Where I am located, anything other than oak 4/4 is difficult to come by, so I am extremely interested in mail order lumber. At the same time, I travel frequently along the western side of the rockies. Ultimately my question is would it be cost effective to order via mail after shipping costs, or should I just plan a stop to a hardwood dealer, bypassing the postage?

I’d be interested in hearing/seeing more about your method of checking moisture content. I use a pinless meter, and am constantly adjusting for different wood species. It puzzles me how you can get a “relative” moisture reading if the wood species are different. Even Delmhorst meters have species adjustments.

Thanks.

J.

One some boards, wetting the grain might help. But on these bubinga boards the grain was definitely obvious, although it may not have seemed that obvious in the video. Definitely obvious in person with the naked eye.

Looks like you’ve uncorked yet another effective and highly informative video. When you were noting the grain patterns on your first board, were they that obvious? Would it have helped to “wet” the board to see the grain patterns? Or, is that necessary only on some pieces with less obvious grain.

Keep on truckin’.

On the power tool side, a belt sand could certainly get the job done. Although its a beast to control sometimes.

Good luck.

I love your podcast. I don’t use nearly as many powertools as you do as my shop is only about 100 sq. feet. And I have to share that space with my wife’s storage.

Anyway, I loved the fact that you didn’t run that piece of figured maple through the planer, but through your sander. For those of us without one of those gadgets, how do you recomend milling a highly figured and fragile piece of wood?

Thanks