For anyone that has milled their own lumber,
we are wondering if there is some sort of calculation that can be done to detrmine how much lumber we can get from pine trees that are 3' in diameter. We would be using them for wall boards.
Also wondering how tong they will need to cure before using them.
Sawmilling lumber can be some what disheartening. Some times you are faced with a great deal of we did all that and only ended up with that. If you heat with wood you have no waste if you do not mind burning pine.
How long boards have to cure is a subject to its self.


These two units were stickered by my grand son and I. How long they have to dry depends on weather, wind, humidity and ambient temps. We are blessed here in this area of Idaho with ideal air dring weather. How long does it take? I cheat I have a moisture meter. Prime conditions here four months if we are getting showers up to six months or more.....
Stickers are small boards ripped uniform width and thickness like 3/4 inch thick by an 1.25 inches wide more or less. Uniform thickness is more important that width.
Measure out our pile bottoms like 4X4s you should have five and the ground should be level and 4x4 should be equal distances from each other. If you are stacking 1x12s you place three down then a course of stickers. The stickers go directly over the 4x4s. Add the next course and sticker again directly over the other sticker and 4X4. So that is five stickers per course. So as you can see it will take a huge amount of stickers.
When the boards are dried then we break them down to plane or make molding or something out of them. But we keep the sickers in very good guarded condition because they are reused many many times. I make a pile top out of 2x4 and some heavy timbers and cover that with a plastic tarp. I used to use slabs off the logs but I seem to like this better. That keeps the weather off and stops the sun from warping the top boards so bad.