Sawmill shed minimum width?

[alan gage]

Had a 24x40 open sided drying shed put up last week and now I'm getting ready to add a 12' wide lean-to along one side to keep the sawmill out of the weather. I'm trying to figure out if 12' is wide enough to actually saw under or not. It would be nice to be completely out of the weather while sawing but it would also be nice to have wide open access to both sides of the mill for offloading and stacking boards. Also for sawdust removal.

The other option is to just pull the mill most of the way out for sawing, which would leave the operator controls under cover.

Don't want to go to the trouble and expense of a 20' header in snow country only to find out it's too narrow to saw under anyway.

Thoughts?

Alan

[tmbrcruiser]

My mill shed is 20'x44' (pics in my gallery). Attached is 30'x30' for stacking lumber on the carts. Never enough room no matter how large you build. I think that is written in stone somewhere.

[alan gage]

My mill shed is 20'x44' (pics in my gallery). Attached is 30'x30' for stacking lumber on the carts. Never enough room no matter how large you build. I think that is written in stone somewhere.

Definitely. I've built enough to know that nothing is ever big enough. If things go well there could very well be a larger dedicated saw shed down the line but for now this shed roof off the main building is all that will be available. Just trying to figure out if I should go to the trouble of making it a sawing shed or just a saw storage shed.
Maybe a nice compromise would be something like a 12' header so I can do shorter stuff under cover, which will cover most of what I'm cutting. For the longer stuff I can pull it out.
Alan

[47sawdust]

I can't visualize what your thinking of building.Are you loading logs thru the 12' opening?I would build it bigger,the convenience of having the entire mill under cover means you can saw in poor weather and be comfortable.

[RichTired]

I'm in the pre-construction phase of a 24 × 30 pole building with 12 x 30 lean-tos on each side. I have designed one of the 12 x 30 lean-tos to have a 20' bar joist to allow me to load logs on my LT15GO while it is under a roof.

[LittleJohn]

Definitely agree with building as big as you can afford ;D, also realizing that not everyone wins the lottery.

...I would think 3x wider than the mill, would be sufficient.  With the mill located in the mill, so would basically have a "car width" on either side of the mill.  Assuming you are regularly cutting MONSTER logs and you are piling/storing logs and lumber elsewhere

[alan gage]

I can't visualize what your thinking of building.Are you loading logs thru the 12' opening?I would build it bigger,the convenience of having the entire mill under cover means you can saw in poor weather and be comfortable.

I suppose I didn't do a very good job explaining it. The size of the lean-to will be 12x40. Originally I thought to just park the mill under it when not it use but then started thinking about adding a 20' opening in the side for loading logs so I could saw under cover. Then I started to worry that a lean-to at only 12' wide might be too narrow to saw effectively so I'm wondering if it's worth the trouble and expense of the 20' opening.
The thought of a 12' opening for loading logs as an alternative is that it would be simpler and cheaper to construct and most of what I'll be sawing will be under 12' anyway (mill maximum is 16'). So if I wanted I could do the majority of my logs under cover and pull the mill from under the shed when I do the bigger logs, which would also give better access to support equipment like the skid loader for off loading big boards.
I haven't really done enough sawing yet to get a system down to know how much of a hindrance a 12' wide space would be but I suppose we're pretty good at adapting to what we have.
Alan

[flyboy16101]

I did 12' wide it beats sawing in the rain. It would be nice be able to stack lumber next to the mill, but I don't loose too much time sliding lumber off the end of the mill.

 

[CCCLLC]

Lt40 wide head with guide arm all the way out and rubber dust shoot down will just clear 10' if mill is located perfect. Everything beyond that is gravy. Everybody loves a little gravy.

[Lawg Dawg]

 

 

My sawmill shed is 24' long and 16' wide...I dont have any room under there for nothing but the 40 wide.  I built it for my first sawmill, LT15.  Bigger is better, but I do love my shed, and fan!

[alan gage]

That's a good picture for illustration flyboy, pretty much what I'll end up with. I think 12' wouldn't be so bad in a stand-alone shed since then you could get access to both sides of the mill. 

As for taking lumber off the end of the mill it would have to be the front of the mill since the operator's station and hydraulic motor would be in the way of pulling it off the back. A bit of a hassle since I'd need to walk to the front end of the mill after the cut to raise the head, walk to the back of the mill to return the head, walk to the front of the mill to slide the lumber off, and then to the back of the mill again for the next cut.

Alan

[flyboy16101]

Sounds like we're in the same boat, if I had someone to off bare on a regular basis I could almost double production using the little space I have but I'm only a part time business/ hobby and not to many people want to labor in a sawmill after they work all day at another job.

[btulloh]

Since the 12' leanto is the low-hanging fruit in this deal, I'd go ahead and put it on there and use it until the stand-alone saw shed gets built.  Even when the saw moves to another location, the 12' lean to would be an asset.  I'd go wider on the open side - at least 16'6", but 20' is better.  Whatever it takes to span that 20', it'd be worth it now, and in the long run.  Just my $.02

[ljmathias]

Just my 2 bits: most important thing for me is the opening width for loading logs. My first shed for my LT10 was just a little short lengthwise- and wouldn't you know it, a lot of the logs I wanted to mill were as long as the mill could handle. That meant back-and-forth with the endloader to wiggle the log in. Time waster.

New saw mill shed is wider on both sides than the 20+ foot length I can cut. What I didn't realize when I built it was how often I'd load a log in from the sawdust side. I'd have two or five logs set up to roll up to the loader when I'd get a small log that had to be cut RIGHT NOW! Putting it in from the other side was easy since there were no posts in the way.

Biggest problem I've had till now is one that involves the hoarder instinct so many of us seem to have. I'd cut a slab off a log to get down to where I'd need to be to cut the lumber I needed: what to do with that perfectly good slab I have no use for right now? So I'd stand it up in the corner out of the way. Few years down the road and now I can't walk around the end of the sawmill to line things up or off bear boards. So how "useful" is all that useful crap standing in the way? Still can't think of when I'll use it so short answer, not at all. Dang! Needed a bigger sawmill shed after all... or better discipline. Wife says I'm not making much progress on that.

Best laid plans and all... good luck with what you have and build what you need as soon as you can.

LJ