Equipment Barn Started

[dmartin88]

Well, barely. Thought I'd post a few shots of an equipment barn I'm having built (I'm helping a bit but the same guy who built our house and my shop is doing the barn) for my BX22, implements, and Bobcat to get them out of the elements a bit.

We've been milling logs for all the framing that we'll use the last few weeks, weather permitting. Has been a bit of rain so slowed us down. Logs are mostly red and white Oak that have either been down a while or had died standing. We're cleaning up the neighborhood. My next door neighbor is having a garage built so we cleared the trees for him to get the logs, not a lot of big stuff but one 24" d. oak that made some nice beams.

Construction will be beams mounted on piers, then siding to match the shop that you'll see in the attached picture. Will be 20'X24', about 16' high in the center where we'll have an area that we can put lumber to air dry. Don't have a picture of what it's supposed to look like finished but will try to find one later.

Nothing fancy but know folks like to follow projects and look at pictures so will try to show the progress. This isn't the number one project for the builder so will take some time, we're in no hurry. Besides milling lumber, on Friday, he leveled the area next to my shop where the barn will go, I helped by driving the BX22 over it to help pack down the fill before it rains again- the BX looks like a toy next to his JCB 212 loader.

This shot is looking at where the front of the barn will be, door will be where the bucket of the backhoe is located. Building on the left is my shop.

 

[dmartin88]

Here's a representative pile of lumber we've milled.

 

[dmartin88]

This is the sawing area- thought I had a shot with the mill uncovered but you get the idea! The mill is a Woodmizer LT15, manual band mill, no hydraulics. Have a Bobcat with a log grapple for moving logs that works pretty well. This is the first project with the mill, only 25 hours on it so far and we're learning a lot about it's use. Bill (the builder) has used chainsaw mills before so has helped me learn a lot about opening up logs, etc. We've already had a couple of folks who heard about the mill ask us about sawing up some logs for them- may think about that in the spring to recover part of the cost of the mill?

Thanks for looking.

 

[dmartin88]

Here's a couple of Cypress logs that Bill has that we plan to cut for lumber- not for use in the barn but we'll use my mill and I'll end up with a fair amount of lumber plus the fun of the cutting! These are about 22" d. and 14' long.

 

[dmartin88]

Last picture to get started, this is the Bobcat with the log grapple, a little dark but best I had. This is a 763H, about 1225 hours and has a rated operating capacity of 1500 lbs. but lifts quite a bit more if you're not going very high!

 

[crazymike]

How much work is it to mill those logs?

How picky and what size diameter logs are needed?

We are looking at getting a bigger farm and as you probably know, fencing is expensive. $40,000 is just a start on fencing a horse farm. If I could mill some of the lumber myself I could possibly save some money.

 

[dmartin88]

Remember, I'm a rookie at log milling but others might offer some help. This mill costs about $6K new and could be found used as well. With a tractor/loader, the work isn't too bad. You have to turn the logs as part of the process but with cant hooks and reasonable size logs, not that bad. Mill has a 15 hp Kohler engine and seems to handle all we've thrown at it.

Straighter is obviously better but if one of the uses would be a fence post, they don't have to be too long. Even a crooked log usually has some reasonably long (6-10') sections that can be milled.

Below 8" diameter would probably get counter productive if you're trying to get some production but as a hobbyist or for your own use, you could spend a little extra time to use logs a commercial operation wouldn't even touch. After some practice, should be able to get 1X6 from an 8" log.

We've cut a lot of 1X6/8's that could be used for fencing- in fact, Bill's next door neighbor had a tree fall on his fence and took out one section so he took some oak 1X8s that we had milled to help there.

Depending on log availability and your time, using money to do your own fence might be quite a project but at the end, you could probably sell the mill for a reasonable price. In fact, you can probably cost justify buying one a lot more than I could- my first end table from my own logs will probably have cost $15K! But the second one will be a real bargain at only $7500.

www.forestryforum.com has a lot of good information if you want to do some research and get some help from the professionals.

http://www.woodmizer.com/en/sawmills/manual/LT15/index.aspx

is a link to information on the mill that I have.

Good luck.

 

[EddieWalker]

Dave,

Interesting project!! I did a few beams with an attachment on my chainsaw to cut my own beams in my home. It's really a great feeling to create your own lumber!!!!

I'd love to do what your doing. That's just got to be the best feelling in the world.

Thanks for sharing and I'm looking forward to following your progress.

Eddie

 

[dmartin88]

I scanned a picture of another building that Bill had done for someone else, this is what we're going for. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif I think this one is a little bigger than the one we're building which is 20'X24' with a door high enough to get the BX22 in without folding the ROPS.

 

[inveresk]

Woodmizer is a good make but $6k will only buy a very basic mill. There are a raft of add ons to make it really usfeful - bed extensions (to cut longer logs), toe boards (to level the log along its length), log dogs, blades, a blade sharpener a tooth setter, cant hook. etc. etc. By the time you add all the extas on plus delivery, price goes up A LOT, like half again. The WM L15 cuts logs up to 13.5 feet and 28" diameter. They've a good reputation.

Used mills really hold their price. I eventually picked up a used Norwood Lumbermate 2000 with a host of extras and blades. Picked it up locally for $4200US. I'd to buy an extra bed extension, a blade sharpener and tooth setter which pushed the o/a price up about $1200 but gives me the capacity to mill 31" dia logs up to 19 feet long. I'll use it for the work I have on the farm then sell it when I'm done.

I'd have preferred to pick up a swing blade mill than a bandmill. Sharpening is easier and so is log handling but they're much more expensive although they do cut a lot faster. Peterson and Lucas are two makers, both built in New Zealand

If anyone is seriously interested in these, sawmillexchange.com is a good site as is forestryforum.com.