I'm gonna be getting a new to me LT15 soon and I'm figuring out where it will live. Probably gonna be on gravel with a metal carport over it. I'm considering building a wood deck for it to sit on. Picture a wood platform about 6 inches high and maybe 8'x20'. Has anybody done something like that and how did it work? I know concrete would be better, but this may be a temporary location.
Thanks,
Bill
My first mill was set up on 8x8 cants. A little more than that is handy. Actually I like to have the deck of the mill about knee high as it isnt as far to bend over to clamp boards and logs. The room underneath is handy for clean up. That is all subject to loading logs on to a mill with a little height.
First mill?
PC
I've seen people use 6x6 bunks
Mine is on a trailer and I saw mobile so I don't really have a dog in this fight but I have an opinion, a common shortfall I live with on a daily basis, and think you would be better served with the mill at a higher/more comfortable working height - something between knee and thigh high so you don't have to bend over as much (I hate bending over). I don't see enough advantage of a solid deck to justify it compared to just sturdy cants/bunks especially for a temporary location. I really think a wood base would be better than concrete because it has more flexibility.
Good luck and enjoy the mill.
My plan would include concrete piers dug down to about 30" to prevent movement from frost, but maybe some long 6x6's would make more sense for a temporary situation.
You guys have made my decision. Thanks for the useful ideas.
If you were to do 6x6's for temporary, here's what I'd do: level the ground first nice and level, then lay down two 6x6 runners and make sure they're parallel to each other, then put 6x6's cross ways under each bunk for support. If you can, bolt them together for more rigidity-ness. Then saw lumber. I would only use two runners as its easier to level two runners than three and the 6x6 crossmembers wouldnt have any problems spanning the small gap between runners.
That's what I was thinking 4x4...... to use cross members and bolt them together with some long lags. Thanks.
Gitter done! smiley_thumbsup
I did it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_0867.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1350347995)
When I first got my mill, I mounted the on 6x6 runners and they were blocked up by 6x6 cross members. Was ok, but the killer was that the mill bed was to low. Had me bending over all the time.
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Once I built a trailer, lifting the bed about 30" off the ground, my back thank me. ;D
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Another down side of doing the 6x6 ground contact was a lot of saw dust and bark would fill in between and under the mill tracks. You had to fight to clean that area.
My future plans are to build a complete new mill bed that will be a lot longer then what I have now and mount my mill above the ground on 6x6's with 6x6 post sticking into the ground. I saw only for myself. I will keep the trailer I have and I will be able to just swap the head over if I want to go mobile.
This has worked fine for me.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39962/New_Saw_Bed_08.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1459428656)
Cross ties are spiked to the ground with 1/2" rebar. Sills are secured with Timberloks.
I hear what you're saying about cleaning out sawdust, so it would be better to do what btulloh has done and put the short cross memebers on the ground and the long bunks on top of those. That would make it easier to clean out underneath.
I like your setups guys.
I try to blow the sawdust and bark off the track fairly often and I just blow the sawdust out from between the ties while I'm at it.
My mill (HM126) has adjustable feet under the track that are staggered from side to side and don't match up well if the cross ties were on the top layer. Like most things, it all depends on your particulars. My bed is located on very firm ground that drains like a sieve, so it's been really stable with the limited number of cross ties. It's not as good as pouring a slab or footers, but it works for me. Maybe sometime I'll upgrade the whole thing, but while I'm waiting on that I'll be sawing logs.
You need to get the mill up just above knee height. You can measure your own knee.
What a fantastic thread! :) Keep the pics coming!!!!!!
I'm still tying up my trailer with the mill sitting on it. It's a little awkward having to step up and down off the trailer while I load logs, but I'm getting stuff done and learning. A more permanent installation will happen once I have enough wood milled to build something. A setup like WDH has would be fantastic. A little "head-shed" like btulloh has would be amazing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/44045/IMG_3125.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1507753525)
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Getting up and down on that trailer would wear me out in a hurry. But it illustrates a good point, I think. Getting a mill set up and sawing logs is more important than trying to make the perfect solution right out of the gate. Probably even more important when it's your first foray into sawmilling (like mine was for me). Like a lot of things, I didn't know what I really needed for a good setup until I had done some sawing for a while. Getting things organized for decent work flow took some trial and error (and help from people on the forum) before I started to really figure it out. And it's still evolving. If I had cast everything in concrete initially I would be locked into some bad setups. Of course there are some examples on here of people who put down pads and made real nice layouts to start, and probably came out ok. I first set the mill up on some 8x8 solid cinder blocks. Not good for the long run, but it allowed me saw some stuff out to make the next version.
My bed ended up about knee high by the time you add up two sets of 6x6's, the adjustable feet, the track, and the bunks and it's about right. So, like WDH said, knee high is a good thing to shoot for.
