Built a sawmill this year

[lwmibc]

Total cost about C$2500 including the new saw. Trailer frame $500 with registration, scrounged and bought steel, and a new 32" 395XP as the Homelite 750 I would have liked to have used has the filler caps in the wrong place for milling off course.


The frame on top of the trailer frame is used pallet racking; 1-1/2" angle rails 32" apart on top of that. Log dogs are made out of scrounged well pipe.

First job was sawing live-edge slabs of a spalted beech for the dining table for our new log home. Second was sawing cedar planks to go beside the rails for walking on when milling, third was two loads of western red and yellow cedar that went to the log home manufacturer for our ceiling planking.











All welded with a Miller 170 MIG. So far no improvements have presented themselves as necessary, quite pleased with the performance. Cuts straight, consistently and square using Still milling chain. Its will take a 27" log, cut about 22" of that, 21.5' long.

 

[dozi]

i take it you have a fork lift to get the logs on there ? lovely piece of work by the way !

 

[lwmibc]

Yes, FEL on a 35 hp tractor. I sometimes have to get creative with the biggest logs the mill can take.

 

[Bill52]

Very nice design and build work!

 

[lwmibc]

The design was stimulated by the Procut plans from Prince George--to be fair and give credit where it's due. I purchased the plans but did a lot of thinking when reading them, plus using steel I already had; then went to work. The producer of the plans had passed away by the time I got around to building this, but I think that's what he would have enjoyed seeing people do with his ideas. I have corresponded with his wife, and she is continuing to make his plans available.

This is not a commercial, I'm just giving credit to what stimulated the project. Well, that plus the deck of free logs that sat on the side of my driveway for 2 years saying 'use 'em or lose 'em' every time I walked past.

 

[sb47]

The design was stimulated by the Procut plans from Prince George--to be fair and give credit where it's due. I purchased the plans but did a lot of thinking when reading them, plus using steel I already had; then went to work. The producer of the plans had passed away by the time I got around to building this, but I think that's what he would have enjoyed seeing people do with his ideas. I have corresponded with his wife, and she is continuing to make his plans available.

This is not a commercial, I'm just giving credit to what stimulated the project. Well, that plus the deck of free logs that sat on the side of my driveway for 2 years saying 'use 'em or lose 'em' every time I walked past.

Very nice work on the mill. I know different wood will vary but can I ask how long does it take to cut per foot? I have found that cutting the end grain seems to take longer and is harder on a chain, so say you have a 18'' log that is 10 feet long take to make a single pass strait down the middle? I bet you saved quite a bit by making it yourself and using scrap steel for a lot of it. Again nice job. You even gave it a nice paint job.

 

[lwmibc]

You're right, it's highly variable and not different than when using an Alaskan-style mill; there are lots of videos on Youtube that allow one to watch the cutting speed. It's never frustratingly slow, but then that could be influenced by the I-built-it-myself pride factor, plus that one is making their own lumber 'for free'. I should admit that I have a friend who has a bandsaw mill; when it comes to making boards out of the cants they get hauled to his place so I end up with more boards and less sawdust.

One thing that will be noticed is that I didn't provide a powered or hand-cranked feed; I have noticed enough of a change in cutting speed when arriving at knots that I won't be adding one either. I like having the same through-the-hands feel of the saw when milling as when bucking--although hands are on the frame and not on the saw when milling.

The 'throttle control' is a fat zap-strap on the handle that can be slid over the throttle lever when milling long logs, quickly slid off when coming to the end. Cheap, simple and effective.

Minus the saw, the entire mill including trailer frame cost me about $1,000. It was cheap--but then so am I.

 

[Johnnybar]

Looks like some really nice spalting. Always love the patterns it produces. Here is a nice spalted oak I slabbed a while back.

 

[lwmibc]

Aw man, out west here we can only drool at oak like that; that's beautiful. I planted some from acorns about 25 years ago that are getting to a foot diameter and one trunk of a bifurcated tree has to come off this winter because it's threatening the hydro line to my shop so I'll see inside one then.

This is how the beech is turning out, this after the first coat of resin. It did do some splitting when drying even though it sat for 2 years between falling and slabbing. The slabs are thick enough that the 8" blade in my circular saw reaches to within a 16th of the bottom when I trued up the edges. They will be joined together for a dining room table.

