yesterdays milling

[stonykill]

here are a few pics of my end result from yesterdays milling. The only thing not pictured is my 266xp with a 2nd alaskan. I only used that to make the 1st cuts. The old Pioneer did the rest. Why you ask? Because it mills better than the 66 cc husky, and puts up with the abuse better. The husky is a pita to restart after refueling, and doesn't cut any faster than the smaller 58 cc Pioneer. Its all about the old school torque. Also the husky blows exhaust in my face,and onto my right arm, where the Pioneer dumps the exhaust on the ground, away from me.

The Pioneer is a Holiday, 58 cc, 24 inch Husky bar, modded to work on the Pioneer. It wears Baileys lp milling chain.

All the pine was milled 6/4 and 7/4 for use later as table tops. The only way I can justify milling pine, is to mill it thicker than 5/4. Pine is just to cheap to buy in 4/4 or 5/4. As a side not, I never mill thinner than 5/4. I just don't see the need to take all the time milling anything, to end up with finished 3/4 thickness, that is readily available at every lumber yard, fairly inexpensive.

All these logs were to small to worry about slabbing 3 sides and constantly rolling. The largest was 18 inches. Most were around 14. The logs were clean, I only stopped to sharpen once. I worked from 9:30 to 4:30, stopping for an hour for lunch and to sharpen and blow off my saws. This includes stacking and stickering. I worked alone, so no action shots.

 

[wdchuck]

pics

 

[stonykill]

arrrrrrg

I don't know whats up with Picasa, lets try photobucket

 

[bookerdog]

Nice

 

[dustytools]

Looks like a nice turn-out for a hard days work!

 

[urbanlumberinc]

Sounds like fun, at least until the temp hits 85 or better

 

[woodshop]

All the pine was milled 6/4 and 7/4 for use later as table tops. The only way I can justify milling pine, is to mill it thicker than 5/4. Pine is just to cheap to buy in 4/4 or 5/4. As a side not, I never mill thinner than 5/4. I just don't see the need to take all the time milling anything, to end up with finished 3/4 thickness, that is readily available at every lumber yard, fairly inexpensive.

Nice job stony, good days milling. So where do you get all this 3/4 lumber so cheap it doesn't pay to mill it? I'm assuming when you say you don't see the need to take the time to mill anything 3/4, you are talking about pine only? Down here in SE PA even pine is couple bucks a bd ft. For the good clear stuff, even more. I figured it that even if I pay myself $20 and hour, pay for transportation and even depreciate cost of my saws and mills... milling is cheaper than buying. Maybe where you are you can get rough lumber from a local mill relatively cheap... good for you. I know if I venture out into central PA rough lumber is cheaper from some of the smaller sawmills. Like lots of things... location location location

 

[stonykill]

Nice job stony, good days milling. So where do you get all this 3/4 lumber so cheap it doesn't pay to mill it? I'm assuming when you say you don't see the need to take the time to mill anything 3/4, you are talking about pine only? Down here in SE PA even pine is couple bucks a bd ft. For the good clear stuff, even more. I figured it that even if I pay myself $20 and hour, pay for transportation and even depreciate cost of my saws and mills... milling is cheaper than buying. Maybe where you are you can get rough lumber from a local mill relatively cheap... good for you. I know if I venture out into central PA rough lumber is cheaper from some of the smaller sawmills. Like lots of things... location location location

this area has a bunch of small mills, all family owned. There is one less than 5 miles from my house, been buying there since 90. All he mills is pine on an antique circular mill. Its a 6 day a week operation. I can buy surfaced 3/4 x 12 x 8 foot for $1.02 per foot. 5/4 is just a few cents more per square foot.

I don't mill my hardwoods thinner than 1 1/4 either. 2 reasons. 1st, I rarely use 3/4 finished thickness stock. For table tops I feel it looks cheap. 2nd I have educated my customers to pay extra for the thicker woods. I'll be posting finished pics soon of the tv cabinet I built of solid birch. Its entirely 1 inch finished thickness. My pieces are built rugged, to last generations. If I used 3/4 stock they would look like anything you could buy at any furniture store.

My other feeling is, I prefer to mill thicknesses I can't necessarily afford to buy to just have lying around for stock. I started this business as a poor country boy, no savings account, no credit, barely enough money for food. All I could afford was 3/4 pine rough. Now I have an inventory of nice thick boards, nicer selection than a lot of small lumber yards as far as furniture quality wood goes.

 

[woodshop]

Sounds good stony... as I said before, I like your "seat of the pants:can do" attitude.

 

[wdchuck]

Nice stack of wood there Stonykill, and just a days work too. Keep it up, look forward to the finshed product pics.

 

[stonykill]

Nice stack of wood there Stonykill, and just a days work too. Keep it up, look forward to the finshed product pics.

thanks, I occasionally have help. Either my 14 year old son, my wife or a 17 year old hired hand. None of them can believe how much work I can do in a day. The 17 year old is a good worker, and he is fried at the end of a work day. As Ted Nugent said, " Workin hard, playin hard, gets me thru each day and night" For me milling is both, hard work and play.

I'm going to try to continue to post thread's of my milling, to show newbies that you don't need a 660 or a 395 to mill. My Pioneer Holiday that did this milling cost me $16.25 including shipping off of e bay. I got lucky, I bought it as a parts saw, and there was nothing wrong with it. I have more money invested in that new 24 inch husky bar than I have in 3 pioneer hoildays, and one of the others runs too!

 

[stonykill]

Sounds good stony... as I said before, I like your "seat of the pants:can do" attitude.

I think of it as good old fashioned American Ingenuity :rockn: