Hello! I just got my Glowforge a week ago and have been having so much fun with it! I am opening up a shop for signs and am wondering where everyone purchases their wood in bulk? I’m planning to do 1/2" maple wood round signs in 12" , 18", and 24", but can’t seem to figure out where to purchase from.
Thank you in advance for your responses!! It’s so appreciated.
EDIT - I know that 24" will not fit in the Glowforge, this is for the wood that I will be staining to put my Glowforge name signs on*
So, the subject of where to get wood has been covered to death here, if you search the forum for “wood source”, you’ll find lots and lots.
However! You’re looking for something a little unusual – Fewer people are looking for stuff that large. Part of that is just the reality of wood: as it gets wider it generally gets more expensive and therefore is harder to find. Finding a 24" wide single piece of solid maple will be a challenge. If you’re open to plywood, then that opens a few doors (columbia wood products 1/4" double stack if you’ll be cutting it with the laser, big box maple plywood if you’re cutting it conventionally).
If you tell us a bit more about just what you’ll be trying to do, we can probably give direct recommendations, but if it were me I’d be looking at cutting it traditionally with a jigsaw, bandsaw, or a scrollsaw, the glowforge just isn’t ideal for cutting 1/2" materials, especially a plywood or a hardwood like maple.
You can’t fit 24" material in the machine.
you can’t, but you can take a 24" circle and put laser cut objects on it. a lot of GFers make signs on rounds larger than will fit in the machine.
i’m not putting it in the machine. it’s being used to put my designs on.
i’ll definitely look under wood source, thank you!! but shoot, i guess i would be open to plywood if that’s going to be an easier option. But i will not be cutting this with the glowforge, I will be staining it and using it as a background to put my lettering on that I make with the glowforge. I’ll attach a picture of what I’m looking to do with it.
yes, this is what I plan to do with it!!
Welcome to the forum. As others have stated, material sources have been discussed here for years and the search tool will be your best friend as you hone your sign making skills. Depending on where you live, the obvious suggestion is to develop a relationship with a local lumber yard or big box employee.
Yeah if I were going to be doing this, I’d look at home depot maple plywood as the substrate. It’s easy to get and pretty inexpensive.
Of course, if I were going to be doing this, I’d be looking for precut circles because I don’t have the time or space to cut giant circles out of plywood. This kind of circular blank is often for sale at etsy, or even at craft stores like michaels, though I’m not sure they carry 24" rounds.
Here’s a pine blank at 8", not what you need, but this sort of thing.
https://www.michaels.com/pine-circle-plaque-by-artminds/10067602.html
Something like this is viable maybe:
Thin, but in the general ballpark…
But yeah wow, like I said, as size goes up so does price!
thank you so much!
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