Economy Stud

[Rockn H]

Has anyone seen and priced an economy stud lately?   You know, the ones with only three corners.  The fourth is bark.  They are $1.95 at the local lumber store, and people buy these things like crazy.  Has anyone noticed this low budget craze around them?

[Furby]

That's a pretty darn good stud!
I get two corner ones for more $$$ then that.   >:(

[Rockn H]

Well, you know when I saw those studs, all I could think, was what people would say if I tried to even give them a stud with bark on it.  Let alone sell it to them for almost $2.00.  I remember a few years back, when HD first opened about an hour from us.  We bought about 15 2x6.  Real pretty in a humidity controlled environment.  After 24 hours in the shed the stack unstacked itself.  We used them, but called it a lesson learned.  I better quit chasing rabbits and be quite. ;D :D ;D :D

[loghlr16]

Can't even get a rough cut for that price up here at the local mill. Much less at the lumber store and there's a LP stud mill less than 100 miles away.

[etat]

Lumber companies are strange to me.  Back a few years ago I used to buy lumber at M-----s in Tupelo.  They'd let you come in and pick through the lumber even if you wanted to go through a whole stack to get what you wanted.  I'd spend lots of time picking through that lumber.  And lots of times I'd start through unopened bundles. Had to go through a lot of lumber to get really good boards.

There's a smaller lumber company in New Albany that now gets ALL my business.  I can order lumber from them either delivered or go by and pick it up myself and it's unreal how much better the quality of the lumber is, even straight off the stack.  I've been doing business with them for about 8 years now including buying the lumber for my house and received very very few cull boards.  Bark on the corners is almost non existant, seriously.  And the price is comparable, or cheaper to the place that lets you pick through their lumber. (pretty sure if I WANTED to go there and pick through lumber they wouldn't say a word) ;D

The same thing from them with pressure treated, and I know lots of yall with sawmill don't like it.  I've got probably 10 or 12 6/6  pressure treated beams 10 foot long and about the same amount 12 foot long laying in my yard that's been there several months.  (got plans to construct a tractor shed so  can get my tractor out of my shop).  In the weather and just like they come off the truck and they're still straight.  Laying on the ground. Last week I used some of them to build a flower bed.

I've got a bunch of 2/8 pressure treated boards stacked on the side of my porch that's been there all winter, and they're still straight.

All these were delivered to my house.  Not hand picked.

I could go  to Lowes or M--vins and buy some boards the same grade, pick through em, and they liable to be warped before I get them home.

They have GOT to be using different sources to get lumber from.

[Furby]

I've found that the two or three cornered studs are usually pine from a thinning, and they got two studs from that log.
The better stuff (with four corners) is usually spruce or fir and sometimes "whitewood". :

[Rockn H]

When buying lumber from one of the big guys that keep their lumber inside where it is climate controled, is it right to think the reason for warping when we get it home is the humidity?  I can't think of the term, I think it is shock something or other.  The board having such low MC and the outside soaking up to much moisture.  My wife says its having a bad hair day. ;D :D ;D

[Norm]

I bought some SYP from a guy down in Missouri. He cut it into 2x4, 2x6 and so on. Paid one heck of a lot less than the box stores sell for and got one heck of a lot better quality. Stashed it in my morton building and have been using it for all of my projects. We just used it to finish out a section of it for our new office in that morton. The carpenters wanted to use the 2x6's for nailers between the roof trusses as that's what they normally use. I asked them to give the 2x4's a try instead, came back down and they were impressed. Said it held up as well as a 2x6 stud they'd buy from the lumber yard.

Might want to give some business to one of our members instead of the box stores if you have a big project in mind....right Noble. ;)

[bjorn]

Can't agree more Norm_F.  Buy local wood from a sawer and you will get better quality and support the local economy.  However, around here 'they' won't let you use lumber for any structural purposes if ain't got that stamp on it.  I own my own sawmill, and can't use the lumber in my house (structural) without hiring an engineer to put his stamp on it.   Kind of sucked the other day when I drove past my sawmill on the way to the building supply store to pick up some dimensional lumber that had been stored in the rain, and it was from Germany!  >:(

[Coon]

Well,  Lets see.....   Where do I start?   Yesterday I went to our local Co-op Lumberyard in town because the kid needed a couple of economy studs right away for his shop class.   I paid through the nose..... Cost me $6.48 for two.   :( :'(.  What a rip off even if they looked like pretty good studs.  I could have sent him a couple of rough 2x4's  from home here and he could have used the shop planer but that damned bullheaded teacher said he had to get graded lumber from the lumberyard.  What kind of BS is that when they've got all of the needed equipment there. smiley_angry smiley_swinging_board

[beenthere]

bjorn
Do economy studs need a 'structural' grade stamp?

[Engineer]

Y'all are lucky you got three corners.  Some of the 'economy' studs in the local big-box actually had some wane on ALL FOUR CORNERS and were heart cut.  Couldn't have been cut from bigger than a 5" tree.  They run that stuff through a scragg mill to get junk like that? 

FWIW, though, the ones that are heart-cut usually stay arrow straight.

[Bro. Noble]

Norm,

Glad the stuff's OK ;D

Engineer,

I think most of those little logs that are processed by big companies are "chip and sawed".

[Wudman]

Today's technology allows stems down to about 6" to be utilized for dimension wood.  I've sold "stud bolts" that were the butt cuts out of pulpwood from 13 year old plantation thinnings.  Pine plantation production places very little emphasis on wood quality; Volume production is the name of the game.  I've seen some juvenile stands that were putting on better that one inch of radial growth per year.  Volume yes.....lumber quality no......Lord help the man that has to dry that 2x4......and draw straws for who has to cut the band around the pack of dried lumber. 

Wudman

[Don P]

Do economy studs need a 'structural' grade stamp?

Economy studs are for non bearing applications...non structural so no stamp needed.

Bjorn, what county are you in?

[maple flats]

When I built my sugarhouse the codes officer wanted the same thing, grade stamps on all dementional lumber. I came up with a form that the sawyer signed that all was #2 or better and was then allowed to use it (this was before I bought my mill). The lumber was very good but the sawyer didn't know what # 2 or better meant, however he signed the form saying (and rightfully so) that his lumber was better than anything he could buy at the lumberyard. I air dried it for only 2 months and then used it (all hemlock). No twisting and very slight shrinkage even in the 8" wide boards used for board and soon to be batten siding. I think their grade stamps are only because most codes enforcement officers really know nothing about what they are looking at when they look at a 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 etc. However I must admit mine really liked what he saw and said so after I built the sugarhouse. After that as I needed to make changes, even making a floor in the sugarhouse where he didn't even ask what I was using for joists nor the spacing etc.,  he said he did not need to see what I did because he saw how well I built things. 8) 8)