. It is a business after all. I have used PP extensively for several years. Never had a complaint.

 

Thank you Brian C...Cool... Western Union may be the option

Edited April 20, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[dgbot]

I use Pay Pal as well.  However they are linked to my Credit Card. I am leary about linking them to my Bank account. I am just a little paranoid with all that is going on out there. Jeff is a great guy to do business with. Besides at a guild conference I asked him about the above mentioned and he said the cost and overhead. Plus he likes to do business on trusting his clientele at all times. They trust him to do the right thing and visa versa. If more businesses did things this way we would all be happier. The Hobby Mill is the cats meow as far as I am concerned.

Satisfied client,

David B

[HIPEXEC]

PayPal is great. I've using it since its inception with no problems. I think it's safer than credit cards.

[themadchemist]

I'm really rather sad and happy that this topic has been broached. Its something that's been eating at me for nearly a year and I think deserves saying.

I've read so many glowing reports of Jeff's wood and I really wish that I could join the club, so to speak, but Jeff refuses to sell to me.
I really feel this should be brought up, not to destroy Jeff in anyway but to give a complete picture. I appreciate Jeff's supporting MSW, but I also see MSW supporting Jeff in his dream of making a hobby a money maker. I also understand Jeff wanting to keep it old school, but if that's his choice, I feel he should be a bit more forgiving of the confusion that such practices may cause those of us that use methods such as Paypal.

Last year, I was still new to this hobby and I followed everyones lead and contacted Jeff about replacement wood for Chuck's designed MS Pinnace. He sells a replacement wood kit.
I inquired about the content of the wood replacement set as there was no list of what it contained and found that had I ordered it, that there was no 3" sheeting for the frames. Jeff even contacted Chuck about this.
After a dozen or so communiucations, I questioned Jeff's payment policy, due to my thick brain and I was thinking he wanted a check months before I'd ever see the wood, this was due to a comment he made in an earlier email of
"Also as a new customer, I would appreciate payment in advance"

Long story short, when I recontacted Jeff after nearly 2 weeks without a response, I was told
"Sorry, I didn’t realize that you were expecting a response. I appreciate your comments; however, you should find a different approach as I will not be accepting your order."

I was crushed. Not because he refused to do business with me, but that I'd misworded something in such a way, that it made him unwilling to do business with me.
My Lyme infection effects the way I think and respond sometimes and maybe the way I worded something offended him. If so it was never intended as such. This is one of the reasons I hate language as it leaves so much to interpretation, and meaningless words can be taken SO wrong.

I did write Jeff a long apology, but never heard back and assumed he has more work then needed and I was an easy cull from his que. I'm glad he's busy and I'm glad everyone else loves his work, but I was just left feeling empty as we had been in communication for several months (first email June 14, last one August 19) working out how to make a complete wood replacement set for the Pinnace. I just couldn't understand how such an investment in correspondence could be washed away with one small misunderstanding over words.

So, I just found someone that seemed to understand me as an individual better, as this is a big old world and not all relationships are meant to be.
I found an individual that sells scale wood on ebay, Wayne Cantin. I don't deal with him through ebay as Wayne custom cuts for me. Heck I purchased a 2" x 4" x 3' block of castillo and a bunch of ebony knife blanks and sent them to Wayne for cutting also. Maybe Wayne doesn't do as good a job as Jeff, I'll honestly never know, and besides you can buy alot of sandpaper fairly cheap if needed. To date Wayne has cut over $300 in scale wood for me and I've been overjoyed with it.

Wayne's email is TALLSHIPS3@AOL.COM

BTW, my first order from Wayne was made on a Saturday and it arrived packed in PVC pipe that following wednesday. Thats a pretty fast turn around on a wood order, since I expected a 3 month wait based on what I was told previously.

I have also had the Lumberyard (Dave and Ev) cut the boxwood and holly sheeting I needed and was very happy with the wood and Ev's correspondence.

Please don't think this is me just railing on HobbyMills or Jeff. He's a busy guy and lucky enough to make a living doing his Hobby. I just thought it odd that mere words were enough to cause him to refuse to sell to me, especially after 3 months of correspondence.
I too feel it would be to his benefit to use Paypal. Not because its new and everyones doing it, but rather to prevent future confusion for new builders such as myself.
..and quite frankly, if you can't trust paypal then you can't trust your bank or credit or debit cards. I've used Paypal dozens of times as I'm homebound and depend on the Admiral to drive. And Western Union... if you want to talk about fee's, their fee's are huge compared to Paypal.

