Build or Buy?

[devonhubb]

My local sawmiller just told me that he has shut down & isn't re-opening until the economy improves.

The other sawmills (that I know of) in this area won't saw customer owned logs. They would rather sell you lumber out of their logs.

I've got three walnut logs and one cedar log ready to be milled. And there will be more.

I have a decent shop with welder, metal cutting bandsaw & other tools.

I believe that I can construct a basic chainsaw mill without too much expense or time involved. Probably got enough scrap metal to build one. I'll have to build it out of steel, my welder won't do aluminum.

Or do you think that I should buy a factory chainsaw mill? Any and all advice is appreciated. My apologies if this has already been thoroughly thrashed out in this forum. I am new to this area of AS.

The biggest chainsaw I own is MS660 with a 32" bar.

 

[mtngun]

I assume you are talking about an Alaskan type mill, not a tracked mill ?

Easy to build an Alaskan from steel tubing, if you don't mind the weight. Several threads on the subject.

I considered going that route, but went with a Granberg because of the weight issue. Either way is good.

 

[luvsaws]

I say build if you have the equipment and know-how!
You can customize it the way you want,just look at some other mills to get ideas and use the search there is alot of homemade pics and info on here.

 

[gemniii]

Since he hasn't chimed in yet -
Study the posts in this forum by BobL.

You can probably slap together a minimal mill in a few hours.

You can buy one for about $200.

Then it's all sharpening chains and breathing fumes.

You'll probably want a longer bar eventually, a muffler modded 660 can handle a lot more than a 32" bar (you will probably lose about 4" just hooking it up)

 

[huskyhank]

Buy an Alaskan.

Even if its free steel and you have little else to do you will come out ahead buying. They're not that expensive - $250 or so. I suggest a 36" Alaskan, and use the 32" bar you have for a while. Then later, if you like CSMing, add a 42" bar and 2-3 chains. You can cut up to about 32" logs with the 42" bar on the 36" Alaskan.

See if you can find a copy of Will Malloff's book on CSM. There's plenty of great info here but the book would be a nice foundation for you.

Know that you can get about 10-12 cuts out of a good sized log in a day. You'll be ready to stop at that point.
If you want a big bunch of barn siding a CSM is not how to do it. (IMO). If you want a nice mix of cuts from your logs and you might do only a few logs a month the CSM is about perfect. Low start up cost, lots of flexibility, labor intensive describe the CSM style.

 

[BobL]

Chime!

if you don't like making stuff then I would buy, but if you already have the tools, some raw materials, a few basic skills and the inclination and the time, then you can build one pretty easily that is better than most conventional mills.

Read the CS 101 sticky first.
There are 101 designs but here's a list of basic design recommendations - note, except for recommendation #1, few commercial designs have these features.

1) Avoid welding the mill to a fixed length. One way to make the length of the mill fully adjustable is by using unistrut type mill rails then when you buy a different length bar a new length mill is obtained by adjusting the cross pieces up/down the unistrut or just the cost of another length of rails.

2) Locate any full length handle down the length of the mill at least 6" higher than the mill rails so it is less in the way of the bar so as you can still file the other side of the chain from behind while the saw is still on the mill.

3) Consider bolting the bar direct to the mill instead of using clamps so that chains can be more easily swapped out.
Like this.

4) Or to maximize the length of the cut, mount the mill to the bar bolts .
Like this.

 

[r.man]

Devon, if you like building maybe you should consider a bandmill. Go have a look at the gallery pics on diy bandsaw. Quite a bit more work than a chainsaw mill but if like the idea of sawing, and like the idea of building, and have the tools and materials the sky is the limit.

 

[devonhubb]

Is the Granberg a decent mill?

There is a dealer near me that has a new 36" GB for $180. I might just purchase it & get to milling if it doesn't have any major drawbacks.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

If your goal is building a mill then go ahead and build one. There is a lot of info on this site for doing so. However, if your goal is cut lumber then buy a mill.

I started out using a chalk line and chainsaw to cut logs into thick 'boards' that I could resaw on my woodshop bandsaw. Lots of hours for a few nice boards.

