Sawmills, sawmill buildings, drying sheds, and kilns... show your pictures!

[Jstpssng]

So far about 6 hours of milling and have sawn a few hundred board feet of 1 inch boards and a dozen or so random cants that I will custom cut later into boards and timbers. A pic of the mill and cants and the remaining pine logs that I have been milling

I’m glad to hear that you finally pulled the trigger. I set mine up on a “temporary site” to set it up last year with no intentions of using it. I did a lot of practicing through the summer without moving it but when I started it back up this spring I couldn’t saw straight. I finally realized that one of my corner blocks had been undermined over the winter so while it looked good and showed level, when I started sawing the platform would move. Now I’m working on building a pad, next spring I hopefully will pour a slab for it.

 

[fruitcakesa]

I’m glad to hear that you finally pulled the trigger. I set mine up on a “temporary site” to set it up last year with no intentions of using it. I did a lot of practicing through the summer without moving it but when I started it back up this spring I couldn’t saw straight. I finally realized that one of my corner blocks had been undermined over the winter so while it looked good and showed level, when I started sawing the platform would move. Now I’m working on building a pad, next spring I hopefully will pour a slab for it.

Mine is also temporarily setup but with the trailer it is dead easy to move, reset and level if necessary.
I ordered a load of 2 inch stone to dump on the bare dirt/muddy ground to help dry things up and also level the site which drops about 2 feet over the 30 feet I plan to use.
Just for kicks I put an ad on FB for boards to sell and you would not believe how many hits I am getting. Now I will have to do some logging to build up inventory. Who knew??

 

[amarsh64]

I dialed my mill in a little bit better on the weekend. When I assembled it I noticed that the rails are ever so slightly different in height from one end to the next. Maybe a heavy thirty second plus or minus depending. I didn't giver it a whole lot of thought but I have noticed that it will leave a slight little bump in the wood. I magnifies as the blade gets dull. If you are going a bit fast on a dulling blade it is always the place where a wave will start. So it was time for a little shimming.
The rails are held together with a plate underneath them and 4 bolts going down through on either side of the joint. I didn't have any shim stock so 2 cut up and flattened beer cans and some very thin hard plastic fit the bill perfectly. The rails are quite smooth on top now and no more slight bumps in the wood and it was not enough to bother the level of the rails. Pretty sure as the blade gets dull now wavy wood will be a little less likely.
Also , for anyone who is interested , Woodland mills is introducing the HM136 max sawmill . I comes with a Honda motor. They have a video up of it on YouTube . Looks capable !

 

[fruitcakesa]

I dialed my mill in a little bit better on the weekend. When I assembled it I noticed that the rails are ever so slightly different in height from one end to the next. Maybe a heavy thirty second plus or minus depending. I didn't giver it a whole lot of thought but I have noticed that it will leave a slight little bump in the wood. I magnifies as the blade gets dull. If you are going a bit fast on a dulling blade it is always the place where a wave will start. So it was time for a little shimming.
The rails are held together with a plate underneath them and 4 bolts going down through on either side of the joint. I didn't have any shim stock so 2 cut up and flattened beer cans and some very thin hard plastic fit the bill perfectly. The rails are quite smooth on top now and no more slight bumps in the wood and it was not enough to bother the level of the rails. Pretty sure as the blade gets dull now wavy wood will be a little less likely.
Also , for anyone who is interested , Woodland mills is introducing the HM136 max sawmill . I comes with a Honda motor. They have a video up of it on YouTube . Looks capable !

I bought my mill used from a guy who assembled it with the help of two friends. Said it took a day and a half because there was too many chiefs.
Anyway, I got it home and started milling. The first stuff I sawed was all over the place. I took a look down the guide rail and found it to be 1/4 inch low mid span Was able to jack most of it out by using the tractor grapple as a weight to hold the high part of the rail from lifting and with the saw carriage at the other end when jacked and loosening all the bolts that held the low parts of the rail together.
There is still a little sway in one of the rails but the saw now cuts straight enough to pass muster.
I will eventually tweak it again but I’m happy with it for now.

 

[Rock Crawler]

Went yesterday and picked up a new Wood Miser LT-40 Super mill. Just under $40k. The new auto speed set feature really speeds things up, you square your log in manual, set up the final manual cut on the gage/ scale to align evenly with the cut you want, hit speed set and dial in 1-1/8 with the gage scale and that last manual cut agreeing on the 4-4ths scale, tap the cutting head lever down real quick and the blade drops 1-1/8" and does a prefect 1" slab. Raise the blade at the end, jog back to tap down and it automatically drops to the next 4 on the scale for a prefect 1" cut.... over and over. If you start and end on the 4's on the scale you end with a perfect 1" slab in the deck.

This is way faster than our fully manual 1990 LT 40 that will now be sold off.

Also, a nice change is that the coolant/lubricant is tied to a pump that only allows flow when the cutting head jog lever is in forward. No more constant running water. That will allow the water to last far longer. View attachment 822456

 

[fruitcakesa]

This 26” pine blew down and took out a power pole and wires about a mile down the road from me. The town cut it into pieces and left it by the road side. I went down today and brought home the 10 foot butt log and have begun to process it. There still is a 12 foot second log that is waiting for me. I will have to grab it either really early or really late to avoid road traffic.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Someone else grabbed the other road log so I headed into my woodlot and cut this pine to get a 16 footer and some shorter stuff

 

[Gordon Gould]

^^^^ So on your next pine harvest what is your present thinking - are you going to sell logs to the mill or saw lumber to build a saw shed or for sale ?? Wish I was pondering something like that.

gg

 

[fruitcakesa]

I still will sell the bulk of the harvest to a mill but now will keep some for myself and I still need to get rid of the pulp so that will be sold to the pellet mill

 

[Jstpssng]

I got about 120 feet out of this hemlock log today and realized three things; that's pushing the limits of the lift capacity of my loader; it's about as much weight as I want to lift with my tractor, at least until I get new tires so that I can load them; and I could really wreck my back again messing with these if I'm not careful.

I then went and grabbed a soft maple log which I had dropped almost two years ago and forgotten about; and sawed about 50 feet from that. I'm not sure what I'll do with the lumber but there are a couple of old tap holes which make it interesting.