portable bandmill guys

two saw · May 13, 2007, 07:30:44 AM

I was just wondering what you fellows that are mobile with a band mill use to edge the slabs that you make at a customers site.
???
Do you use the mill to edge them or do you have a portable edger that you take along?
If you use the mill to edge,
Do you try to just edge one at a time on the mill or more than one?
Seems to me like it might be a pain to use the mill to try to edge multiple slabs at once for the simple fact of trying to get all the different sizes lined up to get the best boards from each.

Thanks.

ronwood · May 13, 2007, 08:19:59 AM

two saw,

I edge mine on the mill since I only saw part time.

Ron

Robert Long · May 13, 2007, 08:55:01 AM

two saw

I have the customer put the boards to be trimmed in two or three piles according to length and width and at the end of milling logs or day, I have them placed on the mill in their respective piles and are trimmed down removing the boards that need to until all are trimmed.

I know using green stickers is not the best think to do but many of the people I go out to cut for do not have them so when I stack a row of boards to be edged onto the mill I cut off the highest bark edge first then go down in 1" increments making stickers as I go and discarding the bark edges until I get down to a reasonable width for the group of boards being edged. It's not the greatest but it works for the customer and he feels these cuts to edge boards is not wasted and if the customer is concerned about green stickers I bring dry ones with me and exchange with him.

It's not what I do for myself but it sure works for the customers you are working for as they get as much as possible from their logs they cherish.

Robert

Tom · May 13, 2007, 09:50:40 AM

I don't edge slabs, just the flitches that will make boards. I do it on the mill and will do as many as I can, at once, if they are all the same size. I don't mind doing them one at a time if I get a better board.

Been doing it that way for years.

Brad_S. · May 13, 2007, 10:22:52 AM

I edge the flitches together as I go along. If I only get 4 or 5 off a log, I may set them aside and group them with those from the next log, but saving them all like Robert does bothers me because I dislike edging and having a large pile to do at the end of the day is too depressing. I can't do 1 at a time because I need a 4" thickness to clamp, although I can use boards lying flat as spacers if need be. It's not cost or time effective though. I will hold the flitches to be edged on the lifting arms and put them back on the mill when I'm done sawing the cant. I make a cut, remove waste, flip boards with a good edge and remove finished boards, make another pass dropping down 1 to 2 inches, depending on the flitches at hand (usually 1 1/2") and repeat the process until all boards are finished. How much I edge off is often customer driven. Most understand that all they need is a straight edge on one or both sides and don't mind some bark on the finished boards. Others want them over-edged with no trace of bark what-so-ever soiling their boards. Then there are the cherry and walnut clients who want the sap wood edged off as well!

Dan_Shade · May 13, 2007, 10:34:47 AM

i use the "toss the flitches onto the loader arms, and keep loading new logs until I can't fit one on there anymore then edge" philosophy.

i'm not particularly fond of edging on the saw either, but it's the only practical way to do it for many of us.

Minnesota_boy · May 13, 2007, 12:52:03 PM

Push the flitches off onto the loader arms. When the stack gets too big to roll the next log over or I'm sick of looking at them load them all up at once. Judge the first cut to make a clean enough edge on at least one of them. Bring the saw back and turn any that have a clean edge. Drop the head to the next increment (usually 2 inches for me) and make another cut. Stack any with 2 clean edges, turn any with just one edge, drop the head again and do it over until all are edged or there isn't enough left to edge. It is more efficient to sort them into a stack and load them at once, but I get enough done by the end of the day to warrant sitting down when I get home.

fat olde elf · May 13, 2007, 06:22:56 PM

I'm in there with Tom, Brad & Dan.....I accumulate until I'm out of room and then edge a bunch. I love the nomenclature...slabs, flitches, log dogs, ad infinitum. Everytime I get involved in something new, I find a whole new vocabulary to learn....
I love it.......I frequently have the chance to show my mill to newbies and I love going through the litany of terms........Great stuff !!!!

woodmills1 · May 14, 2007, 07:46:16 PM

trash the slabs, but make them thin. Edge the flitches. I edge on the mill at home and at customers, allthough I no longer look for that ellusive 4 foot one by three.

