SO... You Want to Saw Your Own Lumber

[Scott T Smith]

To add to this, there is tons and tons of fantastic information on milling and drying on woodweb. It was, and is, a great source of information for us with our small mill and kiln.

Mark

Indeed you are correct about Woodweb. Between the two forums, everything is well covered by RKI's (reasonably knowledgeable individuals).

[John Messinger]

Products from Irene:

Last Friday with Hurricane Irene coming over the horizon, I cut down three large pines on the East side of my house. Each could have caused severe damage/injury if they were to come down onto my house. The hurricane caused minimal problems in my area of New Hampshire. Hence, my clean up was limited to iatrogenic damage. One of the Eastern White pines had about 27' of straight, knot free trunk with a 20" average diameter. This was cut into three 9' lengths and the Granberg mill used to slab it into 4/4 pieces. I've got about 300' bd feet of 4/4 pine stacked andstickered in my garage.

003.jpg

This pine was vastly easier to handle than the red oak I cut down last fall as the O.P.. The pine took only one long weekend rather five for the oak and it yielded about the same number of board feet.

[Carl Beckett]

John,I'm just down the road from you in Harvard MA, and have a stack of oak stickered outside since Jan 2010. The area around my house is prone to mold for some reason. Indeed, the wood is not looking too good- a lot of mold. Will see what comes off with a planer pass. How has your oak been doing since you stickered it?

[John Messinger]

John,I'm just down the road from you in Harvard MA, and have a stack of oak stickered outside since Jan 2010. The area around my house is prone to mold for some reason. Indeed, the wood is not looking too good- a lot of mold. Will see what comes off with a planer pass. How has your oak been doing since you stickered it?

The oak came out great when I dried it in my shop. About six months after I stacked and stickered it, I planed it. It had dropped from 50%+ to about 15% moisture content. No mold and no checks at all in the 4/4 stuff and minimal checking in the 6/4 and 8/4.

The pine is stacked and stickered in my garage. Heartwood is about 40% M.C. the sapwood is about 45%. I noted that the oak had MC readings that would vary by about +/-2% at most. This pine varies +/- 10% between readings, in both heartwood and softwood.

I no longer have room in my shop for wood drying as I am building another boat. SWMBO is not too happy about the wood occupying the garage. I am hoping I can get it into my shop before the snow flies.

[Charlie MacGregor]

John, not to add confusion but the white pine can be dried a lot faster without the risk of defect. (more airflow at the earlier stages of drying) Nice job!

[David Keast]

Thanks, to take something from forest to furniture is something I am very much looking forward to. A mission style sofa is on my to do list.

Oh boy do I wish I could raise those things off the ground more. A 9' log must weigh 1200# or more. Other parts of the problem are that the logs are on about a 10% grade, and they are right up against a wooden stairway/walkway.

Yep! The marina where the gas dock scene was filmed is about 4 miles away. The building where my son goes to school was an inn in its previous life. It is where many of the cast stayed during filming.

Lovely part of the world, my wife and I spent a very happy autumn day on the lake in a rental boat about 15 yrs ago. We used to come to NH and VT quite often in the autumn for the leaf fall.

Back on topic : Dont forget that air dried lumber will still contain its original share of bugs and beasties - not killed off by kilning - you will probably need to treat it before use.

[Jim Foster]

Outside ideally will have more moisture, so it does not dry to quickly, cooler temps usually mean less moisture which is not ideal right now, but outside should still be more moist than indoors. I've been told a thick paint on the ends is better than wax (I forget what kind of paint though).

Good luck, looks like a great haul of wood

[John Messinger]

Outside ideally will have more moisture, so it does not dry to quickly, cooler temps usually mean less moisture which is not ideal right now, but outside should still be more moist than indoors. I've been told a thick paint on the ends is better than wax (I forget what kind of paint though).

Good luck, looks like a great haul of wood

Well I don't know, but I been told, a thick coat a paint ain't got no soul!

[Jim Stewart]

you won't need to treat the lumber! any bugs will leave (probably left during sawing). As the wood dries it becomes undesirable to bugs. Nice stack of lumber. I dry mine in a open sided shed. Air dried lumber is so superior to kiln dried.

Jim

[John Messinger]

you won't need to treat the lumber! any bugs will leave (probably left during sawing). As the wood dries it becomes undesirable to bugs. Nice stack of lumber. I dry mine in a open sided shed. Air dried lumber is so superior to kiln dried.

Jim

IIRC bugs enjoy wet wood as well as the cambium layer between bark and sapwood. I have sawed the bark off all the boards. When it comes to bugs and boards: "If you cambium joint'em." Lordy, sometimes I'm just too clever by half.

[Jim Andrew]

I fell into this trap too. Looked at the forestry forum, and woodweb, and looked like a chainsaw mill would cut some wood, but at great effort. So, I bought a used manual bandmill. Now I need more buildings to put the lumber. What you don't realize at first, is that you also need something to handle logs, so either a tractor w/ fel, or skidsteer with forks, or forklift etc. And you need to organize a way to stack and handle the lumber. Then, you need to burn wood to use the wood that doesn't turn to lumber. I give away firewood, but find it hard, so maybe I should try to sell the stuff.