Tom Boy Sawyer

Moving Tom Boy Sawyer to a new server today. This isn’t easy…

I’m shopping for a mill to upgrade my Norwood Lumbermate. “Millie” has been a great machine and cut about 7000bf of lumber this past Fall. Click on any picture for a bigger view. Be sure to visit Norwood’s web site to see all the add-ons for these mills. They sell a trailer package, bed extensions, and other stuff, but folks have been known to make their own as well.

The Lumbermate with 20′ of track (can cut up to 17′ log with this length of track). Track extensions can be purchased from Norwood or manufactured.

Early in the process of cutting lumber. Stacks of varying length material. The stack in the foreground is primarily staging stacking and flitches requiring edging.

Water with a small amount of PineSol is used in the non-freezing months for keeping the blade lubed and clean. Pine requires more of this “log lube” than hardwood. In the winter we used windshield washer fluid. Our local Tractor Supply had the best prices on windshield washer fluid.

The sweepers ride on the head. They are soaked every night in a mix of diesel and bar oil. They keep the tracks clean and clear for the head rollers. (Only the sawyer side sweeper is on in this picture)

A close-up of the roller guides. The sawyer-side (center of picture) is adjustable while the saw dust side is fixed. These are sealed bearings. The lube/water tube trickles this side of the adjustable guide on the inside of the blade.

I have about 60 Woodmizer blades. About 30 of them are still New In Box while the rest can be sent to Woodmizer for resharpening. All the used ones have only been used once and never sharpened – although a few have hit metal or stones.

Sawyer’s view of a cut. Pull cord of 13 hp. Honda has been moved to this side. Black tube runs water/pinesol mix to the nozzel for cooling/cleaning the blade. A small cant is visible on the track. Cutting guide is on this side (white verticle line). Guage on cross member reads blade wheel tension.

Front view of the saw head. White container on top is gravity feed for coolant/lube. Wheel is for adjusting blade hieght. Garage door-type spring along back/top of head counterweights engine/blade/wheel assembly. T-bar handle is for adjustment of spring tension on blade drive wheel. This is the sawyer’s side of the head, while the sawdust ejects on the other side.

Mark loads a white pine log with our Ford CL40 “Scoop”.

Another view of “Scoop” loading a log and the adjustable verticle cant supports.

This is the custom dog (clamp) which replaces the original Norwood screw mechanism. The cogged handle (down) makes set up and positioning of this really easy and fast.

Following are some pictures of the process of cutting down a log in the mill:

Setting up for edging boards like the flitch above.

And the white pine boards after milling the edge cut. These are a mix of 4/4 and 8/4 by 6″.

Recently we’ve been running some hardwood like this ash. While we milled pine this summer we kept the mill covered under the blue tarp you see in the back, but for the winter it had a home in this shed. The previous owners also always kept the mill under cover.

Here Mark is setting the supports. I’ll have to adjust the guide roller wider for this first slab cut.

The final cant of this log will be a 4″x8″x17′ beam for a floor joist. Right now it has one slab cut from it and I’m preparing to shim it for the next cut. “Gracie” the dozer is in the background along with my covered pine air drying. The lumber covers I got for free from a lumber yard through VBMX.

The log is leveled and the guides are set for the next slab cut from this ash log.

Our process is a bit slow since there are two of us and we cut a couple trees and saw and tail and stack them. This is the result of a weekend’s work – including cleaning up the brush and all from three pines.

We are storing the lumber inside a 24′x28′ tent until we have enough to either add to a current stack or create a new one. In the foreground are some oak and ash boards including a nice 8/4 x 12″ x 5′ for a stair tread.

Here go the most recent pictures.

Last weekend we spent one day milling up pine (pic above is of 4 pine trees milled to 6×6 posts and a mix of dimensional lumber, 2×6’s, 4×4’s, sheathing – 4/4×6 and 3/4×6, and siding 2/4×4 in varying lengths) and the second day clearing an area near the house. The driveway to the house is not much more than a riverbed of mud and we needed some frozen ground to skid logs up the hill for the mill. I have a feeling last weekend will be the last one we have until next winter with frozen ground surface. The pic below is the pile of logs ready for the mill we skidded last weekend. Those are mostly medium sized ash logs, the larges being about 16″ in diameter.

Behind this pile of logs is the pine slabwood – slabs when cutting the cant on the mill as well as rejects for a variety of reasons – rot (which we have very little of right now), bad blade stuff, miscuts, etc. All around in all these pictures near the mill you can see the stacks of pine we’ve been cutting.

This is the pile of hardwood slab. I’ve cut a bit more, but we’ve already taken some home and cut it to length and split it for firewood in the wood stove. I was hoping at the end of this past weekend this pile would be much larger, but it isn’t.

Here’s the last bit of pine on my mill. I cut 4 pieces of siding and a 4″x4″x7′ piece of bracing out of it before putting hardwood on the mill.

We use Scoop (the compact loader) to put the logs on the mill. For logs on or near the finished driveway, Scoop actually runs to get them. For stuff deeper in the woods we use either George (the ATV which is currently not running) or Gracie (the bulldozer).

Here’s a wide view of the operation. This particular WordPress template doesn’t allow for very wide pictures. This tent was a huge mistake because it took way too much precious time to set up. Then it didn’t want to put up with 60pmh winds since there is no cross bracing for the open end you are looking at. We spent one day dealing with rebracing it. In the background you can see Scoop holding a log which we are about to set on the mill, the mill itself at the other end of the tent and some very small piles of cut hardwood. In a few weeks I hope to have this tent nearly filled with lumber.

Here’s Mark helping me get the log set up on the mill.

And here’s the log after we’ve taken one slab off it and turned the cant 90 degrees, ready for the next cut.

On second glance, that ash isn’t quite ready for the next cut because I had to shim the end of it to get a cut parallel to the heart. This log has a nice crotch in it at the narrow end which made for some very nice figure in the sap cuts and some equally nice heartwood cuts early in the process. I took a couple 4/4 flat cuts to use in cabinetry and trim in the finished house. I’ll try to get some pictures later.

A new blog to document our pioneering project in Southwestern Vermont.