Regrets I Have About My Sawmill Setup

[Music] [Music] so um me so um well guys i tell ya having one of these guys around here is certainly a uh well certainly a handy tool this right here is the husky 580 i think bts i've had this thing for probably 10 years and although i didn't buy it specifically for sawmilling i definitely use it for sawmilling probably the most that thing is a weapon anyways guys that's a backpack blower you probably have seen those before if i'm not mistaken and at least at the time that was the largest backpack blower that husqvarna made i don't know if it gets any bigger after this but i tell you you don't really feel like you need any more power this thing definitely throws the air it definitely cleans off the platform here real quickly now welcome back first and foremost i'm going to talk to you guys today about this setup in particular i'm going to talk about what's been great and what hasn't been great you guys would have seen me build this general setup probably know how many months has that been four or five months ago i've been putting it into action ever since i'm going to talk to you guys a little bit about what i like about it what i don't like about it and maybe that'll help some of you guys who are going to venture out on this saw milling journey and in particular going to be building structure just like this so starting off with my general sawmill setup first and foremost you guys will notice i'm standing on a raised platform this is a little bit different than what a lot of sawmills do out there a lot of them tend to put a concrete pad down and they end up putting their sawmill on that i went a different route because well the expense of the concrete the effort of the concrete meaning i got to get it out here in the middle of the woods i don't have any running water anywhere near me i don't have any electricity anywhere near me and so i'd have to mix it all by hand and do all the forming and that sort of thing and i just didn't want to go down that route i work with wood and it's why i built a wood platform this platform here is probably a good 12 or 14 inches maybe even 16 inches there above the ground this has been a great addition to my saw milling and definitely something that's been an improvement over my first version of my sawmill shed if you guys would have seen my first version basically it was somewhere probably somewhere out here and the roof was great it kept the snow from hitting me directly same thing with the rain but in the springtime i really found the downfalls of that setup because i had a roof overhead but i just had a dirt floor the snow wouldn't fall directly on me but it would fall all around the structure so when spring rolled around and it started to melt well guess what was the lowest part in that area where i was walking all the water tended to run right where i was standing and i had to throw down boards like this and pretty much call them chicken boards i had to throw down those little chicken boards and boogie along the bottom there and that was no fun because i was still getting wet and muddy and all the rest of it i built a wood platform that got me up and ultimately keeps me dry now let's talk about the roof height in general because when i was building this i had in my mind a vision i ultimately executed that vision but i don't think i had to have it as high as i originally thought and in hindsight i think i'd come back and build it a little bit lower you guys are going to notice from the ground up to that first section of the roof that is probably a good 10 feet high and it might even be higher i definitely don't need that height in fact i could have probably had that that first section of roof the the very top peak of the roof if we look the peak's even higher so the peak is that like gee i bet that peaks at like 13 feet and we definitely don't need that so if i were to do things a bit differently i would definitely bring the roof down just a little bit and i could do that and accomplish that by having a lower pitch roof the one thing that having a high roof like this really gave me that i was looking for and probably one of the reasons i designed it this way originally is it gives me great lines of sight i can see everything out here in the woods and it gives me lots of light you guys will probably notice right now with this incoming storm here the sun's pretty much dropped and because of that it would it would probably be pretty dark in here without the high the high walls here on the front and all the sides so having this opening nice and high probably has some benefits one being sunlight another one being i can get good visibility and the third one here if you have a look here when i walk out the back the height is exactly my height right around six feet so that is a good thing about having the roof exactly how high it is now another thing dealing with the setup let's talk about the proximity of the sawmill shed where we cut lumber and the lumber shed where we store the lumber if you guys have a look here it is quite close to one another but it's not attached this has worked out okay for me however if i were to do it again i might try to rig up some sort of sawmill shed so that the lumber shed is attached to it now if that's possible that'd be great but i don't know if it is in my circumstance because look at all the trees around me and all these trees more or less have dictated where i position buildings so i got two options here cut down these trees and make more of an opening or do some sort of a setup like this as i have it this is what i ended up with now i'm going to talk to you guys a little bit about wind and it's kind of funny i'm talking to you about wind and i'm looking up at the tree swing but in reality this is a fairly windproof setup i realize at the moment it isn't but this is sort of an incoming storm and you guys can sort of see the trees just swaying and i might just get back under the sawmill shelter here but it is relatively windproof and what i mean by that is we've gone through a number of big storms here and in fact we've also gone through a tornado and because there's so many trees surrounding