Services
Custom Milling
Need your log milled for personal use?
We constantly have work that needs to be done, so managing incoming logs needs to be as efficient as possible. Typically we receive log donations either directly from tree removal services or we can, under certain circumstances, pick up the logs from the home owners to be donated to our program. Though we cannot mill your log for your personal use, we can offer 1 or 2 slabs of your log in exchange for your log donation. If you need all the wood for personal use, our sawmill operators are all trained to do custom milling on their own time for you and can be scheduled through whichever operator you wish to work with. If we can’t help you, we can also recommend other fantastic sawmills in San Diego that can assist you! If you’re interested in purchasing one of our logs for personal use, we offered Ready-To-Dry whole stacks of slabbed logs at discounted rates. These stacks of slabs are stickered and banded with polyweb material to make air drying at home easier. Just find a flat and shady area, set your stack there, and wait for your lumber to increase in value!
Purchase Lumber
We donate literal tons of material to our partners.
But we still have many tons more that needs to be used! Just like Palomar College would sell urban wood at affordable prices to their students, we believe that privilege should extend to the public. Right now, our prices range by species from $7 and $15 per board foot for surfaced kiln dried lumber in our warehouse. Ask about our 'Pile of Opportunity" for discounted air dried wood at our mill yard! Contact us to schedule an appointment to see what kind of material we have available or visit our online shop to see what's surfaced and ready for purchase.
Have more time than money?
That’s ok! Ask us about our Wood For Works program where we offer lumber in exchange for your woodworks made from our wood that we can use for charitable fundraising. We would love to showcase your work and we don’t think anyone should be excluded from having access to quality lumber from your community.
Wood Scraps
We have a lot of scraps!
We have a lot of excess material and we are looking for creative minds that can utilize it. These include the skins of the log or the outer round areas, the live edge offcuts, and small diameter logs and branches as well as logs that are too short to be milled on our machines. A lot of this material would be perfect for garden projects, carving and woodturning, or even firewood! All of our sawmill waste is otherwise transported to Inland Pacific in Lakeside to be processed into biofuel, but if you have an idea on how else to utilize this material, let us know… IT’S FREE!
Pile Of Opportunity!
When we cut material with our Lucas mill, we create stacks of dimensional boards and are left with one large slab out of the middle of the log. The interesting shapes and thickness of these slabs don’t mix well with the stacks of dimensional material that we put through the kilns so we are offering these green slabs for sale as is at greatly discounted rates.
A Note For Using Green Wood
Trees are full of moisture. This moisture exists in two different forms: as free water that is contained as liquid in the pores or vessels of the wood itself, and as bound water that is trapped within the cell walls. Once a fresh log or piece of lumber is cut and exposed to the air, it will immediately begin losing free water. Typically you need to let a board air dry for 1 year per inch of thickness. For more information, check the Wood Database HERE. In short, wet wood will move as it loses moisture so if you chose to use wet wood, you can expect some movement or new cracks to form over time as it loses moisture or is exposed to sunlight. That said, there are still applications where wet wood can still work. Check out our outdoor slab benches as an example!
