Do You Mill Your Own Lumber?

[Mike Goetzke]

About 8 years ago I remodeled our kitchen. It was a big job with a huge island. Used 500-600 BF of Euro steamed beach. I justified purchasing a 15" planer and 8" jointer for this project. I actually enjoyed milling my own lumber especially knowing everything was to the same size. Since the big kitchen project I have done smaller projects and had the opportunity to use the jointer/planer on rough sawn lumber I picked up on lumber runs.

Past couple weeks I have been working with my son on a couple of cabinets for him. We had to mill some lumber and it really hit me the amount of time it took even with a helper to mill the lumber (ha, maybe because I want his cabinets out of my garage/shop and in his basement).

So I'm contemplating selling my jointer and planer (probably jointer first) because of:

• Added time to a project.
• Space the tools take up.
• The pain to take the tools out and put them away in a small garage/shop (especially the jointer).
• For some reason lack of lumber runs.
• Have found out local hardwood supplier will join/plane for reasonable price (although his wood is more expensive than I got on lumber run deals).
• Bought a nice lathe about 6 years ago and don't find enough time to turn because of all the flat work projects I have.

Anyone else go through the same thing? Will I regret getting rid of them?

Thanks,
Mike

[Richard Coers]

I buy all my hardwoods, hit of miss planed to 15/16" thick. I insist on surfacing it myself to get high quality flat and straight stock.

[Mike Henderson]

You will absolutely regret getting rid of them. I couldn't work without a jointer and a planer and I buy kiln dried wood surfaced 3 sides. No matter what you purchase, you get stuff that's not perfect and a jointer and planer will get you there. Also, sometimes you want your wood a size that you don't have.

I'd even add a drum sander to the "needed" shop tools for preparing wood. Sometimes the planer will cause tearout and the drum sander saves the day to get it to the final dimension without divots in the surface.

Mike

[The alternative is to prepare your stock by hand but that's a lot of work and time. No fun in my book.]

[johnny means]

I wouldn't ever want someone else determining how my lumber was milled. Not being able to mill my own would drastically reduce the quality of my work.

[Tim M Tuttle]

I enjoy the milling process and there is nowhere around here to get good, milled lumber that is actually straight and true. Most of the dealers just skip plane which is pointless IMO. I buy everything rough. Yeah, it takes longer but I feel like I get much better quality.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Yes, when possible I buy rough sawn and mill it to size on my J/P.

Yes, it can be tedious, but i consider it part of the process.

If you are short on space, sell both machines and get a Jointer/Planer combo. That's what I did, moved from a 6" Jet Jointer and Dewalt 735 to a Hammer A3-31. Different machine on all levels, but it gave me some space back.

[Zachary Hoyt]

When I saw the title I thought you were talking about milling logs into boards. I do that too, but a lot of the wood I use for my gainful employment is bought in because I don't have all of the trees that I need growing here (curly maple, walnut, African mahogany, cherry etc). I would never want to be without a jointer and planer and drum sander, there are a lot of times that I need them for things other than initial lumber preparation, and even then I like to be able to buy cheaper wood and have the flexibility to make it whatever thickness I need, and then smooth and flatten it again.
Zach

[Ben Rivel]

I buy all my solid wood S3S and even if only for thickness uniformity between boards when building a project Id keep the planer. Since my unit is a combo jointer/planer, that means I keep both!

[Patrick Kane]

Like Zach, I also thought we were talking about logs to lumber. That I probably will never do. I have purchased enough bulk buys of lumber to know i hate moving thousands of boardfeet by hand.

Depending on the amount of wood you process a year, i think those tools pay for themselves pretty quickly. Not only by the essential tasks they perform during the build process, but they literally allow you to buy material 33%+ off. Without them, you need to buy S3S, which is usually $1-2 extra per board foot. For some species, that is almost doubling the cost of the product. It's not unusual for me to buy a few thousand boardfeet each year, so after 3ish years my jointer and planer paid for themselves. Not to mention, the S3S lumber ive seen is uniform thickness, but not straight or flat enough for my standards.

[Mark Bolton]

Like Zach, I also thought we were talking about logs to lumber. That I probably will never do. I have purchased enough bulk buys of lumber to know i hate moving thousands of boardfeet by hand.

