# Milling lumber, before or after its dry fully?



## ChrisCarr

I have several very small logs in my shed from a tree I cut down 3 months ago. The bark it is still on the logs. I want to use the wood for some small projects. I know they can't be dry already.

Should I wait to mill them into lumber until after they are fully dry or mill them in my planer now and let them dry the rest of the way rough cut?

Your help is appreciated.


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## cabmaker

Three months may be enough time to play with them if they were short small diameter logs. Are you bandsawing first or what ? If so your next step would likely be the jointer, you ll know imediatley if thy are dry enough to proceed. Good luck with it !


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## ChrisCarr

No, I don't have a bandsaw right now so I figured I would secure it a planer sled and flatten it with only the planer.
I could use the Table Saw to resaw but i would have to get both sides flat a little so I could flit it to cut all the way through.


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## cabmaker

You can do that . You would certainly want to remove as much roughage as you can first. (drawknife, hatchet or even a machette) Be carefull. JB


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## TopamaxSurvivor

What moisture content is best of rough milling logs to lumber?


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## dfdye

Warning sirens are going off with how you are describing cutting these logs. You are in for some SERIOUS work if you are trying to establish a flat with a planer, even if you do succeed in getting all of the bark off first (which you should DEFINITELY do or else your planer will start launching chunks of bark and probably rip itself apart when one of the bark chunks gets stuck in the head), you will probably have to go through a few sets of knives. This doesn't really seem the best solution.

If you don't have a band saw, I would think about riving the logs before you start to try and flatten the boards. This has two benefits: 1) you will be maintaining the long wood fibers which will help maintain the stability of the wood, and 2) it will leave you with more manageable boards to pass through your planer. Do you have a buddy with a band saw? Is there a local mill around your area that will do small jobs?

You didn't mention the species or the size of the logs (diameter), but this may suggest the next step in prepping it. For example, if you have oak, then riving makes a lot of sense, but if it something obnoxious like dogwood, then splitting it is nearly impossible (at least in my experience).

Regardless, milling it at this point is perfectly fine, but be sure you let it dry in a good stack and seal the ends with exterior latex paint (or even better something like anchorseal).

I have a bunch of cherry from a tree my neighbor cut that is drying in my shop right now. I was pretty lazy and didn't stack it like I should have, and I am seeing the effects of it now-lots of cupping and twisting. A lot of it will end up as firewood, but I can honestly say that I have learned my lesson the hard way, and I will pay much more attention to properly caring for green wood the next time I have some available!

Good luck, and let us know some more information about the wood in question so that we can offer up a few more suggestions.


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## dfdye

Topa, you can do it green, but I am not sure if there are benefits to letting logs age before milling, quite honestly. All the logs I have ever had access to has been milled pretty soon after felling. I do know that the moisture content of trees is lower in the winter, so harvesting live trees is best done sometime in January or early February before the trees start getting ready for spring and filling back up with water.

I can also say that you should seal the ends of the logs with anchorseal as soon after they are cut as you can to avoid checking if you are going to wait to mill them! This helps a lot down the road, and is another lesson I learned the hard way.


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## TopamaxSurvivor

I currently have a pile of red alder and big leaf maple rived logs aging. I piled them in an old open shed out of the sun and weather. They are stickered and piled solidly in a pile so they will hopefully not develop stresses. They were cut in the early last spring as dangerous trees cut along the access road to our tree farm. I didn't have time to do much more than cut them 6-8 feet long, split them in half and paint the ends with several coats of latex paint. I also have some small rounds of cherry, madrona, holly and alder that I am experimenting with. I guess I'll find out, eh?


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## ChrisCarr

Dfdye, Didn't take into consideration the planer knives. I think I will take off the bulk on the side by hand sawing then run it through the planer so it only takes 1-2 passes.


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## dfdye

Chris, I have actually used my chainsaw to do this pretty effectively, even though my chain really isn't specifically set up for ripping. It may save some time if you have a chainsaw and feel comfortable with the cut. Good luck!

Topa, you should be more than find milling that pile up whenever you feel like it. If you are lucky, it should only take a few months to get to a stable humidity after you mill it if the weather is right. That sounds like a great score! I am especially jealous of the alder since I don't have a good source for that around me, and I usually am too lazy (and cheap!) to buy wood from anyone but my local sawyer. Who knows, he may get an alder tree from someone this year and I may get lucky!


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## Loren

Logs crack as they dry from the outside because the outer layers
dry first, shrink, and are forced to crack by the inner layers which
are not dry and haven't shrunk.

Therefore, it is common practice to mill the wood into rough boards
as soon as possible. If you wait for the log to dry out you'll have
a lot of very flawed lumber when you mill it up.


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## ChrisCarr

I looked at my small logs today and they all are cracking!!!

