Turbosawmill

[oldclaypaws]

Just got a message from the proposed UK importer to say they couldn't raise enough funds to start up and any orders should be placed direct to NZ, which is a shame. Looking on the NZ site I'm not sure if they price in US or NZ dollars, and after shipping charges and VAT what the total bill would come to- probably more than the proposed £4800 on 'eco log jiggle'. They need a UK distributor Rich (?).

[The Barrowers]

Well I know what I want as a present next year, A Mill oh and maybe a workshop

[oldclaypaws]

I made a couple of phone calls over the last couple of days doing further research on milling kit, trying to suss what might be most appropriate for my needs, which were quite revealing.

Peterson Mills are more robustly built than a Warrior, and meant for harder use going most of the time, not necessarily the right kit for a hobby or small wood owner. They cost something like £15K plus the VAT. There's a 'junior' model, but its not usually carried by Loglogic, the UK importer.

Where I might have made something of a naive logistic boo-boo, is I've watched loads of videos of milling into planks, as shown on Logosol and the Warrior videos. It was probably softwood. However, it seems you can't just cut oak into 1" planks of your desired dimensions and then stack it to dry. It'll warp all over the place. Maybe OK for green Oak furniture but not joinery boards. Apparently what's done with oak is its cut through and through (horizontal sections) into really quite thick long boards, maybe 20ft by 4 inch thick and a couple of feet wide, too heavy to handle manually- it needs a front loader. Then the tree is 'reassembled' horizontally with spacers between the slabs, and left covered to dry slowly for a good couple of years. Only at the end of this when its nearly seasoned, its milled a second time down to the final required board size. As you're dealing with large diameters, its initially got to be done by a bandsaw, a Peterson or warrior couldn't cope with a couple of feet, although they might do for the 'final cut' to board size.

Still got to do quite a bit of footwork and research to fully understand the oak milling process. At least if I've 1/2 ton slabs stacked in the yard, someone nicking them is less of a concern.

[oldclaypaws]

Having had a long and productive chat with the guy near me who's agent for the Warrior, I hereby apologise and retract all the previous nonsensical ramblings about having to cut thick boarded oak. It seems the reason they do that (as illustrated above) is they have to do it that way when using bandsaws on wide diameters. They cant do vertical cuts like a swing saw, and thin joinery thickness boards would indeed warp on a very wide through and through cut. If however you can do smaller vertical or horizontal cuts, you can initially turn the timber into sizes for end use in carpentry, provided its correctly stacked and carefully seasoned. The chap selling the Warrior is near to me, very knowledgeable and approachable and I'm off to see him next week to see the process. Glad I hadn't bought my big saw yet as one of the conditions of the Warrior getting its EU certification is it has to be sold complete with the power unit, EG big Stihl, and I don't need two !

This milling lark is a steep learning curve with everyone coming from a different segmented perspective, its hard to get an overview of all the processes at different stages and find the one that fits your purpose. Maybe when I've got my head round all this I should write a book on it as there doesn't seem to be one out there that tells you what you need to know without a lot of research. Just as well I like a challenge. Onwards and upwards.

[Terry]

Hello Paws, been away a bit.
Just been reading your milling rambling, albeit from January, so presume your research has progressed.

I think you need to be wary of advice about milling to, or close to finished dimensions as all timber will move regardless of whether cut to smaller or larger dimensions.
From memory a few years back we had some oak milled and I believe they milled at something like 37mm to obtain a seasoned finished board of 22mm. These averaged between 7 & 10" wide.

Also, if you are hoping to sell some of your timber, the market might demand larger dimensions.

Terry

[Wendelspanswick]

I think you need to be wary of advice about milling to, or close to finished dimensions as all timber will move regardless of whether cut to smaller or larger dimensions.
From memory a few years back we had some oak milled and I believe they milled at something like 37mm to obtain a seasoned finished board of 22mm. These averaged between 7 & 10" wide.

Also, if you are hoping to sell some of your timber, the market might demand larger dimensions.

Terry

That seems a large margin Terry, the mill I worked in allowed for 1/4" on narrow boards and 3/8" for wide boards so between 6mm and 10mm, 15mm seems excessive. The boards were sticked at 400mm centres and kiln dried after air drying for 3 months.

[Dexter's Shed]

if you want Paws reply on this, your better off posting on the facebook swog page, I lured him over to the darkside

[SimonFisher]

**** POSTS MOVED ****

Subsequent posts on 'forum or Facebook' moved to http://www.swog.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=2155

Please keep this thread on-topic.

[Andy M]

There may be some useful information about the Turbosawmill on Facebook if anyone wants to look.