A question?, My best option for milling Sitka is?

[difflock]

I got a reasonable amount of 35 year old (ish) Sitka not more than a 1/4 mile from the house.

Growing in peat it has started to blow down, yet I am reluctant to cut it up for firing as there are right good straight stems of reasonable girth among it (it was never thinned)

Thinking of constructing a boiler house (under an existing new tin roof) and just perhaps a lean too to the rear of my shed, 60 foot long by say 5 to 6 m deep front to back.

Plus a nice warm shed within a shed to keep me & my tool(s) dry and warm

Senior Magagment would also like raised vegetable beds.

So if I want to amuse myself milling, where best to start?

No suitable chain saw nor no 3PH electric either.

So a blank page

Logosol?

Alaskan?

Or a New Granberg:laugh1:

What else is out there?

or a band saw, either petrol or 3 Ph

But then I need a 3 Ph genny (which I would not rule out)

Trees should be clean of nails (i hope mostly, despite evidence of local lads camping and building forts)

and I reckon I should be able to sharpen the chain saw chains.

Thoughts please

[Rob D]

It's a tricky one....

 

If that's all you will be milling and the diameters are all about the same and you also have a way of extracting and loading I'd say a small bandsaw would be best....

 

Chainsaw mills are great but for larger projects like this where you'll prob want to make cladding etc then a bandsaw would be best IMO

 

 

 

[agg221]

Are you dead-set on milling? Log-cabin style construction should be very viable with this - it relies on dead-straight stems with minimal taper, and notching the ends where they sit over one another. Have a flick through cabinporn for inspiration!

 

If you really want to mill it, I would use a bandsaw as the kerf on a chainsaw mill will really reduce the yield dramatically for thinner stuff. The ideal tool is probably the Ripsaw bandmill but it's tricky to get hold of. I have one, and a few other people on here have contacted me about getting one in the past year or so. Not sure if any of them went ahead and managed it?

 

Alec

[difflock]

I dammned near bought a special offer bandsaw at the APF.

This chainsaw mill/bandsaw mill indecision was my main reason for going.

Cept the most likely contender was 3 ph only

I just might get away with aa single to 3ph invertor , but would probably go down the generator route.

Pity I did not buy all that local Wadkin joinery shop stuff at a local auction recently (in hindsight)

However much I like the notion of log cabin construction I am not sure my stems would be taper free enough.

But figgered I was not worried about wastage as the timber is free and I can burn the off cuts anyway.

Plus figgered with the proximity to the house and yard that I might as well haul/winch them back to base for processing..

So a 3 PH bandsaw and generator it is

I tink

Perhaps Santa will be particularly good to me:001_rolleyes:

[kernowstu]

pto forestor 900 rackbench imo

[difflock]

I wonder was it a woodmizer? i looked at at the APF.

Some hybrid model falling between an introductory model and a bigger unit.

And

Yes "J" I appreciate the potential difficulties in milling, plus my specis of wood is generally fairly poor when grown in a North Irish wet climate, growth rings the width of my wee finger are not uncommon.

But hey i appear to like to do things the hard way, from reflections on previous undertakings:001_rolleyes:

 

However looking at the price of bought lumber makes me tink I have a potentially valuable resource going spare.

Cheers

Marcus

[agg221]

However much I like the notion of log cabin construction I am not sure my stems would be taper free enough.

But figgered I was not worried about wastage as the timber is free and I can burn the off cuts anyway.me:001_:

 

Wastage here is less about cost, more about time. Setting a log up to get the first cut true I find takes a whole lot longer than every subsequent cut. The more logs you have to set up, the less you cut in a day. It's particularly slow on a set-up where you have to reference position off the log and are dealing with taper, as the height over log is different at each end.

 

Have you come across the Scandinavian construction method where you build walls out of sections that look like railway sleepers placed vertically with 2x2" battens nailed over where they butt together? This would be pretty efficient with what you have available - pick a section that makes 2 out of your average butt end, one out of the second length and it would be easy to cut to length and extract?

 

Alec

[difflock]

Alec, thanks, any photos though?, (I am now searching on my own btw)

thanks Marcus

[difflock]

Thank you Jonothan,

I had noted Rob D's enthuastic posting in respect of this "new" mill, an anyways I like the sound of "flip & rip".

Better get the 260 tuned up in readiness:laugh1:

[Rob D]

As Big J says you really want at least an 80cc to 90cc saw for the flip and rip... that and a 20" or maybe 22" bar and it'll work very very well....

 

 

The one I currently have will be on sale shortly as I look to take delivery of the first production batch.... but I'm not keen on selling it yet... there's something about this mill and what it'll do and I need to put it through it's paces.

 

 

I'll have some vids in a month or so of just what it is capable of. I want to try lowering the saw down into a log for morticing or cutting sections out of logs etc.