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Glenn Clabo
07-12-2015, 6:51 AM
Why don't we start with an introduction of what you do...how you do it...etc.

Cody Colston
07-12-2015, 7:27 AM
I saw and dry lumber for primarily for my own use, both construction and woodworking projects. At the moment, I have 600+ bf of 4/4 SYP air drying that will be used for wall paneling inside a 10' x 20' building that was built from lumber that I sawed...most of it coming from my own Pine trees that were removed during a pond excavation.

I saw with a Logmaster LM-1 manual band sawmill that I purchased secondhand about four years ago. The mill was stationary when I got it but I later had a trailer built for it at Logmaster so that I can be mobile. Log and lumber handling at home is done with a Kioti 30 hp tractor with FEL and pallet forks. After sawing, I treat the lumber with Timbor and sticker-stack in air-drying stacks covered with corrugated metal roofing. Prior to using the lumber for indoor projects, I dry it to 7% in a modified, VT solar kiln that is sized to dry 300 bf charges. Any excess kiln-dried lumber is kept inside the shop on horizontal racks. Surprisingly, the MC stays very consistent with the kiln-dried value since the shop is insulated. I run the A-C in the summer and occasionally the heat in the winter. I use a Lignomat moisture meter for checking MC and also have a thermal hygrometer to monitor RH inside the shop.

I have a very good friend who has a cattle farm with several acres of woods. Among those woods are Walnut trees and when one is dying or dead, he lets me log the timber and even helps me saw the lumber. I have around 2000bf of mill-run Walnut in air-dried stacks now. Since I got the sawmill, logs just come to me. Friends, neighbors, etc. know that I have the mill and I get offers of logs all the time. Occasionally I'll saw up a log or two as a favor but I do not saw commercially.

I'm changing my signature line to reflect my milling/drying equipment. It helps others who ask or answer questions.

Tom Hogard
07-12-2015, 8:55 AM
I've been a woodworker for 50 years and in the 80s I started salvaging logs and trying to find a way to get them milled (I was "frugal"). It wasn't always easy to find someone who would mill residential trees, small quantities, etc., but they were out there if you searched. I retired in 2009 after 31 years in law enforcement and purchased a used Timberking B-20, 18 months old and with only 5 hours of use. I formed "Tom The Sawyer Portable Sawmill Service" in 2010.

I am the only active portable sawmill working in the Kansas City area. Most of my milling volume is on the road, probably 90%, covering about 18,000 square miles. I pull my mill with an F350 flatbed - overkill for towing the mill but I still salvage logs and the dump bed is quite helpful. I do mill at home, especially for smaller appointments and my primary support device is a piggyback forklift. Floatation tires, lift capacity of 5000 lbs., and the ability to turn on a dime. It can pick up any log that I would ever put on my mill and is very handy for moving pallets of milled lumber, unloading client's vehicles, organizing my log yard, etc. I am in the process of building a kiln chamber. I purchased a Nyle L200M computerized, dehumidification kiln unit. I realize that custom milling only generates income when there is sawdust flying. The kiln, and a large planer, will enable to me add value to the logs I have and custom dry for clients.

ian maybury
07-12-2015, 7:39 PM
I'm very much at the other end of the scale in terms of activity level and experience. Am slowly ramping up my woodworking experience and capability - building up to targeting high end box and related small cabinet work. It's becoming fairly clear that one way to get good control of wood quality is the to install the capability to at least stress relieve and condition it. Having got that far it'd be a pity not to gear up to saw and dry small batches of locally available woods.

It's essentially a retirement project after a career in engineering, manufacturing management and management consulting - with lots of DIY oriented woodwork, model aircraft and custom motorcycle stuff bubbling along in the background. The trigger was a long period of fairly serious illness - uncertainty tends to focus the mind...

Scott T Smith
07-12-2015, 8:48 PM
I built my first kiln in 2003 (Nyle 200 with a Delmhorst Kil-mo-trol system), bought my first sawmill (Peterson WPF with 63' of track) at the end of 2005, added a solar kiln in 2010, added a Baker 3638D Bandmill in November of 2013, and built my own dedicated slabber in 2014. I have a second Nyle L200 awaiting a kiln building. The milling operation specializes in quartersawn oak, sycamore, oversize/length timberframe timbers, and live edge slabs up to 72" wide.

