Lumber & Wood Videos

How to Save Money Buying Lumber

Saving money on lumber can take on many forms and when some lumber prices jump in price like what has happened over the past couple years, 2020 and 2021 where we have seen many lumber prices climb very high, it makes us even more aware of how we need to be particularly careful in our selections of wood and how we work with it.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/ekr2OcvEF6E

This video and article are meant to give an overview of many of the things woodworkers can do in acquiring wood and using wood that will help save them money. For much more detail on this topic there is a 6 part series on how to save money on wood where each episode is independent of the others so you can pick and choose which ones are more specific to your situation and benefit from the details of those articles and videos ... see below for an overview, pick just one topic and give it a try ...

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Making Spalted Wood in The Workshop

Making your own spalted wood is one of the things that woodworkers can do with their own wood in their own woodworking shop to make highly attractive wood, and sometimes even salvage some pieces of wood that are otherwise unusable. For those who are not sure what "spalted wood" actually is, it is the slow breakdown of wood caused by fungi, that will eventually cause the tree or wood to rot completely into the ground.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/WvCwX6DRyUk

Spalting is the first step and if we get the wood and dry it before the spalting makes the wood too weak, we can often end up with some beautiful wood that can consist of different colors and often outlined by a series of lines. Depending on how much work you put into the process of spalting your own wood, the success can vary widely.

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Making Live Edge Plywood / Fake Live Edge Slab

There are many people who enjoy working with wood - sheet goods - like plywoods, medium, and high-density fiberboard, and more. If you select quality products, you get nice flat material, sometimes you can purchase it with already applied veneers such as Oak, Maple, Walnut and so on, and what's nice, you can cut it to whatever size you need, you don't have worry about grain matching during glue-ups, twisting and warping boards, running our of enough material to do the job, knots in the wrong places ... the list is endless.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/3oOsHZMlcX8

Those are just a few of the reasons that some people like working with sheet goods ...

Read more: Making Live Edge Plywood / Fake Live Edge Slab

Tree Felling & Milling My Own Lumber with a Portable Sawmill

I watched for 3 years as the Red Alder next to the laneway at the back of my property slowly died. I could see it had been hit my machinery going up and down the lane, and too wide for it and hitting my tree. Now it's time to take the poor tree down because it is now a hazard to all those people who walk up and down the lane as I see dead branches on the ground that have fallen off.

Watch it on Youtube: https://youtu.be/4Be8rq4na9E

Anyone who might have got hit by one of these could get seriously injured or worse, so time for the tree to go, but rather than haul it away, I think it will still make some good lumber ... 

Read more: Tree Felling & Milling My Own Lumber with a Portable Sawmill