The Forestry Forum
General Forestry => Sawmills and Milling => Topic started by: jimdad07 on September 28, 2015, 08:42:24 PM
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After about six years of running an Alaskan saw mill with a Dolmar 9010 I finally ordered a band mill today. I ordered a Hudson HFE 30 with 28' of track and the extra 15 blades to go with it. I'm gearing up for a barn build and I'll have way too much cutting to do for my chainsaw rig. Hopefully I'll be picking it up next Friday, I'm about 2 hours north of them. Taking a long weekend next week to enjoy the new mill.
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8) Awesome! Nothing like getting a new big boy toy 8)
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rooster should of posted long in there somewheres. 28 feet!!!! 8)
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rooster should of posted long in there somewheres. 28 feet!!!! 8)
I have a load of 20' pine logs coming for my TF barn build. Pushing the Alaskan down a 20' log to cut my beams would be like pushing a car uphill with a rope.
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8) Awesome! Nothing like getting a new big boy toy 8)
But how do I convince my wife that it's "always been in our yard"?
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thats easy but you may not have time. just put all your stuff in the yard sorta where you want the mill . wait till she has complained for a couple of months then when you finally give in to clean up you just move everything but the mill. she will be so happy you moved almost all your junk she wont even notice ;D :D :D :D
my wife's grandfather did this with a new truck several years ago and it was 2 months before his wife caught up with him :D :D :D
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thats easy but you may not have time. just put all your stuff in the yard sorta where you want the mill . wait till she has complained for a couple of months then when you finally give in to clean up you just move everything but the mill. she will be so happy you moved almost all your junk she wont even notice ;D :D :D :D
my wife's grandfather did this with a new truck several years ago and it was 2 months before his wife caught up with him :D :D :D
Very brave man. I bribe my wife with direct deposit every payday. She bribes me with silence and peace.
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thats easy but you may not have time. just put all your stuff in the yard sorta where you want the mill . wait till she has complained for a couple of months then when you finally give in to clean up you just move everything but the mill. she will be so happy you moved almost all your junk she wont even notice ;D :D :D :D
my wife's grandfather did this with a new truck several years ago and it was 2 months before his wife caught up with him :D :D :D
:D :D :D I think there's a name for that- southern ingenuity! :D :D
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Way to go, jimdad07. I know you will enjoy it and do some pretty work with it.
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Congrats. Please share your experience which will help others. 8)
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8) Awesome! Nothing like getting a new big boy toy 8)
But how do I convince my wife that it's "always been in our yard"?
I'd hire member Raider Bill, I've heard he's good at painting things camouflage :D. Congrats on the new mill!
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Thanks guys, the next week is going to take forever.
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8) Awesome! Nothing like getting a new big boy toy 8)
But how do I convince my wife that it's "always been in our yard"?
I'd hire member Raider Bill, I've heard he's good at painting things camouflage :D. Congrats on the new mill!
congrats on the new mill,
have jeff send a letter to your wife, congratulating you for the free sawmill you won in some competition.
you could leave it where ever you want then
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Congrats on the new mill. When you start running a band mill, you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner.
Have you made any plans for all the time you're going to save? ;)
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Congrats on the new mill. I love my little HFE-21. You could spend the week preparing a good flat base to put the mill on. :)
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Congrats on the new mill. When you start running a band mill, you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner.
Have you made any plans for all the time you're going to save? ;)
That time will be spent begging for adult favors from my wife for the rest of my life....it will be worth it....
I've tried and made about every configuration of chainsaw mill you can think of. Some worked well, some didn't. In the end it's still a chainsaw. I finally have a project that justifies the mill. Going to be busy on that one.
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Congrats on the new mill. When you start running a band mill, you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner.
Have you made any plans for all the time you're going to save? ;)
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Congrats on the new mill. When you start running a band mill, you'll wonder why you didn't make the switch sooner.
Have you made any plans for all the time you're going to save? ;)
More importantly, have you told the Better Half about all the things you can make for her with your newfound hobby?
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Just let her see some of the things that have been made by the members here in the wood working section. Then you will be busy for life with all the projects. I'm very careful now about letting mine see anything on there. Also kinda have to rush her through craft shows now. I'm already on the hook for a back deck, some more trivets, picture frames, trim for the house ............. You get the picture I'm sure.
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Congrats on the sawmill, you will love it. I did chainsaw for a while then switched to WM LT10, life changing. Took me two years to build my barn and putting the rolling door on two months ago was the best feeling ever. Make sure you have the right ability to move logs around, without a front loader I rely on a winch positioned in the middle of my track to roll big ones :)
Post some pics when it gets setup or during...level strong ground is key.
