Milling lumber woodshop style

[woodshop]

Does that RipSaw really work as well as you show it?

Define "work as well". As I cautioned in prior thread, it works well once you have a "system" and everything is dialed in and organized. The first time you walk into the woods, cold turkey and clueless as I was at first, you won't go home with 400 bd ft of lumber that first day. Took lots of mistakes and trial and error till I got efficient. Speed... as I said in my original intro, with a sharp blade you can push the thing through 14 inch wide oak at about 2 ft/min. Thin stuff, or soft like pine, and you can double that. Still a snails pace compared with newfie's woodmizer. In small stuff, my 395xp with rip chain in the Alaskan beats the ripsaw at speed, but of course you waste more, and not as smooth lumber. So when you ask does it work as well... don't know what your point of reference is... all I can tell you is what I have been able to do at this point. As I said, I can go from tree to 3-400 bd ft of lumber in the back of my van with a hard days work. Hey not going to kid anybody... s#it happens... stuff breaks... saw gets balky... you forget things... you step into a bees next and waste half hour clearing that away trying not to get stung... etc etc etc. Like my gages at work, no two are exactly alike, most are custom built and have their idiosyncrasies, as do tree takedowns, as to Ripsaw milling sessions. I can expound on any part of my system... just ask away.. have no reason to BS anybody

 

[Riddler]

Hey, nothing to add, just a great big thanks for all the great info and pictures emerging from this thread. Since a year ago, I have been enjoying a new country place that has lots of Coast Redwood, Doug Fir, California Laurel and several different types of Oak on it. The wooded areas have not been managed much over last 20 years, leaving a number of dead, dying or misplaced specimens to focus upon. After acquiring some of the essential forest maintanence and firewood equipment (e.g., chainsaws, spliter, work vehicles, etc.), I was beginning to become curious about personal milling. Needless to say, because of this thread, I believe I have reached the point of no return.

 

[woodshop]

I was beginning to become curious about personal milling. Needless to say, because of this thread, I believe I have reached the point of no return.

You're welcome Riddler... once you do start down that road, it does get addicting. You will find yourself buying bigger saws to justify your "habit". Bailey's catalog will find its way into the pile of mags next to the throne, and you will find yourself spending hours using the search function going through old threads about mix ratios and sharpening techniques... mixed in with the... "human element" shall we say. If you do want to take the plunge and buy a small mill for personal use, feel free to PM or ask away. Don't expect it to perform like a sawmill, see it for what it is. That being an excuse to use chainsaws in the woods, a way to burn some calories without having to walk on some stupid boring machine in a gym for hours, but with some rough lumber as icing on the cake for your efforts after a hard days work.
Dave

 

[Tree Machine]

Ahh, the human element

... once you do start down that road, it does get addicting. You will find yourself buying bigger saws to justify your "habit". Bailey's catalog will find its way into the pile of mags next to the throne, and you will find yourself spending hours using the search function going through old threads about mix ratios and sharpening techniques... mixed in with the... "human element" shall we say.
Dave

The 'human element'..... that would be you wife going, "Are you on arborsite again??? I thought you were going to quit milling logs!! Why don't you use the lumber you've got?? You're addicted to that frickin site! I'm going to castrate you with the next Husqvarna you buy!"

Or did you mean the crowd here ? Oh..... heh heh.

 

[rb_in_va]

The 'human element'..... that would be you wife going, "Are you on arborsite again??? I thought you were going to quit milling logs!! Why don't you use the lumber you've got?? You're addicted to that frickin site!

That sounds like my wife! Only she says "what are you going to do with the lumber you mill?" To which I say, "uh...maybe I can sell it!"

 

[Tree Machine]

I have a hard time thinking of selling it. I've put too much heart, soul and sweat into it to take the time off work to let some stranger pick through the stack in exchange for some green, rectangular pieces of paper; and this would be after calling him back, coordinating our schedules and being there to help pick out, price, haggle and help load. <i>This is just my personal circumstance</i>, though selling the wood, for most, would be the preferred route to go. For me, selling the wood is an expense, possibly a break-even at best, and at the end of it all, I don't have the wood.

Don't let me dissuade anyone, however. There is much joy in it, and as with Woodshop, he'll consistently add to his stock and some day when lumber prices are high, he'll be sitting on a gold mine, a better investment than he could have gotten in the stock market, and the satisfaction of having gotten his money the old-fashioned way.... he <i>earned</i> it. Wood, stored properly, has a shelf-life of a long, long time.

 

[woodshop]

Wood, stored properly, has a shelf-life of a long, long time.

I actually did sell a little of my wood, but I'm with Tree... I worked too hard for it, too much blood sweat and tears into my stash. I really don't WANT to sell it. If I sold it for what the retail people get, I would be making some money. Even with transportation thrown in (assuming I don't have to drive across the state to get it), and depreciating my mills over 10 years, and paying myself $20/hr, it still averages out to about a buck or buck and half a bd ft. S2S red oak is going for about $4, cherry around $6... and for the 12 and 14 inch wide 8/4 or 12/4 stuff, WAY more than that. The stuff that is worth serous bucks, I might sell if I get a buyer, but I'm not looking for one.

