Regrets I Have About My Sawmill Setup
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- Опубликовано: 8 май 2021
- Regrets I have about my sawmill setup will be covered in today's episode on Sawing with Sandy. Let's face it, not all good ideas turn out to be the best ideas in the long-run. Today I"ll talk about some of those such ideas that began as great ideas but ended up differently. After trying out various setups I've learned a few things that may help to make your portable sawmill setup more efficient and user-friendly. I"ll be sharing what I like and what I don't like about sawmill setups. The positioning of the sawmill is just one consideration. The place in proximity to the sawmill for putting waste, lumber and incoming logs is equally as important. With so much consideration required aside from just the sawmill, hopefully today's video is helpful to many of you out there watching. As you'll quickly find out in this video, if space is not limited, you're in luck as that's often what creates some challenges for me working around my deep-woods sawmill buildings with my equipment. Having trees present just outside each building makes it difficult at times to move around equipment and so utilizing wide-open spaces is often easiest if possible to keep your sawmill setup efficient and running smoothly. Regardless of your setup, as long as you're out doing what you love to do, all is good in my books. Thanks for watching folks, here we go!
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Cut my first logs on our 126 just yesterday. A big old dead hemlock turned into about $100 worth of lumber in no time and the biggest parts of that tree are yet to be milled. Perfect cuts with the factory settings. The 14hp Kohler has plenty of power. That hemlock would have gone to the trash pile prior. So many trees and so little time but such great satisfaction. Thanks for all the advice Sandy. Love it👍😎👌
If it were me, I would build your next storage area amongst the standing lumber on the property and use the existing trees as your support trees to hold your drying cut wood. No need to build traditional complete floor, but just a framed bed to hold lumber. Build a roof attached to the same existing live trees!!
You have mentioned you’re not close to any source of water, may not be a bad idea to install gutters and a 55 gallon barrel for water catchment for your saw mill. Just a thought. Thank you for sharing your experience on running the saw mill in the woods, it’a very helpful!
Maybe a concrete base for the mill with a wood platform around the mill to reduce vibration. Talking to myself.
You are one of the few youtubers who explains "what I wish I knew" types of things about running a sawmill. You put a lot of effort into educating your audience, and I appreciate it a lot. Personally, I don't plan to use a leaf blower on the sawdust. I plan to use a tarp and catch it for making compost. If things go well, I'll be building a mill this year.
I saw a vid a while back, a sawmill that actually has a large hose / pipe that the sawdust comes out of, makes it easier to catch it into something for any use.
All I remember was it was a Polish company that made it.
@@jaquigreenlees i have my sawmill hooked up to a dust collector/ separator.
I love your videos. You explain and articulate very well. You keep things short, informative, practical and straight to the point. You also have great common sense and practical knowledge.
I am new to sawmills and lumber making, but after having watched your videos now I feel more confident. Thank you!
Sandy I would like to say that your video`s are very good, well to the point and informative, every young man needs to get out doors and live a little, put down there cell phone and game toys and learn lifes lessons. thanks for your time that you make for us . I`m 69 yrs and I`m retired 50yr auto mechanic, have lived on 2 farm, worked since 4yrs old, now cutting an splitting stacking wood to stay healthy. I live in the city of Dtroit Michigan USA once again thank you for your time.
you can always make a solar kiln for your freshly cut wood. it would allow for quicker drying times as well as make the wood contract less when used. it would also add some space for storage of the wood.
Hi Sandy. Great videos and discussion. I'm about to construct my first saw mill set up -- fortunately I'll be a little closer to water and electricity. However, I was pleased to learn from you about manouvering the logs from the dragging to the sawing to the drying shed. Thanks very much for the excellent advice. Andrew C.
I think that your sawmill configuration is pretty sweet. It is very difficult to plan for the perfect setup. It will be the experience of many hours milling that will have you tweaking the setup to function the best way for you.
Thanks Sandy! I just received my new HM130MAX yesterday. We literally have no flat land on my property so I have to build a platform to have my sawmill be level. You've given me a lot of excellent information. I really appreciate your videos and am using for my main instruction to get me up and running. Thanks again!
