# Buying 1x4 and 1x3



## scolby (Feb 4, 2012)

Hello everyone! I am a college student who went to school in a new area and am building for a show at my school. We need several 1x4x8's or 1x3x8's for flats and neither Home Depot or Lowes sell cheap whitewood in those dimensions. Where should I go for this wood in the Boston area?


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## avkid (Feb 4, 2012)

Grab a phone book and look up real lumber yards.
Being that it's Saturday afternoon you're probably out of luck until Monday morning.


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## kicknargel (Feb 4, 2012)

Hm, Big box stores do usually have grade 2 1x for reasonable (although not the best) prices. It's often not very straight because they store it on end. I agree that a lumber yard is best, but this should work in a pinch.

If you're going for cheap and disposable you can build from the 1x3 firing strips at Home Despot. Not great, but super cheap. Or do what we usually do and rip plywood into framing lumber. We do that because in our dry climate, pine has a shelf life of about 3 weeks.


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## erichart (Feb 16, 2012)

The same thing was true in New York City; none of the Home Depots sold any sort of construction lumber, just short boards for shelving and small pieces of sheet goods. Do a Google Maps search for lumber yards or builder's supplies and call around to find the best one. A lot of urban lumber yards will deliver as well.
Also, they might not call it "whitewood" in that area; they may call it SPF lumber or construction-grade pine.


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## Edrick (Feb 16, 2012)

What area of Boston? Are we talking inner city or one of the suburbs like Arlington, Woburn, Stoneham


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## mstaylor (Feb 16, 2012)

scolby said:


> Hello everyone! I am a college student who went to school in a new area and am building for a show at my school. We need several 1x4x8's or 1x3x8's for flats and neither Home Depot or Lowes sell cheap whitewood in those dimensions. Where should I go for this wood in the Boston area?


Just a note when talking to lumberyards, it's not whitewood, it's SPF, spruce,pine or fir. That applies to 1X and 2X lumber.


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## Van (Feb 16, 2012)

Another trick for getting cheaper, slightly higher quality 1x3 building material is to buy a unit of 1x8 then rip it 3 times. if you rip to 2.25 with a thin kerf blade you can get three pieces per board. I caution that sometimes releaseing the tension stored in the outer edges of a 1x8 can result in some very funky "boat wood" but generally you save quite a bit. I don't know about back east but out here Lumber quality has been going downhill for quite some time. The Assorted White woods at Home Despot are typically much better quality than you will find in a 2 or better SPF at a lumber yard but they are spendy-er.


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## avkid (Feb 16, 2012)

erichart said:


> The same thing was true in New York City; none of the Home Depots sold any sort of construction lumber, just short boards for shelving and small pieces of sheet goods.


 That has an easy explanation though, NYC building code does not allow wooden framing in new construction.


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## scolby (Mar 27, 2012)

Thanks everybody for your responses. We ended up ordering through the lumberyard that our school's carpentry shop uses, and they were able to supply 1x3x10 for us.


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## ahook (Mar 29, 2012)

I have always ripped down 1x6 into 2 lengths of 2 5/8" rather than buying 1x3 or 1x4. I've known people that rip down 1x8 and even 1x12 but I can't get over the "funky boat wood" when doing any more than ripping it in half.


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## Conner8809 (May 31, 2012)

scolby said:


> Hello everyone! I am a college student who went to school in a new area and am building for a show at my school. We need several 1x4x8's or 1x3x8's for flats and neither Home Depot or Lowes sell cheap whitewood in those dimensions. Where should I go for this wood in the Boston area?



At our shop we buy 1x6 and rip it down into 1x3's that way you get two 1x3's for every 1x6. The scrap makes great paint sticks.


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