What's the best length boards for sale to the public ?

[chainsaw_louie]

I have two premium 28" white oak logs that I am cutting into boards on my Lucas 8 mill, many will be quarter-sawn.

The width will be the maximum I can cut,  8.25" ,   thickness is 5/4 .

The logs are 13.5'  and  15.5' long ,  I cant really manage to create a flat stack that long so I thought I'd cut the boards  to about  7.5'  and 5.5' .

Is there any preference or industry standard for selling hardwood lumber ?  When is a board too short or too long ?
!

[Ljohnsaw]

Did you mean 7.5 and 6.5? Basically cutting the the logs in half? 

When it comes to making furniture and such, random lengths and widths is fine in hardwood. I wish I had any hardwood to cut out here!

[doc henderson]

Lowes and places will have 8-foot-long pallets to stack on.  If you can come close to that for the majority of boards, then go shorter as you go up.  do you have a buyer.  If someone wanted trim such as baseboard, then the longer lengths would be helpful.  I have skids at 42 inches deep.  6 foot 2 inches long, and 9 foot 2 inches long.  I may make a 12-foot 2 inch long.  you can always make it shorter and thinner, but not the other way around.

[chainsaw_louie]

8' skids for free , I like that idea !

I've always made a base of cinder blocks on ground , then two long 8x8" posts , then 4x4" cross members every 24" finally boards.  Maybe this is overkill, 8' pallets sure sounds easier. 

[doc henderson]

you should ask, but they let me have all I want.  they cannot be the ones painted yellow or blue, as those are returnable, for Quick-rete and heavy stuff that needs heavy duty.  these are pallets as they have bottom boards, and my skids, have no bottom boards, but all the spaces between the supports are the same (18 inches apart) so you can stack one on the other.  do you have a tractor to lift the pallet?  You can just use then to stack wood up off the ground with stickers.  I also get the boards made to support strapping under stuff, with the grove for strapping.  



 

Here is about 450 BF of cedar on a 9-foot 2-inch skid.  I have a thread on how to sticker individual logs, all the same width and length.  

save, saw, sweep, stack, sticker, secure, and dry one log at a time in Drying and Processing (forestryforum.com)

[cutterboy]

louie, 8' is the most common but any length is ok. I sell a lot of 5 and 6 foot lumber.

[jpassardi]

The ideal length will be whatever length you don't cut them...
If you have stacks of 10's and 12's - they'll need 8's  :

[Joe Hillmann]

I personally would cut them 8'6"

If for no other reason than that is what people tend to expect.  And if the lumber ends up not being furniture quality lumber, a 8' board will have a lot more uses than a 7'6" board.

[SawyerTed]

I'm in the 8' plus trim minimum group.  

With that said there's not much 8' furniture if your target customers are furniture builders.  They are used to 8' lengths but may only need 4' or 5' lengths.  

My only problem with shorter than 8' is clamping on the mill takes more time and can require fiddling on a hydraulic mill. Manual mills have an advantage there. 

[GAB]

I was once told by a sawmill and kiln owner that he could sell 4, 5, & 6' cherry or walnut all day.  Other species there was very little market for.
GAB

[Ron Wenrich]

I don't see the need to cut the boards to any length right now.  That gives you the ability to trim to what the customer wants when they come in.  If they want an 8' board, you can cut it off the 15.5 pile and have a 7' board or the 13.5 pile and have a 5' board.  It will probably be less wasteful, both in time and fiber.

Why can't you make a stack that long?  I worked in one mill where we made bunks of 6x6 spaced every 2 ft and put stickered bundles on top of that.  We could put 8 bundles on a bunk.  That was at a commercial level, but the same concept can be used using smaller skids and keeping things at a 2' width to place your sticker support.  For smaller stacks, we did that using 3x4s, which was our standard skid made from low grade lumber. 

Instead of trying to stack and sticker at the mill, sticker where you want your stack to be and build your stack there. 

