About to start with a chainsaw mill

[RikBrooks]

OK, before y'all call me crazy - I know I am. I'm a computer programmer nearing retirement. I've always wanted to build my own house from nothing - milling my own wood from my own trees.

I'm finally in a position to do it. After a lot of reading I decided on the Granberg Alaskan Mark III. I'm also going to buy the Granbery mini mill just because they said I would really need it and appreciate having it.

I've heard over and over that my poulan pro 42cc will be way too small so I'm going to buy at least a 70cc chainsaw. I'll leave my Poulan pro for the branches.

I'm going to build a lumber kiln from a covered trailer

Most of my lumber will be hickory, since that's what I have most of.

These are purchases that I will make this week. I've bought a timber jack, sort of a hook and lever to get the trunk 11" off the ground.

I've watched a whole lot of videos of using the chainsaw mill. Almost ready to go.

Question 1, does what I want to do sound reasonable?

Question 2, wouldn't it be better to get the logs about waist height so I don't have to stoop over? If so, what kind of table do I need and how do I get the logs up on it?

By the way, I'm teaching myself masonry, plumbing and electrical work too. I want to do as much of this as I can. My wife taught herself how to design the house and our plans are approved now. We will do this thing. I just want to make sure we don't spend more energy than we have to.

Thanks for your advice

 

[Dan_IN_MN]

First off....WELCOME to AS!

IMHO if you're going to saw that much lumber I would get a used band mill. Band mills saw faster, the kurf is narrower, and you can sell it after you're done probably for what you bought it for.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I agree......you will grow old fast trying to mill that much wood with a chainsaw mill. Either buy a used bandsaw mill - or find someone that already has one and work out a deal to get the wood cut into slabs. I had a guy cut up a bunch of wood for me - and he cut my wood up and just kept half the wood. Worked out fine for me....I have more slab wood than I need and it didn't cost me anything. I just finished up my outdoor shower made from Cedar and took my first outdoor shower last night!

 

[barneyrb]

I like your idea but I see a problem. Trying to drive nails into kiln dried oak or hickory will be a major challenge.

I tried to build a fence years age with kiln dried oak and hickory 4 x 4's I got for nothing. I wound up having to drill a pilot hole in order to use them and it was still tough to drive nails.

 

[mtngun]

I'm going to buy at least a 70cc chainsaw.

90cc+ for milling.

Most of my lumber will be hickory, since that's what I have most of.

Save the hickory for flooring. Not framing, not siding.

Question 1, does what I want to do sound reasonable?

No. First, you don't build a house out of hickory. You want Southern Yellow Pine for framing, and perhaps cedar for siding. Second, get a bandsaw, or at a minimum, a Logosol M7.

wouldn't it be better to get the logs about waist height so I don't have to stoop over? If so, what kind of table do I need and how do I get the logs up on it?

How 'bout a 4wd tractor ?

Check out the AS milling forum. You'll find information on both chainsaw mills and bandsaw mills.

 

[murf]

Man, Rikbrooks I admire you're enthusiasm for your project. I've considered doing the same thing except with red oak, as I have 80 acres of the stuff and it needs a good thinning anyway. But like Barneyrb mentioned, trying to drive nails into kiln dried oak would be a nightmare! That and trying to keep it from twisting or splitting in the kiln might be a problem too.

But should you choose to attempt it, I'd do as suggested and look into a bandsaw mill. Or at the VERY least, a MUCH bigger (than 70cc) saw. A good heavy (ie: steel) set of sawhorses, and of course that 4wd tractor to skid your logs to your milling site, then of course you need a loader on said tractor to get it up on the sawhorses!

But what do I know, I've never tackled that project. But if YOU do, please keep us posted with LOTS of pics!!!!!

Good luck!

 

[parrisw]

First off, how old are you? Do you have the 20 years it'll take to mill all the lumber you need with a chainsaw mill? Really though, they are slow, and not suited to production milling. You really need a good sized band mill like a Woodmizer or the like, be prepared to spend 20k on one for what you need to do.

70cc isn't enough for milling as well, you need 95cc or larger.

 

[cat-face timber]

My father and myself made lots of lumber out of Ponderosa Pine and Pinyon Pine.

We used his old Sithl 050 av, and we worked out butts off.
Alot of work, we worked that 050 alot too.

I agree with the above, get a band saw, your body and your pocket book will thank you later.

It is also of fun to mill, but to have to mill enough lumber for a house would be alot of hard work and would take a very big saw.....

Good luck

 

[rupedoggy]

Wow a hickory house. Pinned and glued, mortised and tenon, exposed beams. Time consuming in the extreme but should be a valuable home when completed. It is your dream bud. Don't take a lot of negative critizisim but then I guess you did ask. Mike

 

[RikBrooks]

Talked to my wife about what y'all have said. We are thinking again. OK, hickory for the flooring and not the framing. That might be right anyway. I probably don't have enough hickory for the whole house.

90cc chainsaw - check.

We are going to look into buying the pine rather than milling it. We have plenty of pine trees but it may be better just to buy the pine since it's so cheap.

Kiln dried hickory gets too hard? OK, we were going to bolt the flooring in place rather than nail anyway so we'll drill the holes while the hickory is still wet then let it dry with the bolts in place.

