Finally pulled the trigger

jimdad07 · October 04, 2015, 11:03:14 AM

Quote from: 4x4American on October 03, 2015, 09:36:30 AM
Sooner than you know it you'll be pulling boards!

I see you're from the Adirondaks. I'm up on the St. Lawrence River near where Lake Ontario empties into the river. Small world. I spend quite a bit of time on the north western side in the Five Ponds Wilderness Area camping and hunting.

BTW, 5 days left!

jimdad07 · October 07, 2015, 08:31:04 AM

2 more days and I'll be picking her up. Have my spot on my concrete barn slab picked out already. I also have a load of logs getting dropped tonight for my barn project. I also have a large pile of quarter sawn poplar logs 28" on the wide side ready to go on the mill. So as soon as I get her setup I'll have a log on it ready to saw. Going to be a learning experience for sure. Plan is to let this mill pay for itself with the barn, then make some money with it through my woodshop. Once I have a good amount saved up I might even look into a mill meant for production and see what I can make off of selling hardwoods on the side. Big ideas you know but something to work towards.

rodbutler · October 07, 2015, 08:47:19 PM

I want to pull the trigger on a TimberKing, does anyone have any advice or words of encouragement? I have some wooded acres and would like to cut and saw lumber off my ground to build my home there.

sandsawmill14 · October 07, 2015, 08:55:14 PM

rod i have a timberking b20 that i am well pleased with

Magicman · October 07, 2015, 09:26:30 PM

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, rodbutler.

jimdad07 · October 07, 2015, 09:51:03 PM

My load of mill logs for the barn showed up tonight. Going to be pretty interesting tackling those logs, they are 30"-32" on one end and taper down to around 24" on the small end. There were 14 in this load. Three of them have decent crowns in the logs but hopefully I can still get the 10"x16" beams I need out of them. The other fun part is going to be figuring out how am I going to turn them on the mill, they are all 20' logs. I'm not tackling those first once the mill is set up Friday, going to practice on those poplar logs first. Hate to ruin $1100 worth of logs on a learning curve.

jimdad07 · October 07, 2015, 10:53:20 PM

Question on log taper:

I see the use of toe boards to raise one end of the log to level the log. When this is done is the goal to try to level the center line of the log, or is the goal to level one side of the log and cut the taper off of the opposing side once you have a flat surface to work with?

beenthere · October 07, 2015, 11:49:49 PM

If you are sawing out 10 x 16 beams, the goal I believe would be to center the pith in those beams.

Sawing out other products, may or may not change that goal.

jimdad07 · October 07, 2015, 11:57:50 PM

With this load the 10x16 beams are the most important. I need 10 of them in the 18' range. I should be able to get my brace stock out of these logs as well and hopefully a hand full of 10x10's before I have to keep scrounging more logs. I wanted to box the heartwood as best I can. Going to be some growing pains for sure.

Kbeitz · October 08, 2015, 02:09:28 AM

I made this to help roll my logs. Works great...

jimdad07 · October 08, 2015, 06:56:46 AM

Quote from: Kbeitz on October 08, 2015, 02:09:28 AM
I made this to help roll my logs. Works great...

Now that is good thonking, that might be the ticket.

sandsawmill14 · October 08, 2015, 07:22:42 AM

Quote from: beenthere on October 07, 2015, 11:49:49 PM
If you are sawing out 10 x 16 beams, the goal I believe would be to center the pith in those beams.

Sawing out other products, may or may not change that goal.

x2

jimdad07 · October 08, 2015, 05:40:45 PM

Heading to Boonville in the morning, about a 2 hour drive and I'll be hauling her home. Looking at my various piles of milling logs I haven't gotten to with my chainsaw mill just trying to decide where I want to start.

Delawhere Jack · October 08, 2015, 07:01:56 PM

20' logs on a manual mill, 24"-30"+......Wow! I hope for your sake they're softwood logs. It's doable, but man oh man... You'll want to have some extra hands on site with cant hooks to position the logs for milling the second face. Once you've got two faces opened it will be much easier to position them for the third and fourth.

You could take some 4/4 stock off each face until you get the cant size you need for your beams. There would be some runout in the grain, but it should still be ok for barn siding.

Hardwood or softwood, for milling beams that long you're going to want to have some solid footers in place under the mill.

jimdad07 · October 08, 2015, 11:08:35 PM

Quote from: Delawhere Jack on October 08, 2015, 07:01:56 PM
20' logs on a manual mill, 24"-30"+......Wow! I hope for your sake they're softwood logs. It's doable, but man oh man... You'll want to have some extra hands on site with cant hooks to position the logs for milling the second face. Once you've got two faces opened it will be much easier to position them for the third and fourth.

You could take some 4/4 stock off each face until you get the cant size you need for your beams. There would be some runout in the grain, but it should still be ok for barn siding.