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I raise beef on the side so I'm lucky to have three tractors with loaders kicking around. Big reason for the barn, first floor for wrenching on haying equipment and my tractors along with welding and black smithing. Second floor for my woodshop, I've been working out of a 16x24 post and beam shop I built for awhile. I can tell you that chainsaw collections don't mix with woodworking and vice versa. I'll be happy to finally be able to set up all of my tools and leave them setup. I've done two complete kitchens out of that thing and I'm looking forward to space to work with.
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8 days left. Need it, want it, gotta have it.
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7 days left....must have it now!
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6 days left.....will next Friday ever get here?
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Sooner than you know it you'll be pulling boards!
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Sooner than you know it you'll be pulling boards!
I see you're from the Adirondaks. I'm up on the St. Lawrence River near where Lake Ontario empties into the river. Small world. I spend quite a bit of time on the north western side in the Five Ponds Wilderness Area camping and hunting.
BTW, 5 days left!
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2 more days and I'll be picking her up. Have my spot on my concrete barn slab picked out already. I also have a load of logs getting dropped tonight for my barn project. I also have a large pile of quarter sawn poplar logs 28" on the wide side ready to go on the mill. So as soon as I get her setup I'll have a log on it ready to saw. Going to be a learning experience for sure. Plan is to let this mill pay for itself with the barn, then make some money with it through my woodshop. Once I have a good amount saved up I might even look into a mill meant for production and see what I can make off of selling hardwoods on the side. Big ideas you know but something to work towards.
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I want to pull the trigger on a TimberKing, does anyone have any advice or words of encouragement? I have some wooded acres and would like to cut and saw lumber off my ground to build my home there.
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rod i have a timberking b20 that i am well pleased with :)
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Welcome to the Forestry Forum, rodbutler.
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My load of mill logs for the barn showed up tonight. Going to be pretty interesting tackling those logs, they are 30"-32" on one end and taper down to around 24" on the small end. There were 14 in this load. Three of them have decent crowns in the logs but hopefully I can still get the 10"x16" beams I need out of them. The other fun part is going to be figuring out how am I going to turn them on the mill, they are all 20' logs. I'm not tackling those first once the mill is set up Friday, going to practice on those poplar logs first. Hate to ruin $1100 worth of logs on a learning curve.
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Question on log taper:
I see the use of toe boards to raise one end of the log to level the log. When this is done is the goal to try to level the center line of the log, or is the goal to level one side of the log and cut the taper off of the opposing side once you have a flat surface to work with?
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If you are sawing out 10 x 16 beams, the goal I believe would be to center the pith in those beams.
Sawing out other products, may or may not change that goal.
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With this load the 10x16 beams are the most important. I need 10 of them in the 18' range. I should be able to get my brace stock out of these logs as well and hopefully a hand full of 10x10's before I have to keep scrounging more logs. I wanted to box the heartwood as best I can. Going to be some growing pains for sure.
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I made this to help roll my logs. Works great...
(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Log_roller_2~0.JPG)
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I made this to help roll my logs. Works great...
(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Log_roller_2~0.JPG)
Now that is good thonking, that might be the ticket.
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If you are sawing out 10 x 16 beams, the goal I believe would be to center the pith in those beams.
Sawing out other products, may or may not change that goal.
x2
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Heading to Boonville in the morning, about a 2 hour drive and I'll be hauling her home. Looking at my various piles of milling logs I haven't gotten to with my chainsaw mill just trying to decide where I want to start.
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20' logs on a manual mill, 24"-30"+......Wow! I hope for your sake they're softwood logs. It's doable, but man oh man... You'll want to have some extra hands on site with cant hooks to position the logs for milling the second face. Once you've got two faces opened it will be much easier to position them for the third and fourth.
You could take some 4/4 stock off each face until you get the cant size you need for your beams. There would be some runout in the grain, but it should still be ok for barn siding.
Hardwood or softwood, for milling beams that long you're going to want to have some solid footers in place under the mill.
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20' logs on a manual mill, 24"-30"+......Wow! I hope for your sake they're softwood logs. It's doable, but man oh man... You'll want to have some extra hands on site with cant hooks to position the logs for milling the second face. Once you've got two faces opened it will be much easier to position them for the third and fourth.
You could take some 4/4 stock off each face until you get the cant size you need for your beams. There would be some runout in the grain, but it should still be ok for barn siding.
Hardwood or softwood, for milling beams that long you're going to want to have some solid footers in place under the mill.
Same thoughts I had, how in the he** is this going to work? Good thing is they are pine logs, but still big and heavy. I've been looking at a lot of mill mods already and planning in my head some mods to make it a little easier. I'm lucky to have a good amount of tractors to use for handling the logs but I need to be careful not to beat up the mill wrestling those big ones against the back stops and whatnot.
