Milling Shingles in the South East

[Timmy]

Hi.

 

I have a load of shingles to make (around 5000) so I am looking for someone who has a mill and possibly the shingle attachment (although I have seen that they aren't too difficult to make)

 

I have access to the chestnut logs, but I don't want to get someone in as it may end up taking around 10 days of saw-milling.

 

I have looked at alternative methods (like the the american shingle mills) but I value my fingers.

[Daniël Bos]

You be wanting a froe

[Timmy]

They need to be sawn

[wills-mill]

The time consuming bit (when producing tapered sawn shingles) is probably getting really prime blocks cut and ready for clamping to the shingle cutting jig. You need pretty sizeable logs, and you'll always have to leave a chunk of each block unsawn as you don't want to launch the saw into the clamping mechanism. You've got to reject any shingles with more than a hair of sapwood on them, it just won't do the job on the roof.

 

The first time I did WR Cedar shingles, I shot myself in the foot with tree size, luckily was able to find some bigger logs at short notice. In the end after mucking about with logs, jig making etc etc we did finally get to the point where we could cut about 1000 shingles in a morning, but that didn't account for the preliminary block milling and cross cutting to length.

 

I think most small producers in the UK probably cut a 4in width shingle- this is about the largest that a normal 240v crosscut saw will cut. Any bigger and you get into three phase Wadkin crosscuts and the like, or (like I did) making up chainsaw powered crosscut jigs. Not as neat and a bit furry ended, which is something to be avoided really.

 

But the last milling I did for shingles was for a set of chestnut shingles that were specified as not taper sawn; ie- short sections of parallel plank 4 x 3/4in, cut on the mill and then cut on site prior to fitting at 12in length and any defects cut out. At the milling end of things it seemed to involve a lot less operations, I also felt I could use smaller logs with slightly more bows and curves..... very handy for chestnut coppice.

[toprotter]

:thumbup1:That looks stunning

[wills-mill]

:thumbup1:That looks stunning

 

Ta The shingling is not my work!

 

On the previous post the top photo is 'plain sawn' (not tapered) chestnut shingles. I imagine that the only time you would encounter issues with plain vs taper is on a very exposed and windy site as (apparently) the taper sawn shingles are less prone to lifting. I've no experience of it myself, haven't really seen how they behave on many different buildings, but that's certainly what I was told by Tino Rawnsley who has much more experience of shingles and lives in hellish windy Cornwall. Maybe the most sensible thing to do if you are concerned either by wind firmness, cupping and warping is use a relatively short and narrow shingle- the amount exposed to weather and sunshine is lessened and I suppose everything should be more stable and better behaved, even though you increase the amount of work and cost in battening and fixing.

 

The middle shows the chainsaw block cutting rig with Western Red that's too small and has too much sap to really give viable blocks.

 

The bottom photo shows better blocks, I was trying to bias the milling so that there's a sappy face on the side of the block which you're unable to mill into shingles- it's 'wasted' as it's left clamped to the shingle cutting jig. That way you get the maximum amount of heartwood available to you.

 

Timmy- I'm a bit confused by what you're after. You say you're looking for someone with a mill, but you also say that you don't want to get someone in?

 

 

Below should be photos of-

 

Sawn cedar shingles ready for fitting at Pestalozzi children's Village in E Sussex

 

Sawn cedar being fitted to a compost loo building....

 

Cleft chestnut shingles bundled ready for fitting to 'Speckled Wood' which is a new roundwood framed accomodation building for the Natioanl Trust team at Haslemere. It's a fairly epic and very well planned project, you can read up all about it at 2011 August Speckled Wood

[Daniël Bos]

They need to be sawn

 

Why? Cleft shingles last longer, and you can produce many more from your timber.

[Cracker]

Why? Cleft shingles last longer, and you can produce many more from your timber.

 

I agree. And froes are available here - Hand forged froe

[SteveA]

I just bought a new Gransfors froe from Ian at Lakeland Coppice Products in Cumbria....was the cheapest Gransfors froe I could find (including postage) and is nice to be able to support the great work they've been doing (keeping it real). The froe cost me £75.06 inc postage.

 

note: their website looks old school and doesnt seem to work very well (i think they might be working on a web re-design)..... if you have a problem with their online shop try emailing Ian directly, or phone, or pigeon!

 

[Bren.]

Nice Froe.

But no one has mentioned that you'll need a Draw-knife as well (for dressing).

Hand made Shingles are the only way to go.

Do Grunfors make a draw-knife?