is there a site for contacting a local portable mill service in our areas?
how fo you find a service locally
A
how fo you find a service locally
A
Would you buy a mill to build a house?
- Thread starter Soilarch
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Backwoods
ArboristSite Operative
This is the sawmill locator that I use for customers that are out of my travel range.
http://westcoastlands.net/
http://westcoastlands.net/
willt1981
ArboristSite Member
when i stumbled on your post it seems like i went back in time and was looking at something i would have written. i got out of college six years ago and moved back near my parents and their land to farm. i rented for five years and about three years ago decided that my wife and i wanted to build a house on my parents land. we have 65 acres - about half in mature hardwoods. i bought a bandsaw mill, a manual mill - mister sawmill model 30. talk about a steep learning curve! espically when your milling large hardwoods with no experience or clue what youre doing. I knew that i needed to get some practice working with this setup so i milled lumber to fix our old barns and i built a new barn (24'x36'). Let me go through the problems first...
hardwood is a serious pain in the ass to mill structural lumber (2x6 or 2x4's) from. as soon as it comes off the mill it wants to bend, crook, warp, whatever. and if it doesnt do anything funky then it will twist and cup as its drying. sometimes acceptable in a barn but not so much in a house. we have a huge amount of large ash and oak trees (28"-30" dbh). these do not saw up well. i finally came to the conclusion that it was smarter to sell these for sawlogs at $500-$1000 per MBF and buy structural lumber. that said we also have a large amount of yellow poplar and basswood. these make MUCH better lumber. theyre eaiser to cut, not as heavy and will warp much less. Large hardwoods arent very easy to work with on a sawmill. the band wants to rise in the middle and make wavy cuts with anything over 24" - espically if its a little seasoned.
in the end we found a place to buy. our area has bascially been taken over by tourists who want to "own a piece of the mountains". dont get me started... in the last ten years prices of anything ran up so high that you would have to make 100K a year to buy a house and 2 acres. then comes the recession, which i loved to see around here. all the farmers still have their jobs but second home demand collapsed. we bought a small house and 18 acres for 175K and it was only two miles from my parents land. still too much but doable. i still have the mill and have basically redone all the old barns on our place and have a few more in the works. hope this helps - though rereading it its not so encouraging...
P.S. - in nc if you own your land and cut the lumber from that land and build a house with that lumber that youre going to live in you do not have to have stamped lumber but you will still have go through the entire inspection process.
hardwood is a serious pain in the ass to mill structural lumber (2x6 or 2x4's) from. as soon as it comes off the mill it wants to bend, crook, warp, whatever. and if it doesnt do anything funky then it will twist and cup as its drying. sometimes acceptable in a barn but not so much in a house. we have a huge amount of large ash and oak trees (28"-30" dbh). these do not saw up well. i finally came to the conclusion that it was smarter to sell these for sawlogs at $500-$1000 per MBF and buy structural lumber. that said we also have a large amount of yellow poplar and basswood. these make MUCH better lumber. theyre eaiser to cut, not as heavy and will warp much less. Large hardwoods arent very easy to work with on a sawmill. the band wants to rise in the middle and make wavy cuts with anything over 24" - espically if its a little seasoned.
in the end we found a place to buy. our area has bascially been taken over by tourists who want to "own a piece of the mountains". dont get me started... in the last ten years prices of anything ran up so high that you would have to make 100K a year to buy a house and 2 acres. then comes the recession, which i loved to see around here. all the farmers still have their jobs but second home demand collapsed. we bought a small house and 18 acres for 175K and it was only two miles from my parents land. still too much but doable. i still have the mill and have basically redone all the old barns on our place and have a few more in the works. hope this helps - though rereading it its not so encouraging...
P.S. - in nc if you own your land and cut the lumber from that land and build a house with that lumber that youre going to live in you do not have to have stamped lumber but you will still have go through the entire inspection process.
davecharles
ArboristSite Lurker
Soilarch, also look at the type of wood you have available. For example, you may have cypress on your land. A friend of mine build a "log" house from squared 10x10 cypress and loves it. Cypress is resistant to termites and rot. What county are you in? Massac, Pope, Pulaski.
I have 2 housed I built myself, one is in Williamson co and is earth sheltered the other is on an Island In Ontario,Canada and was built from rough sawn cedar that was available in the area.
If you are not in the city limits in Southern Illinois you probably don't have any building codes.
Dave
I have 2 housed I built myself, one is in Williamson co and is earth sheltered the other is on an Island In Ontario,Canada and was built from rough sawn cedar that was available in the area.
If you are not in the city limits in Southern Illinois you probably don't have any building codes.
Dave
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Sawyer Rob
Addicted to ArboristSite
Now all hardwood has problems with bending, warp ect... It depends more on the logs than if it's "hardwood" or not... I saw oak, cherry and other logs "without" any of those problems here where i live...
Another thing... Don't lump all bandmills together when you state that "your's" would dip in big logs. Mine does NOT have this problem, and 99% of the dipping or riseing in the cut, is a "band" problem, not just because it's a "bandmill". Some logs can and will be a problem, but it can always be traced to something causeing it, or it's a problem log, and not just because it's a "bandmill"...
Yes i've seen dips come from bandsaws, yes i've seen "MY" bandmill dip...but changeing out the band cures that problem, and i've sawn a LOT of big hardwood logs...
Rob
Soilarch
ArboristSite Operative
I'm out in the Northern Half of Saline County...which is a different world than the Southern half. South half looks like more Like Pope and Hardin county.
No Cypress...that I'm aware of, there are some nice spots of Cedars...well evergreens at least, but we don't own any of them.
