Newbie question...What size to mill logs???

[jpdawg]

So what size do you guys mill lumber when you have no plans on what you are going to use it for?
I just ordered a Woodland Mills hm126 as I have roughly 150 logs to mill for personal use.  Most of the logs I have are soft maple, cherry, Ash, tulip poplar, & a few loblolly pines.  I have no real plans yet as to what to build with them all besides a few tables in the future once air dried.  I've been reading this forum for better part of a year and have great anticipation and excitement about milling my own lumber.  The knowledge that you all have in unparalleled and I've learned so much from just reading posts here.
Thanks in advance for the info.

[JoshNZ]

2x6 is good for a woodshop I think. Reasonable drying time, doesn't seem to bow/cup as much, able to be resawn on shop gear, not so narrow that jointing big table tops is a chore. But keep some slabs which you can use as slabs or cut into anything later, and some thick stuff too.

You'll know better than any of us, with what you have in mind for the timber.

[jpdawg]

How thick do you normally mill slabs? 

[alan gage]

Pretty tough call. If you cut 2x material you probably won't be able to resaw it into 1x material. If you make 1x material you definitely won't be able to resaw it into 2x material. You can resaw thinner boards out of thicker material but it will take much longer to dry (years).  Try and get a handle on what you're most likely going to build and go from there. Will it just be woodworking or will you be building structures? There are probably a lot more uses for 1x hardwood than 2x. Softwood can go either way depending on what you might need but 2x softwood is relatively cheap to buy already planed and kiln dried from the lumber yard. If you're into slabs and heavy tops then you'll want thicker material.

If the only thing you have planned is a few tables then 150 logs should hold you over for a few lifetimes. You could just cut a mix of widths and thicknesses and be covered for anything.

Alan

[Old Greenhorn]

Welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy your time here. Read around, there is a lot you can pick up from the other threads over time. I looked at your profile to try to get some hints of what your are into, what equipment you have, or what you do, but there were no clues there. A lot of information is regional so your location at least would be helpful. If you look at my profile for instance, you will learn a lot more than you wanted to know. ;D

 When I don't have a plan or a client in mind, I look at each log I mill and try to decide what it wants to be. If it has a top crotch I might think of table slabs or possibly a corner shelf unit and slab accordingly. If it is a nice straight log, as Josh said, I go at least 8/4 so they can be re-sawed later if needed for something else. If I know I am going to make a slab table or something like that, I go a little over 8/4 so their is material to plane off. If it looks like framing lumber, then I make 2x material and get out whatever 4,6,8 inch wide I can get out of the log (mill for yield).
 There are also considerations for any defects in the log, perhaps they are waste, or perhaps they add to the color/shape and can be used for 'something'. The more I mill, the more my eye learns to look for and get out of a log. I have only been at it for a year, but the learning curve is still in full swing.

 Have fun with it. Let us know a little more about you and what you are doing or what your goals are. There are a lot of very sharp folks here they can teach you some neat things if you are open to it.
Tom

[alan gage]

Another thing I'd suggest is to try and mill up a bunch of the same thing at the same time. Or at least have a place to stack each species/thickness of wood before you saw it out.

It's easy to grab something like a pine with the plan of sawing it into 2x material or posts/beams. In the process you take a few 1x boards off the outside. Now where are you going to stack these handful of 1x pine boards? If you mix them in with the 2x boards one will always be in the way of the other when you need them. If you mix them in with the poplar 1x material the same thing will happen.

The easiest thing in the world is to set them aside, planning to care for them later, while you concentrate on getting what you really wanted out of the logs. As oftentimes happens later never arrives and the 1x lumber is ruined or degraded. So try to have your ducks in a row before you really start sawing.

I think you'll find out, like the rest of us have, that sawing is, unfortunately, the easiest part of the equation. It's all the other stuff that isn't fun that takes most of your time.

Alan

[SawyerTed]

Welcome!  I try to saw a variety.  Poplars and pines I would saw maybe half to three quarters in 2x material.  The rest in 1x. Maybe some 3 1/2" for table legs and some 4x4 posts. 

