I Couldn't wait and had to try the new mill out yesterday with a hickory log from the bottom a stack of 2 years down pile of hickory logs. I had a burning desire to see what was inside those logs and if they had gotten soft and rotten. I was pleased to find very good wood inside! LOL I learned after the fact that I ran out of memory on the camera SD card about 2/3s of the way through the video. I knew it was getting close and that I needed to delete the old video or get a new little tiny SD card for it. Thus the video just kind of ends when the storage runs out. The EPIC Fail fail was when I realized that I had put the ground track on the pad backwards! Easy solution for that error would be to just put the mill head on the opposite end. I am not going with the easy solution though. Going to unbolt it from the pad, turn the whole track around. Drill new holes in the concrete, add more inserts and bolt it down again. I will do most of my milling before noon and that Morning sun in the East is real bright and would be right in my face running the mill West to East. This is what happens when you project supervisor is a Fence Post Lizard! I did have room on the camera to take some pics.... The Nasty gnarly log selected to be the first. I do put 6mil black plastic sheeting under log piles that I know will be sitting for a long time. Thus the plastic hanging from the bottom. And set 8" diameter long logs down to sit the logs on to keep them off the ground. Ground contact and ground moisture evaporation will ruin a log in a few months if you don't do that. I chose this log because it is one the tree service guys cut down and well they don't know how to make a plunge cut with hinges and ruined 2-4 feet of every trunk as far as milling goes. All debarked, rinsed on on the ground track. Debarking is important IMO particularly for trees like Shagbark Hickory. That bark is HARD and all tree bark is full of grit and dirt that wears a blade down to dull 3x-4x faster than a pressure washed or debarked log will. LOL if you see sparks flying while you are cutting...... you have a dirty log and are abusing your band. I like to let the shagbarks sit for 6 months and let the bark beetles and their larvae chew up the layer between wood and bark, so that it easily peels off in sheets by hand. 2 years is a bit of overkill on that The split from not plunge cutting the log is very obvious in the cant. This one I can work with since it is pretty much center of the cant. I went ahead and made the cant with track backwards. The malfunction with running it this way is the blade guide on the right only has 4 inches of adjustment, while the blade guide on the right has 28" of room to slide back and forth. Ideally you want the right guide in a fixed position that will be just back a inch or less from the track stops. And adjust the left guide to a inch or less from the the cant or log. The more space between cant and log the floppier the blade gets. I could get away with making the cant like this but no way I could mill actual lumber with that amount of flop in the band. Very happy with the wood I found in the cant after cutting the slab off. The cant ended up being 12"x13" That will = 22 1x6x8s have to account for the band and cut loss. I always figure A loss of 1" per 12" After I trim the cracks up, run the lumber through the planer and sander, this will make some fine Hickory 1x6x8s The slab will get stacked on the tractor forks and dumped in the cut cradle and turned into 18" long firewood. The bark will get ran through the course chipper and some of it bagged for the smoker and the rest spread on the paths and trails around the lake and ponds and the woods, same with the sawdust after I make a pile of it. Nothing that goes to my mill gets wasted. One of the BIG improvements Hud-Son made to their mills was the water lube tank. The biggest PITA of the old mill was the lube tank being built into the frame of the mill with tube steel that held a whopping 1 gallon of water. Constantly had to stop and fill it. The second big improvement is the punch out cap for much larger water tank that lets you connect the hose direct to the tank and not have to refill the tank at all. The 3rd big improvement is the gas tank and changing the position and making it a low profile tank. On the old mill the gas tank was where the water tank is on the new one and YEAH EVERYONE LIKE HOLDING A 5 Gallon gas can head high to refuel The MAJOR MALFUNCTION with the new mill and I have been dead up their ass since the mill arrived about this one. That Junk Ass, garbage, future expensive boat anchor Lifin Engine. Sure that no name imported Chinese piece of trash looks good, it even runs good and it will throw a rod through the block somewhere between 250 and 290 hours. I have had 3 pieces of equipment with these garbage engines that did just that and it ain't because of me or my maintenance, if it were my 8-20 year old Kohler, Honda and Briggs engines would have pretty holes in the blocks. I expected a quality engine to arrive on the mill and got this POS. The