Learning Curve and Limited Real Estate: VB-Milling Small Suburban HM126

[VB-Milling]

Thanks @Poquo

[VB-Milling]

Nothing done at my house this past weekend.  I headed to my buddy's place at Lake Anna to install a whole house dehumidifier and have a bit of R&R.

[Solomon]

The math definitely has to be in favor of buying sharpening equipment and dedicating the space.   For a hobby, getting blades sharpened makes sense.  I'd rather saw than sharpen but sharpening my own blades is a necessary evil.

I sharpen for a handful of hobbyist guys.  They have maybe half a dozen blades every month or so.  I'm happy to make a little folding money and they are happy to get blades sharpened close to home.  I did have to buy a 10° wheel but we worked out a way to cover that cost over a number of blades.  It normally takes about 10 minutes a blade to sharpen and set for them.  

kenne-saw.com  ,   The blades for my Logmaster LM4  are 1 1/2  x 7/8   .049     229 inches     (19 ft 1 inch)
The last time I bought new blades from them, they were $27.00 a piece  for 60 blades delivered to my door.
That was about three years ago but they still have the best deals going on new blades.   Munkfor Blades
 You can PM me for the phone number

[VB-Milling]

kenne-saw.com  ,   The blades for my Logmaster LM4  are 1 1/2  x 7/8   .049     229 inches     (19 ft 1 inch)
The last time I bought new blades from them, they were $27.00 a piece  for 60 blades delivered to my door.
That was about three years ago but they still have the best deals going on new blades.   Munkfor Blades
You can PM me for the phone number

@Solomon

So how do you handle resharpening services?  DIY, ship out or local person?

Kenne-saw's pricing for my blades seems promising so far...

[Solomon]

Kenne-Saw are good folks.  I have an older Wood-Mizer Sharpener, it works well enough for my 150 inch blades that my 20inch resaw uses 
but it really lacks the power to sharpen my mill blades.   It WILL sharpen them, but it takes about 5 or 6 passes to get them right.
 If I hit the face of the tooth to aggressively, it bogs the grind motor down and will stop it.
I have about 100 blades that I've run only one time and need sharpening.   My blades are  Inch and a Half X 7/8 X .049    229 inches long.
 I'm thinking hard about throwing the plastic down and pulling the trigger on a Cooks Cat Claw Sharpener and Dual Tooth Setter.
They come as a package with two free cams for $3290.00  and I suppose it's a Ben Franklin to ship it to me, so with a couple of shaping stones
 and a few new grind rocks  I'm looking at $3500.00 or more.
As far as Sharpening services go , I have never used them.    There is a guy in Mississippi called  Mr. Robert that does band blades on a Cooks set up as I described above.   He's on youtube and seems to know what he's doing.   I may send him a dozen to see how they run when he is done with them.
I'm going to PM you my Cell Number.

[VB-Milling]

Been a while since I posted actually sawing on this thread.  Had some time off and was able to knock out the rest of my log inventory, so I guess that makes me caught up

Getting the logs out of the driveway feels pretty good.  There were three remaining.  Two oaks and a maple.  Oak was cut into 10/4 and 8/4 boards, maple was cut into 6/4 boards.  Practiced edging against a cant again.  Like it a lot.

The two halves of the short white oak in the side yard got turned into stickers and added to the stickers from another driveway oak.

I did the tedious work that just needed to be done.  I cut down all my stickers to 4ft and 2ft sections and pallet stacked them to dry.  Also, took all the blades I foolishly stored outside, put them back on the mill for a few passes to knock off all the rust, and now store them in the shed.  Thanks to all the guys at the meet and greet who made that suggestion.

Still have a bunch more firewood to process.  Have a couple neighbors coming this week for offcuts to process into their own firewood so I don't have to.  Also, I'm almost out of space to store green firewood.

Worked pretty steady for 4 days and, while I only milled 4 logs, I feel like I got a lot accomplished.  After the crazy weather is done midweek, I'll get rid of the offcuts, finish what firewood I can store for myself and clean up the side yard.

