OK, so I have run out of places to store and dry wood. What do I do now? Sell my saw? Seems like life will come to an end if I cant cut more wood. :-)
The real question is; When you run out of storage, what do you do?
Saw more lumber to build more storage 8) :) :)
If you can't cut more wood.......yes life will come to an end. :D You will feel yourself wilting away little by little. The lights will start to get dim and you will see a bright light at the end. Then your memories of saw dust are gone. They will put you in a special home where you sit there and chew your tongue. You will have flash backs when you see a tooth pick on your dinner tray. Vey sad! :'(
Are you advertising your wood for sale or are you secretly hoarding it?
Not being able to be portable apparently has it's disadvantages. How about doing some custom sawing where the customer brings the logs to you or maybe sawing some specialty stuff like burls?
There are niche markets.
What about just starting to use your wood?
Stack it outdoors (up off the ground) and cover it.
Start making stuff with some of it.
Being a portable sawyer myself, I only have around 200 bf of lumber on hand.
sell...sell....sell.. the wood that is!
i have the opposite problem right now, lots and lots of logs /firewood too to go get, last storm dumped 8-12 inches of Snow and it isnt melting very fast. dosnt help i have a 2 wd one wheel wonder either!
saw logs are at the farm!
if you cant sell, find more places to stash the stash!
I tell prospective sawmillers they will eventually mill more lumber than they can ever use. I suggest two things:
First buy a used mill. When you are buried in lumber you can sell the mill to the next guy.
Second, realize that commercial sawmills lose money on the majority of what they mill. The way they stay in business is to be carefully tuned to the tiny sliver of high value production. The rest is just volume to get rid of.
Lumber is like any other product. It is worth what someone is willing to pay. If you are spending money to store and handle worthless material (and I am certain that you are)....your mistake.
I have the affliction as well. I store lots of lumber (worthless included). I like lumber wrap for outdoor storage. Lumber is shelf stable to a point. I also know that I will end up drowning in junk if I keep it around.
Bottom line: As Mr. Shelbycharger says..."Sell! Sell! Sell!" It is a step forward in the process of becoming a sawyer to realize where the value is and where it is not!
Respectfully submitted.
Kderby
I have had a similar experience. I did build more storage area but eventually that filled. I then started high grading. Realizing that the warped hardwood is not likely to sell, look for a friend that builds jewlery boxes or small items and give to him or trade for labor etc. You could also cut the warped stuff into straight smaller pieces and put on Craigs list. It is good to join a local wood working club. Many woodworkers are frugal and would not take time to buy wood off of craigs list. But they get interested if you bring some to club and they see it.
Also, what kind of wood do you have and are there any upcoming projects planned? It will supprise you how much wood a project will take if there is some loss due to warpage and defects.
Stopping sawing is probably not a good option if you are like the rest of us where we "found our purpose" (Forest Gump) in sawmilling. :) :)
Actually your inventory situation is what put me into the portable sawing business. I either had too much, not enough, wrong species, wrong length, wrong dimension, etc.
I can see how having too much lumber can easily become a problem. I don't even have a mill (yet) and I'm covered up with Walnut, Cherry, ERC and Pine lumber. I have more beetle-killed Pine to cut on my place and one large dead Hickory. In addition, a good friend has offered some of his dead Red Oaks and Post Oaks (drought casualties) and I'm going Tuesday to saw and fetch them.
I just can't stand to see good trees rot away when they can be sawn into something useful. I'm currently using up the Pine lumber on a 10 x 20 storage building and I'll eventually get around to the Walnut and Cherry for furniture projects. Like you, however, storage is the big problem.
I'm building a side shed onto another side shed to store more lumber. Not a problem, got plenty of lumber. The building started as a 30' x 30'. With this 12' add on it will be 30' x 64'. Then I can saw more lumber. See I don't have a sawdust problem.(addiction)
Quote from: Chuck White on March 04, 2012, 11:12:26 AM
I only have around 200 bf of lumber on hand.
Can you ever have too much lumber ??? :D :D. I only have about 17,000 BF, so I need to saw some more oak ;D. (A man has to have sheds......)
