Slocum`s Spray

You said it - you have to know where to go. Care to provide the source ? I cant wait to here where I can buy 10" beams.

 

I got mine from Philips Sawmill in Geeveston 3 years ago. I bought all the hardwood for my barn including approx 120 lengths of 125 x 40 x 4400 hardwood as straight as a ruler. PM me if you can't find the phone number etc.

Soon I'll be looking for some white heart sassy, celery top or King Billy in 75-100 x 10 V joint shiplap for ceiling in my boat. I don't like my chances...
PDW

 

I would say that should be not a big task for watson to find the mill in his hometown?

 

Quite right Apex, my shed is 4 kilometres from that very mill

The largest size is 300 x 100mm, standard length 4.2m, you can get up to 6 m if you can wait 6 weeks, and pay a 20% premium.

As I said, the days of 25ft lengths of timber is well and truly over.

The price for that size is $23 per lineal metres, which if my lousy math is correct means nearly $800 per cubic metre.

If you drive 4 kilometres south, to Island Specialty timbers, http://www.forestrytas.com.au/shops/ist/categories

you can get King Billy Pine (prime boatbuilding timber) for $6000 per cubic metre.

I wouldnt call that a cheap way of building a boat. Plywood from France, Epoxy and Foam for the US or Aluminium from Europe are a cheaper way to build, since we dont get clear Oregon from the West Coast of US any more.

 

Personally I prefer steel.

I actually don't regard $800/m3 for hardwood as all that expensive. Since I haven't needed anything over 6m long, I'll concede that it's not a stock item. However getting big sections is still quite simple.

I wasn't planning on using King Billy for a hull, just thinking of it for internal lining boards. Island Specialty Timbers is not the place I'd go anyway, I'd give an order to Philips mill or similar and wait until they had what I wanted. I have also found that there's a vast difference in price if you're willing to take green timber and rack/dry it yourself.

There are other ways of getting timber but I didn't bother saying so because it's all very small scale and 25' lengths wouldn't be practical I think.

I have a pretty big pile of blue gum and silver wattle. Cost, 3 days hire of a man with a Lucas mill and the trees came off of my own property. I've enough silver wattle sawn & air-dried to build at least 4 kitchens - already built one. Of course you have to have the trees to start with.... most of my house framing was radiata cut on my place and the neighbour's using a Lucas mill.

Longest lengths we cut with the Lucas mill were 4.3m and handling blue gum logs that size was a right PITA. It could do 6m.

I own a 600 acre property 100 km east of Dubbo and I could cut 250x250 iron bark off of it at least 6m long. I wouldn't do it for anyone except myself though, far too much like hard work. I'll ask the local mill in Mendooran next time I'm up there what's the longest & biggest they can cut.

PDW

 

Ray
It seems a little bit mad to compare prices in Tasmania with US or European prices, I would say. The market appears to be a bit smaller there.........

Some 800 AU$ for a m³ of boatbuilding timber you call expensive? 6000 yes, that IS expensive. But I guess that forest management has not a 300 year long tradition in Tasmania, right?
Except for several tropical hardwood species like Honduras Mahogany and the like, I do not see your argument. And I would notice if the situation was as you describe, I build in wood.

Regards
Richard

 

ya if I'm payin more than $3 US a board foot for Cherry or Walnut then I'm buying it at the wrong place

I can usually beat em up for about 2.50 a foot even on the more desirable stuff
even retail at the mills I go to its still only about $4.50 a foot for the good stuff and half that if your willing to cut out a few knots

sorry to hear wood is so expensive in your country

best of luck
B

 

Cherry and walnut are cabinet woods. Kauri, Huon Pine, Port Orford cedar, Red cedar, Douglas fir, white oak, teak, mahogany, southern yellow pine, white pine, these are traditional boatbuilding woods and you'll not find them cheap anywhere in the quality needed unless you're quite lucky. Even in the Pacific NW our red cedar, alaska yellow cedar and doug fir are very pricey unless you buy house building grade, and of these, only structural/select is anything close to boat wood.

 

actually both Cherry and Walnut have excellent rot resistance although I used them as examples because there about the most expensive of the domestic hardwoods

I can get top quality white oak 4/4, 8/4 and 12/4 for $1~2$ a board foot depending on quantity, lengths up to 12', over but under 18' is generally about 25C additional my cost so I'd likely bill out .75 just for fun. lengths over 18 get interesting but its not that big a deal to get the stuff you just have to look for someone felling there own and find a mobile miller with extensions, your probably looking at 3~4 a foot maybe 5 depending on the area and the mood of the sawyer. I belong to a band saw mill forum so for me to find one isn't really any big deal but in small quantities over length materials do cost more, depends on if someone has the extensions handy or not

same for almost all the rest you mentioned except for the regional cedars and the tropical hardwoods, which cost a fortune in import, fumigation and shipping fees.

not sure were you been getting your wood but there are hundreds of small second, third and I know of at least one fourth generation backwoods mills that do excellent work

your buying from the wrong folks my friend

yes, the retail price of white oak here in town is about $6 a foot on 4/4 8' random not so select but why would I buy from those fools. There are small mills scattered throughout timber country and they sell at 1/3 to 1/4 the price. You just gotta know where **** grows and who to call.

I'm not a big fan of any of the pines nor did I used to carry any but even so there are several folks providing good old growth stock for some pretty rock bottom prices these days

doug fir ( gag cough spit ) is dirt cheap

southern yellow pine is about the hardest to find and even then its not that hard

straight grained select is straight grained select doesn't mater what you use it for

look your listed in the US PM me a ball park of where you are and I'll see if I can hook you up with a mill in the area if your in the coniferous PNW then you could still have some material shipped in from a mill cheaper than the prices your describing

best of luck
B

ps
do an internet search and you will find hundreds of mills in every state

pps
I'm done posting on this issue here cause this isn't the wood thread its the spray thread ok
lets show a little respect and start a new thread if anyone really wants to continue this

 

and here we are:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/ma...s-qualities-prices-like-35239.html#post411756

 

More BERTIE building photos. These are on the SPRAY thread because she's pretty much one and boatbuilding threads are all about modern methods and nobody's interested in this stuff except the same kind of people who are intrigued by the SPRAY. Small shipbuilding is quite distinct from boatbuilding, with its need for very nice material, precise fits and lightness. A rowing gig 39 feet long is built differently from this small ship at the same length.
Here the frame futtocks come with their rolling bevels straight from the ship saw and if the loftsman did his job there's little dubbing to fit the planks.

 

I don't know why I wound up on the end of this lecture on wood because I bought two boards for a repair to BERTIE, locally, at a high price so I could have it TODAY and get the job FINISHED instead of dicking around in the woods trying to save some money on such a tiny amount.
This is a wooden boat that I designed and built.
It weighs 23 tons.
I did not build this boat from the lumberyard, but a small mill in Oregon with its own trucks that I developed a good relationship with. Why are you lecturing me so hard when you can see that-
a. I know what wood is
b. I know where to get it at high quality and very low price
c. I know how to use it
Please don't tell me how to build oceangoing small ships of wood.

 

you haven't seen lecturing till you been to the climate thread there Batty. Im sure you got a few tricks up your sleeve as well as any of us so no worries. Nice picts by the way, got any more cause a picture documentary of the build really aught to have its place on this thread

cheers
B

 

"Batty", I like that, as I certainly am. Cheers mate.

 

BERTIE ashore for a free haulout a few years ago.