Lud's Millshed (New Pics)

[Lud]

I've had my manual mill for 5 years, sitting on the north end of the bank barn on an embankment I'd built up to level with recycled sidewalk slabs used as retaining walls.  While I always intended to get a shed up, I wasn't doing it and I visited my friend, Russ who'd just had an extension added to his polebarn shop and realized that was the way to go.  Help the local economy and let a younger team of guys run around on the purlins.

The 32' x32' was offset 5' east to let them auger the holes in undisturbed ground and I pushed for heighth   and the guys married it up to the bankbarn with flashing tho it is a freestanding agricultural shed.  I've done the walls and will do doors down the road.  I've planned big sliders on the north and an overhead on the west so I can control airflow from west to east . There will be a 16' window on the east which I'm setting up like the dairy barns do and the cables are holding the HF tarp very nicely. It should open up to be a very airy pavillion in the summer.

The "lost"  5' space between the east wall and the retaining wall was a puzzler but I figured I'd need the slab rack and the sawdust pit so erected racks out of 4" x4" , one higher than the other , so I can't fall in and the sawdust blew in very nicely the other week when I finally got  my first session in in the new millshed.  The lower outer wall on the east side is the rift sawn white oak I generated while quartersawing last spring.  It slides up into a slot and sets down into a slot of treated so that whole lower wall can be removed for periodic clean out.

I wouldn't have done it this way if I hadn't waited until I knew what would work.  Boards slide right into the barn and I have enough room to stack a few logs and use my tractor to advantage.  It looks like it fits with the old barn and I can imagine some future owner after I'm gone having a very useful space for a variety of purposes.  And no snow or rain or too hot sun when I'm doing what we love to do.......  Here's a few pics.

Before
 

 


Embankment retaining wall, east side
 

 

Along the way
 

 

Lower outer wall together
 

 

Metal up
 

 

Inside view, rack between mill and future window

 

Inside view,  first sawing of an allegedly wormy chesnut barn beam
 

 

I'll be curious to what you all think........

[thecfarm]

Can you build me one too? 

[fishpharmer]

You got yourself a first-class setup!  Well done.

[mad murdock]

Very nice add-on Lud!  I want one

[jdtuttle]

That's a great space. Is there a reason you have the mill angled?
jim

[customsawyer]

Looks very nice if you get me one I will teach you how to sharpen and work with a chain saw.

[kelLOGg]

Nice setup. What kind of foundation/footing is the mill on?
Bob

[Lud]

The mill is angled a bit to the we 8)st so I can back a log over the mill from the north.  I used to have to push it up hill a bit and so loading the mill will be easier from the centered 16' door.

i could tell you a story about the township boys asking if there was a place to dump ditch cleanings.......the first five loads were perfect but the second five made me quote Roberto Duran , "No mas, No mas."

I'll have some topsoil from my neighbors to move when things dry out a bit.....

As far as the foundation goes,  I prefer stone over backfill so things that move can be tolerated.  I stake things heavily to keep them in one place but I hate having cracked concrete and it all cracks after you drop heavy stuff on it so I think stone fill is more forgiving.

[swampbuggy]

And just how strong is the pile of rocks with a corner post on it? Nice job there Lud. I would love to have one myself. Swamp

[eastberkshirecustoms]

And just how strong is the pile of rocks with a corner post on it?

That's the way it was done up north for hundreds of years. I'm not saying it is the strongest of foundations or that I would do it that way, but with our heavy clay base soil, there are so many of the old structures still standing on rocks. The biggest thing that takes the old buildings down up here is lack of roof maintenance, not foundation collapse.

[eastberkshirecustoms]

Nice addition and homebuilt mill, BTW. What are the mill spec's?

[WDH]

Lud,

That looks great.  You gave it a lot of thought that paid off handsomely.  What an improvement over the "before" set up!

[Lud]

My one brother , Scott, allowed as how the millshed's roof will deflect a lot of rain from the  north end of the bank barn thus protecting the stacked stone foundation that has held the barn for the 160-170 years  so far.

Like any old structure, it's been thru a lot.  While you wonder ,"what were they thinkin' ? " with some of the repairs over the years, ,it held together so it's my responsibility to keep it together  for the next owners.  Just think about all the critters called it home, all the hay that it held, all the kids who played in it.  A lot of history and I only know the last 54 years!  Heck,  I had my first smoke out behind this barn

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Lud I Like It and love old buildings in general myself too Mate My first smoke was behind the woodchip pile behind the mill with my cousin with my uncles pipe mind you and we come out lookin pretty dang green 

Regards Chris

[Lud]

I noticed I didn't answer EastBerkshire's inquiry.  My mill is out of western New York called a Simplicity sawmill. I used Rustcutter from TSC and a coat of implement paint after we got the roof up so you don't see the original lettering. Bert's rep in Ohio is a locksmith named Don Rupert.  We were at a steam power gettogether and watched him cutting on this little mill with a 13 hp Honda for about 25 minutes and my wife said to me, " You need one of those."