Hardwood or softwood, for milling beams that long you're going to want to have some solid footers in place under the mill.

Same thoughts I had, how in the he** is this going to work? Good thing is they are pine logs, but still big and heavy. I've been looking at a lot of mill mods already and planning in my head some mods to make it a little easier. I'm lucky to have a good amount of tractors to use for handling the logs but I need to be careful not to beat up the mill wrestling those big ones against the back stops and whatnot.
I really like the cant hook on the jack I saw earlier in a post to this thread. The other mod I am looking at doing is some toe boards setup like one I saw in the mill mod thread. I'm on page thirty or so of reading through that one, some pretty good ideas in there though they mostly seem to pertain to WM mills. I went with the HFE 30 mill basically because it seemed to be the best bang for my buck and closest to home for support. Being a manual mill this is going to be a tough undertaking but I think on the other hand being such a basic mill it will be fun modding it to handle the work load easier. As for the foundation, I have a nice 28'x50' brand new concrete slab sitting in my yard waiting for a barn so that's where I'm going to set the mill up. Once I'm done with the barn I'm going to pour footers for the mill next to my barn and build a lean to over the mill and use it as a stationary mill. Once I sell enough lumber and benches and things of that nature I plan to save up for a fancier portable rig to make a little extra with, but I won't buy it until I have the money, hate going into debt. I'd rather be kicked in the parts than go into more debt.

tburch · October 09, 2015, 11:59:47 AM

Hi Jim. I'm excited for you! I guess the mill is supposed to arrive today?

In regards to your taper question earlier... I too have a manual mill. A swing blade, but still manual. I've only started cutting on one log so far, and it had some taper, and also where I chose to set my mill (temporarily) the ground is not flat. So, combining the taper of my log with my non-flat ground, I had to raise the small end up about 4" so the pith on both ends of the log was at the same height, relative to the blade. I just used a 6' iron pry bar and a few pieces of half-rounds to raised and block it up.

For turning logs... for the time being I'll just use the skid steer I have on loan, but after that, I'll probably use my 3000lb engine hoist to do the heavy lifting when a cant hook won't cut it.

Todd

Delawhere Jack · October 09, 2015, 05:55:40 PM

Jim, the concrete pad should work great. A good way to turn logs that big would be to wrap a nylon tow strap around them a couple times, and use a tractor to hook an end of the strap and lift. Takes some weight off the mill bunks, and you can turn it pretty accurately.

A chain would work too, but I've had better results with a tow strap.

jimdad07 · October 09, 2015, 07:35:01 PM

She's home, I'm heading back out to anchor the mill down to the slab and add shims where needed. Had to break to take the kids to hockey practice. Stinkin kids.... Anyhow levelling the tracks was a pain, even on the new slab. I sloped the slab when I poured it for water drainage so it was fun trying to get 28' of track to match up with the level. Lets see if I can make a picture work right.

Magicman · October 09, 2015, 08:00:30 PM

Congrats !! 8) Now we wait until you draw first ~~blood~~ sawdust. ;D

jimdad07 · October 09, 2015, 08:28:41 PM

Quote from: Magicman on October 09, 2015, 08:00:30 PM
Congrats !! 8) Now we wait until you draw first ~~blood~~ sawdust. ;D

Trying her out tonight. I have a couple logs ready to go. Just running in 3-3/4" tapcons every few feet to anchor the mill. It's definitely a starter mill but I'll learn a lot running it.

jimdad07 · October 09, 2015, 09:29:18 PM

Quote from: Magicman on October 09, 2015, 08:00:30 PM
Congrats !! 8) Now we wait until you draw first ~~blood~~ sawdust. ;D

I saw you in a salute from WM video, nice thing you did there. Good folks every where.

Magicman · October 09, 2015, 10:14:51 PM

Quote from: jimdad07 on October 09, 2015, 09:29:18 PMI saw you in a salute from WM video, nice thing you did there. Good folks every where.

There are many Forestry Forum members that have been recognized for various projects and accomplishments. I am proud to be among this group.

Delawhere Jack · October 09, 2015, 10:23:44 PM

Looks good! You're gonna be smiling from ear to ear when you see how much faster a band mill cuts.

jimdad07 · October 09, 2015, 10:36:50 PM

I'm almost done shinning this thing. It's getting late and I'm butchering pigs in the morning but I'm going to try to finish this up tonight. Just a few more shims under the bunks and it's getting a log. I pitched the mill 2" on 28' with side to side dead level. She's all anchored down, I just don't trust those 3" angle iron bunks not to bend with these big logs.

jimdad07 · October 10, 2015, 12:49:43 AM

Cut up some poplar, very nice boards. No waves, no dips and no vibration. Very happy with first impression. Only problem is I set the mill head on the wrong way. Going to have to pick it and turn it around in the morning. I have pictures to post in the morning. And oh yeah, crap eating grin the whole time!