Edited April 20, 2014 by themadchemist

[themadchemist]

Hello Brian,
Not to be argumentative, but its a bit closed minded to say
"he is very obliging to everyone else on this forum".

I see that as a stretch, as we have 12,116 members and I really doubt he has had contact with every one of MSW's members. I thought long and hard before I posted this as I feared being labeled as that guy that couldn't get along with Jeff at HobbyMills. As this is the General Discussion Forum though, I felt obliged to inform only, as I never quite understood just what happened. I also seemed to be able to order wood from Wayne (3 times so far) and the Lumberyard without incident.

As a matter of fact Brian, I could take what your saying to mean that I'm the only problem in a hub of 12,116, from the way you worded your response using "everyone else". See how easy words can be twisted. But I take no offense to what you said and don't think you intended it to be that way. Let's not forget the fiasco of just a few months ago, where good members now lurk or don't show due to communication issues. We had Admin's and users leaving over nothing but words.

We are a community and must communicate. As a multi-lingual community, that issue becomes even harder.

I'm glad I hear so many great comments about HobbyMills wood, Jeff supports MSW so I'd be stuppid if I didn't, but still don't completely understand exactly what I did. My reason for posting wasn't to destroy but to inform others that not "everyone" has been "very obliged."
I find I prefer a complete view which may include bad with good.
Honestly I was quite disturbed by Jeff's response. I've questioned if I was the problem and have wondered if maybe I am the only person Jeff's refused to sell to. For a new builder it was quite a devastating blow to have every one say "go here" then not get the same happy fuzzy feeling that everyone goes on about. I know it is hard for some to see a critique as anything but a personal attack on someone that they cherish, but this isn't that. I hold no hard feeling towards Jeff, he caused me to go elsewhere and I found new avenues for supplies and made a new friend in Wayne.

I will say that Jeff went above and beyond prior to the issues, we figured out what was needed to complete the kit in complete boxwood, not using the kits basswood laser cut frame sheets. We corresponded for 2 1/2 months and he had already sold many Pinnace replacement wood kits as he was already out of the boxwood kits. I always found it odd that no one else prior to me had asked about the laser cut framing sheets though.

To address your 2nd question, the question wasn't over method of payment, it was over a confusion on how and when payment was to be made. I had planned to mail a check, but the way he made it sound he wanted the check in August and he couldn't give an estimate of delivery time, except November or later for delivery. I questioned why I needed to pay 3 months in advance.
Honestly it never got beyond that question because in my questioning payment and delivery I somehow said something wrong, I guess. I felt as though I'd wasted a lot of his time, like I said we corresponded on the wood for 3 months, figuring out what was to be needed as his Pinnace replacement kit doesn't have the 3" sheets for the frames as they are laser cut. Those I was going to need to add and hand cut, which wasn't a problem for me.

PLEASE EVERYONE, This isn't to pick on Jeff. Everyone has a bad day, most of mine are that way. Its just sad that communication can become such an obstacle and I have always had a funny feeling when wood purchasing is mentioned after this experience. I needed it to be shared. It's kinda like when I was a teacher and asked to write letters of recommendation. I honestly had to tell some they didn't want the letter I'd write and I believe in telling it as it is.
Whose to blame for my issues, fate and communication. Jeff is a busy man, He's under a load keeping builders happy. I was new and didn't know how things worked.

Maybe someone can answer this for me. Is it expected to pay up to 3 month before receiving product from Jeff? this was the question I got no response to. Maybe I expected to much or said to much in my misunderstanding. Its water under the bridge and over as I see it. Like my recent issues with Midwest, which I felt obliged to bring up, this is the same.
http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/5727-poor-service-after-the-sale-regarding-midwest-products/

I also wanted to mention that there are other ways to procure scale wood. I would never tell anyone to NOT buy from Jeff. I just always wondered what happened and why he decided that I'd crossed some line, when I didn't know that I had. Sadly I can't say my HobbyMills experience was good. I can say that the wood from Wayne and the LumberYard were everything I needed.

I know this is somewhat off topic but where other then in a scale wood discussion?

[Boatsinc2000]

Thank you to everyone who has supported and recommended my products.  As with most things there are two sides to each discussion and our past experiences guide our decisions going forward.

