Replies

1. 
   user-148830 | Dec 16, 2008 02:29am | #1

   Milling lumber requires that you have flat and square faces. You'll need either a hand plane or jointer and planer to get started with your milling. Then you'll be able to finish up with a table or band saw.

   Gary Rogowski
   http://www.northwestwoodworking.com

1. 
   1qaz2wsx | Dec 16, 2008 08:11am | #2

   Thank you for your response.  i had the thought after cutting some oak fire wood with a friend and after watching the video on milling on Fine Woodworking dot com. 

    Thanks,

1. 
   user-148830 | Dec 16, 2008 07:20pm | #3

   Yeah, watch out that your logs don't roll in a cut. I wouldn't go near a table saw with logs. You can cut them only on a band saw. Nail on 2x4 supports to the log or trim a face to make it flat and then reference off of it. Also be aware that logs may contain steel, bullets, ceramic insulators, all sorts of nasty stuff that will chew up a blade. Be careful and have fun. Gary Rogowski
   http://www.northwestwoodworking.com

2. 
   steve2 | Dec 18, 2008 07:07pm | #4

   Gary,

   I need to order some wood for a larger project, a 66 inch tall bookcase, and need the finished dimension to be 3/4 inch.  In your experience, would you order 4/4 or 5/4 to make sure there is enough thickness to mill it down to 3/4.  On smaller projects I usually buy 4/4, but for these larger projects, I am curious what the "experts" do.  Maybe even buy 8/4 and resaw it.

   Steve 

1. 
   user-148830 | Dec 18, 2008 08:19pm | #5

   Hey Steve,
   The wood thickness you buy depends on how your yard receives it. My yard used to get 4/4 S2S which was milled to 1/32" over 3/4". Not much room to play with. If the board was cupped or bowed, forget trying to get 3/4" of thickness out of it. Now the mill gets us 13/16" thickness for S2S. A little better but not much. The days of rough sawn lumber, at least at my yard, are long over.What they call rough now is really hit/ miss. The wood is abrasive planed down to 15/16" for 4/4 stock. This is workable for a project your size if you carefully select your stock. But if you can't pick through stock, even for a fee, then I'd get the next thickness up. Hopefully that's 5/4. Resawing 8/4 for bookshelf stock is a lot of work with the good possibility of more cupping and bowing after you saw. So, get thick 4/4 if you can. Otherwise go with 5/4. Good luck.Gary Rogowski
   http://www.northwestwoodworking.com