Just today Dad had an idea that was surprisingly good. (Funny how the old man keeps getting smarter! lol He must've learned a lot since I was in High School:biggrinbounce2
It would solve the temporary housing situation, the "building" loan situation, be cheap as well, let me get some more home construction experience (not done much with houses...mostly sheds, barns, silos, and a lot of crazy stuff that wouldn't fit into any category), and to be honest...I just plain like it.
No Cypress...that I'm aware of, there are some nice spots of Cedars...well evergreens at least, but we don't own any of them.
Just today Dad had an idea that was surprisingly good. (Funny how the old man keeps getting smarter! lol He must've learned a lot since I was in High School:biggrinbounce2
It would solve the temporary housing situation, the "building" loan situation, be cheap as well, let me get some more home construction experience (not done much with houses...mostly sheds, barns, silos, and a lot of crazy stuff that wouldn't fit into any category), and to be honest...I just plain like it.
I did it, but I hired a Woodmizer and operator. I think I paid $35/hr. Part of the time there was a helper and part of the time o dod the offbearing. What a good way to lose weight!
If the wood is free, pine, and you have time, it's great. You need to stack and cover the wood for several months.
In many areas, getting an architech to write on the plans that the locally milled wood is OK will get over the grading problem.
The hardwood is great, but not for framing. i did all my floors and cabinetry with it. I had the floor wood kiln dried and milled.
Get your plans in shape, so you have an idea what you need.
Long 2X4s are very prone to warp...stack carefully.
Use 2X6 studs, for more insulation. Watch out for window depths. They are made for commercial 2X6s, not full sized rough ones.
The Woodmizer is backed by a fantastic sales/advertizing dept., but i DO NOT think it's the best mill. The cantilever arrangement is a bit flexible and can cause trouble. The four post mills are more rigid and there are many brands.
You can't beat the price of OSB these days for subfloor, sheathing, and roof decking, so I wouldn't bother with that, except subfloor, maybe, if you have a lot of pine available.
Remember, the trim and cabinetry will have to be planed. The chinese 15" planers are wonderful and will save loads of time. Mine's a Leneave and I couldn't live without it. $1000 well spent!
SO, if you have a good paying job, milling doesn't compare well. If you are not working, or the option is a low pay job, then milling looks pretty good, especially for columns and girders. My girders are 3 2X16s...much easier to handle than a 6X16!
It's a LOT of wood, though, so you'll get a lot of exercise moving it around!
If the wood is free, pine, and you have time, it's great. You need to stack and cover the wood for several months.
In many areas, getting an architech to write on the plans that the locally milled wood is OK will get over the grading problem.
The hardwood is great, but not for framing. i did all my floors and cabinetry with it. I had the floor wood kiln dried and milled.
Get your plans in shape, so you have an idea what you need.
Long 2X4s are very prone to warp...stack carefully.
Use 2X6 studs, for more insulation. Watch out for window depths. They are made for commercial 2X6s, not full sized rough ones.
The Woodmizer is backed by a fantastic sales/advertizing dept., but i DO NOT think it's the best mill. The cantilever arrangement is a bit flexible and can cause trouble. The four post mills are more rigid and there are many brands.
You can't beat the price of OSB these days for subfloor, sheathing, and roof decking, so I wouldn't bother with that, except subfloor, maybe, if you have a lot of pine available.
Remember, the trim and cabinetry will have to be planed. The chinese 15" planers are wonderful and will save loads of time. Mine's a Leneave and I couldn't live without it. $1000 well spent!
SO, if you have a good paying job, milling doesn't compare well. If you are not working, or the option is a low pay job, then milling looks pretty good, especially for columns and girders. My girders are 3 2X16s...much easier to handle than a 6X16!
It's a LOT of wood, though, so you'll get a lot of exercise moving it around!
willt981 has some good experience...
since you say you only have hardwood, post and beam construction is the only practical way to use it.
think about cutting a few typical trees and have somebody bandsaw them into beams for you. either on your site or theirs. then you can see what work is involved, what they look like first cut and dry
there is nothing like a hardwood post and beam house. my neighbor has one with the stressed skin panels a real show place and his sugarhouse is post and beam too, nicer than many houses
read up on the net and you might want to try the old fashion library there are some good books by guys that have done what you are thinking of
good luck which ever way you go
since you say you only have hardwood, post and beam construction is the only practical way to use it.
think about cutting a few typical trees and have somebody bandsaw them into beams for you. either on your site or theirs. then you can see what work is involved, what they look like first cut and dry
there is nothing like a hardwood post and beam house. my neighbor has one with the stressed skin panels a real show place and his sugarhouse is post and beam too, nicer than many houses
read up on the net and you might want to try the old fashion library there are some good books by guys that have done what you are thinking of
good luck which ever way you go
willt1981
ArboristSite Member
i guess i should make myself a little more clear. compared to white pine or eastern hemlock hardwood is a pain in the ass to mill - espically structural lumber. that said, i have made good structural lumber from hardwood. there is much more of a cull rate with hardwood though. i have sawed very few studs or joists that didnt have a little bend to them after drying. this struck me as being a problem for a house - although there are allowences for warp in stud grade material. but if you have a ton of hardwood and no mill to sell it to - or no desire to sell it - it can be done. it is just going to be alot more difficult than if you had a nice stand of hemlock. i have made a conscious decision to use hardwood 2x6 joists in the old barns im redoing because of the amount of weight im putting on them in hay. a house wouldnt need this high weight capacity though.
i will have to admit that as my knowledge of sawmilling has grown i now have fewer problems sawing large hardwood logs. like rob said the band is basically everything. for large hardwood i now use woodmizer blades which are set at a 4 degree angle and have fewer problems than i used to. but this all goes back to one of my original points that milling good lumber is a steep learning curve. espically for hardwood. dont be afraid to try milling your own house. just be aware that its going to be more difficult that you think it is at this moment.
make me want a mill!
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