Thank you so much. This video, like all the others was so helpful. We are in the process of building an enclosure shed for our mill. We used our first sawmill in the environment for 20 years. My husband and I are now in our middle and late 70's but are no where ready to quit milling logs. We did buy a Hydraulic mill this past year since it was getting harder to move logs by ourselves. I love all your ideas especially the solar light situation. I love the fact that you explain all your actions. We have gathered so much knowledge from you. Be safe and happy milling.
You have the infeed down pretty good. Just split a PVC tube in half and place it over the logs to help things slide better. You know your storage shed is not big enough, so make a new one and put it where your scrap pile is? Or move the existing storage shed and mirror a new one. You could just slide the finished boards over to the storage shed. After you have slide over a few, then walk over and stack them. Eliminate multiple trips over a distance with each board. Essentially the storage shed opening would face each other on you would be sliding the boards in the common walk area. This would double your current storage capacity and have a much shorter distance for you to walk, less frequently. Lengthen the storage shreds could quadruple the storage capacity. Your scrap pile would be on the opposite side of the storage shreds, so it is the same concept you have today, just the opposite direction. Now the whole area that you blow your sawdust into is open. You talked about in a perfect world, you would have more space to move you vehicles around. Just cut down some of the trees in your way and move on. You will be more productive. Hope that helps you plan for the future.
Thanks for that Robert. I've made some changes as of recently and many of the things you've mentioned I think I've accounted for. I like the PVC idea. May have to add that one though
@@sawingwithsandy I really enjoy your videos. You're doing a great job and having fun! Stay safe and be healthy!
Your raised timber floor will be a lot easier on the feet and legs than slogging backward and forwards on concrete. I really like your set up.
I agree with ya there Dan. Nice walking on a surface that gives just a little bit
LOVE watching your videos !! You have a GREAT set-up and you certainly seem to enjoy yourself in your sawmill !! Happy sawing and keep us posted !!
Watching from Yosemite Kentucky. Great ideas. This may make my future milling easier. Thanks!
You're a good teacher, Sandy !!
Glad to know I'm not the only one to have a log off the back of the mill. thanks for the info.
Thank you for all the info.
I love your design! Thank you.
Appreciate all the info you offer actually seeing a design in use is truly helpful let’s face it hind sight will always kick you in the acorns! Keep em coming!
So many good advice delivered in such a pleasant fashion! Thanks for sharing!!!
EXCELLENT summary of your endeavors! Your setup seems perfect for you and your site.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. they were helpful. I'll be starting on my sawmill shed in a month or so and am still working on the design details.
use a wet vac and put a rain gutter along the edge of floor and create a sweeper with rope and pulleys,used 12 car windshield wiper motor to move the sawdust from one end of gutter to the other to vacuum it and you can dump it in trash bags to use for other things
That sounds like a neat idea. I don't have electricity at my mill though unfortunately
I buy slab wood from a local mill. I cut it to 16 niches and split it to kindling wood size and sell bundles of kindling.
That would do the trick!
I've been thinking of moving my mill to a new site with a lean-to, so thanks for this! Gives me some ideas and direction.
Great video Sandy.
I like my mill bunch’s low as well.
Just easier to fool with larger logs.
Cheers.
Good to talk to ya. Hope all is well.
I’m enjoying your video, Sandy. Keep it up!👍👍
Great Video, I have mine about the same hight as yours, looking at building the woodshed off the end but still in the planning stage. Had a good weekend of sawing up 2X6's.
Well I think you have a good set up you have to set it up the way that fits for you great video.
that’s a great setup yuh got there and the lights 👍.. love the lights
Great pointers Sandy. I'm thinking really hard about getting a mill in a few years, it seems to just make sense because I have a bunch of projects I want to complete and I have a bunch of wood available to me. Its mostly hardwood and cedar so we'll see how that goes. But I'm picking up a tonne of things from your videos. Thanks for posting man!
Thank you for sharing your opinions, very helpful for us that have mill's coming. 👍
Glad you liked the video Darren. Hope the wait doesn't take too long for ya.