[Bruno of NH]

I have no problems moving short boards of hardwood or pine.
A couple times of year I spend a week sawing short logs 
The inventory goes fast 
I just sold a bunch today and someone is stopping tomorrow for 2 lots of 6' pine
I saw it all shorts make money 

[doc henderson]

yes, if I develop a cant, I saw all the way through and then tether the ends with twine and a slip knot, to move the cut-up cant in mass, then I can sticker them in reverse by flipping each board over as I stack it to a maintain the order.  as in my thread.

[Brad_bb]

So if your logs are "Premium" grade logs, then I'd want to reverse roll quarter saw them.  Sounds like you can't do that on your mill.  I have taken some of my premium oak logs to another sawyer with a LT50wide with hydraulics and taught them RRQS on the fly.  But then, I don't sell any wood, it was just for me.  I thought it was worth it though.  

As far as length, I have been using material pallets that we've received materials on during construction, which are 12 feet, and cutting them down to 8 feet long, and adding extra stringers  as needed.  Most of the time they come with stringers on 14 or 15 inch centers, but sometimes further apart.  The pallets are 46"wide or less, so two would fit on an 8 foot wide trailer deck.  I screw stickers to the pallet on 12" centers.

I also make pallets 6 feet long, and 4 feet long(standard 40x48 pallet).  I cut boards to 8'3", 6'3", and 4'3".  If you have boards in between like 7' boards, you can stagger them on a layer on an 8' pallet.  Yes you lose some capacity due to some spaces, but it works.

When the whole thing gets 34" high, I strap the stack and let it air dry.  34" because that is what I can lift and load without difficulty.  After air drying, I tighten the straps and haul the stacks to another guy's Nyle kiln.  His available opening is 22' So I can put 2 8'ers, and one 4'er, or one 8'er and two 6'ers on a layer.  I can stack up to 89" high in his kiln, so that's two layers of pallets, plus 20" high pallets if I want.  

So consider your whole process.  A trailer bed dictates the width of my pallets, my forklift determines the max height of my pallet, and the kiln I'm using dictates with the combination of lengths of my pallets.  I try to cut my standard board lengths 3" over for trim after drying/surfacing.

I take my material from the kiln directly to another shop that surfaces and straight line rips one edge of my material making it S3S.  By doing that, I can load my trailer for part of the next kiln cycle, then take material coming out of the kiln to the shop for S3S'ing, then take what he has done home.  Then do it again.

Turning 12' pallets into 8' pallets.


 

Air dried stacks ready to go to kiln.


 

[doc henderson]

nice pallets. ;)

[Sixacresand]

If you are dealing with finished slabs or benches, the late WDH said they should be short enough to fit in a woman's SUV.   

[Bruno of NH]

If you are dealing with finished slabs or benches, the late WDH said they should be short enough to fit in a woman's SUV.  

That's how most of my shorts leave the yard

[Old Greenhorn]

Care to rephrase that Bruno? :D Or did I just read that wrong? ;D

[doc henderson]

something about Bruno leaving the yard in his shorts, with woman in her SUV??????????   :D :D :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, that's how I read it.

[Nebraska]

I thought Bruno's shorts were leaving with the women in the  SUV.....of course he's not the only one to loose his shorts sawing.....

[Bruno of NH]

My 6' and under lumber usually exits in an SUV or Honda Ridgeline  :D
With a woman at the wheel
Last week it was a Jeep Gladiator pick-up if you want to call it that 

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah Bruno, but I'm still confused. What happened to your shorts and why did they leave in a woman's SUV (apparently along with some lumber), or didn't they?

[beenthere]

I thought Bruno's shorts were leaving with the women in the  SUV.....of course he's not the only one to loose his shorts sawing.....

Are his shorts loose or did he lose them?  There is a difference.  ;)

[ladylake]

I'd cut the small end at 8' 6"  and QS the big end.   Steve

[chainsaw_louie]

 

 I started cutting the 13'3" board into 7'8" and 5'7" but then I realized I'd have an un-even stack which wouldn't support the next log's boards.

  So I divided the length into 3 and cut at the 2/3 length that gave full length and half lengths which stacked into an even pile.  

The boards I cut first to the odd length kept the pile uneven on top.   Live and learn.