Thats Simple Stop Hoarding it And Start Selling it Mate ;) :) :D :D 8) 8) You will need never to part with your mill then ;):) 8) 8) 8)
Quote from: WDH on March 04, 2012, 08:27:42 PM
(A man has to have sheds......)
Did you see my new shed? :)
I did and I commented on it. You are a poster child for the "A man has to have sheds" philosophy ;D.
Build something. I thought I had too much lumber stacked up too. But when I started using it on my barn the stacks went down pretty fast. In fact, I kind of like nailing it up green, right off the mill. I can skip the sticking, stacking process. LOL.
Quote from: WDH on March 04, 2012, 08:50:40 PM
I did and I commented on it. You are a poster child for the "A man has to have sheds" philosophy ;D.
I know you commented on it.... :D Just wanted to get my shed mentioned in another thread. :D :D :D
Your right....a man gotta have sheds!!!! :)
sheds isn't that topic in the outdoor section?
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Sell it or use it. Maybe you need to work on your marketing strategy. You could end up with all kinds of money if you sell your lumber. Then you could buy stuff! Like... more logs.
Stop sawing, keep the saw, and start marketing. Personally I hate marketing >:(. Fortunately marketing gets easier after you've done it for a while.
Unfortunately, many people are either good at producing, or good at marketing, but not both. I mean, unfortunately for them. If marketing isn't your strong suit, see if you have a family member or friend who is better at it than you are. They can either help you accomplish it or at least give you some pointers as to how to go about it. Of course, we can give you some pointers on here, too.
Too much lumber....hmmmmm...I ain't never thought of that. :D
I agree with MM , go portable, sawdust addiction is fed, and no lumber to store or mess to clean up or dispose of.
Build portable storage buildings with the wood, that you can sale, or store more lumber in! Or both! Or sale portable building filled with woods!
Quote from: Overlength on March 05, 2012, 12:53:17 PM
Build portable storage buildings with the wood, that you can sale, or store more lumber in! Or both! Or sale portable building filled with woods!
Oh, that might be the best idea yet!
Quote from: red oaks lumber on March 04, 2012, 10:17:14 PM
sheds isn't that topic in the outdoor section?
I think it's in all the sections. :D
Thanks for shedding some light on this topic.
I shed have built a bigger one :).
Shed I, or shed'nt I.
No matter how hard we try, we can't get shed of it...
Herb
I don't give a shed!!!.... but I would take a shed ;D
If anybody gets too much wood, just let me know when you have a truckload's worth you don't want!
too much lumber is as bad or worse than not enough...with the mill down, all the lumber I have on hand is high val stuff...red and white oak for some particular projects..when what I really need is pine siding and battens...
oh bugger.
that being said..attractive three and four rail fence eats up a buttload of lumber in a hurry.
I shed'nt think that you would have any problem finding some pine.
I've heard it shed before, bigger cover is better.
Just remember to keep it klean or Jeff might send it to the wood shed!
Herb
You shed get your mind out of the gutter. Bigger, or more covered space is better, or so its been shed.
I've got lots of lumber, but my problem is it's all hardwoods, and it kills me to use it for low-value things like pallets and buildings that softwood would be better suited for :'( I do use some of it up every now and then, but it's still sad every time :D
When I grew up, Grandpa and his youngest son on the farm built everything using walnut lumber. The farm had a lot of walnut trees that they would sell some logs, ending up with the upper logs that they had sawn into lumber. The lumber ended up in cattle gates, portable hog houses, sheds, etc and have to admit was cheaper than lumber from the local yard.
Magicman built a whole deck out of cherry.
There was a thread a while back, with pics, showing how to build frames and a top for your wood pile, my sheds are full and planning to use those plans to make a stack outside. Looking forward to being able to use the skidsteer to stack it. Humping it up into a pile in a barn is tough. I started doing this to supply my wood addiction, figured if I sawed my own wood, could afford to build projects. Used to be particular with wood, cutting around defects, but have found sawing my own wood, there are no perfect boards. So I just put the defects front and center.