 

My experience with PayPal has not been positive and I've always felt that their security had serious deficiencies.  In the past this was underscored by the fact that within minutes of receiving any correspondence from them, I would receive spam from all over the world.  Yes, I've been a long time member and my information was hacked in one of their documented attacks a number of years ago.

 

About two years ago I experienced an identity theft issue that was traced directly back to their security.  As a future preventative measure I discussed this with a couple of my banks and they explained that a high percentage of their identity theft issues were related to PayPal transactions.

 

So as a business and personal decision I do not plan to offer their services.  My perspective is that it would seem illogical for me to reward a business who harmed me and from a personal basis why would I ever want to jeopardize my financial status over a hobby.

 

I realize that some customers may find this difficult to understand, but I look at HobbyMill as a service to this hobby in much of the same way that the moderators offer their service to this website.  It is a break even business where I perform all of the tasks with the single objective of improving the quality of wood products offered to this hobby.  In other words, if I were to shut it down today, it would not have any financial impact on me and I would have a lot of time to spend on my own modeling.

 

I may have my own illusions about this, but I believe that through MSW and my efforts some of the builders in this community have begun to raise their expectations on the quality of milled wood products and services.  My business has grown a lot over the years and I would welcome other suppliers to the community who are willing to provide similar or better quality products, because that would support the objective with which HobbyMill was founded.  Over the years I have advised a number of customers on how to mill their own wood.  I have also added the section on my website covering operation of the Byrnes saw with the intention of assisting customers to improve their own milling quality.  So again, if there are other parties interested in offering top quality wood, I would be happy to assist them because I feel that it is a win for everyone.

 

This thread has been centered on some of my policies and some customers who would prefer me to change those policies.  I realize that some customers may not agree with them, but hopefully this response will provide some insight into my thinking and at least serve to rationalize that they are not arbitrary.  If it were focused on the quality of my product, then I assure you that I would take a different approach.

 

As a home based business my wife is very tolerant of the dust and noise created from milling wood, not to mention the 2 hours each day working on e-mails.  One other policy that has not been brought up is that you will not find my telephone number listed anywhere.  After giving my number out to a few customers, my wife started to become my secretary because I am always in the shop.  My wife didn't appreciate being my secretary and then the calls started to come in at all hours of the night.  So keeping peace at home and getting sleep is the rationale behind e-mail only communications.

 

Another policy is that I do not sell within the state of Ohio to avoid dealing with collecting and filing state income tax.  I do all of the tax filings for the business so I try to minimize this because most of the time the filings would just be zeros.  At one time I would just give the wood to Ohio customers and request that they make a charitable donation to their favorite charity.  That was pretty goofy and it only lasted a few years.

 

My payment policy has always been that I request payment in advance for first time US customers and thereafter I include an invoice.  International customers I always request payment in advance and this is as much as insuring that I'm getting paid in US dollars as it is a credit issue.  All of this has always been on my website.  I realize that my lead times have started to stretch way out, but I try my best to advise my customers of anticipated delivery.  I've only missed one delivery and I sent, unsolicited, a full refund to that customer.  The customer felt that was "over the top" and declined the refund.

 

So here comes Keith.  He asked some good questions on one of Chuck's designed kits, so I contacted Chuck because he designed the Pinnace supplemental wood package that I offer.  Chuck did a good job, as always, explaining some of the issues and we both advised Keith that it would be impractical to implement the modifications that Keith was thinking about and also that the prototype was built using Chuck's original design method.

 

In the interim and at that time I was trying to plan a new batch of Pinnace packages.  Also I had announced both on my website and to Keith what the anticipated lead time would be on the new batch of packages.   I had an announced shutdown coming up and I have other customers who have paid and I've promised them delivery on their orders as well as other repeat customers.  Keith still hasn't placed an order after more than 2 months of communication for a standard package and he is asking about the lead time for a custom package or a standard one with supplemental wood, but he never gives me the details.

 

I did advise Keith that his lead time is dependent upon when I receive an order, what the details of the order would be, and I pointed out the pending shutdown and that his order was rapidly approaching the bubble as to if it would be milled before or after the shutdown.  I also reminded him about the payment policy for new customers.  Keith's response is a rather long rant indicating that my payment in advance policy with an extended lead time was unreasonable.  From my perspective, I had asked an received advanced payment from other first time customers, so waiving this for Keith did not seem fair to my other customers.  Also this is the only time that I've ever received such a response from a customer.   My conclusion was that I didn't feel that it was fair to other customers to create an exception and even though I had invested a fair amount of time to assist Keith, he was never going to be satisfied with my service.  I guess that I could have deliberately lied about his lead time, but that is just not me and also he never provided final details on the order.  As an aside, outside of the policies listed above I have only declined orders from one other person.

