Projects around my place

[TnAndy]

One of the main reasons I bought my Woodmizer LT40 back in 1991 was to use the timber off my place to build stuff on my place.  That has worked out great, saving me many tens of thousands of bucks in lumber costs, and even more when you add in sales tax on buying lumber, and income taxes on earning money to buy lumber.....those last two are often overlooked forms of savings from producing your own lumber.

One small project I use on a continuous basis are my firewood sheds.  I built two of them couple years ago, and liked them enough to build two more after that.  Each of them is about 6 1/2' deep X 12' inside.  They hold right at 4 cords when stacked into the rafters.  That gives me 16 cords of wood cut/split/drying at any point in time...we use about 4-6 cords/yr between the house (insert upstairs, free standing stove in basement used when it gets below mid teens, wood cookstove in the auxiliary kitchen off the back of the garage, not used much), shop (wood furnace), greenhouse (freestanding stove used if we get early cold, not all winter).

The sheds are movable when empty, I drag them to where I'm cutting/thinning, and later move to other areas.  I keep one at the mill site.



Build them in my shop (another project of home lumber):



Drag them outside to paint, install roof metal.

[Kirk Allen]

Very nice!

[TnAndy]

OK...another small project of two years back.  Had a smaller, similar fuel storage shed in the same spot, but built it too close too a tree that subsequently blew out in an early snow....leaves were still on the tree, and it got a wet, heavy snow taking it down, and the corner of the shed with it.  Tanks were on minimal metal angle stands, one broke, the other bent.  Didn't have a concrete base, just 4 posts in ground.

So, new shed in order.  Poured an 8 x12 pad, and came off that with the building.  6x6 treated post sunk into concrete, rest is my lumber off the WM.  Poplar and red oak because I have a lot of it.

Loft is for the tanks.  Put it with 6'2" headroom under it so I don't bump my head.




Homemade trusses with plywood gusset plates & lots of 6p air nails I commonly use on smaller buildings like this.  Set them on 36" centers, roof is light weight and steep enough pitch it won't hold much snow.



Put enough overhang front and back to protect it well.  Purlin material is 5/4 x 6 nailed flat 24"oc.





Spray with couple coats of barn red.  kept one of the older tanks, a 250 gal that was gasoline, now diesel (yellow). Bought new 300gal (red) for gas.  Hard plumbed both to filters, then to flex hose with nozzle for filling stuff.  I get the tanks filled by local oil distributor that runs a route here.

Shelves under on left for jugs of motor oil/hydraulic/anti-freeze/etc.
Right side for general storage.

[TnAndy]

Nuther project about 7-8 years back.  Was going to re-model the house kitchen, down to studs/lot of changes, and knew it would take me several months....so built an 'auxiliary' kitchen off the back off the house garage.  Had it in mind for quite a while for an eventual work space to cut meat (we raise beef, pork, chicken, catfish and do a lot of garden canning), but for a couple months, it was THE kitchen.

First cut a hole in the back wall of the garage, big enough for set of double doors so we can roll cart in with animal halves/quarters...slaughter done in field.

Sawed out existing garage floor to tie in drains.



Slab prep for room, which is 12x22.  Lower side slopes off steep to creek bed, so had to pour a footer and build up several courses of block to support the floor and new wood cook stove flue.



Wall framing 2x6 white pine/poplar mix.  Hole in back wall between ladders is for window AC for planned walk-in cooler to chill meat.



Roof framing 2x6 w/1x6 sheathing.  Ties into existing garage roof.



Walk-in cooler framed in.  Found a used, pre-hung door from old cooler that fit my needs just fine.  Finished cooler with 4" foam board, then 1/8" white fiberglass panels to finish.  Cooling is from a 12,000 BTU window AC unit controlled by a 'coolbot' electronic controller that will hold the 6x6' room at 35 degrees.





Space to the right of the cooler made a dandy walk-in pantry for storing canned foods/etc.






Finished left side of room, with wood stove.



Right side/end of room, not quite done with cabinets at this shot.  Large, used, commercial sink.  Window/dishwasher re-purposed out of remodeled main kitchen.  30gal water heater with hose attached so I can  hose the whole place down to floor drains after use.

Counter tops are knock off Corian, bought at a liquidator place.  First experience working with it....not bad, but DO sand the stuff out in the yard....dust is finer than any flour and gets in everything !

[furu]

Nice set of projects.  You do fine work sir!

[TnAndy]

Nice set of projects.  You do fine work sir!

