sawmill setup??

[willmyers0169]

My dad and I have been at it for a year now, mainly sawing for myself but I get jobs about once a month for friends or neighbors, but what I was wondering is how you guys run your operation.

As of now I am completely stationary and will be for quite a while, I have the LT 15 under a shed with about an 18' opening, and the way we've been doing it is bringing each log up with the skid steer grapples, sawing it, throwing the slabs toward the skid steer and laying the lumber on pallets on the backside of the mill. I then move the slabs to a "holding" area until I get enough to take out to the burn pile, then get another log and repeat.

I was curious as to what seems to work best for you guys, I have toyed around with building a log deck, just haven't done so since I usually don't cut a whack at time.

Any info would be greatly appreciated, oh and photos

thanks


will

[kelLOGg]

I don't have the handling equipment you have so I have a rollway at which I unload logs from my trailer. The rest is sorta like you do; slab rack is in background and lumber pile to the right.
Bob


 

[Verticaltrx]

This is how I currently have my LT15 setup:



 

Basically everything is laid out so the all the materials are moving in-line with the mill for minimal handling. Due to the small area I currently have it setup in my log deck is only about 8' long, but still enough to deck up about 800-1000bf worth of logs. The skid steer will fit between the deck so I can use it with the grapple to turn large logs on the mill (if milling very large logs that will need this we only load them one at a time on the log deck). I spray painted a line across the timbers of the log deck about 2" beyond the travel path of the saw head. When loading logs I set a couple wedge shaped blocks at the line to keep logs from getting too close.

The lumber and slabs get pulled off the end of the mill while the saw head is still at the far end before returning for the next cut. Slabs get tossed on a pile where I can haul them off with the skid steer at the end of the day.

Flitches are pulled off  the far end of the mill and stacked after I pull the mill head back. I have some short sawhorses that are just slightly higher than the mill so you can almost slide the flitches back onto the mill with minimal lifting. We try to organize them based on size so they can quickly be slid back onto the mill. Eventually I'd like to get enough extra bed sections so the flitches can be stacked and clamped on the end of the mill so they don't have to be handled again (similar to what WM has done at the Sawmill Shootout).

Boards come right off the end of the mill and are stacked either on pallets or directly in the back of a truck. I have some 8' and 12' pallets I made just for this purpose.

I'm still refining my setup, but I think it is fairly efficient. With a helper we can do 250+ bf/hr of mixed dimensional lumber and 1" boards. Eventually I'll get this all setup in an area with a little more room and get a saw shed built. Hope some of this helps.

[WDH]

I have to spray most of my hardwood for powderpost beetles, and that complicates things.  Lumber comes off the mill straight back onto a 7' x 10' table where it is sprayed before stickering.  Then it is moved with the tractor forks to a pallet for stickering.  Slabs go directly on the tractor forks since I had a log deck that could hold 8 or 10 logs at a time.

My set-up was almost identical to verticaltrx except for the boards that need edging.  They go to the left of the sawdust area.

[sandsawmill14]

sorry i dont have a pic show logs and lumber stacks


 

i have 2 stacks of lumber on the side of chain closest to you in the pic 1 for good lumber and 1 for edging the loader driver had just moved them out when pic was taken. the slabs are stacked on the other side of the chain and moved with loader. you can see the cants at end of chain. logs come in straight across for chain so you never have to handle any cants just take log turner and push them off the mill.  the only problem is having to clean dust out as it just falls through the chain but i am going to put a dust belt in if i can ever get time and that will solve that problem.im sure it could be better but works for me

[bandmiller2]

Will, sounds like you have a pretty good system now and seeing as your not a high volume miller probably some minor tweeking and you'll be all set. Pay attention to the part that bothers you most or that you would like to avoid and think up a solution, you can do it better than us as your there. Frank C.

[warren46]

My set up is a little different than those discussed thus far.  One difference is that instead of pulling slabs off of the end of the mill I just push the slabs off of the side of the mill onto the sawdust area.  I then pick them up with my front end loader and haul to the slab pile when enough accumulate.  A little sawdust comes with the slabs to the slab pile but that just means less sawdus to haul off at the end of the day.

The other difference is that boards that require edging get pushed off onto the log loader so they can be lifted back up to the bed height.  I normally edge after each log.