Tree to Table

[smojo]

Its not easy to get a big Butt onto a bench without some serious heavy gear

Kim Kardashian has the same problem

[Terry]

Hi Paws

Lots of advice on the milling section of Arbtalk if you havnt been there already.
Considering the size and number of your butts, I would have thought it might pay to get a bandsaw hired in, but if access is not good, then alaskan it is.
Again, from Arbtalk, considering your situation, the advice from 'Big Jim' would seem to be to aim for a double power head and an assistant to speed up the process and reduce cost. (increased cutting rate more than compensates for other costs)
I would have thought you would need an assistant anyway just to help manhandle the boards - they wont be light. I certainly would not be planning to do it on my own and I am fit and 6'6" and seen a bit of milling.


The weekend warrior (or its bigger industrial brother) mentioned by Rich is good for smaller dimensioned timber, but no use for big slabs.

[Rankinswood]

Hi,

I saw this post on the Oxfordshire Woodland Group web forum re Logosol Big Tree chainsaw milling and thought that employing this technique might provide an affordable way to convert a big log. The log length that can be converted is limited by the length of the rail that is attached to the log.

Rankinswood

[oldclaypaws]

There appears to be lots of potentially interesting milling gear and I'd like to see as much as possible before possibly taking the plunge. It ideally needs to be portable to take to the tree, reasonably efficient and accurate at cutting and not breaking the bank. Usefully, the governments pension changes mean I might have access to some funds shortly to buy some serious kit. The logosol seems to be similar to the Alaskan, but I'm not convinced its superior. Watching the Oxfordshire beech video its evident the Logosol veered off course from the intended cut, the Alaskan is braced on both ends of the chain bar and would be more rigid. It might be productive to talk to Big Jim, he's been playing with using winches to steer Alaskans along big logs without an assistant; an interesting development. I like the look of the weekend warrior, not sure as yet of costs or availability and maximum log dimension capacities, it may not appear in the UK.

It would be good to see as much of this kit as possible in one place at the same time. Can anyone comment on which forestry show or event might have the most milling kit on show, ideally within range of the Southwest. Treefest at Westonbirt any good for kit?

[Rich]

Treefest doesn't have that much in the way of forestry kit, it's aimed more at families and craftspeople, last year there was a antique steam powered circular saw mill, but you wouldn't get that into your woods!

A better show is for larger scale kit is Bentley 3rd weekend of September in East Sussex

[oldclaypaws]

What about the APF show at Alcester, Warwickshire in September? I notice Logosol and Woodmizer listed as exhibitors among others..... Some serious kit there !

http://www.apfexhibition.co.uk/

[Terry]

Yes - APF had a good few milling options last time I went.
It is a BIG event, so if planning on having a look at everything I would suggest staying overnight.
If you just want to concentrate on the milling side you could do 1 day.

[oldclaypaws]

APF had a good few milling options last time I went

Can you possibly expand on that comment, was it largely big rigs, or were there many mills aimed at smaller uses?.... Remember any names (Lucas, Peterson?) or rough descriptions?

[Terry]

Mmmm, was 3 or 4 years ago so cant remember a lot of it or I get confused with other shows, but there were a lot of bandsaws - woodmizer and quite a number of their competition.
Logosol was there and someone was showing alaskans I think. Seem to recall another chainsaw mill but cant think of the name.
Have seen Lucas somewhere, but not sure if it was at the APF. Not seen Peterson at any shows.

Not much help there then - sorry.
I would say that being the APF, most offerings are going to be more industrial than your needs perhaps, but would have thought it worth the trip purely from what you will be able to learn or someone in the business will be able to point you in the right direction and who knows what might be on offer as there were quite a number of retailers showing equipment from smaller manufacturers.

If you are a machinery junkie, you will be in 7th heaven regardless