Baby mill reccomendations??

[A.O.]

So I've been himing and hawing about this, I don't know about you guys but to me $4k is a bunch of money to plunk down!!

And then I went to Lowes today, needed some wood for a shelf I'm putting up, see pic below... that's almost a hundred dollars worth!



Really, a hundred bucks??? What a rip!

So I just called Woodmaxx and ordered the SM-26e... yep, the "e" stands for electric start!! I've gone nutts!!

http://www.woodmaxx.com/SM_26_Portable_Saw_Mill_p/sm-26.htm



They tell me 4-5 weeks....  oh what am I going to do for a month???

Maybe I'll cut some trees down and get a few logs ready!

[furu]

You are on the way.  Congratulations. 
Now comes the hard part, the waiting for it to arrive.

[A.O.]

You are on the way.  Congratulations. 
Now comes the hard part, the waiting for it to arrive.

Thanks, and yeah...

I'm dying here already waiting!

[drobertson]

You bet, get those logs down, if you are lucky the bark will start slipping before you are ready to saw.  If it does, get it off away from where you plan on sawing.

[A.O.]

Yeah, need to build a platform to set this thing on, and maybe a log _________. Forgot what you guys call it,  place to stage the logs.

[xlogger]

Yeah, need to build a platform to set this thing on, and maybe a log _________. Forgot what you guys call it,  place to stage the logs.

"log deck"

[A.O.]

Yeah, that's it!

[Ox]

Congrats.  And yeah - you have plenty of work to keep you busy for the next month.  Felling, bucking, skidding, staging, building log deck, preparing saw yard, etc.  Just be sure to keep your logs up off the ground, even if it's just on some 4x4s or something like that.  When making lumber the actual sawmilling part is a very small percent of the whole procedure/operation but also the most important part.  When making a 2x6 8' long the blade is cutting each side of that board for less than a minute total time.  That's something to think about!

[A.O.]

Congrats.  And yeah - you have plenty of work to keep you busy for the next month.  Felling, bucking, skidding, staging, building log deck, preparing saw yard, etc.  Just be sure to keep your logs up off the ground, even if it's just on some 4x4s or something like that.  When making lumber the actual sawmilling part is a very small percent of the whole procedure/operation but also the most important part.  When making a 2x6 8' long the blade is cutting each side of that board for less than a minute total time.  That's something to think about!

Thanks, and yes I am aware of all that.. well except maybe the skidding part. I have a lot of trees surrounding open areas I have. If I can get them to just fall into those open areas, I can cut them to length and move them with my grapple... load them on my 20' trailer, move them to my staging area or log deck and go from there... that's the plan anyway! 

[A.O.]

I do need to do some work on my saw yard as you call it, get the position of my saw where I want it, set up the log deck And I need to figure out some way to build and position some "drying platforms" to where they will be convenient AND not get in the way. I figure some of the early wood I cut will be used for these platforms and to practice my cutting skills. Any words of wisdom out there in making these?
 I have about an acre field right next to my shop that I'm going to set up.

[drobertson]

If you can come across some old rail road ties, these work well for the base of lumber stacks.  Sawing out blocking would be a good exercise in learning what to expect from your mill as well as the logs.  In addition to sawing out blocking, you will also need to begin sawing out stickers.   There is a ton of advice on what and how to do it, but in a nut shell, I would advise to use straight grain, no knots, 1" sq 42" to 48" long.  Allow these to air dry, keeping them from bowing and twisting. these are pretty much as important as anything you will do on and with your mill in respect to ending up with a quality usable product.  More on this later,, lots more,

[A.O.]

If you can come across some old rail road ties, these work well for the base of lumber stacks.  Sawing out blocking would be a good exercise in learning what to expect from your mill as well as the logs.  In addition to sawing out blocking, you will also need to begin sawing out stickers.   There is a ton of advice on what and how to do it, but in a nut shell, I would advise to use straight grain, no knots, 1" sq 42" to 48" long.  Allow these to air dry, keeping them from bowing and twisting. these are pretty much as important as anything you will do on and with your mill in respect to ending up with a quality usable product.  More on this later,, lots more,

Thanks D

[starmac]

X2 on the stickers, these need to be drying as soon as possible.  I intend to (haven't got around to it yet) saw out and build some pretty heavy duty lumber pallets in different lengths. I would also like to build individual shed tops for the lumber pallets, that can be easily set on with a forklift, with a little peak and some side overhang. If I lived down south where they are available, I would get old billboard tarps to cover them with, they would last forever if kept tied down.