Thought about building a band mill for about a year, but was convinced it was smarter overall to buy used instead. Finally bought a used Woodmizer LT40HD and got into milling wood as a business after hurricane Isabel in 2003. I lived in Williamsburg VA at the time, we had trees down everywhere and no one around to mill them before they rotted.

Two years ago I bought an Alaskan III (46" or 48") with all the options and stuck a MS880 on it to mill a 40"+ Cherry log for a customer. He wanted full width slabs for table tops. We spent most of a day just getting the slabs milled with the CSM. ( First time with a true CSM )I milled the rest of the tree and the remains from the big log on my LT40 the next day. I cut about 7000 Bf total for him that week. One thing you need to understand is that this customer lives in Williamsburg and had me pull my mill from here, near Asheville, NC back there to mill the logs for him. The Cherry tree came from land in Northern Virginia that was owned by the family of George Washington's wife. ( Not Kidding ) The one log was valued around $10,000.
The point of all this.....

If you want to putter around making a few boards from logs and be able to state that " I made the mill that cut these boards." then by all means make your own CSM. (Not knocking folks that like to build their own. I just spent time making a grapple for my Bobcat. I'm proud of the fact that it was a lot cheaper and will lift more log than the expensive factory unit.)

If you want to build a log cabin in a very remote location then buy an Alaskan CSM and go for it. The factory designed and engineered unit will do a very good job straight out of the box with very little tweaking required. In this case your goal is 'cabin ready' logs not building a CSM.

If you want to cut enough lumber to 'build a house' and the location has road access, then get a nice used bandmill and start sawing. With the wood market so slow you may be able to find a real good deal on a used bandmill. A quality unit will cut very nice straight lumber in good quanity. The wood used to build the work shed at my dad's place was cut in one day on my LT40, no planer, no sanding and it looks nicer than the wood from the big box store.

It sounds like sawing logs will be an ongoing thing for you, so having a mill of your own might be a smart move. It is mostly a matter of production needs. Two or three logs per month go CSM. Five or more logs per month and I would lean towards a band mill. The exception is if you need very wide boards or dealing with logs more than 40" in diameter. My LT40 can't cut boards wider than about 24" so I had to get the CSM for that big Cherry. Giant sized logs (over 3' in diameter ) are best worked with a swing mill.

Hope this helps.

Rick

 

[huskyhank]

Is the Granberg a decent mill?

There is a dealer near me that has a new 36" GB for $180. I might just purchase it & get to milling if it doesn't have any major drawbacks.

Granberg makes the original Alaskan in California.

The GB is an Australian mill. I don't think they make them anymore or no one imports them to the U. S. I've never seen one but some folks on here have them and like them if I remember correctly. Do a search.

For $180 and immediate local delivery it seems hard to go wrong.

 

[devonhubb]

Boy howdy, you fellers are awful logical. Ever one of you makes perfectly good sense. And, I'm just swaying in the breeze..........

BobL, You have a beautiful mill that no doubt constitutes countless hours of engineering, trial & error, and fabrication. I don't have the ability to recreate anything close to your mill.

I believe that I will just buy the local Granberg mill and start making some lumber. That sounds like more fun than fabricating something that will no doubt require endless tweaking.

Thanks guys, I appreciate each and every response.

 

[devonhubb]

Granberg makes the original Alaskan in California.

The GB is an Australian mill. I don't think they make them anymore or no one imports them to the U. S. I've never seen one but some folks on here have them and like them if I remember correctly. Do a search.

For $180 and immediate local delivery it seems hard to go wrong.

Sorry to be confusing. It is a Granberg mill. I was just abbreviating Granberg as GB. I forgot about the GB company.

 

[BobL]

Boy howdy, you fellers are awful logical. Ever one of you makes perfectly good sense. And, I'm just swaying in the breeze..........

BobL, You have a beautiful mill that no doubt constitutes countless hours of engineering, trial & error, and fabrication. I don't have the ability to recreate anything close to your mill.

Thanks Devon. Tool Making is my one of hobbies so it's kinda natural I would make 1 or two CS mills, and I often CS mill to improve my designs or just for the heck of it.

believe that I will just buy the local Granberg mill and start making some lumber. That sounds like more fun than fabricating something that will no doubt require endless tweaking.

That sounds like a good decision for $180 you can't really go too far wrong. At the very least you will get an idea of what to do and it's limitations.