OldJarheads Milling Thread...

[WV Sawmiller]

Since I put the green laser on I have realized just how indispensable it is. I don't like to cut without it.

I don't know this for sure but I would guess in logs like you are cutting now it would give me an extra log per hour.

BB,

   I'm envious of the green laser. How does it work in strong sunlight? That is one more add-on I'd sure like to have. That and chain turner (with reverse) instead of the current claw.

   I love my mill and think it was a good deal but that does not mean there aren't other features that could make it better. I suspect we could all say that about our mill no matter what kind we have or how long we have had it.

[Bandmill Bandit]

Erik

I used all WM mounting parts and then used Kohen, a local electronics supplier. I will get you the info for the laser supplier I got mine from.

One thing I did was to add an auto shut off relay be cause I am useing a pretty high power laser. It is all in the mods thread.

Starts here https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,54324.msg784350.html#msg784350.   

[OlJarhead]

I will have to check that out!

Rain started coming down hard just after noon so I'm taking lunch ;)

Going good so far today and the sun umbrella is a nice touch on a rainy day.

I am still fight the math for CANT height for se reason.  Seems when I get going I forget ;). Was it 9 3/8 or..... lol it's all good but darnit my brain just ain't what it used to be!  I need to make cards to put inside the simple set cover

[OlJarhead]

Actually my math says 8 5/8 gives me 5 1 5/8 boards......1.75 * 5 - .125

I think that's what I am looking for.  That would mean that 4 would be 7"

[Bandmill Bandit]

I am not sure why you need to keep track of the cant sizes.

May be I am doing it wrong BUT I use the the ruler as the starting guide cause it knows where the bed is AND has all the allowance built in for the various 1/4 dimension lumber. I just make sure that I start my little red laser on a 1/4 dimension mark that I want the log to deliver and then set the simple set to the dimension I want so that it is in line  with the 1/4 scale ruler and then just saw to the bed.

It as close to accuset as you can get with out accuset.   

I hope ya'll understand what I am trying to explain.

[Magicman]

The kerf is not exactly 1/8" and after several boards, the slight difference will add up.  I practiced with various board thicknesses and have my "starting" heights on a cheat sheet which in attached to the inside of my SetWorks cover.


 
I did this very early on and now very seldom have to refer to it.

[Bandmill Bandit]

Yes MM you are right. I had forgot about that reality BUT I made an adjustment to my tooth offset setting  and found that it gave me an 1/8th kerf most of the time. I use a 31 to 33 thou offset. Try real hard to nail it at 32 thou.   

[bkaimwood]

The kerf is not exactly 1/8" and after several boards, the slight difference will add up.  I practiced with various board thicknesses and have my "starting" heights on a cheat sheet which in attached to the inside of my SetWorks cover.


 
I did this very early on and now very seldom have to refer to it.

THANK YOU!!! I was ready to start a thread on this!!! It drives me nuts!! Kerf is slightly less than 1/8", so it adds up over a stack of boards. I quit trying and just take a shim/adjustment cut on the last board...the extra time thinking cost more than the shim cut...the chart does seem worth while in some aspects...I would just need ALOT of them...

[Kbeitz]

[quote
First thing I did was return, somewhat, to my manual milling days and ran the saw to the middle of the log, took a reading and backed up and set it 1.5" low and started milling.  That works so much better than my guessing ;) or trying to look down the log.  Now I was making better cants with less flitches coming off.

I put a stick on tape  measure on my carriage that  measures from the bottom up.
It faces down the carriage. This way I can walk to the middle of the log to see where
I want my cut with a hand held tape  measure and set the carriage using the stick
on tape  measure. I hope that made sense.

Why not just take a reading off of the sawmill scale?

Just run the mill down to the middle, lower the band, take a reading and go back to the beginning and start cutting, like Erik said!

Better than taking a guess and have to make the opening cut over again!   ;)
[/quote]

I do... I have 3 sawmill scales on my mill.
One for quartering.
one for inches.
And one that measures from the bottom up...

[Peter Drouin]

Glad the lumber placement worked  out for you.

[OlJarhead]

Glad the lumber placement worked  out for you.

Did it ever!  I broke 200bf/hr working ALONE today! :D

Though admittedly I found I could run through these smaller logs with the dial straight up at 12 o'clock and I'm keeping the band tight....incidentally, I found that running faster like that seemed to keep the blade from heating up ???  I think it's because it isn't spending as much time in the wood before moving on as it cuts through it so maybe it builds up less heat?  Don't know but I only used two Double Hards per day for 3 days so far and am changing them now just out of course when I break for lunch and when I leave for the day....I can't say they are really that dull but I did detect a slight hint of a pitch change in them and noticed they were gumming up more than usual.

