New sawmill...

/pine · Oct 31, 2016

Finally got the new mill...It's a Hudson Oscar 336 Pro....

mark02tj · Oct 31, 2016

NICE!

Sawyer Rob · Oct 31, 2016

That ought to keep you busy for a while!! lol

SR

oosik · Nov 1, 2016

I checked out that sawmill on their web site - that's a nice unit. /pine - I have a few questions.

do you mfg lumber for your own use, to sell or both

how do you cure the lumber

what % losses are normal when you make your own lumber(checking, splitting, cracking, etc)

Thanks for your time/answers........

TnAndy · Nov 1, 2016

Careful.....sawing is more addictive than a lot of pills.

TnAndy · Nov 1, 2016

oosik said:
how do you cure the lumber

what % losses are normal when you make your own lumber(checking, splitting, cracking, etc)

.

Knot (hehe) Pine, but I'll chime in a few answer until he gets back.....

I air dry all my lumber first, stacking on 1x2x50" sticks, and either put in a shed, or covered with roofing metal for about 6mo-year. If the use is regular construction lumber, use it right from there.

If the use is trim, flooring, cabinet or furniture, air drying will only get you to a bit under 20% here, which is fine for construction, but not low enough for furniture use. I move the air dry into my dry kiln in my shop, run by an old window AC unit, and take it on down to 6-8% MC.

As for cracking/split on the ends, saw your logs an extra 6" in length, and that will handle most of it. Some species, like yellow poplar, are worse than others to end check, but generally the loss isn't too bad. Good thing to do for valuable logs is end seal them with special products just for that, OR what I do is use any old paint I have left over or laying around, and slap a couple coats on the log prior to sawing. (Easier than painting individual boards AFTER sawing)

This log for example. Black paint on the end of it.....more to highlight how lap siding is made on a bandsaw than to stop checking, but gives you an example.

oosik · Nov 1, 2016

TnAndy - Thanks for the reply. You have quite a setup there. Nice pics give a good idea of what you are doing. I'm impressed.

/pine · Nov 1, 2016

oosik said:
I checked out that sawmill on their web site - that's a nice unit. /pine - I have a few questions.

do you mfg lumber for your own use, to sell or both

how do you cure the lumber

what % losses are normal when you make your own lumber(checking, splitting, cracking, etc)

Thanks for your time/answers........

I have several projects that I will be sawing lumber for...lots of white pine for siding and t&g paneling...my partner in this venture (has lots of experience with band mills) has a large stock of walnut logs to saw...and we plan on cutting/selling whatever timber frame material we can...

On a side note...one nice thing about having a mill is being able to saw any size lumber...my current project is a two floor addition to a small cabin I have...and I need floor joists that will span 14'...normally not a problem but head clearance is critical (between existing basement floor) and the upper floor system (needs to match existing cabin floor)...so instead of using dimensional lumber...I plan on cutting 3X white oak joists...to the ideal widths...

We plan on both air drying a lot of it but we also use a building and electric dehumidifiers, fans and or a wood stove for drying material that will be planed/surfaced for interior paneling, cabinets etc...

It's been a very dry late summer/fall here and some of the logs we have stock piled have been splitting so we are waiting to see...

2LaneCruzer · Nov 1, 2016

There's a small sawmill about 30 miles from me where I have purchased lumber in the past; he uses solar kilns to dry his wood. That was news to me; I wasn't aware that wood could be dried in that fashion...but it seems to work!