Questions about logosol m8 and how much they can produce in a day.

[Swamp Rooster]

I was just wondering how much guys are producing with these mills. I understand that there are many variables but maybe if some could give me there best day and worst day..
What would you charge an hour to mill for someone with an m8 mill? and would I be better off with one of the little wood mizers or the such? Thank you all in advance .. Swamp Rooster..

 

[Greenland South]

Having used mine for a couple years, I would have to say you would likely starve to death trying to make money with an M8. I use mine for milling pine, spruce, poplar and birch for building projects.
As an example of the time it takes to mill a 16'x12" spruce log into lumber; 10-15 minutes to pick the log up with my tractor, place it on the mill, secure it and adjust the lifts. 5 minutes to square 2 sides of the log. 10-15 minutes to make 5 more cuts the length of the cant. Now you have 5 boards with 2 live edges that need to come off that takes another 10-15 minutes of fiddling around. 3-4 minutes to move the wood off the mill. 2-3 minutes to touch up the chain.
Best case scenario (for me anyway) is 35-40 minutes for that "softwood" log. Don't get me wrong I really enjoy having and using my mill, however there are certainly better alternatives.
My Husky 3120 was 1300.00 the M8 was about 2000.00. For another 2k I could have bought a real mill.

 

[Mad Professor]

A lot will depend on if you have help, how the logs are staged, and and how you load the logs. I've had a M5 for quite a while

Help is always good if they are not brain-dead.

I set up a place to mill with the logs staged to roll onto the mill (homemade ramp), a place to stack and sticker the lumber, and plenty of stickers. I mill the logs and take off the fletches then every few logs I will edge them and flat stack them until the end of the day when they get properly stacked and stickered. I can do all this by myself with 15' logs but it is slow. Having a helper(s) to move the logs, fletches, and boards speeds things up a lot. Have extra chains, sharpening tools, peavys/cant hooks, another small saw to trim logs and defects from boards, chainsaw tools, some extra bar nuts as some will fall into the sawdust pile...........

I've done several hundred board feet of 5/4 hardwood in a day by myself, but it was a long day and I knew I did some work.

P.S. might want to checkout lumbermill shootout results as logosol was in many of the contests. They managed over 200 bf/hr

P.P.S. avoid dirty logs or have a way to clean or debark them. Skidding them out over frozen ground with a coat of snow works best, I use my farm tractors

 

[kimosawboy]

You might get more help by describing your situation, where you are , saw experience, what you want to mill and how often.
My best day was going to the mill and buying all the cedar/fir beams I needed for a huge project with my clients $$$$.
Worst day, started snowing , wet boots , saw crapped out, truck broke down on the way home....

 

[Swamp Rooster]

Thanks for the replies . I am a horse logger in Norther WI that has an occasional saw job. I have to be mobile and I do have a log loader to load mill. I also have worked with some guys with wood mizers and lucas mills so I do know how important a clean log is . I was thinking If I had a m8 I could use the saw head most of the time in my logging jobs and then but other bar and chain on for milling .
I also want to mill some of the siding and other things I need around my house as well. My wood mizer guy is about $55.00 per hour and I think worth every dime of it . He is getting older and is really not into working in the winter as much but that is when I have more work.. I have to mill or get milled at least 1600 feet of mixed pine and oak this spring plus my own house stuff.
Also a guy I know asked if I could mill some 8 and 10 inch pine bolts down on two sides so he could build a small mini cabin..
Not a full time mill guy but would actually use it a lot if I had it . Swamp Rooster ..

 

[Mad Professor]

Thanks for the replies . I am a horse logger in Norther WI that has an occasional saw job. I have to be mobile and I do have a log loader to load mill. I also have worked with some guys with wood mizers and lucas mills so I do know how important a clean log is . I was thinking If I had a m8 I could use the saw head most of the time in my logging jobs and then but other bar and chain on for milling .
I also want to mill some of the siding and other things I need around my house as well. My wood mizer guy is about $55.00 per hour and I think worth every dime of it . He is getting older and is really not into working in the winter as much but that is when I have more work.. I have to mill or get milled at least 1600 feet of mixed pine and oak this spring plus my own house stuff.
Also a guy I know asked if I could mill some 8 and 10 inch pine bolts down on two sides so he could build a small mini cabin..
Not a full time mill guy but would actually use it a lot if I had it . Swamp Rooster ..

The M8 might be a good match for occasional work when you are logging and with the horses no problem bringing the mill to the tree. It's really nice in that you can custom mill for home needs. However if you have to do a large volume in a short time you still might want to consider getting a small band mill or renting services when needed.

How big of a saw do you need for most of your logging? For the mill you will want a minimum of > 90cc powerhead. How much use would a 066/660 or 390 get on your logging jobs? If you need a big saw it's an excuse to get the m8 also.

 

[Swamp Rooster]

We run 372 and 394 huskies , not much smaller for a lot of years. I will be switching to stihl saws next go around ..( has to do with my old saw dealer retiring and keeping my business local) . How big a log can I mill with an m8? and do you think it would be helpful to get set up with an Alaskan mill or a beam machine as an aid to the m8.. to take big ones down into manageable size? Swamp Rooster ..

