Newbie looking for some help.

[The1stOfHisName]

Apologies if this is the wrong forum, but was hoping for a bit of advice.

I'm just getting back into woodworking at the moment, having not done any at all since leaving school ten years ago. I really enjoyed it at the time, but have never had the space to do it at home. After clearing out my parents garage, I'm slowly putting together a mini workshop that I can use at weekends, but the main issue I'm having is working out where is best to find standard lengths of wood.

One of the first biggish projects I want to take on is building a proper bench (I'm using a beat up old B&Q split bench at the moment, but it's too small for a lot of tasks) and I've found loads of simple plans online. The issues I'm having (other than all of the measurements being in imperial) is that when I go to price the wood, I'm kind of relying on the chain stores who I think are charging over the odds for wood that isn't the greatest quality. I don't mind paying a fair price for decent wood, but I'm loathe to pay extra for warped, useless timber.

Can anyone give me any idea of:

a) The dimensions of wood I actually need when plans talk about 2x4, 1x4 etc (I know that this is the unplaned, rough sawn sizes, so 2x4 isn't actually 2" by 4").
b) Where is best to pick up these kinds of standard lengths of wood other than B&Q and Wickes (or am I being totally naive and simply need to stump up the cash for warped timber)? Don't suppose there is an Amazon for wood, is there?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Chrispy]

Hi Newbie welcome to the forum.
If I were you I'd go along to your nearest builders merchants preferably an independent, and ask for "PAR red wood" that's planed all round and the red bit is the type of pine usually it would be something like 5th's redwood.
You should be able to sort through what they have and chose the bits that are suitable for your use, and they should cut lengths for you if you don't want the whole piece (within reason) hope that helps

 

[wizard]

Look for a sawmill or timber yard and compeer prices i have two near me and one is almost half the price of the other

 

[mind_the_goat]

Check out this page on the forum: https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/local/

 

[The1stOfHisName]

Thanks very much for the advice guys. I'll need to check around the local area and see what's what. Will need to do some more research first just so I'm not a total tube when I do go out to a timber merchant.

 

[Scoffy]

Hi, you may want to have a look at The New Yankee workshop for a bench plan, it is made mainly from 4x2, from a builders merchant and some ply. I made one and I am delighted with it.