WDH · May 14, 2007, 07:55:58 PM

I am a small-time guy, but after a day of sawing, having to edge all the boards removed to square the cant is a killer. So, I have evoled to edging the side-boards after every two to three logs so that they don't build up and overwhelm my gumption. Keeping up with as I go along is less stressful on the body and mind.

two saw · May 14, 2007, 08:15:46 PM

I seem to have gotten my terminology wrong.
I gather from some of your responses a "slab" is the part covered by bark entirely and a "flitch" is, I guess, the the piece with bark on the edges that you get a board from by edging. Correct?
I have heard the term flitch before just not sure what is was exactly.
Learn something every day.
I was thinking if you had a mobile edger you could leave all the edgings until the last day and take the mill home the night before and return the next day with the edger.
Am I thinking wrong, would this be a waste of time?
Just another thought. Seems I have way too many thoughts sometimes. Tends to get me in trouble sometimes. :

treebucker · May 14, 2007, 08:24:33 PM

Quote from: two saw on May 14, 2007, 08:15:46 PM
I seem to have gotten my terminology wrong.
I gather from some of your responses a "slab" is the part covered by bark entirely and a "flitch" is, I guess, the the piece with bark on the edges that you get a board from by edging. Correct?
I have heard the term flitch before just not sure what is was exactly.
Learn something every day.
I was thinking if you had a mobile edger you could leave all the edgings until the last day and take the mill home the night before and return the next day with the edger.
Am I thinking wrong, would this be a waste of time?
Just another thought. Seems I have way too many thoughts sometimes. Tends to get me in trouble sometimes. :

Correct on the terms.

I'm concerned about leaving flitches dead stacked too long. They're irregular and dont support each other well and will dry unevenly. Plans don't allways work out and I may not get to return in a timely manner.

I'll throw flitches against the cant I was sawing and get rid of a few at a time so they don't build up. I also keep a small cant for holding them upright and square.

Robert Long · May 15, 2007, 08:55:32 PM

Just to clarify this topic, when 'two saws' asked the question he said trimming bark edge while at the customer's location..........I have the customer and his help off load boards as well as place the flitchs on to the mill....so it's not a problem to me when they get done and they must be done. as I mentioned ..... the customer usually does not have stickers as well so it is a great time to knock off stickers for him as well.

At home, it's a different story, I too cut as I go as I have to do the off loading and that's work!

As too going back with an edger.....who pays for the additional travel time and expense?

Robert

Dan_Shade · May 15, 2007, 09:23:42 PM

When I had my hudson, edging was horrible, i'd often just toss a flitch in the slab pile

manually loading up the flitches, setting the backstops, clamping them in place, and making the cut was not much fun.

my woodmizer with the hydraulics makes short work of the edging, but it's still not "delightful". some folks cut edges off by clamping the flitch against the side of a cant and then sawing the edge and a board at the same time. i never think about doing that.

one thing i've found on the few custom jobs that i've done is that the guy i'm sawing for hates edging as much as we do and will grab the flitch and toss it on the board pile no matter how much I try to get him to let me saw it into a board!

jackpine · May 15, 2007, 09:24:44 PM

Robert

I also have the customer stack flitches to the side and put them back on the mill for edging, usually at the end of the day or the end of the job. If they start to build up , or we change from one wood to another and they want to keep wood together I will edge then. The other time I will edge early is if the logs are very dirty as edging is hard on the band in dirty logs and the debarker is of no use. In that case I wait until the band is dull and edge before I change bands.

mike_van · May 16, 2007, 06:42:52 AM

I do my flitches after every log. I'd rather have 6 to do than 60. An edger would be nice, but no room for it.

Minnesota_boy · May 16, 2007, 06:53:47 AM

Going back for edging seems like a bad idea. Some jobs are small and edging would only take a few minutes, hardly worth a second trip. Some jobs last for weeks and you really can't leave flitches stacked for more than a couple of days or mold starts growing on them.

metalspinner · May 16, 2007, 09:23:21 AM

I tail for my sawyer when he cuts my logs. Heck sometimes I just go hang out at his place and tail a little bit for fun. :

I organize the flitches by what I think I will get out of them width wise. It takes a little time to measure them as they come off the mill, but with nothing better to do between cuts it's time well spent. When there is a nice stack of 6" flitch boards, they go back on the mill, and he trims one edge, flips the stack and sets the saw to 6" then trims the other edge. Sometimes there are some funny shaped flitches, but speed usually trumps accuracy on those. I also sort out the "bad boards" and he cuts stickers out of them at the end of the day.