Newbie saying hi

[poor farmer/logger]

Just joined up here and thought I'd say hi to everyone. We run a sawmill here in central Saskatchewan. Looks like a good forum with lots of interesting reading material. Gona keep me busy fo a while anyways.lol.. My Parents built this mill back in 84 and started sawing. We now do our own logging and sawing threwout the year. Logging starts for us in about another two weeks. We usually take out around 100,000 board feet and then saw off and on threw the rest of the year. Logging takes around a couple weeks of actual working days. Always get some cold weather and other things that usually take us away from it for a bit.

Just thought I'd share a couple of pics. The mill is run off of a older hwy truck straight off the transmision. The drive for the cariage is hydrostatic so there's infinite speed. Still needs some upgrades but every year we do a few things to it. The dogs need to be rebuilt now. When we're ripping a two inch board to get two one inch boards the last board tends to slid off the bunk as the dog doesn't hold as tight as it should.

If anyone has any questions or wants more pics I've got a few others kicking around. Figure I should give something back for all the reading that's on here.

I followed Captain Crunch and Coalsmoke over here that's how I found the forum.













Hope the pics work.

Ryan

[Mark K]

Welcome, nice looking setup. Those look like some real good logs in the background.

[sawman]

  Nice pictures.  Welcome to the forum.

[fishpharmer]

Poor farmer/ logger, glad to have you.  Neat mill setup.   Look forward to some logging pics too.  I too am a poor farmer, wannabe logger.  Glad you made it to Forestry Forum.

[Magicman]

Welcome to The Forestry Forum.  Sounds like your experiences will fit right in. 

[Coon]

Nice to see yet another person from our province.  Where abouts you located.  I live in Wynyard but am originally from the Kelvington area.....   Thems some nice logs you got there.  Do you get the logs from your own land or from the forestry? 

Brad.

[poor farmer/logger]

Hi Brad, didn't expect to find anyone else from good ol Sk. on here. Any others?? We're from west of Prince Albert. Do you have a mill as well?

We log on crown land as well as our own small woodlot. Bout 80 acres that's got some beautful spruce on it. Just go in and take out the mature logs every few years and keep things tidy.

The year that my parents built the mill I was just a baby so I've grown up around the mill. So hopefully my experiences can maybe help someone along the way. Love it for the most part some days are a little trying around the mill but for the most part I enjoy it. I do like the logging end more then the sawing though. Just like getting out in the bush by myself and giving er. Works out well. Mom and Dad stay in the landing and buck up and haul as I fell and skid.

We got into some nice logs this year. Been stuck with missletoe(sp??) Jack Pine for the last umpteen years. Sure nice to pull into a nice stand of spruce and have something to show for it at the end of the day.

Good to know I'm not the only poor farmer.lol..

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Hoepfully get some logging pics up in a couple of weeks. Got some older ones but don't want to bore anyone to much with pictures.

The last pics from the first post we were special cutting some beams for a fellow for his cabin. That's the longest we've ever cut. 6"x10"x25' we could do 30' I think but it gets pretty floppy once you get that far out past the bunks. I was worried even with the 25' but it went better then I thought it would. Was even easy to roll the tree believe it or not.

Haven't read far enough yet to see if there's a planner mill section but figured I'd throw it in here for now. Picture of our old Berlin 4 sided planer. Don't use it much just for special orders. We've got the knives to do log siding and v joint as well  some others but just never take the time to get it all set up.




Ryan

[Coalsmoke]

Hey, great to see you here, three red power bandits in one forum, uh oh  :D You know how to make friedns quick over here, post lots of pictures  ;D

[red oaks lumber]

welcome to the forum... what kind of sled you ridin? we can talk wood later

[pasbuild]

Trust me you will never bore us with pics
Welcome

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum.

That 4-sided moulder/planer reminds me of the big machine another member was re-furbishing. Don't recall who at the moment, but will look around to see what I can find.  Where's Furby. He was great at finding these things.

[Carpenter]

Hi,  It's nice to see more circle millers on the forum.  We are out numbered by the bandmillers.  But, ours are more interesting to take pictures of. ;)  I love to see that old equipment run.  I really liked the picture of the 4 sided planer.  I would like to see it run, but you live too far away.  Thanks for posting the pictures.

