Dave Ronyak
Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,234
Notarious,
I am originally from rural Washington County, PA. After high school I left PA for college and after graduation never seriously considered returning to work and live in PA for exactly the reasons you stated. Unfortunately, during my adult lifetime, Ohio has gone from being a cost-of-living bargain compared to PA to not much different. Family has kept me in OH. When I came to Ohio, there was no state income tax and sales tax was about 3% and there were no city income taxes. Now the state income tax can be as much as nearly 7%, most cities have an income tax of 2% (and some have to pay the same amount twice, both where they work and an where they live), sales taxes including state, county and local community run from about 6% to more than 7%, and automobile license registration has gone from around $5 - 10 to more than $50 per year. And property values have tanked much like you described for the Sharon, PA area.
I did not mean to indicate that raw wood prices at Woodcraft were a bargain. I was simply trying to point out their having reduced prices of recent. I have difficulty understanding how anyone can consider sources like Woodcraft for any projects requiring more than a few BF of wood -- it has to be merely for the love of their hobby because they can probably buy furniture for not much more. I used to be able to obtain KD domestic hardwoods at prices comparable to that of your friend, but those local sources have all dried up as the local manufacturing economy did so. One remains in business, but they only deal in boxcar or larger quantities and mostly redistribute imported hardwoods at substantial markups. Most were small family owned lumber yards that had their own mill rooms. The big box stores killed their bread and butter volumes of construction materials, and the EPA and OHSA played their parts, too. Those local (meaning within 100 miles) sources remaining available to me and other small volume purchasers (100 - 250 BF at a time) are pretty much stuck with paying nearly the same for KD rough or rough planed [hit or skip] stock as for fully dimensioned S4S hardwood, particularly if you don't have a truck to haul your own. The chief remaining reason for me to purchase rough KD stock is so I can plane it out to exactly the thicknesses I want or need for a project. And, of course, with thicker incoming stock, e.g. 4/4 being 4/4 or greater in actual thickness, if I am needing thinner stock such as for drawer sides, I can resaw the rough stock, then plane it, often doubling the effective board area.
Dave R.
I am originally from rural Washington County, PA. After high school I left PA for college and after graduation never seriously considered returning to work and live in PA for exactly the reasons you stated. Unfortunately, during my adult lifetime, Ohio has gone from being a cost-of-living bargain compared to PA to not much different. Family has kept me in OH. When I came to Ohio, there was no state income tax and sales tax was about 3% and there were no city income taxes. Now the state income tax can be as much as nearly 7%, most cities have an income tax of 2% (and some have to pay the same amount twice, both where they work and an where they live), sales taxes including state, county and local community run from about 6% to more than 7%, and automobile license registration has gone from around $5 - 10 to more than $50 per year. And property values have tanked much like you described for the Sharon, PA area.
I did not mean to indicate that raw wood prices at Woodcraft were a bargain. I was simply trying to point out their having reduced prices of recent. I have difficulty understanding how anyone can consider sources like Woodcraft for any projects requiring more than a few BF of wood -- it has to be merely for the love of their hobby because they can probably buy furniture for not much more. I used to be able to obtain KD domestic hardwoods at prices comparable to that of your friend, but those local sources have all dried up as the local manufacturing economy did so. One remains in business, but they only deal in boxcar or larger quantities and mostly redistribute imported hardwoods at substantial markups. Most were small family owned lumber yards that had their own mill rooms. The big box stores killed their bread and butter volumes of construction materials, and the EPA and OHSA played their parts, too. Those local (meaning within 100 miles) sources remaining available to me and other small volume purchasers (100 - 250 BF at a time) are pretty much stuck with paying nearly the same for KD rough or rough planed [hit or skip] stock as for fully dimensioned S4S hardwood, particularly if you don't have a truck to haul your own. The chief remaining reason for me to purchase rough KD stock is so I can plane it out to exactly the thicknesses I want or need for a project. And, of course, with thicker incoming stock, e.g. 4/4 being 4/4 or greater in actual thickness, if I am needing thinner stock such as for drawer sides, I can resaw the rough stock, then plane it, often doubling the effective board area.
Dave R.
