I hired a guy with one of these:



to cut up these (plus a few more logs that aren't in the photos)





There were some trees that were too close to the house that I cut down (carefully, I didn't want them to hit the house), and there were a few other trees that I cut down because they weren't in an ideal spot (on the edge of the driveway, etc.)  I then used an old van and a chain and dragged each log about 200' into position, and coated the ends in wax.  Often I had to roll them up onto a piece of wood to rotate them and get them into exactly the right position.  It's a pretty neat thing to rotate a 1500+ pound log with nothing but my hands.

The sawmill was pretty awesome.  The arms lift the logs onto the bed, and then hydraulic bars raise on the other side, and a hydraulic brace presses the log against them.  A claw arm rotates the log to the best position, and then the rear hydraulic braces lower to the necessary height so that they don't get cut while the saw assembly runs down the length.  If the log is not in the right position two hydraulic rollers raise and the log is manually rolled up or down the bed.

The bark is cut off, and then more cuts are made until that side of the log is cut flat.  Then it's rotated 90 degrees, more cuts are made until the two cut sides meet in a good corner, and then it's rotated again and cut, and then it's rotated one final time.  This cut is made at a precise height so that every board cut will be a full thickness without the last board being too thin.  For example, if you want 1" boards, the final bark cut is made at a multiple of 1".  Then it's cut down, with each board removed as it's cut.  The edge pieces, if they have enough good wood, are then cut down the edge to remove the bark.

I was the only one out there to help, and of course the sawmill guy had his hands full running the machine, so I had to pull all of the lumber off and stack it, and keep up with him.  We cut and stacked 2500 board feet in about about 8-9 hours.  I was EXHAUSTED at the end, having pulled down and stacked about 7 tons of wood as well as dragging off all the scrap.

Then, over a period of 3 days, I did the final stacking with some help.






It's about 10% white ash, 10% hickory, 40% white oak and 40% red oak, all cut to 1 1/8" thickness.  I made the stickers out of 2x4s - cutting  them in thirds, and then cutting those sections across the wide side.  Each sticker is about 0.75" by 1.15"

nice what are you doing to do with it?

Building a barn?

Nice!

Cousin of mine has done the same.  Used it in their arts and crafts home.  I think he told me they had over 10,000 board feet in their home.

How much per board foot?

I hope you have a jointer and planer and lots of blades.  Very nice.

How much did it cost to get him to come out for the day?        
 

My old man's brother had something similar.  It was called a one-man sawmill.  It was a metal sled held up by pylons and the blade was turned by a complete truck or car drive train; connected to the driveshaft.  At one point he had an old 460 out of a Ford pickup.  Later on he moved over to a 302.   It was something to behold.

Every spring the have the Bug Bash at Purdue and some guy with a Woodmizer is there.

That must have taken all day. I only get my wood in the mornings.

That's some good looking wood, OP.

Pretty cool deal, but-

WHY???? They don't haz pine 1"x2" furring strips in your neck of the woods?

What did hiring the guy with the saw cost you?

And +1, whatcha gonna do with all that?

youtube has a video

I love gadgets!  it has some neat attachments, too.

Impressive sir.

My brother used to load boxcars with lumber.
I feel your pain.

Pretty cool man!

Why did you stack it in front of your garage door?

I'm more curious of the return on investment.

That's some fine wood you got there



You plan on building something with all that wood or is it just to gain envy from your neighbors?

Might be one of those guys who's garage is full of junk and outside he parks his 30$k cars

Nice BFL

There is a woman maybe thirty minutes from where I live who has a Wood-Mizer.  She sawed and milled all the flooring for her house, does small lots for whoever needs it, and does (or did) custom sawing for local deadrise boat builders.  Wiry old thing, neat person.

Alot of work for fire wood.

Very kewl.

So....  now what??

 

Be careful.  You have the created the perfect scenario for a Powder Post Beetle Infestation.  See link for more information.

Powder Post Beetle

guy I knew in my younger days, owned a well drilling business and he kept all the trees he had to cut in order to get to some of his drill sites.  he eventually built a barn on his property with the wood.  it was 5 bays each would fit 4 cars and it had an upstairs.  built the whole thing out of oak.  all of it.  from the beams to the finish siding on the outside.  then he did the siding on his house completely in walnut.  it was really nice.

hardwood floors????

It's beautiful, but what will you do with it?

That's cool.

Does the wood have to season now?  Or does that happen before you saw it all up?

DAY 1

Awesome

nice wood

Very nice! How much?

If you are rich, why not just buy your wood all cut?

How much did it cost you?

Cool. I didn't even know there were trees in Indiana.

Tag for cost and to find out what the hell he plans to do with it.

LOL they are really overgrown corn plants.  

My dad and I had a Woodmizer LT30. We cut 4800 board feet one day in 8 hours. It was all poplar 2x6 16 feet long. His mill was all manual except for the blade tram. I had to turn the logs by hand and dog them down by hand. We loaded the  logs on the mill with a tractor. I was spent after stacking all of that and carrying off the slabs, but I really enjoyed running and working the saw mill.

Once it's all dry I'm going to buy a planer.  They have them at Home Depot for $400.  Not gonna do it all at once, though, just as I need them probably.



It was the most level spot, and the only area with a concrete pad.  Also it gets some sunlight there.  Only about 1/4th of the garage door is covered up.



Yeah, it has to dry.  It's cut green and then is stacked like I did so that air can travel between all the boards.


The total cost of cutting all the wood, including the 80 mile drive out here, was an even $800.  He charges $0.28/board foot plus travel.

I plan to use some of it for projects in the house I'm building - perhaps some decorative walls, stair treads, maybe some flooring, and I'm thinking of trying to build some cabinets.  The best stuff I plan to plane and then sell.

But a big reason I had it cut up is for fun and for the experience of the whole thing.  And I'm going to destroy my next PT test.

wow - i didn't know cutting on site like that existed

I didn't either until I accidentally found someone on Craigslist who did that kind of work while looking for flooring.  He never followed through, so I googled it and found someone else.

Sweet.

Father in law has a woodmizer like that.

Good Friend has a big one with dual axles, forget what brand it is.