Shopsmith Forums

I've a red oak tree in my backyard that is coming down.

My brother in law has a friend with a bandsaw mill and has offered to get it cut into lumber.

The logs are between 14" and 18".

I've thought about getting some cut 1 1/4" and some 2 1/4" thick.

Any advice or thoughts about what thicknesses to ask for most appreciated.

Jim

Jim,
Consider what you might build with this oak before sizing it. If you have a bandsaw, you can always resaw the lumber later.
Whatever you do decide to cut the lumber dimensions to, please stack them with spacers between them for drying purposes.

Board thickness will depend on your requests, the sawyers abilities, and the saws capabilities.

The one recommendation I can make is to after slabbing - rotate the cant so you can get some quartersawn boards.

This is the only way I get wood, by cutting trees and having them sawed on a portable sawmill. If you intend on making mainly only furniture requiring 3/4" material there is no reason to cut them any thicker than 1" or slightly larger, for me its just a waste of good wood. Bandsaw blades will wander alot while cutting once they start getting dull. If the boards coming off are starting to get wavy make him put a new blade on. I never cut anything wider than 12" but usually stay in the 4" to 6" range for ease of working later on. As far as log length, what ever you want for a final board length add at least 6" to it. I usually cut logs around 9' just to guard against checking while drying and planer snipe and then I usually end up with 8' usable.

Be happy to give you some tips on drying if you want, just send me a PM.

Matt

BTW- if its in the yard, any chance of there being nails in it? Nails wreak havoc on bandsaw blades, more than likely he will take a metal detector to the tree before he cuts. Thats what the guy I use does, saves on blades, there rather spendy. He charges an extra $100 for hitting nails.

When buying lumber at a sawmill 4/4 is usually 1 1/8 to 5/4. That way once planed down you will end up with 3/4 to 13/16. I would get a majority of 5/4 (75% or more) It all depends on what you want to make. You can always glue up the 5/4 to get a finished size of 2". You just have to match to grain and depending on the type of finishing on the final product you won't notice the difference. The thicker it is green the more chance for cracks and checks.

One more note.
seal the end grain as soon as possible! Wax, or some kinds Letex paint will work well, The main idea behind the sealing is to slow down the drying of the wood.
As a general rule of thumb, the slower the wood drys the more stable it will be.
Also as a general rule, it takes appx. one year per inch of wood to air dry. so if you keep your wood to 4/4 or 5/4 you should have some useable wood in something like one to two years from now.

Good luck.

C.A.G.

Thanks for the input. I'll ask for 5/4 boards - and glue up as required for additional thickness.

All the best,

Jim

So you're saying that if you get your wood sawn then you're foregoing "instant gratification" for what exactly? Are there fancier/prettier wood that you can find that you can't get from mail order? Or is it a price give/take?

I was curious because there is actually a little saw mill in my town that constantly has large trunks and things out drying, and was interested in seeing if they offered to sell wood to hobbyists, but was unsure if there were any serious benefits.

Personally speaking for me its the only way I can afford this hobby. Depending on the log you can get some absolutley beautiful clear wood for very reasonable costs. On average I generally have .80 - $1.00 per bd. ft if I cut my own, or if I buy some standing from a friend I will have around $2.00 per bd.ft. invested by the time I'm done. But you get some real crappy stuff in a log too so you have to figure the average. Oak, Maple, Walnut, Pine, it doesn't matter. Been doing it this way for about 15 years now.

When you stack and sticker it don't put indoors or it will mold. Keep real close watch of it and if you see mold starting on it mix bleach and water 50/50 mix and spray the mist in front of a fan to get it in between the boards. Don't get carried away with the mist as to much will discolor the boards. When I saw for someone unless they want wide boards I don't recommend sawing wider than 12 inches and I usually like to keep them 10 inches and under to help prevent warp.