the structure and the lumber shed this building hasn't gone anywhere so that is one thing that's great about this setup in a perfect world though i think what i would do is i would have a big of an opening as possible so that i can maneuver things like these logs with my equipment i can also have room to skid my logs in maneuver the machinery and get all the lumber out of here to wherever it's going but obviously that's not the case if you guys have a look over my right shoulder you can see my general setup skidding trail logs come in here get loaded onto my log deck they get rolled up to the sawmill waste wood comes off the back of the sawmill lumber goes out the very back of the sawmill where it's stacked and dried now one thing i'm going to mention about having open space it allows you to move equipment around easily and that includes equipment for moving out your off cuts your slabs your waste wood you guys can see here i got a heck of a lot of it piled up in fact i got to figure out something to do with it and i do have some ideas in mind but having an open space where you can get in some equipment to get this stuff picked up with something like tractor forks and moved out of here would be ideal for me that space is kind of limited you guys can see i got a little room i can back the tractor and come in with the forks and pick it up but in a perfect world you'd have an endless amount of space so that there's never any danger of digging your equipment off a tree just so you guys understand as i continue to make lumber i'm going to continue to need trees and guess where the trees are going to come from first and foremost right close proximity to the sawmill and if you're brand new to the channel and you're wondering about why all these pieces like like this length or lying here on the ground it's because what i do with this rack here is i use my chainsaw and i cut them into those short length pieces so i can use it for firewood these pieces you see on the ground well about mid-winter i cut up all these slabs and let the let the waste fall to the ground they got covered in snow and here's where they lie so i'm still coming in here with the tractor and the grapple to clean it up just like i said though haven't got there yet so back outside before the storm strikes one thing i'm going to mention you guys is this is a general skidding trail it's a pretty open trail for this general area i like to have the skidding trail running parallel to the opening of the sawmill if you guys have a look here these logs i skidded in not that long ago with my tractor notice how i simply pull in parallel to my sawmill opening i then unchain them and now i can come back with the tractor use the grapple pick them up and in one motion put them up onto my log deck once the logs get up onto my log deck it just becomes a matter of me positioning these two four by fours like i have this one there's one 4x4 here that spans the gap from the log deck across my platform to my sawmill and then i have another 4x4 that does the exact same thing over there that way all i have to do is roll the log keeping in mind this is relatively flat or level and then what i do is i have it come down one little bump and this right here is slightly downhill towards the log bunks so that i don't have to put a lot of effort into it to get it down onto the sawmill bed itself have i mentioned yet why i think it's important to have a roof over your head at your sawmill well this storm is pretty much telling the uh telling the story whenever the weather turns this is a great place to be because not only can i be out of the rain but if it's snowing or if it's windy you guys have probably seen in other videos i've got these tarps which are on these pulleys up here that allow me to basically close off this structure at least on the three big sides i left the back open but check out the other video for those details one other thing i'm going to tell you guys about while i'm over here is this set up and you're probably saying to yourself well don't you need that thing to cut the lawn and yeah i do but i'll get it there this is a 12-volt battery it's hooked up to this charge controller which if we i don't know if we can duck our head out there without getting too wet you guys see way up there in the tree you guys see it where i'm pointing that's a uh that's a solar panel and let me get you guys cleaned off here so there that's a solar panel that keeps my 12-volt battery charge so i can do stuff like this that's a beautiful thing notice how dark it's getting out here despite the fact that it's well the middle of the day i can turn on those lights and keep going i can see everything it's nice and safe and it's more enjoyable that 12 volt battery stays charged with the solar panel all i had to do is come over here hit that switch and boom way you go so now that i've shown some light on the subject bad joke i know what i'm going to talk to you guys about is something you're probably saying to yourself and what that is is boy that sawmill is sitting awfully low on that platform and yeah it is but i think i like it this right here is sitting at 10 inches the top of the bunk is 10 inches from the bottom of the platform here the top of the platform that allows me to step in step over step across it allows me to get around quite easily and the only downside is the fact that i'm bending down and crouching a lot if you have back problems knee problems hip problems general mobility problems this is not for you but for me i find it quite comfortable because i like to have the log nice and low to the ground so that i can easily get lots of leverage on it when i'm using my can hook pv and the odd time the old 10 size 10s here so i can easily maneuver the logs i can easily um position them exactly where i need them and if i have to you know put a bit of oomph into it to get it rolled onto one side it's nice and low for me to get the muscle into it and do just that another thing that's great about having the log bunk so low is how easily i can fill up my lubrication tank and also fill up the tank on the top of the engine now i know you guys are probably saying well you