New to milling

[Brad Burnette]

Mornin’, I’m thinking about getting into the milling side of stuff and building some unique types of furniture and what not. Just a couple of questions. For those of y’all that buy wood...how much should I try to spend on logs and do y’all buy them buy board ft or just buy the log? Also what type of bandsaw mill should I get that’s both quality, and budget friendly for a beginners saw?

 

[Franny K]

Cooks has an electric option on their mp32. Is 10k too much? What would a land owner get per tri axle log truck in your area? Figure twice that. Guy here wants 40 cents a board foot for hemlock. Scaled the way most advantage to seller. That probably is delivered load size a few tons.

 

[rarefish383]

I told my friend to never buy logs, I could get him anything he wanted free. A few months later he was bragging he got two nice Walnut logs for JUST $2000. Found them on C/L. I asked why he didn't call Me? He said, well, you couldn't get Walnut. Then I showed him row after row of Black Walnut I split for firewood.

Logs are worth about the same as firewood untill hey have been milled, dried, planed and finished. That can be years if you are air drying.

Wait till you have piles of stickered slabs stacked in every corner of your yard, and your wife wants to know where her pick nick table is.

 

[andy]

I told my friend to never buy logs, I could get him anything he wanted free. A few months later he was bragging he got two nice Walnut logs for JUST $2000. Found them on C/L. I asked why he didn't call Me? He said, well, you couldn't get Walnut. Then I showed him row after row of Black Walnut I split for firewood.

Logs are worth about the same as firewood untill hey have been milled, dried, planed and finished. That can be years if you are air drying.

Wait till you have piles of stickered slabs stacked in every corner of your yard, and your wife wants to know where her pick nick table is.

Yup.... logs just show up.
3 months ago I was looking for premium Logs .
One heavy snow event last month brought down so many trees....
Now my entire side paddock is loaded with a variety of local species to select from... It will be years before all of it is turned into items.
In two weeks time I went from searching to overloaded... it just happens like that.

OP
Get the word out to tree services that you're looking.
Trees are always on the way down.
Especially if you see some heavy weather coming in be ready for a "windfall".

 

[sb47]

Mornin’, I’m thinking about getting into the milling side of stuff and building some unique types of furniture and what not. Just a couple of questions. For those of y’all that buy wood...how much should I try to spend on logs and do y’all buy them buy board ft or just buy the log? Also what type of bandsaw mill should I get that’s both quality, and budget friendly for a beginners saw?

Get a metal detector to find hidden metal burred in the wood that will ruin you expensive blades.

 

[motorhead99999]

I built my own Alaskan mill because I thought I would enjoy it. Now I just use it to mill 1” by whatever the log is wide to build ground blinds and box in treestands because my kids go with me a lot. I can mill up to 29” wide. Other than two days out of the year it hangs in the wood shed.

 

[andy]

I built my own Alaskan mill because I thought I would enjoy it. Now I just use it to mill 1” by whatever the log is wide to build ground blinds and box in treestands because my kids go with me a lot. I can mill up to 29” wide. Other than two days out of the year it hangs in the wood shed.

Sounds interesting... Any pics you want to share ?

 

[motorhead99999]

Sounds interesting... Any pics you want to share ?

I’ll dig it out tommorrow and snap some pics

 

[motorhead99999]

Sounds interesting... Any pics you want to share ?

Been so long since I used it I forgot I cut it down to a 28” bar and fitted a nice Milwaukee handle off my cordless grinder on it. But you get the idea

 

[motorhead99999]

View attachment 798859 View attachment 798860 Been so long since I used it I forgot I cut it down to a 28” bar and fitted a nice Milwaukee handle off my cordless grinder on it. But you get the idea

 

[motorhead99999]

View attachment 798859 View attachment 798860 Been so long since I used it I forgot I cut it down to a 28” bar and fitted a nice Milwaukee handle off my cordless grinder on it. But you get the idea

Only thing I would have done different is turn the bolts to tighten the top guide in place so they were inside the mill itself because if I clamp it on the bar to close to the saw the brake handle rubs on the bolt and Mars the hell out of it.