Sawmill

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wheatwhacker

Well-Known Member
I’ve just been offered a lot of trees to cut and take away. It’s silks spruce and range from 24” to 36”
As I’m building a house and need wood, lots of it, I was thinking of milling the timber.
Any suggestion’s on how to do it.
 
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We hired this guy. You would want to be well set up for him as regards handling the timber.
He would be very expensive as regards slating laths and hard to compete with bought laths . Price timber for the house nd see what his hourly charge is .
 

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wheatwhacker said:
Ran I’ve just been offered a lot of trees to cut and take away. It’s silky spruce and range from 24” to 36”
As I’m building a house and need wood, lots of it, I was thinking of milling the timber.
Any suggestion’s on how to do it.
Click to expand...
I would not bother for only Sitka, what you buy will be at least as good or better. Now if it was Douglas fir or European Larch I would.
 
Bog Man said:
We hired this guy. You would want to be well set up for him as regards handling the timber.
He would be very expensive as regards slating laths and hard to compete with bought laths . Price timber for the house nd see what his hourly charge is .
Click to expand...
How big can he handle?
My brother has some beautiful large Douglas and I would love to make a shed out of some of them, but they are big.
 
Bog Man said:
We hired this guy. You would want to be well set up for him as regards handling the timber.
He would be very expensive as regards slating laths and hard to compete with bought laths . Price timber for the house nd see what his hourly charge is .
Click to expand...
You have a number for him.
 
gone said:
How big can he handle?
My brother has some beautiful large Douglas and I would love to make a shed out of some of them, but they are big.
Click to expand...
We got hurley ash sawn on a similar saw to above. It was fit to handle 3.5 to 4ft in diameter ash butt's.
 
Would there not be a drying process involved before you can use the milled timber though, and storage that ensures its not like a banana when you come to use it
 
For a lot of building work your timber will need to be graded too, makes a big difference for roof/floor timbers. Spans and centres are defined based on the grade of the timber.
 
JohnBoy said:
For a lot of building work your timber will need to be graded too, makes a big difference for roof/floor timbers. Spans and centres are defined based on the grade of the timber.
Click to expand...
I was just going to say that I assume timber for a house would have to be certified, structural engineer will hardly sign off on something they have no idea of strength etc
 
JohnBoy said:
For a lot of building work your timber will need to be graded too, makes a big difference for roof/floor timbers. Spans and centres are defined based on the grade of the timber.
Click to expand...
What about fire resistance treatments?
 
Construction timber isn't treated for fire.
2 to 3 feet sounds very big for Sitka spruce.
Is it definitely Sitka?
They must be a serious height.
Here we usually buy ordinary construction timber and get more special stuff sawn for finish work.
It probably would pay for rafters etc to saw them or other heavy timber for a shed or something.
The drying and keeping straight of timber isn't simple and you really need it kiln dried for anything in a house.
 
To answer a few of the questions.
The size of the trees is enormous.
I’m guessing 80-100’ high and straight as a die.
The house is being built very simply using shed type construction.
6”rsj’s covering 3x16 bays
12x4” rafters 27’ A roof with 4’ overhang all around.
6x3” placed horizontal between the rsj’s with obvious cutouts for windows and doors.
I’d use 1”planks on the outside or plywood and fill the cavity with insulation.
Breathable membrane and then siding of my choice.
Roof will be imitation tile steel roof with planks/ply on the purlins and membrane.
So, the majority of the house will be 6x3” and 12x4” so, warping hopefully won’t be an issue.
 
Those mills are all the rage among my industry. Fellas went mad for Alaskan mills, but between bars, chainsaws you’d be near the price of a mill.

Woodlands mill
Woodmizer
And a host of others do basic mills and if you google, there’s lots making their own.

It’s on my list, I have a client looking to pay me with his mill for consultancy.

Any log over 24 diameter is saw log; and the larger the timber the more cost effective milling it yourself.

But anyone with a mill will tell you the quality of your own stuff is way better than you’ll buy in.

Strength grading is a joke; I never saw timber rejected.

I spend most of my time watching others using these mills.

I could do with hiring that guy with the logosol; be interested in knowing what he charges; last lad I rang a few years ago was €450 per day.
 
There is a guy sawing for me at the moment with a big polish built band saw mill,can cut 1.3m wide,the hourly figure is a good bit more than that I think
 
Went to collect some oak and beech slabs from the sawmill the other day as well as some ash and larch boards and brought him two fine pieces of oak for sawing,three feet in diameter.
The trailer load of timber cost 2560 euro to get sawn ,stacked and banded.
The biggest oak slabs are nearly four feet wide
 

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For perspective,that trailer is 26ft long so there is a lot of stuff on it
In theory some of those individual slabs are worth hundreds of euro maybe up 6-800 for the best ones, getting it might be another story.i will make some unique things that will look well In our glampsite and will get my moneys worth in that way .
Good timber always has potential
 
Seedsower said:
For perspective,that trailer is 26ft long so there is a lot of stuff on it
In theory some of those individual slabs are worth hundreds of euro maybe up 6-800 for the best ones, getting it might be another story.i will make some unique things that will look well In our glampsite and will get my moneys worth in that way .
Good timber always has potential
Click to expand...
I have a nice bit of ash to be cut. Just big trees off a ditch. Is there demand to plank the timber or am I better off splitting up for firewood.
 
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