One of the most cost effective ways of getting inexpensive wood, and being kind to the environment at the same time is using Urban Wood. These are trees that a blown down, flooded out, have a tree disease and need to be taken down or are dangerous to the public. There are thousands of board feet of these trees all across America that municipalities, towns and cities have to deal with and many are looking for help with this.
This is a perfect entry for woodworking Guilds and Clubs to enter the picture, and I have talked at length about this ion the past. Very often these trees can be free to acquire, but they need to be hauled to someone who will mill them and whatever the cost of milling is worth. Still, these are not insurmountable chores and it is still pretty easy to get good usable lumber for very reasonable prices.
The Down Side is, you will often be getting wood that is at least somewhat we, which means it needs to be dried. This might require some people to purchase lumber 12 or 16 months ahead of time like I do. For the cost of it, this process is work every penny, and you get to learn a LOT MORE about working with wood.
The speed of drying can often be sped up, but alas, they sometimes are also drawbacks to doing this. The main problem that can arise is something called "honeycombing" and this is a condition that happens inside the board where the wood actually collapses in small sections leaving behind a kind of gap. These gaps are only visible after the board is cut, Honeycombing is seldom seen in slower drying situations.
End Grain Sealer
Available from Amazon - HERE
One of the most important processing tasks is End Grain Sealing. This should be done at EVERY step of the wood processing.
When the tree is first felled, log ends should be end sealed
When the log is cut into lumber if ends are trimmed they should be sealed
The only time to relent on end grain sealing is once the board has reached it target moisture content.
Cutting Logs Into Boards
Although many of us tend to use boards that are 3/4" or less in thickness, very often the first cutting of lumber at the mill should be 8/4 or even 9/4 (2" or even 2-1/4"). The reason for this is that their tends to be much less wood twisting and deforming with thicker slabs. Of course the drying time is longer, but the end result is more controllable wood and less waste (from cutting out twisting and warping).
Home Drying Wood
May people like to dry their own wood, and save a lot of money by purchasing wet lumber and doing their own drying. One of the best ways of doing this is with a "dehumidifier". These can be purchased new, but are often found a very discounted prices as Used Items. If you purchase a used one MAKE SURE IT ACTUALLY WORKS before you take it home. Plug it in, turn the thermostat until the fan blows then take a few minutes to watch if water is condensing on the coils and water is dripping off the coils and into the catch tray.
There a variety of plans and ideas for home "evaporation kilns" using dehumidifiers, or if you have a small room in your house or shop that is somewhat sealed, you can set up a small walk-in kiln that can help speed up your drying.
Below, A Small Home Dehumidifier
You will need a couple of other items to do this, obviously a wood moisture meter, you should have one of these regardless of where you get wood, this is a must have for any serious woodworker. You would also benefit from a "hygrometer", these are easy to find and inexpensive and will give you an idea of what the humidity in the air is that helps to gauge how well and how fast the wood is drying.
Hygrometer (with or without a thermometer, either is fine)
You will also want to know what the wood "Equilibrium" in your area is. This is the moisture content of the wood at a point where it will be neither giving off or absorbing moisture. The equilibrium of wood will vary in most regions, from summer to winter, this is normal, but that wood moisture content will change slightly AND SLOWLY so you really only want a sort of "mean average" for your area. That is the best we can do and that is what we work with.
There are a variety of graphs on the Internet or you can download an App from the Wagner Meter website, on the website menu, look for Wood Apps and pic the "Wood H 2 O" App. it's free to download and can be used by everyone.
Download Instructions for Phone App - HERE
If you are looking for more ideas and inspirations on Urban Wood, this video is something I found most interesting for wood workers ...
Thanks for stopping by ...
Colin Knecht
Woodworkweb
