how to turn logs into lumber

[Zed Rafi]

Hello all,

can the transformation of trees into lumber be achieved at home? I mean, are there some home-installable tools that can be bought for this task? If so, how much do they cost?

thanks

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Two ways of doing it. Buy a portable sawmill, or have someone do it for a fee.

Check out Woodmizer as one of the more popular brands.

also run a referral service to find a local guy to do the work for you. Probably a half dozen others if you search on "portable saw mill"

There are attachments for chainsaws also, but they are a little clunky and waste more wood from what I've seen.

Rule of thumb to dry wood is one year per inch of thickness. To get a finished 3/4" board, you cut it to 1" full, then dry and plane it to proper thickness.

[Juergen Hannappel]

More than that: With an Axe/Adze/Hatchet you can turn logs into beams, with wedges and large hammers tinto boards and with a froe into shingles, and as a by-product wimpy arms into well muscled ones.

[tom]

Yes. There's a bunch of ways.You'd need a chain saw or its equivalent, just to fell the tree, then some type of bandsaw or big 'ol circular saw, or even a push-pull type ripping saw to cut it into planks. I've seen attachments for chain saws to allow cutting dimensional lumber from the logs, too. You can do the math. Tom

[Dan]

On Mon 12 Sep 2005 03:20:06p, Juergen Hannappel wrote in news: [e-mail]:

If I recall correctly, Mr Underhill used a froe to turn a log into a slab, which he then turned into a shaving horse.

Seems like I remember an old Fine Woodworking article where the author went through a chairmaking class, all material coming from one large veneer- grade maple log, cut with a bucksaw, split with a froe and shaved on a horse to make all the chair parts - seats, legs, spindles. Can't recall if they bent the wood for the backs.

[bf]

Unless you have a lot of time on your hands, get someone with a woodmizer to do it for you. Especially if this is a one time task, it will be cheaper and faster than buying a chain saw mill.

The downsides are that you have to either pay someone to kiln dry it or wait awhile for it to air dry. Also, keep in mind that it's somewhat of a crapshoot in regards to quality. A lot of the wood you harvest may be a fairly low grade. Sure, it's still usable, as you can cut around the knots and other defects, but it adds a lot of time.

For me, it wouldn't be worth the trouble. I can buy FAS grade red oak for about 2.60/board ft with free delivery. If I want a lower grade, it's a lot cheaper. The wood I buy is already kiln dried and can be used immediately. But I have precious little time to do woodworking, it's not worth the hassle to me. It might be worth it for you.

[marks542004]

Yes certainly.

The very cheapest way involves some bracing to hold the log in place and raise it to allow a saw to be used either horizontally or vertically to cut slabs of the appropriate thickness.

Possibly less than $100 in equipemnt but a huge degree of labor.

There are some portable mills advertised in Popular Mechanics and some woodwork magazines starting from about $3,000.

[Archangel]

I researched this subject extensively before investing in a sawmill.

I like two companies products, Logosol and Wood Miser each is far superior to the other in a variety of catagories and one (Wood Miser) was out of my price range for the capacity I wanted.

Fortunately Logosol has the best customer support I've ever come across.

Currently I'm using their standard (16+ ft.)M7 mill with a Stihl 066 gas chainsaw. Size (diameter) of the log is never an issue with the M7 as it's light enough to invert onto the log. The standard M7 is designed to cut logs that are ~7ft. minimum length on up to as long as you want to extend your mill. You can see my mill at

unique design of the M7 Mill is excellent even with a chainsaw you can figure on beating 100% of the estimated BF of the lumber on every log. I'm dying to see what one will do with their new bandsaw head...

For general wood working I'd get the M7 Woodworkers (8 ft.) mill, it's the perfect in shop sawmill as it's closer set log beds allow you to work with those short fruit tree trunks. You can always add a half mills to it later if you find the need for more length. I plan on adding a WWM to my M7 for those short fat logs and it'll let me mill

25'+ timbers before I have to shift the cant.

These mills will set you back $1995 (WWM) & $2395 (M7) plus the cost of the powerhead. When purchased with the mill you're looking at an additional $1000 for a Husqvarna 385XP or ~$2100 for one of their electric chainsaws.

The nice cheap alternative is their Timberjig for $165. I'll produce a thickness planer ready boards, square up large timbers, split large cants off of huge logs to make them more sawmill friendly or flitch cut for those quarter sawn stiles and rails.

On the other extreme is a 21 foot 52 Hp. diesel Wood Mizer with hydraulic loaders and turners, automatic feed and retun on the saw, integrated trailer, etc... for around $35000. These will also give you over 100% of the estimated BF/log owing to the bandsaws thin kerf but they lack the fine control of the M7. Specialty cuts and best structural cuts can be annoying. However they don't have the lower length complexities of the M7 mills and cut very very fast.

Whatever you buy it won't mean instant lumber unless you've got a number of projects that can be accomplished with green wood. You need to think about where you're going to store the lumber as it dries, where the logs are coming from, noise (especially using a gas saw near neighbors) and a host of other factors before you invest to heavily in milling.

The milling process is also a learning process, it'll teach you a lot about wood, some of it you'll need to learn before you start producing the best or most boards in a given log and some of it will come in handy when working with the lumber.

hope it helps.

[Lawrence Wasserman]

If he has lots of time he could always go the axe/saw/broadaxe/adze route.

[Al Reid]

You've already received numerous answers. I turn logs into lumber quite often using my woodworking tools. First, let me say that for 90% of the projects I do, a 4' length of lumber is sufficient. So, here is what I do.

I built a sled out of MDF and hardwood. The MDF is about 16" wide and 6' long. I added a hardwood runner that fits into the miter slot on my 14" bandsaw (w/6" riser), along wit an additional runner that rides along the outside edge of the table. It is supported on the infeed and outfeed by roller stands.

I cut to tree into ~4' long sections. If the diameter is greater than about 12" I cut the log in half length wise with a chainsaw. I then set the log on the sled, position it and cut boards. They are then stickered and stacked to dry.

It works for me. YMMV.

-- Al Reid

[Ed Clarke]

$1600+- and you need to provide a chainsaw head to drive it. I use a Stihl

046 that I already had. Works, but it's damn hard work shifting logs around to get it into action. Probably be easier to hire out a band mill owner as others have suggested.

I did the chainsaw mill trick on a huge oak. You need special "rip" chain or you'll be there until old age claims you. You also need a helper and TWO large '090 or so power heads. It's a gigantic pain in the arse - but my share was two ten foot by two inch by thirty inch planks. This was for an entire day of very hard work. There were four of us working in shifts driving wedges to hold the slabs up and run the two motors. I wouldn't do it again.

[SBO]

You have many solutions from 35$ to 45 000$ !

For home use you can try this:

?c=2&p=20127&cat=1,41131,41139 also this:

your sawmill: "Zed Rafi" a écrit dans le message de news: CXkVe.1388$ [e-mail]...

[SBO]

Try also this:

"Zed Rafi" a écrit dans le message de news: CXkVe.1388$ [e-mail]...