Custom Sawyer's sawmill

[Tom]

Custom Sawyer picking up a 40+ foot log to put on the mill to create 12"x12"x40' timbers that will be made into Mats for heavy, off-road equipment.



Here it is placed onto the mill.  The little end is a difficult target at 40 feet.



Trudging along, squaring up the cant.





The grade side-lumber is marked and the widths are communicated to the edger-operator via hand signals.





The first station behind the mill is to cut the flitch to length.



The tailer/stacker sorts and stacks the lumber.



The Forty foot long Timber is removed from the mill......





...and stacked to the side.  Some of the big Production mill's stacks of logs can be seen in the background with sprinklers watering them to keep down the insect, rot, and stain damage.

[Magicman]

Quiet an operation.  Thanks for sharing Tom..... 8)

[379hammerdown]

Impressive logs! I have a hard time getting logs that will make a 20' 12x12 let alone a 40' one! Nice setup!  8)

[Cedarman]

Customsawyer looks like the "A team"putting a plan together.  Customsawyer, that is neat.
Great photos Tom.

[Banjo picker]

Nice job.  Is the mill always that long or was additions put in for the long cuts? Tim

[sprucebunny]

Thanks for the great pictures, Tom !

Looks like he gets some walking in every day  ;D

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Thanks for the pics Tom  ;) ;D Looks like you got a good setup for doing the loooong'ish stuff there Customsawyer  ;) ;D ;D 8) 8) Do you do alot of long timbers Mate  ???

Takes Me Back to when i use to saw stuff upto 50' and the remarks & questions ;) Great looking timbers why do you saw stuff that long    ??? Thanks and Because I Can  ;)  ;D :D You need resonable logs to do it though  ;) I gota get myself another Bandmill SOON  ;) im missing having one for jobs like yours   :( :'( :'(

Regards Chris

[Dodgy Loner]

Whoa. That's quite a timber. Fully stocked log yard as well!

[bossltr]

Yeah, sweet 40 foot!
nice job keeping that log straight
what kind of wood is that?

[customsawyer]

I don't have time to answer all the questions as the wife is waiting to go to dinner, but the one about why is because they pay me to. ;D

[customsawyer]

The logs are of diffrent species, the one in the pic was red oak but we do a few white oak, hickory, sweet gum, black gum, sycamore (sp), and many others but mostly red oak. The photo does not take in 10% of the log yard if. The mill is a LT70 with a 24' ext. that also has hyd. on it for log turner, clamp and toe board rollers, I also have another 12' ext if the call ever comes in I will hook it up. For the most of it you end up cutting what the customer needs or wants you to cut. It is not all that great it is just a lot of hard work and a way to make a living, but what a great living when you get to do something that you love. ;D
Ya'll are welcome to come on down and run it if you want, I will take up Toms job of taking pics for the forum. :D

[Hbarker]

Indeed NICE.. Makes me feel like a puss for trying to automate my little mill ..
nice setup you got there    8)

[DR Buck]

Do ya charge by the board footmill when you mill those 40' 12x12s ?    ;D


Nice setup!

[Chico]

Who's mill is that if you don;t mind me asking is it in Fla just below the line or in ga
Thanks Chico

[SwampDonkey]

Always nice to see fresh hardwood boards coming off a mill, from this end anyway.  ;D I am looking at the stacks and thinking of what needs to be made next from that new lumber.  

Nice operation and you have a pretty good photo journalist at your disposal. :D

[customsawyer]

I do charge by the BF and it does add up but sure takes alot of epuipment to handle them. The mill is located in Hazelhurst Ga. about 2 hours north and east of Jacksonville Fl.
Thanks for all the compliments on the mill.

[WDH]

Yep, the mill is nice, but I must represent the log side.  You will never see better hardwood logs in this part of the country than what is sitting under those sprinklers.

[Meadows Miller]

I don't have time to answer all the questions as the wife is waiting to go to dinner, but the one about why is because they pay me to. ;D

Custom Im the same Mate  ;)  ;D the Moneys the Nice part  on H/wood like that downhere  ;) :D ;D 8) Retail beams like that would go for  $3564 aud ea or a whopping $7.70 aud per bft on average wholesale id get around $5.15 a bft for timber that long  ;) 8) Heavy timbers between 8' and 24' is about the $3.10 mark wholesale   ;) theres a good market for it too  ;D 8) 8)

On My Custom beam jobs 6x6" to 14X14"s i charge out at in Hardwood and recycled warf piles  i do clean fresh logs upto 24' for $1.10 a bft and recycled timbers upto 24' for a $1.65 deboltings at an extra charge at $27 an hour  and the cartage is at the customers expense  ;)


Im looking at Bringing Fresh A grade warfpiles 18"to30" butts  down 800 miles from a bloke i know on the north coast of Nsw in the future to fill orders i have here in victoria log cost landed in the yard here for 40' to 50' footers is about $.75 cents so theres money to be made on em  ;)

Most mills here peak out at the 20' mark and theres a handfull thatll do upto 26' on a regular basis ive had alot of my jobs come to me because ive been silly enough to say Yeah il cut afew at that length for you  ;) :D ;D 8)

Regards Chris 

[Chico]

Is that the old LP mill in hazelhurst

[customsawyer]

Yes it is the old LP mill. Beasley bought it about 11-12 years ago.

