Sawmilling

[CPeter James]

The sawmill guy came this week and we did about 4,000 bd ft of mostly pine. Some of the logs were pretty good sized.

The mill has hydraulic lift, but we used my little dozer to move the logs onto the lift arms. It took a couple of hours to do each of the big ones. We got about 300 bd ft out of the two butt logs.

CPeter
http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/pc120076_edited.jpg
http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/pc120080_edited.jpg
http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/pc120085.jpg

[George Bregar]

Cool. I want a sawmill guy. And a little dozer! ;)

[Richard Wolf]

Looks great! What does something like that cost? If I'm not being too nosy.

Richard

[Randy Cohen]

Looks great! What does something like that cost? If I'm not being too nosy.

Richard
that looks like a woodmizer. they have a website so go check it out.

[CPeter James]

The sawmill guy told me that Woodmizer has a new one with all the bells and whistles that costs $41k. The little dozers can be had in the range of $2,500 to $6,000 depending on condition. This one is a '54 John Deere model 40 and is in much better than average condition. No one makes one this size any more (it weighs about 5,000 pounds). That is kind of too bad as it is a nice size to use in the woods and for light work around the house and shop.

CPeter

[Matt Campbell]

Does it come with a riving knife? ;)

[Rob Will]

What's that white stuff all over the ground? Sawdust??;)

Rob

[Jim Becker]

Looks like a mighty fine day, there! I have some poplar waiting anxiously to be cut when the parade of trades peters down around here and there is room to maneuver. I'm just itching to call the sawyer!

[C Scott McDonald]

Neat, Thanks for sharing.

I always wanted a riding lawn mower.....now I have to get a little dozer. That thing is to cool! You should post some more pictures of it

Scott

[Fred Voorhees]

If you've never seen a sawmill in action, it is something to put on your to do list. It is an awesome sight to see a log being milled into lumber!

[Bob Feeser]

A portable sawmill always enthralled me as well. Unfortunately I do not have a setup to handle it. I didn't let that stop me though. When I had the opportunity to get some free hickory logs, I grabbed it. Didn't have the foggiest notion who, or how, I was going to get it milled. So I called Wood Mizer, and asked for a list of people who have bought their mills. They gave me several. One of them was in it full time, so I had him come out. Here are a few shots of the milling in progress.
http://inlinethumb26.webshots.com/33113/2987969490100733997S600x600Q85.jpg


http://inlinethumb54.webshots.com/3637/2946440720100733997S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb39.webshots.com/5094/2979216490100733997S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb23.webshots.com/3478/2370419490100733997S600x600Q85.jpg

You want to see something that is realy a sin. The tree surgeon who was offering me all the free wood I wanted, knew that I was interested in walnut. He called me the week that the sawyer was coming out, and asked me if I wanted a large dump body, plus a pickup full of walnut. It was one of those, do you want the good news, or the bad news first. So he gave the the good news, and that was he had a lot of beautiful walnut. The bad news was his customer requested that the tree be cut down, and sliced into splittable size pieces, so he could split it for firewood. After it came down, his significant other did not want the unsightly wood sitting on the lot, so he had to pick it up, and that is when I got the phone call. He knew I had arranged for a sawyer for the hickory, and apologized for the walnut not being in logs too. So I had to make firewood out of it. Here it is. Check the split piece.
http://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/35786/2213736950100733997S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/33847/2258305930100733997S600x600Q85.jpg

http://inlinethumb40.webshots.com/33639/2974945460100733997S600x600Q85.jpg
Tell me the truth. If you are like I am, and I bet many are, didn't your heart rate speed up a little bit, looking at the walnut, knowing it was going into the wood stove. I get a yearning in my chest, like an eat your heart out kind of feeling. I did buy 200 board feet of some nice black walnut from the sawyer that I had to lay up for a year to get it down below 12% though, that I am saving for a china closet.