We like the big stuff, especially large logs and long timbers, but the day to day operation is focused on quarter and rift sawing oak. We do custom milling and drying for folks as well.

Danny Hamsley
07-12-2015, 9:41 PM
I am a professional Forester and have a 200 acre Tree Farm that I manage. I have a Wood-mizer LT40 hydraulic sawmill, a Cooks edger, a Nyle L53 dehumidification kiln, and a Grizzly GO544 planer. I saw mostly hardwood, pre-dry-air-dry it, then kiln dry and plane it. I saw and dry a number of species like walnut, red oak, white oak, maple, quartersawn sycamore, hackberry, chinaberry, pecan, yellow poplar, sweetbay magnolia, quartersawn pine, cherry, persimmon, sweetgum, and anything else that I can find to saw. I saw and dry thick, wide slabs of a number of species.

I am also an avid woodworker and make a lot of furniture, for family, and others.

Glenn Clabo
07-13-2015, 1:18 AM
Hey folks...we need to follow the rules...
SMC has an advertising and marketing program. As such, we seek to provide a non-competitive atmosphere for our advertisers by disallowing commercial posts from our members. Posts made by Members with direct commercial affiliation, and with the apparent intent of using SawMill Creek for the sole purpose of promoting a product or service will be subject to removal. Members with direct commercial affiliation are defined to be those Members who stand to benefit financially from such a promotion.
Links to other websites are allowed in posts. In fact, they are encouraged. However, links for the sole purpose of marketing, generating traffic to a site, or any other commercial advertisement deemed to solicit commercial benefit are not allowed. Links to other public or private forums are not allowed. Links should be submitted as references, for the sole purpose of generating or supporting discussions on SawMill Creek.

Danny Hamsley
07-13-2015, 8:11 AM
Understood. Posting the website was intended to add info, but I can see how it would be interpreted as advertisement. Sorry, not my intent to advertize. My participation on SMC has been to contribute to the knowledge base or to benefit from it. That will not change. I edited my post to remove any commercial references.

Mike Holbrook
07-14-2015, 1:26 AM
I have been active in construction and wood working projects for around 20 years now. I am very interested in making windsor chairs and green woodworking in general. The wife and I are semi retired running a dog training/ day care business on our 12 acres in North Metro Atlanta. My current issue is, I am working too hard at the home business to put the time I would like into woodworking. I have good size hardwoods falling into our creek or coming down the side of the valley regularly. I have always wanted to harvest a few trees a year and put up some logs and lumber for projects. I have several buildings I can store lumber in once I harvest it. I have talked to a few sawyers in my area but I typically do not have enough trees down to justify going that route. I have a 30 hp tractor with loader but it runs on turf tires now and is not that great at moving logs. I know my way around a chain saw. I have operated quite a few backhoes, excavators, bobcats...over the years, making roads, landscaping, digging ponds, clearing trees.. so if I need to move larger logs I can do it.

Like Ian above I have suffered a physical set back or two over the last year or two. I hope I am leaving those issues behind so I can get back to working a chain saw and harvesting some wood. I have several buildings I can store logs or lumber in once I get them into some serviceable form.

Larry Edgerton
07-14-2015, 8:48 AM
I have a small construction/woodworking business and am not a sawyer at all. I do some sawing on my friends Corley circle mill and use his Kiln but that does not qualify me for any kind of expert. I just would like to see conversations unfold that I can learn from so for the most part I will just shut up and listen!

Larry

Cody Colston
07-14-2015, 11:17 AM
I do some sawing on my friends Corley circle mill and use his Kiln but that does not qualify me for any kind of expert.

Larry, I have a sawmill but I would not presume to call myself a sawyer. That's why I am pleased to see a sawmilling forum here...so that I can learn and perhaps contribute a bit, too.

Izzy Camire
07-14-2015, 3:09 PM
A few years ago when I wanted to build a barn I bought a Logmaster LM2 -- great machine. I sawed out the lumber for the building. Since then I don't saw nearly as much but about once a year I do saw for myself, friends, and relatives.
The loft in barn has softwood on one side and hardwood lumber on the other. Nice to always have a supply of lumber at hand.