[Chico]

That was a pretty good mill   I'm glad someone bought it and didn't let it sit.
Chico

[customsawyer]

It's even better now since they put in that head rig that runs a 9" band blade with a 200hp elec. motor that thing will flat saw some wood.

[WDH]

that thing will flat saw some wood.

I bet it will quarter saw as well, if prompted  ;D.

[Bibbyman]

Thanks Tom for letting us see some of CustomSawyer's operation.   8)

There are a lot of members that are doing interesting stuff but don't do pictures or even explain what they are doing.

Thanks to Customsawyer for explaining things.  ;)

[WDH]

Yep, Jake is the quiet type.  He is a man of many talents.

[Tom]

Yeah but he keeps spending them.  .......the talents.  :-\   Bible joke.  ;D

[Georgia Boy]

The cool part about it all,  I hope some of those logs are coming from one of the tracts I bought.
Take care,
Georgia Boy 8)

[customsawyer]

I am starting to think that we might have found a herd of "wise guys" (in the voice of curly). ;D

[SwampDonkey]

Just wise tales.  ;D

[WDH]

The cool part about it all,  I hope some of those logs are coming from one of the tracts I bought.
Take care,
Georgia Boy 8)

Hey Georgia Boy.  How are y'all faring in this wood recession?

[Georgia Boy]

Well WDH,  It's Wednesday and we got cut off at West Fraiser in Augusta, Macon's down this week, IP-Savannah is not running very well, and I all but stepped on a snake this morning in the river swamp marking SMZ's. Other than that business is fine considering the market condition's in the area. I stay super busy but don't seem to be making any money, just burning gas and cellphone minutes. I will be so glad when the lumber market starts a up tick.
Take care :-\

[customsawyer]

I thought I would bring this one back to the front since Dave was asking about 24' ext with hyd. on them. If you look at the second to last pic you can see that the toe board rollers are up on the ext. but the side supports, log turner and clamp are all hyd. as well. Having the hyd. on the ext. makes turning these 40' logs alot quicker.

[Dave Shepard]

Thanks for bringing it up! I'm a ways off from a bed extension, but I will surely want to have it hydraulic. I bet you could spend a lot of time walking back and forth trying to manually adjust everything on that long extension.

[customsawyer]

Hey Dave I was going through some of the old stuff and was wondering if you ever got that extension?
Also wanted to show off to some of the new talent around how we do it down south. ;D

[Dave Shepard]

No, no extension yet. I'm busy with some serious timber frame work right now, so we haven't done much milling lately. Been going in directions I never expected in the past.

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

I'm not sure where the red oak you're milling into beams comes from, Custom Sawyer, but the saw logs we have up here aren't often straight for over 40 feet.  Assuming that your logs are like ours, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind describing how you go about milling a long timber out of a red oak saw log.

Thanks for your time,
EEW   

[DR Buck]

I'm not sure where the red oak you're milling into beams comes from, Custom Sawyer, but the saw logs we have up here aren't often straight for over 40 feet.  Assuming that your logs are like ours, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind describing how you go about milling a long timber out of a red oak saw log.

Thanks for your time,
EEW

First you got to put them on the log straightner.      :D :D

[customsawyer]

ex-Engineer the hardwood that we have down south is a little different then what you have up north. First off it grows a lot faster due to the weather. This lets it get bigger quicker. I had 5 logs last week that I was able to get 2 timbers out of each. This requires a 12"X24" cant. There is a reason that the lumber from your hardwood brings a higher price.

When you have a log with some sweep in it I place it at a 45° angle. The first face I open lets me release some of the stress in the log. The second face lets me release the rest of the stress. The first face will have the horns of the log off to my upper right as I am running the mill. If the log is to big to get all the stress out in the first cutting it will need to be worked around all the way twice. Meaning that you will have to hit all four faces twice. I hope this helps, if you have more questions fire away.

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

Sawyer: Are you saying that you rotate the saw log so that the worst part of the bend is at a 45-degree angle relative to the mill controls? In other words, are you saying that the worst part of the bend is in the upper-right quadrant (relative to a circle), as you look directly down at the end of the mill?

If I'm understanding you correctly, this means that your first cut is in the side of the bend.  After making the first cut, do you put the first face down on the bed of the mill (180-degree rotation) or do you place it against the supports on the operator side of the mill (90-degree rotation)?  :P

I was just watching the video on your website again, Sawyer, and I was marveling at how quickly you change blades on your mill!  I've never seen an LT70, so please forgive the question ... Did the factory actually put the debarker out of the way on the LT70?  If so, that must be great!   

