Against my better judgement, I'll show you what I've started building today with a bunch of pine I've salvaged on the little 2.75 acre parcel I call home.
First the mill. I bought a Beam Machine a little over a year ago, but didn't get much time to try it out. Finally this year, I've been able to get a bit of time and have my "big" (ha, ha) saw running, a Jonsered 2159. I bought a couple of loops of ripping chain from Bailey's and went at it. The Beam Machine was OK for making, well, beams, but not so hot for boards.
Being the cheapskate that I am (and also a stay at home dad with two little boys), I couldn't fathom ponying up for an Alaskan to see if I liked milling, so I built my own "mini Alaskan". It isn't pretty, I used a little flat stock, some angle iron and some pieces of a trash pump frame I had kicking around, and after some fiddling and a little very ugly welding, here's what I ended up with (sorry, they're cell phone pics):
Here it is sort of "in action":
Yep, it's pretty ugly. Nope, it doesn't mill all that square. But for a first test, I consider it a success. Now I just need to learn how to file these ripping chains a LOT better, although the regular 3/8" chain still does an OK job. It's slow going with a 59cc saw, so now I want more power! Sure would like to stumble into a blown up Makita 6401 to make into an 84cc terror....
After several afternoons of milling a few dead white pines I'd dropped I had a pile like this:
I did do a bit of work with a table saw in an effort to square up some boards for the deck/floor. Nothing too fancy...had to plug the table saw into a 20 amp circuit so it would stop tripping the breaker. Made me a bunch of 2ish by 6" boards to start.
Haven't gotten too far yet, but I figure if I post, I'll have to keep going!