Rough Sawn Lumber Sizes?

[whittle1]

Just curious what widths you are cutting SYP to off the sawmill to end up with a
 5 1/2" board after Kiln dried and edged. I recently cut to 6" wide and will go to 6 1/2 in the future. A couple problems I had was the few boards that had even a small amount of sweep would not clean up. The other was when edging on the sawmill stacking eight 1" boards the blade was just skim cutting, still cut straight but blowing sawdust all over me.
Do you cut wide enough to allow for some sweep or just cut those down to a narrower width? 

[beenthere]

Sweep?? There is bow or crook in lumber (also twist). Bow is flatwise bending, and Crook is edgewise bend (which you may calling sweep) in warped lumber. 

The cutting pattern made when sawing a log along with the annual rings, location of pith, sweep, and growth stresses in a log will all have an effect on the lumber sawn from the logs. A lot to take into account when answering your question. 

[barbender]

You can figure for shrinkage, depending on beginning and final MC. Iirc, 6% or 3/4" per 12"

As Beenthere said, you can orient grain with your sawing technique to minimize crook, but it's kinda tough to predetermine how much you'll end up with (and how much wider you'll need to saw) except by experience.

[Jeff]

And...It all starts with the logs. Straight logs, centered heart, straight grain and little taper makes straight lumber with proper saw set up. Any deviation of those things can and probably will require the sawyer to make production adjustments to minimize loss.

[barbender]

Jeff, I was just sharing a few tips with a buddy and fellow sawyer. He had some tamarack on deck. I told him that I think log selection is more important with tamarack than any other species. If it has sweep, a big root flare, or a lot of taper, tamarack lumber will mirror what is on the outside of the log more closely than anything else I've sawn. Those root flares can make hockey sticks!

[GAB]

If you cut an 18' long board with sweep in it into 4 equal lengths you will not notice the sweep as much.  Then you will have material for building bird housing.
GAB

[KWood255]

Jeff, I was just sharing a few tips with a buddy and fellow sawyer. He had some tamarack on deck. I told him that I think log selection is more important with tamarack than any other species. If it has sweep, a big root flare, or a lot of taper, tamarack lumber will mirror what is on the outside of the log more closely than anything else I've sawn. Those root flares can make hockey sticks!

Tamarack is arguably the most frustrating species we have to mill here 

[Jeff]

Agreed, but I love it! 

[Jeff]

The boards want to do what the grain has already done is probably as simple as it could be looked at.

[Magicman]

Note that whittle1 is sawing SYP framing lumber such is what I saw virtually every sawing day.  (Over 24Mbf this year.)  He is kiln drying and edging which puts me out of the conversation because my lumber gets neither. 

I orient the log to control sweep which tends toward bow.  I oversize depending upon the dryness of the logs.