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. This type of lumber needs to be dried out first before you can use it and if you have a project this will not do. I love using products that I personally made myself but if you have a lot of money to spend and you are in a hurry you can just purchase the lumbers you need in any home improvement shops.

As soon as you have decided a the project you want to do and the kind of lumber you need, the next step is getting your materials. This is a matter of locating a local sawmill and asking if they have any lumber of the species and quality you need. Chances are that they will have a pile lying around somewhere that you can sort through and take your pick of the boards. You might also want to pick a lumber that is a little bit bigger because lumbers shrink when dries up.It will not be necessary to haggle the price of the lumber since the prices here are already discounted but if you are frequent customer they might give you better deal

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As soon as the lumber gets home drying it will be the next step. One step is to pile your boards outside; undercover from rain and direct sun light; flat; with small (1"x1"x how ever wide your pile is) stickers spaced 12"-24" apart, between every layer of lumber (this allows air to circulate around the boards); this is called "Air-Drying." It takes a year to dry a 1" thick board so if you have 2" it will take 2 years etc... 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. The green lumber can be placed immediately inside the solar kiln for it to start drying. It usually takes 1-2 months for the lumber to dry down to 6-8% moisture and be ready for use. But sometimes the location and temperature matters..

You can start processing the lumber as soon as its dried up. The first thing you must do is joint one area of the panel. You can do this manually using a hand plane or maybe the easy way 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 will make the board parallel to the flat face. As soon as you plane the board down to your final size, afterwards you joint one edge perhaps manually or with 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. Just set your fence or edge guide to the desired width and use the jointed edge of the board as a reference. You now have a board almost ready for your project, just cut the final length needed and build your project. Cutting your own board from scratch surely saves you a lot of money