Cheap building supplies are out there!

[Mtnboomer]

FYI - i just went to my local big box store today and loaded another 12ft trailer 8ft tall with lawn mower crates for free! Ive been doing this for the last 6 yrs and have build my coop, goat houses, well houses, and some very nice corner hutches and other furniture from the wood. It takes some work to take them apart but when 2x4s are $9 a piece, free lumber is never a bad idea.

Big box stores pay to have these shipping crates hauled away for recycling, or worse, hauled to a landfill. Buy re-purposing the wood they save money and so do you. The best part is the wood may be cheap pine or nicer woods such as birch, poplar, oak, and maple and all are free!

Just passing the word to help save yall a buck or two.

 

[EmmaRainboe]

Great tip! Thanks so much!

 

[CluckerFamily]

So true!!
A 2x4 cost about $10 at the big stores but local sawmills are selling theirs for $3.
It’s good to ask around. Great tip!!

 

[Mtnboomer]

So true!!
A 2x4 cost about $10 at the big stores but local sawmills are selling theirs for $3.
It’s good to ask around. Great tip!!

Our local mills are getting in on the action now....unfortunately. Kiln dried 2x4s are still cheaper at $6 but thats still 3x the price they were 18mos ago. Rough sawn is always cheaper and green wood (unseasoned) is cheaper yet but comes with its own set of issues.
I plan to build our future horse shelter (not barn) / goat birthing barn from trees I cut on our own property. The wood will be green but so are many log homes built today. Plan for the shrinkage and it should work.

Portable saw mills can be purchased or rented or chainsaw mills are even cheaper (require larger CC chainsaws than those typically used for cutting firewood) to cut the beams and boards.

Until (IF EVER) prices return to "normal" its time to think outside the box.

Our local Wally World has bacon at almost $10/lb. At that rate I'll be raising hogs next year for slaughter on top of everything else.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Great tip! Thanks so much!

No problem! Many folks don't realize that this kind of stuff exists out there and is otherwise wasted.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and re-purpose helps everyone.

 

[CHlCKEN]

wow!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Alaskan Mills require MUCH bigger chainsaws than the typical homeowner possesses, and because of the way they attach to the bar, the effective cutting area is substantially reduced. Even then, its slow going (always cut green wood this way, not last year's fall), hard on chains, and eats oil.

My 18" bar can effectively mill a tree not more than 10" in diameter. Its most efficient for me to fell it, clean it up with the mill to something close to a square profile more like 8x8, cut that in half, then drag those to the table saw and some rollers, mill the final boards there. REALLY wish I had a band saw. I've got 25 uncleared acres of oak, hickory, and some pines.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Alaskan Mills require MUCH bigger chainsaws than the typical homeowner possesses, and because of the way they attach to the bar, the effective cutting area is substantially reduced. Even then, its slow going (always cut green wood this way, not last year's fall), hard on chains, and eats oil.

My 18" bar can effectively mill a tree not more than 10" in diameter. Its most efficient for me to fell it, clean it up with the mill to something close to a square profile more like 8x8, cut that in half, then drag those to the table saw and some rollers, mill the final boards there. REALLY wish I had a band saw. I've got 25 uncleared acres of oak, hickory, and some pines.

We just added 20 ac of open hardwoods to our farm. We burn about 3 cords a yr in firewood. Open timber is not very wildlife friendly and provides little cover or food unless the oaks are dropping that year. I plan to thin the stand for optimal regrowth to lrovide deer, turkey, and grouse better habitat but that will produce way more wood than i can burn or way better quality wood than i wish to burn. So milling is my next endeavor.

 

[aart]

FYI - i just went to my local big box store today and loaded another 12ft trailer 8ft tall with lawn mower crates for free! Ive been doing this for the last 6 yrs and have build my coop, goat houses, well houses, and some very nice corner hutches and other furniture from the wood. It takes some work to take them apart but when 2x4s are $9 a piece, free lumber is never a bad idea.

Big box stores pay to have these shipping crates hauled away for recycling, or worse, hauled to a landfill. Buy re-purposing the wood they save money and so do you. The best part is the wood may be cheap pine or nicer woods such as birch, poplar, oak, and maple and all are free!

Just passing the word to help save yall a buck or two.

Need pics here......both the crates and what you built with them.

 

[Mtnboomer]

Need pics here......both the crates and what you built with them.

Here is a photo of my latest haul.

My coop was built with the wood from these disassembled crates (everything except for the shingled roof and pressure treated 4x4s and floor joists).

The 3rd pic is of my son's playhouse that i intentionally made to look like an old outhouse. All the framing is from the crates. The siding was scrap wood from an old pig sty that i tore down on the property to scavenge wood to be used on our fireplace and the roof is left over shingles from the coop build.

The goat house is at the far end of the property. I will see if i can remember to snap a pic of it later today.

All the furniture has been made for others and i never realized that I didn't photograph any of it. I'll see if they will send me some pix too.

The rest are just small little projects or Christmas presents. I built 2 "christmas tree" shaped corner shelves for my mom to display Christmas decorations, a countertop wine bottle holder, countless photo frames both rustic and refined, and the 2 rectangle boxes were lined with tanned deer hide (i did myself) and were containers used to hold personalized hand made hunting knives (not made by me) to be given to my father and uncle for christmas