Buying a lumber can be quite costly sometimes so it is best if you buy it straight from the source and while it is still green. Your home improvement projects will need to wait for a while if these is the lumber you have intended to use, because this lumber needs to be dried out first. Your alternatives are to buy dried and dimensioned lumber from distributors or places like Home Depot. These paths are great if your wallet is thick, and you need the boards immediately. I prefer to go with rough cut and prepare it myself.

Once you decide what projects you are going to attempt, and what species you plan to use, you can begin the process. The first thing you need to do is procure the materials. If you go directly to a sawmill they will let you go around pick your choice of lumber. Getting a bit oversized lumber is advisable if you are picking the green lumber because it will shrink when dried.Since the prices of their prices are already very low asking for discount is not really necessary and if you've been a repeat customer I am sure they will give you a better deal on your next visit

For a lot of excellent great tips on woodworking plans check out viewing my own blog site.

After you get your lumber home, you'll need to decide on how you will dry it. One of the ways to dry your green lumber is by piling the lumbers under the sun but making sure that it is protected from the rain you have to also make sure that every layer is 12"-24" apart For each 1" thick lumber , it will take you a year to dry so if you have 2" thick it will take 2 years 3" 3 years and so on. After they air-dry the moisture content will be around 12%-18%, this is still to wet to work with, so now you can bring the lumber inside your shop to finish drying.It is best to keep your shops RH to atleast 50% for the woods moisture to go down to atleast 8% and to do that you can use a thermometer/hygrometer to monitor from time to time

Using a solar kiln is one way of drying your green lumber, so if you don't have it yet the plans is downloadable online. Building it will only cost you around $200. When you bring your lumber home you can immediately put your lumber in the solar kiln and begin drying. Drying the lumber can sometimes depend on your location and the temperature however it usually takes 30-60 days to have it dried or reach the 6%-8% moisture to make it ready for use.

You can start processing the lumber as soon as its dried up. The first thing you have to do is joint one area of your board. This can be done by hand with a hand plane or maybe the uncomplicated way by having a jointer. It makes things a lot easier if you cut the board down to a length close to your final needed length. After you have one face flat you then run the board through a thickness planner. This process will make the board equal in thickness. Once you plane the plank down to your final dimension, you then joint one side either by yourself or by way of a jointer. Cutting the board to the final width is the next process after you have planed the it to your desired thickness. You can do this with a table saw, band saw, or even a skill saw with an edge guide. Using the jointed for reference you can now set your board to your desired width. After you have cut the final measurement you can now start building your project. You're done, and you saved tons of money by processing the rough boards yourself.