I really like the cant hook on the jack I saw earlier in a post to this thread. The other mod I am looking at doing is some toe boards setup like one I saw in the mill mod thread. I'm on page thirty or so of reading through that one, some pretty good ideas in there though they mostly seem to pertain to WM mills. I went with the HFE 30 mill basically because it seemed to be the best bang for my buck and closest to home for support. Being a manual mill this is going to be a tough undertaking but I think on the other hand being such a basic mill it will be fun modding it to handle the work load easier. As for the foundation, I have a nice 28'x50' brand new concrete slab sitting in my yard waiting for a barn so that's where I'm going to set the mill up. Once I'm done with the barn I'm going to pour footers for the mill next to my barn and build a lean to over the mill and use it as a stationary mill. Once I sell enough lumber and benches and things of that nature I plan to save up for a fancier portable rig to make a little extra with, but I won't buy it until I have the money, hate going into debt. I'd rather be kicked in the parts than go into more debt.
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Hi Jim. I'm excited for you! I guess the mill is supposed to arrive today?
In regards to your taper question earlier… I too have a manual mill. A swing blade, but still manual. I've only started cutting on one log so far, and it had some taper, and also where I chose to set my mill (temporarily) the ground is not flat. So, combining the taper of my log with my non-flat ground, I had to raise the small end up about 4" so the pith on both ends of the log was at the same height, relative to the blade. I just used a 6' iron pry bar and a few pieces of half-rounds to raised and block it up.
For turning logs… for the time being I'll just use the skid steer I have on loan, but after that, I'll probably use my 3000lb engine hoist to do the heavy lifting when a cant hook won't cut it.
Todd
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Jim, the concrete pad should work great. A good way to turn logs that big would be to wrap a nylon tow strap around them a couple times, and use a tractor to hook an end of the strap and lift. Takes some weight off the mill bunks, and you can turn it pretty accurately.
A chain would work too, but I've had better results with a tow strap.
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She's home, I'm heading back out to anchor the mill down to the slab and add shims where needed. Had to break to take the kids to hockey practice. Stinkin kids.... Anyhow levelling the tracks was a pain, even on the new slab. I sloped the slab when I poured it for water drainage so it was fun trying to get 28' of track to match up with the level. Lets see if I can make a picture work right.
(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28185/1009151752.jpg)
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Congrats !! 8) Now we wait until you draw first
blood sawdust. ;D
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Congrats !! 8) Now we wait until you draw first blood sawdust. ;D
Trying her out tonight. I have a couple logs ready to go. Just running in 3-3/4" tapcons every few feet to anchor the mill. It's definitely a starter mill but I'll learn a lot running it.
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Congrats !! 8) Now we wait until you draw first blood sawdust. ;D
I saw you in a salute from WM video, nice thing you did there. Good folks every where.
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I saw you in a salute from WM video, nice thing you did there. Good folks every where.
There are many Forestry Forum members that have been recognized for various projects and accomplishments. I am proud to be among this group.
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Looks good! You're gonna be smiling from ear to ear when you see how much faster a band mill cuts.
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I'm almost done shinning this thing. It's getting late and I'm butchering pigs in the morning but I'm going to try to finish this up tonight. Just a few more shims under the bunks and it's getting a log. I pitched the mill 2" on 28' with side to side dead level. She's all anchored down, I just don't trust those 3" angle iron bunks not to bend with these big logs.
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Cut up some poplar, very nice boards. No waves, no dips and no vibration. Very happy with first impression. Only problem is I set the mill head on the wrong way. Going to have to pick it and turn it around in the morning. I have pictures to post in the morning. And oh yeah, crap eating grin the whole time!
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Congrats on the shiney new iron, Play Safe.....
Dave
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Your life will never be the same again. 8)
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Slow putting pictures up and they go sideways on the full site but are right on the mobile site. No idea why. (http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28185/1009152327.jpg)
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28 feet! My! You are an industrious young fella, aren't you? :laugh: :laugh: Believe me, you will never regret it! Congrats on the new mill!
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28 feet! My! You are an industrious young fella, aren't you? :laugh: :laugh: Believe me, you will never regret it! Congrats on the new mill!
Thank you. As far as length I didn't have much choice, the barn beams I have mill are going to be pretty large and long.
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... And oh yeah, crap eating grin the whole time!
WARNING!!! YOUR FACE MAY START TO HURT FROM EXCESSIVE GRINNING!!! IF THIS OCCURS, STEP AWAY FROM THE MILL!!! ;D
Glad to hear of your results. Yes, even three inch angle will flex some. But if you fasten it down to concrete that shouldn't be an issue. My first mill was a Turner Mill, 3/8" thick 3x3 angle 16 feet long. You could clearly see the ends sagging when it was only supported by the axle.
