My Winter Project

[PRC]

That's really good info.  There are always a lot of trees constantly coming down in the woods.  Enough to certainly keep me busy cutting board material throughout the year. Maybe the sawmill will actually turn into a good investment after all.    

I do a lot of hunting, so by the time December rolls around I'm pretty comfortable in anything above 20 degrees. Once it gets into the 10's I'm in the house by the fire.

My land is heavily wooded...and it's all hardwoods.  Red, White Oak.  A metric ton of shagbark hickory.  The softest wood on the property is poplar.  Not a single pine tree anywhere.   Some cedars down by the lake,  but they're all spindly small cedars.  The vast majority of the trees I'll be taking down will need to come down anyway for the building of our home in a few years.  So, it's a win win. 

I'd love to be working with a softer wood, but I think in the end, knowing that all of the wood came off the property, will mean something special to me.  I'm not a rich man, I worked my butt off for decades to get to a position where I could do this.  It's literally consumed my thoughts for years.

[Don P]

I would say that is my tractor but yours is all shiny. I bought mine as a '59 but it turned out to be a little longer in the tooth :D.

I did weld up both a boom pole and a set of forks... which someone apparently needed worse than me :. Uh yeah I've had both Rick and Jose on the hood for suitcase weight and still been steering with the brakes. It is really too light for much logging, I've been through several lift arms, go easy on the old girl. A 4x4 truck has more oomph but no 3pt. The last iteration of the boom pole was with it at the back of a truck. pins at the bumper with a winch on a real roll bar to a point on the pole acting as the top link. Then we started looking at heavier toys.

Just a FYI on decay. Before we can visually pick up on it decay has serious effect on strength properties, be very conservative when using dead wood for structural purposes.

[PRC]

So for the last couple of weeks, I've been cutting wood, making sawhorses out of scrap wood, and in general getting everything ready.  Then it hit me...Why don't I build a gantry with a trolley to put over the mill?  

Here's what I'm thinking.  (I'd draw a pic, but it's too much of a pain to add a pic to a post).  

Make a Gantry that's wide enough to hold the tractor and the mill.  

That way, I can drag a log under the gantry, lift it slide it over to the mill using a trolley.  Then once it's milled, I can rehook to the gantry, slide it off the mill onto the sawhorses to complete the joints.  

I can make one wide enough for my tractor to pull under, drop off the log, and pull away.  

Since I haven't seen one on any posts from members, I must be missing something painfully obvious?

[loghorse]

Don't fotget tire chains even on gravel.

[Ljohnsaw]

Make a Gantry that's wide enough to hold the tractor and the mill.

Are you thinking of a gantry where you would pull up parallel to your mill?  So the main beam would need to be  about 12 to 14' long - enough to straddle the tractor (6'?) and the mill and still clear the head width?  How big of logs are you going to be lifting - that will determine how beefy the I-beam needs to be (pretty beefy!).

Or, the other way would be to have the gantry just wide enough to clear you mill bed (~4'?) where you pull up to the end of your mill (back in a little), pick the log and roll the gantry back over the mill, then roll the gantry out of the way to mill.  The gantry could be on car tires, like the giant engine hosts they have at Pick-n-Pull made from scrap car parts.

[PRC]

Yeah, exactly I pull up parallel to the mill.  The gantry completely straddles the mill and where i'd pull the tractor into position.    I spent some time checking out youtube videos today, of some guys pulling some serious weight with these.    

[Don P]

It blocks your roll in access from a pile of logs on the deck doesn't it?

[PRC]

@DonP I don't exactly know, because it's all just in my head.    

But yes, I suppose it would, but since I'm working alone and slowly.  I don't plan on having a huge pile of timber on deck at any given time.  

I was thinking up to 3 trees at a time, ready to go.  After that, I go cut more. 

So, keep 3 logs to the left and behind the "assembly line"   attach to log arch/tractor....

Pull up, and to the right...Gantry crane picks up log.  Trolley system delivers log above mill.  

Lower log onto the mill. 

After cutting....strap timber back to the trolley, lift, slide to the left (to where the tractor was). 

Tractor has been replaced by sawhorses.  

Lower wood onto sawhorses.

Cut joints.  

Strap...Lift off sawhorses..lower to ground, reattach log arch..

move to storage.  

Rinse Repeat 81 times.

At a max, I'd be moving 1000lbs at any given time.   

[Mad Professor]

I've pulled out a lot of logs with my old 9N Ford tractor.

I try to do it when the ground is frozen, a little snow is O.K. too.

I also have tire chains on.

I back up to the log and lift one end using the 3pt hitch and a logging chain.  This, along with the ground being frozen, maybe with a little snow minimizes dirt on the logs.  And dirt only on the dragged end.

I made a ramp with steps/rests on it to get the logs on the mill.  This allows me to roll the logs up, alone,  with a peavy, and able to stop at each step to get a new bite on the log.  The ramps were made out of 4 X 12" Ash I milled.  I'll try to get a picture next time I'm milling

[PRC]

@Mad Professor  That would be great, I'd love to see the pic. Thanks! 

I took down 3 trees today.  I don't have a problem pulling logs with my MF.  I don't have chains.  That being said, the largest I took down today was 15" diameter and 20 feet long.  So we're not talking about massive logs either. 

[Remle]

"(Lumber is already at mill)
1. Cut beam(2). At most 2 per day.
2. Measure and cut joints
3. Mark, Stack and Sticker
4. Fell logs for following day, bring to mill. (if needed, probably do 2-3 trees per cutting)"

The only concern I would have is whether the timbers would stay flat or twist  during the drying time between cutting and raising day. If they twist or bow it won't be easy to assemble the frame..

[PRC]

@Remie Ok, but this is the way it needs to be done.  I don't have other options.  I'm sealing the ends of the logs as I cut them, don't know if that even makes much of a difference, but I'm doing it.  Do you have any recommendations?  

Is 25-30 weeks going to make much of a difference in drying on an 8x8, 8x12 cant?  

I'm a novice, but everything I've read tells me 1 year= 1"  of drying.   This is white/red oak.

[Don P]

Alas, that rule of thumb was made up by someone who was trying to answer the question from the back seat "Are we there yet?" :D. Red oak dries considerably faster than white but not as fast as pine, each by factors of several times.

We've had this discussion here in one way or another many times. You have decided the only option is asking nature for a special exemption for your schedule. Simply be aware of that. You are not the first nor the last to do it this way.

I think the post centered in front of the mill the way I'm understanding your proposed setup will be a future problem. Have you ever seen the trucks that deliver and set septic tanks and burial vaults? There is a 4 posted frame supporting a beam that extends beyond, overhanging to the rear of the truck, with a trolley on it. Google "septic tank delivery trucks". If the 4 posts are on the off side of the mill and the beam cantilevers over the loading area there would be no post out front but it would accomplish the same goal. Just another brainstorming idea.

[PRC]

I ended up ordering a 3 point fork system for the tractor today.  There were a couple of different that I was looking at, I ended up going with the beefier one rated for 1500lbs.  

Now I just need to get the mill delivered and set up.  I'll need to wait for all of this holiday ruckus to get over.  It's a shame too, it's going to be 50 degrees all week.