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

[Big J]

Hire in a contract mill. If you aren't going to go into it in a big way, it's not worth buying one. Plus, bandsawmilling is an easy gig to do badly, actually quite hard to do well. I'm getting there, but I'm not there yet and I've milled about 200-250 tonnes so far since buying my Woodmizer in March.

[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

[Big J]

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

 

In that case, you are probably best with the new Granberg flip and rip that Rob D posted about not long ago. I've got an early prototype of it and it's a well constructed mill that cuts very good quality boards. None of the deep gouges that you can sometimes get with normal Alaskan milling. Also, it's physically so much easier.

 

Rob was talking about it costing a little over £2k, so you are close to £3k once equipped with a decent sized saw and suitable bars. It will cut more slowly and with more waste than a bandsawmill, but if the sitka is freely available, I think this is your best option. With a chainsaw mill you are guaranteed flat boards and you can sharpen it yourself.

 

Jonathan