If it has not been mentioned already, what about fitting some heavy duty gate hinges on one end of your boardwalk and a frame with pulleys and counterbalance weights to make it easy to drive the tractor in and out?
That would work pretty slick! Thank you
Good job! Good pointers. Getting my Woodmizer 15 Go next week.
Sandy I love to watch you work and problem solve- every situation is different and we all learn together and change when we need to. I am using your experience to plan my mill set up. Just ordered a MX130 XL on a trailer to help clear land eventually it will get a nice shed once it make some lumber
Glad I could help Mike. I'm sure you'll be able to make your setup work well for ya. Hope the wait isn't too long for your sawmill and you're up and running in no time. All the best.
Learned a lot watching your videos. I bought the Woodlander XL trailer so I wouldnt have to bend down as much. Yes you risk a log rolling off potentially crushing something but there are tools to prevent that. I like the ability to put my saw in the shed free of the elements, roll it out when I need it wherever that may be.
I like your set up... the bed of my mill is on blocks about 12" to 18" off the ground on the wet dirt walking on chicken boards and after a day of this I can really feel it on my knees and back, it was only suppose to be temporary but now has been 5 years... When I move my mill to my new cabin site I plan on building a similar set up like yours... thanks for sharing
Hi Sandy. I have been toying with the idea of my own sawmill for about a year now. My neighbour has a large system that he uses to cut lumber for his clients. He’s a very busy guy. I have learned a lot from him but his is a pretty automated production system. I have recently made the jump and bought a small sawmill for myself. The Woodland Mills HM122. It won’t show up for a few months but I’m really looking forward to my new hobby. I have really been learning a lot from your videos. You’ve got a great setup. Thanks for taking the time to do these video!
First time watching, nice presentation and good info. Looking to get a setup in the near future. I have a lot of Red Cedar on my property and many things to build. Keep up the nice work. Thank you.
I like those sheds really well. You have very good carpentry skills for a young fellow. Appreciate your efforts.
Other than the few little things you would do differently, it almost looks like you live in a perfect world. Never before have I seen a forest with trees so neatly spaced and in nice straight lines.
The setup is working well for me luckily. The trees actually are planted by machine
I was considering making a deeper shelter so that the wood could be stored in the same building. But watching this video made me realize that if I'm going to do that I sure as heck better be able to access the lumber with my tractor forks from the other side because the mill itself will block access from the front! Duh, right? Sheesh...that would've been one heck of a design flaw.
I'm interesting contemplation on your waist pile. If you build a platform with catwalks. And put those square boxes under it so that when you cut the wood it'll naturally fall into your firewood crates. You need a catwalk ramp also. The only little bit thing is that you'll have a little bit of sawdust from your chainsaw falling into your crates they're open air so maybe this won't be so much of a problem..
Why didnt you do a leanto roof? The major issue with a shed over a mill is the opening to bring in the log. The span of that is big. You can cut that down some with braces Snow dumped from the leanto can be plowed away as long as you have room for the tractor. I still like the concrete slab. Renting a mixer or ready mix Is no big deal. You bring in your water in totes.
What about making brackets out of wood to mount under or over the bridge that accept the forks of your tractor to move it easily, even when it's snow/ice covered?
Love that set up, great job. Living my dream!
You have a great set up here. Love your channel, keep up the great work!
Thanks for that Joseph. Good to have ya along
First timer to your channel. This is getting me very excited 😜 to start milling on my place in the mountains. I will be tuning in to learn whatever you will teach. Now about those videos that you mentioned... be cool, freezerburn
Welcome to the channel. Glad you’re about to begin down the sawing road. You’ll have a great time. All the best
Great Video! The only thing I see Missing is you will have to make a Stool for your workbench/table area so you can sit and relax every now and then and Enjoy your Sludge :)
Thanks for sharing info. It will help people like me greatly when I start my builds. I have been along for the ride since the cabin build. I have always been curious to how many acres of land you have? As always keep the videos coming.
Sandy I found this very informative.
Great to hear Ken!