The other hardwoods I would saw 4/4 and 5/4 with some 12/4 material for table legs. 

If you are new to sawmilling, there will be a percent of the first logs that will do things you didn't know lumber could do.  I have a pallet of 6 foot red oak 4/4 boards that look like ruffles potato chips. Those boards were some of the first I cut. The forum name for lumber like that is "designer firewood."  Use low value logs to learn to operate your sawmill.  Poplar is a great wood to saw for practice.  Just stack and sticker it carefully. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Alan hits on a great point in reply#5. It made me laugh because it is so spot on. There are dozens of things to take care of beyond slicing the log. I just relocated my mill and am setting up a new permanent site. Where I was before I only had one drying skid and although it was level nothing else on the work site was, so places to put lumber were a big problem. My new site I already have two stacks, one for the 2" material and one for the 5/4 I need for my current project. It's a huge difference and doubled my productivity. Simple things make a big difference and most of them have nothing to do with how you cut the log.

[SawyerTed]

I'm not sure who said it first - "sawmilling is a material handling problem with a sawmill in the middle."  Logs coming in, lumber and slabs going out.  The fewer times you touch each piece the better and the fewer steps you take the better.

Being mobile means solving those logistics problems over and over and the parameters change on every job.

[jpdawg]

You guys gave me great things to consider and plan out. I will have to work on my profile tonight to give you guys more info about me. I really appreciate all the tips so far.

[Bandmill Bandit]

I get a few logs from tree service guys a few times a year and I cut the to 1x6, 1x8, 2x6 mostly, and 2x8 all full 1/4 scale unless I have a project already in mind. Target is generaly 2x6 with the other dimensions cut out as best the log will give me. 

Isn't much you can't do with a 2x6!   

[A-z farmer]

Welcome to the forestry forum jpdawg 
I agree with everyone's answers here.I started my sawmilling journey just over a year ago.The first thing I made was thousands of stickers even cutting up whole trees for them.Then I made lumber pallets 12.5 feet long and 16.5 feet long by 50 inches wide which was 16 total.I also made sticker racks 12.5 feet long 2 feet wide so I can cut up the stickers with a chain saw .Next was the slab racks which are 12.5 feet and 16.5 feet long so I could cut up slabs for wood furnace.Milling is all about material handling and I work alone so I try to move it as few times as possible.I got all my information from reading a lot of the members posts here on the forestry forum.
Zeke

[WV Sawmiller]

    Welcome. Depends on the kind of wood as to what I will saw into stock. Remember you can always make them smaller. If pine I may saw into 2X12's and add another 1/4-1/2 inch. Then I can rip them into 2X4s, 2X6s, a 2X4 & a 2X8, etc. If you saw 9/4 you can resaw to 4/4 if not too much cupping. Good luck.

   I saw my live edge slabs at 8/4 most of the time. I could edge them into 2X framing if I get a call or need for it.

[Brad_bb]

I would not start my mill unless I had a plan for the logs I was planning to mill.  I mill a lot of beams for timberframing (all my own use).  So when that is my goal, the log will dictate what I can get out of it, but then you will also get some side lumber outside of that beam.  

So step one for material handling is to mill your first logs for pallet material and stickers.  There is a thread where I posted my pallet design and others posted theirs as well.  I build 6' and 8' pallets, and use some good hardwood salvaged 4' pallets for smaller 5' and under boards.  For my pallets I need some 4' 2x4 stringers, and 5 or 6 1x4 or 1x5's.  So I'll typically get those from 4/4 boards.  I'm using Ash because there is plenty of it available free here.  But you can use whatever makes sense for you.  I use 4/4 stickers.  Don't select you're best quality logs for pallets, but they have to be decent enough.  

Rough cutting lumber thickness is typically the number of quarters plus 1/8".  So a 4/4 board is 1.125.  A 5/4 is 1.375.  A 2x is whatever it takes for that species to end up with a true 1.5" boards after machining.  Some woods shrink and move more than others. Everybody on here seems to be about what I said for 4/4 and 5/4, but not sure what everybody does for 2x.  