Kent A Bathurst
07-14-2015, 7:19 PM
Gentlemen:

I don't have a mill. I don't have a kiln. I don't reasonably expect to - - in this lifetime.

But - I find this topic very interesting, so I will be lurking in the shadows. I like the intellectual challenge of learning something new, and I am looking forward to great stuff in the new forum.

Thanks,

Kent

PS - Scott -- any chance you would shoot a video of how you use your equipment to produce QS lumber? That would be fascinating. To me. I use a lot fo QS WO and Sycamore - as you already know. But don't waste time to play to the cheap seats - - I don't expect that.

Scott T Smith
07-14-2015, 10:20 PM
Gentlemen:

I don't have a mill. I don't have a kiln. I don't reasonably expect to - - in this lifetime.

But - I find this topic very interesting, so I will be lurking in the shadows. I like the intellectual challenge of learning something new, and I am looking forward to great stuff in the new forum.

Thanks,

Kent

PS - Scott -- any chance you would shoot a video of how you use your equipment to produce QS lumber? That would be fascinating. To me. I use a lot fo QS WO and Sycamore - as you already know. But don't waste time to play to the cheap seats - - I don't expect that.

Kent, I'll see what I can put together. We employ different methods depending upon several factors, including log size, balance between quarter and rift, etc.

I use at least three different techniques to produce QS on the band mill, not to mention the swing blade.

One thing that I'd like to put together is some good info for woodworkers re milling and drying lumber. My plan is to create a rough draft and then invite the other millers and kiln operators on this forum to edit and add in more info.

Danny Hamsley
07-15-2015, 7:39 AM
We could do a thread on quartersawing.

Larry Edgerton
07-15-2015, 7:51 AM
Speaking of swingblades, when my wife finally gets around to winning the lottery like I told her I will have a Turbo Saw on my property. Who knew a sawmill could be sexy?

http://turbosawmill.com/gladiator/

Larry

Cody Colston
07-15-2015, 10:41 AM
We could do a thread on quartersawing.

That would be cool. I've done some quarter sawing with my mill (Red Oak) but the method I use renders both QS and RS boards. I quarter the log and then saw each quarter separately. Takes a while.

I'd like to see some detail on the octagon method of quarter sawing and any other methods for band sawmills.

Kent A Bathurst
07-15-2015, 7:05 PM
We could do a thread on quartersawing.

That'd be cool.

Understand, guys - I am not in your club - I am just an information fiend -- love to learn. Don't go off the rails just because I am curious.

Thanks

kent

David Ragan
07-15-2015, 7:49 PM
Hi,

I'm amateur WW; fell and milled some maple several years ago, still have it stickered in bsmt.

No mill/kiln. Have a little wkd time for WW.

Love this forum.

Would like to nose around and learn about what is reasonable to expect from green logs and local mills as I begin a journey into chairmaking w green uncured wood.

My goal is to make a Windsor chair. I think I would really enjoy the handwork. Windsor seems grandiose right now, but that is the goal.

Thanks to all the professionals who share the knowledge with the rest of us.

Dennis Ford
07-16-2015, 10:40 PM
I have been woodworking as a hobby for many years, sell an item once in a while but still consider myself more of a hobbyist than professional. I like tinkering and making tools so made myself a band type sawmill about a year and half ago. Starting to accumulate a nice stock of wood cut on my mill. Still learning about the drying phase although I had considerable experience with drying bowls and other turned items.

Bill Rhodus
07-19-2015, 9:52 AM
Also interested in monitoring this category. I have a background in producing SYP in a modern, high speed mill (300,000+ bf per shift) and have transitioned to collecting the odd old growth log for shop material.

John Fairbairn III
07-20-2015, 11:37 AM
I am not a sawyer - but my Dad and I did buy a sawmill last fall (almost like staying at a Holiday Inn Express). It is a Turner (made here in upstate NY) and was custom made for the previous owner with a 24' bed to cut 20' lumber. Bigger than our needs but welcome nonetheless. 13hp Honda powers it. We use it to cut up anything from hemlock for barn/building materials to cherry, maple, and some awesome spalted birch we found... We won't be hiring it out or hiring ourselves out, except to very few friends who have just a log or two. We wanted it to be fun - small investment and no need to make it repay itself. So far so good.
Future plans would include a kiln.
Loading is great - my Dad has a farm so we have two different tractors available to load and unload with a quick-tatch grapple. Perfect for heavy, long logs to gently place on the mill.
We still need to locate a local sharpening service for the blades...