warranty on these trash engines expires at 250 hours run time the shortest a Lifin Engine has lasted me is 256hours and the longest 290 hours. I simply would NOT have bought this mill if I had know it would have a Lifin on it. I will run it until it throws a a rod and replace it with one of my Kohler Command Pro 25hp engines I keep on the storage racks and it will annoy me that I had to put a $2500 Kohler on the mill when it should have came with one or a comparable Honda or Briggs. My junky ass new craftsman $2000 garden tractor riding mower has a better engine than my new $10,000 sawmill. Pathetic on Hud-Sons part. Going to reverse the mill track this morning, but last evening I started moving the log stacks closer to the mill and reclaiming my parking lot! There is one stack in the pictures.... Only 4 More stacks like that on sitting on my parking lot and 2 more sitting on the West Side Tree line. All together I have like 170 logs that need milled that are about a equal split of Pecan, Hickory, Post Oak and Red Oak. My old bulk buyer offered me $130,000 if I milled them all in to 1x stuff and 2" slabs and ran them through the planer and sander. Retail value of that finished lumber is around $180,000 Not going to sell any of this. A good bit of it will go on the floors, walls and build the cabinets and counters in the new house. And I am going to build a guest Cabin, a open air shed beside and over the mill, and I should have enough left over to build a 30x60 barn. Will run the house stuff through the planer and sander and what I finish the inside of the guest cabin with. Everything else will be true rough cut. feeding the planer is slow work and the sander is actually pretty quick but man is it a work out putting it in running to other end, pulling it out stacking it and repeating over and over for days on end. Even selling it bulk wholesale I can't argue the money isn't good. Quality Hardwood lumber ain't cheap. I looked at Home Depots 1x6x8 Hickory that is about = to the finished lumber I make.... Nope hardwood lumber is not cheap at all! A couple of friends have used these Nyle L200 units to turn shipping containers into kilns and report they get Oak and Pecan down to 6% Moisture in 35-40 days just as Nyle advertises. I happen to have a empty 20' shipping container and the price tag on the L200 is not horrible. Call me lazy but this would beat feeding firewood into my old wood boiler and radiator kiln to keep it hot and sucking moisture from the lumber! And my old kiln is real bad shape after sitting unused since 2016. I had and idea that is forming into what I am thinking is a viable plan. I used to make tables, benches and other furniture type stuff and picnic tables LOL lots of and lots of post oak picnic tables that weighed like 600 pounds each. When we were pretty certain I was going to Croak in 2016 we packed up all of my wood working tools and were going to sell the whole shebang but Mrs. Krap Convinced me not to sell it all and that she could easily sell it after I croaked LOL. Gotta love her blunt logic in all things. She is my counter balance to my doing things without completely thinking them through, despite being so opposite in so many ways we make a very powerful team together! Probably why we made such good business partners before becoming Mr and Mrs Krap https://www.nyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/NDK-L200-Sales-Sheet-Rev-2023.01.pdf So all of my tools are stored away in the back of one of the 40' containers. I am very good at making Epoxy River Tables and Epoxy tables in general and well tables and benches in general. I did it more as a hobby building 4-5 picnic tables per year and 1-2 custom slab epoxy tables over the winters. To put it in perspective it takes me 10-12 weeks from start to finish for a 3x8 table, base, end chairs and side benches and a average price then of $1500 for a picnic table and $5000-$6000 for a custom dining set from oak or pecan. Most folks done realize that Native Pecan is right up there with White Oak as one of the hardest and densest wood in North America. Thus it falls in the REALLY Expensive range.... going for $3-$5 per board foot in the lower quality stuff to $24 per board foot of the High Quality lumber. And back on track. I think that 30x60 barn I am going to build is going to be a big wood shop and racks with slabs 2"- 4" thick for people to buy as kiln dried, rough planed slabs for DIY and my tables, chairs, benches etc on display for the not so DIY folks. I just DO NOT want to sell food or run the food trailers anymore. I am so sick of the public in general and being surrounded by hundreds of people at events. Things in people changed a lot in 2020 and they have changed a lot more since. There is just a general feel of anger, anxiety and fear pulsing off of A LOT of people now days. The Risk of violent confrontation and having to deal with someone trying to rob you is way up now days. Food Trucks and Trailers seem to be a preferred target now days regionally. 