The friend down the road who gave me the white oak has more at his house.  We discussed that recently and I told him I'd be willing to give mobile sawing a try at his house at his expense for consumables and labor.  He's excited.  Sounds like he just wants everything flat sawn to build rustic benches for his mountain property.  It'll be interesting to see how that goes.  That's all the anticipated milling I've got in the immediate future.

Keeping an eye out for cedar to saw, but I'm thinking I'll turn down anything else that gets offered to me until spring.

[biggkidd]

Thanks for posting I learned enough to make the 12 pages well worthwhile!

[VB-Milling]

Thanks for posting I learned enough to make the 12 pages well worthwhile!

You are very welcome.  Glad to know someone is reading about my shenanigans.

[VB-Milling]

Got things cleaned up.  Trailer is loaded with a bunch of offcuts to go to a neighbor for fire pit wood.  Supposed to come by this afternoon and pick it up.  Mill yard is raked and organized.  The firewood pile I'm processing and keeping is almost finished.  Probably will borrow a hydraulic splitter for the rest.  There's some gnarly pieces left that won't axe split.

Another neighbor gave me a 12x20ft carport.  Ideally it takes 4ppl to setup.  Still not sure I'm going to use it, but he really wanted me to have it and it was free.



 



 



 



 



 



 

[VB-Milling]

Also, a bit of a funny story....

Last weekend, while milling my last log in the front yard, my across the street neighbor stopped by for a chat.  He's a great guy.  Runs all the maintenance operations for a local dine-in movie theater chain.  Always working in his shop or yard.

We were talking about how I got through all the logs in the driveway, all the milling I've been doing, what's been going on at his job, etc etc.  He noted that I must have a ton of lumber stacked by now.  I said that I certainly did and to take a peak behind the fence in the side yard.  He walks over, and yells "Where's the rest of it...on the other side of the house???"
I said that its all here on this side and he must have read the confused look on my face.  "I thought with all the sawing you've been doing, there would be way more than this...this doesn't seem like a lot at all....are you sure you're doing it right?"

I told him I think my yield was pretty good, I needed to get back to sawing and to have a  :new_year: :

[PoginyHill]

You certainly make good use of limited space. Neighbors don't complain about noise when you are sawing?

[VB-Milling]

You certainly make good use of limited space. Neighbors don't complain about noise when you are sawing?

I try to optimize as best I can...

I have good relationships with our surrounding immediate 6 neighbors (next door, across the street and backyard neighbors).  3 of those neighbors have garage shops and are always doing some project or home improvement.  Most other neighbors know me and my level of shenanigans...if they have any issues, they haven't expressed them to me.  They all think its pretty cool.

I try to be mindful when I run the mill an/or chainsaw.  I try and mill behind the fence in the side yard rather than the driveway/front yard.  Seems like the less people who know I have a sawmill in a suburban environment, the better IMO.

[VB-Milling]

The friend down the road who gave me the white oak has more at his house.  We discussed that recently and I told him I'd be willing to give mobile sawing a try at his house at his expense for consumables and labor.  He's excited.  Sounds like he just wants everything flat sawn to build rustic benches for his mountain property.  It'll be interesting to see how that goes.  That's all the anticipated milling I've got in the immediate future.

So I gave mobile sawing a whirl this past Friday and Saturday.  We certainly didn't break any production records.  We just got a few guys together and had a good time with some sawing and stacking in between.

Nothing was staged or easy to get to.  We spent a fair bit of time getting the logs to the mill without any equipment other than cant hooks, 6ft pipes and the mill trailer winch.  Most of the logs were too large in diameter for the mill so there was a lot of cheating over the log stops and cutting, rotating evolutions.  6 logs total with one getting cut for stickers.

Everyone had fun, got a taste of the experience and time commitment of operating a manual mill, no one got hurt and nothing broke.