PS - thanks Cody for getting this started.

thanks,
john a/k/a mapleman

Danny Hamsley
07-20-2015, 8:40 PM
If you buy and use Woodmizer blades, you can send them to them for resharpening. It costs me a little over $100 for 10 blades, that is just over $10/blade, including shipping. They do a great job.

Ed McEowen
08-08-2015, 11:32 AM
I bought a Norwood LM2000 in 2004 to salvage all the big trees that went down when a tornado came through our 40 acres in southwest Missouri near Jerico Springs. I used the lumber, mostly oak, to add an addition onto my house and replace some of the old board and batten siding. I have since become a fairly competent woodworker in order to make use of the lumber I keep cutting up. Though not really in business, I custom saw for anyone who brings their logs to me. In my stockpile, I have white and red oak, walnut, red cedar, mulberry, osage orange, cherry, Kentucky coffee tree, and honeylocust. I really need to sell some oak but haven't found anybody who wants to drive all the way out to the boonies to get it. It would be nice to find some "Creekers" nearby. I have a solar kiln and started a long thread on the Norwood sawmill forum, Norwood Connect, describing and picturing how I built it:

John TenEyck
08-08-2015, 2:33 PM
I'm a retired R&D engineer and have been a hobbiest woodworker for about 30 years. About 10 years ago I started milling lumber with an Alaskan Mill after getting sticker shock buying a few pieces of hardwood. I milled over 3000 BF of local hardwoods with the Alaskan Mill until it wasn't near as much fun any more, then I designed and built a rolling mill, stealing ideas from many of the mills you see pictures of on the web. Here's a photo of it with my Husky 385XP in it.

319199

The base is just 4 x 4's and screws together, and the carriage rides on aluminum angle. It's light and portable which was the whole idea behind it. I can use it on my own semi rural property or put it in a pick up truck or trailer and mill wherever needed. When I'm not using it it's easily stored in an inconspicuous place. It has a 42" bar and about 34" between the frame.

I built a log dolly that allows me to bring home one log at a time behind my car. It started out with a capacity to handle a 24" dia. log, but I upsized it to 34" last year, which far exceeds the towing capacity of my car with a big log but on our generally flat roads I haven't had any problems so far.

Working alone is often a challenge when you don't have any real equipment for moving logs. The Alaskan Mill was easy in the sense that I could mill the log lying on the ground if needed. With the rolling mill I have to get the log up onto the bunks. Logs that roll well, and are less than maybe 24" dia. I can roll up two wood ramps that attach to the mill, but it takes two people to roll ones larger than that. For really big ones I learned about par buckling; so simple and effective once you see how it's done. I have a winch that hooks up to the hitch of my car that I use to do that.

Of course if you mill lumber you need a way to dry it and I'm not patient enough to wait on Mother Nature forever, so I built a dehumidification kiln soon after I started milling, following the principles outlined in a FWW article from about 15 years ago. I air dry the lumber first on typical bunks covered with corrugated roofing until it gets down to the EMC of my area of around 12 - 14% which takes around 4 months for 4/4 stock if I mill it in early Spring. About 275 BF of AD lumber can go in the kiln, which is in a corner of my basement workshop. It takes about 10 days to dry a load down to 6 - 8%. After drying is where I'm in trouble. My shop is getting so full of wood it's getting difficult to get any work done. I need another building to house the drier and dried wood but there are no obvious solutions with the size of my property. Oh well, better to have too much wood than not enough.

One really nice aspect of milling my own wood is I've gotten some woods that are hard to come by commercially, at least in my area. Black locust, honey locust, English walnut, and catalpa are a few that come to mind. Then there's the usual suspects of white and red oak, maple, and black walnut. I get all my logs for free, many through an arborist friend. Sometimes I help him take down a residential tree; in exchange I get the logs and sometimes the limb wood, too, which I cut and split for firewood. Other times he calls and asks if I want a log or two and he drops them off or I go pick them up. Sometimes I build something for him in exchange for the wood.

