First Run on the Norwood LM2000

[thechknhwk]

Well, I've been lurking around here and posting a few dumb questions then a Norwood LM2000 popped up on CL a couple of weeks ago.... The guy was asking 5800 for it so I gave a call. He sounded pretty hard up and said he already had a lowball offer of 3k. I thought well one good lowball deserves another and thought if I could get it for under 4k I would take the plunge. I went to take a look at it and it was in really nice shape. He was the 2nd owner and said he had only cut about 10 logs on it and the previous owner hardly used it. Well, it showed. The mill fired right up and ripped through an ash log that I had brought over. It was a little punky but plenty dry and hard. I was pretty satisfied, so I told him I would think on it for a bit and already had him down to 3900 at this point. I called the next day and said I got 3700 cash if you want to sell the mill and he said come and get it....

It came with the trailering package, log ramps, the 13hp Honda, and the manual log winch. I was pretty geeked. Almost forgot to mention also came with 12 freshly sharpened band blades.

 

[thechknhwk]

So what to do now the woods are swamped...

Well small problem when getting the Norwood home.... my woods are swamped out, and I don't really have anything to move logs. I called my buddy that works for the county and he said there was some land clearing going on a few miles away.. Not really the stuff I was looking for, but I found a couple longer cottonwood logs and some nice diameter chunks of paper birch. Too bad they were already chopped into 2-3' sections. No matter I wouldn't have been able to load the whole log by hand anyways. I missed out on a nice 12-14" x 8' poplar log since I could not get it into the truck by myself. I went at it to try to cut them up on the mill...

This is the longest piece I got but alas it will probably only yield about a 6' 1x4. Greysen is helping man the plank

 

[thechknhwk]

Some pics of the first long 1x's that I cut. These ones were a breeze - ripped right through it.

 

[gemniii]

You raped him!!
Great steal!!

 

[thechknhwk]

And then we run into some problems... The shorter logs seem very difficult to dog up. They want to twist when the saw runs through them and bind up against the bogey wheel.

And then this happens.

No worries though... I got help on the way

 

[thechknhwk]

After some fiddle farting around and head scratching, cussing and a beer... I looked ahead and saw my blade tension was below the "minimum" setting. After tightening it down the blade did not come off again after 3 failed attempts. Now we is making some lumber albeit slowly. I considered moving the log guide bar and dogging setup, but I didn't want to try to square it up again and get the mill out of setup since I haven't worked it much yet. I kept a close eye on the log movement and grabbed it from the back if it turned too badly.

A little semi-finished product.

 

[thechknhwk]

I hope to let these dry out, plane them down to 3/4" and then get some plans to make the kiddies some dressers with them. Natural finish for the boy and a whitewash for the daughter with a poly finish coat.

Adeebadeeba dats all folks...

 

[TraditionalTool]

Chicken Hawk,

First, great deal on the sawmill, it is clean.

Don't worry, you'll find more logs, and not a bad little haul you got there for your first acquisition...

 

[deeker]

Looks great!!!

Owned one since spring of '06.

To dog up the smaller logs......put a pair of boards one on each side of the log....and expect to cut them up too.

Make sure they are long enough to reach at least three crossbunks.

One good board underneath, but not too wide on the bottom one.

Good luck!

Kevin

 

[thechknhwk]

Looks great!!!

Owned one since spring of '06.

To dog up the smaller logs......put a pair of boards one on each side of the log....and expect to cut them up too.

Make sure they are long enough to reach at least three crossbunks.

One good board underneath, but not too wide on the bottom one.

Good luck!

Kevin

Thanks for the advice - mine is a 2006 as well. Cut some more up today. Man I got a hell of a mess in the driveway, lol.

 

[john taliaferro]

Your gonna to have to build a tree house soon . sweet deal, even tires.

 

[hamish]

You are going to have to seriously consider quitting your job................you'll find yourself wanting to mill each and every day!