Total of our experience-Sawmilling

[rl]

why are you not allowed to say brand   had to sign a paper saying I would not bad mouth there mills on any public forum or i would be soued for 15thousand    theres been alot of posts on this site that I would have liked  to replie to ...but didn't dare to                                                      rl

[beenthere]

Just don't bad-mouth the other brand. 

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 I'm in for 5. Was runnin the Norwood last night!
Red oak sure looks nice.

Jon

[Rockfarmer]

How bout 1 day,.. 

[thecfarm]

Rockfarmer,how about telling us more,what kind,new one,HP,hyd,what are your plans with it,do you have logs to cut,what will you be building,what got you started?

[Rockfarmer]

Rockfarmer,how about telling us more,what kind,new one,HP,hyd,what are your plans with it,do you have logs to cut,what will you be building,what got you started?

Maybe I answered in the wrong forum,.. Its just a small Alaskan 24" on a Stihl 045AV Super w/28" bar. I also got the mini and will run that on my husky 365 or Stihl 041FB. So far I have have 7 logs to cut, started the first one yesterday, tried to post pics here but after I got the resizing right and putting them in my album when I go to post them their in the wrong format    Its easier to mill the logs  I'm going to frame a loft in my garage with the wood I'm making, been putting it off for years now. If and when I get that done I'll think about some pine boards  for flooring or maybe some cedar planks for my deck. I dont know,.. I got a lot of pines that are taking up my property and would like to open the sky up for some more productive hardwoods  I'm layed off right now and I like working outdoors, getting some exercise, my cordwood is done for this year and next. I dont even know how I stumbled on this,.. 

[Weekend_Sawyer]

 You answered the right forum and you are in the right place

[thecfarm]

Rockfarmer,thanks for the infro.You got lucky when you stumbled across this site.

[ErikC]

 I said 10 years milling, I think its been 8 or 9 since I got the mill though. I helped chainsaw mill and offbear for a woodmizer and MD at various times earlier than that, but not regularly.

[Quartersane]

If you count the years spent from the time I was a dust-doodler at my grandfather's mill, to the first cedar I butchered when I assumed the role of sawyer on the same mill, until today where I'm a part-timer it should add up to just over 21 years experience in, around and operating a sawmill.  All by the ripe old age of 35 

Actual sawing time I'd put around 15 yrs, but I'll be the first to step up and admit there's a mountain of knowledge I still DON'T have.  This is one of the reasons I'm glad I finally found this forum... can't believe it took this long.

[aksawyer]

My father had a tie mill in our back 20 acres where I grew up as a boy pushing saw dust and listening to the guys stories.Worked there until finished high school,then went to work for Biose Cascade at a large production mill.Stayed there until the shut downs in the early 80s.Moved to Alaska in 82 and went to work at a small building supply yard that had its own circle mill,ran that head rig until 90n when moved back to Idaho to try the mills there again.That did not work out and moved back to Fairbanks,been running our own mill and firewood business since.I also travel all over the state trouble-shooting and repairing a vast variety of mills.Training:Certified log scaler,finish lumber grader-WCLB,welder-manufaturer,currently have 13 of my own built mills in the alaska bush.

[Chico]

I started grading tropical HW shorts when I was 12 also went to Nos La on the WE to help grade and tally for Robinson and Citco they had a place in Chalmette La on tre docks where the lumber came in from overseas they'd unload it and in the meantime we would grade it and reload it as soon as we got a load they also used trucks  so it was a little easier to keep up with it.I worked for Weis Fricker Mahogany co My old man ran the mill I started sawing at 15 on a left handed  bandmill that still had a blocksetter on the carriage  Carriage was pulled by a 12" steam shotgun feed .You had to give hand signals for the next set and if you couldn't see him I had a small whistle I would toot for the signals. we had for and reverse just no setworks had a 9 ft bar tturner with 150 # of steam The largest log I ever sawed was a mahogany 8 ft across and 32 ft long and it took a while  It was an old lineshaft mill built in 1898 all babbit bearing all steam driven most of the parts at that time were made in the blacksmith/machine shop They still ricked the wood pulled it out with old tricycle allis chamers and ricked it by hand when it was close to dry they put it in the steam kilns and then loaded all rr cars by hand they loaded very few trucks. All the logs came in on ships and of course I got the good jobs I had to tally string and boom logs then ride the booms in while walking them and watching for sinkers and if I found one I had to out a chain dog in and dog it to another log so we wouldn't lose it Well after all the embargo crap then they blocked it again after we found a way around it She shut down  then went to a pine mill  Alger-Sullivan until things got slow then I just moved around some Back then a sawyer of my age had a hard time making folks beleive you could do it It was still Black magic back  Then I sawed at sev small HW mills Then the old man went to So America  for Nickey Bros  out  of Memphis  Then of course he needed a flunkie So they talked me into going down there .WE went to a hole in the jungle called Intacoatiera Brazil The closet civilization And I use the term loosely was Bogota Columbia first Stayed for about 8 yrs then they moved the miklk and while they were moving it We worked for Gilbert Out Ala and  WV. We out a mill iup in a town called Abatatuba Brazil  rt off the amazon on a river called the Rio Negro We stayed the for about 7 yrs it was another hole in the jungle closet town was Belem about 90 miles away only way to get there was plane or boat. We also traveled to Ecuador Argentina all over the inteirior of Brazil buying lumber and logs WE also tried to help some of the smaller mills when they had electrical or maint probs saw probs and the such It made for a lot of good will I really enjoyed my time down there BUt it'was hard on the old personal life But thay's the way it goes. Well I left there and camre back to the states and went to work for Coastal lbr until they built a ply wood pant where I was at and wanted to send me to diff mills to train and trouble shoot I'd done killed two marriages and decided I'd try to save the third  so I worked in Ala and Tn for the rest of my carrer I still do a little trainig Grade sawyers or help out some of my friends if their sawyer needs a vac. or they get stuck between sawyers I'll help them for a short while also do some installation  J8st can't stay away from that sawdust altogether I've got a little over 4o yrs in the sawcab, millwrighting grading mill management you name it I've prob had to do it one time or another BUT I loved to saw anw if I was able I'd saw full time still today Well sorry for the book
Chico

[Papa Bang]

I grade sawed in large mills (all band)mainly on the west coast. I started sawing at 18 and quit when I was 33. My wife and I have had a business unrelated to saw mills but in 08 I could no longer resist and bought a Kara circle mill (those round saws are very strange) Now we are trying to figure out how to sell what we cut.

Papa Bang

[DR_Buck]

It would be interesting to see this overlayed with the age of the sawyers. 

[Chico]

I'm 57 and have sawed prob close to 200-250 millionBd ft combined H#W and pine
Chico

[RockyMountainSawyer]

new here but i've been sawmilling in one way or another for about 5 years. first bit was slabing logs free hand with a 460 magnum, loved it so much i purchased an lt40 manual from family member who had lost ambition, now i'm gearing up to log and mill full-time come May 

[Holmes]

I'm 57 and have sawed prob close to 200-250 millionBd ft combined H#W and pine
Chico

Hi Chico  I'm 60 and I just sawed my first 200bf , I probably won't catch up to you. Holmes