 

[mbrick]

Very nice work with both the fab work and milling, thanks for sharing!

 

[lwmibc]

BTW, in case it helps someone--one of the events that spurred me to finally build the sawmill was when I took the spalted beech log to a custom sawmill and asked the owner to slab it for me. His biggest mill couldn't do it!--as soon as he started into the log the blade deflected (due to stress in the wood he said) to the point that it was in danger of breaking. As it was a $1,000 carbide-tipped blade we both decided that it was time to stop. That came within seconds of this photo being taken just a short way into the first cut.

It slabbed with no issues in the chainsaw mill. I did take the slabs back to him to put through his 21" planer so did end up giving him some money for his troubles. A nice guy; he did try.

But he was amazed when planing them that they were cut on a chainsaw mill; they are apparently rarely so consistent in thickness.

 

[Moparmyway]

as soon as he started into the log the blade deflected (due to stress in the wood he said) to the point that it was in danger of breaking.

Looks like he didnt secure the piece, no ?

 

[lwmibc]

The piece was very heavy, was well blocked and did not move. The blade deflected upward.

 

[Johnnybar]

The piece was very heavy, was well blocked and did not move. The blade deflected upward.

Usually indicates a small misalignment in blade angle to mill rails. Can also be a bit of buildup on the guides or blade...doesn't take much.

 

[lwmibc]

Could be, but the operator of the mill was very experienced; the blade entered the first foot of the log just fine, but started to deflect when it encountered the knot of a large side-branch. This was one of 4 or 5 mills he has, so I have no qualms about respecting his ability to know and understand all this. If he was loathe to continue, I sure wasn't going to insist and pay for the blade.

After all, building my mill (sans saw) cost about the same as that blade--and I figured I deserved one more new chainsaw in my lifetime anyway. I needn't remind anyone on this site what it's like to bring home a brand new 395 after a long history of fixing up and using saws that others gave up on.

(I may be rationalizing--'and proud of it'.)

 

[The Timber Miller]

Actually there should not have deflected by the knot as it was a carbide blade. Stress in the timber causes binding not deflection. Deflection is usually as Johnnbar stated is miss alignment in the blade angle or build up. A small amount is all that is needed and then it compounds. Carbide blades have to be sharpened as well but not as frequently as standard blades. The other question is whether it was an actually carbide tipped blade or a carbide blade there is a big difference. Travel speed two high also causes defection as well. Only mills like the Alaska mill have problems with thickness, proper chainsaw slabbers are accurate to 1mm. mine cuts 1.8 metres with max deflection of 1 mm. The other thing from the photo was it is definitely not secure enough just by weight alone and chocked as the resistance of the timber resting on the lateral support is no where near large enough in resistance area and it would be moving caused by the lateral movement caused by the force of the blade cutting You would not readily see this because it can be miniscule but consistent.
The Timber Miller Australia the home of real timber

 

[Jackbnimble]

Could be, but the operator of the mill was very experienced; the blade entered the first foot of the log just fine, but started to deflect when it encountered the knot of a large side-branch. This was one of 4 or 5 mills he has, so I have no qualms about respecting his ability to know and understand all this. If he was loathe to continue, I sure wasn't going to insist and pay for the blade.

After all, building my mill (sans saw) cost about the same as that blade--and I figured I deserved one more new chainsaw in my lifetime anyway. I needn't remind anyone on this site what it's like to bring home a brand new 395 after a long history of fixing up and using saws that others gave up on.

(I may be rationalizing--'and proud of it'.)

i WOKE UP IN THE MIDDLE of the night 2 nights ago on my head on the floor a couple feet from my bed. I don't know how I got there. I woke up in pain upside down as if someone lifted me out of my bed and dropped me on my head knocking over furniture and junk on my way. I woke up and thought, what am I doing here? How did I get like this?

That's an example of the reason I shouldn't be using a chainsaw, you know?

 

[lwmibc]

An update on how the spalted beech dining table slabs turned out, after more drying and warping, another planing, and final finishing. 3 coats of epoxy resin, first one sanded almost all off, second one just sanded enough to grip the third. That after extensive resin filling of cracks and porous knots. Worth the effort, and something I've not done before; following instructions--obviously anyone can do it if I did.

Now this just cries out for an artistic tree-stump for a base.