[captain_crunch]

P_F_L
Glad to see you made it here thought you might enjoy this site ;D Seem to be a Great Bunch of people and lots of help to a Sawmill newbe like me. Now ifn I can get a holt of Head Bandit (aka Sawmill) 8) 8) 8)
Brian

[SwampDonkey]

Where's Furby.

Furb's still kick'n around, he's on quite often browsing threads. He's become a lurker I guess. ;)

[bandmiller2]

Welcome Ryan,nice setup, please tell us more about your log/cant turner even some closeup pics.is it hydraulic??I assume your truck engine is diesel what do you use for a governor,and what gear do you run,hammered RPM's est.sorry for all the questions Ryan but circle sawyers like all the little goodies.Frank C.

[woodmills1]

welcome

nice setup  and as stated we like pictures


and hey did dad kill a john deere to get the cover for the operators area? :D

[KyTreeFarmer]

Hi Poorfarmer
Good looking mill and some great scenery behind it. Would love to get up that way someday. Glad you have found the forum.....keep the pics coming, we all love pics!
KTF

[Sprucegum]

Welcome P_F_L_ I am straight West of ya, just 2 blocks past the border. We're getting more Canucks here every day, eh?  ;D

[Coon]

 :D  ...but only the best of us Canucks are forum members.  ;)  :D   It's funny how most southerners don't really believe that we can grow big trees in this part of Canuckistan.... Poor Farmer/ Logger just proved it eh?   

For some reason it seems to me that I have seen that mill before.  Maybe on another forum or somewhere in my travels.  Does look like a beaut though. 

How far from P.A. are you? 

Brad.

[Samuel]

Nice looking Set-up.  One of my buddies are working with the Forestry of Ministry of Environment (whatever they call it) in PA- Dean Mammer if you run into him.  I sure you know Joe from Canada  too! :D

[poor farmer/logger]

Samuel, can't say that I've run into him at all. I do know a Joe there Churnich(I think). Those guys change their names a couple times a year so it's pretty hard to keep up.lol..

Biggest tree that we've ever cut down was 48". Had to notch it with the chainsaw so we could get in far enough to get it down. Even with the skidder pushing it didn't want to go. Had a antique house that we had to avoid hitting.

We're about 35 miles South East of P.A. on hwy 3. I said west before don't know what I was thinking. I've been a member on the Redpower forum for years, posted quite a few pics on there over the years. We've had some customers from down your way but can't think of their names now that was probably 10 years ago now. Maybe not quite that long.

Good to hear there's a few of us northerners on here.lol..

Lets just say farm tractors and falling trees don't go together to good woodmills1. Had the tractor up in the bush when we first started logging and one tree fell hit another and the top caught the back of the John Deere. One canopy and back window later we were back in buisness.

I'll have to find the pic of our log turner. We don't usualy use it much but it's there if the ocasion calls for it. I usually just flip the log as dad's bringing it back dog it in and by the time that's done he's usually there in time to put the front dog  down and it's off on it's way again. The log turner that is there though is based off of a kara sawmill if you've ever seen them. It's needs some revamping though. It's a hydraulic motor with a sprocket on it. We need a slower motor though. The one that's on there acts more like a trim saw. :-[ It does help with some of the real big ones. Usually with a couple of cant hooks me and dad together can flip it fairly easily. The motor is a 671 detroit runing wide open at about 2100 rpm. We've got a governor off a champion grader so it will open up under load. Truck is in 3rd gear and the blade runs right on about 750 rpm. Simonds F7 shank with Simonds regular 11/32 teeth. Run into problems in the spring and fall with half frozen spruce sometimes but for the most part we're happy with them. Blade is a 48" simonds that we put on new when we built the mill. No body left to hammer blades so I might have to try picking up that art in the future. The blade that's on there has never been hammered since 1986.

Thanks for the link CC. Hopefully make  some new frineds over here maybe even meet some people in the province if there's anyone else with a mill. Haven't heard from him in ages.

