3 LUMBER MILLING MISTAKES

[@r.b.l.5841]

yupp re-store latex paint is cheap and works if you put a few coats.My motto "coat the logs ends before the saw is cold"Use different colours for each calendar year and track the colours on a chart for each season and you will know right away how long the board has been drying by the colour on the end!

[@rorschacht8478]

That's genious.

[@mateoboschify]

I use Anchorseal for almost all the wood I process on my sawmills. I take care prior to end coating to cut away any checking that might already be in place on the board and then soak it in anchorseal. Keeping your stickers exactly to the end of the board is a good idea as mentioned before. My end result is that I have dried boards of uniform length with clean, square edges, and checking while drying is almost nonexistent.

[@cujero]

Pual sellers is definitely the real deal

[@billyproctor9714]

Thank you for sharing you experiences with us. First off I don't see the need to spend $30. a Gal. for and end sealer. Yes it may be blended to be optimum but old use paint, grease or engine oil will go a long way to slowing the egress of water threw the end grain, even if you have to put a second coat on after a few months.The board are best stored under cover, in a building and out of the weather. The boards are best dried slowly when air drying. The more moisture that comes out threw the side grain the tighter the wood will be. You talked about hand planning your wood, You dad never talked about "Time is Money"? Hand planing is great for one or two boards and bragging rights but that's it. If you really want to be a be a purest why not use a hand rip saw to make your wood? This wood that is exposed to the outside has been covered in dust, now that plane that you spent time sharpening is in trouble. Would you take it and make a few strokes across a sheet of 150 grit sandpaper, I grantee that your rough wood that was out doors is impregnated with all kinds of dirt and sand that will take the keen off your blade quick..The last comment I have is on your cracks that appear and get worse. I think they look like "shake" and "tear out" to me. This is caused by bad falling methods, the breaking hinge is not formed properly and small cracks appear that get worse as the log dries. Long straight cracks are usually indicative of this problem. Hope this is helpful to you, only meant as constructive input, Bill in Canada

[@mokenetgumshoe1064]

Billy Proctor Sure helped me Bill, ya big lug. Keep woodin'!

[@matthewolson8875]

I use latex paint to cover the ends of the logs as soon as I get the logs on my yard. The tree guys that fell the trees can't be bothered with sealant. ....so I gotta do it asap when the logs get dropped off. I use pretty much anything on the bargain shelf at the depot. who cares what the color is lol. seems to work, probably not as good as anchor seal, but its something.

[@stefanodogg280]

I use both and here in the PNW using it on whole logs it almost always spalts the log and can actually rot birch and such in 1 year. Works great

[@TheOldJarhead]

I always use anchor seal on the log ends after felling and bucking for the mill and advise my customers to do the same. With the pith, try to raise the small end of the log so the pith is the same height on both ends of the log before taking the first slab cut. Then when building a CANT or slabbing just be sure to 'box the heart' in one of the lumber pieces or a beam if you can't get FOHC beams.

[@CTSCAPER]

Thanks for the great tips!

[@TheOldJarhead]

@@CTSCAPER Any time! I love seeing others doing what we do and helping others!

[@TheOldJarhead]

@@CTSCAPER Almost forgot! The cracks on the end are called 'checks' or 'end checking' (you may know that already) in case you've heard guys like me talk about checking on our vids :D

[@WILSON.1]

One other thing I've learned (I don't think was mentioned, forgive me if it was) is to make sure your end stickers are as close to the end of the board as possible. Any checking tends to stop wherever the first sticker is.

[@edsmith4414]

Latex paint works about as good as Anchorseal and is much cheaper. The center of a log (the pith) is junk that normally is sold to pallet shops to make cheap lumber for pallets. The reason you see them in store 6x6s is because they make lumber out of tiny "trees".....same reason you see the tree center in about 75% of a bundle of framing studs.....they are down to cutting crap for trees. The board you saw that was split all to pieces, but not near the tree center was either wind shake (seen often in hemlock) or the sawyer damaged the tree by not cutting it almost thru, and the 'hinge' pulled the wood.