Have you started putting together the tools to keep with the mill yet?
Have you already got can't hooks, maybe even a hookaroon?
bands already ordered?

The problem I see is, you really need to saw out some good blocking to set the mill up, but can't do it till the mill is set up, hmmm.

[drobertson]

No kidding, there's a lot to consider.  If it were me, I might be considering the purchase of some treated 4x6's to set the mill on.  With all the sand down there, drainage should be no problem at all.  It might be just a good to wait until its there, have some 2x misc. blocking, set the mill up, level, and do some milling.  I'm just sitting here running this through my mind as if it were me, but with the knowledge of what I already know.  You would use a slab rack if you had one,, this is for the opening face cuts off the logs, plus the edgings you make taking the bark off the flitches.  Many folks just pile them up, but they get all scattered out and just make a bigger mess than necessary.  Yea, I would make even a quick slab rack before I sawed the first log. Position it within a few steps of the mill, and where your loader can get to it with out interfering with the mill or any other stacks. You're gonna be walking enough as it is without any more pacing than needed, especially carrying what could be a heavy slab.  You dont want the sawdust blowing all over the lumber you just sawed, so you will have to keep that in mind too.  It will take you a few stabs to get it set like you like, so be ready and flexible to a few changes.  I'm bout wore out thinking about it,  Hee hee

[A.O.]

Thanks guys...  uh oh.. questions..

starmac.. What bands??

Drobertson..whats a slab rack, flitches?

You guys are killing me here.. I do have quite a few stickers here already, but I know I'll need more. No hookaroon (same as a peavey?) I do have a 4' canthook though.

Got a bunch of treated 2x's also, when it quits raining I need to take an inventory of what I have and what I'll be needing.

[drobertson]

A slab rack usually made of steel,  imagine a football goal, but two of them connected,  the slabs go between the post, when the rack is full or at the limit of the loader the slabs are banded and lifted out, then moved to another area out of the way.  The flitches are the boards that still have bark on, either one edge or both,  most logs will give you several until you get to a cant where all the bark has been sawn off.   You might want to you tube some videos of mill operations to get a better picture.. It would not hurt to see a few operations.  The bands he was talking about are probably the band saw bands, you will need at least a box of 10,, If I were you, I would get with Cutting Edge and get them from him,, if you don't, and you have problems, well, don't ask me,, all I got to say, 

[starmac]

Instead of trying to explain a hookaroon, here is pictures on logrights website.
They are not something a guy absolutely has to have, but do make life eaasier, hmmm I do not have one myself, but it is on the list.

https://logrite.com/store/Category/hookaroons

One cant hook is all I have, so far I have worked by myself and one is all I can use at a time, 2 would actually be handier that way a guy could keep one on both sides of a log deck. To be honest the way I have done most of my sawing, I do not use it a lot, but it is a must have, and especially would be with a manual mill.
The bands I was talking about are the blades, two boxes would be nice and may even be needed so you can send box in to be sharpened  and still be sawing. They do not last as long as a guy hopes. lol

Something to knock the bark off is a must on dirty logs and even needed on clean ones, just where the band enters. I like a draw knife. I made the mistake of buying a small one to start with, thinking it only needs to take off an inch or less of bark, but it didn't work on bigger logs. The handles would hit, a wire brush is also handy, especially if they have dirt on them.

I am lucky here, 99% of anything I cut is cut and skidded in snow, never sees dirt.

[A.O.]

Ok, makes sense on the "bands" although I would call them "blades" but what do I know! One (bi metal) blade came with the mill, and I ordered 3 extra carbon blades. Right now I went WAY to deep moneywise on this mill so I'll have to build up my reserves and order a box of them, I'll holler at cutting edge when I'm ready.

SO... removing bark where the blade (band) enters.. do you just clean a strip all the way down the log? do you strip the log completely? Seems like when squaring it up you keep turning the log getting to new barky areas.

So what exactly are you putting on that slab rack? Boards you have cut waiting to be dried?

And I'm really looking for ideas on "drying racks",  and does that wood on the drying racks need to be covered, or left to the elements? And can I build those drying racks out of green wood fresh off the mill?

Oh yeah, you guys are going to get tired of me!!

[Stevem]

I think the "slabs" he's talking about are the outside (bark) of the logs you cut that aren't usable boards, the waste.  You stack them "neatly" so they are easier to handle and dispose of. You might be cutting them into fire wood or bundling them for sale and they are a lot easier to deal with if they are not jack strawed in a pile. You can start with two boards laid on the ground. 
Other 'slabs" we talk about are "live edge slabs" which are really popular now for furniture making.  They are boards that run from bark to bark in width.

