Milling your own lumber

All well and good to use your lumber from your damaged trees, but do you have the room to store them to dry?

Air drying lumber stick stacked is a long process, especially in our climate of high humidity.

Then once it's dried, do you have the tools to mill this wood true, and planes big enough to finish the boards and turn it into useable lumber for finished projects?

Oh, and if you do decide to do this, be sure to paint the end grain of each slab when you stack it to dry to help limit splitting as the wood dries.

Storage shouldnt be an issue i can space them out in the rafters of my shop. Luckily father in laws a carpenter and he has a 24" planer. Do you know how long the dry period takes on on cypress down here? Or would i just need to keep testing it untilbi get the right moisture contenet?

Look up router sled on youtube to plane larger pieces of lumber.

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Luckily father in laws a carpenter and he has a 24" planer.

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Do you know how long the dry period takes on on cypress down here?

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I've been building some things with some 4/4 cypress I was given. First, you need a jointer to flatten a board. A planer will just spit out thinner boards with the same bends and twists. You can make some jigs to flatten a board with a planer, but you'll be spending 5x's as long doing it.

As far as drying time, the wood I used was kept in a shed with a de-humidifier for over a year and there's still a good bit of movement in it when I mill it. I really only use it for projects that don't require precise squareness, etc..

Drying depends on where your going to use it? outdoors or in a climate controlled interior.

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there's still a good bit of movement in it when I mill it.

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I've had the same issue with cypress from time to time. Get a nice, straight looking 1 x 6 S4S when I'm done on the jointer and go to make rails and stiles for doors.

Put the board through the table saw and watch as the piece being cut starts to look like I'm bending a bow as it comes past the blade.

in the 1970 period , my grandmothers cypress water tank was taken down providing a truck load of 100 year old cooperage cypress planks. the bottom was made out of 3inch by eighteen inch wide planks. Made a great fireplace mantle and a coffee table.

not a bit of rot in the wood

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You can make some jigs to flatten a board with a planer, but you'll be spending 5x's as long doing it.

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It’s not as fast as a jointer but it’s not that bad. Pack of shims, a melamine board for a sled and a glue gun work well.

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What kind of drying time would you have for 4x6 and 4x4’s for pine?

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Depends on what you're trying to do with them. You can dry pine pretty quick if it's properly sticked and under a shed with a couple of cheap box fans from Walmart. 30 to 45 days depending on the weather.

But remember if you're talking about square timbers for building a shed you are going to be putting them in the ground. So they need some sort of treatment. Get them as dry as possible. And then soak them in Diesel Fuel and Motor Oil. They drier they are they more they will soak up.

Then when you dig your holes you want to use a lot of concrete. Pour a concrete base in the holes first. Let that set up and then set your posts directly on that. Then completely encase your posts in a second pour. So that there is no actual contact between your posts and the dirt and moisture of the ground.

But once you figure the time and cost of doing this, it's cheaper to just bite the bullet and go to the lumber store and get some treated 4x6s and be done with it.

Wow we are doing some wood stacking in Natchez. I moved here 4.5 years and just put together a small dehumidification kiln. I have dried about 2000 bd ft and I think I can really make decent lumber. So far I have had someone with a portable sawmill cut for me. He charges only.35 a board foot. Buuut I ordered and am waiting on stihl’s largest saw 881. I am getting a granberg mill in both the 48 inch and the 70 inch model. I will give an update when I get this put together. I have possible 60 plus inch cypress stumps and a huge 60 inch diameter white oak to mill. I will let you know how it goes. For logs 30 inch and under I will call Craig Forman to slice and dice. Much cheaper and I know better quality for dimensional lumber. You need a real saw for a real Alaskan mill I feel. I have access to a lot of different wood doing it this way. Drying as stated above is the key to real lumber