re: Milling Lumber

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I’m a little surprised to hear that the oak milling was a money pit. That’s disappointing.

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Let me clarify; I just had it milled so I could make a couple of nice furniture pieces out of it and I grew up climbing on them so it was a sentimental thing more than money. I don’t actually know if I could have sold it because that was never my intent, but live oak is a PITA and you typically don’t get a lot of long straight pieces just because of how it grows. It’s beautiful, heavy as hell and hard as a rock, but most of my pieces are 8’ and I’ll lose a bit off the ends.

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I have a pinless Wagner moisture meter and fresh cut wood reads over 36%. But after about 4-6 months it gets around 24-28% stacked with stickers under cover with some air flow. 5/4 hardwoods I have found dry roughly in 3-4 weeks to close to 10% in the kiln. I can get the temp up to 150 or so and I think at a few days I get close to sterilization. All oaks are finicky drying for me but white seems more stable. Quarter sawn is my favorite and is definitely more stable. Oak in general dries all the bad ways. Tends to crack split twist cup and warp. I just cut a little thicker and take more time and then mill it out as best I can. I am getting into wood turning and will cut a bunch of bowl blanks and see how drying goes with thick wood

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Thanks for the info. From what research I’ve done it seems pine will air dry pretty quick.

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Use it as a smoking wood for meat. It's my second favorite wood for pork.

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Really? I’ve never tried it for smoking. Burned a bunch of it…never paid any attention to the smoke….will next time. Hickory smells like bbq LOL.

Sweet gum gets a bad rap. It and its cousins are used all over the world for furniture. It used to be commonly used in the US….lot of sweet gum in antique shops. It’s similar in structure to rubber wood and bamboo….like a bundle of drinking straws. The heart wood looks a lot like walnut….not a lot of it but it is very similar in appearance only lighter in color usually. It dries poorly and that’s why it’s fallen out of disfavor but oak dries poorly and it’s about as common as pine. Its unique structure gives it incredible acoustics…very common in sound cabinets and recording studios.

My daughter has a laser and makes earrings. She loves sweet gum but only the Spalted ones. I love any wood Spalted. Sweet gum seems to spalt quicker and more thoroughly and is easy to mill

The sawmill I have is a woodland mills 130 max. So far seems to be a nice mill. I hear customer service is great but I have had no reason to call.

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sweetgum is only decent for making furniture, and sucks for anything else

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Sweet gum is used for all kinds of things. Yes it is popular as frame stock in upholstered furniture. But it also makes really good RR Ties, board road, and crane mats.

I know a guy who exports it to Mexico and they use it for tequila bottle tops.

You da man!

Update - I did a little math and that little lot has right at 14,000 board feet of loblolly pine, not to mention short leaf pines and sweetgums.

I talked to a co-worker whose son worked in a pallet mill just a short distance from the lot. The son told me that a local brick plant was paying from $15-$20 a piece for green tree pallets. I went by the brick plant this morning and confirmed and measured one they had on hand. a little under 15 board feet of lumber in each one. So green there were still squirrels living in the lumber. I also confirmed that they are currently paying $25 for pallets and will buy all I can bring them at whatever the price is when I bring them.

14,000 board feet, 15 BF a pallet and $15 a pallet is $14,000. With nails, gas and everything I ought to be able to double whatever it costs me, outside of labor, to turn those trees into pallets. I gotta get rid of them anyway so I am seriously considering doing it. If the price gets up to $25 a pallet Ima cut down all my new neighbors trees LOL. At $15 a pallet I can more than pay for a entry level mill and sell it when I am done.

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outside of labor

Might want to tighten up on this part of the equation. :)

Some famous last words if ever I’ve seen them.

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I gotta perform the labor for free or for whatever I can make off the trees. Unless I pay someone else to do it. I tend not to pay anyone else to do bupkus if I can help it....