My wife would agree....with the caveat "just not a lot of it, nor on a regular basis".....ahahhaaaaa

One of the FANTASTIC reasons for owning a small mill if you have timbered property is the source of inexpensive lumber.  When I first bought my mill, I figure the amortization of mill costs, number of bdft per blade, took a guess at repairs/fuel/etc, and I came up with a nickel a board foot in lumber costs, assuming I cut 1 million bdft over the life of the mill.  I'm well over 500k bdft cut, quit counting years ago, but I think my figures are fairly accurate.

What that translates to is REALLY CHEAP LUMBER !  So it encourage me to use it for things that help me here on the place, as well as off place projects from time to time.

You take average framing lumber (just set cabinet/molding grade cost aside for the moment), and it will run 40-70 cents/bdft at the big box or lumber yard.  To that, one must add sales tax (nearly 10% here in Tn because we have no State income tax), and say at least 25% in federal income/SS tax one has to pay on earned income to have money to actually BUY lumber, and you need to add about a 1/3 to the price of store lumber to get your true cost in a 2x4 !! 

Instead of (store price, for example) $2.50 for that 2x4x8', you're REALLY paying $3.38.....and I'm paying (5.33 x 5cents) 28 cents....over $3 paid to me (a penny saved really IS a penny earned to borrow from Ben Franklin) for each stick of lumber.

And if you really want to blow your mind, compare kiln dried hardwood lumber turned into doors/cabinets/moldings.  I figured out some time ago molding was clearly the "filet mignon" of a tree, based on prices. 

A piece 2 1/4" wide oak casing, for example, runs a dollar/linear foot. (plus that 35% tax premium).  Even assuming you start with full 1x lumber ( I cut my molding stuff 7/8), you'll get 5 strips out of a 12" wide piece, meaning one board foot yields 5 linear feet.....you're paying $5/bdft for finished molding !!

Now clearly, you have some extra cost associated it....like kiln drying, and actually turning it INTO molding.....so it's not all gravy.

But what I did was build a small kiln in one corner of my shop.  It holds about 800 to 1200 bdft, depending on thickness of stock (thicker the stock, less stickers between layers = more footage).  I simply took some space in the corner, build a room, walls out of OSB (yeah, I buy some stuff...ahahahaa) coated with aluminized mobile home roof coating for a good moisture barrier, then the 'heart' of it is a free-for-hauling-off, old dog of a window AC  (like 22,000 BTU) that makes my kiln a big dehumidifier.  Just set the unit inside on a shelf and turn it on.  The scrap heat off the back raises the well insulated room to a temperature of about 135 degrees over the course of a day or two.  Moisture comes off the wood (which I air dry 6 months/year down to 20% MC or less ahead of the kiln drying), hits the cold coil of the AC, and drips into a 5 gallon bucket under it. 

When it really gets going in about a week, it will pull a bucket a day out of the air.  After a few weeks, this will drop off, and I'll check the wood with an electronic MC meter, when I hit 6-8%, I turn it off, and just leave in the kiln until I use it.  Wood is like a sponge....you can kiln dry it to that level, but if you take it out and store in even a semi-humid environment, it will go right back to that 15-20% MC level, and you wasted your time drying it !

Pic of kiln inside:



For making molding, I bought a little Williams/Hussy machine for $900, build the stand, added a wood 'deck', and a 6hp motor off a scrapped air compressor.  Looks like a toy, which is exactly what I though when I got the box shipped to.....nah....NO WAY....but it had good reviews for the price, and sure enough, I've made thousands and thousands of linear feet of molding thru it !




I bought it because I intended to build some rental properties (another project story), and thought it would pay for itself in savings, with it certainly did.  Allowed me to also 'upscale' the properties, which I later sold for nice profit due to the things like those custom hardwood moldings.


Long as I'm at it, some other pics of my wood/welding/mechanic shop:

Shop (view from house) is 35x75, yes, all built with wood from here.
400amp electrical service, 14' ceilings in main part, dust collection pipe in floor before it was poured.

[drobertson]

Sitting around on this cloudy but seasonably warm January morning, going through older threads and topics,, could not help but stop at this one.  I got to wondering how ole Tnandy is doing, its been a while since his last post, and I'm hoping he's doing alright.  I sure would like for him to know there is an ole Missouri hillbilly admiring his work.  He pretty much has the goods going on there in those Tennessee hills.  Not sure what to like the most, I figure he has pretty much covered nearly every base on his place..

[Ox]

I'm glad you posted on this, dr.  I haven't seen it and really liked looking at the pictures.  TnAndy - if you see this - thanks for posting those pics.  You have a nice place and should be proud of your work that you've done.  Thinking outside of the box is always nice to see.

[Stevem]

Yes!  Very nice