oak on Ebay

[Anonymous]

Hi all

I have been browsing in ebay and I found this.

How easy would it be to convert this into a couple of projects :?: Firstly decking, there seems to be enough boards of sufficient width. Rip 'em to various widths, maybe add a couple of bevels on the edges, whack em down....?

Secondly, kitchen worktop. I guess that after thicknessing, I'd be left with about 35mm thickness. Would this be stable enough? What level of moisture content would I need to achieve. I think that the oak would cost about £30 for a 3m length, add in adhesives, finish etc what the hell, lets say £60 all in. Compared with a cost of £250/£300, am I missing something? (lets say that labour is free!!).

It all seems so simple, doesn't it? Ok, shoot me down, what are the pitfalls here?


Rgds


Stuart

 

[Adam]

Lots of it in the middle looks quite narrow planks to me.

Also, "Character" grade sounds a little non-standard to me.

What do you get for that? Extra knots and a bit of twisting?

Adam

 

[wizer]

u got vat to stick on that price too

 

[Freetochat]

I use WL West. Good service, good products and someone to go back to if not up to standard. With EBay auction you have no recourse if what you get is not up to standard. Is the risk worth saving a few pounds?

 

[Adam]

I agree, what happens if you find it substandard, - are you going to ship it back to them on the back of a truck!

Adam

 

[wizer]

feedback is good


however id agree with the others that id want to see it all first

 

[jasonB]

Kiln dried - but stored in a carpark for howlong :?: Didn't they have the whole lot up for sale as one lot some months back?

Jason

 

[Adam]

Kiln dried - but stored in a carpark for howlong :?: Didn't they have the whole lot up for sale as one lot some months back?

Jason

Yes, it didn;t get bought - one of the previous lots mentions this, that noone had the space to purchase it, so they are breaking it up to smaller amounts.

Their is some dodgy feedback at the start, to get a good reputation, selling bolts for 1p each, but people who have bought pallets all seem fairly happy.

Adam

 

[Woodythepecker]

One person/buyer has written 7 of the feedback messages. In fact 3 people have written 12 of the messages.

I am not saying that there is any wrong doing by this ebayer, but it seems all to easy to get a few mates to buy a lot of cheap things to start off with, just to get a number of good feedback messages, and then start selling some border line products, which will be a lot easier to sell with good feedback.

Regards

Woody.

 

[trevtheturner]

Including Page 2, one 'buyer' has submitted a total of ten feedback messages - within just 27 minutes on 18.5.05!

.............. and the buyer's name is muppet. :shock: I might be wrong, but looks decidedly 'sus' to me.

Cheers,

Trev.

 

[frank]

stuart dont touch it with a long oak barge pole .

 

[Anonymous]

Wow, thanks for the replies everyone.

Having looked at your comments I had a look at the feedback and I'm fairly confident that this is a genuine item. I think that the early feedback is a bit of a fudge so the seller can use the "buy it now option". Looking at the previous lots that have been bought, and the people that have purchased those lots it all seems reasonable.

There is no negative feedback regarding the quality of the timber so thats encouraging.

However, thats not what this forum is all about. Lets make some assumptions that the timber is 75% quality as described and is delivered on time and was only put outside to take the photo as it was a bright sunny day (big assumptions i know).

This bumps up the price to just over £13/cubic foot mark. How does this compare with what everyone else pays?

Now the interesting part, and this is where it all started, could i use the oak for either
a) decking
b) kitchen worktop
c) workbench (another idea that I had whilst dreaming away more hours in a far from complete workshop
d) long oak barge pole
OR e) all of the above?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.


Cheers

Stuart

ps I see that it has been relisted here

 

[Midnight]

Stuart... personally I'd keep on walking if I saw this one... the m/c is getting close to air dried percentages, random widths, random lengths and you're already struggling for thickness....??

pays yer money ya makes yer choice... I'd stick with known reliable suppliers...

 

[jasonB]

Decking would be the only use I would consider putting it too. But at 38mm thick you could cover twice the area with something half that thickness as 38mm is overkill, maybe save it for other outside furniture.

As for worktops & benchtops, unless you conditioned it for at least a year there would be a high risk of movement after you spent all that time & effort getting it flat.

Jason

 

[Pete W]

I'd stick with known reliable suppliers...

Well to be fair, it looks like they are a well-known supplier. A quick Google shows that the company is well over 100 years old, very well known in Stafford.

See, for example:
http://www.nmbs.co.uk/memsup/public_sup ... NABLES%20H
http://www.productselector.co.uk/Docs/9 ... al/cov.htm

I'd guess this is an old family-run company trying to make use of new-fangled technology like eBay (their website also seems to be down). But the offers on eBay look OK to my inexperienced eye - the price is very low compared to 'character' oak from other suppliers. (Good Timber in Northants is offering character oak at £30 a cubic foot; Interesting Timbers in Bath is about the same).

If they were offering much smaller bundles I'd be tempted to take a punt myself - I have a couple of garden projects on the LOML list. But I don't know where I could begin to store a pallet-load of timber of that length!

All usual small print and get-out clauses apply; just my opinion and worth exactly what you paid for it .

 

[Mcluma]

If you look at the feedback, you can see that the muppet doesn't count in full with the feedback score

The 20 feedback scores (if you count the number of actual feedbacks left) are from buyers who have bought his wood.

Its not high, but if you look that all of those 20 have paid in excess of Gbp 500,´- which is then in excess of 10K, which makes it a reliable supplier

Well what is actually the most important factor is that all buyers have high feedback scores, and that is reliability for you and me

I do not see a problem with the seller. its just would you like that wood.

like other people say, its been in the parking lot for a long time, without a cover or what, so before you can use it, you have to store it in a temperature controlled place so it can get to reasonable moisture levels - slowly

So i wouldn't think this wood is ready to use :twisted:

McLuma