Railroad Sailor - you’re lucky!! You found one of the few employees left at Home Despot that knows what he/she is doing. They have been cutting the more experienced (read higher paid) employees left & right!!
A former Home Despot employee!!
Reading about Home Depot reminded me of a sale on generators that I missed.[banghead] I saw about 10 generators on clearance for $500 apiece, but I had no ideal what they were worth. That night I remembered the generators and looked them up on the Internet and the lowest price I could find for that model was $1500. I had to go to work the next day and couldn’t get back until the next evening. There was only one left when I finally got there and it was all busted up as if it had been dropped from the roof.
I was asking around if maybe there might be anymore and a lady that worked there said that Home Depot bought a huge shipment in hopes that they would make a quick sale in the wake of a huge power failure that hit most of Southern CA. She also said that she called her husband and he bought 5 of them to sale on eBay.
I’ve been trying to talk my daughters into getting a job there so that I can get connected too, but they won’t go for it. [:(]
I work at Lowes and can tell you you could really get some great deals if you are patient. We go through the lunber every day and the smallest imprefection gets thrown in what we call a cull pile. All of that lumber gets banded up and sold for 10 cents on the dollar. You could get 500 dollars worth of wood for 50. I always thought tghis would be great for the model railroader. Another thing is items are always going on clearance becausde lowes no longer is going to stock them. When this happens youmay buy something brandnew at 15 percent of the original price only because they are trying to clear it out. Ofcourse the returned items like you are talking about is something to always look for. Certain items can get returned to the vendor but some cant and this is when you get the dirt cheap tools. I bought a 200 dollar saw for 10 dollars, a 200 dollar cabinet for 25 dollars and seen things like a refrigerator with a dent that costs 1500 go for as low as 100. Just keep your eyes pealed. There is a couple customers that are aware of this and make biweekly trips just for this reason.
I sometimes will wander aimlessly around Lowes or Home Depot trying to get ideas on projects to make for the trains I have.
That has been happening more in the past few months a lot, as I have been on vicodin and valium to keep the pain in check from an accident that happened on base that the Navy does not want to get me the surgery that I need, as there are no specialists in the area that are able to correct the damage, and the Navy does not consider fertility to be a priority, so I have been doped up to the point where I wander around aimlessly for hours on end, but that is another issue.
Sometimes the local Lowes and Home Depots will have specials on tools that not all of the employees recognize.
We found a sale display table with a number of saws on it, including a miter saw, for 50% off. We picked one up, it had the 50% off tag on it, and took it to the register with a lot of other peices of wood and lettering. The cashier said that the saw was full price, and accused us of making the sign up and putting it inside the shrink wrap. She called the manager, and he looked at the saw, looked at her, told her to leave, and rang us up himself. He apologized for the amout of time that we were arguing with the cashier, and asked if that would affect us coming back.
Like men’s health care in this area, there is not much for tool stores and suppliers, so we told him that we would have to be back.
Well, we got the saw for $149.99, but I have no idea where Nicholle hid it. She has locked up all of my power tools except my 9.6v cordless drill , and a battery powered screwdriver since the accident, as I have been on induistrial strengh painkillers to be able to do anything other than stay in bed and little else. Just sitting here is causing a major burning pain.
How this relates to trains is that I have used it the saw to cut wood for a railroad crossing sign for our ride on train set. All told, it cost about $14 to make (wood, paint, letterin
I have 3 Lowes that I shop at, many times I’ve spent over an hour trying to find decent lumber, I’ve popped the bands on new stacks only to find a pile of knotty, warped and twisted crap usable only as kindling!! If this is the ‘‘good stuff’’ I’d hate to see what gets tossed!! When I rebuilt our deck I needed 65 5\4 deck boards, pressure treated. I had to go through 4 unopened bundles to find 30 boards worth using, and ended going to two other Lowes to get the rest. Your Lowes must be an anomaly because the Lowes here don’t sell any discounted lumber piles and the ‘‘scratch-and-dent’’ sales are usually only 10 to 15% off retail.
It does depend on the manager how often it gets done but it is part of lowes policy to cull lumber. I would talk to one of the managers in the lumber dept and tell them that you are interested in marked down lumber.
