Is Bigger Better?

[rockhead515]

I guess this is maybe more for hobbyists than for the pros but all info is welcome. What is the smallest diameter you'd normally cut on your mill? Are there limits on the machines? Will you just not get anything useful out of, for example, an 8"dia. tree/branch?

Curious like a cat,
Charlie

[Radar67]

Welcome to the forum Charlie.

I prefer 8 inch or larger. Smaller than that is just not productive, unless you only want a 4x4 out of it. The 8 inch has to be straight to get much out of it.

[Captain]

My cutoff is usually about 8" on the small end, but I run a swingmill without a dogging system.  I know some of these bandmill fellows cut much smaller than that.

Captain

[Tom]

I use about 9" as a cutoff for small logs.  It's a good handstretch from the thumb to the little finger.

You're lucky if a 9" log squares 6"

Not only are smaller logs counter productive, but small logs have very little mature wood.  The center 3-5 rings are immature wood and prone to more shrinkage and warp. 

[Tom Sawyer]

I sometimes cut as small as 6", but as the others said it is not very productive.  When cutting the smaller stuff I like to put two logs on at a time to make things move a bit faster.

Tom

[crtreedude]

We will use very small, say even 5 inch. That is because we make 3 inch tablilla - which is like thin wainscotting - it is a big seller. So, we can pretty much use a lot that you would normally not bother with.

We can run between 2 to 3 thousand varas (33 inches linear) per day - all we do is block it, and then use some resaws to cut thin enough.

[thecfarm]

rockhead515,welcome to the forum.Why are you so curious about it?Getting a sawmiil,have one?You mentioned branch too.I have never cut a branch.Some have done it for figure wood.Just depends on what it will be used for.

[John Bartley]

My favourite size is about 20" on the small end and about 8-1/2' long.

However .... on Monday last I sawed my smallest piece ever. It was a chunk of Apple wood, about 6" diameter ad about 30" long. I made a sacrificial table to clamp into my mill, then sawed the table and the log at the same time. It was a favour for a friend, and he wanted 1/2" thick boards to make something small for his sweetheart. The logs were from trees that they thinned from their apple orchard. Using the sacrificial table made the job a piece of cake. Apple wood however is HARD!! The saw worked pretty hard for such a small log.

cheers eh?

John

[ladylake]

9" here unless it's 4x4 or red cedar which is rare up here.  Steve

[moonhill]

I saw branches, the ones from cabbage pine, wolf pine, you know the ones with the sweeping branches.  I use them for curved wood in timber framing.  If it is larger enough I can get two book matched pieces 3" or 4" thick.  Some of these are around 5' long and as small as 5".   Or larger sweeping members, Cruck blades.   Tim

[backwoods sawyer]

These are about as small as I mill, they are just over 3' long. When milling these I have an assortment of sacrificial boards that I use to aid in the clamping of them.

[Jasperfield]

Backwoods Sawyer,

I really appreciate your photos. It looks like you've gleaned a saleable product from what most would burn or discard. I'm impressed.

Thanks,

Jasperfield

[Cedarman]

In a business sense, the smallest log you saw should be based on the value added you achieve tempered by the time it takes to do the sawing.  How much money are you making per hour doing it?  Our average log size is about 7 to 8 inches, but we use a scragg to saw a log a minute. We saw all logs 4 1/2" up to about 12" on the scragg.

But we can take a 6" x 12' cedar and saw a 4x4 on the wood mizer.  Cost of log is about 7 to 8 bucks.  4x4 is worth  $20.00  Plus slabs are run through resaw to salvage short boards.  Edging strips and waste slabs are run though hog and made into mulch which sells for a little over 2 cents per pound FOB our mill.

So it depends on what you are sawing and what the margins are as to how small a log is profitable to saw.

[Robert Long]

In 1975 I removed a bunch of aromatic cedars from a grave yard during a renovation of that place and I brought them back to the yard and through them onto an old truck bed and forgot them until I was cleaning up scrap metal in the yard last month and found the cedar logs.   I was going to just shred them but decided to mill one instead.......well, was I surprized   Some were as small as 3" in diameter and most were 12' long.  I cut them into 1/2" thick stock with one edge as it's easy to cut the width later. A jig or side clamps and sacrificial board or two are needed and you must take your time but the results are great on these special finds....they make milling fun ;)





Robert

[solodan]

I have milled stuff down to about 5" for live edge trim and special boards with special character. The price of these pieces makes it worth while,but I would not want to mill a bunch of 4x4 from a bunch of 6" logs,unless I had a scragg mill. To answer the question, IS Bigger  Better?, than I would say yes, as long as you have the equipment to move em. A 16 foot 40" log is more than most small equipment will lift.  Small logs have their advantages. They are easy to handle and you can usually get a larger overrun than large logs. A 6" log 10 feet long scales at 8bf, but I remember I milled one one day cause it was at the top of the deck and I think I sawed about 20 bf. Started thinking about a scragg mill  again. :D   If all the logs were 30" on both ends I would be very happy.

[Ianab]

I have sawn tiny logs of interesting species, just to get the unusual wood. If you are wanting some contrasting trim or inlay you can use 1x2s or similar from a small log. I find that I can wedge them into the _| ledge on a 1/2 sawn larger log to hold them in place.

But as far as production goes - no way. With a swing mill, bigger is better. Set up around a 40 or 50" log and just start making boards - so much better.  ;D

Ian

[Cedarman]

If I had a 40 or 50" cedar log, I would say someone just killed the biggest cedar in Indiana. ;)

[bandmiller2]

All depends,my partner builds fancy cedar furnature sometime we mess around for an hour to get a small piece just right.The problem on any mill is holding the small stuff,you waste alot of scraps just clamping it.Frank C.

[Chuck White]

I usually limit my log size to 8" on the small end.  At 8", I can usually get three 2X4's!
Sometimes we'll get something of a little more value and saw smaller stuff, but not often.

Get too small and clamping becomes more difficult, and the effort isn't worth it lots of times.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Welcome to the Forum Rockhead  ;D we got another one  8)

The smallest Ive cut was about 9 years ago on the Jonsered bandsaw I had was some Huon Pine at 4" dia and 2' long branches the Old Bloke who brought  in a 20' container full of shorts from Tassy that He and a Mate had salvaged out of a dam with a12' dingy and they could only cut what was out of the water the Big peices where up to 10' by 6' the timber as hobby wood was worth about $10 a bft I charged out at $60 per hour for the job as He would bring the logs to Me every so often in a tandem trailer Id cut what He needed  to make clocks and stuf like that so mainly 3/4 to 5/4 bark to bark slabs . Ive also done alot of little jobs like that over the years . ;D ;D 8)

For production sawing I wont go any less than 6" dia by 8' long in cheap logs but in dearer logs My limit goes up to To 10' by 8' min  ;) ;D

Good luck Reguards Chris McMahon