Suggestion - if you heat with wood instead of rack for scrap get some old hay wagons & park there, then just tow to your outdoor furnace. I've even seen those with lightweight peaked roof to start drying process before cutting appropriate length. Thanks you for taking time to explain ins & outs of running a mill !
Sounds like that would work well. I don't have an outdoor furnace unfortunately though , I have to cut to smaller lengths to use in my inside woodstove.
Could you not hinge the walkway at one end and use a pulley to raise and lower it like a drawbridge, so you can get your tractor in..?
well this video just blew me away Sandy.
I think I would dedicate a trailer to the waste wood to limit effort of carrying it away. I love your design. Could you have the waste wood on the side where the current drying shed it located?
Great idea,, nothing worse than working/ walking in shit,, ,, You have given a lot of thought into your setup and I think 99% of it is great,, ,, you are always going to think of some thing better or maybe not better ,, I personally think its a great setup
Something else to consider on raising the mill higher is that the crank raises too. My OS23 has a lower position for the handle/throttle, but the height crank stays in the same place on the machine. If I were to raise the bed 2 feet, I'd have a tough time reaching it with the saw head all the way up.
after watching your first video I was thinking " here is a guy that is thinking about the work dancing.... " That is what I call all the movements you make while working and if the radio is on maybe busting out some swing dance moves :
Happy new year Sammy the bests in new year and family gods blessed.healthy all years.
Thanks Miguel!
I would hinge the board walk on the obvious end. 👍🏼
Sounds like a good plan to me
One thing that I miss about many RUclips videos is that they don't start with a city/state location description. I love the content but would like to know what part of the world that I am watching.
Sandy is a couple hours North of Toronto Ontario, Canada.
He often mentions it at the beginning of his vids. ( since I've only seen 3 or 4 and this is the only one without it )
Hi Sandy, I really appreciate the lengths you go to in order to explain things and I heard in one of your other videos you were considering building a solar kiln. Where were you planning on locating it in relation to your saw mill shack and wood shed and are you planning on diving into that this spring? Really looking forward to seeing what you build. Thanks.
Small rubber pads under the feet may help with vibration, thanks for the video
common ! Yours lumber cut place is cleaner then my room (sick!) anyway You are very well organized we should follow You.And You are willing to some regrets what is very appreciated .I have same machine that You have almost 10 years, what I notice -loading logs ,You must have forklift (I don't) and must be precise to load,
other is just great.I had trailer for sleeping -one day I come and my trailer was cut in half -storm fallen tree,so clear around trees.Solar must be high (sun) and at least two to run lights, radio ,etc.Yes storage is to small for lumber ,but very handy.This page is too small to list my mistakes...
Have you thought about putting rubber padding or hockey pucks under the levelers to absorb the vibration
I just read a few comments mentioning that and it sure is a good idea. Going to see what I have for material and give that ago. Thanks for passing that along.
@@sawingwithsandy get some old truck tires and cut the tread off them and use it under your machines! some big tractor tires have a nice tread pattern that would work well. get some old take offs or some new ones that were ruined on a tractor! old semi truck tires would be about right too!
Just a comment... I take my waste wood and use it for huglekulture. I dig a hole 3 foot deep, 20 foot long and place as much of it as I can in it. Makes for great garden material, as the decomposition of that wood fertilizes your garden for decades. Takes me about 4-5 hours to do it with the tractor.
That's an idea I've never considered before. Thanks for sharing that
Good morning buddy how are ya? I gotta say “I like your set up. It works for you, its your design, it meets your needs. It’s just right. I’m looking at how I’m gonna set my mill up, I need to have it on the trailer set up. My property is a down slope back behind the house and shop, out front is flatter. I also want to be able to move it to another property so I can saw there to. Any way I like your set up take care thanks for sharing, I’ve learned so much from you. God bless you and yours. I wish the mommy’s in you life a happy Mother’s Day as well.
I can always appreciate your outlook. It's a great thing. Hope all is well with you and Happy Mother's Day as well.
One small thing, a lot of people are hanging a bucket under the sawdust shoot to catch a most of the dust it will save you a lot of clean up
If Al borland was a real person.
