Guess I'm a Sawyer now? A 1991 Kasco "The Saw IIA" Sawmill is mine!

[redmt]

Thanks, good tip. I have a woodland-mills tooth setter tool that came along with the sawmill. But I honestly hope not to use it much! Checking and/or setting a consistent tooth-set on a 13 foot long blade seems a bit tedious! Sharpening too, but that is less avoidable.

My saw doesn't have an hour-meter on it. I am thinking about adding a basic one so that I can log my time on each blade, etc.

I have a woodland tooth setter also. I find it cumbersome but necessary.
I'm running a 130max

 

[Fxfymn413]

Why not have the BEST of both worlds and get one of these, so you have total control of the log at all times

That's how I made mine. The only drawback is you cannot use a third function valve since they do not feather well. (At least I cannot) I use the rear remotes to control the grapple.

It makes it really easy to load logs into a dump trailer without dropping them. Plus I can carry multiple 10 to 15 inch logs at a time.

 

[ning]

I started clearing it out even though I wasn't certain I was buying the mill just yet....

 

[Noah]

Jon, nice work on your milling. Any pics of your setup? Sorry about your B26 axle snafu!

Well I was able to get my load of silver-maple logs home this weekend.

Step one was to transport my tractor over to my folks house for the first time. Also my first time towing my tractor with my F150, which handled it incredibly well. Towed smoother and calmer than my prior 2500HD did, honestly.

First I laid a bed of mulch (big pile from stump-grinding the maple tree) in the bottom of the dump trailer to cushion my logs drops. Then switched to grapple to finely position all the logs in the trailer.

Back at my house, it was pretty incredible to dump the log load out. It all came out silently in one smooth swoop, and somehow all the logs landed atop the mulch again. This is the way!

Was able to fill up a few more IBC totes from my folk's surplus firewood stash (they don't burn wood anymore, might as well snag it before it dry rots).

Hopefully sawing up a log or two next weekend...

I have a Wood Mizer band mill that I picked up about 5 years ago, prior to that I had a circular saw portable mill for over 20 years. The cleaner your logs the longer a blade will stay sharp. Most of the time I will debark the entrance side of the cut. I have a blade lubricant system, usually water and dawn dish soap in the summer and windshield antifreeze in the cold months. A sharp blade will produce nice flat lumber, once the blade starts to dull the cut can turn wavy. There are different tooth angles which work better on soft and hard woods. The smell of fresh sawn wood, especially pine, is one of my favorite aromas. Enjoy your new tool.

 

[deezler]

The cleaner your logs the longer a blade will stay sharp. Most of the time I will debark the entrance side of the cut. I have a blade lubricant system, usually water and dawn dish soap in the summer and windshield antifreeze in the cold months. A sharp blade will produce nice flat lumber, once the blade starts to dull the cut can turn wavy. There are different tooth angles which work better on soft and hard woods. The smell of fresh sawn wood, especially pine, is one of my favorite aromas. Enjoy your new tool.

Thanks for the tips! Will definitely always be trying to de-bark and clean my logs before sawing.

I tell you what, the smell of fresh-sawn ELM wood is disgusting (the only log I've sawn on this so far). Smells like a weird mix of poo and vomit, not joking.

 

[redmt]

Thanks for the tips! Will definitely always be trying to de-bark and clean my logs before sawing.

I tell you what, the smell of fresh-sawn ELM wood is disgusting (the only log I've sawn on this so far). Smells like a weird mix of poo and vomit, not joking.

Be aware that some sawdust like Black Walnut is actually toxic . Wearing a mask is a PITA but sometimes necessary.

 

[deezler]

Be aware that some sawdust like Black Walnut is actually toxic . Wearing a mask is a PITA but sometimes necessary.

Hmm I know Black Walnut poisons the soil with Juglone to affect other plants, but I never thought about the sawdust for human exposure! Thanks for another great tip - I definitely plan to saw Black Walnut, I have a whole grove of them on my property. I had 30 walnuts logged for veneer-grade wood back in 2014 as a select-cut. Now the trees they didn't fell, and left behind are getting huge.

 

[fustsgt]

Good luck on your adventure. We have 100 acres of woods, all hardwoods. I have had a local Sawmizer guy out twice to saw logs that I salvaged from blowdowns that were just too good to become firewood. So the former tobacco barn has some 4000 bf of rough cut poplar, oak, cherry and walnut. I'm 83 so probably more that my lifetime supply. I do envy you having your own mill, but time using the mill could be used in building things with it's product.

 

[redmt]

Hmm I know Black Walnut poisons the soil with Juglone to affect other plants, but I never thought about the sawdust for human exposure! Thanks for another great tip - I definitely plan to saw Black Walnut, I have a whole grove of them on my property. I had 30 walnuts logged for veneer-grade wood back in 2014 as a select-cut. Now the trees they didn't fell, and left behind are getting huge.