 

In the end, it appears that Keith found a source that he is happy with, so all is well in the end as that was my objective from the start.

 

Life is too short and this customer/supplier relationship was just not meant to be.  I wish Keith continued success and enjoyment with this hobby.

 

I rarely post on such matters because they do not add value, but perhaps some readers will have acquired some insight into HobbyMill, it's policies, and my thoughts.  Hopefully they seem logical and reasonable to most readers.

 

Sorry for being way too winded and thanks again for the support!

 

Jeff Hayes

HobbyMill

[allanyed]

Jeff at the Hobby Mill is providing a heck of a great service to those that need precut wood and I would use his service if I did not  have a plainer and thickness sander in my little shop at home.   

 

If you can start with rough cut pieces, two other suppliers from whom I have purchased wood over the years and recommend are Exotic Woods in Burlington Ontario (bought from them at their place when driving to Toronto) or Gilmer Woods in Portland Oregon which was strictly by internet and mail.   Over the years the savings of sizing my own wood has more than paid for the plainer and thickness sander.  

 

Allan

[ChrisLBren]

Jeff Hayes at HobbyMill has provided me some of the best service and product in my 20 +  years as a sales person period. Communication has never been an issue and follow up has been first rate. 

Chris

[Captain Al]

Thank you all for the endorsements of both Jeff and PayPal.  I need to look more into it as I didn't realize you could link it to either a cc or bank account -- or, for that matter, it seems you can just put money on deposit with PayPal and then draw it down like you do any checking account.

[themadchemist]

Hello Jeff,
I appreciate your response, frankness and honesty.

To my understanding payment in advance meant some time shortly before cutting started I was thinking a week or two at most as you state "Even though we custom mill each order, our normal processing time for orders is about 10 days.", but in emails you talked of having 120 days of production from April and May and others spoke of a 3 month wait.

I think the confusion came from this - From your wording from the site
"For first time customers we request receipt of payment in advance of processing your order."

 

I read this as "processing" meaning the task of cutting not the task of making an order form. I'm not making excuses and hopefully some can see how that wording might be interpreted wrong, especially by new builders. My first job was in a meat processing house and to me processing is the physical task of cutting. I wish someone had informed me otherwise.

I'm glad this was able to be cleared in the presences of the community without hard feelings. I've never had hard feeling really, just a sense of loss as I sometimes feel as if I'm alone in a crowd of people. I could have been offended that you said I ranted, but I did, due to my confusion. I also explained in my apology how my disability causes me to not always respond as I might have wished I had.

Just to show my willingness to lay all the cards on the table, here's the email that was a rant. I believe in full disclosure and don't feel I was intentionally offensive, it was a knee jerk reaction to a misunderstanding.

Hello Jeff
I'm not exactly sure where to start. First I would like to say that you've been great at customer service and taken the time to personally answer the numerous questions I've had.
I guess the problem I have is that I've been disabled since 2008 and the budgets tight. I also understand you produce some of the best wood for modeling available. I guess the problem I have is with your 2 statements in your last email.
" Also as a new customer, I would appreciate payment in advance, so that is another reason for just ..." and "so you will not want to wait until the last minute or your order will be pushed back into mid-November..."
First off I realize your a busy person and I respect that. You have a thriving business, no doubt due to you efforts. I don't understand why because I'm a new customer I'd need to prepay in august for an order that may not arrive until november. It isn't the time issue as the wood I want probably won't be used until next year anyway, I'm just planning in advance as I knew you were a busy man. I always expect to have money debited from my account before a purchase on anything I've bought for building so far, but months in advance seems a bit extreme.
I started building because at 43 my life was stolen by a disease that 45 Dr's so far haven't been able in 5 years to figure out what disease has completely stolen my life.
Building is really all I have and it has given me a sense of self worth I lost with total disablity. I say this not for sympathy but so that you know from where I am coming.
It's a hobby I strickly budget for because its important, but I don't have the means to pay months before shipment and wouldn't even if budget wasn't an issue. Maybe I've misunderstood. I never expected a saw or sander to start on a custom cut until you had money in hand, but to pay months before you can even make an estimate of arrival time seems a bit extreme. Maybe I'm just not the type of customer you want or need, which is a shame as I really wanted to do business with you and support your efforts and mine. Maybe I just do not fit the profile of your customer base. Maybe I just misreading your last email. Communication and respect are important to me. I respect what you do and undertand the uniqueness of what you do, I just get the feeling I'm not the type of customer you need.
I apologize for the trouble I've put you through answering my questions. I alway expected to pay before cutting but not far in advance of the job. I find this very dissappointing as I really looked forward to doing business. I apolgize for wasting your time on this matter.

Respectfully and Sincerely
Keith

I have reread that message many times and looked at it from both your and my prospective. It can be seen 2 ways and neither is wrong or right, it all depends on prospective.

Also I hadn't made up my mind on exactly what I wanted as both you and Chuck were instructing me to use the basswood from the kits framing. I felt it was my decision, if I chose to attempt fret sawing the frame pieces from boxwood, why shouldn't I be able to attempt that if I wanted to. If one never does anything different to push the envelope, then I feel that is the line one imposes as their personal limitations. You say that both you and Chuck say it would have been "impractical" but I though I was the captain of my build. I've heard that many time on MSW and believe it.
I respected both you and Chucks opinions, but feel it ultimately is my decision, so I felt I was being told to just conform to the rules. This isn't my nature, in grad school my advisor told me that my research direction was impractical and something he would not help me with, but I still did it anyway. I find failure and an uplifting experience and choose to try the things others avoid. I finished my graduate research and I'm sure I can find a way of building an all boxwood pinnace. I don't care how many times I fails and one only truely fails when one quits.
I always saw the build being made completely out of boxwood and found the curve to switch and use the basswood bewildering. This is why I waffled on the order.

I also explained many times in our conversations that time was of no issue, I felt that you thought I had some time pressure imposed on you completing by a certain date from your previous email to my rant. Your last email before my rant went into a lot of detail about your prior months orders and the future few months and it made me feel as though I was wasting your time and honestly if you have 2 hours of emails a day to content with, I honestly was and many of the things I said in the "rant" are true from my prospective. I may have come off from your prospective as harsh but for me it was a sincere concern as a new builder, wasting the time of a master of his craft. I'm sorry for that and wish I had been better informed prior to contacting you. I never had a time issue, as I planned the build for this year. I stated this at several points through our conversations, but your response of
"I guess that I could have deliberately lied about his lead time"
really seems to be an issue in your mind still, where it NEVER was in mine. I'm sure your always under stress of trying to meet deadlines, I got that feeling over our many conversions and posssibly you projected your feeling of urgence on to me, thinking I was somehow rushing you or asking for favors. This was never my intent. You state on your home page " Even though we custom mill each order, our normal processing time for orders is about 10 days." and you mentioned taking October off, I just feel that you felt I had you under some time pressure that I was never aware of or even considered. If the problem was that I was taking too much time, again I wish I'd known. Honestly if the order had not been made by January, I would have carried less. My issue was the outlay of cash for months, which I didn't expect due to what I've already stated.

If this is your case, then your a victim of your own high standards and completely took me wrong from the beginning. My ignorance of your time pressure only made this worse.

Maybe I should have been more serious and only contacted you when I knew what I wanted, but honestly until talking with you, I didn't even know for sure.

I suppose due to being new I didn't completely understand that you don't make any profit in cutting wood either, as a matter of fact that is surprising and inspiring to me. If that's listed on your site I missed it and if it was something I should have known from being an MSW member, I didn't join MSW officially until Post-crash and no one from the many that recommended you mentioned it.
This should be posted on your site or let it be known through MSW as uninformed people such as myself are always liable to misunderstand. If you do this and make nothing from it, then I have nothing but immense respect for you and your efforts. It also changes the playing field of what HobbyMills is and does. I wonder how many know this fact as I was always under the impression that you were doing this as a hobby turned into your making a living doing what you love.

Hopefully my willingness to air dirty laundry will help prevent confusion for others in the future and make your task easier.

I publicly apologize for anything in my rant that you took as over the top. I just never received any closure from this experience and question my sanity daily. I never intended to offend and had I completely understood your payment policies I would have not have added to your workload. I did sincerely appreciate your finding out all the wood needed for the Pinnace, sheet stock included as I still plan to push the envelope on that build and your list aided me in that.