We'll see what happens to the lumber.  There was no cut list, and I wasn't sawing for max board footage. I explained multiple times how the stack should look, what an ideal base should look like, sticker spacing etc etc.  No one listened to any of that and the stack looks like a total disaster.  However, I got a little spoiled knowing that the mess I left behind and the status of the drying stack aren't my problem!  I put the mill back on the truck, picked up my tools and I was outta there!  I really like that part of mobile sawing. 8)



 



 



 



 



 



 



 

 

[RAYAR]

The friend down the road who gave me the white oak has more at his house.  We discussed that recently and I told him I'd be willing to give mobile sawing a try at his house at his expense for consumables and labor.  He's excited.  Sounds like he just wants everything flat sawn to build rustic benches for his mountain property.  It'll be interesting to see how that goes.  That's all the anticipated milling I've got in the immediate future.

... I explained multiple times how the stack should look, what an ideal base should look like, sticker spacing etc etc.  No one listened to any of that and the stack looks like a total disaster...

:D :D :D :D :D

[Daburner87]

I love your thread man, probably my favorite thread on the entire site as I'm just starting out too, and although I haven't started sawing just yet this thread has helped me learn from watching you do it.  Nice stacking!  Love the stickers you made, and the pallets for stacking on.  Gonna look into getting a few of those myself.  

[VB-Milling]

I love your thread man, probably my favorite thread on the entire site as I'm just starting out too, and although I haven't started sawing just yet this thread has helped me learn from watching you do it.  Nice stacking!  Love the stickers you made, and the pallets for stacking on.  Gonna look into getting a few of those myself.  

Thank you...its nice to know people are reading and getting some benefit from my ramblings.

[VB-Milling]

A rare occasion....snow in Virginia Beach.  We got about 5-6 inches.  No milling anytime soon, but the family took the opportunity to get out a make a snow man.  Turnip loves the snow, which we just think is hilarious.



 



 



 

[VB-Milling]

Oh man it has been so long since I posted anything!  I wish I had more to say other than interior renovations have taken over everything since mid-February.

I'm also out of logs. No cedar puts my pergola on hold indefinitely. I've gotten a few leads but they haven't panned out.  My wife wants me to build walnut bedroom furniture so I'll need more walnut.  There are definitely some challenges with living in the suburbs.

I finally got out to meet with @btulloh and we had a great time talking and roaming around his property. Thanks again Bob for having me.

It's already September and I forgot to put out a post about another meet and greet at my place like I did last November.  I'll have to come up with some dates and make less food this time!

Gearing up to run miles of pine through jointer/planer/tablesaw/shaper for millwork throughout my house. It's awesome that I'm so close to really reaping the reward of all the rough sawing work on the BSM. 

[btulloh]

Really enjoyed meeting you Eric and very pleased you could stop in and spend some time. You had quite a full day with an early start and and a late finish. I'm still amazed that you did all that traveling, spent a few hours here and THEN painted when you got home. You win the iron man competition. 

It was good seeing you and you're welcome any time. Hopefully I'll make it down your way and see how you've put your new shaper to work. 

[VB-Milling]

Cedar is back on the menu finally!

It was a little challenging getting them on the trailer, but I made it work.

The top log is every bit of 17ft.

Not sure I'll be able to mill the rest of the pergola substructure from these, but it's more than I've found in the last 6 months. 



 

 

 

I just need to move out to where @btulloh lives!

[VB-Milling]

I also made it a point to cycle through my drying stacks and reorganize/consolidate

I pulled some maple, cherry and white oak into the garage to get it under cover.  The cherry has about 22 months of outdoor drying time, the maple and WO, about 14 I think.  I need to get better about documentation and tagging.

WO dried dead flat!



 

 

 

 

[VB-Milling]

And of course all of it is to support woodworking and renovation projects.

Pine milled on 31 Oct 2021. Making great S4S millwork.



 

 

 

 

 

 

[VB-Milling]

Fired up the mill to actually mill today.

Always fun to mill some cedar. Not fun when I hit yard tree metal. Giant, eye hook yard tree metal.



 

 

 

 

 

 

At least it was last season's blade!

Might get this pergola built after all!

[Gere Flewelling]

Ouch! I bet that brought things to a halt right quick.  I suspect there is no saving that blade.  Good to see you posting again.

[VB-Milling]

Ouch! I bet that brought things to a halt right quick.  I suspect there is no saving that blade.  Good to see you posting again.

Definitely no saving the blade. Into the shed with the others!
Good to be sawing and posting again!