Commercial milling options for Peterson wpf

[sigidi]

TA, you are on the money with that line of thinking. I figure the Achilles heal of any swinger is the timber can only be regular and true if the log stays still; every measurement is in relation to the last measurement, which is fine, if the last measurement/edge etc. stays in the same place....

I take it to the extreme, I say to the extreme as I haven't come across any other guys who do it, but I knock my chocks into the log and then batten screw them down into my log support, I carry a cordless drill and screw those babies down for each and every log, it takes a bit a couple minutes of extra time, but I can get this...





each and every log, they don't move and I am confident while cutting that the log will not drop onto the blade or move out of position (without a good deal of help from something else) yeah the last couple of cuts need to be a bit steady to make sure the blade doesn't generate enough force to slide the log, but I cut a bunch of 'logs' and I use the term loosely. All of them where what people tend to think are on the small side for a swinger;





I've shown these on the forum before (back in 2005) but wanted to put them up again as they where so small, most around 300mm/12" down to as little as 230mm/10" anything less went straight into fence posts, but I sliced 'em with my Lucas. On a custom job I draw the line at 300mm/12" dia, but here at home, I'll cut whatever logs I can get and take 'em down as small as I can get decent timber from them.

[ErikC]

  I have a set of those log dogs, and they work pretty good, I use them on small stuff under about 10" or 12".  I use the square notch method most of the time though, and if you keep the notch in good shape, and pay attention you get along fine. Most of my end slabs look like Sigidi's, even without the dogs clamped in. 8)

[Captain]

Ditto Erik on the square edge notches.  Dogging systems like the Peterson EZ dogs are usually not necessary when pushing a mill by hand.  In the case of Landon's ASM, different story....or when the logs are small, light, slimy-bark-just-falling-off, ice covered....

Captain

[taschmidretired]

TA, you are on the money with that line of thinking. I figure the Achilles heal of any swinger is the timber can only be regular and true if the log stays still; every measurement is in relation to the last measurement, which is fine, if the last measurement/edge etc. stays in the same place....

I take it to the extreme, I say to the extreme as I haven't come across any other guys who do it, but I knock my chocks into the log and then batten screw them down into my log support, I carry a cordless drill and screw those babies down for each and every log, it takes a bit a couple minutes of extra time, but I can get this.

I know about extreme, I made my positive lock board sizing on the mills so I could be extremely accurate .(boy some words look wierd when you spell them instead of just say them) .  I could make a 20 th of a cut, over and over.  It was the carpenter?construction blood that made me want to build a mill that would saw usable lumber right off the mill.  The next thing was the dogs. It was easy to hold something large, holding something small was a challenge.
Storytime alert!!!  I recall (sorry Toyota for the loose use of the word) a customer in Tn ordered a mill . He was not concerned about my 36 inch log  deal. He said he wanted me to demonstrate the mill by cutting his red oak and sending it directly through a 12 inch off the shelf planner. He said If It ran it ' He would buy it.  He owns it.  (He was not planning on trying to plane green lumber, he just wanted to see if the mill could rough saw that accurate) Extreme!

[sweetfarm]

Does anyone just take the last couple inches of a log and set them aside until you have a flat surface on the next log?  It seems like this would save time dogging and still get everything you can out of each log.  As long as you had a fence on the right side of the log you are working on everything else should be easy.  Right?

[LOGDOG]

Log Master,

   I've done it but don't recommend it. It's a time waster and most importantly it's dangerous. More than one my ASM took that board and spit it out the end of the mill. DANGEROUS!!!! Do yourself a favor and don't do it. Those log dogs can be made inexpensivley and if you remove the dogs from the front side (side of approach of the blade) and leave the back dogs in to support the back of the slab for your last cut, you can get that last board no problem - especially if you have a step in your deck or your skid. Just make sure you don't plunge too deeply so that you avoid making contact with the dogs on the back with your blade. You won't like that.  ;)

[ErikC]

