OldJarheads Milling Thread...

[OlJarhead]

larrydown60 -- this stump was over 7 feet across!!!

and yes, chain removed before milling lol....that would SUCK

[Magicman]

I often wonder about that myself.  Need to find out how MM does it?

Lower the clamp all of the way down and use a grade 43 chain, not a grade 70.  You will not be wrapping around the portion that goes through the bushing anyway.  I use a ¼" grade 43 chain, and the load has never stretched or broken the chain or marked the rod in any way.

The large polished rod is just that, a polished rod, and the smaller piston rod is behind during this log adjusting.

[OlJarhead]

 

 
Still waiting to hear back on this possible job.  Wood looks a little punky in places and checked pretty badly in some logs.



 
I'm thinking there will be some very good blue stain in their and certainly some decent lumber for barn build etc



 
Customer thinks she has around 100 logs, all burned in the fire a year ago but possibly two years ago (by the look I'd say two but I could be wrong).



  

 
Apperntly she sent a lot of logs to a sawmill but these were all left over (not sure what the story there is)


Her neighbor who works as a fire lookout guy for the US Forest Service (or something like that) told her about me.  No idea who he is or how he learned about my service but I'm glad he did

Not sure if I am doing this one yet or not but she wants it done before the snow flies and that's darn near now!  So, I told her the first weekend of November (I'm milled pretty much every month of the year except maybe December but don't prefer to mill in the snow and rain if I can help it, nor the extreme cold)......If I get this one it will be the icing on the cake for a very good year   (a good year for me, as a part time sawyer isn't the same as a good year for you guys that live off your mills but it does mean the mill paid for itself in spades for the year) :D

[Magicman]

I too consider myself a part-time sawyer and I appreciate your joy of having a good sawing year.  Congratulations!!! 

[OlJarhead]

Correction (of sorts) -- the mill 'paid for itself' in that it supports itself and any bills or payments that need to be made in order to have it but it's not 'paid for' just yet.  I expect that to be final around April of next year (which will be just over a year since I bought it).

But all in all, I'm pretty happy

Thanks MM for your kind words....how does one mill over 1 MILLION board feet part time?? 

[Magicman]

I also paid mine off the first year of sawing.

I have only been part-time since I "retired", but I have no intentions of quitting.  Now, if I saw 2-3 days every 2-3 weeks, I am OK, but for some reason, I still look forward to road trips. 

[paul case]

I paid off sarge's mill last Monday.

Well I had a mill I sold and my calves paid about 1/4 of it.

Just bought it back in Feb.

I have really enjoyed this thread. I look for it every time I am here. I am glad to see the new mill is working out well for you and it is good to see your progress. Good on ya.

PC

[Magicman]

Well congrats to you PC.  You getting that sawmill was just the right thing to do.   

[customsawyer]

Great progress OldJarhead.
On the belt thing between MM and 4x4 the main difference I have been able to figure out as to why MM doesn't get the sawdust under his belts is that his mill is old enough not to have the ceramic (or what ever they are now) guides in front of his roller. I think these extra guides deflect the sawdust a little different and it gets under the belt. The absolute worst wood I have ever sawed for getting dust under the belt is dead SYP. Which happens to be what MM cuts the most. Keep in mind that I have no proof of any of this it is just years of trying to figure out why MM doesn't have any trouble with dust under his belts. Especially when he mostly cuts one of the worst woods for it.

[Magicman]

I dunno either because beetle killed SYP is my mainstay.  I read the reports of sawdust under the belts and wonder.     Sawed it yesterday and will be sawing it again today.

For some reason I read the hype and tried the orange tight belts once.  Maybe I did not install them correctly, but they vibrated and I pulled them off and the B57's returned and will stay.  No, I do not have the ceramic thingies.

[pineywoods]

I don't saw nearly as much as Magidman, but mine is also mostly dead syp. I have almost zero sawdust under the b57's. One thing I have noticed is when it does happen, the exit chute is plugged, usually with a big chunk of bark. I have a sawdust blower so that may confuse things a bit...

[paul case]

We get sawdust build up under the belts from time to time as well. Makes the mill sound terrible and vibrate. There will be a lump on the drive belt and it is always on one of the balance holes and so hard packed that it takes a screwdriver or utility knife to get it out. we  (almost) never saw pine. Lots of oak though. It is usually when seasons change to fall and it quits giving us trouble early in the spring. I have noticed that we dont have any issues with it when sawing dead or cut for a long period of time logs.

It is a pain in the rear.

PC

[Bandmill Bandit]

I took the ceramic pads off my mill about a year and a half ago (only the rollers running now) but had been running the B56 on the drive side for a couple of years by then any way. The lumps were a continual PITA day in day out but It is all good now in the timber I generally cut about a 1/3 of which his jack pine.

It aint broke so there is nothing to fix and that is how we probably all treat this potential issue.
   

[Magicman]

I took a picture of the underside of my B57 when I removed the blade this morning.


 
Yes, there are some small embedded particles as always, but no buildup that would cause any problems or even be noticeable.  The actual wheels and balance holes are always clean/clear.