[Al Weber]

For those of you interested in milling logs into lumber, there is a great web site (that almost looks like an off shoot of Sawmill Creek) called ArboristSite. (http://www.arboristsite.com/) There is a section therein on Milling and Sawmills that contains a lot of pictures, stories, blogs, etc. on portable sawmilling. I got the bug last summer and bought a used small hand driven bandsaw mill (RipSaw) powered by a chainsaw power head and milled several hundred board feet of hard maple and aspen with it with good success. Next spring I will take down several black cherry trees on my property and mill them into lumber. I air dry the boards in the attic of a pole barn which has an open cupola and can dry 4/4 cherry in about 6 months from 20% to 10% moisture. Be careful getting involved in this kind of hobby though. It is addicting.

[Randy Cohen]

could you give more info about your mill Al?

ok....i googled and found it.

[Todd Crow]

Milling trees into lumber is almost addicting. My brother and I bought a mill in 2000, then decided we wanted it in a building. Then after some more sawing powered by a farm tractor, decided a dedicated engine would be nice....

http://www.crowsnest.us/images/DCP_0565.JPG

Then getting the logs could use a dedicated trailer....then a skid steer would be nice....

http://www.crowsnest.us/images/DCP00531.jpg

You see where this is going. I could have bought 1000's of BdFt for what I have in the mill, however I wouldn't trade. It is so much fun to cut a tree down, and then turn it into usable boards.

Todd


http://www.crowsnest.us/images/DCP00557.JPG

I still have a bunch of sawing to do

http://www.crowsnest.us/images/DCP_0391.JPG

[Ted Jay]

http://inlinethumb11.webshots.com/35786/2213736950100733997S600x600Q85.jpg


Couldn't some of those logs be used for turning? Sounds like a way to recoup some of that sawmill spent money!!

[Tony De Masi]

My sentiments exactly Ted. Many turners are going to cry over this one.

Tony

[CPeter James]

That sure looks like a pile of bowl blanks to me.

CPeter

[Bob Feeser]

I'm crying already. At the time I had the wood, I did not have a lathe, or a band saw. I was troubled as to what to do, then the township visited my front door. Several neighbors complained after it sat in the front for 4 weeks. Then it was a scramble to get it away from the front of the house, and into a form that the township would accept. Namely, split and at least 8" off of the ground. I had til Friday to get the job done. After the sawyer left, I moved the hickory lumber, and started splitting with a rented splitter. I did save some of it by splitting a slice through about 6" wide, figuring that I could eventually make something out of it. So I have some dried by this time 6" thick, by about 8" wide and 12" long pieces. I since then bought a small lathe, and have turned a small piece of it. See the pictures. Notice the piece in the background, that is a piece I cut out of the wedges I described above, with the band saw that I now own.
Years ago I used to go visit a mill called Northbrook Saw Mill, and he got a lot of walnut, and used to cut off the sides in 2" thick increments, until he got solid wood out of it. I used to buy these slabs for only $5 apiece. Made a great coffee table, and some end tables out of it. Just solid wood with the bark on. I have always loved walnut.
With all of that, as much as I hate to admit it, I wound up with a bunck of split wood, and you can guess what I had to do with it. If events had gone just a little bit differently, as in the tree surgeon was able to haul the logs away, I would have wound up with a lot of black walnut for a little bit of money. He was glad to deliver it also, because he has to pay to get rid of it, whereas he does not have a place to store it.

[Bob Feeser]

CPeter,
Those are some serious size logs. I wish I had a bigger property, at least something larger than the 1/8th acre I am living on. I always dreamed of having some space for milling some logs. As mentioned in this post, I tried it on my driveway, but the neighbors wouldn't have it.


The sawmill guy came this week and we did about 4,000 bd ft of mostly pine. Some of the logs were pretty good sized.

The mill has hydraulic lift, but we used my little dozer to move the logs onto the lift arms. It took a couple of hours to do each of the big ones. We got about 300 bd ft out of the two butt logs.

CPeter
http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/pc120076_edited.jpg
http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/pc120080_edited.jpg
http://home.metrocast.net/~cpjvkj/pc120085.jpg