The Homesteaders Get A Saw Mill

Looking great ! I bought the Lumberlite 24 from Norwood a few years back and enjoy it greatly , always wanted to build a solid 5x5 cabin .....but so far I am just stacking timbers mostly .I built a chicken coop in the style of a cabin ,just used upright 1inch thick boards , but the structure is solid timber interlocked . I want to make mine portable so I can haul it where ever I need , no tractor so I have to physically lift each log , cut ,delimb and then load , get home , stack ....I normally cut one cord at ten feet each time , thick enough to make solid 7x7 timbers , then when I'm ready I have to drag them to the mill bed and THEN I can cut , thank goodness I like the heavy work .Most timbers I cut are dead standing , some recent and still green to a degree , others just right with very little moisture left . Plan on adding a Kiln of sorts to dry the timbers once cut .........but that won't be for a while .Enjoy the mill , it has endless possibilities
 
I am still looking into getting one of these little saw mills you can attach to a chainsaw, which are not very expensive, just for private use to make some timber/shelves when in need?

What turned me away until now, you need to dry your made timber/shelves about 2 years before using them as they will shrink considerable while drying. At least I learned this from an owner of a commercial saw mill. He had an immense stock of drying shelves/etc.In addition to buying one time to fresh shelves which ended up horrible (made a floor from it) and it shrunk...;-(

How do you go about this problem?
 
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@dickhuhn - The chainsaw mills are a nice little investment for those looking for small projects that one person can do. Just be aware (from personal experience) that you need to use "ripping" chains, and unfortunately they went pretty quickly for us.

Fortunately, for the cabin we are building and for the lumber order we did recently, the shrinking was not a big problem. We cut stickers and stack our lumber up under a protected shed. It's a small little start but it works for us. It really bothered us in the beginning about the need for a kiln or two years of drying! We did notice that GREEN lumber warps up badly for us. I don't know if this is much help, but like I said we just sticker stack all of the lumber we use. We are beginners- we haven't had it even a year yet.

**You might check out the forums on the Norwood website- there are lots of folks there who know a great deal about milling up lumber!
 

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