[@ldwithrow08]

I've sealed lumber ends with plain cheap latex paint. Anything on sale does fine. The only difficulty if if you are going to use it for furniture or something that you want to keep the wood appearance. For rough building lumber it's fine. Otherwise, I just use melted parafin.

[@williejohnson5172]

I used Elmer yellow wood glue to seal the ends. Definitely box the pith. The pith board is definitely going to crack right down the middle. But that's ok. Now you got two exceptional quatersawn boards.

[@PeacefulCountryLife]

I appreciate you adding the text with the mistakes :) Good vid! :)

[@markcotter4213]

Complete one thing before moving to the next?!?! My wife keeps talking about this myth.......but I don't think it's a real thing!

[@CTSCAPER]

For me it's a disease and I'm in treatment but it gets worse every year.

[@dustinhargrove2129]

Making the rest of us look bad with that follow through stuff 😂

[@MrBucidart]

John, I want to update about the latex paint thing. I asked a buddy about the paint and grain thing being a problem and he said he just cuts off 4" from each end of the log before milling.

[@CTSCAPER]

Well that makes sense!

[@royramey5659]

It shrinks most after milling

[@jakelopez3181]

Do you have to plane the lumber if your going to use it for framing?

[@TomokosEnterprize]

Good chat. I put up about 5000 bf in the shed to get it down to 14 %. It then comes inside to our mezzanine's to bring it down to 7 % We are fortunate that way to have the space. We use a lot of Doug fir,lodgepole pine aspen and birch. I find the slow dry to be the best way so once a glue up is done you don't come in to be greeted with a soup bowl the next day.lol.

[@CTSCAPER]

Those are all soft woods and I'm a bit jealous. I feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle with Oak though I'm pretty sure I shouldn't complain about it. I milled pine once and it was cut soooo nice. I was considering storing some of the boards in the basement but I don't want my house to become food for some wood boring insect.

[@TomokosEnterprize]

The pine really is the nicest material to deal with.. Stable,little taper(unless ya have yellow or southern pine)And great length. 63 ft. bucked. Our fir is cantankerous,big (30 + in) and will just do as it pleases. Our hardwood (silver birch) is wonderful but needs to be canted to dry for 6 to 12 months before sawing into flooring or cabinet stock. Beautiful all of them.

[@TomokosEnterprize]

As far as the bugs just give every tier a wee sprinkle of borax soap. Problem, What problem. You can wash with the stuff my friend !

[@CTSCAPER]

Woah! That's some big stuff! That Borax idea might just be the ticket.

[@TomokosEnterprize]

I posted on the wrong remark. Sory. Just go down the page to S H's comment. We have Doug fir up here in excess of 5 ft. They do take a bit to lay them down without smashing them into firewood. I may be able to dig up an old video where I was a safety selectively taking a 48 in. for a home project.

[@Wedget]

Hi, just a suggestion , I use gang nail plates on my boards ends , use these as well as your end sealer and definately a step in the right direction.If you need ove the gang nail

[@Wedget]

Just to finish my previous comment from 20 seconds ago, if you need remove the gang nail plates just grab your chainsaw and take a 1/4 cut off the end of the board.

[@johnmoyer5515]

Thats my problem storage & keeping it dry agree plywood plastic all a waste of $ , I've got some spalted maple also very pretty, i have sawmill hm130 starting to get some inventory now oak. Walnut cherry maple hickory poplar.

[@cavelvlan25]

If you don't have anchorseal any parrafin/petroleum/oil will do the trick. It's not specialized for this utility but it will help retain an even moisture content.

[@timbercreekmill516]

If you are looking to get Dewalt's 12 inch sliding compound miter saw, watch for deals at the Home Depot. I bought my saw there and the miter stand came with it for free on a special. You're right, it normally costs $199. I have seen the Home Depot have this special every now and then. It's a great saw, plus the stand is an added bonus. I love the set up very much.

