Resources – Tools, Materials and Equipment

I always shop around to get the best deal for the materials and tools that I buy and I though it might be handy to record where I’m buying things from (because I always forget and end up having to do the research all over again). I won’t cover obvious things like screws (which you get from ScrewFix or Tool Station) but more those things you need occasionally and can end up costing a fortune.

Timber

Ply

Ply is expensive where ever you are getting it from now but the price (and quality) varies dramatically. If you want decent quality ply at a price that won’t completely break the bank then QMark Ply from Build Base is pretty good.

The cheapest reasonable quality ply you can buy currently seems to come from Builder Depot, a London based builders merchant that have just started shipping WBP Ply and other large goods nationwide. The shipping is really expensive (£55 currently) but the ply is sufficiently cheap that if you need more than a couple of sheets it’s worth it.

Veneer

I found Robbins Timber in Bristol to be surprisingly good for veneer. I only needed a fairly small amount but they were happy to supply. Shipping was very expensive but when the package arrived I could see why. Unfortunately you can’t just buy it online you have to get a quote and then phone them.

Dimensioned PAR Timber

I bought a load of dimensioned Meranti from Woodshop Direct (Jun 2015). The price as good and the service quick. the dimensions were well within the stupidly large 2mm tolerance they quoted but I was still a little disappointed to find that essentially all the pieces were 0.5 mmto 1mm undersized.

Tools

Makita

I bought my impact driver (Oct 2016) from ITS. They were the cheapest by a fair margin on the package I wanted. Take care with power tools like this though there are a huge number of different SKU’s that all bundle the same items which makes price comparisons difficult. I also found it was often cheaper to buy separate items e.g. a bare drill, batter and charger rather than a kit containing all three.

FFX had the cheapest batteries (Oct 2016) by a reasonable margin but this is the sort of time that probably fluctuates in price quickly.

Festool

N&BO are generally have the best price for Festool equipment.

Hardware

Drawer Slides

You can pay an a lot of money for drawer slides but fortunately you don’t have to. Buller sell decent quality full extension drawer slides for a reasonable price. I have been told the Motion range of drawer slides from Ironmongery Direct is also good but I’ve never used them.