Carl and Allans (sigidi) new sawmill adventure.

[Ron Wenrich]

The unfortunate part is that you would be pioneers in the technology.  Here in the states, we have the opportunity to buy used blades at 25% the cost of a new one. 

I believe if you wanted to get your feet wet in inserts, you could convert some of the saws on the swing blade mill to an insert.  It would be a lower initial cost and probably not as much of a learning curve. 

[sigidi]

I believe if you wanted to get your feet wet in inserts, you could convert some of the saws on the swing blade mill to an insert.  It would be a lower initial cost and probably not as much of a learning curve.

Hmmmm, sounds interesting....cheers Ron

[longtime lurker]

We've got an insert tooth blade in the shed - doesn't get a lot of use. It'll work fine in the softer stuff but every so often it'll throw a tooth in the cut when we're on the real hard timbers - usual story then, it makes a mess of the next few until it settles into a gullet. I've always put it down to the entry force as it enters the cut in the denser timbers vibrating the screws out.

It could just be a dud blade but... it works as well as any of the other saws in "normal" timber. Mostly it's fitted up with stellites and put on when sawing Turps or Yellow Walnut: stellite handles silica better then TCT or steel. My preference is for braised on TCT in the really hard wood... it costs about $650 to get one redone between the sawdoctor and freight, but it's worth every cent.

[sigidi]

Things down at the mill have been a bit slow of late...a lot of time on the Lucas - Carl has (about 7 weeks ago) broken his left wrist which slowed down things on the bench for a while, but then about 3 weeks ago, he smashed the tip of his right index finger.


  

That stopped him doing anything for a while, we've got him back doing customer service, phone calls and quotes, with a bit of bobcat work here and there.... but things have just ticked along ;)

[Seaman]

Chin up Carl and Allen, you guys are doing great. Love to read the posting about your adventures, it gives others the courage to grow !
Frank

[JohnM]

Chin up Carl and Allen, you guys are doing great. Love to read the posting about your adventures, it gives others the courage to grow !
Frank

x2  But slow down, Carl. ;) ;D

[Magicman]

Ouch. I wish Carl the best healing his "smashes".   

[sigidi]

Got exciting updates for y'all.....just need toget the DanG pics off my ph....compter and new phone don't talk to each other....stay tuned....

[beenthere]

I've been hoping to hear from you soon. Hope Carl is feeling better and has healed up.
Look forward to the pics.

[ET]

Allen, dont forget that Jeff fixed that glitch which would not allow us to upload pics from our phone. A little over a month now we have been able to bypass the computer and directly upload from your phone. I really like this feature and have posted many pics this way. Im not sure which phones or service providers work, but its worth a try!  Ernie

[sigidi]

Well I tried doing a few posts via my mobile phone, but no luck. Not sure if the file sizes may have been too large...

Anyway the news was we had a couple of months ago was we just got hold of a 5 head planer, so we could run through our own decking boards from the mill - instead of selling someone else the boards, so they could sell them to someone else who then made the decking and flooring. This way we can do a third of the cutting (so also a third of the log volume, labour, wear and tear as well as the electricity) and still turnover the same amount $'s!!!

A few orders have already gone out using the 'new to us' planer. Had to do a good deal of work to get it hooked up. The electrician was the easy part. Getting things sorted with dust extraction was a bit rudimentary, but it works well and along with the planer we also managed to pick up a Profile Grinder. This allows one to either make new profiles in the cutting knives or to sharpen the already profiled knives on site without having to send them away to get done.

Also in the last couple of weeks, Carl has decided to pull out of the sawmill partnership, now the Missus and I are trying to bumble our way through as best we can. It'll be a much steeper learning curve as I had concentrated on the breaking down saw and Carl had focused on the one man bench. Now I have to get up to speed on the one man bench very quickly so we can still push out timber and meet the obligations with the lease plus the existing orders that where on the board when Carl pulled the pin.

[beenthere]

Sorry to hear Carl pulled out on ya.

I looked back at the first post (OP) and learned what a "one man bench" is about.

Sounds like you really have your hands full now, as if you didn't before.

[Nomad]

     Sorry to hear your partnership fell apart.  Best of luck to you, and keep on keeping on!  You and your wife can make a go of it.  Too many chiefs spoil the soup anyway.  (Well, something like that :D)
     The only thing a steeper learning curve means is that when you get to the top you've got cramps in your legs and a right to be proud.

[5quarter]

Allan...sorry about Carl.  Hope you two are still on good terms. he's a good man. Nice score on the planer. That oughta make you some $$.

[sigidi]

woohoo,  8) finally got pics off my phone!!!



 
A picture of the planer loaded on my trailer.