You realize that you're likely to start getting requests to mill long beams. Between what you save milling your own beams, and a job here and there milling for others, that mill will pay for itself pretty quickly. ;D
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... And oh yeah, crap eating grin the whole time!
WARNING!!! YOUR FACE MAY START TO HURT FROM EXCESSIVE GRINNING!!! IF THIS OCCURS, STEP AWAY FROM THE MILL!!! ;D
Glad to hear of your results. Yes, even three inch angle will flex some. But if you fasten it down to concrete that shouldn't be an issue. My first mill was a Turner Mill, 3/8" thick 3x3 angle 16 feet long. You could clearly see the ends sagging when it was only supported by the axle.
You realize that you're likely to start getting requests to mill long beams. Between what you save milling your own beams, and a job here and there milling for others, that mill will pay for itself pretty quickly. ;D
Watching a hockey game right now and then back out to the mill. I've puttered around and have cut two small logs and have gotten 18 , 4/4 boards out of them. Very good cuts. Loving every cut. I know it's a manual mill but when you're used a chainsaw it's a Caddy.
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if i remember right your mill replaces the oscar 228 mill i have just a very little bigger and more hp(it needed it) i loved the mill and keep it at home in case we need to mill something and the other mills are on a job somewhere. hudson mills are great in my opinion. i dont how they build them so lite and still work so good ??? . the tubing on mine is really lite weight and it still saws just as good a lumber as the b20 or the s&w. and it has held up really well to its about 10 yrs old i guess (cant remember when i bought it) and the only parts i have had to change are the guides and drive belt i havent even changed the belt on the idler bandwheel and it has cut lots of wood. i made my living with it cutting rr ties for 2 years i just cant work that hard anymore. its amazing how much difference there is between being 33 and 43. ;D
congratulations and im glad you like it ;D enjoy
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Learned something this morning. If sawdust builds up in the blade guide and hardens with the lube, it pinches the blade. When the blade is pinched and you try to start the mill, snap, it breaks the blade. So.........I got to replace my first blade today. Went very quickly, shame I can't braze or weld it back together. It would probably ruin the temper of the blade and just break again. Lesson learned: spin the blade by hand before starting for the day. Getting used to the log dogs, I might make up some better back stops out of square stock at different lengths and a receiver for them. I really like that I was able to move my log dogs close together on one end of the mill. Some of the logs I had here I cut at 5', very easy to cut with the dogs close like they are. The others I left as is for long logs.
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Better yet, always remove the blade at the end of a day's sawing. ;D
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You can silver solder them back together...
I do it all the time. I get the most out of my blades.
(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Repair_jig_1~4.JPG)
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You can silver solder them back together...
I do it all the time. I get the most out of my blades.
(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/Repair_jig_1~4.JPG)
I keep a stock of 45% brazing wire and flux handy. Maybe I'll try it out, worth a shot. I'll start taking the blade off at night, I have kids that are 7 and 8 and one more coming, hate to have them get cut around the mill. They're not allowed near it when I'm cutting.
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I always release the blade tension and clean the guides at the end of the day on my HFE-21 as it says in the manual. Another thing I found out is to recheck the tension on a new blade after about 15 minutes of sawing. My back gets sore thinking about the size of logs you are set up to saw. :)
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I always release the blade tension and clean the guides at the end of the day on my HFE-21 as it says in the manual. Another thing I found out is to recheck the tension on a new blade after about 15 minutes of sawing. My back gets sore thinking about the size of logs you are set up to saw. :)
By the time I get to those bigguns I'll have a few things to make it easier in place. Going to be putting a 28" poplar log on it tonight, it's about 12' long but I'll most likely knock some of it off due to the shape of the log. Probably have closer to 8' of good log on it.
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(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28185/1009152327.jpg)
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(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28185/1011152347.jpg)
Here's the results of my goofing off this weekend. Not a huge pile but it's a start. These boards are out of a poplar I cut four years ago. I was about to cut it all up into firewood, what a waste that would've been. I got 105 board feet of usable lumber out of that last log. Learned a lot about the mill just puttering with it. I still have six poplar logs left, they are larger than what I milled so far but I'm not worried about it. I've been eyeballing the logs for the barn, those are going to be an adventure for sure. No way my old Allis Chalmers 180 is going to pick them so I'm going to have to get inventive on that one. I think I'm going to build some long ramps up to the mill for those and push them with the tractor. It'll work out, I see I'll also have to build some cheaters to hold this logs for the first few cuts.
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(http://www.forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/28185/1011152101.jpg)
This is the last log of the night, I screwed up on the post Of the picture. You'll also find out of me by my pics I do most of my hobby stuff late at night, too darn busy during daylight hours to get my own stuff done. Good thing I took a vacation day tomorrow.