Why a mill?

[bigjohn1895]

because no one wants to mill logs that are 2 or 3 foot long
since im a chainsaw carver i get all the cut offs from the mill (walnut cherry red oak and all kinds of maple
i dont carve all of it so the ones i dont carve get turned into slabs and the lucky ones i make into tables and benches

i will be making a thread of my millings later this fall when i get into the furniture for the winter too busy carving now

 

[qbilder]

cool thread. i originally got into milling with a chainsaw just because i thought it was a neat idea. just curious i guess. i responded to a craigslist ad from a guy who was looking to trade labor for trees. i helped him clear some less desirable trees and he let me mill what we took down. started out with a tiny little makita chainsaw and an aluminum homemade alaskan style mill. my neighbor and i spent the whole day dropping trees and milling. we didn't have a clue how to do it effectively. after a long hot day of this as we were eating dinner my neighbor said: "gosh i don't think i'll be doing that again anytime soon..." well as for me i was so excited that we had produced some boards the hook was set. i couldn't wait to get back and mill some more. i just really enjoy working in the woods. so one thing lead to another and i bought a big stihl, made a bunch more homemade milling jigs then eventually just built myself a bandsaw mill. i love milling. so the long winded answer to the question is because it's a blast! and you get to make a bunch of unique lumber that enables you to build just about anything you can think of

It certainly is fun, no question about it. Hunting, fishing, camping with the family, riding our ATV's, road trips, etc. has become nothing but wood hunting trips for me. I love it, though.