A few months ago, I asked about Norwood mills on this forum. Thanks again for all of the good information. I chose to get the Norwood, and would like to share some thoughts and pictures with you.
I chose to get the 23 HP B&S motor, with an extra bed section (for a total capacity of 17"), the log deck package, log loading system, trailer package, and trailer leg package. This arrangement comes with two log posts and two log dogs. I also bought the log wizard, which I find to be mostly useless.
The mill arrived in 52 cartons. I had it delivered to the dock at my company's warehouse. The only conditions that I placed on the delivery was to not deliver on Wednesdays, since the warehouse guy that is a buddy of mine worked off-site on Wednesdays. Of course, they delivered on Wednesday. @#$%$&!!
So, the guy who was there at the warehouse signs for the order, without even counting the cartons. @#$^$#@!!! I could have strangled him. He called my buddy (actually named "Bud"), who called me.
After a confused scramble, I got to the warehouse and counted cartons. Whew! Looked like it was all there. I loaded my truck up with 1948 pounds of cartons. I managed to get everything in one load, and my poor truck held up nicely. Once I got it home, I unloaded everything, and immediately took inventory. Again, it looked like all parts were there.
So, I began the task of assembly. I spent that first evening reading and re-reading the manual. I found the manual to be OK, but sometimes a bit vague. I expect that it is quite good for assembling the base model, but it does not do a very good job of addressing accessories. The accessories come with additional instructions, but there were still holes. I found myself making some of it up as I went. Things like placement of the log posts and dogs, as well as the log rollers and toe boards were vague at best.
Of course, no project is complete without some canine supervision.
Unfortunately, I do not have a garage. So, I was forced to build the mill in my gravel driveway in the backyard. I will say this - if I can build one under these conditions, anyone can. I also would like to reiterate the need for air tools. It can be done with only elbow grease, but I don't recommend it.
With my options, six joints on the rails was straddled by a leg bracket. If nothing else, these add rigidity to the rails - my biggest concern about this design.
Alignment of the track is critical, and I took my time getting it just right. This is a bit tricky, particularly when you are not working on a flat surface. I ended up having to shim and re-shim each joint, and make several passes, tightening up just a bit as I went, while re-adjusting the shims at the same time. It was a tedious process, but I think it was important.
At some point, I got a lot more into building the mill than taking pictures, so, I now jump to the completed mill.
So, it was time to give it a try. I loaded it up, and trailered it out to my property out in the country. It trailered nicely. The light kit worked fine, but the ground clip can only reach to the trailer tongue, which does not always make good electrical contact with the rest of the trailer. I ended up adding a length of wire to the clip so it could reach back to the mill rail.
The mill carriage clamps securely to the rails for trailering. I had to guess at the location of the clamps a bit because of my accessories, but once I found the correct place, the trailer was well balanced, with no more than 100 pounds or so of tongue weight.
Once I got to my location, it was time to set up for milling.
I found the trailer legs to be all but useless by themselves. There is no way to easily jack up the mill to get it level. I anticipated this, and bought a small trailer jack to help level the bed. This is a critical step, sicne the bed itself is not terribly rigid, and will flex and rack fairly easily under load. It truly must be well supported to work well.
After some wrangling, I finally got it level and stable, and I loaded a small, somewhat punky log (still don't know exactly what species it is) on the deck and began sawing.
FIRST SAWDUST!
That was all that I sawed that day. I needed a tractor to move any logs to the mill, and I needed my friend (who had a tractor) to help. So, the next expedition was a few days later on some bigger logs consisting of some red oak that had been on the ground for about a year, and some freshly cut white pine. For this trip, I chose to take the wheels off and drop the deck, rather than try to saw on the trailer. I will probably do it this way from now on. Here is a 16ft white pine log.
As I said above, I needed a tractor, so I picked up this one.
It's a 30 HP 4wd Mitsubishi with a good strong loader. It works nicely, and I have recently skidded some pretty big logs out of the woods with it.
Of course, I will need to dry all of that wood, so I am building this kiln.
It is complete now (I'll post another pic later) except for the power. I am currently clearling the right-of-way for the poles. When all is said and done, that clearing project will provide me with about 150 nice logs of yellow pine, white pine, red oak, white oak, maple, walnut and sycamore. That ought to keep the mill busy for a while.
Overall, my impressions of the Norwood are very good. It went together very well, with no big surprises, and no poorly fitting parts. It cuts quite well. At first, I was a bit concerned that I would have to push the carriage for every cut, but it is quite effortless. The saw does all of the work. If I had it to do over again, I would not have gotten the trailer leg kit. I won't use them again. The mill works best when it sits on the ground. Also, if the deck is not set up high enough, the carriage runs into the legs. I will be using the mill in the same place pretty much every time, so I am going to pour a slab that will make it easy to drop the mill on to. Eventually, I will move out to the property in the country (I will build a house with milled lumber) and I can make a permanent saw shed, but for now, I will trailer it out there when I need it, and drop it on the slab.
As all other Norwood owners have found out, the grate at the sawdust discharge had to go early in the game. It became clogged about every other pass.
Also, as expected, the blade lube system sucks. I have seen the throttle activated valve system that others have built, and I decided to do something similar. Rather than add a throttle activated valve, I added a throttle activated pump, so I could spray both the top and bottom of the blade at the same time. It consists of simply a universal windshield washer pump, and a check valve. I also added a compression tee to the drip tube and ran a piece of copper tube under the blade to spray on the bottom. I crimped the two tubes to produce a fan-shaped spray. This seems to work very well for the white pine that I have been sawing. I'll try to remember to take some pics of the system.
I also bought the log wizard for debarking. I must admit that I find it pretty much useless. It is awkward, and does not work well. I put it on a 14" bar, but it still was too tip-heavy to use comfortably. It would not remove bark easily, and was just too cumbersome to use for me. I now use a root-cutting tool as a spud, and it works fine.
If I knew then, what I know now, I would still have purchased the mill, but I would have gotten one more deck section ( to cut logs 21" long), another set of log posts, and I would not have gotten the trailer leg package or the log wizard. Everything else works fine.
I will give a follow-up when I have had a chance to mill that big pile of logs from clearing the right-of-way.
Tim