Anyway, THANKS  Once I started doing this (stacking lumber to the left of the mill by pivoting it off the mill deck and sliding it down the pile) my production went up.

Heck, with this production rate I don't mind milling alone at all actually.  Though when I have help I am quite a bit faster.

[OlJarhead]

Finished the day with 1619bf   Customer came by to give me a check and chat for a few or I would have done more ;)

All in all a good, but WET day!


Sawmill with full winter options.  What?  It's July and supposed to be summer?  Someone might want to advise mother nature of that as it was in the 60's and raining all day....and has been like that for days, weeks even....I'm not sure what twilight zone I stepped into but frankly I'm lovin' it! :D

 
One challenge I face with this little 8" tops and sweepers is to get the wane off.  Sometimes I look at the lumber and decide to leave it knowing at least 10 feet or so is clear and I hate to whittle it down to say a 2x4 when it's otherwise a perfectly good 2x6.  The customer seems happy with that and realizes the small logs pose some challenges (for me anyway) so I'm ok with it but I generally try to have no wane if possible.


Customer stacks on the right, I stack to the left...my pile is a LOT bigger ;)  But that's ok, they are paying me by the hour

As for the scale issue, I for whatever reason have had trouble with it but the main issue is that I know if I set the cant to leave me no trim cuts than I'm faster.  I don't want to waste anything either so after I slab the first two sides I try to make darn sure I'm going to have the CANT height and width I want....I start by dropping the head 1 1/2" below the height at the center of the logs (thanks to one or more FF members for telling me that several years ago) and open the face, rotate 90 degrees and do it again.  Rotate again and do it one more time.  Now I have a decision to make:  leave it or trim it to say 7 3/8 (so I can split it but I check the pitch first to make sure it's offset, if not I have to bring it down and make 2x6's instead or take a 2x out, rotate 180, take another and then cut the center down thereby boxing the heart.  If I trim to split I rotate again, take the last face off, get the height I want, rotate, split, rotate and mill down.

Takes me about 15 to 25 minutes on an 8 to 10 inch log depending on if I'm working alone or have help

[Bandmill Bandit]

Eric
This comment will likely trigger some mods for you I am sure.

I added manual board return and then had to get the out feed table built and then "had" to do the feed motor up grade. These mods triggered the addition of the second hydraulic pump.

BUT Those 3 mods probably did the most to increase production both with and without help.

I just wish I had wireles remote now.

[OlJarhead]

Some day   Some day ;)

But for now it's Manuel Labor ;)  I don't mind though......my body does mind  :D

Got up pretty stiff today....3 days of milling and hard at it and I can feel it.  You'd think that goes away after a while but, um, the weekly desk job must be killing me!

[OlJarhead]

Not as productive a day on Sunday with only about 950bf produced but I spent some time during the day making stickers and moving logs etc.  However after 60 logs I was done for the weekend and headed home.  I'll be returning on the 28th to complete the job

[OlJarhead]

A customer sent me this Google Earth shot of milling

Kinda cool

[OlJarhead]

Finished up in Wellpinit WA at 3:00 today   Milled up just over 2500bf with a lot of chainsaw work (bucking off the branch stems left on logs), moving logs out of a 'tied up' deck and even using my truck to pull logs forward to get them on the mill (had to strap some down to the forks even).....the customer was great though and now that they understand what I explained about 'centering' the logs on each other etc etc they will have the next log deck much better prepared.  They were also fantastic help and very hard workers which really helped move things along.


Total was 30 logs most of which became 2x6's


This job was about 135 miles from home with no buildings nearby and no hotel within an hour so I camped out with the customer, had a great evening chatting about politics ;) and life, listened to wolves an coyotes throughout the night and generally just enjoyed myself


And at 5am I was up and making coffee with my Jetboil stove and french press attachment   Ahhh yes, life was good right then

[tnaz]

"Jetboil stove and french press attachment" And you call yourself a Marine!!! :D :D :D

And again, Thanks for your service.  Sounds like a good time, and made some $$ to boot.

[Czech_Made]

Sleeping on the job ;D

How was the weather, hot and humid or the West Coast does not have that?

Finished up in Wellpinit WA at 3:00 today   Milled up just over 2500bf with a lot of chainsaw work (bucking off the branch stems left on logs), moving logs out of a 'tied up' deck and even using my truck to pull logs forward to get them on the mill (had to strap some down to the forks even).....the customer was great though and now that they understand what I explained about 'centering' the logs on each other etc etc they will have the next log deck much better prepared.  They were also fantastic help and very hard workers which really helped move things along.