I will add that 4 hacks of decking boards to get 30 pieces sounds a little ridiculous. Where did the employess put all the boards considering there is only one spot where the deck boards go. Also you said it had knots, well wood comes this way. The only thing you could do if you don’t want knots is buy the premiem severe weather deck boards, they cost like 2 dollars more a board but you won’t get any knots.
LD357 Wood is a natural product, and knots are a part of it. Try going through stacks in your local lumber yard like that - I’ll guarantee you’ll be tossed out on your ear - or some other part of your anatomy!! I delt with one lumber yard for over 25 years, as a contractor, and believe me, wood is not perfect and no lumber yard would allow you to do what Lowes or HD allows. I worked for 8 1/2 years at HD after I retired, and the lumber comes in as good as most lumber yards get - the same with Lowes - it’s the customers that pick through the wood looking for perfect pieces - and leaving it laying cockeyed - that messes up the lumber!
Guys,When I worked part time in a hobby shop I seen good locomotives return because"it doesn’t run right" yet by Ohio law we had to exchange the item or refund their money…After they left the shop we use to joke "It doesn’t run right because “wifey” said to return it.[:O] I fully believe we may have accidentally hit the nail on the head with our private joke.
Amen Ivan, I couldn’t have said it better. I always play around saying I wonder what the grocery store would do if I started picking through the cereal bozes and throwing them all over the florr the way these people throw around the lumber. I would probably get tyhe police called on me. Lumber isnt made in a factory therefore we get what the trees give us. You are 100% when you say that the boards getting thrown around and left on the floor is what causes the warping. As for this guy going threw 4 hacks just for 30 boards, he must just be one of those picky people that nothing is good enough for him. I too worked at a lumber yard in the bronx and noone would ever have been let to open 4 new hacks for 30 boards, he would have been tossed out.
Again, your Lowes must be an anomaly. The Lowes I deal with have ,usually, two bundles of 5\4 board in a bay and then maybe 20 or so loose on top, I went outside and popped the bands on two more bundles that particular day because I was disgusted at the trash they were trying to pass off as ‘‘Top Choice’’. I have dealt with lumber yards and I did the same thing, I NEVER let the employees pick my lumber! I always chose my boards and if anyone ever said anything I would tell them if they didn’t like it go tell the boss, they never did anything. I don’t leave piles in the floor like the amateur ‘‘Harry Homeowners’’ do, but if I’m going to shell out premium price money I want decent lumber. If you want to call that ‘‘picky’’, then yes, I am very picky! Knots don’t bother me, it’s pine, it’s all knots and sap!..but, warped, bowed and twisted boards with the edges sheared off and cracks halfway down the center? NO WAY!!! I see the amateurs buying studs that are so twisted and warped there’s no way they’ll ever get a plumb and square wall out of them. And that’s where you seperate the amateurs from the pros…you’ll never see a pro buy the first boards off the top of a stack.
I used to buy from a guy who ran a small sawmill, all hardwood, cut to your specs and almost as cheap as that knotty white pine junk Lowes sells. Unfortunately a hardwood company offered him wayyy more money that he would ever make for his standing timber and he closed down the mill.
I have to buy from Lowes, HD or 84 Lumber because there’s no other alternative here short of buying a mill and cutting my own, but I will not ever settle for junk boards. And Lowe’s idea that white pin
Like I said last time, the ones you were buying if they had knots were not the premium but t6he standard decking boards. The premium svere weather boards do not have knots and is of a better quality grain. No I don’t think my Lowes is an anomaly, were you go must be an anomaly because if you just walked out in to the back of my lowes were we keep the over stock of lumber where the customers are not allowed and started cutting hacks of wood open I would have you kicked out of the store.
Whatever, my Lowe’s rant is finished. Apparently the folks you have there in the big city don’t know or care about quality when buying lumber, out here in God’s country though, we care, and we don’t like being shafted. Lowe’s is like WalMart…you don’t want to shop there but they’ve got a monopoly on certain items…so what are you going to do? Perhaps in years to come Lowe’s and WalMart will become one and we will buy our milk and bread while buying our Quikrete and cabinets.