got hoses and pumps and all this and that that'll allow you to do that at any height and i agree with you but for me it's nice and easy if i just want to take uh take the jerry can out top up the gas or i want to take out as you guys have seen my windshield fluid and just dump it in myself the one thing you guys are gonna quickly find out if you're just getting into saw milling it's that you're gonna forget from time to time to put these guys back up before you get the next log and start bringing it onto your sawmill now some of you guys are really good and you never forget but guys like me my memory is good but short i definitely have forgotten to put those up from time to time what happens is you get a roll you get a log started rolling and it rolls across that 4x4 and then what it does is it does a nice fancy dance and just rolls clean off the back of the sawmill well when this is nice and low that's not a huge issue because i can use some two by fours some little little shims and whatnot stuff and i can basically use my can hook and roll that log back up on the log bunks that's because this is only 10 inches high if this was let's say two feet high and you roll the log off the back you are not going to be rolling that back up on top of the log bunks with a little bit of muscle you're going to probably need something like a chain fall or a winch of some sort and i've been there and that's definitely not fun one more thing about the height here a lot of people are probably gonna say they would prefer to have their log bunks nice and high it makes working on the logs nice and easy you're not crouching down bending down whatever whatever and i agree with you in many circumstances that is the case however if we talk about safety when a log is sitting up here that's a lot of weight unless you're milling logs like i got which are pretty much about that big around when you're putting logs up here if they were to fall off here and they fall from any height that's going to injure you very very quickly if it falls onto my toes well that's going to hurt my feet if it falls onto my ankle it's probably going to break it if it falls onto my shin well who knows it might break that if it falls off from a higher distance it's going to cause even more damage is what i'm getting at so is it likely to happen to you where a log falls off here probably not especially if you've cut your uh your sawmill bed nice and level as it should be but the chance is there so having it higher adds that little bit of risk is the risk worth the reward many people will say oh yeah it is i'm not gonna i'm not gonna go down the road with a hurt back and be crouched over like you are but for guys like me i like it at this height because it's easy to handle if it goes off the back or the front i can easily get it back up there without any fancy equipment now i'm one of those people who will constantly adapt to my changing situation as i feel now i feel pretty good i'm pretty limber at least i think i am and i feel pretty healthy if my situation changes maybe my hips start bothering me maybe my back or my knees i will be the first person to be out here changing my sawmill bed height to whatever is more comfortable for me one thing we can't forget about if i make this any higher well guess what i'm making that higher as well is that going to be a problem probably not but if we have a look here it's probably already two and a half feet high to the base of the stacked logs if i come up any higher with my sawmill bed well that's coming up as well maybe in the future we'll see let's step out the back here real quick because i think the rain's about to hit us and you guys are probably going to look at this and say wow that's pretty high off the ground at the back and it is it's because at the front it is well a little bit higher than the ground at the back it's also nice and high because we get so much snow here the last thing i wanted was to have the snow above the deck in honesty you guys have seen it if you see my videos in the middle of winter the snow is pretty much level with the top of this deck and in fact it's probably higher in some cases if i didn't knock it down with a shovel there's a lot of bad things i could say about my setup but let's face it i built it this way for a reason i ended up not putting walls in this structure because i wanted to see what's all around me i also wanted to have the back open so that my sawdust like this stuff and there is a lot of it it has a place to go you guys are gonna see over my right shoulder that boardwalk that boardwalk is just sitting there and check out my other videos to see that being built but that's just sitting there so i can get it out of the way and get my tractor in here to take out all the sawdust and any snow that eventually falls off the roof this was a great design feature having this open space i by no means want to be out here with a shovel and a rake hand bombing this stuff into a trailer to get it out of here if i could make this sawmill set up just a little bit better one thing that i would definitely do is this you guys know that i can get the tractor in parallel to the sawmill but if i could get it in perpendicular so that i could pick up logs and debris even slabs for that matter with the tractor forks then that would make things even better before i head across and talk about the lumbershed in general i want to talk to you guys about the downsides of having a deck like this now this is framed just like a typical deck would be i've got this at 16 inch centers and i think in total we're about 10 feet across give or take can't quite remember i'll have to go back and check out my own playlist but in this case what happens is you end up getting some vibrations i never had vibrations before when this sawmill was mounted on the ground it used to sit on concrete blocks which were sitting right on the dirt all the vibrations in the sawmill from that engine went down through those concrete blocks and basically got dampened with the soil i no longer have that with all the wood in here so things tend to vibrate if you guys listen to me sawing you will hear the roof actually makes