which slabber

[tablelander]

first of all hi to everyone, as i am new here. I have a tree plantation with mature trees mainly cabinet making timbers and hardwood/softwoods.And am thinking of slabbing up some using a portable mill, i like the look and price of the portable chainsaw mills does anyone know the better ones to buy. cheers

[charlsie]

tableander welcome and where the heck is sarina? my sugestion would be employ someone with a mill pay them to do a bit of slabbing for you that way you can see how good the machine is. you could also get a spot mill in and compare the two. try before you buy i recon good luck

[tablelander]

hi charlsie, sarina is near mackay, i was thinking along thelines of the CSM alaskan etc.just for slabs

[BobL]

In Australia it's more about what you can get rather than which is better. That's what so many Aussies make their own mills.

Westford's in WA (http://www.vianet.net.au/~jemal/)make good mills but they are not cheap. If you are considering buying from Overseas I would look at a Granberg (http://www.granberg.com/) and depending on the tree sizes I would look seriously at their Alaskan MkIII .

Seeing as you have a plantation you might want to consider a band mill or even a swing mill which are a lot more productive and produce useable timber instead of just slabs . It depends how much $ and time you have on your hands.

[tablelander]

hey bob, i went with the westford after much thought ,i have an old stihl 076 its abeast.All up with the mill and chain it was $650. like you said money is a problem and hopefully it should pay for itself in no time. I need a set of rails i had a look at other posts and the old ladder seems a favourite so i,l try that. Going to try it on some blackwood, a she oak not sure what type it is yet, it has round pods that grow of the stem. some rosewood and qld blue gum. i,l be busy.

[BobL]

hey bob, i went with the westford after much thought ,i have an old stihl 076 its abeast.All up with the mill and chain it was $650. like you said money is a problem and hopefully it should pay for itself in no time. I need a set of rails i had a look at other posts and the old ladder seems a favourite so i,l try that. Going to try it on some blackwood, a she oak not sure what type it is yet, it has round pods that grow of the stem. some rosewood and qld blue gum. i,l be busy.

Good move. Ladders are a good idea and pretty light as well. I recently made some new rails (basically along the lines of my old ones which bent from the weight of the 076) using 2 x 6 m lengths of HD Unistrut. The 6 m lengths are cut in half to make 2 x 3 m long ladders which can be joined together to make a 5 m long ladder. The downside is they weigh a ton and wouldn't want to be carrying them too far.

Looking forward to seeing the timber you cut.

[tablelander]

Had a look at the bilmill today thats bloody awesome i,d buy it.Went and got an old ladder today seems sturdy enuf,the old 076 does weigh a tonne though, do you know best way of securing ladder to log being milled.Looking forward to milling some logs will post some potos when done,cheers.

[BobL]

Had a look at the bilmill today thats bloody awesome i,d buy it.Went and got an old ladder today seems sturdy enuf,the old 076 does weigh a tonne though, do you know best way of securing ladder to log being milled.Looking forward to milling some logs will post some potos when done,cheers.

Thanks for the comments on the BIL mill.

There are a number of ways to secure ladders to logs.
1) The simplest is to use 3 or 4 ratcheted tie straps and tie the ladder to the log. The disadvantage is you have to move the straps as you cut down the log or you end up cutting the tie straps. I use this method for "one of" small logs because adjusting my rails for one or two small logs is a PITA.
2) The other way is to tek screw the ladder legs direct to the log. This makes for very firm rails but you need to keep track where the screws are and how far they have penetrated into the log. Hit a tek screw with a chain and the chain knows about it big time!
3) The other way is to bolt pr clamp a couple of adjustable plates or bits of angle onto the ends that can be slid up and down the ladder and tek screw these into the ends of the log - this is what I do but I use unistrut instead of a ladder. A lot fiddlier to set up but once its done its done.

I'm looking forward to the photos!

[tablelander]

thanks for the ideas bobl ,found an old ladder and cut and rejoined it today,just an old alluminium job,copied your idea with the bolts on the end of ladder to secure to log with some angle iron ,hope you dont mind(good idea).will use the straps for the first cut of log then use securing bolts for the rest.

[Calm]

.........will use the straps for the first cut of log then use securing bolts for the rest.

Some people use rails for every cut but most only use rails for the first cut then the mill runs on the prvious cut edge which should be straight.

To hold the ladder to the log i use tek screws on an angle/skew to hold the ladder by the rungs and take a fairly big cut first. Then if i want to i remove the ladder turn the "top" that i just cut off over and take a cut off this using the cut edge for the mill to run on. Like Bob says tek screws and chain dont mix.

Hope this helps.

[matildasmate]

first of all hi to everyone, as i am new here. I have a tree plantation with mature trees mainly cabinet making timbers and hardwood/softwoods.And am thinking of slabbing up some using a portable mill, i like the look and price of the portable chainsaw mills does anyone know the better ones to buy. cheers
This thread is worth looking at mate . Cheer's MM http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/showthread.php?t=69599

[tablelander]

thanks for the ideas fellas will put tek screws in,just waiting on the mill to turn up .:U

[Sigidi]

In Australia it's more about what you can get rather than which is better. That's what so many Aussies make their own mills.



