The cheapest way to buy lumber is green and rough cut from a sawmill in your area. However if you purchase the lumber while it is still fresh means it can't be used for a while. 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.

As soon as you have decided a the project you want to do and the kind of lumber you need, the next step is getting your materials. Going to a sawmill and choosing the best lumber for the project is our next step, and if you go to a sawmill you will find lumbers that are just laying around that you can choose. Green lumbers shrink when it is dried up so you might want to get something that is a little bit over sized.Since the prices of their prices are already very low asking for discount is not really necessary and if you've been a repeat customer I am sure they will give you a better deal on your next visit

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Drying the lumber will be the next thing you would want to do after bringing it home. One step is to pile your boards outside; undercover from rain and direct sun light; flat; with small (1"x1"x how ever wide your pile is) stickers spaced 12"-24" apart, between every layer of lumber (this allows air to circulate around the boards); this is called "Air-Drying." Then you allow it to air-dry for roughly one year for every 1" of thickness. This means that 1" thick boards will air-dry for one year, 2" thick boards will dry for two years, and so on. After a year you can bring the umber inside your shop to continue the process since it still has 12%-18% moisture.It is best to keep your shops RH to atleast 50% for the woods moisture to go down to atleast 8% and to do that you can use a thermometer/hygrometer to monitor from time to time

The other method of drying is to build a solar kiln. Plans for solar kilns can be found on the internet. These kilns can be built for only a couple hundred dollars. As soon as the lumber gets home you can immediately put inside the kiln to have it dried. The time it takes to dry will vary due to your location, time of year, and other things. But generally about 30-60 days in the solar kiln will dry your lumber down to 6%-8% moisture content. So it will be ready to use right out of the kiln.

After your lumber is dried you can begin processing it. First thing you have to do is joint one face of your panel. This can be done manually with a hand plane or the easy method by using a jointer. It makes things a lot easier if you cut the board down to a length close to your final needed length. The thickness planer is the next stop for that board. This is for you to have an equal thickness . Once you plane the board right down to the final dimension, you then joint one edge either 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. To set your board to the desired width you can used the edge of the board as guide. You're now almost ready to have a board for your project. You're done, and you saved tons of money by processing the rough boards yourself.