New guy here with a few questions

[tizzel]

Hey guys newbie here to sawmills. I recently purchased a Woodland Mills HM126 and have only put 2 logs through it so far. (Juniper and Aspen)
Weather was not favorable to access any more.  That and I had to come back to work for 4 weeks  >:(

I live in Newfoundland and we don't have a whole lot of different types of wood to choose from. Mostly spruce, juniper & birch. We do have pine here but it's protected and it's illegal to cut down. 

I seen quite a few posts about guys not milling during the winter. What is the reason behind this?

[starmac]

Mills are buried under snow.

You can mill all winter if it doesn't get to cold to stand.

[Crossroads]

Only issue with milling in the winter here in western Oregon is, your gonna get wet. I even had a customer cancel today when there was no rain forecasted and reschedule for tomorrow when it's going to rain ☔️

[starmac]

It gets cold enough here that unless you have some heat, you sure wouldn't want to mill.
I have heaters on all hydraulic heaters, and block heater on my forklift, but there are days even if I wanted to mill, I wouldn't crank it up, just too hard on everything.

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, tizzel!

Basically, there are two reason why I don't saw during the Winter!

1. It gets way to cold out there!

2. I saw mobile, and I'm not going to drag my mill out there on the roads with all that salt spraying over the mill!

[thecfarm]

I built a horse run in one winter. I had to scrape the ice off the rafters to lays the boards for the roofing. I only cut for myself.I cut a tree down than haul it to the mill,than I build with it. I was getting the wood in one area,so I kept the snow packed down. I was able to go in,with my tractor and get the logs out. It's alot slower,but the logs are cleaner.  ;D
And I could pick the days to saw too. The horses was going to be there until late spring.

[goose63]

Welcome to the Forum tizzel

Right now its 7 below I'm staying by the wood stove.

At my age I don't like the cold 

[tizzel]

I guess years of working on an oil rig is -40 temps has toughed me up   ;D

[justallan1]

Welcome Tizzel.
If I could find a place around here that didn't drift in with snow I would.
I partnered with someone to haul logs off a fire break for me, I'd saw them and we'd split it. Problem is, we go from frozen to thawed to drifted in with snow more frequently that I changes my socks.
I work for a ranch and go 7 days a week this time of year, so when we get days that it's only frozen and not snowed in or bad windy, I have to use those days getting ready for things around the ranch.
I will say that when I got my first mill it was 2 days before Christmas, I'd drove through a snowstorm 500 miles round trip to get it, got it set up in my carport and you can bet your last dollar that I was out hunting for something to saw into something smaller, ANYTHING!
My thoughts any more is that the milling part of the deal is the fun easy part of it all. Where I'm at trees that are worth sawing don't happen to live on flat ground and I can wait until better conditions and get a lot more done with less work and way less chance of wrecking my equipment.

[Andries]

. . . . purchased a Woodland Mills HM126 and .... 
I seen quite a few posts about guys not milling during the winter. What is the reason behind this?

Welcome tizzel,
Lots of the sawmill operators here have hydraulic mills. Thet's important when you want larger logs to be milled quickly in a production work setting. Time is bf is $  :D
When it gets a wee bit cold like - 25, the hydraulics start having issues. At -40 degrees they break down more than they work. Most guys don't want to change the hyd. oil on their mills for seasonal use. Other issues are more blade breakage due to the cold, plus losing car keys and tools in the snow, etc etc.
My LT30 Woodmizer is a manual mill, your Woodland Mills HM126 is as well, right?
That's a big reason, the other is material handling. Milling might be 20% of the time spent at making lumber out of trees.
How are you going to get the logs to the mill, trim your lumber, all stacked and stickered when the cold is making snotsicles hang from the end of your nose?  ;)
The upside is, that you can deadstack lumber for months with no bad effect, cause the cold has frozen everything solid.

There's a forum guy named quebednewf that posts regularly. Check out his gallery and posts - they're excellent.

[Resonator]

It depends on whether your milling as a hobby, or milling to make money. If it's a hobby, your just milling for fun, you don't have to brave the cold and work. If your in it to make money, you have an incentive to put on your heavy insulated big boy pants and deal with frozen equipment. As far as the sawmill goes, it will work, but you will have to spend time shoveling everything off and warming everything up before you can work. That and use -25 windshield washer fluid for blade lube. Good luck!

[porcupine]

Playing football was fun in Aug, Sept and Oct. It was less so in Nov.
In fact working out was fun back then too....now it's not. But that's another story.

Operating the mill in the winter months is not as enjoyable as when it's a little warmer.

Spring is coming

[Andries]

Spring up here is in another 4 months.  ;D
Windshield washer fluid rated for -40 is gooder.


Tizzel, seeing as how you know your way around an oil rig, you might know what these are:

[Kbeitz]

Trigger finger hunting gloves.

[Southside]

One of the complications you will see there milling in the winter is that your logs will be frozen, or worse partially frozen.  Frozen wood saws a lot harder and slower, dulls bands, and requires different tooth angles.  Partially frozen logs cause bands to dip, dive, and dodge.  It is similar to sawing crotch grain in very hard wood, and since the band is in and out of the changing conditions the cut quality can suffer.  It's not that it can't be done, it's just different and at times frustrating.     

[Resonator]

I work outside until the icicles on my beard start getting too heavy.  :laugh:

[Grizzly]

My hydraulics work not to bad till about -20°C and then start squealing etc due to long hyd lines that just can't keep oil warm (synthetic winter oil). I also have a real issue with trying to work around the snow and ice. Snow on the mill becomes ice with a little bit of sun and then I can spend an hour or more chipping that clean and then start spreading sawdust over the ice we've made while walking/limping around. And then my helper gets to slip on the snow/ice while heaving on the peavey to get another log up to the mill. And on and on. My mill is shut down for this winter. I'm hoping for a roof over the mill to take care of a bunch of the above issues.

[ChugiakTinkerer]

I've cut cottonwood in the winter when it was frozen.  I'm similarly limited to spruce, birch, and the occasional cottonwood or aspen.  I bought 4 degree Kasco blades and they work great so far.  You could run windshield fluid in the lubrication tank.  Just work slowly and be mindful that some equipment, as well as equipment operator, can't be hurried when it's cold.

[tizzel]

Spring up here is in another 4 months.  ;D
Windshield washer fluid rated for -40 is gooder.


Tizzel, seeing as how you know your way around an oil rig, you might know what these are:

Indeed I do know what those are. I'm a Well Site Manager now, so I don't spend as much time outside anymore...lol

[Andries]

Trigger finger hunting gloves.

Our crew calls them "lobster mitts" in honour of the Canadian East Coasters who popularized them.
Heck, anybody that comes up with a clever idea on how to "work warm" is honoured around here!
8)
Man kbeitz, you folks must have HUGE trigger guards down your way! ;)  ;) :D 

[samandothers]

My trigger mits my grandmother knit had the trigger finger only about a half inch or so long and then an open hole to stick your finger out.  Had not thought about those in years!