Sources for wood and acrylic

Anyone have recommendations for where to get materials like wood and acrylic from?

Even for basic woodworking 90% of the stock at the likes of B&Q and Wickes is warped, bent or twisted, or all three. Anyway, I want something other than pine or oak to make some projects and in more blocky shapes. Cherry, walnut, elm etc would be good but I don’t know where to go.

I’ve seen a lot of acrylic projects made by people here so hoping someone can recommend good places to get this from too? I’ve just randomly used eBay before.

For laser safe acrylic we by our supplies from https://www.kitronik.co.uk/.

Try our relatively local supplier - http://www.surreytimbers.co.uk/ (based near Losely Park) for more sophisticated timbers.

Believe it or not, eBay is quite good. I have bought a few “mixed offcuts” lots from there which tends to give you a nice variety to play with. If you are looking at something more of a panel instead of a plank (gotta get that terminology down!) then what you might end up doing is making your own panels by gluing up planks together. That seems to be the typical fashion to approach making bigger items, but you have to be able to level them all. I have in my garage some lovely long lengths of thick oak planks that were sold as skirting boards on eBay!

I’m sure you could convince @cylindric and myself to join you on a joint trip to Surrey Timbers at some point :slight_smile:

I had no idea there were laser unsafe acrylics. I clearly need to have a laser induction before I touch that beast!

Ooooooh, Surrey Timbers! I have no idea what I’d make with some of that but would undoubtedly come back with a car full!

I think @sarahlouise gets a lot of her materials from Sketch Laser.