Love the videos
I don’t think so Tim hah
@@sawingwithsandy hahah love that you got the reference! Honestly, just found your channel and I started my own sawmill company recently. Also in Ontario. Love to see your videos. You helped me way more than you probably know.
Keep doing what you’re doing, depending on where in Ontario, always willing to help you out if you need it pal!
Cheers mate
Sweet set up. It just limits the length of logs that can be milled. As far as the off cuts I’ve used them for siding on sheds and log storage buildings. And the rest can be spread on the muddy walk ways.
For my sawmill shed I gave the opening at 14’ which works well as I only cut 12’ or under. If I need to max length of just under 17’ I do a little sliding of the log around the posts. Sounds like you’ve got some great uses for the slabs. Happy sawing
how about a drawbridge set up on the walkway, hook up the rising cables when needed, save on wrestling the heavy ramp
One thing I have not liked about log storage decks in past mill setups is that you end up with that stack of logs and it really makes it hard to pick out a specific log. You often have to go in order, or have minimal ability to select certain logs (whatever is on top or easy to roll). I really try to optimize the log to the required lumber yield, so for example, if sawing 2x10's I will select a much different log than if sawing 2x4's or posts. I try to save big logs for special boards and I try to use up smaller logs for posts or 2x4's. That means I need to easily be able to get specific logs onto the mill. When trying to do that with a log deck, I spent way too much time shuffling logs around, and it is not an efficient setup for that once they are up high on skids.
For my new setup, I left the front of the mill shed completely open and accessible. I store logs out of the way nearby. Using the tractor forks, I can pick the specific log I want and bring it right to the mill and set it on the bunks directly. Then back the tractor up a couple feet and the forks are there to offload boards and cutoffs. When done sawing I drive the boards to the storage pile and then cutoffs get dumped in the scrap pile. Then grab the next log and head back to the mill. If you have a tractor with forks and space to spread out your storage locations, it makes for a pretty good workflow. Anytime I can make my tractor do the work I will!
Sounds like a great workflow for sure. Thanks for sharing. Happy sawing.
Hi Sandy hope to get a mill this year. Like your videos. what is the length of the bed and what is the longest open span you have in the mill shed?
How about building a small building ( break house / storm shelter ) you never know when you’re working along and that storm decides to hit or you can’t hold it all the way to the house.
Yeah you're right about that one. Never too sure what's going to be rolling in
Sawdust is good for making wood pellets, which is a cash crop. I would make a trough out of tarps to catch the dust. You could even make a 55 gallon drum saw dust burner.
Sounds like a good idea. I’m not too familiar with who buys this around me as most people just buy firewood since there’s so much of it available for relatively cheap
see Monitor Barn Design - use the lean-to's (sides) for storage; upstairs for an office or have a cathedral ceiling in the main building.
Hi there Sandy ..... I agree with you your setup is a good setup - for You....... ( my setup would be a longer one so I can have my lumber shed on the tail end - I can just walk the boards over And the slabs would still be at the same side as yours)
(That's just my own unique setup that will work for me :) :) ) I'll continue to watch your videos
I'm with ya there Kara. Whatever works is the name of the game. I think iif I started with a wide open space I may have a slightly different setup but there's always time for that if circumstances change. Hope all is well with you and thanks again for watching.
I have a question. I asked before about board and batten with green lumber and after your comment along with some more research I feel confident I can do that to the houses on my homestead. Now, I understand the drying I need to do for the framing before I insulate and fully dry in but I was wondering about creating a subfloor with green milled lumber. Because the board's would dry more in width than length of I made the floor and topped it with OSB in time would that just create a squeaky floor? If that's the case is there a trick I could do to prevent that or, with the style of floor I'm needing to build, would it just be necessary to dry my boards out before getting to that stage?
I just watched your video with the huge snow drift falling from the roof of your mill and I had to tell you the wife full on screamed. RUclips gold sir.