I don't really sell milled wood, but I have sold a few live edge slabs. I couldn't sell a one until I decided to dry them. When I advertised them as KD on Craigslist they all sold in a week or two. I've also traded work for wood. I milled, dried, and fabricated a 3" thick red oak fireplace mantle for a guy last Winter in exchange for the rest of the wood out of the two logs he brought me. I got over 300 BF of perfectly clear red oak out of that deal. OK, there was a bullet in it, but no hardware and hardly a knot.

John

Ed McEowen
08-08-2015, 3:29 PM
John, I had an Alaska Mill (up to 24") once - even burned up a chainsaw with it. I advise you to never ever try out a bandsawmill - you'll be forever spoiled. But I bet your rolling mill improved things greatly. Still . . .

John TenEyck
08-08-2015, 3:54 PM
Ed, I'm thinking about building a bandsaw mill one of these days. Yes, the Alaskan Mill was humble, but it worked. Here's what mine looked like with a 28" bar.

319207

I milled some mighty nice wood with it.

319208

I'm still running the same Husky 385XP on my rolling mill; well over 4000 BF with that saw now and it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. It's a little hard to justify the time/money of building a bandsaw mill when what I have works pretty well and is so easily portable. If I do build a bandsaw mill I may very well build an electric one with something like a 5 HP motor. It would still be reasonably light, and nice and quite. I know my yield would likely go up from the smaller saw kerf, as well as faster cutting. Speed isn't that important to me, but more yield with a really nice log would be a good thing. Sometimes now I think I'm making sawdust and get lumber as the by product.

John

Gary Price
08-11-2015, 10:05 PM
Are any of you in the central Maryland or Pennsylvania area? The reason I ask is I would like to know about a ban on cutting walnut trees. When I Google the information I didn't find anything, besides first hand info is better anyway.

glenn bradley
08-12-2015, 8:31 AM
This is a great thread. If there were any member/sawyers in my area I would certainly prefer them over the lumber yard. Living in a desert area doesn't make sawyers a common thing. I have often daydreamed about a run to Oregon for a trailer load ;-)

Tom Hogard
08-12-2015, 11:17 AM
Glenn, if you put your location in your profile it would help us understand where "my area" means. We are out there, we just need to be more proactive in helping clients find us. :o

Cody Colston
08-12-2015, 5:51 PM
I have often daydreamed about a run to Oregon for a trailer load ;-)

Make a run to East Texas and I'll load you up with Black Walnut. :D

Jesse Busenitz
08-16-2015, 8:52 PM
I'm not a sawyer, but have had several thousand board ft milled by a friend. I grew up on a farm and we have a lot of creek ground and so I've been able to harvest some nice trees, some that were on the edge of a field that needed to come out or some that were just mature.... I had a 50"x22' White Oak log with only one small branch half way up, which was really fun to mill. I'm still toying with the idea of getting my own mill one day, but right now I'm still trying to move my cabinet shop so I have enough irons in the fire.

glenn bradley
08-16-2015, 10:07 PM
Glenn, if you put your location in your profile it would help us understand where "my area" means. We are out there, we just need to be more proactive in helping clients find us. :o

Wow, thanks Tom. Somewhere along the line my location got removed. Surely a fat-finger on my part. I had not even noticed :o. That is embarrassing since I frequently ask others to add their locations . . . doh!

Charles Randal Smith
08-30-2015, 10:27 PM
About a year ago, I fell into sawmilling. I had played at woodworking as a hobby for several decades but when medicine no longer called, retirement was a great opportunity to expand my activities -- the result is I am no longer retired. A local arborist was interested in donating (dumping?) trees to avoid landfill charges, and I wanted to get a ‘Certificate of Good Stewardship’ for the mixed forest on our farm near Toronto; this meant thinning the plethora of mature trees on the property, so I sought a sawmill to handle the logs which would result. The good folks at Wood-Mizer wisely advised me not to go entry-level, as my aging body would appreciate things like hydraulics and auto clutch systems. They were right!

