Iron Inventory

[thecfarm]

solomon,now educate us on what kind of mill you have,Logmaster?HP,hyd?

[Solomon]

Its not a sponser mill cfarm.  I will tell you its all hydraulic with a 51 hp perkins diesel with the cat name on it.   Had it about five years .  Came out of Texas if that tells you anything.  I have been very pleased with it.

[Ianab]

You are allowed to talk about non-sponsors mills, just not advertise them   ;)

[Solomon]

Well then....  Yes its a Logmaster Model LM4.    I have the Photo Electric setworks system that works well for me.   It has 30 inches between the guide bearings when they are all the way open.    It will handle up to a 36 inch diameter log 24 feet long.   I seldom saw logs that big but I have done it.   With a 36 inch diameter log its very close , I have about a half inch of clearance on both sides for the head rig to pass over the log.   It seem to have more than enough power, it will spin the clutch before it will bog down.  That has only happened one time when the cant bowed up while I was 6 ft into a 12 ft cut and it pinched the blade between the unfinished board and the cant. Other than that it has cut everything I have fed it with ease.
I do have to slow my feed rate down when making a wide cut in some hard woods .  All end all,  I'm very satisfied with it.

[Tools]

Hi,

New here, just got my first sawmill.  Actually, my son (19yrs) just worked the deal and so far had paid for it...  (quick side note, he gave me a CRANE for my birthday when he was 16...  He's NOT holier than thou, and there's days I'd, well, you know, but overall, he's a pretty good kid!)

It's a Corley.  Has a 48" blade, style 3, powered by a Chev 192 inline six, through a Powerglide transmission!  It's NOT governed, but has a all or nothing selenoid on the throttle, connected to a switch on the carriage handle. 

The guy we're getting it from, it's still at his place, about a mile and a half from mine, has been there 30 yrs (mainly dormant the last 5, was his primary income for about 5 of the 25 he used it), was told it would never work that way.  Well, it does. 

We'll keep it on his property until we have a place ready for it on mine.  He's tutoring us on how to use, maintain and tune it.  It's definitely a bit loose and needs some work, but overall it's pretty good.  It's set on piers on dirt, with a small cover over the works.  The carriage has been "metalized", and nearly all of the babbit has been replaced with bearings. 

So far we've cut about 4,000 bd ft or more on it.  I can't believe how slick these things are.

Insofar as the rest of the "iron", a few old allis chalmers tractors, we move logs mostly with a old Bobcat 610 skidsteer and a rather new Taceuchi TB135 mini excavator.  I do have a fully equipped machine and wood shop, and most of a fabrication shop. 

Our first "job" with the mill is making 2x6's for walls for a hangar we're trying to put up to house our little airplanes, a 1930's style homebuilt called a Pietenpol (built by someone else around 2006, powered by a little airplane engine - many of these are powered by ford model a engines!) and a 1946 Aeronca Chief.  The rest of the hangar is coming from a chicken house we've been given the materials from if we take down the 60' we need. 

Seems like a really well run and useful board!  Thanks for letting me in!

Cheers,

Mike "Tools" Danford
Chickamauga GA

[thecfarm]

Tools,welcome to the forum. Lucky you to have someone show you how to run the Corley.When you do get ready to move it,take lots of picture too. Ever been around a sawmill before? sounds like a good son to me buying a sawmill.  :D

[Tools]

Hi, thanks!

Not really, have some time helping around a coupla' band mills, but this is the first circular.  It's pretty obvious that they're CRAZY non forgiving of inattention.  However, I gotta say, they're not NEARLY as "scary" as I thought they would be.  The big old blade is chugging along pretty slow (500'ish rpm), not terribly noisy, rather controlled. 

I like the set up a lot (circular's in general).  The waste of wood isn't really important to me as trees are basically free in the southeast.  If you can handle them, people will give them to you.  And they're quick.  Would love a band mill as well for really nice rare wood, but for now, this is the way to go for me.

I'll get a lot of pics where it's at, and some video of it in operation and will get TONS when it does move.  First priority is blade understanding and tuning, then rigging.  I'm reading like mad on how blades work, how to sharpen, swage, shank evaluation, etc.  The blade has "runout" (I'm basically a woodworker, so this is more of a table saw term, not sure yet if it's "tight" or "loose"), so I need to get in and evaluate that.  However, it cuts very consistently despite that.  Sitting for 5 years, I'm assuming the shanks have lost some spring. 

I'm away from home about half the time or more, and I've learned more about blades in the last couple days (Payne website has good links) since I've been out of town. 

Also, since it's not governed, I need to get my strobe over there to calibrate myself to what 500 rpm really does look and sound like.  Also, I'll be able to see what speed it vibrates the least at, that should give me an idea as to what the cause is.