DanMc has got a good machine there for moving his logs and lumber around and he got his mill set up and making sawdust. When he gets it off that trailer, he won't miss climbing up and down I bet.
My very first setup:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39962/Sawmill_First_log_28229.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1436129436)
Things evolve:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39962/New_Log_Ways_02.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1486417725)
Here is my mill as it is now. Andy had a nice setup with concrete and a big roof.
You may remember member gfadvm, I'm inheriting his saw as he's no longer able to use it. He's been dealing with brain cancer for almost 2 years now. I will be picking up the mill this weekend. I'm excited to get it, but sure wish Andy could keep using it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36921/IMG_0472.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1507759131)
Anybody know how to post pictures from an iPad?
Quote from: firefighterontheside on October 11, 2017, 06:57:09 PM
Anybody know how to post pictures from an iPad?
The way i do it from my phone is to go into the gallery and upload the pics to an album there then copy the code and paste it in a thread. On my phone, every time I do this, after I paste the code into the thread, instead of the [ ] brackets it comes out as %5b and %5d on each end, so if that happens to you, thats what you have to do. Maybe @Jeff can shed some light on this
That worked....thanks.
btulloh,
Them are some nice round straight logs. It seems half of the logs we get wouldnt roll well so we only stage 3 or less so we dont get a bunch we would have to move if the forklift was required to turn one on the mill,
PC
Firefighter, you've got a perfect spot there. Get the mill up in the air and throw up a nice lean to and you've got it made in the shade.
Pc, i get lucky on the logs some of the tree guys bring me. The ugly stuff gets forked on from the other side of the mill. Some of them just end up as firewood. The ugly pine i usually just saw out as 6x6. Funny thing is they still look better than the 6x6s I see at HD.
My mill is under a new building now. ;D
Those oak trees around that area has died off. Something has been killing oak trees around my parts. :o We still don't know what it is. :o I have 7 dead now in that area that I need to fell.
I have noticed that the lumber I get from rough logs looks better than some from the big box stores. My customers notice too. Sometimes we load up a log to saw and in the process of sawing the ''ugly'' off the middle looks pretty good to me.
I have had 1 individual that bought enough barn siding form me to cover the ''road'' end of 3 buildings and totally panel the inside of one large building for a flea market. He had a carpenter doing the work. That carpenter had a client that wanted to panel the inside of an old barn to make it into a rustic wedding chapel. Between the 2 jobs we have cut 20,000 bdft of barn siding, all from a word of mouth that I have no Idea who the original ''mouth''was.
Btw those paneling guys like ugly.
PC
That picture of my mill is on its current location, but I'll be moving it home where I don't have as nice a spot yet. I will some day, but for now I will get a carport and set it up on the 6x6's.
Sounds like a plan. Keep us up to date.
Well, this is my update. The mill is sitting on my trailer, waiting for me to get the site prepared and a carport in place.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36921/IMG_0475.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1509138286)
Finally some progress on mill site. Skid steer work done today to be able to put up an 18x26 carport that the mill will live under. I will finish that work tomorrow and then bring in rock on Tuesday. Then I will build a wooden deck to set the mill on. This will give me a wooden walkway to walk on since this is a manual mill.
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A wood walking deck is a good thing. In that first picture I posted, I had a crane matt that I was paid $150 to remove from a pipeline job site. ;D
It's nice to get paid to take something away that you may have paid to have.
I think eventually I will pour concrete under the carport, but for now the wood deck will be nicer to walk on than gravel and it will be easier to clean up the dust. On the opposite side the platform will serve to raise the bed about 8" which will be easier to pull boards from.
I was going to build a wood deck to set the mill on, but with the concrete footings I decided to pour for the carport it made sense to just pour a pad for the mill. Next week I'll be putting up the carport and setting the mill in place. Can't wait.
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Still put it on some beams to get it knee high off the the ground level.
I wasn't sure if I would like the LT15 to be that high. On the side opposite the operator it will be elevated about 6 inches due to the concrete.
Trust me, you will. Or, your back will.
I have the carport about half done and the mill in place. Ran out of time today, but got enough roof on to keep the head dry.
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I found with the screw feet that turning a big log will cause them to shift sometimes.
Yeah, at the very least I'm gonna spray paint around all the feet so I know where to move it back to to be level. If it gets to be a problem I will anchor it somehow. Either bolts right thru the feet into the concrete or just something around the feet to keep them from sliding. I remember it moving around a bit at Andy's.
When I put my LT15 on concrete using the round feet, I found that turning and loading caused the mill to move quite often. I could always move the mill back with my logrite cant hook but it was a nuisance.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27386/image~52.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1444431958)
Taking advice from WDH Danny, I built a wood base for the mill and anchored it to the concrete
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The mill doesn't move around and the knee height is easier in the back.
However you end up — happy sawing