Thanks again for the last reply so quickly and the help. It's a huge deal to us :)
Good Explained andy
Thanks Yunus. Hope all is well with you. Happy Sawing
Interesting
Great videos! You are going to save me a lot of work once I get my mill set up on my farm. I too am from Ontario (near Perth), whereabouts are you located (for context/weather etc)
Mike
Add a gable or a lean to the width of your building to go over your log staging area, then build over your slab wood waist area. Work in progress
I could definitely see something like this in the future. All the best Greg. Thanks for watching.
The Husqvarna 580 BTS is also the same as a RedMax 8500, and they are by far the best blowers🤙 can beat the crap out of em, put them away wet, and they keep on chuggin.
Ah ok. I’m not too family with Red Max. I agree with ya they are built to last for sure
@@sawingwithsandy yea Husqvarna owns Redmax, so their tools are made in the same place, and with the blowers the only real difference is the color and backpack straps. Best gas blower ive used by far tho
I personally like longer deck on sawmill so have the option to cut longer pieces for beams ect
Maybe not cut as beams but option to do so be good
Curious about your off cuts... I was thinking of cutting into dimensional firewood and packaging for selling. What do you do with yours?
Those big braces on the end could be replaced with metal L braces made at a fab shop. It would give you more room.
Hi Sandy. Most importantly, I am not and will not be a Sawyer but I do appreciate watching several channels. The only thing I believe you missed with your observations is what I spotted as a safety concern once you had placed the sawmill on the deck. Personally the deck is three or four feet short as I would want to walk around the rails in stead
Grrrr touched wrong place. -- instead of walking across. We enjoy your videos immensely. Be safe and God bless.
Yeah I can see why that could be a benefit. Maybe in version 3.0 if that comes along down the road. Hope all is well with you. All the best.
Great video. Just a question, how many work hours do you have each saw blade?
Greetings from Sweden
A lot of sawmills here are set up off the ground like yours. Even higher. They have conveyers and dust collectors underneath to remove sawdust and slabs.
That sure would make life easier. I've seen some commercial circle-saw operations like that they and they sure are impressive.
What is the rack x thing you have that you throw your scraps in,,,,,,is it like a saw horse to cut up firewood or kindling ,,,,,what are the plans on,that ,,,,,interesting
Seems like a simple rack/cradle on the far side of the mill would catch any logs the roll too far and off the mill. Nothing crazy so you can step over.
Cut pieces of tires up and put under the mounts, and use them as isolationist or damper. It works. I use it under my 60 gallon air compressor and it cut the vibrations out. U couldn't hear your self think in the sheld. Try it Really works and if u use hole saw the same size as the metal plates put 2 under every one or mor If needed. Thanks god bless
Thanks for passing that along. I'm going to see about trying that. All the best.
Do you go threw blades fast because of skidding the logs?
Great video as usual!! I’m setting up a similar setup so thanks for the insight. By the way wow the rows of pine trees! Approximately where are you located ? I’m curious, also if you don’t mind where did you get those led lights ?
Again great video keep up the good work!
I believe he is north of Toronto 🇨🇦
You can get the lights on EBay or Amazon !
Love the content here! Do you have any regrets about not going with a trailer-mounted mill? I'm trying to decide if I want to go mobile or stationary for my own homestead now...
I’m happy with the stationary setup. Gives me a chance to build a sawmill shed
Going cleaning.just my logging tape.really like it now not to cut it.
Yeah I know what you mean. I hope I don't ever cut mine either. Sure would be a sad day.
Did you build the deck with the rough cut? And if so, how is handling the weather being untreated?
I built everything there with rough sawn. So far so good
Sandy what are the base dimensions of your sawmill shed? If you had to do it all over again like you talk about in this video - how much would you bump the width up to?
20’x10’ . For the space I have I feel the dimensions are perfect but if inhad a big open space I’d likely make one building to cover everything including the slab rack, log deck, lumber storage and the sawmill itself
Believe roof pitch is correct because of snow load .
For me would have more eve so snow not pile up so close to structure
I'm also a fan of extra long eves where possible. Thanks for tuning in Robert. Hope all is well.
? Suggestions if you use shade cloth for lumber stack shack in wintet would let pass thru but keep out snow from blowing in
Just a thought to keep lumber clear of snow