Small Woodland Owners' Group

Logosol Big Mill

A place to discuss or review of tools and equipment, how to look after them, handy hints for using them.

Logosol Big Mill

Postby Rich » Tue May 29, 2012 4:26 pm

Hi there,
Mike's posted a good write up on his blog of my set up with the Logosol Big Mill system.

http://peplers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/t ... erjig.html


I've built a bit of a ladder to move heavier logs up and got a couple of clamps to hold them tight. As ever you can always find ways of improving something once you've used it for a while. I reakon this is quite a good system if you want to mill a few planks for a table or some benches now and again, but you wouldn't want to use it all day. The DVD which comes with the product and I think is available on the logosol website, makes it look way easier and to be fair it probably is, but I've really only used it for chestnut and a bit of oak, very hard wood and I've found a maximum of 6 passes and you'll be sharperning or changing the chain!

Rod and myself just about managed to mill enough planks for a chestnut bridge in a day.

Image
________________
Richard Hare
SWOG website editor

[email protected]
www.swog.org.uk
Rich
 
Posts: 448
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:36 pm

Logosol Big Mill

Postby Bearwood » Sun Oct 27, 2013 2:13 pm

Hi Rich,

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread, but how are you getting on with this 18 months or so down the line? I'm in the market for one, and I'm interested to see how it has performed on a variety of woods.

Thanks in advance,
Bearwood
 
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:04 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby Rich » Tue Oct 29, 2013 5:14 pm

Hi Bearwood,
Apart from oak and chestnut, the only other wood I've used it on is larch. With a new sharp chain I was really expecting it to whiz along, but actually it wasn't noticeably any easier despite it being in theory a 'softwood'. The biggest difference I have found is the amount of wood your bar is in. Obvious really.. a small diameter is going to be easier to mill than milling the larger stuff.
Other options are the Alaskan Mill for similar set up costs.
________________
Richard Hare
SWOG website editor

[email protected]
www.swog.org.uk
Rich
 
Posts: 448
Joined: Wed Jan 07, 2009 5:36 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby oldclaypaws » Tue Oct 29, 2013 6:17 pm

I just had a fascinating discussion with the head honcho of a leading distributor of log milling equipment. They do some very nice toys.

I'd started by trying to track down a (lost) local contact who rents out a Peterson Mill, which are reportedly one up on a woodmizer (alledgedly OK for softwood, but wobble on hardwoods). Having got my contacts, I discussed what I was sitting on and the conversation then morphed into the practicality and economic dividend of cutting, drying, and marketing hardwood timber.

The gent concerned convinced me to investigate this option, in effect being 'a small scale local provider of dried cut quality timber'. He reckoned with thought and application, I might have just sorted my pension.....

You'll might notice that with an oak butt, if you sell it standing to a contractor who does all the work, you get a few hundred. He then sells it to a sawmill. If you organise all the work yourself and sell it to a sawmill, you get maybe a thousand and they then cut it, dry it and sell it as seasoned timber. If however, you cut out all the middlemen, and supervise everything yourself, including the felling, drying and selling to the end user such as a cabinet maker, for an investment of a few hundred your tree turns into several thousand. If only I was a cabinet maker as well.....

Reckon the 'max value added' might be the way to go. (And I seem to recall its not taxable either)
oldclaypaws
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 5:13 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby SimonFisher » Tue Oct 29, 2013 7:59 pm

You mean something like this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF7aYVwi7Uw ?

How practical is this sort of thing if you're working on your own, not that I know whether you would be?

Do you mill where the tree lies after it's felled or do you need to be able to extract to somewhere else. I see they have the it sitting on some supports which means they can cut right down to the very last piece.

What sort of setup would you need for drying/seasoning?
SimonFisher
 
Posts: 614
Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:00 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby Andy M » Tue Oct 29, 2013 10:20 pm

Saw a similar thing demonstrated once, looked good. Maximum width of plank seems to be 5-6 inches - limited by spindle, so that is where the bandsaw type may have an advantage.
Andy M
 
Posts: 114
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:15 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby oldclaypaws » Wed Oct 30, 2013 8:50 am

How practical is this sort of thing if you're working on your own, not that I know whether you would be?

Do you mill where the tree lies after it's felled or do you need to be able to extract to somewhere else. I see they have the it sitting on some supports which means they can cut right down to the very last piece.

What sort of setup would you need for drying/seasoning?


I'd only manage the operations required, hiring appropriate experts, not doing the specialist bits myself. To hire tree fellers should work out at an hour each/ £50 a tree if they do several in one visit. The trees need to be carefully moved using a tractor and log arch to a firm flat processing area for cutting (I have one on site- my former gypsy site, thank you Council for filling in my pond and creating 1/3rd acre of hard standing). If they are just dragged, grit gets in the bark which will screw the mill blades. I can hire a local Peterson Mill and operator for £350 a day, who could process a good amount in one visit. The advantage of a Peterson v Woodmizer is it gives a very straight cut on hardwoods, woodmizers use a bandsaw which can wobble and give less even cuts. If selling at a premium to the likes of cabinet makers, you need top quality good clean cuts. The market for English Oak boards of this quality is strong, its very much in demand. Because it grows slowly, its far superior to Continental Oak.

