Sawmill

[woodworkingboy]

Sorry, this should be in the milling thread, I realized. Maybe Butch will kindly move it over. Thanks.

This is where I get my logs sawn these days, Kodama sawmill. Father and son, though the son mostly rides the carrier now. They do a real good job, and are amiable to sawing the way I want, which often is I dunno. Charge by the hour. The max capacity is about one meter wide. Nice Chestnut log here, and you can see the clean cut.

If I had the bucks, this is what I'd want as far as a mill goes. The operator can really baby the cut along with his control stick, move very fast too. It's old, but they take super care of it. The carrier was replaced once. Interesting guys, they do a lot of logging themselves, I've helped them out a few times. The father is a good climber in his old fashioned way....tough dude. The son is a fishing fool.

 

[vharrison]

Very cool.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'd move it if I could find that thread.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

this is worthy of its own thread. cool pics Jay, you the dude with the muffs on?

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's him in the awesome shirt!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Right, good to stand out a bit so mother gives the invite in for tea.

 

[Al Smith]

I imagine that rig was orginaly built as a resaw to break down cants beings it's ony a meter capacity .A bandsaw on it's worse days produces lumber much smoother than a circular saw on its' best day .

 

[woodworkingboy]

Interesting point, Al, there were a lot more larger trees around in the days when that saw was built.

 

[No_Bivy]

you got a project in mind for that chestnut?

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Most awesome!

How far do you have them mill it?? Just the rough cut plank like you have in the one photo?

 

[sotc]

Beautiful wood! Great pix Jay!

 

[Cobleskill]

I love sawmills. When I was 6 my Dad logged our woods and had the lawn area by the barns full of logs. I remember going out to wait for the bus and jumping from one log to the next. The guy from the sawmill came with a home made crane truck that he used to load the logs on another truck. Dad would take me to the sawmill to watch while they sawed. Dad would roll the logs on the carriage and pull boards off the saw down a roller track. The guy had an old locomotive switch engine powering the mill. Quite the operation. Not OSHA approved. When I was older I helped. I have taken logs to a couple other mills. One was powered by a big International diesel tractor, and one by a big 3 phase electric motor. Then my bud bought a Woodmizer. I sawed with that a few times. He took it to his place in Florida and sold it down there. He was in a logging area, and there was to much competition, and he had no hydraulics. I told him when he got the thing to get them, but he was short on cash.

I would like to build one for myself. Kind of a drag that steel has skyrocketed in price. I liked the Timber Harvester brand. Too bad they went out of business. It was a cheaper and better machine, I thought.

 

[Al Smith]

I doubt I'll have over a couple hundred in mine when I'm done .I had the steel though,engine etc. already .The track frame is a 27 foot single axle truck frame ,8 inch rails riveted ,straight and tough .Freebie on that one .

If you are really interested in building one yourself check out this site .It's the best I've found so far .These guys have built some really fantastic home builts from basically just junk parts .http://www.diybandmill.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

 

[Cobleskill]

Thanks, Al. I am.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Cool you guys like the pics.

Some real clear logs there, a dining set would be a good use. I have them slab up the entire log, and standing right there, I can give the operator different thickness dimensions as he gets deeper in, depending on how it's looking. He doesn't mind, just punches some buttons in his control panel and the carriage shifts accordingly. Generally, I like to go with thinner if figuring to use for table tops or cabinets, 1 1/2" or so, thicker for chairs. With a log that has defects, knots and such, thicker is better as I can work around the flaws and get chair parts, and using a lot of curves, thicker stock is often required. 2 1/4" covers a lot of territory, figuring in warp that is going to occur during the years of drying time. Sometimes it is hard to know what the wood will be used for down the line, around 2" seems to be a good general dimension of stock to have available, a few thicker planks as well for who knows what. Some different variables; the time of year the tree was cut, species variations in how much movement you get as the wood dries, how eager one is to lift heavy thick planks :roll:, those kind of things. Not really a science unless you were making the same things all the time, more like guess work and go for it. Figuring three or four years to dry, it is hard to exactly know what will be happening as far as work in the shop. Kodama is cool, I can just drop off logs at their place, then call them up even months later when I want to have it milled.

 

[brendonv]

I'd like to make this some day.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Something like that would go a long way here. I know you lose some of the wood with the kerf. But I would mostly cut 2X or 4X with it to cut down to what I want later. Just some nice slabs to dry and use for cabinets, molding or floors...
I think my 066 would work fine on it also.

 

[Bodean]

There was a Cal-Fire Grant Funding the Public to reuse Fire Fuel reduction debris.

Basically supplying a woodmizer and kiln to produce non weight bearing lumber for moldings, etc.
I'm not sure if that program still exists, this was about 4 years ago.

 

[Al Smith]

I'd like to make this some day.

That's a basic Alan Combs design .Most likely one of the less costly methods of milling although labor intensive .

With a little redesign with a heavier carrage that thing could be easily converted to a small rubber tired bandsaw rig using a small engine or electric motor for that matter . Actually were a person mechanically inclined that option would be less expensive than say buying a large chainsaw such as an 084 size .

FWIW I 've seen small rigs that used 8HP Briggs engines and 3/4" wide bandsaw blades .The lumber was a little wavy but if you're going to run it through a planer any way it wouldn't make that much difference .

 

[woodworkingboy]

If you were building a rig like that, I think it would be good to have some sort of jack arrangement to lift the ends of the log. Many logs are tapered, so if the cut runs parallel to the frame that is holding the log, you have to make some height adjustments to cut parallel to the pith or however you want to do it..

 

[rskybiz]

I have been scoping for sawmill parts since arriving from Vt here in FL I'm down to finding the lenths for rails as I found a old band meat saw. I will likely widen the 30in opening to a common sized bandsaw blade. on hold is the plasma cutter, but soon.

 

[Al Smith]

If you were building a rig like that, I think it would be good to have some sort of jack arrangement to lift the ends of the log.

Since you mentioned that , many on that DIY site I linked have made provisions for that very same thing .Some get real creative with hydraulics while some just keep it simple with an automobile scissors jack .More than one way to skin the same cat .

 

[woodworkingboy]

I remembered that I had some photos of Kodama mill cutting up an Enju tree for me from a couple years ago. A cool story about this tree......getting a call from a representative of a local shrine, asking me to take a look at a tree for removal. It turned out to be a rare find, and old Enju tree, very prized for it's color, and a shrine tree as well! You generally need very difficult to obtain permission to cut a shrine tree, they are protected under some laws here. I think that the powers that be were cutting corners, potential danger taking precedent over laws.

The top was dying on this one and they were afraid of it falling on someone, hung up in some other tree and they didn't know how to handle it themselves. If I cut it, I could have it.... an easy choice to make. Went over one cold day when nobody would be there to bother me and tight lined it. Things went well, the tree was magnificent, no flaws, and it's not so large size hid the fact that it was over two hundred years old. Some of the tightest grain that I have ever seen in a tree. A legume similar to Acacia, that although it prefers a sunny location, this one had grown surrounded by other taller trees, probably accounting for it"s relatively small diameter and why it started dying. Enju was originally brought over from China, apparently for medicinal purposes. It is still in the cant and has dried with almost no cracking, cut the perfect time of year. I haven't figured out what to use it for yet, maybe an exhibition of some pieces all made from this tree.

 

[SkwerI]

Wow, that looks like it's going to be beautiful, whatever you make of it.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Yep, looking forward to working with it, if I ever get off my butt and have it further slabbed up. Sitting in the cant so long now, it should be very stable.