Thank you for you time in responding and helping to give me closure on an issue that has haunted me for months.
Your closing statement of

"I rarely post on such matters because they do not add value, but perhaps some readers will have acquired some insight into HobbyMill, it's policies, and my thoughts. Hopefully they seem logical and reasonable to most readers."

I see great value in what you have said, if I had read your response prior to last years episode, it wouldn't have happened.
Maybe this shouldn't be brought up in public, but am willing to take the chance to help make MSW a better community. Communication is very important to me and yet I find it is so many time a double edged sword.


 

[dgbot]

Well spoken on both sides.  There was misunderstanding and confusion all around.  Lets call it a day and everyone go to the bar and have a drink. 

David B 

[Ulises Victoria]

I started this thread, and I think it was a comment I made later about Jeff's payment policies, that unchained these long posts by both sides. I'm glad that the final outcome seem to be an understanding on both parties. At least, I hope so.

I would like to do business with Jeff sometime in the future.

 

As David said...

Edited April 22, 2014 by Ulises Victoria

[jburchfield1@wowway.com]

Well, I must say that from everything I've heard (new guy here) about the quality of Jeff's wood, I now hate the fact that I live in Columbus, Ohio as I can not avail myself of his excellent product since he does not sell here.  

 

Who would the majority of you guys suggest as an alternative?

[Ulises Victoria]

Since the webpage at hobbymills says that new orders will be fullfilled until July, I ordered what I needed from Model Expo. This is my first time ever that I buy extra wood for my builds. I hope everything goes OK.

[md1400cs]

Ulises,

 

Do you have a connection to "Pandora's Box", you sure opened one.? I thought that I would spend a few minutes here, but got totally involved in the back and forth well worded and thoughtful diplomatic posts. Very enlightening thread. 

 

PS: PayPal is awesome IMO. I can't remember the last time that I actually wrote a check. Love electronic banking as well IMO.

 

MIchael

[edbardet]

Allanyed made a comment about milling your own wood that I would like to second. I believe that a saw and thickness sander, even a home made one, is a valuable addition to anyone's work shop. Milling your own wood seems to result in a lot of waste and it does take time. But I costed some out several years back and it ended up being in the vicinity of 25% savings on the list price, plus no postage.

 

There is one advantage to milling your own wood and that is utilization. Being able to thickness larger pieces allows greater flexibility in layout. I've used both wood from a big box store and billets from a local hardwood supplier.

 

I'm not speaking against buying dimensioned wood, but merely saying that milling your own should be considered.

 

Ed

[themadchemist]

Since the subjects been brought up again I'll add this.

 

Allan mentioned Gilmer, I would add that Gilmer has a $100 minimum order and a $15 packing fee.

That being said I received 10 knife blanks of beautiful ebony 3/8" x 2 1/2" x 5 1/2" plus a 2" x 4" x 3' block of Castillo boxwood that was perfectly coloured.

I would definitely recommend Gilmer for non-scale lumber and can't wait until I can also acquire the fancier tools.

 

Half the fun of this hobby is finding the ideas and materials to complete the build.

 

Keep on Plankin'

[mtaylor]

There's a pinned topic at top of the Wood Discussion area (where this topic has been moved to) that lists all these suppliers except for the one Keith mentioned that's email only, no website.

[jimbyr]

Just got a load of Boxwood from Jeff Hayes at Hobbymill.  This stuff is just too nice to cut!

 

Jim Byrnes

Model Machines

[edmay]

Hello all, In my experience one cap will not suit all,misunderstanding's spoil many relationships,Reflect and rectifying is a two way street,but sometimes the shoe will never fit.  I also have ordered many PVC tubes of milled woods using paypal from Wayne Cantin, with fast and courteous service .Edwin

[mtaylor]

Since it seems that Keith and Ed know much about Wayne's wood, can one of you post relevant info here:  http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/384-where-to-buy-wood/

[themadchemist]

Yes, Mark I have contacted Wayne Cantin and asked his approval to be added to the MSW pinned list and he was delighted.
I will add comments to the pinned wood discussion "where to buy wood" started by SteveM of OR found here.

http://modelshipworld.com/index.php?/topic/384-where-to-buy-wood/

 

BTW my post is #34, for finding additional information in the pinned discussion.

Edited May 30, 2014 by themadchemist