some sound the uh the structure in general it tends to not so much move but just sort of vibrates and then that isn't a pain for me i don't mind it but it's something you guys should be aware of if you want to actually hear what it sounds like see what it sounds like check out one of my other videos so you can see exactly what it looks like when i'm cutting lumber so why is that boardwalk not the perfect scenario we'll picture this the middle of winter time i gotta come in here with the tractor i gotta clear out that little laneway because it gets filled up with sawdust snow and all the rest of it in order to do that i got to move that boardwalk the middle of winter it's cold out that's covered in snow and it's probably frozen to something moving that is not a perfect scenario so if you can avoid it definitely do it now let's scoot across here under the rain you guys are going to notice that is one downside there of having to walk out the back of your sawmill as the rain pours onto the back of your neck when you're carrying lumber anyways we're inside the lumber shed here and you guys are going to notice it's got a bunch of lumber in it which is kind of nice to look at this lumber shed fills up very quickly and so what can i tell you well build as big of a structure as a you've got time for b you've got space for and well maybe c you're going to make lumber for this is going to fill up quickly and so i'm probably going to need some other storage idea real soon what i'll likely do is i will well i'm not going to tell you exactly but what i'm going to do is i'll probably take this pile out put it out somewhere where it can dry and just put steel over the top of it to keep keep the elements off of it one thing i'm finding about the overall design of this lumbershed is that by having this big opening here slightly bigger than my longest piece of lumber i'm able to get lumber in here easily and i'm also able to get lumber out of here easily especially when it comes time to using the tractor and picking up the pile with the forks also with this design here in the large overhangs on all the sides that's keeping the elements from getting in here and hitting the lumber without having sides on it so there's no siding on any of this obviously that also allows the wind to get in here and i'm finding the wood is drying very very quickly despite the fact that we're in some pretty wet weather now let's go back across here and i'm going to talk to you guys about something i really like and i'm glad i put into my design and what that is is this little workbench area you'll notice i got two shelves here basically they're positioned between two posts this is really nice because when i come in here and let's say i want to work on the sawmill i don't know clean it out change the bearing change the blade change the belt whatever i'm doing i can come over here if i got to tinker on something i got my little handy dandy tools floating around here and i got a place to work i can also set my sludge there set my phone there set whatever i need to right there and it's off the floor nice and handy it's also convenient because if i didn't have this when i come out here with the blower i can tell you little bits and pieces like these guys well they'd be out who knows where with the blower and probably in one of my tires all right guys let's pop outside just for a second here before i cut you guys loose for today as you guys can see there is all kinds of stuff floating around here hence why i think it's important that you find a spot to put your sawmill where you have as much open space as possible if you've been around the channel for a while you probably figured it out by now i'm basically in the middle of the woods i don't have a lot of open space unless i fire up the chainsaw and go clear cutting i'm not going to do that and so i positioned the sawmill in as open of an area as i could that was readily accessible to my tractor a skating trail and well i thought looked pretty good so one last point here about the proximity of your sawmill to the logs you're going to be making into lumber in my experience and from what i've learned it is easier for me to have the logs close to the sawmill if i can do it as opposed to having to haul the logs from a far distance when i start hauling logs with my tractor well i got to do all kinds of rigging i got to drive it over some various conditions and that might not be the case for you but for me living in the middle of the bush well that is the case and so if i can have the sawmill position in a place like you guys see here where all the lumber is essentially standing all around me well that is the ideal situation therefore if i cut a tree down like that one well it basically falls i limit i buck it to length and i pick it up with a grapple on the tractor i don't have to skid it and i load it right there on top of the log bunks all right guys well i think i'm gonna pull the plug right there i'm gonna call her quits for today that right there is my sawmill shelter which i like to call the hillbilly hideo version 2.0 this design has worked out very very well for me but as with anything there is some room for improvement so i'd like you guys to use some of these ideas if you find them useful put them into action put them into your design but make sure to tell me about it down below in the comments if you're brand new here welcome if you're not brand new here welcome back for everyone make sure you check out some of those sawing videos and come on back next time see you then

Channel: Sawing with Sandy

Views: 101,671

Keywords: regrets of owning a sawmill, regrets of my sawmill setup, how to layout your sawmill, things to avoid when setting up your sawmill, sawmill layout tips, avoid these sawmill layout mistakes, how to dry lumber, what to do with sawmill waste, how to position a portable sawmill, most important things to know about a sawmill, things to consider when buying a portable sawmill, how to make lumber fast with a sawmill, regrets I have about my sawmill setup, sawmill shed mistakes, sawmill

Id: Z0uD5EpVSAw

Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Sun May 09 2021