[@CTSCAPER]

I have a hard time pulling the trigger on such an expensive miter saw, even with the stand. However, while looking at the Miter Saws I admit that I liked the feel of the DeWalts. I'll have to keep my eyes open. I'm looking at creating some raised beds for a garden and a Miter saw with a larger capacity has been on my mind. Thank you for the tip.

[@toddelliot9337]

I see a lot of people liking DeWalt because other people like DeWalt. It's kind of like Harleys having a reputation because so many people own them. Personally I no longer buy the brand. I've had better service from almost all other brands, in fact. Best miter saw I've owned was a Makita. And I don't buy Ryobi either. But this is just my personal experience.

[@richvail7551]

I’m sure mills would have a spray for their sealant, can one use a spray paint? Not sure which one would work best just spit balling an idea. Thanks

[@whitehouse223]

see if your counties have a recycle center for products, ours is mandated by feds and they maintain a large ares of paints and chemicals they give away, i have seen a lot of partial five gallon buckets of wood sealers such as thompsons

[@HolzMichel]

small correction: boxing your pith out is not really necessary. you'll be throwing away the most valuable cut in a log which is a rift cut board. it's enough to separate the pith to relieve the stresses from shrinkage in the wood. later on it is vital that the pith be taken out of the board because it will cup the board when it's dry. some of the cracking you were seeing in your offcuts is called ring shake and is a common occurrence in many different species of wood there is nothing you can do to mitigate for ring shake or spangle. red oak is a ring porous wood and dries extremely rapidly at the ends due to the structure of the wood. other ring porous woods demonstrate that same characteristic. heart checks or spangle is something you can't mitigate for, it's usually present in the standing tree or manifests itself within hours of felling. the best way to work around the heart checks is to try and capture them at 90 degrees to the saw kerf. sure you'll have a cracked board but that's an easy fix in the shop compared to a board split in its thickness. also, i noticed your maple is spalted, if strength in your finished product is desired you should mill sweet, edible woods such as maple, birch, apple and beech as soon as you can. the fungi that have colonized your logs and lumber have attacked the substance of the wood already and most of your lumber is essentially crappy firewood. in short you should mill the logs within 6 to 8 weeks of felling and try to harvest and mill them in the coldest winter months. if your boards have dried down an eighth of an inch by the time springtime rolls around you won't have to worry too much about discoloration.

[@dutchminott]

Hello sir...strange that i was just minutes ago watching your videos on air drying lumber...and then you had a comment on a random video that touched on exactly a question I had about boxing the pith when milling...I would love to see you add some videos to your channel about this exact topic...seems that you really know your stuff...not sure if you actually saw the boards or if you are just drying since i didn't see any videos of mill operation. Thanks for the useful info so far!!!

[@HolzMichel]

yes i do run the headrig when it's operation, and in the slack time i do all the welding and machine work for the outfit i work for. there will be several vids on milling but they're still a little ways out. when sawing resumes i'll be able to finish the color retention video as well. there's several years worth of videos in the lineup regarding wood processing, mill work, harvesting etc.. i pack the video camera with me to work but most days aren't real conducive to capturing good footage. hang in there.. it's comin' if you or anyone reading the thread has any questions on any related topic don't be shy and fire away. i'm always happy to help out wherever i can

[@thedavesofourlives1]

Concrete sealer also purported to work as anchorseal, or diluted roofing sealer.

[@travis2511]

Could you build a pole building over your wood drying area? In my county we don't have to pull permits for them. We've built a few with cedar posts and rough cut lumber on the cheap. Just throwing it out there... enjoyed the video.

