Making Good Lumber Is Not Easy

[Rhodemont]

Most of my sawing has been fence posts and boards and a step up for run in sheds.  Very good surface finish, dimensions, and clear boards is not a real big need for these uses.  I have now been trying to learn to make quality lumber, timbers and framing and sheathing boards for an up coming barn build. It is proving to be rather challenging.  Watching YellowHammer and other's videos and reading has been helpful but things go south anyway: logs that look grade 'A' often have defects; sawing has an infinite number of issues, operator skill and equipment based; stacking and drying; and just plain paying attention to details.  Each day I encounter something and many times I have not learned because I had encountered it before.  I am sure there will be many more. 

[SawyerTed]

You speak the truth!  

Any yahoo can cut up a log into pieces.

It takes knowledge, experience, attention to detail and lots of work to make quality lumber.  

In time it will come together, sticking with it and evaluating what you've done leads to better results.  I found concentrating on the process from beginning to end, one step at a time helped me.  

Focusing on log quality first then working with those logs through the process is what helped me. 

I remember those first boards and how poorly they dried.  They were cut from firewood logs and not very well stacked.  All but a couple went in the wood stove. One is a shelf in the kitchen for the cookbooks 

[Crossroads]

I've fallen into a trap where most of my business is mobile, so I teach the customer to stack and sticker then Leave when the job is finished. It's like I have unlimited space to stack lumber. This winter I did quite a bit of custom milling on my place and quickly ran out of space for the side lumber that wasn't part of the order. Slabs are another space eater. Each year I get a little more organized as I learn what I didn't know that I needed to learn 😁

[WV Sawmiller]

X-Road,

   The slab storage is one item that bit me in the butt so I recently built bins and have started storing them vertically. That seems to be working real well. I just need to move the rest into place next week.


 

[Crossroads]

Those bins are a great idea! The slabs that I was referring to though are the scraps. I don't have a lot of hardwood in my area and mill mostly Doug Fir beams and lumber. I'm trying to make some firewood, but can't keep up, so I'll end up building a bin fire in a couple weeks to get caught up. 

[moodnacreek]

Sawing good lumber starts at the stump. Knowing how to fell without splitting the butt log, bucking out sawlogs putting the defects on the end of the log not in the middle or better yet cutting them out and leaving them in the woods. There are plenty of bad logs in the woods but many insist on making more.         On the sawmill it is about tapering and turning and knowing what not to cut from that log. The end splits on the log need to go a certain way. Most times thin boards are taken just under the slab and the thick cuts farther inside while trying  to keep the heart in the center until the end. On other logs all this is ignored, only experience will teach this. The real work is in the drying and handling and many ruin their well sawn lumber here.

[YellowHammer]

If it was easy, everybody would do it.  However, I still learn all the time.

[Don P]

If you use board sheathing it gives a low grade backup plan. You only need so much 2x blocking on a job  :D.
I hate it when I've made 2 or 3 boards of blocking before my light kicks on, this log isn't framing.

[fluidpowerpro]

I bought my first mill in 2005 but it was not until I found this forum that I realized how much I didn't know. I am finally starting to actually cut good lumber, not just wood of x dimension. I have also learned about the importance of good stacking and everything that follows. I can't stress enough that the knowledge shared freely on this forum is of great value and for that I am truly thankful.

[Brad_bb]

Build lumber pallets. Have weight to put on lumber pallets. Don't be greedy and cut idling flogs when cutting lumber. By the same token don't cut odd length boards. Also trim your logs square before milling. I am going through stacks of side wood right now that were stickered and air drying. I'm putting them on lumber pallets and trimming them to length and square. If I had done that to the log beforehand I wouldn't have to trim it square now.  I'm using other lifts of lumber for weight right now, but I'm about to make some 3 1/2 inch thick concrete weights 4' x 8'. About 1500 pounds each. If you are cutting for beams, familiarize yourself with grading beams, and know what you're going to use each one for. Posts are much more forgiving of defects than horizontal beams.

[Cedarman]

I can teach a new sawyer how to run the mill in a day.  I tell them they will still be learning to saw cedar a year from now.  I want them to keep their head in the game by letting them know there are huge variables in cedar logs.  

[jpassardi]

This forum and the information sharing has been a great help for my milling abilities.
What has also benefitted me is that my Father was a Carpenter and I've been working with wood since I was young. I went to a tech HS for Carpentry and learned more from great teachers which started with hand tools and understanding how wood behaves.
I stack/stickered lumber I had other mills cut long before ever having a mill.
Like most anything in life, the minute you think you know everything is when you close your mind to learning better ways.

[Rhodemont]

All replies are taken to heart:  
Moodna you laid out the overall picture well for us who have the ambition to go from stump to build.  I dropped two big Northern Red Oak today planning for 8x12 beams...darn, a 3 foot long 2 inch by 4 inch pulled out of the butt from the hinge...dang it!

YellowHammer, I used the same exact quote for at least 30 years of my working carrier.

Brad, point taken, I do not put enough weight on the stack and am working on a plan for that. 

Don, believe it or not I am getting the ash to sit pretty dang flat when sawing 1x.

Lesson of the day:  Pith wood, oak or as and probably most everything else, can only be in a column for build, otherwise it needs to be in a fence post or a 4x4  to be sold for pallets.  Gotta work around it.