My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

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robinson46176
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My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by robinson46176 »

We made a disheartening discovery recently. I knew that there had been a few reports of Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) in my area but we have now found them in a lot of our trees... :(
I have always liked ash trees and started planting them and saving naturally sprouting ones many many years ago. I've planted a lot of other species too including pine and losing all of our ash trees will not leave us bare but it is really sad for us to be losing them. The last couple of years I have been planting more walnut. (both black and Carpathian), tulip poplar, sugar maple etc. since I knew the EAB's were coming.
The up side of it (at least there is an upside :rolleyes: ) is that I do have a need for quite a bit of lumber this year. The EAB's kill the tree by eating the cambium layer but they don't damage the wood.
I have hundreds of ash trees of all sizes and I want to be sure that as little as possible goes to waste. I will saw and stockpile lumber in addition to what I will use this year. The slab-wood from the mill and the tops will all go into firewood. I have a couple of buzz-saws of different styles and I have cut firewood with one of them off and on for years. I also have a third one that can be mounted on a garden tractor. I have several locations here on the farm to store firewood under roof. There should be enough for several years of heating the farm shop and the large house both.


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farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

My condolences, farmer ... it’s a sad thing to watch. Around here, the ash trees are all dead, but some of the larger ones are still standing. A nearby nature preserve where my wife and I hike looks like a bizarre arboreal battleground, with fallen ash trees thickly littering the forest floor.

Per the law of supply and demand, local ash lumber prices have plummeted. I thought rough-sawn lumber had hit rock bottom a couple years ago at $1/bf, but right now there’s a mill advertising the stuff on CL for $0.60/bf. That’s about what it would cost me to have someone bring out a bandsaw mill and saw up my own logs.

If you can store it long enough, I’d bet that ash lumber will eventually become scarce, and fetch a premium price. It’s really nice wood.
Hobbyman2
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by Hobbyman2 »

it is hard to watch them go ,hope some one can figure out a way to stop these things , I seen a article the other day about not transporting any ash from the woods this time of year because it just spreads the bugs. I try to strip the bark off everything now before I remove it from the woods . if you want some really nice lumber have it 1/4 saw'n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7Kt3IrTBlA
Hobbyman2 Favorite Quote: "If a man does his best, what else is there?"
- General George S. Patton (1885-1945)
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robinson46176
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by robinson46176 »

EAB's have been reported in some white fringe trees and there is concern that they may be capable of adapting to some other species when the ash trees are basically gone. I've not seen any mention of what other species they think they might adapt to.
At least locally our woodpecker populations are going up and most ash trees have signs of woodpecker activity. It was that activity that made me inspect them more closely.


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farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
themox
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Location: Greenfield, Indiana

Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by themox »

I have (or had) 5 ash tres in my backyard I planted about 27 years ago. When I saw the EAB borers were entering the area (Hancock County), I started treating them with ground drench insecticides. After reading Purdue's paper on the EA,I then hired a local company to treat them. Unfortunately, according to another tree surgeon I hired later, the original company had done such a poor job that the treatments were ineffective. $3000 down the drain. I had the worse one removed last fall. The other four are still growing a bit but show all the signs of infestation. I'll get another summer or two of shade before I have to get them removed. More money to fix someone elses mistake

Riley Park in Greenfield had to remove over 100 trees due to the EAB. Much less shade there now..
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beeg
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by beeg »

Another import from China.
SS 500(09/1980), DC3300, jointer, bandsaw, belt sander, Strip Sander, drum sanders,molder, dado, biscuit joiner, universal lathe tool rest, Oneway talon chuck, router bits & chucks and a De Walt 735 planer,a #5,#6, block planes. ALL in a 100 square foot shop.
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Bob
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robinson46176
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by robinson46176 »

