making lumber

[duckkisser]

just wondering how many people make there own lumber both with a big mill and on a small band saw.

[bywc]

Chainsaw and bandsaw its kinda fun never know what your gonna get till you peel back all the layers last summer i found some cool looking spalted walnut in a few logs which i rescued from becoming fire wood cool stuff.

[duckkisser]

well the reason i asked is that was part of our classes lesson. i took our 14 inch band saw and cut a few stack of short lumber 1 foot long at most. kind of a pain and i need to get some new blades by the end of the midterm for the next group of kids but some of the kids were realy inturested in how different the wild wood was.

[TheNehlsEnd]

Haven't done a lot of lumber making with the exception of a couple of fruit tree trunks and a couple of pecan logs. Doing this on a 14" band saw I let the wood dry well before cutting. Its a slow process but have had some nice lumber for small projects.

[duckkisser]

you let the log dry first? we have been cuting semi wet and leting it dry in boards. is this the correct way or should i stack logs in a corner for a few months?

[rmason]

you let the log dry first? we have been cuting semi wet and leting it dry in boards. is this the correct way or should i stack logs in a corner for a few months?

I would say that this is the correct procedure. If you dry the log first, you will often get checks and that will cause a loss of lumber. Of course boards will dry faster than logs too.

[dwacker]

you let the log dry first? we have been cuting semi wet and leting it dry in boards. is this the correct way or should i stack logs in a corner for a few months?

With a bandsaw you should let the logs mostly dry first. Its not the "right" tool for the job to begin with but resawing rough lumber with a little 14" bandsaw is tough on blades and the machine, besides all that wet sawdust rusting up the bearings and mechanicals. It will dry much faster if you cut it up first but Id switch to a carbide blade if your going to be cutting wet wood on a regular basis and of course use compressed air to clean up the wet mess.

Don