I'm tired of discovering that I've left something I need at home again. As it is now, I have to do a roundup of all the stuff I need for sawing before I head out to a customers place. You know the stuff... cant hooks, chainsaw and chainsaw stuff, spare band blades, prybar, tape measure, etc. I'm looking to find out how others are keeping it all together. Would really like info about storage compartments mounted on the saw. My saw sits outside in the weather for now, so the storage areas need to be covered and lockable.
Another question... Should I remove the blade everytime I finish a job ? Sometimes I plan on sawing the next day so I leave it on. It seems to rust quite a bit overnight.
Rick
VA-Sawyer
I've got it all in an enclosed trailer. (Yep, sawmill too) Ready to go with no loading time, and solves a storage problem for me too. (My sawmill stuff is not welcome in the wife's horse barn ::))
Captain
Va...
I store my tools in my pick-up , of course I do have a cap on it ....and it is locked when the tools are in it ....When I don't have the cap on I put in a tool box that goes across the truck bed.(you know the type either plastic or steel.)It is also lockable... Only thing that don't go in it is the gas.
I don't remove my blade but I do let up on the pressure . The blade does rust some but it don't need much to get rid of that....
I know what you're talking about. I've been doing the portable thing for over 8 years, and it took four years of leaving things at home and worrying about getting stuff snagged out of the back of my truck in parking lots before I finally solved the problem. I bought a BIG Knaack metal locking tool box that will hold it all, and keep it safe from weather and rip-offs. No more blue tarps for me! 8) Box cost me $400, but it has been worth every penny. My "new" truck this year also came with many locking toolboxes under the bed, so now I can keep all my gear, and even some fishing gear, safe and sound and not forget and leave things at home anymore. Well, most of the time I don't leave anything at home!
Know the problem ::)
As I only run the mill on weekends I've had to get some sort of system to keep all the bits and pieces together. I keep my tools in a couple of tool boxes at all time, one for sockets and spanners, one for everything else. Another box for chainsaw stuff (bar oil, files, spare chain etc). Another box with rope, hand winch etc. These boxes sit on a shelf in the workshop with the saw and gas cans. When I go out milling I can load all the stuff into the wagon and be gone in 5 mins. Only falls down when I take some vital tool out to fix something around the house and forget to put it back ::)
But hey I like Captains setup... may have to investigate something like that. Something like a double horse trailer would be perfect.
Ian
This is exactly why I do not travel to saw lumber. Everything is right here on the Tree Farm, some place. 8) :'( :'( :'( :'(
Most of the time I use a 16ft horse trailer to haul the mill and assesories around with. However, I recently needed the trailer to haul chickens and cattle, so I constructed a tool box out of p.t. 1/2 plywood. I used two sheets, 20x24x72 finished dimension with slant top to shed the water. Two padlocks and two hinges. I can fit two fuel cans, two chain saws, 066 with Lewis winch, a tool bag, a tool bucket, blades, and cant hooks. All for about $100. I couldn't afford the real nice knack boxes, but this seems to work real well. Now I just put the saw in the back of the truck and go on site. When I saw enough lumber, I might just have to get me a dedicated trailer that I don't have to share with the farm animals. ;D
:) i leave the blade on my saw overnight when i'm on a job,don't have any problem with rust, even when it rains.a little rust won't hurt it anyway. :)
I do like woodrat, bought an old job box at an auction for $35. it holds most of my equp. I can leave it at the job or on the back of my truck.
Wes
ps. I painted it orange
On the front of my mill is the hydralic box and on top of it sits my small cant hook, wonder bar, chain saw file, vice grips, hatchet, and my large cant hook leans up aginst it all the time. I keep 3 blades in my truck as well as several blocks and tools all the time. At first I built a box a bit larger then a foot locker that all would fit into it and had a list of "needed" items to saw with painted on the lid. When I got ready for a mobile job I just pulled the box over to the mill and filled it up by the list then I just had to put the water and gas cans on the truck with the mill spare and I was ready to go. I packed up at the end of the day the same way. Routine and habit is your best friend on this deal. Every time I get new help it takes me a week or so to train them to put the stuff back on the front of the mill and not lay a cant hook down some where. I once got out and did not have any blades and hit a nail. You can file a blade by hand and saw quite well with it.
ARKANSAWYER
Our mill is stationary, so its everything is always there. I do have an area in the garage where we keep all of our logging stuff, toolboxes, gas, oil, etc. Well one day we go to the woods to cut some timber, and remembered everything but one, the saws. It took me a while to live that one down.
Thanks for the replies. I'm still looking to hear about "on the saw storage". Don't want to reinvent the wheel if I can help it.
Trailer won't work, because I'm already pulling the Woodmizer. ;D I'm using my Blazer to tow with, so don't have the "truck bed" option either. I really hate putting the chainsaw and stuff inside the Blazer.
I was thinking it would be cheaper to fabricate on the saw storage, than to buy a 4X4 truck. ::) Maybe I'm wrong about that......
RIck
VA-Sawyer
I leave my saw on the job site, because it is fairly dificult to steal it. I refuse to let a theif have a chance at all my tools too, even in a locked box. Smoke wrenches are soooo quiet, even in the dead of night. Besides that, I carry so many tools that it nearly fills the back of my pickup with the cap on it, as well as the back seat of the extended cab truck. :o
For my mobile jobs I have always used my 3/4 ton Ford Cargo Vans. When I was doing a lot of those I just kept everything in there all the time.