[@chuckb.3324]

Wood looses moisture 10 times faster through the end vs the sides. Leave your logs long and trim off the ends of your lumber when you start the project. It is always moving. Let it move. Let it crack. You will see the tension in it. Your pile needs plastic under it. Keeps ground moisture from infiltrating. Two layers of blocks to get it up off the ground for air movement. The sun is your biggest enemy. Keep a couple of layers of crappy lumber on top. Looks like you have a thin kerf bandsaw. I cut 1 inch off the dial. My blades take 100 thousands of an inch. So i end up with a strong 7/8 thick piece. When i plane it to 3/4 there is no skip. Any thicker is a waste of wood and planer blades. You got some good looking stuff there. That wood in the center was the tree when it was just a bush. It added layers and the top gets new growth to make it taller. Year after year. The dark rings are dormant growth or winter growth. And the rings always want to flatten out. Centers are usually used for skids or resawn into pallet lumber. Have fun and you will love the hand plane. Hand cut extra large dovetails...........

[@thistlefarmer9114]

If you're not making mistakes you are doing nothing. ;-0 You learn from mistakes.

[@CTSCAPER]

So true. While I feel bad for messing up so many of those boards I learned a ton in the process.

[@TomokosEnterprize]

Good words, SCHOOL EVERY DAY works for me and i am 61. Lovein new !

[@jeffreyrstapler]

I want to build a house out of saw mill lumber. I have about forty pine trees in north Alabama next to a small mountain. The trees are about 18-22 inches in diameter and are very straight and tall with only a few limbs at top. I am not sure what kind of pine trees they are. I have to clear the trees off of the property so I wanted to try to use them instead of destroying them. I wanted to know what I would have to do on sawing and storing (drying) the lumber. Would the trees need to be cut in larger boards and trim again to straighten them? Could that be done on a table saw? Do you let the logs dry to certain moisture content before cutting them? Would you cut them in large squares to remove all the bark and dry? Then cut boards later? I want to know the whole process. Can you help me? I want to make sure insects don't get in and destroy them also. Do they need to be stored inside flat until dry? I will need 2x6, 2x8, and 2x10. I am thinking about doing walls with 2x6 instead of 2x4.

[@rogerdenney3663]

Jeff, how'd you make out? Been five years so I assume you've milled them up, and finished that house. Do tell.

[@HeartlandMakesAndOutdoors]

Hitachi makes good saws, I have had one a long time, The miter saw stand is the bomb, you will be happy if and when you get it. Thanks for the video and have a blessed week my friend.

[@kyleward5249]

Also, it is good to get into the habit of using the same species of wood for the stickers. Some woods can permanently stain other woods.

[@TheOldJarhead]

Just don't make stickers of pine when milling pine ;) You will get sticker stain.

[@billdoten4211]

Love the videos. I really enjoy the dingo videos. Can we get some more of those?

[@CTSCAPER]

I'll bring the camera the next time I use it.

[@pauldhennessey]

I go to the paint store and buy cheap mis-tints and seal log and board ends with that

[@rmartin7846]

you might want to get some weight on them to minimize the warpage or strap together in big stack's.

[@GoodDayFarm]

Great video John, great information! Thanks for sharing! Take care!

[@CTSCAPER]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@zeandreoutram]

A bit of weight on the pile that dries will help in warping and twisting. Great vid thanx.

[@farmerbob139]

I have a shed with a floor in it in a dry climate, doug fir dries down to 7-9% on it's own

[@charlieman330]

your best boards is furthest away from the heart and inside past the sap wood..

[@johnmoyer5515]

Need to add plastic underneath Wood. to prevent moisture coming up from the ground once you cover it for drying. Moisture becomes trapped and then mold

[@CTSCAPER]

That's a great idea!

[@lukeristau8551]

Hopefully no one started a drinking game with the word pith before starting this video

[@matthewcacace6804]

looks like you have a good plan moving forward. don't be intimidated by woodworking, you are certainly capable of building what you're looking for!

[@CTSCAPER]

Thanks Matthew. I'll be in touch soon for no other reason than I'd like to chat with you. No big projects going on now besides landscaping once I finish cleaning up the back yard.

[@matthewcacace6804]

I look forward to it. I've been out in the yard for the past four days, can't seem to get enough of this weather!

[@CTSCAPER]

It's been great getting outside. Today was a little too hot too soon for my taste. I had the ac on in the truck?