  I have done it a few times. Definitely gotta go slow and easy. It is generally more trouble than its worth for most logs.
  I have set big heavy ones aside, then but them back and sawed all but the last few inches to get a full width, live edge slab, since I don't have a slabber. This is a different matter safety-wise, they are so heavy they won't slip.  It would be hard without a tractor though, they quit rolling good when you saw half of it off :D, and those slabs can be several hundred pounds.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

First off Welcome to the Forum Log Master You have come to the rite place Mate  ;) ;D ;D 8) 8) You can make a go of it  ;) ;D just dont under charge or get caught up in doing alot of work at a low rate its not woth it trust me i undervalued myself for years Mate  ;)

Allans Given You a Great runn down on How We Do Things Downunder  ;) Im charging the same rate as Allan now on an Hourly basis and getting out of supplying logs and Milling Pine and focusing 100% on higer end timbers and contract milling From Now  ;) ;D 8) 8) Allan i think you where working out  how many mills lucas has built since 94 its past 11000 mills now Mate  ;)  ;D 8) and Get Bo fired up before you go Mental Mate  ;) :D :D :D ;D ;) what should i call mine Pamela  ;) Shes Big but theres nothing Fake about it Mate  ;) :D :D :D

Im another Lucas Man with two Mills a 98 mod 8-20 and a 4 week old 10-30 and have just about everything Lucas makes apart from the shirts  ;) :D  I have a Slabber, planer, sander, lapsider, chain sharpening jig , 2 setts of log chocks, Retiping jig, 2 meter 27'6" cut ext kit And aheap of other bits and pieces blade cases and 3 extra saws ect ect   ;) ;D 8) 8) Its nice having a costomer that loves Me  that wants alot of 10" timber ;) ;D ;D 8) 8)
and the whole lot came in at $23000 Au or $20240 US Excluding the planer and lapsider as ive had them since i got the first one about 15 months ago  ;)

With the planer I have dressed afew Box & Ironbark beams and afew bark to bark slabs and it dose a great job on some of the hardest timbers you can find and dose it with ease and a great finnish  ;) ;D 8) 8)

With slabbers ive ony used them afew times over the years as ive been on lucas's since i was 18yo and most milling was dimesion timber but when i have used them they have worked well (the new ones are made to be setup on the mil alittle quicker tha the older ones too ;) ;D )  i dont think you could go with out one if your offering a full service theres nothing worse than not being able to do somthing for a costomer or pasing up on work because you dont have one mate   ;) that being said Ive picked up on $20ks plus of slabing work over the next 12 months because i have one Now  ;) ;D 8) 8)

Ive wedged ,blocked made up dog syst over the years and the best things ive used are the choks that i got with the mill a month ago havent had a log/bottom flitch roll on me yet  ;) :D ;D  8) 8)

The wpf has its good points and is a well built mill and when your in a fixed setting on good formed smaller avverage dia logs w/o mutch taper and even ground  ;) ;D but i could see it being a bit of a pita when shifting from log to log on uneven ground with track settup or heavly taperd logs as you would have to be adjusting the log to suit the sawmill not the mill to siut the log and we all know which is lighter  ;) :D I like that about the lucas's as you just whack the log on the bearas and adjust the mill to suit quickly and easy  Mate ;) ;D 8) 8)

Captain Warren lucas told me to have alook at the turb-o-mill Its a nice looking machine the Boys are working on there itlll be intresting to see how it goes  ;) ;D ;D 8) 8)

Regards Chris

[sigidi]

Geese Chris

you have more Lucas gear than me (although I do have a couple of shirts and 3 different style hats now ) I thought I was a hardcore dedicated Lucas nut, but you do have more stuff than me.

I don't have the chain sharpening jig, but do have the sander and planner attachment, slabber and weatherboard attachment too, plus for the time being I have 2 mills a 6-18 and a 10-30 I'm thinking hard about selling my 6-18; time will tell.

I keep aside a pile of bottom flitches on every job. The way I see it, the customer pays for the volume of log, if I leave a big chunk at the bottom, I'm rippin 'em off. So the last log of the job, I open a nice wide face, then re-saw the backs out of whatever bottom flitches I have produced through the job. That gives the customer a few good natural edge 'slabs' to play with and make benches etc. from.