Questions About Little Bandmills & Little Trees

[GareyD]

I have about 3 acres near a beaver swamp that is literally covered with small 5-8" x 30-40 foot tall SYP and Sweet Gums...I'm talking like 1,500 trees to the acre...

I need to thin these trees and the beaver severely...the beaver have ringed most of the gums...would hate to pile and burn the trees...wouldn't mind burnin the beaver though!

Tried settin a few on the Mighty Mite to saw them into "D" logs and 4x4's...kinda reminded me of driving tacks with a sledge hammer and I'd rather be using the Mighty Mite for bigger logs..

Seeing how I'm semi retired and don't have a lot of cash to play with...wonderin' how one of the little $2,500 dollar mills (like the Oscar 18") would work on these trees...or should I step up to the $5,000 mill?

Does anyone have opinions and/or experience with these little mills...If so I would really appreciate ya sharing them with me

GareyD

[WH_Conley]

GareyD, I can't tell ya much about anything other than an LT40, but I can sure sympathize with ya on the beaver. *&^% critters have rung or cut completely down everything except water birch, which we can't hardly give away. Fur aint worth nothin so nobody will trap them. Reduced to sittin on the bank with a rifle, not very effective. Invent a beaver repellent, farmers around here would make you rich, all bottom land creek frontage. Good luck with both problems.

[Kevin]

I have the Wood-Mizer LT-15 and I wouldn't want anything with less power than a 15HP.
The LT 15 has a very sturdy frame and cuts very well.
Mills like the LT-15 have good resale value as well.

[Tom]

Gary,
Any of the small mills will do a pretty good job of sawing something small like that.  The problem comes in "dogging" the fool thing on the mill. Regardless of the size of band-mill, you may have to devise a way of making it stay on the mill.  Eight inches will probably dog but the five inch stuff might end up in your lap.

That's some pretty good advice Kevin gave about the LT-15. Horse power is surely important, especially if you get into some 12" to 20" logs (you might even want 20 horses or more).  Even if you don't have any, your neighbors will. :D

[woodmills1]

I cut a lot of small pine, we call them "pecker poles" (sorry but not my invention) and I will agree dogging is the problem.  If you want 4x4 you can make them out of some very small trees if they are straight, any crook and forget it.  For 4/4 material I will get the log dogged with the woodmizer short clamp and then take passes down to 4", though if I was going to do alot I would cut the clamp down below 3" so I could take another pass.  Then I flip the log and use the 1" clamp and slice right on down.  This is sort of like slicing a pickle long ways for sandwiches.  I do this to two tre trees then edge them all.  Takes more time but it is surprising what you get for yields if they are straight and easpecially if the edging drops are at 1/2" intervals.

[DanG]

Garey, I cut this little stuff all the time on my MD. I think you're better off using the Mighty Mite for it, rather than buying a second mill. The MM will still be faster.  It takes stick at least 6 1/2" on the small end to make a 4x4 with no wane. I don't bother with anything smaller. Since you have so many, though, you might consider a post peeler to handle the ones that are too small to saw. You could peel a whole bunch of'em, let them dry for a while, then have them treated as fence posts.

When cutting the little stuff, I spend a lot more time loading and clamping, than sawing. I'm trying to think of a cheap and easy automatic clamping system to ease the sting of this a little bit.  Anybody got any ideas?

[ronwood]

DanG,

I have been giving some thought about how to cut small poles on my Woodmizer. I was thinking of an arrangement something like how you would hold stock on a wood lathe. Rotate the post for each cut. I need to make a drawing of what I am thinking about and post it for comments/suggestions.  Would like to make it such that I can do 4,5, 6, or 8 sided poles? Hope that makes sense.

Ron

[markct]

an idea i had but have never tried was to make brackets to hold a pair of pipe clamps maybe with some teeth attached to them, and use them to hold short or small logs

[DanG]

I have clamps that work fine, but I was thinking about something automated.  My mill works differently than a bandsaw. It has one vertical blade, and two horizontal blades. To cut a 4x4, I just clamp the log down, move the mill to the left and take off the left slab with the vertical blade. Then, I move 4 inches to the right, with the top edger blade set at 4 inches, and take the other three sides off with the second pass. The mill brings the completed 4x4 back to me.  Then I gotta shut down, remove the slabs, put another log on, clamp it in two places, and restart the mill to do the next one.  Sawing takes less than a minute for a 10 footer, and the rest of the stuff takes over 5 minutes. If I could cut that to two minutes, I should be able to triple my production.  ;D

Next time I'm cuttin' 4x4s, I'll take some pics.

[beav]

   Last time I cut small pines (white) on my sawmill(lt-40) I cut two or three  at a time. The work went two or three times faster. Still too much work for too little output. >:(

[bull]

I cut over 50,000 bfd of 8" and under down to 3" tip on an LT 15, lot of work. I was making 3/8 slat wood for shipping company all pine from thinning. cut some beautiful wood out of those small "Pecker Poles".  I then purchased a Baker PAQ resaw and went to town. Three sided the log and then to the chop saw for sizing  32-48 and on to the resaw. started grade recovery and sold clear shorts to a cabinet maker. Best  year w/ the LT 15 and the PAQ was 174,000 bfd....
Moved up to the LT 40.....  

Go w/ the WM LT 15 you won't regret it one bit.Had the LT 15 for 4 years  13HP kolher w/ 2 bed extensions sold it for $6000.00 without even putting it on the market. Didn't want to sell it and wish I had held on to it, but the wife said I couldn't have two mills if I wanted to get the new tractor.... I gave in.

[bradj]

I would make them into post or sell them for post.

[sprucebunny]

How about screwing a 1x to the pole with them new-fangled fiber-reinforced plastic screws ?

[Cedarman]

Before buying any machinery, I would do a bunch of research on all the avialable markets. If you are like me, you see a lot of opportunity to add value to those logs. But sometimes adding that value is more expensive then the increase in value.

For making cants or squares, you might look at a Morgan scragg mill.  I think they have some with two circle saws and an end dogging system. A guy in northern Ky built his own scragg for sawing cedar and has used it just fine for years.

I also have been toying with the idea of making an end dogging system for my WM to saw small square stock. With the hydraulics that the WM has I do not think it would be too complicated.

If anyone makes one of these things, I would sure be interested in it.