NorthEGPhoto wrote:Well, now my strategy has been purchasing odds and sods for my final build over a long period of time. I've got most of my technology lined up (piled in a corner lol) bought the trailer off of kijiji for $250 (8X6) I over-engineered my design and added up the costs and just for the wood and glue I was looking at $800. Just had my roots canaled, so I can't drop that right now. I was going to next week, buy the remaining materials and build the whole thing in one shot.
Ditto, I have a pile to work from, collected here and there, off the curb, at yard sales. I'd guesstimate somewhere close to $800 retail value of stuff that I doubt I've got $40 in altogether.
I'm not seeing a point in using fresh new ply for the floor, it'll get glooped with underseal one side and get yardsale bargain linoleum offcut on the other, so may as well grab used exterior ply for it.
I was planning building doors and windows unless something came up, well something came up, there's an RV place with scratch and dent stock about an hours drive away, that I think will only run me $200 for a door, so possibly going that route now, (And funds aren't quite so tight right now.)
I've got down 3 locations to pick up used skids free, which can provide a lot of framing sticks. Very useful for "shop" wood also, temporary bracing and jigs etc. Also found a salvage yard that sells bits of angle and pipe etc.
Then ripping 2x4s or 2x6s is definitely the way to go for smaller section lumber needed, it's real hit and miss though, if you want 1x2s, you can get 3 out of a 2x4 for under half the price, but 1/2x1.25 isn't worth it because I can find it for 50c a stick. Best idea though is to look out for sales, then go to the competitor who price matches and take your time picking through their stock for nice quality pieces. (Because the sale stuff was often marginal special purchase anyway and you'll either be trying to buy it in a scrum, or be left with the leftovers, which from 2nd rate stock in the first place are barely fit to burn typically.)
Birch ply..... well I found a supplier with decent prices, I was previously gung ho about using it, however, after another few rounds of the boatbuilding communities, I cottoned to the fact that because birch has sugars in it's sap, like maple, that means it becomes a superfood for fungus, mold and rot... yah, bit of moisture getting into it anywhere and you could quickly have a crumbling pile, formerly known as pride and joy. So in view of the fact that it's probably not even a superior material, even though it looks great, I plan to "cheap out" back to plain old exterior plies.
Jack of all trades, Doctor of rocket surgery and fellow of the noble college of shadetree meddlers. "in argentum tenax vinculum speramus"
by larryl » Fri Aug 04, 2017 6:05 pm 