2019 I didn't know any of my fellow operators that had been robbed. Now I know 9 that have handed over their days work and sales at the end of a barrel or a blade. A couple of them twice and one on his 4th armed robbery. I am of the school that avoiding hostile situations is the best course and when they can't be avoided dealing with them quickly and permanently. Most venues prohibit the vendors from carrying or being armed, and well this State is not exactly friendly to use of lethal force in self defense and believes you should just hand over anything and everything a thief wants. I just can't operate like that in todays environment. LOL the Chuck Wagon now sits on the Pond Point acting as guest quarters and where I keep my beer and brat fridge. And where I sit and relax by the fire ring in the evenings. I just don't see it ever returning to a Mobile Kitchen with a big tent dining room around it again. The All American Food Trailer is pretty much a storage unit beside the machine shed now. And I really just can't find the motivation to deal with the nuts of any flavor out in public anymore. But I still want to do something constructive and productive that brings in a decent income and does not involve working 14-20 hours days 2/3s of the year Cutting live edge slabs and making high quality tables and dining sets seems to me a good way to accomplish that. And it is something I really enjoy doing. Can Sell here with the home turf advantage and not only feel but be much more secure than out in the public. Can also sell on Etsy and a couple of other market sites and ship........ so long as the buyer pays the shipping on that heavy ass stuff. LOL a Epoxy Table Top Alone Weighs 200-300+ pounds. A stump and roots base can get way up there on weight for the big ones. One does not simply pick my tables up and move them And it all comes down to what I can make at the start on the new sawmill. And wood working and building things is so much less stressful than having 40 tickets with food orders to put together and everyone wanting it right now because they are trained to McDonalds instant gratification at the drive thru
Love the look of the wood! Getting a mill is one of the tools on my long wish list of "wants" (but not really needed). Currently I just use my Alaskan Chainsaw mill, which is not that great but works with the right chain installed. Just slabbed up some white oak that was given to me, then coated the boards in anchor seal to slow the moisture loss and lesson the checks and cracks. Going to cut up the wood to make a few projects but that will be a year or two down the road as the tree fell just this year so it needs to dry out before using. Funny story, I got some white oak years ago, when I was into wood turning. I made a couple of kitchen spatulas and still have them today and they are my favorite kitchen tool for cooking. I also took a chunk of the white oak and rough turned a bowl and set it aside to dry. 6 months later when I pulled out to finish it, it was the shape of a football! I'll have to get a picture of it and add it to the post later, but no way that was going to be turned, now it just sits in the shop as a reminder that some wood really shrinks as it dries.
Pity about the Chinese motor on the new mill, strange they didn't offer an upgraded version of it with a decent motor. Very cool post, KK!
I sure hate I missed out on that mill . Ain't nobody's fault but my own tho . I love working with wood ,, it's a job doing it ,, but kinda therapeutic at the same time . I've been wanting to build one of them epoxy tables ,, maybe I can get around to that soon ,, gotta get a few sheds built 1st . Love your videos,, I appreciate you posting them for us ,, looking forward to the next one.
And, then you got yahoos like me that can't cut a straight line no matter how many times I measure and mark it. LOL! I'm hopeless!
Thanks half the people tell me I need to edit the videos and cut a lot of time out and do the high speed play thing. The other half tell me they like the unedited, unscripted 25-35 minute videos. Wish you would have got the old mill, on the other hand I am kind of glad I still have the 28 feet of old ground track LOL. They used to offer a cheaper engine and a upgrade to a diesel engine, and they came standard with the 23hp Briggs Vanguard V twin. After Covid and the supply chain problem they told me last call they just put whatever they can find at the lowest cost to put on them and claim no one makes a good 23-25hp engine anymore. I told them sourcing Predator Engines from Harbor Freight would be better than the garbage they are using. There are some nice smaller bandmills out there that will do 18"-20" diameter logs A friend got one of these from HF and loves it for his projects. https://www.harborfreight.com/saw-m...ubQhxonv4Dfp50XBP0ZzzDDoXuEI0vxxoCWUUQAvD_BwE
Ready to start again , Fire season is over , but harvest time is taking most of the day . earlier this year I dropped 5 trees , but couldn't finish them due to fire restrictions . Good Video KK and nice wood , mine is softwood (and that's what the girls told me ) Sloth