 

The profile grinder for making and sharpening the cutting knives...and the busted tyre the trailer had at 044hrs on my way back. Drove through the night 700k's so I could get back to the mill and be cutting the next morning...



 

Took a bit of doing and creative thinking, but we got the planer in place, had the sparky come out hook it up and completed the dust extraction connections



      

 

A look at some of the first boards out of the machine...



 

[slider]

You are moving on with the molder good job setting it up.

[tule peak timber]

congratulations on the new moulder set -up. Is that eucalyptus in the last pic ?  Rob

[backwoods sawyer]

All who have put effort into getting this operation up and running deserve a pat on the back as there have been some hurdles to get over. 

That planer should complement the operation nicely. Good to see it was prety much a plug and play unit 8)

[sigidi]

The planer is giving a nicer finish now, that was some of the first boards we put through and yes Rob it is one of our Euc's - well, technically about ten years ago it was reclassified as a 'Corymbia' instead of a Euc, but its common name is Spotted gum.

Really pleased with the planer setup, it takes a bit of fiddling and tweaking to get just right, but I had a chap visit the other day who used to run a place that did chemical treating and dressing, he gave a bunch of positive feedback about how well it is now setup and even asked if he could send us a whack of timber to put through it for him.

[sandhills]

I'm also sorry to hear about Carl leaving but nice to see things staying inline for you, best of luck and keep us updated.

[sigidi]

So, when we first started we had a heap of trouble getting our breaking down saw to cut 'straight', I'd get a taper off toward the exit side of the cut, the blade would have all sorts of trouble in the cut, the intersection of the blades would be out so far the cut had to tear apart... :'( :embarassed:

Our log supplier wanted a bunch of 12x2 cut out of some really nicely figured timber and these where larger logs he'd been saving up, but with the trouble we'd had I didn't want to do them until things got better.



 

I didn't think of taking more pictures, but this is a few of the 2" slabs we recently (about 2months ago) took off the log suppliers logs. Those 2" boards all with one side edged, span about 4 metres, so each slice was around 600-700mm wide and about 3.6-3.9m long (can't remember their actual length) After coming through the bench,they end up being 12x2's  8)



 

Turns out from looking at this pic of the finished article they where around 4.8m long.

To get the breaking down saw cutting better, we had to have the blade collars machined, re-aligned the line bar (the rear was out) adjust the lead on the saw a little, learn how to sharpen properly  :D, learn how to mount the blade properly  and also needed the individual controls for the headstocks on the control panel fixed - so I could learn how to cut properly too  : Turns out I was feeding too slow and the balde was getting blunt really quick because of the extra cutting it was doing and I also needed to use the individual headstock controls as the log went through the cut and keep each headstock firmly against the line bar as it progressed through the cut

After doing all that we went from the exit of the cut fading off 6mm thinner at its best and 30mm thinner at its worst, to being 3mm thicker at worst and being bang on even size at its best now  8)

[Nomad]

     Sounds to me like you're doing a pretty good job of climbing that "steep learning curve." ;D

[tule peak timber]

Carl and Allen , Thanks for the wood ID. I mill some types of Euc here and build furniture with it. Nice pics of your set-up. I must admit I have moulder envy ! Cheers  Rob 8)

[barbender]

I'm amazed at the scope of the project you've taken on, and I wish you all the best in it ;)

[sigidi]

So...things have been a bit slow at the mill...orders are coming in, but I'm not able to cut them fast enough. Currently I have over 3 week wait time any orders and am behind terribly on a couple.

Had a conveyor belt (which was only installed last November) tear in half for 10-12 foot...
Had a bunch of timber Carl and Zakk 'sorted' get returned, so the expected payment was reduced drastically...
Bench blade finally ran out of tungsten and sent it of to be re-tipped and its come back not cutting right...
Other night some 'winner' decided to kick in one of the doors to the saw sharpening shed, doesn't appear anything has been taken...
havent been able to draw a wage for myself in 5 weeks...
And I'm frustratingly slow with cutting and producing $'s

BUT on the Plus side,
the new anvil has been made and installed into the chipper...
the chipper now self feeds waste that will come down the conveyor belt...
the torn conveyor belt has been repaired...
A new bench blade is on its way...
CCTV unit with 8 camera's is on its way...
Managed to get a good miller in to use my Lucas at the same time as I use the main mill toget ahead of orders...
have got hold of an old guy who has served his time using these sawmills who is keen to come and show me stuff...
And most importantly, my number one offsider, and missus has still stuck with me through all my bad manners and frustration

So all things considered even though at times I get a bit low with how everything is going or should I say 'isn't going' I'm pretty DanG lucky!