Making lumber?

[Mike Holbrook]

I always seem to have a few hardwoods down on our 12 acres. At the moment I have a large Oak, a Hickory, Beech one or two I am not sure of and two about 12" diameter oaks that are dead and need to come down.

My question, is it possible to cut these into something like 4' logs, maybe splitting the larger logs down the middle with a chain saw, then make useable boards from them with a band saw? I assume that some of the green wood would need to be dried. I do have a wood shed that would protect it while it dried. My current band saw is a small 12" Inca but I have some friends with larger saws and a larger Band Saw will be my next large stationary tool purchase.

I think 4 foot boards will be fine for most of the uses I would have for this wood. Large logs would just be to hard to deal with without specialized equipment. I do not have a planner but again, I can get access to one till I do. I believe it is possible to make boards from rough cut lumber but I Imagine it would be very time consuming.

Hmm is there any chance I could talk Dino into making a larger version of the Easy Smart that would work with my Farm Boss Chain Saw?

[Steve Wargo]

Log onto Woodmizers Web site and find someone locally to come out and mill it for you. I've inquired a few times and it's fairly reasonable. I even had one guy that said he'd come out and mill for $50 and 25% of the lumber if I helped loading the logs. There are a ton of people that own them. Hope this helps.

[Pam Niedermayer]

Assuming you're looking for a hand tool solution, you might try riving using wedges, gluts, and sledge hammer/axe/hatchet. There was recently a discussion of this on WoodCentral.

Pam

[Tom Sontag]

I will second Steve's idea. Portable bandmillers are a great bargain and it is very satisfying to help and see them open up a log. Woodmizer and Timber king will provide names of local mill owners near you. Woodweb.com has tons of info on drying your own wood.

[Mike Holbrook]

Thanks for the ideas guys. I would love to get someone out that had portable equipment. I have looked around but have not found anything yet. There was a sawmill not far from here but it has been shut down. I did a brief search for something to rent so I could do it myself too without luck. I will check out some of the companies and the link you mention.

I have been cutting and splitting the wood by hand for firewood and outdoor cooking. A friend and I have used a good amount of the Hickory, UMMMM. I got a splitting axe, maul and wedges by Gransfors Bruks Sweden that see regular use. It is amazing how much better tools designed for these uses work as compared to the Depot offerings. They make a devise called a froe which I understand is made for splitting. They also have a "Carpenter's Axe" which may be used to produce something usable by a carpenter, one would think. I am going to try & harvest something usable with what I have just for chuckles soon.I'm going to try and do it the way honest Abe must have:)

[Adrian Rogers]

Mike,

Take it from me, your first idea is way way way more work that it's worth. A buddy and me recently cut a few Black Walnut and Cherry trees to have milled by a local person with a woodmizer. Well, we were anxious to see what the walnut looked like, so we brought home a limb about 10" in diameter and about 6 feet long. He had a 20" bandsaw and we probably put in an hour, lots of sweat, and a couple of aching backs getting that one small limb sawed, not to mention the wear and tear on his bandsaw blade. The result was a few pretty good looking 5' wide boards. All this sounds OK, until you see how quickly a 20" log can be sawed by one person with a Woodmizer. One person can saw lumber faster than two can stack it.

Around here, there is a local woodmizer guy (who advertises in the local paper) who will come out and saw for $300/day and at that, I don't see how he can make any money. The more people you can provide to operate the tractor to bring in the logs and folks to stack the lumber, the more you can get done in a day.

[Steve Inniss]

Mike,
I am doing essentially the same thing with some hardwood trees around me. Here is the thread :

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=16609
-Steve

[Ian Abraham]

Mike

Something like an Alaskan chainsaw mill might be of some use to you?

Milling with a chainsaw is hard work, for you and the saw ;) , but it does work. Saw them into 6x4 etc then resaw them with your workshop saw. It's an option if you just have one or 2 small logs and no easy way to move them. Like the other guys say, if you have a larger amount it's much better to get someone in for a day and get it sawed with a real mill.
An Alaskan is also an option for cutting wide slabs from oversive logs, crotch wood and other generally interesting stuff. Bigger chainsaws are a must there though.
I have an older Peterson portable mill, ( a swingblade ) that I can easily haul out to where ever I find usefull logs. Lots of good stuff gets burned / buried because it's not worth getting it sawed. How to saw and dry is a whole other field of knowledge, but very interesting and heaps of fun.

Cheers

Ian

[Mike Holbrook]

Great information! I just spent an hour or so researching Alaskan & portable saw mills. I had no idea there were so many options for sawing up logs on location. Looks like a $30-40 saw attachment could even make a few boards. The Alaskan saw attachments look like they may be a real option for me.

I guess the next move is a little research on how to saw up a log.