French style sawmill loading.

[Satamax]

Hi guys. 

Well, i spoke about it before? That we use excavators to load and unload sawmills in France. 

Here's my take on it. My own adaptation. 

déchargement d'un plot de la scie a la mecalac. - YouTube

chargement de grume sur la scie au mecalac. - YouTube

[DanMc]

Thanks for sharing.  I wish I had a machine like that to move logs around, especially in the woods.  I'm limited to my tractor's forks.

[Satamax]

Thanks for sharing.  I wish I had a machine like that to move logs around, especially in the woods.  I'm limited to my tractor's forks.

Well, where is a will, there is a way.  Have you ever seen the  grapples for front end loaders? There is the uniforest scorpion 1300 which is made just for that.
I wish i had this one earlier. It gonna be useful for the firewood processor, for the mill. To get rid of sawmill offcuts. Dig holes for concrete foundations for the racking. Move pallets around with the forks. And all what i don't know yet.
I did the adaptation myself.
I'm trying to replicate this more or less. May be one day with the winch.

Mecalac 11MWR - Holzen von Käferholz - YouTube

Or the winch on the arm, like this one.

Mecalac Einsatz 01 - YouTube

[Ron Wenrich]

Typically, in my area, there is a loader at a central landing and a separate skidder that brings the logs to the landing.  There are loaders that have a saw buck on the landing that is used to buck logs into product.  They're separated at the landing.  Firewood on one pile, sawlogs on another, veneer on another, etc.  When a load is up, they're put on a truck and sent to another destination.  Sawlogs to the mill, pulpwood to another mill, etc.  Makes unloading really easy.

Most sawmills us forked loaders.  They have a top bailer that will hold numerous logs in place.  There may be further sorts by species and length in the log yard.  Forked loaders can be a little bit of a problem with icy conditions or in the spring when the bark comes off and the logs are super wet.  Tulip poplar is one that does it in our area.

The forked loader also moves bundles of lumber, slabs or whatever really easy.  We also have buckets that we fabricate where the forks fit in pockets and you can use it to move mulch or sawdust.  The forked loader is also great for loading truckloads of product. 

Watching you take slabs off the mill is a painful thing for me to watch.  A forked loader would have them off in seconds.

It would be really nice to see your mill set up.  Its also great to see how other people attack a problem in other countries. 

[Satamax]

Typically, in my area, there is a loader at a central landing and a separate skidder that brings the logs to the landing.  There are loaders that have a saw buck on the landing that is used to buck logs into product.  They're separated at the landing.  Firewood on one pile, sawlogs on another, veneer on another, etc.  When a load is up, they're put on a truck and sent to another destination.  Sawlogs to the mill, pulpwood to another mill, etc.  Makes unloading really easy.

Most sawmills us forked loaders.  They have a top bailer that will hold numerous logs in place.  There may be further sorts by species and length in the log yard.  Forked loaders can be a little bit of a problem with icy conditions or in the spring when the bark comes off and the logs are super wet.  Tulip poplar is one that does it in our area.

The forked loader also moves bundles of lumber, slabs or whatever really easy.  We also have buckets that we fabricate where the forks fit in pockets and you can use it to move mulch or sawdust.  The forked loader is also great for loading truckloads of product.  

Watching you take slabs off the mill is a painful thing for me to watch.  A forked loader would have them off in seconds.

It would be really nice to see your mill set up.  Its also great to see how other people attack a problem in other countries.

Hi Ron. Well, what you're describing is a big sawmill. Mine is a one man band. I was too lazy, i admit, to change the grapple to forks. It's the first attempts, with old larch, which has the sapwood rotten. It's the very beginning for me, with the wheeled excavator and grapple, and the Crane has been set to the side. I want to use the dangling pallet forks with it, to load the lumber in the left hand side of the saw. And drop the slabs to the right, which can be handled by the grapple. But it is a game of tetris. I only have about 7650 sqft of land. With a 1200sqft  building on it. A sawmill, a firewood processor, three big machines, a land rover and a trailer. A stock of firewood. I'm trying to find a solution for the log yard. But it is so expensive here. That it is complicated. Or inheritance makes the plots of land unavailable, when they're held by several families, who cannot agree.

Anyway. There is a lot of small sawmill here in France., who load with a wheeled excavator.

My saw you can see on my youtube channel.


Sciage de poutres à  Serre chevalier. - YouTube


HTH.

[Ianab]

Certainly interesting to see how things are done in other places. I can see the wheeled excavator / grapple being a multi-purpose machine around a sawmill. 

Here a most small logging crews will run a large "bush rigged" excavator (~20 ton) as a Swiss Army Knife sort of machine. If can build access roads and skidding tracks, stream crossings etc. Then sort and stack logs that have been skidded to the landing, and deal with hazard trees and stuck machinery. Much like Ron describes. Then load the logs onto trucks at the landing as self loading trucks are very rare. I suspect because all the loggers have machinery to load, and all the mills to off-load, the cranes are just extra cost and weight that reduces the trucks legal log load. 

The small commercial sawmill I do IT work for has a decent size wheel loader for unloading trucks and moving logs onto the log deck. Then a couple of regular forklifts for moving sawed product around. But if you can only have one, then it needs to be multi-purpose. 

[Satamax]

I'm a happy chappy! I made a T "log pusher" to put the grapple into transport or storing position. 



 

[Satamax]

stabilisateur grappin mecalac. - YouTube