How much?

[JMG]

I have a lt40 electric feed manual mill 27hp gas with good logs say pine how much bf sawing 1×8×12 should I get in a day 8 HR trying to determine if I'm pushing it hard enough

[dgdrls]

Just you doing it all or do you have an off-bearer/helper?

BTW, I have no Idea, but I know some folks will weight in with their experiences.

D

[WV Sawmiller]

   Do you have a log deck? Skid steer? Tractor with fork? Tons of other questions will impact your question. I too do not know the answer but until you provide some of your equipment and procedural matters I doubt anyone else can give you an educated guess either. Good luck.

[JMG]

Just me

[JMG]

Skid steer for loading use blade for return on narrow boards stack behind me

[Southside]

I am presuming you are asking if you are pushing the mill hard enough.  The answer lies in the quality of what is coming off the mill. If you are pushing too fast you will see wavy boards, stalling engine, bands heating up and getting loose / falling off. You want to remain just under those factors to achieve maximum production efficiency. 

With a manual mill, one man show material handling will be the limiting factor over cutting speed. 

[78NHTFY]

JMG--I have the same mill.  Working alone, with log deck loaded I can do 1 log an hour: 25% sawing time; rest offloading boards onto tractor forks; disposing of off-cut slabs; stickering boards; cleaning up sawdust; changing a blade; adding water when needed; etc......  That's a good pace for me, but I'm not 21 anymore :(.  All the best, Rob.

[Lawg Dawg]

I am presuming you are asking if you are pushing the mill hard enough.  The answer lies in the quality of what is coming off the mill. If you are pushing too fast you will see wavy boards, stalling engine, bands heating up and getting loose / falling off. You want to remain just under those factors to achieve maximum production efficiency.

With a manual mill, one man show material handling will be the limiting factor over cutting speed.

Carbide can solve all your wavy board issues...gitty up  ;D



 

Perfect pine lap siding boards sawed REALLY FAST, and a bunch of them! 

[Southside]

Carbide can solve all your wavy board issues...gitty up

Absolutely true, with carbides my 35 and the resaw attachment can keep up with the feed rate of the 70, they are impressive.  How thick are you making those?

[Woodpecker52]

Takes about 5 to 7 logs a day on my mill, majority of time spent moving logs, slabs, stacking lumber,  etc. 2 man operation.  This is why this is more of a retirement hobby for us than a business concern.  Just happen to have cypress that a lot of people like at this time.

 

 

[Lawg Dawg]

Carbide can solve all your wavy board issues...gitty up

Absolutely true, with carbides my 35 and the resaw attachment can keep up with the feed rate of the 70, they are impressive.  How thick are you making those?

This is what I was telling you about at the GA Sawfest...I drop the head 3/4" and get a 11/16" thick board by 8" wide...can't cut them fast enough. My customers are hooked on them!  :D  8)

Small logs too!

[Southside]

They look really nice!!  

[JMG]

Thanks everyone for feedback

[YellowHammer]

That's kind of an opened ended question, so instead of suggesting solutions, I will suggest a process.  I remember at one of the sawmill shootouts many years ago, two WM sawyers with a fully manual WM LT15 cut 1,150 bdft per hour, and were dead beat when done.  We all know that's not realistic over the long term, or even the course of a day, but shows how important efficiency is when sawing.

I hung a big clock on the wall, and watched it every log and tried to identify the times when when the sawmill wasn't actually making sawdust, and I realized real quick I was wasting a lot of time doing everything but sawing.  So every day, I kept trying new things, deleting steps, trying different techniques, generally being more efficient, not just in small bursts, but day after day. That's why just working harder, but not smarter, isn't the answer, as its impossible to sustain.  The best solution is to work less and produce more.  Every time a new log went on the mill, I looked at the clock.  I started seeing where I was losing time, log after log, and I made adjustments.  Then my lumber production more than doubled over a period of time with the exact same sawmill. That's the genesis of my phrase under my name on the Forum, "Take steps to save steps." 

Notice the clock hanging on the back wall.  



   

[Southside]

Hammer -  considering your recent upgrade, to paraphrase Chief Broady "Your gonna need a faster clock"  :D

[Tom the Sawyer]

Time studies can be quite enlightening.  Rather than relying on a clock, and my memory, I used a video camera to record everything going on during the process.  Still record every client job. 

You can reduce the hassle by the equipment you use.  I use a small, 1920x1080, dash cam mounted on a tripod.  Most of them are wide-angle, recording 140-180° FOV.  With a 64 gig micro SD card, it will record about 9 hours non-stop.  It is powered via USB cable to a small powerbank, also mounted on the tripod.  The software lets you overlay date and time on the video, which makes it easy to time processes.