4570Man
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2015
- Messages
- 18,426
- Location
- Crossville, TN
- Tractor
- Kubota M59, Kubota L3800, Grasshopper 428D, Topkick dump truck, 3500 dump truck, 10 ton trailer, more lighter trailers.
All the mills have re-tooled for small logs. I logged 20 acres in 2013 and we left several big old hooters standing because they would dock us 20% for anything over 26" at the butt. The new automated mills can't handle large logs any more. They don't want them, and often won't take them. Larger members are engineered and laminated.
The local mill still has a circle saw to slab logs and cut a couple boards off the big ones. They’ve got a band mill but it only takes squares somewhere around 14” inch maximum. The super wide boards are no good anyway especially if the center of the tree is in it. Warping is nearly guaranteed. And by no good I mean they need cut in smaller pieces.