Depending on the amount of wood you process a year, i think those tools pay for themselves pretty quickly. Not only by the essential tasks they perform during the build process, but they literally allow you to buy material 33%+ off. Without them, you need to buy S3S, which is usually $1-2 extra per board foot. For some species, that is almost doubling the cost of the product. It's not unusual for me to buy a few thousand boardfeet each year, so after 3ish years my jointer and planer paid for themselves. Not to mention, the S3S lumber ive seen is uniform thickness, but not straight or flat enough for my standards.

Are you factoring in labor, knife sharpening, hauling chips? or just the cost of the machine?

We pay $130/MBF for S2S SLR1E. (thirteen cents a board foot). There is no chips to haul, no knives to sharpen, no boards with long pounded down knicks from an errant piece of grit that wipes out a knife, no straight line drops to handle.

Id imagine we would be well in excess of 50MBF, and probably more like 100MBF before we would ever make a double sided planer, good SLR, grinder, chip handling, pay for itself.

[Patrick Kane]

Are you factoring in labor, knife sharpening, hauling chips? or just the cost of the machine?

We pay $130/MBF for S2S SLR1E. (thirteen cents a board foot). There is no chips to haul, no knives to sharpen, no boards with long pounded down knicks from an errant piece of grit that wipes out a knife, no straight line drops to handle.

Id imagine we would be well in excess of 50MBF, and probably more like 100MBF before we would ever make a double sided planer, good SLR, grinder, chip handling, pay for itself.

Mark, we are dealing with drastically different pricing. You are paying 1/10th the price that has been quoted to me in the past for milling services. On top of that, i looked at surfaced options off the rack in the past, and they are almost double the cost of rough material. Not to mention they have sat on a rack for months, which caused them to move more than i would accept for my projects.

Now, IF i had access to the same service pricing you do, then i would be hard pressed in some situations. I dont do as much work now, but i used to make a lot of table tops, islands, counters, shelves, bars, etc. Basically, i used to joint, plane, and glue a lot of material. At the time, milling was probably 30-40% of my labor in a project, and as we all know, it can be laborious. Schlepping around long and wide 8/4 for 8 hours a day is best avoided. I would have happily paid $0.13 a board foot for S2S let alone S3S. That kind of work doesnt need dead nuts flat/straight lumber. I dont think i would ever build furniture from previously surfaced material. Im just very anal about stuff being right on those projects.

Correct, my statement did not include wear and tear on knives or electricity usage. However, i havent gone through a set of carbide inserts yet, so that is included in the initial machine investment. Also, somehow my residential waste management hasnt refused my chip disposal yet. Im waiting for that day, because there have been trash days where i have 200+ gallons of sawdust sitting at the curb. Helps to give those gents a cash tip every christmas.

[jeff norris 2011]

When I saw the title I thought you were talking about milling logs into boards. I do that too, but a lot of the wood I use for my gainful employment is bought in because I don't have all of the trees that I need growing here (curly maple, walnut, African mahogany, cherry etc). I would never want to be without a jointer and planer and drum sander, there are a lot of times that I need them for things other than initial lumber preparation, and even then I like to be able to buy cheaper wood and have the flexibility to make it whatever thickness I need, and then smooth and flatten it again.
Zach

Yes same here. I have gone out and harvested lots of trees, milled them on a portable mill and then paid to have them kiln dried or stickered them for years. It is very cool to have project you built right from cutting down the tree to final finish.

As for not using a jointer and planer -

I can't imagine this. You would lose so much control over your work.

[Mike Goetzke]

Yes, when possible I buy rough sawn and mill it to size on my J/P.

Yes, it can be tedious, but i consider it part of the process.

If you are short on space, sell both machines and get a Jointer/Planer combo. That's what I did, moved from a 6" Jet Jointer and Dewalt 735 to a Hammer A3-31. Different machine on all levels, but it gave me some space back.

As a tool "junkie" this may be the ticket!

[Larry Edgerton]

I wouldn't ever want someone else determining how my lumber was milled. Not being able to mill my own would drastically reduce the quality of my work.

What he said.......

[Charles Taylor]

My local hardwood supplier, a very nice family operation, skip planes its lumber. That's nice, but there's more work for me to do to get uniform thickness, especially if 3/4-7/8" isn't my target thickness, and to get a nice surface. My other option would be the project lumber from the big box, which is limited in species, available only in 3/4" thickness, overpriced, and very likely not straight and flat.

I have two jointers and two planers, which in my case is an excess, but reducing to zero isn't an option for the work I like to do.

Edit: I agree with Mike on the value of a drum sander, even though I don't get along with mine very well.