We'll get it done and yeah, we'll take pics.

 

[murf]

The hickory flooring may be do-able. Keep in mind I've never done hickory flooring, but I've done my share of Red Oak. I wouldn't see any need to Bolt it down, you could nail hickory once dried as I don't think it would be any harder than oak. But that's assuming it would be cut dimensionally like red oak flooring. 1 1/2" wide x 3/4" thick and of course Tongue and Groove.
I guess if you milled it to the right size then all you would really need is a top notch table saw and router table. But I could see it leading into a planer and/or shaper!
Still, I think it's do-able! along with maybe your trim and maybe cabinets!

Good luck!
Keep us posted

Murf

 

[RikBrooks]

More decisions

As this is shaping up I'm learning more.

The biggest tree that we are going to fell is 20" so that will make it easier. I am picking up a chipper today. We are going to have plenty of mulch.

 

[WoodChuck'r]

A 7900 makes for an awesome milling saw as long as you aren't milling 4ft knotty oak trunks, lol.

If you prop one side of the log up you won't have to push the mill, gravity will do most of the work for you. The best way to figure out a system is through trial and error.

By the time you're done with your house you will be an experienced miller that others will go to for advice. The coolest part will be looking back and seeing how much you will have learned. You'll look back at this time and giggle a little bit at yourself.

 

[RikBrooks]

This forum is simply AWESOME. I'm sure I'll learn a lot. I've spent the weekend reading every message in here. I'm going to weld a metal sawhorse to get one end off the ground. I'm going to attach a couple of 2x4's to it, laying sideways as a ramp and use two hooks so my wiife and I can roll the log up onto the sawhorse.

My plan is coming together.

 

[radoutdoors]

Hickory is a very tempermental wood. It dries and cracks fast so the minute you cut it, you will want to put plastics in the wood which hold the cracks together and keep from expanding, I believe you can get those from baileys. Second, if you want quality timber you will need to dry the wood over 2 weeks in a kiln. The reason I know this is that I worked at a mill from the grading of the timber, drying to the final product. Read online about the various kiln drying parameters and temperatures and this should get you in the ballpark .
Good luck!

 

[j.williams]

GOOD LUCK
to bad you didnt live close to me in missouri, i would bring my 076, mill & 26yrs of electrical experience over to help.

 

[RikBrooks]

GOOD LUCK
to bad you didnt live close to me in missouri, i would bring my 076, mill & 26yrs of electrical experience over to help.

Well, it's the thought that counts! Thanks.

I've settled on getting a 90cc Husky chainsaw. I'm going to have a 32 inch bar for the mill. I figure a 20 inch tree will be the biggest I'll do so I'm preparing for that occassional exception. Figure 26 inch should be the biggest.

I'm going to get a 24 inch bar with a cross cut chain too for felling the bigger trees. Mostly the Husky will be for milling though.

My wife tells me that we ain't gonna do timber frame. Just normal wood frame. She read somewhere that we may have to use graded lumber on the trusses and frame. If that's so then milling the wood won't work, but we can still use milled wood for the flooring and the siding and such. Gonna mill my own cedar for the siding.

About to build a kiln - mill the 2x4s for a frame, cinderblock foundation. Inside dimensions 8'x6'x16'. It will have a tin shed roof and tin siding. It will sit in full sun so I won't need a heater in the summer.

 

[BobL]

bout to build a kiln - mill the 2x4s for a frame, cinderblock foundation. Inside dimensions 8'x6'x16'. It will have a tin shed roof and tin siding. It will sit in full sun so I won't need a heater in the summer.

Unfortunately it's not that simple. Passive kilns are slow and can wreck good wood unless you do a bit more research. This is as big a can of worms as the milling process.
Have a look here: http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBPPAirDryingLumber.html

Just sticking the timber in a closed up shed in the sun will not dry the wood very fast and it could even ruin it. To dry wood it is essential that damp air inside the kiln be regularly removed by either exchanging it with outside air or using a dehumidifier. The latter is expensive and while exchanging with outside air is easy appropriately placed vents this will drop the temperature and slow down the drying.

Also unless a reasonably serious recirculating airflow is used your lumber may go moldy and will still take a long time to dry. Internally about 1 W of fan power is needed for ever cuft, so in your case a 750 W (1 HP) recirculating fan will be needed. This costs money to run so think about the long term cost involved of keeping a 1 HP fan running for 3-4 years. If you have no power supply this problem can be minimized by stacking lumber further apart and exchanging even more inside air with outside air dropping the temperature and further slowing the drying

My experience with my totally passive kiln is that they are quite slow and at most halves the time taken to dry lumber.

 

[Guido Salvage]

Slow up a minute....

I think before you get too far into your project you need to see if there are any local building codes you will need to comply with. In some locations only graded lumber is allowed in the construction of a home. I would hate to see you spend a lot and time on money on a project only to have the city/county not pass it on inspection.

While I have never built a house with rough sawn lumber, I have built some sheds with oak, hickory and gum. In dried lumber be prepared to drill pilot holes in order to drive a nail.

 

[striperswaper]

you might want to start small for some practice, like a little 12X16' shed and see what you are in for...you are going to need a place to keep your tools during years you are building the house