That heading isn’t quite right. Best I could come up with. My question(s) are what can reasonably be expected from log to board form. My specific example I had a load of hardwood delivered last year that was reasonably straight. It’s coming out to be right at 8 cord CSS. Approx 75 logs that were 16 ft long ranging from 10” butt diameter to 24”. Most around 12-20”. It was 700 bucks. If I had milled that load, what would be a reasonable output expected? 2x4s, 2x6s, 1x6s, 1x8s majority. This is all for building a rough side outbuilding tractor shed. Trying to figure cost of buying a mill to have of my own vs buying wood from box store. I can also get pine logs cheaper delivered but not sure of that going price. Thanks for any and all thoughts. Lenny Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
It really boils down to if you hav a market for your lumber, also remember building with home-milled wood wont have the grading and drying stamps that inspectors like to see. There is so much time in log handling, stickering and stacking- restacking, and value added process (edging, planing, etc). Then there is the drying time involved. Unless someone has the logs ready to cut and is taking on all the extra work, I don't pay for my logs. If you are deadset on building with roughsawn, it may be better to find a local mill and purchase from them, or have them come onsite to do the work. A mill to turn out any decent amount of lumber is a huge investment, and another piece to maintain.
I never really answered your question, but the best thing would to figure out how many board feet you need for the building then just measure all your logs https://nfs.unl.edu/documents/ruralforestry/tree and log scale Doyle WEB.pdf
Thanks gwoods71. It was an idle thought. I have an chainsaw mill that I've never even used yet but have read quite a bit on the bandsaw mills. Firewood is enough of a hobby for now I think. Lenny
A lot of areas have portable bandsaw mills that can come to your site and mill up your logs to lumber for a fee. Check your local listings for a price idea.
Good morning a 10' dia log 16 ft is 36bdft a 24' log at 10 ft is 250 bdft depending on length and taper on the logs it is better to size your logs to length of lumber needed when I used to take my mill out it was a setup of 100$ then 75$an hour some sawyers charge by the bdft sawn you would have to shop around I sawed a shed out for a customer( all poplar) it was a 14ftx12 ft shed board and batten his logs and the sawing was @800.00 for all the framing ,siding,and battens it is a lot cheaper to have your logs sawn than buy store bought but as to buying a mill to do it unless you have a lot of projects and a lot of time to handle the lumber ,stickering,stacking,etc it is not worth buying a mill just for building a shed . Second point is that firewood logs are sold as firewood for a reason usually they have too many defects for a mill or they have been scanned for metal sometimes you get a nice load but loggers usually sell the prime for saw logs . Pine is a little trickier to mill because of the sap and knots to make flat boards and carpenter bees love rough cut pine it is nice to work with but poplar would be a better choice the bees seem to leave it alone Good luck JB
Just stopped by a local one man saw mill, he charges $0.50/bdft to custom saw oak, hickory, cherry, walnut, cedar. Forgot to ask if that includes stickering. Bought a decent piece of cherry he cut and kiln dried for $2.50 bdft. I would rather pay someone like him than saw it myself. But I have the luxury of numerous local mills from one man operations to places that have thousands of cords on hand to be sawn!