When I custom saw on site for someone I just throw the slabs in a pile and let the customer deal with them.  At home I'm a little neater 'cause I gotta deal with it.  I sell campfire wood off the front porch and get rid of a lot of my waste that way but I have an ideal location for that!

Things to consider before you start cutting:

Green lumber shrinks.  Some more than others.   All logs (with few exceptions) produce green lumber and will shrink.
How big is a 2" X 4"?  We have nominal sizes which is what you buy from the lumber store and we have actual size.  I generally cut my wood 1/8" over size to allow for shrinkage. Others us a different allowance for shrinkage, or none.  Stick with it so what you cut first matches with what you cut last.
What size are you going to make your stickers?  Decide and stay with it.  Maybe two sizes but with an obvious difference so you use the same sizes for each layer of lumber stacked for drying.  Dead stacked lumber (no stickers) will mold quickly.
Construction lumber (conifer) and furniture wood (hard woods) are graded and sized differently.  Two different sets of rules. As an example a 1" board of construction wood has a finished size of 3/4", a 1" hard wood board has a finished size of no less than 15/16" and can be a full 1".  But it depends on what the end user wants.
Many times the term "four quarter" (4/4) is used but mostly in hard woods.  A quarter is 1/4 of an inch.  Thus you can have 5/4, 6/4 and up.  Two inch is 8/4 and describes the thickness.

Thicker lumber requires longer to dry.

Lots of other terminology to pick but you will get there.

[A.O.]

Stevem.. First off thanks for the reply..

I have been working with wood most of my adult life so I'm familiar with lots of the terminology 4/4 6/4, 2ss , 4ss but you cant know this so thanks for pointing it out.

This whole SAWMILL part of things is what I'm learning. And lots of related stuff as well.

99% of the wood I have is Loblolly pine or Southern yellow pine. This place I bought (3 yrs ago) is actually a planted pine plantation so I have lots of nice sized saw timber , about 14-20" DBH , some might consider that small, but for me its easily handelable . I have a few hardwoods in a large riparian corridor but don't really want to cut them unless I have a GREAT plan for them. So lots of what I'll be cutting is construction lumber and siding. And probably some cabinet material.
You say you cut stuff 1/8' oversized.. you talking over nominal size yes?

Still wanting to know if I can build things like drying platforms out of green wood, or does it all need to dry first.

Again thanks for the post!

Scott

[starmac]

My experience is limited to just one species (white spruce) but is fine for building drying racks.

Most just cut some beams to stack lumber on, you just need to do what ever it takes to keep the lumber straight.

You also want to cover the top of your stacks, DO NOT cover the complete stack, it needs air to circulate through it.

Anything woll work to cover them, many people use old used  metal roofing , but old junk boards are sometimes used too.

I want to, and plan to eventually build some stiff heavy duty pallets  to stack lumber on, and some covers for the top that can be strapped to the pallet of lumber I put on top, all to where it is easily moved a whole pallet at a time with the forklift.

Depending on your use for the lumber, but sometimes you can easily get by using it green, right off the mill. I have built out buildings  that were built from the ground up right off the sawmill, with no problems at all, including the siding.

[starmac]

I forgot to mention, for bark removal, you just need to remove a small portion on the side the blade enters on. A debarker on a band mill just removes maybe a 1/4 inch directly in front of the blade, but you or at least I can not tell exactly where the blade will be entering the whole length of the log, so I remove a swath a couple of inches wide.
To tell the truth, I skip this process a lot because my logs are clean, but my blades would stay sharp longer if I didn't.
I may get banned or at least flamed for this, but depending on what you are sawing your lumber for, you can get by with green stickers, they just leave a mark on the wood. To tell the truth, most of what I have cut has never seen a sticker or really even a drying stack so far, it gets nailed up green.

[A.O.]

So I did a little looking around and found debarkers that go on the end of a chainsaw.. are they any good?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JBZXW9K/ref=asc_df_B01JBZXW9K5364191/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=394997&creativeASIN=B01JBZXW9K&linkCode=df0&hvadid=216531775325&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10474355696444148928&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9010055&hvtargid=pla-352593080777

[A.O.]

AHHHHHH, I WANT MY SAW!!!!

sorry...

[furu]

Patience grasshopper