Made my first "lumber"!

[Dave MacArthur]

Hi,
I recently had the chance to use a "Wood mizer II" band saw mill, owned by my cousin, up in northern Michigan. He has a nice mill, and a kiln (around 60' x 20' x 10'high), and used to have an active business, but has now relegated it to "hobby". However, with a barn full of wood and a quite large kiln full of walnut, it's quite a hobby.

Having read about these mills here on SMC, I talked my cousin into firing his up, and we cut a nice walnut log into 8/4 boards. WOW! What a neat operation that is to watch--there was something about watching those useless looking logs being transformed into beautiful boards... amazing. Just the act of milling that lumber has me looking at trees with a different eye; it was a very enjoyable experience, and has helped me appreciate anew the wonder of a forest.

Just thought I'd share ;)

[Gail O'Rourke]

Cool experience, what are you going to make with it?

[Jim Podsedly]

I agree. That is a very neat experience. Had the opportunity to see the Amish wood my folks place in the past year. Very amazing!

[Greg Crawford]

Dave,

That's great! You don't have to be at the mercy of everyone else's choices of how the log's milled. You get what you want! Have fun.

[John Schreiber]

That looks very cool. I'd love to do that, then make something out of the boards. Such satisfaction to go from natural log to furniture.

[Kyle Kraft]

The county took down a diseased hard maple in my front yard 2 yrs. ago and I had a fella bring a WM to my house and cut it up into about 750 bd ft of pretty nice lumber. I served as his monkey boy stacking boards, helping change blades, rolling logs around, etc. Fun for a couple of days, but definitely hard work if you do it full time.

[Richard M. Wolfe]

A friend and I now have a mill, but before that I had native woods milled for projects. The first time I was around one was one of the most enjoyable days I've spent "woodworking", if you want to call it that. I had a large pecan sawed and got about 800 ft from it. I was just the "gofer" offleading and stacking on a trailer, but the weather was great and you couldn't ask for a nicer guy to be around than the sawyer.

There's a lot to processing wood other than just slicing it into boards - end sealing, sticking, weighting the stack, etc. But since your cousin has experience (and a kiln....I'm envious) he should pretty much know his way around.

I don't like to see any good trees come down just to whack them down for wood, but if they are (land clearing for construction, etc) it's a great feeling to take a standing tree to a finished product. Have fun!

[Jim Becker]

Yea, it's pretty amazing what you get out after what you put in! I enjoyed my experience back in 2000 and will be milling a few more poplar logs this fall after some septic work for the addition is completed. It's wonderful to have a nice supply of "local" lumber!

[Rob Diz]

I had an oak tree that blew down sawyered up last year. It was fun to watch the process.

Now my wife tells people that I have such a bad "wood hoarding" problem, that I started to grow my own.

[James Carmichael]

Dang, wish I had a cousin like that! I bet 8/4 walnut is pretty valuable back in AZ (it is here in TX).

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Congrats on all the wood. I was wondering why you went with 8/4 over 4/4 since the thicker wood would take longer to dry? I'm guessing you just wanted 8/4 for your future projects.

[Dave MacArthur]

Ahh, I WISH I had all that wood! Unfortunately, this all happened up in Michigan where my cousin lives (I was on vacation), and I live in Arizona. I only got a few splinters and the experience to take home with me ;)

He cut several logs up into 8/4 for my brother in law who lives up there (a better woodworker than me by far!). Not sure what he'll make with it, but when you own a kiln and run it all summer long, I guess 8/4 vs. 4/4 drying doesn't matter... So long as I could resaw it if needed, I'd rather have the 8/4!

[John Headley]

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mine, that owns a large timbering business, purchased a portable mill to play with, and now lets me use it, as long as I purchase a replacement blade when done. I love using it, the first cut on a log is like Christmas. I love the anticipation to see what's inside that log. I used to mill everything 5/4 and a little 8/4. Now I mill everything 8/4 or larger and re-saw it when I start a project. I also quarter saw the majority of the logs anymore. I have less twisting during the drying process that way. A portable mill requires some hard work, but the results are woth it.