 

[big mog]

how much can you mill, its a bit like how long is a bit of string, if you do your prep work correctly, and know what you are doing, yes, its possible to do 2-300 bft an hour, but this is not the real benifit of the logosol, let me see pictures of a woodmizer or similar in the middle of a heavily wooded tract with no road, one man can carry a logosol mill in, set it up, and be cutting timber very quickly, there is a bandsaw option for the M7/M8, unfoutunatley its electric, and I dont know if its available in the US, this can up the output, but restricts the size you can mill, as for how large a log, heres a novel trick.....mount the mill onto the log, why buty another mill, the limiting factor then is your bar length, the measuring sytem on the M/M8 will let you cut slabs up to 16" thick, very easy to break large buts down, your going to be using mechanical means to move large timber anyway. these days I cannot see the reason for using an alaskan setup while the options of the logosol big mill or bench are on the market

 

[Mad Professor]

We run 372 and 394 huskies , not much smaller for a lot of years. I will be switching to stihl saws next go around ..( has to do with my old saw dealer retiring and keeping my business local) . How big a log can I mill with an m8? and do you think it would be helpful to get set up with an Alaskan mill or a beam machine as an aid to the m8.. to take big ones down into manageable size? Swamp Rooster ..

You can do about 16' length and 30" dia on the stock setup (I've done this on my M5) but you are taxing the limits of the structure/lift mech. You can get buy with a 25" bar for this as once you square things and take off the outer slabs it will be thinner. You can buy extra 1/2 mill sections if you ever want to do long beams. For really big stuff as mentioned above you do inverted milling and mount the mill to the log, for this a > than 25" bar will be handy.

Looks like you are in the market for 044/440/441/046/460/461 and a 066/660/661

 

[big mog]

066/660 and a 36" logosol bar with the pmx chain is about as big as you want to go, you can cut some serious timber then, and from my own experiences, it doesnt matter how good you are at sharpening a chain, get a sharperner of some kind, no-one can sharpen every tooth,left and right excactly the same, and it makes a big difference, both to speed of cut, and finish, some of my boards are comming off the mill with almost no chain marks, a light pass therough the planer and there ready to use,
somewhere on the web there is a feature on breaking the world record for the longest 2x4 , and its cut on a logosol M7, well several of them joined together, have a look

 

[Mad Professor]

066/660 and a 36" logosol bar with the pmx chain is about as big as you want to go, you can cut some serious timber then, and from my own experiences, it doesnt matter how good you are at sharpening a chain, get a sharperner of some kind, no-one can sharpen every tooth,left and right excactly the same, and it makes a big difference, both to speed of cut, and finish, some of my boards are comming off the mill with almost no chain marks, a light pass therough the planer and there ready to use,
somewhere on the web there is a feature on breaking the world record for the longest 2x4 , and its cut on a logosol M7, well several of them joined together, have a look

The 2 X 4" was done on a bunch of M5s bolted together on a frozen lake. I think the tree was a big spruce? Whoops that record was broken by logosol mills subsequently, not sure of model, and was milled on a road. 127 feet from another spruce.....

I've hand sharpened my PMX chains until the cutters get so small one breaks, then the chain is used up. Properly done the lumber still comes out smooth. You have to keep the cutters the same length and the rakers the same height. This may mean taking more strokes on some cutters/rakers than others

 

[Swamp Rooster]

Thanks guys for the info.. How do you mount it to the log? How does this mill compare to a mill like the Woodlands 126 mill as fare as volume goes. How hard it is to get the Logosol level in the woods.. It seems like it you had heavy logs on it ,it could sink a bit.. Swamp Rooster ..

 

[mad murdock]

The M8 would be easy to work with in the woods, the HM126 is not up to par in quality with a Logosol ,IMO. Tho woodland mills supports out of Canada, the mill is made in China. If you were going to go with a band mill and don't want to spend the big $$, look at the Linn Lumber kits. You mill big logs on the Logosol by mounting the mill to the log, and milling with the mill upside down.

 

[Swamp Rooster]

We do some remote builds and pack everything with horses at times. I am not looking to get into the saw mill business , it is just a tool I need for some of my work. I know that amounts a day are hard to come up with and there are a lot of variances in milling with any mill .. I did not know the m8 could handle 30'' logs.

 

[Mad Professor]

Thanks guys for the info.. How do you mount it to the log? How does this mill compare to a mill like the Woodlands 126 mill as fare as volume goes. How hard it is to get the Logosol level in the woods.. It seems like it you had heavy logs on it ,it could sink a bit.. Swamp Rooster ..

I'm speaking about an M5 I own. Feet on the mill have holes that you use to screw on 2 X 6" or 2 X 8" planks on each side as a base to support the mill. I connect the planks together with 1 or 2 crosspieces to make things more rigid. You should try to find a level place to setup with solid ground. Besides clearing the area a shovel is handy to smooth the place where the mill will rest. It does not need to be dead level to use. Whenever I move the mill, or swapping bars, I check the bar/rail alinement with the lifts. This is quick and easy and good to check every day anyway. Once used in place a while things are pretty stable.

With real big logs you do need to bet set up on a good stable ground/base support or mill the log inverted.

http://www.logosol.us/cms2/downloads/en_EN_inversion_m7-eng.pdf

http://www.logosol.us/cms2/downloads/en_EN_logosolm7_shootout03.pdf