Hardwoods can be aired dried in the wood on site if carefully stacked with spacers and covered on top to keep the rain off. There are also solar drying 'kiln' set ups, where you put something like a polytunnel on the drying stacks, and use the power of the sun to dehumidify. I'd read a couple of pieces about this and have been referred by the Peterson Mill guy to someone who does it professionally in another region, who I understand is very forthcoming with info, might visit them. I also know a local wood worker who has a large heated wood drying kiln, it would be possible to speed the whole process by renting his facility, as he's offered. The cost is not prohibitive, and it might also be possible to consider a similar small facility on site using something like a shipping container; the sealed unit is heated to about 40 degrees and a electric dehumidifier used to extract the moisture, the process then takes weeks rather than months or years. The natural air drying process is cheaper though, has less carbon footprint and doesn't need electricity.

This approach does require quite a bit of time to research and supervise, the right level and secure physical space to process and store finished timber, an initial outlay for the labour/equipment hire, some time to devote to marketing & selling, and the commitment of quite a lot of personal effort and free time.

Its easier to just sell the whole tree at the roadside, most people can't face all the hassle of seeing this from start to finish; its like do you grow Barley and sell it as grain or open a micro Brewery? As I understand it though, the difference in income if you see the whole process through with a tree is a factor of five or more. A tree's worth of dry quality hardwood oak boards is worth many thousands of pounds.

Its certainly worthy of further investigation.
Last edited by oldclaypaws on Wed Oct 30, 2013 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
oldclaypaws
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 5:13 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby Bearwood » Wed Oct 30, 2013 8:59 am

My requirement from a chainsaw log mill isn't for dimension-perfect interior grade timber if I'm honest. I want to make some larch-lap boarding, create planks for flooring and beams for building, but the latter two would be dried for a year or two and then run through a planer thicknesser before use or sale. It sounds as though this kind of chainsaw mill would fit the bill, especially given the versatility of the kit, my expectations from it and the positive reviews given by the likes of Rich and others.

I'd love something the likes of the bandsaw mill, but realistically I think the capital outlay is too great for the return involved for a small producer. I also harbour a bit of desire to restore a vintage table or rack saw to be powered off either the PTO of the Fergie or from a stationary engine. At the end of the day, its a bit of a pipe dream, but wouldn't it be great?!(although the H&S would be a nightmare!)
Bearwood
 
Posts: 161
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:04 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby oldclaypaws » Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:10 am

The only bewildering thing about owing a wood full of valuable timber (and recently becoming a 'free agent', with 100% free time) is trying to decide which of the numerous options to pursue.- Whether to fell and sell, or fell and process into something more valuable, or currently personally the more sensible favoured option three- continue to think carefully and do further research before doing anything drastic! My oaks have been up for 130 years, another few months or a year won't hurt. You need to have the end in sight and all processes thought through before starting, but ideas are starting to gel.

I have nothing to lose immediately from continuing to extract the residual rubbish, prepare rides, clear my hard standing, hedge, do a map and management plan, flog a bit of firewood and do a bit of coppicing.

Its fascinating to gradually try and absorb all the jewels of info out there on Mills, Drying, Activities, etc- this is where being a Forum member and networking is so valuable. Think I'll have to start a filing system for all the contacts, FC leaflets, equipment brochures and nature guides I'm accumulating; the heap is now about 2 feet thick and my laptops 'woodland bookmarks menu' now runs to several hundred !.

There have recently been some excellent articles on various Logosol, Lucas and WoodMizer Mills, drying, etc etc etc in 'Living Woods' Magazine. Anyone as addicted to all woody things as moi would be well advised to subscribe.

http://www.living-woods.com/
oldclaypaws
 
Posts: 1132
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2013 5:13 pm

Re: Logosol Big Mill

Postby Andy M » Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:36 am

Bearwood wrote:My requirement from a chainsaw log mill isn't for dimension-perfect interior grade timber if I'm honest. I want to make some larch-lap boarding, create planks for flooring and beams for building, but the latter two would be dried for a year or two and then run through a planer thicknesser before use or sale. It sounds as though this kind of chainsaw mill would fit the bill, especially given the versatility of the kit, my expectations from it and the positive reviews given by the likes of Rich and others.

I'd love something the likes of the bandsaw mill, but realistically I think the capital outlay is too great for the return involved for a small producer. I also harbour a bit of desire to restore a vintage table or rack saw to be powered off either the PTO of the Fergie or from a stationary engine. At the end of the day, its a bit of a pipe dream, but wouldn't it be great?!(although the H&S would be a nightmare!)


I have a Logosol. Initially used it with a "timber jig" i.e. using a pices of timber for the straight line (see their website) but was not quite accurate enough. Eventually bought their 3.5 metre metal jig which is fantastic.

I am using timber for posts, railings and greenwood garden furniture, shave horses etc so perfect dimemnsions not critical. I wonder if buyying a secondhand planer/thicknesser if "good" timber dimensions are critical might not be a better option. For example see this auction site http://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb

It is also very portable.
Andy M
 
Posts: 114
Joined: Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:15 pm

Next

Return to Tools & Equipment - reviews, use and maintenance

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest