Milling questions and Mobile sawmill near Salisbury

[RidArb]

Hi,

 

Been having a chat with a client today about the possibility of milling some timber.

 

Plan is to fell half a small woodland block of larch, which will total around 60 trees, these will be cut and extracted roadside. He would quite like to mill these into cladding for some buildings he is currently putting up.

 

Questions are;

 

Is it cost effective to bring in a mobile mill and board on site, or is it better to either send to a local mill (there are one or two about) or sell the timber in the round and buy cladding from the builders merchant?

 

When is best to mill? When green?

 

Will the timber dry under a tarp or is it best moved into one of the barns?

 

Does anyone have any contacts for local (ish) mobile mills near Salisbury

 

Thanks in advance

[agg221]

Can't answer all of the questions but:

 

It will be way more cost-effective to have these trees milled into cladding than to sell them and buy cladding to replace it.

 

The best time to mill is when the timber is green, and the best time of year is now-ish. For air drying, you want to get it done before March.

 

It will be a close-run thing financially between bringing in a mobile bandsaw and sending the timber offsite. Offsite will be quicker, but carry handling transport costs. Personally, I would go for getting the mill in. This is because if you know what you want, you can make on-the-fly decisions about how to get the best yield out of a particular log. It sounds like neither your nor your customer knows much about this, so you need someone who can guide you, but it allows you for example to cut a log shorter if you find it's got a significant defect above a certain point, to cut an over-thickness board to lose a rot streak before you carry on with good boards, or to split wide logs in half if the bottom section is significantly bigger than the rest and allows you to get two boards side by side.

 

Think about whether the cladding is wanted straight edged or waney edged - it can be more efficient to make straight edged timber by cutting cants (squared up blocks) before planking.

 

Drying the timber - it will all need to be sticked as it is stacked, and this is going to use a lot of stickers. In the barn with plenty of air movement is the best place. Keep the bottom of the stack up off the floor - some old railway sleepers or similar, or some breeze blocks will do this.

 

Larch can sometimes move around a bit as it is milled, so you might need to put some weight on top to keep it flat.

 

Unless all the cladding is wanted quickly and at once, one option would be to mill the first batch, booking the mill for a couple of days, and then dry this and use it, then mill the second batch etc. This would keep the number of stickers down and reduce the operation to something easier to handle.

 

Alec

[RidArb]

Thanks for the response, much as I thought.

 

As you say, I haven't done any milling before, we would ideally get a mobile saw mill in, therefore the operator could advise on any of the process that would get the best from the stock.

 

I'm pretty sure the client would like it milled straight edge going on what he has been building so far.

 

Hopefully someone who would be willing to travel to Salisbury area will get in touch and we can see what we can arrange.

 

Thanks again

[Big J]

Alec has covered everything, but I would only say that you would be better off having the timber milled at a static mill rather than mobile. 60 trees equates to at least a couple of lorry loads, and haulage by artic is not very much at all. A static mill (like a big Stenner) will cut at approximately 5 times the rate of a Woodmizer type mill, and do so without any worry of deviation. Larch can be an abrasive and hard timber to cut sometimes, and very narrow bands (like those found on mobile bandsaws) can struggle to cut true.

 

Additionally, your cost per cubic foot to mill will be markedly less.

[RidArb]

Had a look around the site for the first time in a long time today and most of the trees would be around 12" dbh, there wouldn't be much there bigger than 15" and also a number that are a bit smaller, would this make a difference to which mill you would use.

 

Thanks

[637547]

Hello I know this is getting somewhat old but contact Martin Osborne if you need a mobile mill he is near Westbury Wiltshire.

0774399937 01380 830128