Taking the mill to the trees

[woodnie]

Just wondering if any of you sawyers have taken your portable mills to the trees in the forest and brought boards or whatever out. 
Thinking about doing this by pulling mill in and loading mill with a skid loader and pulling out trailer loads with the same. anyone have experience with this? Thanks...

[Roundhouse]

That's pretty much my MO. I have a total of 30 acres now a half day's drive from my home. My mill is set up there semi-permanently. There are plenty of reasons this setup works for me:
-land where the mill is is much cheaper than it is where I live
-the woods there produce some beautiful lumber
-I have a lot more room there to set up the mill and staging areas/drying areas as I want
-there is plenty of room there for equipment, trailers, sheds etc. with no neighbors
-I can stage and sort logs and leave them as long as I want (when my experience & standards go up poor sawlogs become good firewood)
-I'm moving the heavy logs a short distance
-I'm moving fresh cut lumber a short distance to where it is stickered and air-dried
-I only move the lumber long distances once it's dry and weighs around half as much as it does off the mill
-lumber that cups, splits or warps too badly in drying doesn't get shipped, instead made into kindling
-I only need to bring lumber home as I have a project lined up for it, until then it is stockpiled up north
-more structures have been built to support milling where the milling happens, once the lumber is dry I build with it there, no shipping required

This won't work for everyone and there is a recreation & relaxation aspect to my travels, it doesn't have to pencil out as a wise business move. I started with 10 acres there just as a get-away before getting into sawmilling, once I had a mill to bring out there the rest is history...

[Ianab]

Assuming you have decent enough access road, there is no reason you can't do this. Set up a temporary site in a clearing and go for it. 

It's not really even a new idea. Pre logging trucks it was common to set up a "portable" steam powered mill at a temporary site, where logs could be skidded or winched in, similar to the "landing" on a modern logging job. Once they had cut everything in that area, they would break down the mill, and haul it another mile down the trail and set up again. "Portable" had a slightly different meaning, it might take 2 days to move the mill. But it could be moved. 

While I usually work with "farm" trees, it's the same idea, take the mill to the logs, heck with a swing blade you might move the mill to individual logs. 

And sawed boards are MUCH easier to handle and haul out than large logs.  I'd done it with an ATV before, just took a few more trips.  :D

[kantuckid]

We live among the trees I saw. Is that the same as taking the mill to the trees?  ;D

[Joe Hillmann]

I tend to bring my mill to the log landing then stack and sticker the lumber right there.  A few months/year later I take the now much lighter, air dried lumber and slabs out of the woods.  

After a year the lumber has lost close to 1/2 its weight and I can haul much more per trip.

[moodnacreek]

That's what portable sawmills where all about. [circle mills] They used to take them all apart and to the next job. This was very common years back. I remember old timers talking about the 'Oregon mill' that had a Volkswagon engine that traveled down a track with the saw and how light this was compared to the old way. I bet this is still done in certain sections of the country where folks still like to work.

[dgdrls]

Makes good sense. 

On the subject There is a good book entitled Sawdust in the Western Woods,
By Lionel Youst.  Its the story of his fathers "portable" milling business
in the Washington and Oregon Doug Fir stands from 1929-1956.

Take photo's

D

[trapper]

The first mill I worked at 60 years ago was like that.  A big disel circle mill that was hauled to and set up in my uncles woods when they loged it.

[Ed_K]

 Back in the 60s I watched a company work the side hill above the green river here in Leyden. They had a TD6 and pulled a circle mill on skids across the hill and used the 6 to push an old international 5 ton truck back up the hill and out to the dirt road, which is still dirt  ;D .

[Ianab]

I remember old timers talking about the 'Oregon mill' that had a Volkswagon engine that traveled down a track with the saw and how light this was compared to the old way

Sounds like the fore runner of the Mobile Dimension and the current Swing Blade and Twin Saw designs. Just that the 2 days to move the older style "portable" mills is now maybe an hour. Or ~20  minutes if you are just moving it 10 ft across to the next over-size log. 

[cutterboy]

A few years back I set up my mill in the woods on an old tractor path. It was in the summer and it was in the shade and it was great.


 

 

 

 
It's more fun in the woods.....Cutter