Total was 30 logs most of which became 2x6's


This job was about 135 miles from home with no buildings nearby and no hotel within an hour so I camped out with the customer, had a great evening chatting about politics ;) and life, listened to wolves an coyotes throughout the night and generally just enjoyed myself


And at 5am I was up and making coffee with my Jetboil stove and french press attachment   Ahhh yes, life was good right then

[OlJarhead]

Marines drink coffee, it is their life blood.  One must have coffee and will put up with many things in order to get it, even ridicule! lol
;D

West Coast?  Oh!  You mean the 'WET Coast' ;)  It's over across the mountains in 'rainbow' country  ;D :  Out here in the High Desert it gets hot and dry in the summer and though this summer has been particularly COOL (more like spring) and we've had a lot of rain (more than normal) it was warm at about 80F this weekend but I was up closer to Spokane and at about 2500 feet.  At night it dropped to a perfect 58F which made tent camping all the better ;)

[OlJarhead]

Heading back to Republic to try to get the remaining 60 trees my customer there has done.  Then I'll have a break as it's my wifes 30yr reunion for HS the following weekend....but I suspect I'll be right back to milling after that   8)

I should reach my goal (monetary goal I made with myself after buying the new mill) by early August (maybe mid) and then it's all gravy from there

What goal?  I wanted the mill to pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time but decided to set my goal on the amount required to fund the mill for one year (including payments I have to make still).  I should be there with some months to spare

At this pace I should be able to have the mill pay for itself in 12-18 months.  Then it has to pay for a new (er) truck and camper so I don't have to drive so much on jobs that are 50-150 miles away or stay in hotels or homes etc....or tents, don't want to stay in tents so much anymore ;)

So far the plan is working   8)

[Czech_Made]

At this pace I should be able to have the mill pay for itself in 12-18 months.  Then it has to pay for a new (er) truck and camper so I don't have to drive so much on jobs that are 50-150 miles away or stay in hotels or homes etc....or tents, don't want to stay in tents so much anymore ;)

So far the plan is working   8)

And you work hard to make it work 

[Brucer]

I took out a 5 year loan to buy my second mill, and managed to pay it off in only 20 months (plus put quite a bit in my pocket). As long as the work is there you'll have not trouble making your goal .

[Bandmill Bandit]

I "borrowed" the money for my mill from my RRSA and paid 5% interest back to me on the repayment. I took 25% of each job  on average and had it paid back in just 30 months. The plan was to get it repaid in 36 months so I did good. By doing it that way none of those dollars get taxed as long as they are under the RRSA account (Registered Retirement Savings Account = RRSA) and you keep your repayment plan up to date.

 

[OlJarhead]

Setup again with 43 logs in the log deck and another 20 or 30 to be added Saturday.

I bought some 1 1/4" PVC, some T's and a 90 and glued them up so 24" of pipe will slide down into the mast pipe, turn 90 degrees and run about a foot towards the controls, then a T and another pipe that goes down to about the bar that holds the controls.  I'll slot the umbrella into this pipe and tape it to the control support for now and see how that does.

I have an appointment with a metal fab shop next week and will be getting a permanent steel support added to the mill to set the umbrella right over the work station but for now this will work as a 'mock up' and 'test platform' to see if my idea works.  If it does I can have them make me a metal tube construction that will bolt to the control head support arm and rest inside the mast uprights so it can be removed when not needed.

With luck this setup (the PVC one) will hold up over the weekend (I'll get some pics) and keep the sun off me as it will be well into the 90's tomorrow and I don't want to bake in the sun all day!  Might be a bit week but it only needs to hold over the weekend until I can get something much stronger and possibly permanent made (I have save the pics of what others have done but was thinking of doing one that can be removed without any holes drilled etc for when it isn't needed).

Anyway, I'm back at it tomorrow for 4 or 5 days (hopefully less not more) and with just one small job after that will reach my annual target! :D

Got a call from a potential customer 204 miles away.  Gave him my particulars and I think he's going to hire me later in August or September so that would be great!  And I have another job coming up probably in September with a local guy (I'm giving him a great deal because he's ten minutes away from my home) and a few other small jobs in the mix

If this keeps up I'll be doing a happy dance next spring! ;)  I'll pay this mill off in 12 to 16 months at this rate and buy my truck and camper so I can just camp onsite for jobs instead of tenting it in remote locations or driving an hour back to my cabin at night -- which takes it's toll.