[customsawyer]

I think you understand what I am saying. If you put a clock face on the mill I put the horns at about 2:30 and the hump at 7:30. By doing this I am able to get the stress cut out on the first two faces, letting the log straiten out a little bit. This works best if you are able to get the saw head to clear the horns on the first face. If not then you have to plan on making at least two full rotations of the log in the process of cutting it. Keep in mind that I have a edger behind me. I rotate 90°. Woodmizer did put the debarker where it is located. I hope this answers your questions. Keep on asking till I get them answered.

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

Please excuse my ignorance, Sawyer, but I need to ask you a very basic question:  What are the 'horns' of the saw log?

[beenthere]

ex
Imagine the horns on a long-horned steer. A sweep in a log will be very similar. ;)

[Magicman]

And the "hump" is the opposite side from the horns.   

[gunman63]

is that the "hump" or the "rump",, mmmmmm rump roast, see the post turned to food 8)

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

Thanks for defining the milling terms, folks.  ;D

Sawyer: Is the debarker on your mill totally out of the way when you have to changes blades?    It's certainly not on our mill and, judging by what I saw on your website video, you're changing blades very quickly.  If I'm seeing this correctly, they clearly made a nice engineering improvement in the design of your mill.

[customsawyer]

I liked the debarker on the LT40 better as it stays engaged in the log better than the one on the LT70. It has been several years since I have ran a LT40 but if I remember right when I changed blades on it I would just push the debarker one way and then the other to get the blade on.

[BandsawWarrior]

seriously that's one fine hoe you got there.  I bet it works really well for doing all kinds of stuff.  Did it pick up that big timber easily or did it grunt? 

cheers

[customsawyer]

I really like that backhoe. It handles 99% of those big logs. Some of the bigger ones make it grunt a little but it has impressed me with what all it is able to do and how well it has held up. There are many times when the back tires are coming off the ground and I have to stick the hoe out to counter balance the whole load. How the front axle hasn't just popped out from under it.

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

I've been meaning to ask you, Sawyer, and the last couple of posts just reminded me ... What model is your backhoe?  Do your forks fold away like the ones we have on our machine?

[Okrafarmer]

So are we going to see that LT-70 Saturday? And that backhoe?

[customsawyer]

The back-hoe is a Cat 420D I T. There is a quick coupler on the front that lets you switch from forks to bucket.

Okra that is not the mill that we will be cutting with on Sat. It don't mean that you can't go see that mill but it is another hour away from the house.

[Okrafarmer]

The back-hoe is a Cat 420D I T. There is a quick coupler on the front that lets you switch from forks to bucket.

Okra that is not the mill that we will be cutting with on Sat. It don't mean that you can't go see that mill but it is another hour away from the house.

I reckon I'll pass, and just content myself with what's at your house.  ;) My boss already was trying to get me to go look at a bulldozer WEST of Atlanta on this trip down, which would put me way out of my way. I looked at mapquest and said "No way. Only going to Rentz."

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

Sawyer: our machine doesn't have the 'IT' feature, but I still have to say that it's the best investment [forestry wise] that we've ever made.  I've been running hoes since I was a kid on the farm, and I'm still learning new ways to use this machine in our operation.  I was wondering how the enclosure on your machine works out during the summers down there ... Do you have a good A/C unit in the machine?

[customsawyer]

I am not in the machine for very long lengths of time so I open all the windows and run it like that. It does have AC but I rarely use it.

[Okrafarmer]

I am not in the machine for very long lengths of time so I open all the windows and run it like that. It does have AC but I rarely use it.

However, we learned that he does use the Air Conditioning in his John Deere.  ;D

[Peter Drouin]

Well if you have use it, I do :D :D :D

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

Sawyer: I suppose I should do some research on the new mills, but doesn't the standard LT70 have the same bed length as an LT40?  If so, you obviously added a bed extension to your mill.  Assuming that I'm on the right track here, will you give me your thoughts on the bed extensions? 

I've had to do it a lot lately, so it's really fresh in my mind ... but I really hate cutting our sawlogs down in length to 'fit the mill' ... and don't even get me going on being an inch or two too long.  :-[   

[Okrafarmer]

He'll answer when he sees it. I saw Leroy's bed extension in Louisiana last week, where he was milling long cypress. It works pretty nicely for him.

Around here, we're hard pressed to find a log longer than 20' that's straight enough to warrant milling whole.

[customsawyer]

I have a 24' bed extension on the mill. I also have another 12' extension that I can add if the call comes in for longer stuff. I like the bed extension. There is a certain learning curve when sawing with one but it is not to steep. The biggest thing you have to learn is how to turn a log with out causing any damage to the corners of the timbers.

[ex-Engineer Wannabe]

Sawyer: What type of edger system do you use down there?  In your experience, what are the upsides and downsides of using a double-blade edger versus the single-blade type? 

We own a very substantial unit already, so I was wondering what your thoughts are on employing a table saw for edging.

One things for sure, however ... 'gang edging' on the mill slows things way down, so, obviously, we're looking into ways to speed things up.  :P

[customsawyer]

I have never ran a single blade edger. There is no way I could get the production that I do without a edger. Many have seen my little edger run here at the house and all I can tell them is they need to see my other one. I ran 3" thick cypress through it for a week. Thank God it was not oak. ;D