Stihlmans Wood,Tree cutting ramblings...........

[Stihlman441]

G'Day Andrew,

You still using the Whitlands splitter?
Have been milling with a Lucas this last Summer too. Even old and second hand it's light years ahead of the new POS nightmare I had before. The service from Lucas is exceptional too.

I'd like to be adding more value to the lumber. Milled almost 2kms of 4x1 saligna and the cost to transport to and get profiled (decking) by the nearest (and only) machinist willing to do it is about $2k.

Can't afford a 4-sider, so I'm looking at a planer/moulder to run it myself and for anyone else who may have lumber they want to get profiled. There are two brands of planer/molders (as they spell it) in USA I'm looking at that range from about $3.5-8k once delivered and set-up with suitable dust extraction.

Not sure yet but think I might go that route and see how many other people need lumber profiled. If nothing else, I'd have paid the machine off with my own needs in a few years.

Hi ya champ
Ya still using the Superaxe
Can make way more $ using the Lucas mill from solid trees than firewood,post and rail fences is the go over here

 

[KiwiBro]

Are you doing the fences too? Guys are doing that here with Macrocarpa which looks great for a few years then the posts rot out. If only there was a steady supply of ground durable trees to mill.

I'm still a year out from having seasoned lumber to play with but would like to be making more stuff over Winter, with the lumber I milled a year or more earlier. Just like firewood though, there's a lag between dropped tree and seasoned wood, so a bit of a struggle this year but hopefully will pay off next year onwards.

I agree mate, SFA in firewood here. You guys get far more for your than here, so firewood guys are doing it even tougher here. I have been looking hard at either going big or going home, and frankly, going big in firewood here is such a gamble it would take me winning lotto or not given a **** about anything or anyone else to risk the $. So, I'd rather investigate the value-add side of milling and see what comes of that.

Still need and love to do firewood, but as a sideline if possible. Absolutely loving milling. Nothing like opening a log to see what's inside.

 

[Stihlman441]

Hiya blokes
ya I’m still alive and in the wood game