Free And Cheap Wood

[Houdini]

I would like to start a thread and see where everybody gets their wood from. I have been thinking about places to find lumber for free or cheap instead of always going to a lumber yard or ordering over the phone/internet. I recently contacted some local cabinet makers in my area about obtaining their scraps. Usually when professionals like these have scraps, they are fairly large and may be used to make guitars. Some places I came up with to find cheap wood:

1. Contact the local cabinet makers/woodworkers in your area. A lot of them (usually the higher end guys) have some exotic woods that they use and you may be able to get their scraps for inlay. At the least, they may be able to get you a wholesale price on some quality stuff.

2. Visit garage sales. My dad recently obtained around 200 board feet of red oak, walnut, cherry, and basswood for $70 at a garage sale. Talk about a steal.

3. If you are military (I am) go to the base hobby shop and pick through the trash. I have found some pretty nice pieces of wood in their trash can. If you are not military see if your town has hobby shops/framing shops and pick through their trash. You may be suprised at what you find.

4. Ask local contractors if they have any scraps you may use, or go to a new home building site and see if there are any scraps of wood you can take (with the contractors permission of course).

5. Find an old barn. I'm from Oklahoma, and there are old barns everywhere in the state aching to be torn down. The wood is usually pretty good.

6. Search Grandma's attic. There is always stuff up there, so why not old wood.

7. Old furniture that people throw away. Strip the finish and you have pretty good wood.

Just thought I would start a list and see what everyone else comes up with.

[unclej]

i live in south texas in the hill country and the one thing we have here is plenty of wood. i've got a couple of friends with portable saw mills that slab out large fallen trees for mantels, counter tops and such. i've made quite a few guitars out of big chunks of pecan, walnut, mesquite and cherry that i've gotten for for free or practically nothing from them.

there's also a habitat for humanity thrift store on my way into town that i pass every day. i'll stop in a couple of times a week and once scored about 15' of maple butcher block counter top that i use for lap steels.

i'll also keep an eye out at the local ace hardware store and other places for pallets. pallets are quite often made out of otherwise unusable oak, mahogany and and even cherry and i use the scavenged wood for inlay work.