I just ordered a router based flattening sled for 140 bucks. I have "extra" routers. Yay!

https://share.temu.com/TlZ2uljToZC

This means I can take all the logs I have on my property from the trees being cut down, those huge round chunks of wood, and I can flatten them on both sides perfectly just by pushing this thing back and forth with this jig.

I'll do it to a couple of them as solid table or table bases. After that it's a matter of chainsawing slices.

I was trying to set this thing up 10 different ways and it was all way too painful. It also means I can buy the cheapest pretty raw wood at the local lumber mills and do that final step myself and save 80% of the cost.

Take a slice. Keep it in the humidity temperature controlled environment for whatever amount of time it takes for the wood to hit the correct humidity and then do it again. At that points start putting in bow ties or other methods for filling in the imperfections.

Raw is still raw wood and I'm not expecting to just be able to use it, but it's a huge difference from having zero wood and hoping you can afford the wood at the store and having a shitload of wood right next to you and knowing that if I go through certain steps it becomes usable.

I have a 10x14 20-year-old wooden shed that I can just lay boards out on the floor (assuming flatness, if not I'll put it on a table) and roll this thing over them them them without caring about the dust.

I already have the correct large milling flattening bit. I understand that I'll chew through this and have to get multiples soon enough. I just stopped by a used lot. It's not a used store, it's a used lot with dozens of tents filled with stuff.

https://www.aroundagainstore.org/

One of the tents filled with tools and routers are $15 a piece. I saw at least a dozen routers to pick from. I took a $45 band saw instead this time.

Welding is next. And I decided I really don't like an angle grinder. Yes, I picked up a metal chop saw because I don't like an angle grinder, but I can do better. A plasma cutter is in my future.