Tools

[Tools]

Here's the only two pics I have, not very good... then battery died.

Tools



 



 

[Tools]

A better pic and a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVKm9dJAmU

 

[scully]

2001 Wood-Mizer LT40 super hydrolic acuset 1 for now...... just bought it 3 weeks ago !!!!!!!!!!!! oh and 42hp Kabota !

[Dave Shepard]

'08 LT40HDD51 Super Hydraulic with Wireless Remote, '08 ED26 Twin Blade Edger and '10 BX24 24' extension. Same as my sig, but now I own them. 8)

[BC_2000]

Timberking 2000 - Australians Represent ! 

Dad and I mill our own plantation rainforest timber & native hardwood, as well as other growers' cabinet timber in the area.


Cutting small-diameter Quondong (Eleocarpus grandis) thinnings in a monoculture planting


Nice 10-year old plantation Mexican Cedar (Cedrela odorata)


2 and a bit days cutting


Packed up after 3 days on-site

We've since removed the log return and de-barker as they're not necessary for our work, and makes everything a lot sleeker

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum,  BC.   

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum BC-2000 with 2 logrite cantdogs on the ground.  ;D

[Mountain]

I am brand new to this board, in fact this is my first post.

I am running an HFE 21 Homesteader with 220 electric motor, from Hudson.  I picked it up this spring.  I also run an Alaskan mill that I designed and built for bigger material, big logs I cut down into cants that will then fit on the Hudson mill.

I have cut up around 10,000 board feet of logs into lumber so far and have gotten a feel for the mill and learned a lot about it's limitations... and mine...lol.

I just poured a concrete pad for my mill and extended the tracks out to 26 feet and I am in the process of building a log trolley system to lift the logs from the log deck and then I can just roll them into the building over the mill.  I bought a planer last week and as soon as the mill is fully setup I will setup the planer decks and the planer.

Next step is to put up a building for a kiln.  Logs have been pretty easy for me so far, I have cut about 20 trees from my place so far and have about 200 left that need to come down and go to the mill.  I helped out a tree trimming company by hauling 3 log truck loads of cottonwood/aspen hybrid from their site for them.  I ran into a nieghbor logging down the road and he let me go through his log deck and hand pick the logs I wanted and I was able to buy those for the price the mill is paying, I managed to get 1,500 brd feet of Doug fir and 1,500 brd feet of white fir there.  I just got a line on 75- 15 to 22 inch aspens that my brother in law wants me to remove from his horse pasture.

I figured with how easily available logs are for me and how much happen to have I should go ahead and setup the mill well and get set up to produce good quality wood.  Then I figured I would this site or others and fill in the many knowleage gaps.

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum,  Mountain.

[dblair]

welcome aboard, enjoy the people here , they're the best .

[Andy White]

Woodland Mills HM126, Home made log arch, Stihl MS290, Dixie Cant Hook, John Deere Utility tractor with FEL,Complete cabinet shop/wood shop with all mid 70s Delta tools,dust collection, filtering and all misc. hand tools. Loving all things wood.

[rooster 58]

2005 LT70, EG 200 edger, stihl 460, 660, JD 5205 with FEL

[ND rancher]

 " 99" TimberKing B-20, Stihl  chainsaws,NH LS180 skid steer, Lots of assorted farm tools

[stefan]

 

  Good afternoon everybody.
New member here who are going to try uploading a couple of pictures of my little collection.
It seems most people enjoy pictures, i know i do, so here goes.
Pic of my mill, the weather turned to winter about a week ago, and it is pretty cold right now.

[stefan]

I think i got the hang on this picture posting thing, so i´ll try a couple more.


 
first pic is my wheel loaders a volvo L120 and a 4500


  
second pic is the sawmill with a cab i will try to hook up the controls to under the winter.
Behind the mill you also can see the log deck.

[thecfarm]

That looks like quite the mill you have there.Must have an employee or two? Nice support equipment.

[stefan]

Thank you, thecfarm.
Well, no actually this is a hobby of mine, no employees.
I am a owner/operator truck driver for a living and i built this sawmill about twelve years ago when i decided i needed another hobby, instead of dragracing.
I did a little sawing back then for couple of years, but then i started this trucking business and didnt have time to do any sawmilling for a number of years, so a friend of mine borrowed it during this period.
But then last winter i decided to try to get this thing going again, since i needed a little lumber myself, and also do some modifications, more hydraulics, and a better log deck for example.

Anyway, its nice to have it back and running again, and, its was also nice to run across this forum, from whitch i already have got a lot of good information, so, thank you all, and i hope you dont have to much problem with my writing, since english is not my own language.

[dblair]

welcome Stefan that's a great collection , but it's to cold for my warm blood . I'm use to no snow , well maybe no more than 12 inches a winter .