Holualoa Hardwoods

[kanoak]

So this is going to take me some time. I need to build a website and integral to that is telling the story of my product. I thought about making a manuscript, editing, revising, revising... but I think it will be more fun to share it and get feedback from the friendly crowd here. I have been learning from the Forum since the beginning so I think it is fitting. FYI I will be editing posts to include feedback and any time I want.

[kanoak]

The Beginning.
I have always been enamored with plants. All kinds. I am sure I inherited it. Since I can remember dad has been planting trees. My uncle on my mothers side planted trees in the pacific northwest professionally.
In 1994 my dad started planting tropical hardwoods on a newly acquired parcel on the west side of the big island of Hawaii. He got a State forest stewardship cost-share and planted about 10 acres a year. At this time I was living in Oregon with my mom, in middle and high-school, but I got to come back for a month every summer and helped out on the farm.


In 2000 I moved to Oahu to study botany at the University of Hawaii and I spent my entire summer breaks pruning the trees up to 20'; 3-5 minutes a tree, move the ladder, on to the next one. In 2006 I graduated and have had the privilege of moving back and living on the farm.

The first few years were spent building perimeter roads and fencing. First we rented an excavator, then we bought the same model at auction. She was rough; broken boom, undercarriage, poorly taken care of and she had reciprocated. The previous owner didn't live to tell the tale, but Nibbles is my girl and I try to take care of her. I built over 3 miles of road with her along with the fences and she is still doing me right.


In 2012 I bought my first mill, a Woodmizer LT10 and started learning to saw. Trucking logs back to my house in the back of a Tacoma was a bit limiting, but I was able to learn a lot about sawing, where the bottlenecks would be, and the amount of manual labor involved running a mill.





I built a small sawmill shed, had a pad and a plan, but things changed...

[kanoak]

Next Steps
At this point I had some things change. The largest of which was that I bought a 1994 LT30 hydraulic sawmill. It was rough; head had been bent to the point that a band wouldn't stay on with any amount of adjustment and all the bearings were shot as well as the cylinder rods due to sitting out in our acid rain. Nothing a little torch time and a big hammer cant fix.


So I got to work on a new sawmill site.

And a home for my mill.



So I kept working, fencing, laying gravel on my roads, but my mill needed a home...

[kanoak]

A home for the sawmill.
So the shed only lasted a couple of years. Exposed bamboo is not generally durable. I started building a new structure. I started getting my beams cut. Some of these were too long for my saw.



And then to an erection.





Followed by a pause to help friends evacuate the 2018 eruption on the other side of the island.

[Cedarman]

I am enjoying the story.  Keep em coming.
What are you doing with the lumber you saw and what kind of wood?

[Machinebuilder]

Great story, I think many members will enjoy it

[Nebraska]

Following along thank you. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm enjoying the story and keep thinking how much "help" the design committee here could have been if they had only known.

    Keep the tales and pictures coming.

[barbender]

Well I'm engaged enough that I'm waiting for more!😊

[jpassardi]

Good for you - it takes a lot of time and commitment to make something from nothing doing the work yourself. Stay with it. 

I'm currently building a barn from trees I felled and milled for framing and siding, did the site work and made the concrete formwork. It's a long, slow road working part time.

[cutterboy]

This is a great story. I'm watching and waiting.

[kanoak]

Storms
So I worked in here for a couple of years. Bought a CTL with some computer problems, a Cooks edger from a koa mill with some issues, and had some other interesting side tracks.


And then in 2022 we had some storms that blew down whole fields. I estimate conservatively that 100k bdft of timber went down.




I am still salvaging logs from this and the next years events. So I built a log yard next to the mill, in the forest to keep the logs as moist as possible before sawing them.

[kanoak]

A home for the edger
This edger I bought was a sweet deal. Previous owner just couldn't dial it in straight. After a couple of years taking up space I decided it needed a home in the workflow. So I built it a home.




And then I spent some time on the machine and added some lasers.

[kanoak]

Dry Wood
I already knew I needed to upgrade my wood drying setup. I got tired of the tin blowing off of my stacks, even with our mild climate.



This was built as a multi purpose structure. At this point I has bought a 40' container kiln and needed roof for solar power, and also wanted it to be machine storage if that was the most valuable.

And I kept twisting arms trying to get the truckers to deliver an oversize container to my absolutely aweful location.