red cedar. how small?

[LeeB]

what is the smallest usable red cedar log for milling. Have a fellow that wants some milled. He has from 6"-12" logs. Wants 4/4 boards. Thanks, LeeB

[Haytrader]

6" small end inside the bark is about as small as you can go and get much return for your time.

[Tom]

I try not to cut anything less than 9".  By the time you square 9" you may have a 6" cant.    If you start with 6" (assuming you can dog it on the mill), you will be lucky to get a couple or three 1x4's out of it.  That's a mighty expensive 1x4.

[ARKANSAWYER]

LeeB,
  At 6 inches and 8' you will get about 11 bdft from it.  You can saw about 10 of these an hour if you are very fast.  Hard to make any money like that.  If you have just a few and mostly 10 to 12 inchers then it would not be a bad job.  When they have alot of 6 to 8 I charge by the hour and when they want 5/8 thick boards for closet linning I charge by the sq ft or by the hour.  It saws easy and if clean I get 1000+ bdft per blade cutting it.
  Smells good.
ARKANSAWYER

[LeeB]

Thanks for the replies. Fellow brought the logs by Monday. HAd about three 6"ers. Talked him out sawing those. The rest wwhere 8-16" x8-16' logs. about 12 of them. Cut it all 4/4.  Didn't figure the bf tally. I saw by the hour anyway. 3 1/2 hours and $100. Yea I know that is mighty slow for you HD guys' but I am full manual.Owner was real happy, I was real happy. He's coming back with some more later and a few walnut logs. Will do the walnut for shares, as it is virtually non existant here. LeeB ;D

[Rick-Wi]

I was just about to ask the same question, but with Black Cherry. We cleaned out a lot and there were some nice 14" cherry 30' tall, some forked 8-12' up and we cut that up too. We kept the 6" and better logs, crunched the rest and trucked it out.

Rick-Wi

[ARKANSAWYER]

LeeB
  On small cedars a manual mill is faster then a hydralic mill.  If I have my bed extension on I saw my small cedars down there where it is manual.  I saw past  and reach over and unclamp flip it over then clamp back and come back and saw again.  It is faster and easier on logs 8" or less.  Now when you get that 30" walnut on there you will wish you had hydralics.
ARKANSAWYER