The cheapest way to buy lumber is green and rough cut from a sawmill in your area. Your home improvement projects will need to wait for a while if these is the lumber you have intended to use, because this lumber needs to be dried out first. Your alternatives are to buy dried and dimensioned lumber from distributors or places like Home Depot. These paths are great if your wallet is thick, and you need the boards immediately. I prefer to go with rough cut and prepare it myself.
Once you decide what projects you are going to attempt, and what species you plan to use, you can begin the process. The first thing you need to do is procure the materials. This is a matter of locating a local sawmill and asking if they have any lumber of the species and quality you need. Chances are that they will have a pile lying around somewhere that you can sort through and take your pick of the boards. But remember this, "green lumber will shrink while drying!" So make sure you pick stock that is a little over sized.You should find that the price you pay here will be very good, so don't try to haggle the price down. If they like you and you become a repeat customer they will probably give you even better deals later on.
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After you get your lumber home, you'll need to decide on how you will dry it. One of the ways to dry your green lumber is by piling the lumbers under the sun but making sure that it is protected from the rain you have to also make sure that every layer is 12"-24" apart Each 1" thick board will take a year to dry up so if you have like a 4" thick board it takes 4 years. After a year you can bring the umber inside your shop to continue the process since it still has 12%-18% moisture.However since most workshops has low humidity it is advisable for you to purchase a thermometer/ hygrometer that costs around $40 at radio shack so you could monitor the humidity on your shop . The ideal would be 50%RH .
Using a solar kiln is one way of drying your green lumber, so if you don't have it yet the plans is downloadable online. These kilns can be built for only a couple hundred dollars. The green lumber can be placed immediately inside the solar kiln for it to start drying. Drying the lumber can sometimes depend on your location and the temperature however it usually takes 30-60 days to have it dried or reach the 6%-8% moisture to make it ready for use.
As soon as the lumber is all dried up you can now make it ready for your project. The very first thing you want to do is joint one face of your plank. This can be done by hand by using a hand plane or the quick way by having a jointer. You may now cut it in close to the dimensions that you need. And then you can run the lumber through the thickness planer. This is for you to have an equal thickness . As soon as you plane the board into the final dimension, afterwards you joint one edge perhaps by yourself or with a jointer. Cutting the board to the final width is the next process after you have planed the it to your desired thickness. You can do this with a table saw, band saw, or even a skill saw with an edge guide. Just set your fence or edge guide to the desired width and use the jointed edge of the board as a reference. After you have cut the final measurement you can now start building your project. You will really save a lot of money by processing your own boards for your projects

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