The cheapest way to buy lumber is green and rough cut from a sawmill in your area. Because the lumber is still fresh you need to dry it for a while before you can use it for your projects. 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.

If you already have project in mind you may then plan for the materials you will need. 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. You might also want to pick a lumber that is a little bit bigger because lumbers shrink when dries up.The prices of the lumber in the sawmill are really affordable so there is really no need for you to ask for more discount but if you've been a frequent customer they might be the one who will offer it to you.

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After bringing the green lumber home you will then need to dry it. Air drying is on of the ways to dry you green lumber this is done by piling your boards directly under the sun but protected from the rain 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. The moisture content of the lumber after it was air dried is 12% - 18% still wet to use but you can now bring it inside your workshop for the rest of the air drying process.The ideal RH of your shop should b 50% for the lumber to dry down to 8% moisture and for you to be able to monitor the humidity you can purchase the rmometer/hygrometer from radio shack that will cost you around $40

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. To dry the lumbers you need to leave it inside the kiln for approximately 1-2 months for it to be ready for use. However it will often times depend on your location, the season and etc.

After your lumber is dried you can begin processing it. The first thing you must do is joint one face of the board. You can do this by hand by using a hand plane or the uncomplicated way with a jointer. It makes things a lot easier if you cut the board down to a length close to your final needed length. And in order for you to have a uniform thickness you may now run through a thickness planer. This is for you to have an equal thickness . When you finally plane the panel right down to the final size, you then joint one edge perhaps by hand or by using a jointer. As soon as the board is planed you can now cut it to the final width. You can use any kind of saw to do this. Using the jointed for reference you can now set your board to your desired width. You're now almost ready to have a board for your project. You will really save a lot of money by processing your own boards for your projects