[QUOTE=bill tindall;2325064] 12' will be easier to stack, keep straight, and minimize end trimming waste With 8' lumber one winds up with piles of short lengths left over from making stuff like tables, chests of drawers and the like that involve cuttings of 2-4'. Personally I think that 12' lumber is a good compromise between minimizing cutting waste and ease of handling and storage.
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Agreed. I don't get involved in milling logs, but I do buy QS flitches from trees. 14' is the standard I get.
Cutting short for planned part length would cause me a problem: I don't just hack the boards into pieces - I lay out my parts as the grain dictates, which often isn't "straight" down the board, and almost never starts right at the end of a board.
When I started woodworking, I didn't know squat. I have progressed in 30 years - now I do know squat.