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milling building material for own use

Started by Mahmer64, December 14, 2004, 10:20:04 PM

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Mahmer64

I recently purchased some acreage with 1' - 2' diameter timber on it (sugar pine, ponderosa pine, white fir, incense cedar, and California black oak).  I intend on building a home on the property next summer and am giving some thought to milling my own siding, trim, moulding, floor and ceiling boards.  I'd appreciate any recommendations any other forum participants may have as to the equipment I would need, including manufactureres thereof.  I'd also appreciate any recommendations as to which type of tree would be most suitable for each of the construction materials needed.

Many thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

slowzuki

Well, I'm kinda going through a similar project, I'm not familiar with the trees in your area though.

Will the building inspector accept ungraded lumber?

Are you going to use the mill after or sell it?

Are you going to use any of the support equipment later or sell it?

You need a chainsaw to start with, the chainsaw forum is a good place to start.

You need to get the trees from the woods to your mill.  This depends on terrain etc in your area.  Tractors, backhoe, skid steer, dozer, etc there are all kinds of options depending on what else you need done.

I suggest if you are not going to keep the mill or are going to trade down when done, you should buy a brand with good resale value.  This way you can saw your job with a productive tool and recover your investment when done.  I knew I couldn't part with a mill if I bought one so I am building one.

Figure out where you will store your lumber to dry before starting.

Hope this helps you start.

logosoluser

Buy some type of little sawmill. I would look at the Logosol real close, but that is a bias opinion. I would look at the Woodmaster 4 in 1 planer, molder/shaper, drum sander, and rip saw. With those two pieces of equipment you can do everything you just mentioned. The Woodmaster is on sale until the end of the year if you are ready to do something there. They are made in Kansas City, MO.

etat

Hey, logosoluser, I know were Tupelo Is!  Heck, we's practically neighbors. :)
Old Age and Treachery will outperform Youth and Inexperence. The thing is, getting older is starting to be painful.

DouginUtah

There is a fairly good article in this month's American Woodworker magazine (probably February #112--I don't have it here with me.) It reviews several of the lower-end mills, up through the WoodMizer LT15.

-Doug
-Doug
When you hang around with good people, good things happen. -Darrell Waltrip

There is no need to say 'unleaded regular gas'. It's all unleaded. Just say 'regular gas'. It's not the 70s anymore. (At least that's what my wife tells me.)

---

Tobacco Plug

Building codes vary by area, so check with your local inspector about using ungraded lumber, especially for framing.  It may not matter if you are just using it for siding, flooring, etc.  Here in NC you can use your own lumber (ungraded) for framing if you or a member of your family is going to live in the house.  This helps keep the speculators from building houses with their own shoddy materials.  
If you are not familiar with felling trees and don't have the equipment to move logs, perhaps you could hire a local logger to do this for you.  Logging is DanG dangerous work.  If you decide to cut your own trees and have no experience, make for DanG sure you study up on the safe way to fell timber.  If possible, get a local logger to give you some instruction.  I say all this not to imply that you don't know anything about logging, you may be Paul Bunyan's first cousin, but you certainly don't want to get hurt or killed, no matter how experienced your are.  For what it's worth, I HATE felling trees.  It scares me.
I would recommend that you at least have a tractor and front end loader to move logs and lumber after it is sawn, particularly if you are planning on using some large size beams.  This was the biggest mistake I made when cutting the wood for my house.
There are lots of mills on the market, so shop around.  I know that Woodmizer makes a lap siding attachment, and am certain that other manufacturers do also. I cut my own weatherboards and did not dress them, as the finish from off the mill was sufficient.
What the other posts have said about your plans for the mill after finishing your project are very important and deserving of much consideration.  It could be that you would be best served to have a custom sawyer handle this job for you.  You still have the savings (and satisfaction) of using your own wood, but with less cash outlay.As for a planer to dress your lumber, I would suggest that you search around your area to see if one of the local planer mills would custom dress your lumber for you.  A planer capable of handling as much material as you might run into needing would be very expensive.  What I am saying here is that even a decent planer from Sears isn't going to be heavy duty enough to handle the thousands of board feet you would potentially have to dress.  Plus, a commercial planer mill would probably be able to dress four sides at once or tounge and groove your lumber.  If you did this yourself, you would have to buy extra knives for this work and most likely do it in more than one pass.  More handling=more work=more expense.
I am not trying to discourage you from doing this work yourself, but you should seriously consider all possibilities before spending a lot of money on equipment.  Best of luck to you!   8)
How's everybody doing out in cyberspace?

raycon

Tupelo MS -- Know a Taylor Lambert?
I've been trying to buy an old Ford Tractor component from him for a couple of years now. Wife gave me permission to drive down to pick it up...just can't find his #.

