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KDavis
Member
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# Posted: 2 Nov 2015 08:31pm
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Great forum. Lots to read up on. I've got 230 acres of hard woods (oak and hickory) and I'm wanting to build a 20x20 cabin but not able to haul logs. Looking at getting a chainsaw mill and cutting all the timber I need. Going for function, not fashion. I foresee lots of chainsaw and drill work to be done. All input is greatly appreciated.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 2 Nov 2015 09:53pm
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Welcome to the crew. Are you in West Virginia?
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KDavis
Member
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# Posted: 2 Nov 2015 10:00pm
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No I'm in Oklahoma. My acreage is 70 miles east of Tulsa. I've owned it for 15 yrs but haven't built anything like this. I've got a steep learning curve ahead of me.
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pash
Member
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# Posted: 2 Nov 2015 10:46pm
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welcome to the forum, would love to see your work on a cabin made from all hardwoods. Just a word of note, almost of the alaska mill videos and chainsaw mills you see running are in softwood, a pine of some sort. I run my husky 372 with ripchain in red oak and ash alot. It is way slower than you think, and does a number on a rip chain quickly. The bigger the saw the better if you are gonna do it that way. I am looking for a bigger saw for milling but I am really torn about just getting a bandmill. If i take a 1.5k dollar saw setup and mill with it, it will be practically worthless in a few years of cutting hardwoods. Where an entry level bandmill will lose little value, and be way quicker over the same years. Not to discourage you, I promise you, that you can mill a 30" red oak with a chainsaw, but it will definately make you think about a better aproach a few hours in. Good luck and look forward to it.
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Don_P
Member
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# Posted: 2 Nov 2015 11:41pm - Edited by: Don_P
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Why can't you move the logs?
A chainsaw mill is fine for making timbers, I wouldn't want to have to mill siding, cabinet and trim wood with one. If you're going to knock 4 sides off a log and build a timberframe or similar, it would work fine I think. If you want to resaw boards from that squared up timber, a chainsaw is a hog and you're in cut for about 5 minutes, my circle blade is in cut for about 15 seconds. You are mentally and physically "on" every inch of that cut with a chainmill. That's ok if you're turning out several hundred dollar hard to find beams with not much investment, the equation tips quickly after that.
edit, I type slow... what pash said.
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DaveBell
Moderator
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 01:28am
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Have you found any water on the property?
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KDavis
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 06:55am
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I can't haul the timbers because I don't have a tractor or equipment to do it. My property is extremely rough. I have 60' bluffs to work around and large sand stone rocks everywhere. I can drag the planks with my four wheeler. That's how I have moved material through the woods to build box blinds. It's a trade off. Sweat equity for $$$$ I don't have. I have a husky 350 but not sure it's big enough. I do have water and electric available on the east side of the land. But will be off the grid to start out. This will be a long term project for sure. Keep up the challenging questions. I don't have this all figured out. That's for sure.
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Don_P
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 07:32am
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I live in the Blue Ridge, there are trees I will never get to, that's fine. I do have enough cable and blocks to get about 400'-500' in though. I use the tractor some but most pulling is with the on farm beater truck, safer when things go south. I've also had a local excavator move logs and have borrowed equipment a time or two. Look up logging arches as well. Think about a final haul road network and then how to pull to it. The hill behind me rises about 600' at a 40% slope so if I can thread them down gravity helps, my sweat equity is hiking up and down several times each pull to reset cables and pulleys, cut snags free, etc. But that method has downsides, gravity can hurt you too, a log rolling down the mountain, you know, the log that's hooked to the truck you're in... it outweighs the truck. Another way is to move the logs to a suitable place, whether with your equipment or hired stuff, then bring in a portable bandmill service, I've done that rather than haul logs home before.
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KDavis
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 08:17am
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Ok thanks. I'll look into that. That would work on the east 1/4 of the property. The rest of the property isn't accessible by truck or tractor. Might talk to my neighbor that has a bull dozer see what it would cost me to have him drag logs once I get them dropped and limbed.
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bldginsp
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 08:32am
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If you are indeed looking for function, not fashion, I'd suggest you carefully price what it would take to build a stick frame building from lumber hauled in, and use that as a baseline. The cost of a band mill is close to the cost of the framing lumber itself. And, in terms of time, it takes a lot of time to mill out all that lumber, and that's before you even start building.
What's the quickest, easiest way to get a 20x20? Even if you have to haul in all the lumber over rocks, bluffs, creeks, whatever- it might turn out to be faster and cost the same or less.
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Don_P
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 06:41pm
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I don't even try to saw commodity lumber, you aren't going to beat a big mill cutting 2x4's if the trees fall from the sky right beside your mill. However, where can you go get an oak 8x8 and what would it cost... there is the opening. I saw timbers and hardwood lumber. For one house the best use of money is to hire the services out. If you have sawdust in your veins, well, that's a horse of another color  .
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KDavis
Member
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# Posted: 3 Nov 2015 07:11pm
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Great points guys. You've really got me rethinking everything. I know I want to use as much of my timber as I can but there are limits and limitations. Thanks for all the points. I'll be lurking and learning.
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littlesalmon4
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 2015 06:53pm
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might be better to have someone come on the property and select log what you would like removed. Sell the logs. Use the profits for that sale to purchase already milled to dimension sized lumber
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bldginsp
Member
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# Posted: 4 Nov 2015 09:35pm
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Quoting: KDavis I know I want to use as much of my timber as I can but there are limits and limitations.
As Clint Eastwood said at the end of 'The Enforcers', "A man's got to know his limitations."
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Rowjr
Member
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# Posted: 6 Nov 2015 04:50pm
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There is always someone that will get it done if you want to make that call.
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randy grider
Member
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# Posted: 15 Nov 2015 12:03pm
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You can move a lot with a 4 wheeler if your carefull. get one of those log dolly gadgets (for lack of knowing what its really called)
They are an arch with a wheel on each side, and a tongue to the ATV. It lifts one end of the log off the gropund, which makes it much easier to drag.
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randy grider
Member
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# Posted: 15 Nov 2015 12:05pm
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I reckon log dolly was a good guess......
http://www.amazon.com/Timber-Tuff-TMW-16-Log-Dolly/dp/B00MAB802W
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skootamattaschmidty
Member
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# Posted: 15 Nov 2015 02:21pm
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I made a log dolly that worked great. I used a 4x4 frame for the back and a trailer dolly at the front end. I took a piece of channel steel and attached a hitch coupler to it. It worked quite well and made it easy to move logs by myself.
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Don_P
Member
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# Posted: 15 Nov 2015 08:40pm
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This is a video of a kind of arch that a friend has, he has moved some good sized logs in tough places.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsYFkGjNFoI
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