Think about 1/4 sawing for gunstocks. They take a long time to dry correctly but it's worth the time.
I'm in the process of making a cross for a buddies grave. The trees have been down for several years. After I cut the 4"thick 32x18 slab from the center it was at 32% still. It took another 6-8 months to get it to naturally dry to 15% to cut to rough shape and another 4-5 months to get it to -10% for final cut and shape. It twisted less than 1/8" overall. I'm in the process of final sanding for finishing. It's definitely a labor of love.

 

[deezler]

Good luck on your adventure. ... I do envy you having your own mill, but time using the mill could be used in building things with it's product.

This is a good point. The sawing of logs is basically the hobby.

My coworker and his dad that I bought it from were this way also, they sawed logs just to saw them, and filled up their shop with stacks of boards, but only used a few of them here and there for projects. Since I don't have 1,000 sq ft of indoor storage to dedicate to lumber stacks like they do, I plan to be more judicious about what I saw up, and why.

Right now I feel more interested in making utility-grade 1x6s and 2x4s than I do live-edge slabs or anything fancy like that.

 

[civilian]

I just used cheap hour meter that wrapped a pickup wire around spark plug wire. All relative. Will have to look for pictures. Jon

 

[deezler]

Finally carved out a little time to play with the saw again last night.

Not sure if any pics showed it yet, but an interesting quirk of this sawmill is that it cuts towards the operator, not away. So you draw it towards you and walk backwards to watch your cut. It does have powered motion back and forth, but its via a weak electric motor pulling on a chain alongside the mill. So you do need to help it out a bit and pull through the more difficult cuts.

I took your advice, Jon, and bought a very affordable hour meter off amazon. Just wrap the lead around a spark plug wire, and it starts counting whenever the plug is firing (engine is running). Easy peasy.

I couldn't resist getting into a Silver Maple log to see how it cut and what the grain looked like.

Pretty gorgeous. Would love to see what it looks like once sanded, and with poly!

My step-father-in-law wants a big thick slab for bowl-turning and woodworking projects. I guess that counts as my first saw order, haha. (It'll be free)

 

[Sawyer Rob]

but an interesting quirk of this sawmill is that it cuts towards the operator, not away. So you draw it towards you and walk backwards to watch your cut.

I think you are parking the head on the wrong end of the track and running the saw from the wrong side.

You should be operating it from the side you read your setworks on.

Actually, if the head is powered, I can't imagine they designed the head to be pulled from the front.

SR

 

[deezler]

When I first saw it in my coworkers garage, I was convinced they basically just had the blade (and guides, etc) on backwards. But they bought the saw back in 1991 directly from the manufacturer, and had it set up by them as well.

There is very little info on the internet about these Kasco sawmills, but i have found some references to the odd direction of cut.

In practice, it works fine this way. Yes, the controls are on the side you see in my pics and the scales, too. I thought it was really odd at first but then instantly got used to it.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It's also unsafe to be on the cutting side!

SR

 

[deezler]

Thats what I was worried about as well but haven't seen any indication of a specific safety risk.

Of course I am wearing eye protection (and ear because its quite loud), standing to the side of the machine, well away from the blade, which is itself well guarded. Basically you have your hands on the controls and are some 5 to 6 feet away from where the blade is cutting. Once you complete your cut, it's not like things go flying or anything. I always de-clutch the blade to a stop before I leave the operator position and go move boards, etc.

 

[deezler]

Cutting was getting a bit wavy and sluggish on my silver maple log so I decided I might as well get a fresh blade on from my inventory. Silly me, did not pay attention to the tooth direction when removing the old blade. Un-banded the new blade, popped it on, and promptly made a cloud of smoke.

But it only goes on one way? Ah ha! Gotta flip it inside-out. hahaha. Funny lesson to learn and was still back to sawing in just a few minutes overall; delightfully ease blade change.

I spent a little more time than I would have liked on making these racks for storing some cut slabs.

And then had just enough time to cut a couple more and start loading them up.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Over the years while we were building our homestead, I hired portable mills to saw the timber we harvested off our 50 acres a half dozen times. I always tailed for them and stickered and stacked lumber as it came off the mill. The sawyers were hard core and put in 8 hour days so the work was tough. And hot, noisy and dusty! After we finally finished the last round of milling I swore I would never do it again
Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I had the chance to pick up a Woodland mills trailer mounted mill.
Since then, it has become a paying hobby. I have sawn thousands of feet of hemlock and pine for beams and boards. And I really enjoy doing it.
No 8 hour days, mill in the cool of the morning or early evening. Take only jobs that I choose. And of course saw anything I may need whenever I need it.

 

[civilian]

Saw at end after cut. B26TLB waitingfor slabs and load from this side. Jon

 

[civilian]

In the background of above picture is the large white and red pine logs that were too big for the saw mill that bought the logging job. Nephew was the forester and was told to get rid of them. So I got about 15 logs, 22" to 26"dia, 12 ft long. Max size of my Timbery M100. The B26TLB with the forks rolled the log on then. Now I have a grapple that I could load the logs softer, but then would have to remove the cut slab and stack/sticker them right away. But been to busy to run the mill this summer. And no, I will saw in the winter cold. Jon