I have a WM LT40 with which I mill my own wood, do some custom milling, and happily mill the wood which is donated by others. Felling uses a Stihl 441, and I move the logs with Deeres, a 2355 and a 4110. The workshop has the usual woodworking gear, including a 20 inch planer and 10 inch jointer. Branch crotches and burls find their way onto a Robust American Beauty lathe. The common hardwoods I mill are maple (sugar and red), ash, beech, birch, basswood, and cherry. Some large black walnut trees prompted me to get a chainsaw mill in order to handle logs of greater diameter than the LT40 will accommodate.

So far, I am air drying the lumber, but realize I will need a kiln at some point in time. (I think I could fit a Nyles L53 dehumidification unit in the barn.) And I haven’t yet figured out who will buy the thousands of bd ft of hardwood which I am accumulating. My business plan has a few deficiencies.

I don't yet have a large drying shed thanks to numerous provincial restrictions (e.g., historic property, environmental protection) which are delaying a building permit. I would like to build a timber frame structure, but have no such experience. To gain some, I am going to erect a couple of small timber-framed garden sheds. I have started felling and milling hemlock logs for this purpose. I figure if I can make a mortise and tenon joint in Shaker furniture, I should be able to fashion a M&T joint in larger pieces of wood.

As others have doubtless discovered, having a sawmill attracts those who would offer to help. A high school student spent one day a week with me during the school year to learn wood technology, and a college student studying furniture design occasionally takes over my workshop for his projects, in exchange for providing free labour when milling.

The workshop has a fridge and the coffee pot is located next to a supply of Starbucks beans. I love visitors!

Charles

Anthony Whitesell
09-15-2015, 1:08 PM
I acquired a Wood-mizer LT25. Though it is all manual (no hydraulics) it has all the bells and whistles available (included winch based log loader, log turner, toe boards). I have been sawing mostly for myself and family, though for the right job and price I could be convinced to mill for others.

Larry Copas
09-21-2015, 9:40 PM
Bought my first manual sawmill in 1994. A few years later I retired and sawed 3 days a week all winter long, every winter. I was sawing logs from a timber stand improvement project on our farm in NW Missouri. 80% was walnut which I sold wholesale green. Also had two kilns and dried small quantities for retail.

That period ended in 06 when we moved to the promised land of NW Arkansas. I brought the sawmill with me but mostly sawed for my own use. In 10 I bought a new hydraulic sawmill with all the features. Started limited custom sawing most of which is at home. I do saw for a couple of Creekers. I'm always up for an interesting tree, as I like adventures.

Jim Andrew
10-25-2015, 11:21 AM
I have a Cooks MP32 bandmill, cut for myself mostly, and a little for neighbors, there are several mills in my neighborhood, including 2 home built. As for sharpening of blades, I called Cooks and asked if there is anyone close by who has a catsclaw sharpener, and they referred me to a guy about 30 miles away. The cats claw sharpener is about as good as you can get, and does a great job sharpening my blades.

Dave Jensen
11-20-2015, 1:29 PM
Make a run to East Texas and I'll load you up with Black Walnut. :D

Cody -- I sent you a PM.

Benjimin Young
04-10-2016, 5:09 PM
I'm a wanna-be Sawyer. For now I am investing a little money and time on some simple equipment to learn from some would that cam from a storm fallen silver maple in my backyard.
I have an Alaskan mk III and an Echo CS 590 20". I order a 28" bar.
My first 30" x 16 " short log was less than stellar as the 5/4 cuts came out twisted. My first-cut jig looked good when checked with winding sticks but I ended up with a 1/2" twist over 30 inches. I am now checking the Mk ii setup to see if I messed something up there. But I had a great afternoon !!!! darn, this thing can make sawdust.

All suggestions criticism and tips are very welcome.

Benjimin Young
04-14-2016, 11:18 PM
I really can spell. ;-)

I'm a wanna-be Sawyer. For now I am investing a little money and time on some simple equipment to learn from some would that cam from a storm fallen silver maple in my backyard.
I have an Alaskan mk III and an Echo CS 590 20". I order a 28" bar.
My first 30" x 16 " short log was less than stellar as the 5/4 cuts came out twisted. My first-cut jig looked good when checked with winding sticks but I ended up with a 1/2" twist over 30 inches. I am now checking the Mk ii setup to see if I messed something up there. But I had a great afternoon !!!! darn, this thing can make sawdust.

All suggestions criticism and tips are very welcome.