Perhaps the easiest way that you can buy you lumber is while it is freshly 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. The only alternative will be by purchasing dried lumbers from home improvement shops , that is if you have a lot of money but personally I'd like mine rough cut and prepared by me.

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. 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.The prices of the lumber in the sawmill are really affordable so there is really no need for you to ask for more discount but if you've been a frequent customer they might be the one who will offer it to you.

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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 Then you allow it to air-dry for roughly one year for every 1" of thickness. This means that 1" thick boards will air-dry for one year, 2" thick boards will dry for two 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.The ideal RH of your shop should b 50% for the lumber to dry down to 8% moisture and for you to be able to monitor the humidity you can purchase the rmometer/hygrometer from radio shack that will cost you around $40

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. You don't need much to have these built just a couple of hundred bucks and you have it. You can place your green lumber inside the kiln to 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.

As soon as the lumber is all dried up you can now make it ready for your project. First thing you need to do is joint one face of the board. This can be achieved by hand by using a hand plane or perhaps the uncomplicated approach with a jointer. You may now cut it in close to the dimensions that you need. After you have one face flat you then run the board through a thickness planner. This process will make the board equal in thickness. As soon as you plane the board into your final thickness, then you joint one edge either by hand or by making use of a jointer. With the board flat, planed to the final thickness you are ready to rip the board to your final width. This can be done by using a saw. To set your board to the desired width you can used the edge of the board as guide. You are now close to starting your project. You will really save a lot of money by processing your own boards for your projects