video of a swing blade sawmill in action

Paul Wheaton · #1 10/03/10, 09:23 AM

If you have never seen one of these in action before, it is worth a look

http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/0/M0ZN9KqNF2o

Wolf mom · #2 10/03/10, 09:30 AM

Thanks, Paul, for expanding my horizons!

Harry Chickpea · #3 10/03/10, 11:00 AM

Can I hire that guy who is working for him?

Nomad · #4 10/03/10, 11:10 AM

I think it would be better if the operator could pull the machine with a handle from the side. All he needs to do is trip over those cross pieces when he's backing up and he's hamburger. Just an opinion on safety.

Nomad

Explorer · #5 10/03/10, 11:43 AM

Thanks Paul. another good video. If the SHTF you and your friends will be OK.

po boy · #6 10/03/10, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nomad

I think it would be better if the operator could pull the machine with a handle from the side. All he needs to do is trip over those cross pieces when he's backing up and he's hamburger. Just an opinion on safety.

Nomad

I agree, the present setup wouldn't pass OSHA!

I imagine it needs to be pulled in the center to maintain a straight cut.

A pulley system that reverses would be a good idea

texican · #7 10/03/10, 02:14 PM

Thanks Paul!
Do you know Mark personally?
I worked with him and Annie, up in Denali for half a dozen years, and was room-mates with them for a season or two.

Next time you see him tell him Briggs saw your video!

I'm in the digesting phase of looking for a small sawmill. The tide is surging here, the local bandsaw guy is gone, it's a long long haul to the next closest one, he's wanting 350/M, and I've got four huge pines in my 'front yard' that are dying.

Paul Wheaton · #8 10/03/10, 02:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by texican

Thanks Paul!
Do you know Mark personally?
I worked with him and Annie, up in Denali for half a dozen years, and was room-mates with them for a season or two.

Next time you see him tell him Briggs saw your video!

I know Mark. He's brilliant. I have two more videos of Mark up on youtube. If I pointed my video stuff at Mark and let him ramble about whatever pops into his head, I think I would get six or seven good videos every hour. And I think many of you here know that I am VERY picky about what I think is good stuff.

Unfortunately, nearly every time I pull out the camera Mark doesn't want to be videoed. So, I have to to keep trying and then once in a long while he doesn't mind.

nc_mtn · #9 10/03/10, 08:13 PM

I'm still a Bandsaw fan....
But its cool to see so thanks!

texican · #10 10/03/10, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Wheaton

I know Mark. He's brilliant. I have two more videos of Mark up on youtube. If I pointed my video stuff at Mark and let him ramble about whatever pops into his head, I think I would get six or seven good videos every hour. And I think many of you here know that I am VERY picky about what I think is good stuff.

Unfortunately, nearly every time I pull out the camera Mark doesn't want to be videoed. So, I have to to keep trying and then once in a long while he doesn't mind.

Mark was always 'running' away from cameras, at least at Denali. When he was in charge of collecting wild seeds for rehab'ing mined areas out in Kantishna, I made a small fortune collecting sacks of wildflower seeds.

rambler · #11 10/04/10, 07:50 AM

Neat.

Did he say it only has 5 teeth? Would seem slow cutting with sich few teeth - the trade off thing, speed, ease of use, ease of maintenence, etc. etc. Pluses & minues to only 5 teeth...

Do they run into problems with metal in urban wood? That is a common concern for the very few wood cutters around here. In addition to the tripping going across the beams backwards, I'd worry about standing that close and hitting some metal in the wood.

He mentions cutting any size wood. The blade does not look that big around, kinda wonder about that. We get some fat trees around here, perhaps he doesn't run into the 4 foot plus trees in his location? They need twin staggered blades around here to make circle saws work in the big wood, to get through the trees. Even then, dad had to cut a huge cottonwood in half lengthwise with the chainsaw to make it fit on his uncles' saw. He did darn good setting up the beam for the chainsaw, cutting from both sides with the chansaw more or less freehand folllowing the beam.

When he cut the tree down, he circled it with the 24" chainsaw blade, left about 5 inches in the center. they pulled it over with the tractor and long cable. Sticking out in the middle was a metal shaft that musta leaned against the tree as it was little. The chainsaw missed it by an inch or so.

Neat video. Family was always interested in sawing wood, I coulda ended up being a wood cutter instead of a farmer.

--->Paul

Paul Wheaton · #12 10/04/10, 08:53 AM

5 teeth: I have a smaller swingblade mill and it has only two teeth.

metal: he has a massive metal detector.

any size wood: This mill is designed to carve off a layer of a log at a time. So you could have a blade that digs in only 4 inches, but have the tracks and carriage so that you can take on logs that are 40 feet long and ten feet thick.

texican · #13 10/04/10, 01:31 PM

Paul, I've looked at the swing mills, and apparently they cut 2x material the most. To cut boards wider than 8 inches you need to cut on both sides, and get it just right, or you'll have 'stepped' lumber (where the blades meet in the middle of the board). Need 2x8s or 1x8's, it'd be the bomb.

I love the concept of cutting huge logs... however, I need lots of wide slabs, 1x 12" > 20".

And the cost is a little pricey, at ~14K.

Reckon if I had a business processing logs, I could see getting one of these, as well as a bandsaw mill for large slabs (coffee tables, table tops, etc.).

I can see having tons of yellow pine 2x lumber... or beams of yp. But, beams and 2x of walnut, cedar, hickory, cypress, etc. wouldn't work.

Paul Wheaton · #14 10/04/10, 02:27 PM

The mid range swing blade mills can usually cut 8x8 (or 2x8, 4x8, etc.) easily and a 8x16 with a little care. But if you are willing to use it to take the top 1/3 of the log as 2x4's and then flip the log and take more 2x4's, the remaining slab can be whittled to any size. If you want a four inch thick slab that is three feet wide with the natural edges - you can have that. Or you can carve off the edges.