I've got some video of the old planner going but unfortunatley I'm on dial up yet. Sure hope to get high speed in the near future though.

red oaks lumber, none so far this winter. Normally a 98 Yamaha 700 though. Want to upgrade but unfortunatly it doesn't rank to high on the priority list right now. Was looking at a new Nytro XTX though. Only have about 2 inches of snow here this winter so far. Ideal for logging but quite poor for sledding.

Gona have our own little gang over here ehh coalsmoke.lol.. You been sawing much latley?

Thanks

Ryan

[sawthemlogs]

Hello RYAN
Welcome. theres a lot of good folks here.good pics.I  can relate about the log overhang on the carriage. Had to saw brother some farm wagon railngs past summer they was only22 feet.the thicker beams arent to bad ,but i have do edging on mill also  so when i do 2 bys they want to flop a little ,so nice and slow going threw....my bunks have one inch clearance from the headsaw ,,,so i always end up with 2 by left...,.thanks for the pics 8)

[Coon]

Poor Farmer,    There is a guy in the Hudson Bay area that hammers blades.  I just can't for the life of me remember his name right now.  He does a very good job at it and doesn't charge much.  There is another guy in Kelvington area that I used to work for and he does all of his own hammering.... 

Ahhh, I just looked at the saskatchewan map to see which highway it was exactly and yeah I go down that highway from time to time.  I guess that must be where I have seen it before.  Always watching for stuff like that in my travels.  ;)

Why couldn't ya gear that log turner down some with some more sprockets and chain.  Bet you'd be surprised  at how much you may actually use it if it were slower. 

At 750 RPM you must be able to sizzle right through the log.  Don't usually hear to many mills running them kind of speeds. 

If ya want my phone number I could pm it to ya.  I am always up for a chat about milling and logging. 

Brad.

[poor farmer/logger]

Picture of the log turner. Don't have a recent one but it hasn't changed much other then some fresher paint. What it needs is a slower motor with a bigger sprocket on it so it gets more bite and more torque to the tree I think. It just chews away at the tree now for the most part. Could slow the flow but then of course you lose all your torque.





The drive unit





The drum for the cariage.





The storage shed. Filled up with lumber this year so most equipment is siting outside unfortuatley. Shold've all been sold but it slowed up allot this last fall. We sell mostly rough dimensional lumber to cattle guys and farm buildings. Cattle aren't worth nothing so they're not spending any more then they have to on them. Kind of odd but our biggest seller this year was 1" boards. Museum in Melfort put up a big building and we suplied all the lumber for it. Turned out pretty nice, they put 1x6x14 all the way on the wall up and down. They left a space and then put another board over that space.





Brad, ususally I can flip the log quicker then the log turner. Providing it's not a 25' spruce that is. We do use it lots for picking up trees that roll threw off the skidway and the ocasional one that falls off the bunks.

We're actually 11 miles north off the hwy so it's hard to say. Less ya took a shortcut you may not have been by it.

It clips along threw the trees pretty good. Pulls the ol detroit down a bit in the bigger trees but usually it's not working to hard.

Send er on out. I'll give you ours too. We're not on a long distance plan so usually try to keep the minutes down but it costs the same for my cell so I've been known to cary on once in a while.

sawthemlogs, we edge everything on the saw as well. We square it off then run the 2nd cuts back threw if they'll make a real good 1x6 or 2x6 otherwise we just rip them up and put them into half cord bundles and sell them as wind boards. hardly pays to cut a 1x4 out at least not for us. We can cut up to about 1/2"-3/4" before running into the dogs. Still got to watch though as they go threw to make sure that they're all clear. Our measure is set up so we can cut 2 inch boards and have a one inch board left or cut all two inch or cut all one inch or cut one inch and have a two inch left.

Ryan

[schlep]

welcome to the forum, good to know there are more mills out in the country, also new to this forum, sounds like a lot of good fellows in this game. you look like you have been at it for a while, I have a brother inlaw living at  debden building a log house as well so the two of us are working together to get our houses built. being new to the milling business its good to know there is a vast amount of milling knowhow out there and good people willing to share.