With my new mill I will have to get a 1 ton van I guess as I like to pull the mill with my 1 ton dually.
I am trying to not do as many mobile jobs as I like the roof over my head and all the tools and fuel close by. It's nice to have a forklift right there too.
I am amazed at someone only taking a couple blade to a cutting job. I usually have between 20 & 30 in the van all the time. If you get into metal you can go thru 10 blades in nothing flat. One little rock and you need to change blades. I like to keep a couple of different styles of blades. Many times I will be there to cut softwood and they will want me to cut an oak or walnut log they didn't tell me about.
Loren
If I bring everything with me I need none of it...leave it all home and I make twenty trips back and forth. I'm laying out a trailer now that can act as a portable forge if need be --at my pace it'll be done in 2010.
VA-Sawyer,
If it were me, I'd build a break-down box to fit on one end of the mill. If your not worried about the weather I'd build it out of expanded metal so the pieces (floor, sides, top) wouldn't be to heavy, because if it's on your mill your gonna be handling it alot. Should be able to build one that would go together with pins to keep it fast and simple. I know you've probably already thought of that, but just thought I'd throw it in.
I used to run a Woodmizer and always left tools behind, now I run a Lucas swinger and guess what? I STILL LEAVE TOOLS AT THE BARN!!! So I guess that won't make a good swinger vs. bandmill argument, now will it? :(
But seriously, I've got the same problem, but I'm working towards a 16' or 18' flatbed trailer with a big toolbox in front and racks on the side for my mill rails and end frames. Hope it helps!
:D *love my sawmill* Just 900kg (1984 Lbs) to hang behind my VW Passat Variant and plug in the lights.
Even in the future, when I´ve added the fully hydraulic it´s less than 1200 kg. I don´t need a heavy 4WD truck. The boxes and tools I lift in the car. I found a man to show me how to make the bands in 3 rings with Diameter Ø50 cm (20")
But J.C. how it hurted my skin when I tryed to learn by my self!
Have You got that trick? :)
Swede.( Not bleeding any longer)
Check out the Knowledge base, Swede. :D
Thank You Tom!
If I´ve read that 3 months ago I´ve had no blood left, hard for me to understand *swede*. I use my hands and 1 foot but it works fine.
Printed how to open the band. Have to hang it on a special wall for readig over and over "in case of time". :D Now it´s a bigger fight for me to open a band.*bleedingsmiley*
Quote:D . I don´t need a heavy 4WD truck.
You would where I saw. Sometimes I even need a 4 wheel drive tractor hooked to that! :o
WHen I first started sawing portable it was a problem...but I quickly learned a system. I have a tool box on my truck ( typical style for PU trucks) which by the way was donated by DELTA/SEARS...I keep tools...chainsaws....lube...etc etc in it constantly.....our generator is chained to the truck so it stays in the truck...the only thing I have to " load" is extra water jugs and gas for the mill...chainsaws...gen...and sawhorses and extra blades. I always have thos items set and ready to load in the morning. I ALWAYS have bottled water for us...and most of the time we carry a small camp stove and take a noon break to cook up some vittles....in the winter theres nothing quite like a bowl of hot soup and coffee...I think thats my dads favorite job...so he's the desiginated cook....which is fine with me...id probably burn it :DI ALWAYS relieve the blade tension at the end of the day. Ill try to find the link but I read an article pertaining just to that subject and it explained why its a good idea. In the warmer mnths I use water /dish soap and my blades typically get a slight rust but that quickly disappears once it commences to cuttin again.
My mill is stationary. It is also a two hour drive from my house. I ALWAYS need some little widget that is at the house when I am at the mill or vise versa.
I will leave tension on the blade over night with no adverse problems noted as yet. I do my best NOT to leave the tension on if I'm not coming back the next day.
I run water and dishsoap as a coolant and all the blades have rusted.
Good luck!
my mill stays set up right next to the barn
If someone wants there logs cut its a hell of alot cheaper to pay a trucker to bring them to the mill then for me to move..
I charge $ 50.00 an hour to move and return and .30 a bfd to Saw.in an 8 hour day they save $ 400. I can have 4000 Bfd... trucked in for $150.. only had one job off the farm since I bought the mill !! 8)
I did not realize that my wife had snapped this picture.
This was taken during our winter thaw right after Christmas. The log I am sawing is a 51" (butt end) Tulip Poplar. Our own Forestry Forum Timber Framer Jim Rogers got me the job (thanks Jim!!).
Anyhow, to the thread, this is the trailer that I mentioned in my earlier post, to all of you swing bladers. I have the vinyl letters cut to put on for advertising, but I have not got it done yet!!! Everything is locked and secure, or so I thought. This was taken the day I realized that I had been violated and 2 Stihl saws stolen, the trailer was broken into by cutting off the padlock. The Husky on the ground belonged to the customer.
Anyhow, we are resolving those padlock issues currently while the weather is cold and the jobs are sparse.
Stay warm!!!
Captain
(https://forestryforum.com/images/04_01_03/Mill%20and%20trailer.jpg)
I would call that a whack o log. :D
Hey Atlast, why do you take a generator with you?
Oakie