My sawmill conundrum - Norwood HD36 vs. Woodlander HM130

[btulloh]

That's pretty country where you live.  I might have to drop by one day - - after you get the mill assembled.

When is your mill being delivered?  

[Everest123]

That's pretty country where you live.  I might have to drop by one day - - after you get the mill assembled.

When is your mill being delivered?  

Indeed - this is my slice of heaven!  Midlothian isn't too far away, I'd love to have you up some afternoon.  Delivery of the mill is pending right now.  I leave for vacation in a week and didn't want to risk the delivery being scheduled while I am out of town.  So I'm a few weeks out from delivery still.  Likely the third or fourth week of April.
It would be great to get some pointers on the mill from someone with more experience.
This weekend I'm doing a HUGE push to clear a bit more, remove some dangerous trees and get the roof trusses up on my pole barn that will house my mill. I also ordered two Logrite Cant Hooks (I went with the 60").  I figured best to have two on hand if I have a helper or if one ever is lost to the forest gnomes.

[btulloh]

Two cant hooks is a good thing.  I think the 60" is best all round length, but it's also nice to have a short one (like a Mill Special).  A hookaroon is nice to have too - I'd even say it's a must-have.

Good luck with your preps.  Sounds like you've got a lot to do before the mill gets there.

I had a guy call me yesterday to see if I wanted a large pine from up The Homestead.  Forty inches dbh, 100 ft tall.  Sounded like a white pine from his description.  You may want to run over and grab that.     Details to follow.  

[Southside]

That sounds like a nice pine. White pine makes superior ship lap and v match.

[Everest123]

Two cant hooks is a good thing.  I think the 60" is best all round length, but it's also nice to have a short one (like a Mill Special).  A hookaroon is nice to have too - I'd even say it's a must-have.

Good luck with your preps.  Sounds like you've got a lot to do before the mill gets there.

I had a guy call me yesterday to see if I wanted a large pine from up The Homestead.  Forty inches dbh, 100 ft tall.  Sounded like a white pine from his description.  You may want to run over and grab that.    Details to follow.  

Oh goodness, make my day and tell me that White Pine makes good lumber for my mill.  My grandfather planted HUNDREDS of white pines across our property 30-40 years ago.  I have whole stands.  The *DanG things break and blow over all the time.  I was paying hundreds to have them removed.  In fact I'm clearing probably 10-12 trees to make way for my barn.  These aren't huge, maybe in the 16-18" range (a few bigger).  My plan was to save all the straight and crotch logs to practice with on the mill.  I'll have a HUGE stack.  I've also got a pile of maple and white oak logs, but my plan is to start with the pine and make all my mistakes on the first few dozen logs  
I actually have a shorter cant hook, I think it's an antique with an old hardwood handle.  Sure looks old.  It works great though, although I've only used it for rolling firewood logs.

[btulloh]

I've got the same problem.  One of the reasons I bought a mill.  They grow so fast in this climate that they are not very dense.  The limbs get to be huge, and in border areas they get unbalanced.  They break off at the ground, they uproot.  We had a 15 acre pasture that got planted with them around 1965.  The bugs got in them 15 years ago and they got clear cut and sold for pulp. There's still a hundred or so scattered around some other areas, and most are in the 18 to 25 inch range.  On average, one a month will come down on its own.

I've used them to make shiplap paneling for a cabin, siding on my mill shed, ceiling boards on a porch - any number of things.  WP actually makes good b&b siding for me where I've got wide eaves and they don't get the full brunt of the weather.  I'll probably use some for posts in an outbuilding at some point.  Just size them bigger to get the strength.

They'll be great for you to practice on and you'll be able to use the material for something.  If I don't have a particular use in mind, I just saw them about 7/8 to use for siding.  This also planes into 11/16 paneling if later I decide that's what I need.  The WP planes pretty well, but it's best to use a byrd head rather than regular knives.  Because of grain reversals and the knots, you can end up with a lot of fuzz and tear-out using regular knives.

For practice, the WP will give you a lot experience avoiding blade deflection when hitting knots.  The knots aren't as hard as regular pine, but they're hard enough and there are plenty of 'em.

All those WP's of yours just became and asset instead of a liability.

Addition:  WP may not be the best choice for battens because of the knots.  You end up with weak spots in the batten.  I usually make the battens from VA pine to go with the WP siding.

[btulloh]

Your WP will make good shelving also.  Better than the #2 Pine Shelving they sell at HD.

[willscot]

Following and waiting to hear a review, good or bad.

[Everest123]

Following and waiting to hear a review, good or bad.

Overall I'm very pleased with the HD-36.  I've been running it for about a year now.  I did have some issues with assembly that were due to some manufacturing issues with the side rails.  Trevor at Norwood pretty quickly got me onto the solution and I was able to move past that. But it was a little bit frustrating. I believe that a solid bed design like those in the Woodmizer Mills are likely superior in the long run and certainly easier to work with.  I did manage to slightly twist my deck with a very heavy log because I had one of my Jack feet sink in to some soft ground. Not entirely the mills fault that was partially a setup issue, so I have to own some of that.  If you are thinking about getting this Mill I highly suggest the auto dogging system and the hydraulic toe rollers.  I got vthe manual version that you just jack up by hand. But it is tremendously helpful at leveling out funky logs and if you are going to work by yourself the auto dogging system is absolutely essential if you are going to work with logs of any size.
My only other advice would be to think about the length of logs that you expect cut. Space your crossbunks accordingly during assembly.  I have a hard time with 6ft logs because I have several feet of the long hanging off one of my crossbunks.  Of course I could always disassemble partially and put them where I want them exactly but that's a bit of a pain in the ass.  I'd make sure you can handle 6', 8' and 12' logs by having the distance between crossbunks be 5.5', 7.5' and 11.5'.  If I were to assemble the mill again that's exactly what I would do. The instructions do not give you tips like that.
-Jeff