I just picked up about 90 linear feet of 1 X 6 Clear White Pine today from Liese Lumber Co. in Belleville, IL. For any builders or potential builders (in the Midwest) looking for a source of nice material to use for a scratch build I highly recommend checking them out. They're just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis MO. It was about a 1 1/4 Hour drive for me and the trip was quite worthwhile. They had 1 X 6's up to 14' and 16', shorter lengths too, including a LOT of 1 X6's for rib parts and any other shorter pieces required.
I picked up 3 - 12', 1 - 14', 4 - 6' and 4 - 5' boards. According to my calculations that should be about all I need to build another MiniMAX. A few board have some small areas that will have to be worked around, but overall it was really nice material. Of the boards I sorted through I would say about 15% or more met my criteria for tightness and straightness of grain. I considered that very good. The price for the boards varied slightly with the lengths but the most expensive was still under $3 per linear foot for the 1 X 6's. The employee that was with myself and a friend sorting through the boards was quite patient and helpful, even re-stacking some of the boards himself.
One other positive thing I'll say about Leise Lumber is that the gentleman I originally talked with on the phone was quite understanding and helpful. I started to describe what I was looking for in terms of grain of the wood, etc. and finally just said I was wanting it for an airplane. He said that was what he suspected and had no reservation about selling it for that purpose. He mentioned that I might want to wait a couple weeks to come in because they were expecting a shipment and the selection would be much better after it arrived. He took my number and last week he followed up to let me know the shipment arrived. A follow-up call as promised! That kind of service is almost non-existent any more and was really refreshing.
Anyway, I thought I'd put out a recommendation for anyone looking for building material that might be within "striking distance" of Belleville, IL. It's a BIG place and they also have a lot of unique material including timbers like 12" X 14" and larger up to 35' long!
Happy building.
Lynn
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