re: Early planning

Art, you are correct – Penn Yan in the finger lakes to be exact. The farm losing a tree is no big deal. In fact my dad sold a bunch of trees to a logging outfit a couple of years ago who took a bunch of maple and cherry. Taking 1 or 2 living walnut trees is really no big deal at all. If I don’t take them they will become firewood when they die anyway.

The quote I got from the Mennonite saw mill was 20 cents per foot if I deliver the logs. That’s cheap as far as I can tell. One tree should cost less than $60. There’s a lot of sweat equity in that low price.

About the lumber yard link, I live in long island so if I’m going to buy lumber, I’m going to get it from a local dealer. There is only one quality yard in Nassau county that I’m aware of. Honestly I haven’t even called them up yet because I was thinking the price would be in the $10+/bf range. I will call them tomorrow sometime. I definitely want to build a prototype. Even if I do it in poplar that’s an added cost whereas walnut from my tree is free in the marginal sense since the whole operation is one fixed cost more or less. If I buy from a yard every inch is a marginal cost.

Also I would have everything sawn to 6/4 and laminate anything that needs to be thicker. How long would it take 6/4 to dry in a barn?