If you don't want to spend too much on lumber it is best to buy them while it is still green and just been cut by a sawmill. 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. You might also want to pick a lumber that is a little bit bigger because lumbers shrink when dries up.You should find that the price you pay here will be very good, so don't try to haggle the price down. If they like you and you become a repeat customer they will probably give you even better deals later on.

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After bringing the green lumber home you will then need to 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. The moisture content of the lumber after it was air dried is 12% - 18% still wet to use but you can now bring it inside your workshop for the rest of the air drying process.However since most workshops has low humidity it is advisable for you to purchase a thermometer/ hygrometer that costs around $40 at radio shack so you could monitor the humidity on your shop . The ideal would be 50%RH .

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. These kilns can be built for only a couple hundred dollars. When you bring your lumber home you can immediately put your lumber in the solar kiln and begin drying. The time it takes to dry will vary due to your location, time of year, and other things. But generally about 30-60 days in the solar kiln will dry your lumber down to 6%-8% moisture content. So it will be ready to use right out of the kiln.

After your lumber is dried you can begin processing it. The very first thing you want to do is joint one face of the panel. This can be accomplished by hand using a hand plane or maybe the easy method by using a jointer. You can then cut the board to your lose to the final length needed. And in order for you to have a uniform thickness you may now run through a thickness planer. This is for you to have an equal thickness . Once you plane the plank right down to your final size, then you joint one edge perhaps by hand 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 use any kind of saw to do this. To set your board to the desired width you can used the edge of the board as guide. After you have cut the final measurement you can now start building your project. Cutting your own board from scratch surely saves you a lot of money