For the record, I am fortunate to have a pretty understanding wife of 25 years marriage. As I said before, if I make a piece of furniture/picture frame for her or family once in a while, I get no grief for the time or money spent on chainsaws or woodworking machines. (...well within reason of course). I think she figures there are worse things a woman could have a husband be involved in. I have started to make a few bucks at shows also with my woodworking, and she likes that part too.

 

[Newfie]

I think she figures there are worse things a woman could have a husband be involved in.

Aren't sensible women great!

 

[woodshop]

Aren't sensible women great!

yessseree, worth their weight in bar oil, ain't they

 

[Tree Machine]

They can be a gas !

 

[Riddler]

Well, with the "call of the slab" beckoning, I need to learn a little about how to "process" the particular trees I have. I would hate to spend a lot time with the new mill only to find out that the boards I generate should have been cut or dried differently.

Is there a good woodworking site where folks might share their knowledge and experience on the best way to cut, cure and ultimately use particular woods? Right now, my best candidates for milling are some mature California Laurel (aka Oregon Myrtle or just myrtlewood) and some semi-mature Coast Redwood. I was hoping I might be able to use the Laurel I mill for decorative building material (e.g., interior trim, a fireplace mantel, built-in cabinetry, etc.). If Laurel performs well in those roles, what are the best dimensions to mill (assuming I have the logs to accommodate these dimensions) and what is the optimum way to store what I mill until I get around to processing the wood further? Of course, how I get the milled, dried wood to the finished product is another topic altogether.

I appreciate that these topics are somewhat involved, and it is certainly not my intent to hijack this thread in order to explore them. I was simply hoping to get some suggestions on where I might go to get some good advice. The only woodworking I have done in the past has been rather simple and has utilized wood stock that was already "processed," if you know what I mean. Now that I have considerable raw material of my own to play with, I need to go to school on how to handle it. From what I'm reading, getting my wife and family to bless by milling obsession may depend on how quickly I generate something useful from these beautiful logs I have laying around.

 

[woodshop]

Well... what I can do it tell you where I got a lot of my information. Besides gleaning forums on the web and talking to others, much of my wood structure and drying information came from a book by Bruce Haodley called "Understanding Wood". He takes you through the gamut of wood structure, its moisture content, what happens when wood dries, is machined etc etc. GREAT book, about my fav one along these lines. There is also a book (large paperback) called "Wood and How to Dry It" put out by Taunton Press. They basically took 41 articles relating to the subject from Fine Woodworking Mag over the years and put them together in 1986. As such, a few of the illustrations and information, being 20 yrs old, are a little out of date. Much of it is not however, and of course some info is as good today as it was 100 years ago. There are others, but off the top of my head those two come to mind first.

 

[Riddler]

I am anxious to get a good book or two on the subject. Thanks a bunch for the suggestions.

 

[NorCalCutters#3]

How many Brd. Ft. can this thing do in a day? Are you a speed Typer by the way?

 

[caryr]

 

[dayman]

Riddler,

Search this thread and find the site that Dr. Wengert hosts. The sawmilling site is open to hobby sawyers. First, search their archives to see if the topic has been discussed before.

There's also a Yahoo! "group/milling/links" that is dedicated to amateur sawyers.

I hope that I didn't break any of the rules on AS for posting links. If so, let me know in this thread and I'll stop.

 

[Newfie]

I hope that I didn't break any of the rules on AS for posting links.

Probably. Fair exchange of info seems to be taboo. I wonder if Darin's sponsors will "protect" him when we've all had enough and go elsewhere.

 

[geofore]

www.woodweb.com

 

[woodshop]

How many Brd. Ft. can this thing do in a day? Are you a speed Typer by the way?

If you are asking about the Alaskan/Ripsaw mills, and the way I mill, what originally started this thread, the answer to how many bd ft per day you can mill depends on many factors. Some of which have been touched on in the thread already. In general, if you are starting from standing tree or one that is down but needs bucking and trimming, 300 bd ft is a good days take. You would be spending as much or more time prepping the log, trimming, milling with Alaskan getting it into cants as you would actually milling boards with the Ripsaw. If you had several 14" wide cants already prepared, just sitting there on blocks waiting to be Ripsawn I could see 600 bd ft or more, but you would be pretty beat up at the end of that day. This is hard work, as the Alaskan with 395XP is 42lb, and the Ripsaw is 47lbs. Hoisting them around all day, pushing them down the log umpteen times, and then handling those heavy wet boards will burn some calories quick. Bottom line is the two mills and the way I slice up logs doesn't even come close to the production of a full blown bandmill on a carriage. It was never designed to. It's unique niche is that it can be thrown in the back of a minivan, it is extremely portable and easy to set up, thus you can take the mill right to the log rather than the other way around.

No, not a speed typer, consider myself average there.

 

[woodshop]

One caveat, for those of use in the western half of the country the FPL material sometimes is not as complete as we would like.
Cary

Cary, I have heard both from folks in the far northwest, the arid southwest and also from Florida where a plethora of tropical species grow, that the FPL is slightly biased towards the temperate Appalachian and central US species. Nature of the beast I suppose.