Bob are you serious? Surely you're not saying you can't buy a slab mill in Australia?

Not trying to be argumentative or anything, but this doesn't seem to ring true, when I went looking into gear I found more than enough options.

Admittedly many people seem to make their own, but I think this is the nature of Aussie inventiveness and not wanting to pay some fella in an office to buy something we think we can make easily enough ourselves????

[Arthur Dyason]

Admittedly many people seem to make their own, but I think this is the nature of Aussie inventiveness and not wanting to pay some fella in an office to buy something we think we can make easily enough ourselves????

You must also take into account that when you make your own equipment you have NO product libility insurance. If you miss safety equipment off your homemade equipment YOU are 100% liable for any injury that may occur to those people helping you do your milling. If Workcover attend a site where your working they can not only shut you down but hit you with a very large fine.

Sometimes the savings are just not worth the cost when you can loose everything. Mills like EcoSaw and Lucas are just not that expensive when you take all things into account.

If you know how you can make one of our monorail slabbing mills for material costs of about $1500 but then you need to make jigs and pay for professional labour and the product liability insurance we as manufactures are required to have. Makes the $4000 price of the mill reasonable.

And you dont have any try and error development to worry about!!!

arthur

[Sigidi]

But if you're making your own gate for instance, instead of buying one, you don't need product liability - (unless you live in the USA) IF you haven't made it right it will break and you'll have to make another one. If your making your own sawmill, to have as a hobby when you come home from working away for a few weeks, then you don't need product liability unless you want to sell the hame made stuff to some other fella.

In business for myself, found it extremely hard to get insurance companies to even quote for product liability, let alone cover for it. In the instance of making some custom furniture for someone and I quote "if it breaks you should have made it better" hance no joy in even being covered for product liability.

One would think if you are making your own item, there would be no requirement for product liability or cetified welders etc unless you specifically wanted to have it built that way.

I'd think product liability doesn't really enter the equation???

[Arthur Dyason]

I'd think product liability doesn't really enter the equation???
Sigididoesnt matter if your using it alone and for hobby thats fine. However I would recommend Public Liability as if a family member or neighbour has an insident due to their negligents its still your fault unless you have taken all precausions possible. Even then it could still be you that ends up paying.Just because the farmer has a sign that a bull is in the field and -do not enter- if the idiot still gets run over its the farmers fault. Just the way it is here in australia.As soon as you have someone to help you or you use your home built equipment in a public place then product liability in Australia is a must.If anyone gets injured due to a faulty weld or a component failure then you need cover. No cover can result in you loosing all you own for a very long time.Just ask your local friendly Insurance salesman and see what he has to say???

[Sigidi]

Arthur, surely product liability is only for someone who wants to sell their mill (product) to someone else - as in your case.

In the instance of someone wanting to make their own mill, to use themsleves and they then decide to go and do some on-site milling and someone gets injured, then they need to have Public Liability cover, not product liability cover??

[Arthur Dyason]

Sigidi

99% of the time yes you are totally right.

If your making something though public liability doent always do the full job. Everyone just needs to be carefull with what they are doing and always think about the 'what if'.

If its only a few dollars more then its probably worth it for the piece of mind.

If you commission that qualified welder then its his insurance that gets hammered.

[tablelander]

interesting reading sigidi and arthur, the only reason i bought a westfordmill,is because lets face it you are hanging of a chainsaw and my 076 has some kick and i need my limbs.I didnt feel confident enough to build one myself, although one day i will have a go.I am milling on private property and the only poeple coming on to my land are timber buyers.Does pay to know where you stand on liability matters cos you just never know.thats my 2 cents worth anyway.

[Sigidi]

Everyone just needs to be carefull with what they are doing and always think about the 'what if'.



Yeah the shame is, Aussies weren't like this, but big dollar payouts have started to change true blue natures. Just have a read of Carl's post;

http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=67511

How come we now have to take all precautions possible, why isn't a 'Do Not Enter' sign good enough anymore?

Anyway I think we have hi-jacked Tablelanders post enough and hopefully he will post us some pics of his gear soon???

[Arthur Dyason]

Does pay to know where you stand on liability matters cos you just never know.

Just think safe where ever you can.

As Sigidi requested - where are the pics???

[tablelander]

i have pictures on computer, but when i tried to upload them they said they were to big? any ideas.

[DJ’s Timber]

You need to reduce the size of the file, have a read of this thread (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=36666) to get some ideas on how to do it.

[Sigidi]

Tablelander try this place;

http://www.mihov.com/eng/

I have their image re-sizer software (was free) and does a great job for reducing the size of pics quick and easy, to whatever the specs are for the forum and any other application you might need them for.

Hope it helps

[tablelander]

thanks for that sigidi, downloaded it and having a play with it now.

[bobsreturn2003]

made both a chainsaw and a motor driven slabber, several years ago . due to high prices and freight costs . and both took a lot longer to make required a bit of fine tuning ,but cost was right . depends how handy you are ! certainly great to have your own machinery working for you . but would buy if i could ,as resale on second hand brand gear is near new price . chasing a bandsaw mill at present , cheers bob