I have just gotten a Lathe and plan on turning some plugs what is the best wood and cheapest to use . I have been using dowls , oak ,from the hardware store there must be a cheaper place to get some wood ,suggestions appreciated thanks ..Moosh

I see you belong to MSBA... South Shore ? if so ,, white pine or basswood also good besides what Salty said ,,, downes and reader ,,,Stoughton .. They have different grades of white pine ... Furniture Grade $$$ pretty clean .. They have less exspensive stuff all knots and stuff ... when you rip and cut to lengths you cut that stuff out ...

Start with a tightly grained western red cedar. You can buy three foot 2"x2" ballusters for a $1.79 ea. Wear a mask when sanding though.
Tightly grained will turn nicely and avoid the lumps and bumps that the loosely grained (growth rings) leave after sanding though the fish don't care much.

Western Red cedar is very light and buoyant and makes really nice fishing spooks and popping plugs with therefore great action.

Hope that helps.

I left out the part that was supposed to tell you you can buy them at Lowes.

the only baulusters i can come up with at lowes or homodepot is hemlock.has anyone tried that before?i picked up some white cedar from a fence guys scrap pile,a little knotty just cut my pieces from between the knots turns real nice,cb and cg easy to find i kinda like it now to swim it!

I don'y know why but my Lowes has the wrc ballusters in the masonry area. Always has too for some reason.

thanks guys moosh...

Look in your yellow pages, Find a fence company, go there.
Tell them you are a plug turner, explain what you do, and make an easy promise. tell them if they keep the scraps from square post White ceder, you will return with some plugs for the guy's in the shop.
I did this a while back and I now have more wood than I can turn in the next year. I have every thing from 2 1/2 X 2 1/2, up to 10 X 10.
All stacked on a full size pallet in my shop, 6 feet high.
What did I do to get them to save every cut off 2 feet long up to 6 footers? I gave them a dozen pencils and a couple dozen Hula Poppers.
White ceder makes awesome poppers, when it's sanded up to 220 grit in the lathe it's smooth as a babies butt.
I make swimmers with it too.