The cheapest way to buy lumber is green and rough cut from a sawmill in your area. This type of lumber needs to be dried out first before you can use it and if you have a project this will not do. I love using products that I personally made myself but if you have a lot of money to spend and you are in a hurry you can just purchase the lumbers you need in any home improvement shops.
Once you decide what projects you are going to attempt, and what species you plan to use, you can begin the process. The first thing you need to do is procure the materials. This is a matter of locating a local sawmill and asking if they have any lumber of the species and quality you need. Chances are that they will have a pile lying around somewhere that you can sort through and take your pick of the boards. Getting a bit oversized lumber is advisable if you are picking the green lumber because it will shrink when dried.You should find that the price you pay here will be very good, so don't try to haggle the price down. If they like you and you become a repeat customer they will probably give you even better deals later on.
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After bringing the green lumber home you will then need to 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" For each 1" thick lumber , it will take you a year to dry so if you have 2" thick it will take 2 years 3" 3 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.If your shop has low humidity you can let your lumber finish drying for a few weeks in there. I suggest that you buy a thermometer/hygrometer from Radio Shack. It is only about $40 and you can buy remote sensors for it to monitor other areas. The humidity in your shop should be under 50%RH to allow your lumber to finish drying down to 8% moisture content.
The other method of drying is to build a solar kiln. Plans for solar kilns can be found on the internet. You don't need much to have these built just a couple of hundred bucks and you have it. The green lumber can be placed immediately inside the solar kiln for it to start drying. Drying the lumber can sometimes depend on your location and the temperature however it usually takes 30-60 days to have it dried or reach the 6%-8% moisture to make it ready for use.
Processing your lumber can start as soon as it reaches it's ideal moisture content. The very first thing you need to do is joint one surface of the board. This can be achieved by hand by using a hand plane or the uncomplicated way by using a jointer. Cutting the board to your desired length is advised. And in order for you to have a uniform thickness you may now run through a thickness planer. This process will make the board equal in thickness. After you plane the panel down to your final dimension, you then joint one side perhaps by yourself or with a jointer. With the board flat, planed to the final thickness you are ready to rip the board to your final width. This can be done by using a saw. Using the jointed for reference you can now set your board to your desired width. After you have cut the final measurement you can now start building your project. You will really save a lot of money by processing your own boards for your projects
