How short can you saw?

[DR_Buck]

I have a customer looking to have short logs milled.  Most less than 2 or 3 ft.  She's kind of an opportunist looking to cash in on some walnut she salvaged from firewood I think.   Wants to sell it on eBay.

As a part time sawyer, I'm not interested in dealing with short stuff like that.  Even if I did the Bibbyman mod to to my manual clamps it would be a pain.

So... question is, what kind of mill can saw short stuff the easiest?   I told her someone with a large size vertical band saw might be able to do it.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  We can saw 12" long stuff if we want to. We have a bandmill.

 Doubt if I would bother with it. She would have to have deep pockets for us to even consider it.

 All ya need is a few boards to span the log stops and the bunks to lay the chunks on. The clamp will hold the chunk fast against the boards.

[Buzz-sawyer]

maybe a shingle mill attachment.....thats about all I could see doin it......the question is , why do it

[Tom]

Any bandmill with close dogs, close bunks and a way to get the log onto the mill can do it.  I'm most familiar with Wood Mizer's ability but I'm sure the others could as well.

Nobody is going to be anxious to do it becaue it's a pain in the rear, all work little money.

The lady best be prepared to spend some effort drying the wood too.  Short stuff like that isn't going to allow much end splitting or errant degrade.  One knot would just about wipe out the value of a 2 foot board.

I think, if she does find someone to saw it, that bowl blanks and pen blanks would be her best market.   Try to find a sawmill that can break it down and use a shop bandsaw to produce the wanted material.

[Ianab]

I'd recommend a chainsaw  
But seriously you could freehand cut the stuff into managable sizes and then break it down with a shop bandsaw. I assume she doesn't have TONS of the stuff?

ian

[leweee]

Tom ....nice  addition in the lower right corner  yah that short stuff is a p.i.t.a.  Do it for myself ....but no money in it .

[steveo_1]

Buck why not just charge by the hour, if the customer really wants it milled up,make it worth your while,but just let them know its not gonna be cheap.

[Bibbyman]

Here is a “quick attach” fence Va-Sawyer has built for his Wood-Mizer to handle specialty cuts and short chunks.



Here is a link to his post on the topic...
Usefull sawmill mods - Va-Sawyer's post.


We do this kind of thing from time to time by placing a 1x4 against the back supports.  Sometimes a 2x2 or what ever it takes.  Sometimes we saw right through the temporary back supports.

On short chunks like you describe,  we’ve laid a board flat across the bed rails because the chunks were too short to span the distance between the rails.

If you were going to do a lot of them,  AND the money is there,  then I’ve seen large vertical bandsaws with a back fence that would make pretty quick work of it.  But you’d need to split, quarter, or square them out somehow to have faces to work from.

[Arthur]

should get her to take the logs to the Sun Belt Expo in October and see how can do it for her.  She should be able to get it done for nothing just to see which manufacture can mill stuff that small.

If our 4" swinger is ready for the show I would have a go for her for nowt.

[Bibbyman]

We were helping WM at the Small Farm Show in Columbia, MO a couple of years back when a guy asked if they could saw a couple of short chunks into bowl blanks.  He talked like he was interested in buying a mill. They said sure, bring 'em on down.  Later on, here he shows up with a dump truck load of butted off walnut chunks!  

They sawed a couple on the LT15 to show him it could be done.  He didn't hang around long after that.

I suspect he wanted the milk without buying the cow..

[Brian_Bailey]

Here's how I go about cutting shorties  .

[Fred]

I used to saw short chunks on the circular mill by sliding one headblock closer...  Now I have a 6 foot belsaw carraige that when i get set up will saw 2 foot stuff. For now I dont saw that short on the bandmill.
                  Fred

[rvrdivr]

I cut up some 3ft cedar this past weekend that I salvaged from the road side. It was a real pain but I got it cut. Now that I see the way y'all are doing it, it would have been much easier.  
Always learning thanks to you all and this forum! Thanks!

Brian

[rebocardo]

I have a home built procut chain saw mill that is pretty handy for cutting short 31" pieces. I use C clamps to hold things six inches and narrower against the dogs. Though I rarely bother since I call pieces that small "firewood" :-D and the saw has a tendency to pull the wood to the side and off the platform.

Small stuff I want to save I usually freehand them with a 28" bar by laying the bar length wise on the wood and slicing them that way. It goes quickly, though I imagine on her pieces it is not going to leave much wood afterwards. Sounds like she found a tree cut up and put to the curb.

She probably does not have a chainsaw big enough to run a 28-36" bar. So, to help her I would use a big bar to cut it into square firewood size chunks and maybe cut that with a bandsaw or table saw. Using a chainsaw you should be able to cut 2" wide slices from her chunks.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Brian Bailey showed what I was 'splainin.

[Quartlow]

You realize I had to go measure mine just to see, On my breezewood a 13 inche piece will lay across the bunks, since i have manual dogs that are made right on the bunk I think I could get away with that.

I think her best market is bowl turners though, 12X12X4 chunks. and sell em green. All she has to do is seal them up good. Anchorseal or pariffan.

[rbarshaw]

When I built my bandmill I put two bunks and dogs 22" apart so I could do stuff like that if'in I had to.

[Tom_Averwater]

I've cut short pieces by nailing them to a piece of 2 x 10 with 16 sinkers .Clamp the 2 x on the bunks and then saw it thru and thru.         Tom

[Tom]

Might work OK, but, I shudder when I get a nail or screw close to my sawmill.

[DanG]

I built a movable bunk for my mill. I can get pretty close to 1 foot before the lever on the dogs start to interfere.  I can make about as much footage per hour on short fat stuff as I can on long skinny stuff.