Mobile milling

[muttley9050]

If its any help we had a Lucas in a few days ago and did around 180 cubic ft. One large oak, half into 8x1" some 8"x2" and the rest 7.5x4.5". Was a good day and would estimate that the haul was worth around 3-4k.

[treequip]

how can that Ash log, yield £1200 or more? or am i missing a serious trick somewhere

 

Don't ask me ask them, that's someone else's business all I care about is what they charge per day

[delabodge]

If its any help we had a Lucas in a few days ago and did around 180 cubic ft. One large oak, half into 8x1" some 8"x2" and the rest 7.5x4.5". Was a good day and would estimate that the haul was worth around 3-4k.

 

sounds good mate, I have very little sucess drying 1"oak even stickered right,and under cover, seems to warp quite alot,, I tend to cut it slightly thicker now and plane it up, be interested to see how it drys,,,

I rent a lucas in occasionally as it really does cut true boards,fast,,,

[muttley9050]

That's interesting clive, did s load of inch 5 year ago and they came out ok, so we will see. They are very clean boards from a straight grained tree so im hopeful. The Lucas is delinately the way forward for big butts, very tempted in a Peterson myself right now, but May hang around and see if a used one comes up.

[muttley9050]

You can quarter saw straight out of the log with a swing mill too, i reckon id be a fair way through the milling by the time you had yours quarter sawn. But without getting into the whats better, swing or band mill argument, there is something about swing mills that fullfill more of my manly urges than the alternative.

James

[agg221]

I can well believe you can clear £1200 worth of timber in a day with most mills. If you're going thick enough you can do it with a straight Alaskan - timber being priced per cu.ft, not per square ft of cut surface. With anything quicker, it's easy to go much higher if you stick to high value species. The limit becomes supply and market.

 

Personally, I prefer a bandmill. I would really like to get something decent sized - say 3' diameter butt capability x 20' length, but at the moment I'm limited to chainsaw powered mills, but they do me well enough (particularly with the chainsaw powered bandmill), the big advantage being true portability. I've never really been a fan of swing mills. I can see they have their place, but for my purposes they're too limited in scope. The main issue is the width of board. I really do want to be able to cut a clear foot width as a minimum, preferably up to about 2', and they just won't meet this need.

 

Off to fulfil my manly urges with a mallet and chisel, fitting some more rafters!

 

Alec

[muttley9050]

Clip on slabber is only £1200 extra and will cut 5ft wide boards. But im still very undecicded. As isaid in another thread a swingmill will fit in my current lockup, a trailered bandsaw mill would not.

[muttley9050]

I completely get everything your saying, it all makes sense. I guess big sawmills use bandsaws coz they can. There staionary, so have plenty of handling equipment, I have none. I also don't have asmuch lockable storage as id like and a bandsaw mill is gunna use some up. If your mobile milling its easier to setup on log or in woods with out other equipment. I'm not disareeing with your opinions but am questioning if a swing mill is more suited to me right now.

[muttley9050]

The problem of the extra weight of quality. Think the shed on this site is probably a no no. But I am looking for the right bit of woodland to buy, a shed there would be possible, but security would always be an issue. I could park a trailered bansaw at home, but would only be outside under a tarp. Security isn't much of a problem, but I wonder how much this would shorten the life of the saw? Oh decisions.

Edited April 29, 2013 by muttley9050

[muttley9050]

To the original op, sorry for the hijack. Here's a couple of pics of the haul from the days milling last week. Still a few cube of odds and sods to treat and stack.