Milling Lumber

[cschannuth 3,816]

My son bought 10 acres and had about a half an acre of it cleared. Decades ago it was a pasture that was allowed to grow up so it had quite a few large cedar trees on it. We had a local gentleman with a wood miser sawmill come to the property to begin milling the 40 9’-12’ cedar logs. They range from 9 inches to 22 inches in diameter on the small end so he’s going to end up with a lot of lumber/posts.  Unfortunately the mill broke down about two hours into the process but it was still a very interesting day. We ended up with a total of about 60  1x 6 x 9’ boards even with all the fiddling around with the mill we had to do.  DISCLAIMER: no Wheel Horses were harmed in the making of this lumber.

Edited December 5, 2021 by cschannuth
So

[Gregor 4,846]

I can hear it, can't see it, but I can hear it.

[Maxwell-8 4,276]

very good!

with current lumber prices....

[elcamino/wheelhorse 9,313]

No better smell than fresh milled cedar. You son has a small fortune racked up.

[dclarke 4,032]

Thanks for posting, Craig. Very interesting. 

[Pullstart 62,905]

That is some beautiful wood on the mizer!

[oliver2-44 9,756]

Love it.

So that would make about 400 1" boards, but I suspect he will saw some thicker ones for post, tables, mantels. 

I've had a few sawn with one of those mills. Its amazing how long it takes fresh sawn wood to dry.

We cut a large Cedar Elm Dec 2015, and let it dry about 18 months Then had it sawn into 2 6" mantels and some 1" boards.

I was told to allow 1 year per inch on those 6" pieces. So i was just talking to my wife that it was time I had them planed.

There is a fairly large Texas Ash that the roots got washed out by the creek last year. 

I really want to retrieve it, but I need about 150 ft of heavy chain or cable to skid it out of the creek bottom.  

[ebinmaine 67,549]

Cool stuff. 

 

The BBT would LOVE to have a mill.   

[cschannuth 3,816]

3 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

Cool stuff. 

 

The BBT would LOVE to have a mill.   

This gentleman bought this mill 30 years ago when he retired. He’s almost 90 years old now and gets around very well for his age.  

[cschannuth 3,816]

Here’s an update. I only have the one picture but we have three stacks similar to the one shown.   He ended up with the following:

 

Cedar

250  8’ 1x6’s

50  12’ 1x6’s

16  12’ 1x8’s

16  12’ 1x16’s

20  10’  2x4’s

20  10’  2x6’s

4      8’  4x4’s

10  10’  4x4’s

8    12’  6x6’s

 

Red Oak

2      8’    2x6’s
10  10’  2x10’s

10  10’  2x12’s

 

Walnut

6     8’  1x8’s

 

He sold six of the 12’  6x6’s for $600 to pay for the milling. He is a happy camper.  He’s 6’4” for reference in the picture. 

[Handy Don 12,232]

Wow, the scent of that wood must be terrific!

[cschannuth 3,816]

18 minutes ago, Handy Don said:

Wow, the scent of that wood must be terrific!

It is very potent…

[953 nut 55,276]

When we built our house there was quite a variety of timber that had to be cleared. I worked out a deal with the contractor who did the clearing, he kept the pine boards, the saw mill kept the poplar and I got all the oak. There were four truck loads of logs that went to the mill and I used a great deal of the oak as trim boards for a project at our church. Also built the utility room cabinets for our new house.