[@matthewcacace6804]

LOL, I'm with ya John!

[@MrBucidart]

John, save your self some big bucks, any local hardware store that mix's paint will always have some mis-colored latex paint on sale, it's cheap and easy to get.

[@CTSCAPER]

Have you tried that Joe? I'm ok with it if I get it from the source it works.

[@MrBucidart]

Because of the pine bark beetle infestation in Nor-Cal, I believe that I am the only person in my part of the state that does not own some type of milling machine, but all of my friends that are processing lumber just use cheap latex paint.I have one customer that paints the fresh cut boards 6"up on both sides of the boards to slower the drying and prevent cracking.I can not tell you if it works, but there are thousands of logs in peoples back yards and in the woods that have not been processed yet that are painted with every color in the rainbow.

[@CTSCAPER]

I did some research on latex paint and the one thing I heard was you can't see the grain when you mill the wood. That would make things more difficult.

[@MrBucidart]

Let me ask a buddy tomorrow about that. I can see that it would make milling more challenging.

[@CTSCAPER]

Thanks Joe.

[@strandbunnyx]

is latex paint good too to seal the ends?

[@CTSCAPER]

I've never tried so I couldn't tell you. I know some people do use paints to seal the ends.

[@FishFind3000]

I know you can used Beas wax and other stuff to seal the wood

[@StoneyRidgeFarmer]

Why would wearing sunglasses in a video make you not humble or have "Swagger"? I love woodworking and farming and homesteading and I wear sunglasses brotha...not for swagger....because it's bright outside!

[@CTSCAPER]

It's polite to take them off when speaking to others. If not for the whole conversation at least when you first see them.

[@diversifiedacreshomestead102]

Wasn’t sure it the dark glasses comment was to you , Nathan over at out of the woods, or myself. Gotsta work on my swagger.

[@MattJonesYT]

Starts at 1:55

[@lakestatebullies7391]

Move your sticker closer to the end. The checking will stop at the sticker

[@williejohnson5172]

I don't like grease/oil based end sealers. This can get on your wood and finishing becomes spottchy. Latex paint is fine but its color can seep into the wood and over time it will peel. The glue stays put. Won't crack or flake off, wont' discolor your wood and causes no finishing problems. It is a little bit harder on your saw blade because it dries hard. Is a gallon of Elmers more expensive than Dollar store paint? Probably. There are always pros and cons.

[@greatitbroke]

why use latex? I just spray the ends of the logs with a spray bomb of what ever paint I have on hand. Works well enough.

[@huffster6344]

Paint stir sticks also make good "stickers" for drying lumber.

[@wrongchannelitstheotherroughhe]

PVA glue. Cheeeeeap. Expect to lose 12" from each end. 👍👍👍

[@blueridgeocean]

i hate building codes, you cant build a house from unstamped rough cut lumber, not even decks (my issue) or chicken coops in my area and if you do they will take your property and force you to move out until they take down your deck for dismantling and to top it off they will take your lumber to be "reused" at a lumber recycling. and force you to pay for the time they spent on dismantling....

[@kimbillson1139]

and thats WHY YOU DONT ELECT SOCIALIST GOVT. LIKE WE HAVE IN MOST OF CANADA, THEY WILL STEAL ALL OF YOUR FREEDOMS UNLES YOU FIGHTBACK. REMIND THEM THAT YOU ARE PAYING THEIR SALARY... SO LISTEN UP AND USE SOME COMMON SENSE.

[@zlindauer5315]

why dont you cut your stacking sticks out of low grade saw logs? i understand there cheap but every cent counts. lead sawyer couple decades. youtube "sawmill sadness". nice video sir

[@CTSCAPER]

I did that the first time around but this time I wanted quick results so I had to pay the price.

[@BillyDocWalker]

Have Sawmilled all my life or for over 75 years and have never heard of all the bullshit to use on wood

[@mikeb1206]

to much chatter, don't care about the weather