Now that the woodshop is slowly coming together (I use the word slowly a lot) and a few things in the farm shop are "sort of" finding homes the time has come to start "shop 3"... :eek: :rolleyes: :) This one I will probably just refer to as "the mill". At one time I seriously considered putting my woodshop there but wanted more room and heat and other conveniences. In the late 1930's and through the 1940's my family owned and operated a private park with fishing, picnicking, camping and a couple of cottages. The center part of this building started life as a 10' x 18' cottage built in the late 1930's by my father and his uncle on my grandparents farm in another part of this county. When my parents bought this farm in 1951 it was moved here and put on a foundation up about 3' above ground. It was used as a seed & feed building for the farm. At the same time my father built the foundation for a 12' x 18' addition on each side of the original building but at ground level instead of elevated. The south-side addition was added pretty early but we didn't put up the north one for a number of years. It makes a decent 18' x 34' building but the 3' higher in the center part didn't lend itself well to a woodshop. The center part has some "stuff" stored in it, but not a lot. I keep my zero-turn mower and our golf cart and some lawn tools in the south wing. My father was an extremely active amateur geologist and he had his "rock shop" in the north part. About 6 showcases and about a ton of rocks. The rock shop had never tried to bite me so I just left it alone... :rolleyes: He died in 1993 so I guess I need to empty it out now. I need the space. :)
There are 2 other structures in this location. One is an unused metal grain bin about 14' in diameter and about that tall with a perforated drying floor. Yes, it has some "stuff" stored in it. :rolleyes: The other is also a metal grain bin, about 21' in diameter and 30' to the very top. And yes again, it has some "stuff" (including much of my SS parts stash) stored in it... I hope to use both for drying and storing lumber. These 3 buildings sit in a sort of an "L" shape and the sawmill is sat up at the inside of the L. At the point of the L there is a huge maple tree that makes a lot of shade over the buildings and the mill sits in the shade about all day.
There won't be a large number of hand tools in the "The Mill" but my chainsaws and stuff like cant hooks, log carriers, most axes, log tongs, cables and chokers etc. will all reside there.
I will also move my 5 HP planer/molder/ripsaw to the north part of the mill along with a RAS and a table saw with a 4' x 6' table.
Of course the planer will be too far from the woodshop to run to every time I want to plane a small board so I'm planning to pick up a lunch-box planer for the woodshop.
I'll add a few pictures to this later.
The first thing I need to cut is sub-floor and some floor joist for the rehab house but then I think I will take time to cut some stuff for a cover for the sawmill. Maybe about 12' x 24' mostly open shelter (gas engine).


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--
farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

That sounds like a whale of a lot of fun, farmer! I gather that your energy level is back up to super-normal levels these days. :cool:
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robinson46176
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Location: Central Indiana (Shelbyville)

Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by robinson46176 »

BuckeyeDennis wrote:That sounds like a whale of a lot of fun, farmer! I gather that your energy level is back up to super-normal levels these days. :cool:


It actually is kind of fun but the mid 90's temps and really high humuggity have dragged on me a bit. I still work but often at "something else". No matter how hot it gets I can still sit a mower and we have plenty of that to do. Many times I work early and late and do things in the house or woodshop during the hot part of the day. Sometimes we just take an extra long lunch. :) The drop in temps the last couple of days has been nice.
At this time I am feeling better than I have for sometime. I hope I can keep the run going...


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--
farmer
Francis Robinson
I did not equip with Shopsmiths in spite of the setups but because of them.
1 1988 - Mark V 510 (bought new), 4 Poly vee 1 1/8th HP Mark V's, Mark VII, 1 Mark V Mini, 1 Frankensmith, 1 10-ER, 1 Mark V Push-me-Pull-me Drillpress, SS bandsaw, belt sander, jointer, jigsaw, shaper attach, mortising attach, TS-3650 Rigid tablesaw, RAS, 6" long bed jointer, Foley/Belsaw Planer/molder/ripsaw, 1" sander, oscillating spindle/belt sander, Scroll saw, Woodmizer sawmill
charlesw
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Re: My sawmill is suddenly going to be very busy this year.

Post by charlesw »

What a great opportunity for both of you. Wish I was closer to help out.
Love the farm idea, and you have so much work invested.
Charles
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