Perhaps the easiest way that you can buy you lumber is while it is freshly cut by a sawmill. Your home improvement projects will need to wait for a while if these is the lumber you have intended to use, because this lumber needs to be dried out first. The only alternative will be by purchasing dried lumbers from home improvement shops , that is if you have a lot of money but personally I'd like mine rough cut and prepared by me.

If you already have project in mind you may then plan for the materials you will need. If you go directly to a sawmill they will let you go around pick your choice of lumber. But remember this, "green lumber will shrink while drying!" So make sure you pick stock that is a little over sized.Since the prices of their prices are already very low asking for discount is not really necessary and if you've been a repeat customer I am sure they will give you a better deal on your next visit

For a lot of good tips about woodworking plans why don't you try viewing the web log.

After you get your lumber home, you'll need to decide on how you will dry it. In drying your lumbers all you need to do is pile them up make sure that there is around 12"-24" space between each other and it is dried under the sun but is covered from the rain, this is process is usually known as ' Air Drying" Then you allow it to air-dry for roughly one year for every 1" of thickness. This means that 1" thick boards will air-dry for one year, 2" thick boards will dry for two years, and so on. After a year you can bring the umber inside your shop to continue the process since it still has 12%-18% moisture.It is best to keep your shops RH to atleast 50% for the woods moisture to go down to atleast 8% and to do that you can use a thermometer/hygrometer to monitor from time to time

The other method of drying is to build a solar kiln. Plans for solar kilns can be found on the internet. Building it will only cost you around $200. The green lumber can be placed immediately inside the solar kiln for it to start drying. To dry the lumbers you need to leave it inside the kiln for approximately 1-2 months for it to be ready for use. However it will often times depend on your location, the season and etc.

You can start processing the lumber as soon as its dried up. First thing you must do is joint one face of the plank. You can do this by hand using a hand plane or perhaps the uncomplicated way with a jointer. It makes things a lot easier if you cut the board down to a length close to your final needed length. The thickness planer is the next stop for that board. This will make the board parallel to the flat face. After you plane the plank into your final thickness, then you joint one edge possibly manually or by making use of a jointer. Cutting the board to the final width is the next process after you have planed the it to your desired thickness. You can have this done by making use of saw to cut the board. Make sure that you are able to set the edge guide by using the jointed edge for reference. You now have a board almost ready for your project, just cut the final length needed and build your project. You will really save a lot of money by processing your own boards for your projects