Around here if you need lumber graded theres a licensed grader that comes out for a hourly fee -- half day miminum plus travel expenses.
Might be something similar in your area. Chances are a timber framer or an architect/structural engineer specializing with timber frame experience  know of one.
Lot of stuff..

woodmills1

Not sure about your species but the framing is usually from spf spruce pine or fir.  Here in New Hampshire we use white pine and hemlock for framing.  I make my own construction lumber using a Woodmizer HD 40 and a belsaw planer.  I cut the thickness at 1.75 on the mill and the width at a quarter of an inch or so above the finished size.  IE 5.75 for 2x6 finished at 5.5.  I then sticker and air dry for at least 3 months.  One pass on each face through the planer will put them at the required 1.5"  I then set 6 at a time on the woodmizer with fresh blade and take a light pass then flip them and trim to required width.  This makes nice dimensional lumber.  For roof rafters I dont plane to 1.5, just clean them up, believing the extra thickness makes them a bit stronger.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Robert_in_W._Mi.

  Personally, "if" you don't plan to keep the mill after you get the lumber sawn, i'd not even buy a mill.

  I'd do all the logging myself, and hire someone to come in and saw my logs for me.  You will need a level stageing area, and a place to keep all the lumber.  Also learn how to move the logs with out getting them all full of dirt and mud, it will make the sawyer happy, and save you money later on!!

  Coat the ends of the logs as soon as you cut them down, and have them sawn ASAP.

  I wouldn't buy any chainsaw mill, as they are waay to slow, and i don't like that wide kerf..  I'd spend about the same money a Logosol with all the accessories cost, and buy a Norwood Lumber Lite 24.  It's about the same money, and is a lot less expensive and quieter to run, plus it's a "lot" faster!!  I think the resale of the lumber lite will be better too!!

  Robert

woodrat

From your list of species, I'd guess that you are in northern CA, away from the coast a bit. White fir is fine framing material, heavier than Doug, and not as strong, but still very usable. Pine should be fine framing as well. Incense cedar is light and soft, wouldn't frame with it, but it would make very nice trim and paneling. The sap wood will rot in a hurry though, so any outdoor use should just stay with the heartwood. Black oak makes nice flooring, trim and cabinets. Not particularly exciting to look at, but very usable nonethelss. When I lived down there, I charged 300-350/thousand, now i mostly go by the hour. If you have the time and interest, it might easily pay to buy a mill, especially if you want to use large or specially sized lumber in your house. You should be able to get a decent older hydraulic woodmizer for 13-17k$; a non hydraulic would be cheaper, and your timber size wouldn't be too much for it, although it is slower. I would say that woodmizer is one of the very best mills out there, and holds its value well. If you can, though, buy one with the newer style log clamp (97 and up). The older one sucks! If you think that you might go into business later though, get the hydraulics! You will thank yourself later. ( I bought a non-hydraulic, just to "try" out the idea. I ended up buried in work and it took me several years to get it together to upgrade to hydraulics ) Depending on your location, your building inspector might already be well familiar with what you want to do, and it could be smooth sailing. You will probably need to hire a grader, although I have a friend who builds with home sawn lumber down there and had the stuff graded AFTER it was framed up. (?) It was lumber I had milled from some pretty nice logs and the grader just laughed when he saw the stuff. A lot of it was mostly clear old growth.

how you get the logs out of the woods depends a lot on the lay of the land, but the cleaner you can keep them, the better off you will be. When I lived in CA, my neighbor had a Unimog that made a very effective, low impact small log skidder.
1996 Woodmizer LT40HD
Yanmar 3220D and MF 253
Wallenstein FX 65 logging winch
Husky 61, 272XP, 372XP, 346XP, 353
Stihl 036, 046 with Lewis Winch
78 Chevy C30 dump truck, 80 Ford F350 4x4
35 ton firewood splitter
Eastonmade 22-28 splitter and conveyor
and ...lots of other junk...

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