I'm a lucky fella, eh?   Fairly simple compared to all the hydraulics, electronics, etc. on the big ones but it paid for itself in no time and I have all the hardwood this woodworker can use.  I usually square the cant in 4 cuts with thick slabs that I make into turning blanks.  Got about a 1000 cut round , marked and dated and waxed which I hope to peddle over the coming years.  I use the old grannary as a drying room.  'Course I get to turn the pick of the litter.

[leroy in kansas]

"Heck,  I had my first smoke out behind this barn"

Lud, was wondering if that was a taylor made or a camel. You know those roll your own that had humps in them? 

[Lud]

Oddly enough, Leroy, my brother and I had got ahold of a couple of cigars.  He got sick and I finished his after I was done with mine!!   To this day,  I like my cigars like I like my coffee.....hot and black!!  The El Verso Bouquet out Frankfurt, Indiana has been my smoke of choice for some years.

[fat olde elf]

You are the second guy that I have seen RETRIRE and then build a beautiful Saw shed. Good Job ! First guy was WDH. Haven't seen you since we sat together at the Pig Roast a few years. but I read all of your posts.
Appears that you can get along fine without the Fomoco.......

[schakey]

Morning Lud
Great sawshed,someday I would like to stop by and have
a cup of hot black coffee with you and check out your
operation.

[Lud]

Of course I remember the F.O. Elf from the piggy roast a few years ago. Still carry the little card you gave me.  Have to try to get up there again soon.

Brother Schakey, you were already invited as I recall.  Stop by anytime...I just ground and made a pot of Columbia supremo and it's going with the apple pie she made fresh yesterday.  Apple pie- the breakfast of champions!

It's gonna be a good day.......

[bandmiller2]

Lud,nice looking mill house.How are you planning to handle the engine exhaust.?? Frank C.

[Amax]

Nice.  I'm a newbie here and have been trolling through the archives to find information and articles on mill sheds etc.  Enjoyed your originall post plus all the followups.

Al

[Lud]

To reply to Bandmiller2's question of handling exhaust in the new millshed,  I think having 2 sixteen foot doors and a sixteen foot window  with high ceiling  should be able to handle a 13 hp Honda's  exhaust.  I'm looking to have lots of airflow that I can control so exhaust shouldn't be a risk.

No rain, no snow, plenty of shade,  plenty of breeze.......it's gonna be nice.

[SPIKER]

I'm looking at a simplicity mill this week, can you point out any issues you have had?   was told it has 13HP w 160+/- hrs on it.  I want to know any thoughts on them.   or what i should be looking for as far as damage or design issues.


Thanks

Mark M

[Lud]

Sounds like mine,....13 hp and all.   Those that are a bit older may be stouter as the economy may have caused some corners to be cut.  The torsion spring lifter was a great improvement on the oldest units.  My exhaust shield on the muffler broke off but hasn't been a problem. 

I've always just spritzed but am thinking I want to a luber.  It's a good hobby mill and all but not that easy to transport.  If it's to stay in one place , it's a good mill to start with.  Good luck!

[Lud]

With the weather so mild this winter, I'd stopped down at the lumberyard and asked if they'd order the cannonball track for my future sliding doors on the north side of my millshed.  It was delivered less than 2 hours later and I started hanging it.
   Got the mail and the Shoff  Garage door auction was coming to the Fairgrounds that weekend...SuperBowl Sunday no less...but I had to go.  And Denny , my mate (notice Australian usage) drove up with his trailer on short notice and we hauled the 16'  overhead doors back to the farm.  Put those up the following week and I plumbed the mysteries of the torsion spring door system and finally achieved a beautiful equilibrium.
   Then his trailer went into the millshed and became the perfect construction platform for the 11' x8' sliding door frames I made out of some maple I'd cut two years before.  I planed and stained the maple  ,putting the good side "in" as it will be seen forever.  Here's the pics

The overhead from inside.  Needed more weight and winds
 

 

The trailer as building platform
 

 

Sliding door frame ready for staining, Maple stiffeners/bumpers attached to overhead in background
 

 

Sliding door frames hung, took three of us
 

 

Doors on
 

 
Doors open
 

 
Doors closed Inside
 

 
Doors open Inside, view to the north

 

Sure is nice to not have the tarps flappin'; didn't think I'd get this done til' summer,  but hey.........

[eastberkshirecustoms]

Nice work Lud, looking really good! It sure is a bear to wind them torsion springs. I still have one tarp door to replace on my extension. Getting tired of hearing that thing slap in the wind.

[WDH]

Now that sawmill is sitting cozy!  Your sawmill is housed better than some people that I know.