Seems like I can't use them now. They are marple, I love using hardwood but from my few years in woodworking all I could afford was pine and spruce.


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## TopamaxSurvivor

Thanks for the info Loren. I have never been able to find any source that said how long to leave it in a the log form. I have always wondered about the piles of logs at mills. I may try to get out there this winter and mill some of it if we get some nice weather.

ChrisCarr, I have never seen a maple log that that wasn't cracked. I think they have them while they are still standing. The first thing I did was spiit on the major crack to work around it instead of across it.


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## ChrisCarr

Topa,The problem is if I split the logs at the crack my lumber won't be the size i need it. I am working with very small logs. The only reason I took the tree it was down is because the tree looked like it was titlting towards the house at a extreme 30 degree angle!


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## TopamaxSurvivor

There is probably some stress in that wood. Maple will split on the pith. I have several pieces of various sizes i expiremented with and they all did it.


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## dfdye

Chris, if you are willing to work with it, you can saw down the cracks and laminate the pieces back together. If not, this will be a valuable lesson to seal your logs as soon after you cut them as possible to prevent checking. The same thing happened to me with some of that cherry I mentioned earlier, so this is definitely a common learning experience-don't feel bad!

I will be cutting a couple of ash trees later this month (or February depending on when I can get to it) and I have a can of anchorseal that will be applied to the cuts as soon as I get the trees down and cut into logs. Fortunately, all it takes is one time to learn the lesson, even though it really hurts when you start getting those massive end checks!


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## bob101

chainsaw with a ripping chain and a chainsaw mill attachment( keeps things as flat as possible) and stack em to dry . most of our local mills cut the logs fairly green.


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## ChrisCarr

Can the ends of logs be sealed with stain or paint?


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## TopamaxSurvivor

I have some cherry I cut from a nearly dead tree. The moisture was so low I didn't bother to seal the ends. It was in the 15-18% range. I was a bit surprised to see some minor checking on it ;-(


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## TopamaxSurvivor

Chris, use latex paint, a couple of coats. Check craigs list, lots of free partial cans on there.


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## dfdye

Chris,

Stain will not do anything for you (even the "deck stain"), but paint will definitely help. I would go to the local big box and look for a can of exterior latex that was mis-tinted. You can typically get them for under $10, and slap a good, thick coat on the end of the logs. That will definitely cut down on moisture loss. The interior latex paints are not as good in terms of weatherproofing, but they will certainly be better than nothing. If you do have to use interior, I would try and build up a good, thick layer with a few coats.

Like I said before, the near-universal recommendation from people who know a LOT more than I do is anchorseal (which is a waxy coating in a paint form), but exterior latex should work if you don't have access to this. I have heard of people using canning wax to seal the ends of logs (using a blow torch to melt the wax enough to get it to spread over the end of the logs) but this seems like WAY too much work for me to attempt. Plus, I now have a can of anchorseal, so why bother!


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## Jered

Where I live there used to be a lot of mills. There is only one left now but my point is that mills actually use sprinklers to keep the logs wet until after they are sawn. As was mentioned, rough saw the wood as soon as possible then sticker it and let it season for a good year or two if you are not going to kiln dry it.

Planing green wood has it's own problems so if you can, saw everything to rough dimensions. By the way there is also a soft grafting wax that works well for sealing the ends. You knead it till it gets real soft then smear it on the ends. It's easy to find in my area but I don't know if you have many orchards where you live.


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## Nomad62

Hi Chris
Your wood will likely be fairly useless….sorry, but I really am trying to help you out. Trees that grow at an angle or on very unlevel ground will "grow" stress within, making reliable wood impossible. As one side tries to pull itself up it also twists to make the task easier; the other side will grow under great weight and will continue to push even after the tree is cut down and sliced up. The drying will exaggerate things, and any moisture deviation will forever warp your surfaces. Very frustrating. 
But to answer your question, maybe for future use, it is best to slice up the wood as soon as possible, sticker at even points (one above the other) and weight it down on top. Sealing the ends is very important. Paint is better than nothing, but anchorseal (or the like) is definately better. Keep it out of the sun and rain, and with plenty of air circulation.
Finally, to get your money's worth out of sawing it up, look for logs at least a foot across. Of course there are exceptions (!), but for the most part small trees are all sapwood and are fairly plain, maple included. Small maple, to me, is useless; they need to grow big before there is any figure to it. I do indeed understand the desire, and have been there, and have learned. I will not go after anything less than 30", and even at that it better be special. The idea of getting a tree and getting "free" wood out of it is much easier said than done, and if you value your time at even $10 an hour you will find yourself paying a rediculous price for plain wood you can buy for a buck a foot.


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## bob101

there is an end coat product that is available at lee valley


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