[customsawyer]

It don't build up on the belt but packs in the groove of the wheel

[Magicman]

I dunno,    just that I have never had to dig sawdust out of the bandwheels and I always run loose B57 belts on both the drive and driven bandwheels.

[customsawyer]

I don't know either. The only difference I've been able to come up with is extra guides in front of the rollers.

[drobertson]

Sounds to me like the dust issue under the belt almost has to be caused by several factors, rooster tail pattern, dust volume and some sort blockage, I've seen some before, but never close to packed full.

[OlJarhead]

Sometimes the 'negotiation' on a job seems to take longer than doing the job ;)  The latest potential job (pics posted earlier) turns out to be about 110 logs in two piles.  One pile roughly scales out at 4000bf (I took what looked like the average of around 9"DIA SE and used it for the pile) and another pile a quarter mile away scales around the same with 34 logs.  Customer has a cut list of only 2400-2700bf but needs some 12" stuff which can only be found in the smaller pile where there are at least 3 if not 4 logs big enough to produce 12" cants.

Anyway, she sounds like she may want to get going but I'm not certain they have off-bearers and I don't normally work alone.  I find this makes quoting the job tough because I give an estimate (and make darn sure they understand it is an estimate only) based on having help and not having to move logs from 30 feet away once I'm deep into the pile etc etc.

We'll see but if she wants to do this before the snow flies I'd have to start Sat....which brings me to problem number two:  my bands need to get shipped off but I coldn't find a shipping label so I'll have to go to FedEx and just send them in and they won't be back in time of course.  That leaves me 2 BiMetals, 11 Double Hards and two Turbo 7's....which experience tells me is just barely enough to do this job.....but 28 bands isn't enough to run on (that's what I have today) so if I am going to do this one I'll just order 15 more double hards and have them shipped to me right away so I'll have them before needing them ;)

We shall see though, as I'm in the waiting stage to see if the customer is willing to foot the bill.

Oh and one more thing:  instead of requiring Perdiem for this job I decided to make the customer pay for me to commute the 70 miles each way.  We'll see what happens.

[Bandmill Bandit]

Sounds like decent job to me Erik. $100 hourly would cover all the issues you express as possible.

What you need is your own sharpening equipment.

For me that would be a max of 2 days of sawing plus driving time, and 3 bands sharpened once, with likely 2 used the second day. With the bimetals it should be just over a day and a half with 4 bands or 2 bands sharpened once to get it done.

the sharpening gear pays for it self fast. Plus my sharpening is better than Resharp so I get more BF per cycle.

Dont get me wrong! Resharp does a good job but they don't know my mill inside out and don't see what see when I am cutting so they cant tweak to address the little issues that turn into signifigant productivity advantages in term of BF per sharp cycle and cut quality.

The learning curve was steep and I used break every single band between 3 & 5 sharp cycles.
Now I break maybe 2 in 10 and that is generally after the 6th sharp cycle. The rest go to where I can't sharpen them any more which tends to be 6 to 8 depending on what they have been cutting.

I think I can safely say my sharpening gear makes me money and paid for itself in less than 2 years. Probably about a year and a half.     

[OlJarhead]

I am always amazed at how much you get out of one band!     I've yet to see more than 4 hours of milling off even the BiMetals (ok maybe a little more) and always run through about two of those in a day of milling even if I only mill up 1000bf that day.  Perhaps it's the condition of the logs I mill as they are often pretty dirty.

My Double Hards usually go about 2-3 hours before I see noticeable changes in the cut and start to change them out.  Often by then they are gumming up pretty badly with pitch as I mill a lot of Ponderosa and Doug Fir

[simonlow]

Hi, pitch build up can make a blade seem dull.I cut a lot of very fresh Douglas  (max one week),its the only time I've had pitch build up in the wheel grooves,the sap is so liquid it gets everywhere then 'sets'. Three weeks later it starts to stick to the blade,and I start thinking of a Lubemizer upgrade, or similar mod!

[Bandmill Bandit]

maybe my lube mix is doing better job than I thought. It is rare to see any build up on my bands at all lately. The recipe is on the forum some where.

I typically run between 1500 and 2000 BF per sharp cycle.

I do know that the bands I sharpen typically give me 500BF more than a new bands fresh out of the WM box. That why I normally sharpen and reset ALL my new bands before I use them the first time. I set from 030 to 033. Don't know if that is the difference but it works for me.

Also run my band pressure 3000 psi on my guage.   

[OlJarhead]

I keep my bands around 300psi (280-300 recommended) and use pine-sol and dish liquid in my water lube.

My bands can get pretty well caked in a few hours if the wood is wet

[OlJarhead]

 

  

  

  

  

 

Some pics on what should be my next job (just trying to set a date now).  Logs aren't in the best deck or location but look to have some good lumber in them still despite being on the ground a year.  Average size on the smaller log deck (smaller logs but more of them) is about 9", the log deck with the larger logs has some big ones in there (26 1/2" on one of them anyway and 2 or 3 others in that range)...

Will be a mix of logs for sure and no fun trying to get the mill set up beside them (no tractor to work the site) but I'm sure I'll figure something out.