got a couple questions about milling cherry for flooring

[patrick foley]

ok i am trying to make my own cherry hardwood flooring, i own a woodland sawmill and i have more cherry then i know what to do with so i made up my mind to start milling for flooring. i have never took on this big of a project , meaning i need around 375 4x6 boards. That is fine i have an area indoors to stack and dry that much bf but the problem is this how thick should i mill the boards to allow for shrinkage and planing to end up with 3/4in flooring i was thinking 7/8in or maybe 1in?? also does anyone think it would be better ,easier or a bad idea to T&G all the boards while their green or wait till its all good and dry?? The stock wont all be 4x72 ill mix in alot of 4x24 and 4x48 boards. If anyone has any feedback it would be great! thanks pat foley

[ernest dubois]

Seems the thickness you want is up to you to decide but reckon on a couple mm to flatten the boards after air drying. So if I want a thumb (25 mm) thick floor the rough sawing is 27 mm. At that minimum decent quality wood and proper drying is important, ideally to include sealing off the end grain and good stickering. You should not mill the tung and groove before the wood has seasoned, that is if tung and groove is the way you want to do it. While it's a nice joint it involves some loss of wood. Is it necessary? With a spline, maybe from plywood - very strong in there - you save wood. Simply butted can always be another option.

[Danny Hamsley]

Minimum that I would saw is 1" rough, and I would wait until the boards are dried, planed, and straight-lined on the edge before I would mill the T&G.

I saw all my hardwood at 1 1/8" rough. Gives the customer enough meat on the bones to flatten and plane any board to 3/4. 98% will clean up to 7/8".

[Jim Becker]

1" (4 quarter) is typical for rough for a 3/4" finished product after drying and milling.

[Scott T Smith]

Hi Patrick. I frequently manufacture flooring from lumber milled by other sawyers. Here is my advice.

1 - mill green at at least 1-1/16", if not 1-1/8". This will provide you with adequate thickness to allow for drying related shrinkage and subsequent clean up for flooring.

2 - stack and sticker under cover, using 16" sticker spacing. Be sure to have a sticker within 1" of the ends of the boards, if not flush with the ends.

3 - Use a high quality end sealer to coat your logs as soon as they are felled and bucked to length. This will provide you with a higher yield of usable lumber.

4 - Don't plane or T&G until the boards are dry. Drying related shrinkage's vary depending upon the percentage of flat sawn, rift and quartersawn lumber (as well as the species), and if you mill the T&G while the boards are green they will shrink to different dimensions - potentially creating problems during the installation.

As Jim advised, your finished flooring is typically 3/4". Danny's advice re the process is also right on target.

You will typically lose around 3/4" or so in width from milling width to finished floor width. Thus a board milled at 4" will typically produce a finished floor around 3" - 3-1/4". The actual width will depend upon how much crook develops in the lumber while drying, and if you want to yield long boards (narrower) versus shorter lengths.

[David Kumm]

Cherry can go weird on you if you get it wrong. I'd talk to a kiln guy and get his experience. I'd likely kiln it to bring the moisture down uniformly and to 8-10% which air drying won't do. Don't mill anything until dry to that range. Dave