I don't cut logs randomly.  I have a plan for what each log will be used for, and the log to a great extent will also dictate what it can be.  Sometimes you think you've got a beam log, and then find too many defects and it may become a board or pallet log or sticker log.  You have to have some uses in mind.  For example while I'm cutting walnut beams or brace stock, I'm saving 4/4 jacket boards as I know I will eventually accumulate enough to do flooring in my house.  Sometimes I'm greedy about leaving too much good wood in a flitch and I'll mill to get a 3/4 board.  Those will likely end up as 1/2" after drying and dressing and become drawer or cabinet parts.

The point is, you need to have things in mind before milling, and you need a plan to correctly stack and sticker your wood so it has a chance to air dry correctly.  For your table stock, you will probably need to have that thicker material kiln dried before building the table.  4/4 and 5/4 boards can get down to a useable MC in a heated shop in winter.  I have some in the shop for projects that are in the 7-8% range.  In the summer though, that MC will go back up to 12% as it gets humid in the shop.  It's beneficial to kiln dry any material for indoor use down to 6-7%.  After that though, it's preferable to keep it in climate controlled conditions so it doesn't reabsorb moisture.

[YellowHammer]

I guess I'm wondering why the OP said "personal use."  

One of the first things I did, and I'm sure many others, was mill up a few stacks of 4/4 green wood and immediately advertise and sell on Craigslist.  Free logs yielded plenty of green hardwood lumber at $0.70 per bdft.  Easy money.  

[Magicman]

I can't imagine sawing even one log without a cut list.  You gotta know where you are going before you leave home.  :

With that said, I could see a building or a shed hiding inside of those logs.  2X4's & 2X6's from the Loblolly, and 1X12, etc. siding from the Tulip Poplar. 

That would leave plenty of "project" lumber from the other species.

[jpdawg]

So a little bit of a back story on how I came into this all.   
So I've always been into woodworking, it's just awesome to see something in my mind come to a reality.
My neighbor had gotten a forest management grant so they came in and and cut mature trees down since it was a old growth forest.  Since she couldn't sell the trees she asked, knowing that I do woodworking, if I wanted any to use.  I've always been told don't look a gift horse in the mouth.  So I said sure, not realizing how many trees were cut down, got a little bit over my head but that's life.
I started with a chainsaw mill thinking that I could just mill them up however quickly realuzed that it was very slow.  Fast forward to now and finally after months of research I purchased a woodland mills hm126 with a 14 hp motor because of all the info I've read on here about horsepower.
 I was just curious as to if you do not have immediate plans for lumber what I should mill them in.  I already have pallets ready for my lumber and will definitely mill 1 species at a time then to the next and so on.
Thanks again for all the info.
 

[Woodpecker52]

never go wrong with 1 inch boards most want at a minimum 8 feet long.

[terrifictimbersllc]

1-1/4 and 2-1/8 for hardwood covers a lot of woodworking bases. 

[Tin Horse]

I'm about to start 15 red oak logs for a particular customer. These were 4' dia. plus. I had to move them with the backhoe for his hired guy to quarter then with his chainsaw just to fit my mill. Max cut for my mill is 29".
He can't or won't do a cut list, never has in the past. "Usable lumber" is the standard answer.
Makes life easy for me.

[SawyerTed]

I have a neighbor I saw for a couple of times a year.  He just wants "boards". 

I make stacks of 1x "boards" and stacks of 2x "boards". He seems to use them all up in 4 or 5 months and calls me back to make  more "boards". 

[Magicman]

The first time I sawed for a many times repeat customer, I had to learn his lingo.  4's and 6's meant exactly that; he wants 2X4's & 2X6's.  All of the rest he wants sawn into "lumber".  That means various widths of 1" lumber, whatever the log will make.  Square the cant up and saw.  Doesn't matter whatever the width is.  He calls it "farm lumber", I call it "easy sawing".