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I am planning to start the build of a Mission style bedroom set. The complete set will have a bed, nightstand, chest-of-drawers, dresser, and hanging mirror. This will be a large project for my small basement shop. I have the design near completion and am working to determine material quantities. My wife has asked me to make it from quarter sawn white oak. Currently, my local lumber distributor does not have what I am looking for, so I am thinking about driving to Frank Miller Lumber in IN. This will be a 720-mile round trip for me. I have never been there and have not spoken to them. I have estimated that I will need 174 board feet. This quantity has not been factored for waste. So, if I need 200 bd ft of white oak, what are my transportation requirements and options? I have a F-150 short bed pick-up which has a plastic bed liner and covered with a tonneau cover. The bed is 6’-6” long with the tail gate closed and 8’-9” with the gate open. I have never transported anything of this size with the gate open. Two hundred bd ft of lumber is an approximately 4’ x 8’ x 7” pile weighing in at ~800 lbs. I know I will have varied thicknesses, widths, and lengths. All which will contribute to a less than perfect situated load. Usually, I hand select my lumber and take the design into consideration for the board selections, i.e. I have a few 8” high dresser drawers and I would like the fronts to be one piece and I want to minimize cut-off waste. I have a few 5” drawers. These can be made from a 5-1/2” wide board but I would like for all of the 5” drawers to be made from the same board. I know not every board needs to be quartered-sawn. Plain sawn will be okay for some usages and will save me money. Being my shop is small, I will have to store the purchased lumber in the recreational area of my basement. I want to be mindful of my wife’s desire to not make the whole basement my playroom. One option is to only purchase enough lumber for the nightstand and the bed and make a 2nd purchase for the chest-of-drawers and dresser. Approximately 100 bd ft would be needed for each trip. This option would help me (not eliminate) with the basement issue and help me calculate my waste percentage, but would create the need for two trips, which adds to the expense. If I purchase the material in one trip, I do not anticipate being able to hand select many boards. Hand selecting 200 bd ft would consume many hours and would be frowned upon. I could rent a U-Haul trailer. Then I would have the trailer expense and the hassle of pick-up and return. A U-Haul trailer would nicely protect the lumber from any road grime, rain, or snow. If I used my truck bed, I could use a tarp and wrap my lumber bundle (a hassle). I am not concerned about the weight, but I am concerned about securing the load inside the bed with the tail gate down. I am not certain how to do it. Am I over thinking this entire issue of lumber hauling? I would like to hear your thoughts, concerns, ideas, suggestions. Danl
