Rough cutting logs from backyard

[Rich Tesoroni]

Note: none of the tools described below are assembed or working. Just assume they work for discussion purposes. They exist and have mass (lots actually), but need cleaning / reassembly.

Due to water problems, some trees have to go to allow for regrading. Got a price for getting them done, leaving me with some 10' logs.

Not wanting to see the hard maple or white oak end up as firewood, is a 24" chainsaw enough to rough cut a 30" diameter log? If I could get it to a managable size, I've got a 36" bandsaw with a 19" resaw that I could use to slice thinner boards. Might need to rig up rolling tables on either side of the bandsaw (don't have those though).

Would an Alaskan mill be the best for roughing out, or is there something else that would work? Figure I could stack the wood cut from the chainsaw, which would give me more time to fix the bandsaw.

Thanks for any ideas,
Rich

[lou sansone]

IMHO I would find a guy with a portable band mill and have it done in 1 day. They are not that expensive and the quality and effency are worth it if you have good logs.


regards lou

[thomas prevost]

ditto Lou's suggestion! You will get properly cut usable lumber probably for the price it will cost to get your equipment up and running.

[Jim Becker]

I third the motion...get a sawyer with a band mill. There is no way you could even safely lift even a 4' log onto your bandsaw, IMHO. That stuff weighs a TON, especially when wet! A sawyer's services with a bandmill on-site is relatively inexpensive. I paid $50/hr when I did my milling in 2000. Some of them work by the board foot, too.

Gene Hamilton out of Chalfont is who I used. His number is 215-822-6890. If he will not go to Malvern, it is likely he can give you a lead on someone who will.

[Rich Tesoroni]

Thanks all. I was thinking if I could get to 8" thick stock, we'd be able to move it around.

Did think about getting one of the cheap band mills. Got lots more trees, and maybe a little more sunlight hitting the ground would help the drying.

Disclaimer: I bought this place during a drought and didn't know it was a swamp.

Rich

[Greg Tatum]

Hire a bandmill....an Alaskan is a lot of work, takes a lot of time and now with gas at its current price is not so cheap to run.....if you are young and fit you might enjoy the experience, it is a laborious proccess....if you are a bit outta shape, be sure to have some ibuprophen, icy-heat and a cold one waitin' when you are done...white oak is about 5.5 pounds per board foot in weight when green so an 8"x 8" x 10' cant will weigh about 300 pounds.


An Alaskan is great when you need only a few boards or stumble upon a opportunity to slab up a nice wide crotch log your neighbor is about to burn...or you need a 30-60 footer ridge beam....otherwise, hire it out.

Regards,
Greg
(Alaskan mill owner) (ouwwwch, my achin' back!!!) :D

[Ian Abraham]

Ditto to what the others said.

Chainsaw milling needs a BIG saw, think 90cc or bigger. If you have a big Stihl or Husky already then an Alaskan + loop of ripping chain isn't a big outlay. If you have to buy a big saw, well you could have paid a mobile mill to saw for 2 days and have the job done.
The smaller manual mills dont handle big (30"+) logs very well. Could be an option if you want to get into hobby sawing though. Better suited to 12-20" logs that you can manhandle with a cant hook.
Otherwise look at swingblade mills, Peterson / Lucas etc.
Able to cut big logs and very portable. I run a Peterson as a hobby sawing thing, 30-50" logs no worries :) Hauled the mill thru a few swamps to get to logs that no one else wanted ;) :D

Cheers

Ian