Wood prices / Basswood / Prices / Proofgrade?

Hi,

It has been a while since I’ve used my forge as I’ve had a lot going on lately… I checked in on materials and was a bit surprised. Didn’t Proofgrade plywoods used to be around $10 or $11? Now they are $16. Wasn’t there a basswood or some lower priced wood?

Are prices this volatile? Is it only PG or are all suppliers jumping around this much with pricing and availability?

Thanks!

Yep. Maple ply was my go to for a lot of stuff. They bumped maple up a bit last fall to align with cherry & walnut and they came out with basswood as the low end PG Ply offering.

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Ok - I now see basswood at the bottom of the page… I’ll have to order some to test it out. Thanks! :slight_smile:

If by volitile you mean one price increase in two years, yes.

1/4 the number of increases for birch ply at the local BBS, btw. YMMV, of course!

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I’m not sure exactly how it relates to Glowforge prices, but at some point it almost has to; lumber futures are traded through CME - though those futures are for X-board feet of 2x4” material, and largely driven by supply of raw material and construction demand, one would assume.

While these exact products we are using are not traded, those futures almost surely have an impact on the overall market throughout the entire chain of supply.

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was the PG store open 2 years ago? i guess it must have been for the prerelease program. it definitely hasn’t been 2 years since the first release machines have been out in the wild. that will be this summer.

Yes it was open for PRUs more than two years ago. But okay – whatever…

One price change in approximately 21 months, plus or minus one, still does not meet my personal definition of volitile, vis a vis retail pricing of miscellaneous woodland products.

Better?

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sorry, wasn’t trying to be combative. was starting to ask was it actually open that long, then realized it probably was. with the PRUs. instead of deleting, i left it w/me answering myself because i’m sure i’m not the only one who thought “could it really be 2 years?”

fwiw, i agree that it’s not enough to be called volatile. but i will say the increase on the maple was pretty steep for the one time it changed. $11 to $16 is a big jump (45%). and especially so when it seemed to be one of the most popular sellers.

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I actually prefer the basswood for some things. It engraves “blacker”. More contrast.

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there are definitely some benefits.

but some negatives, as well. there’s not really much grain in basswood. so there’s not a low-priced wood grain wood any more.

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There has been a number of tax increases on imported wood that I saw rather quickly passed along in the retail price. When the wood is entirely in country then the increase in price becomes increased profits.

I’m glad you found the material you were looking for.

I’m going to close this thread–If you have any other questions, feel free to start a new topic.