As a new mill owner, you can imagine I have all these ideas in my head. I've started to put together a tool kit and necessities box and been reading a lot too. Here's my dilemma: I'm impatient. I want results ASAP. I know what you are thinking. ..he won't last long lol. Here's what I mean...I don't want to dry stuff for years. I would think that some or most of my projects will be just fine assembled with wet wood. I'll list my available wood types currently and my project list, you name what wood you would use and why. Keep in mind, all of these items will be in the woods and get almost no sunlight at all. So they will dry slowly. Sugar maple Beech Tulip poplar Sycamore cherry Projects: outhouse-thinking live edge siding. Board and batton style or whatever uou call it . I will use plywood for floor and roof. This will be in contact with the ground. deer pole- basically 2 vertical poles and a cross beam to hang critters. What's the most rot resistance from my list? Shooting bench outdoor bar top-would cherry work if coated in something? I know this slab will have to dry! Atv ramp into shed
Poplar is probably the most weather resistant. ..maple probably the worst. Any of this in contact with the ground is asking for rot though. Sycamore isn't far behind poplar. I would seal or paint whatever you make.
Walnut heartwood is the most decay resistant of hardwood lumber commonly used.Sure BL is even more so but outside of square milled posts or split rail fencing its not used much nowadays. Use what you have most available,just like our forefathers did.White Oak comes to mind especially.
Except for the Sycamore ( not familiar with ) I don't think any of the wood in that list is terribly weather or humidity change resistant. Maple and cherry is supposed to be nice for furniture as it dries pretty quick but I have never seen outdoor furniture made of it. ExteriorHouse trim is often some kind of pine or fir and painted to protect it. And it is cheap. Cedars have oils but dimensions can change with humidity. Timber framing and cabin building is often done with green wood but there are books and books full of tables and tables of shrinkage rates in different areas/ cut dimensions and time of year cut.
I know your stacking in the woods and will have slow drying times but you may bebnefit from that also with less checked and warped planks and beams etc. The mill near me does wax the endgrains when they stack thier planks for drying. Not sure that makes a difference where you will be drying your wood.
Cherry for anything touching ground. Ive used it for fence posts in a pinch. Poplar or sycamore for siding boards. Other than poplar on your list youll have a hard time driving a nail or screw into any of those once dry.
With that many projects planned, years will go by faster than you think! Maybe your first project should be a solar kiln/firewood shed! If you're going to try to use the wood wet, try to get it as close to "quarter sawn" as possible. Quarter sawn boards will move and shrink much less than flat sawn boards. I just pulled the trigger today on a 24" Granberg Alaskan mill and rails. It's been part of the plan since I bought my house, and I already have a bunch of logs waiting. I'm not too worried about drying time though. After I'm through moving and milling and stacking all 20-odd tons of lumber from those logs, I'm sure I'll be ready to give that hobby a year or two break. Oh, and don't forget about pine! You can't burn it in your woodstove anyway!
