This looks like fun

[RedMF40]

Or a good way to get yourself killed. Frick sawmill, $1000 cash and carry.
WVA FB marketplace.

 

[bc]

Aww. Just wipe the blood off the blade and get a motor to power it.

 

[Gambles]

We have a very small tractor show near me every September. They have one very similar working model that they fire up every year for spectators to watch.
I don’t find it too exciting because my dad and I put up many tons of wood every winter with a widow-maker similar setup every weekend to keep the tractor and feed wagon from freezing up…conveniently stored in an uninsulated shed.

 

[RedMF40]

We have a very small tractor show near me every September. They have one very similar working model that they fire up every year for spectators to watch.
I don’t find it too exciting because my dad and I put up many tons of wood every winter with a widow-maker similar setup every weekend to keep the tractor and feed wagon from freezing up…conveniently stored in an uninsulated shed.

I'll watch for a few minutes at our local tractor shows. Always powered by steam, and the way the volunteers fuss over the saw and machinery makes me think a lot more goes into cutting wood than just turning on the saw and feeding it logs. More interesting when they get to the good, useable boards that come off the log.

 

[kencombs]

The one I've always enjoyed watching is the shingle mill. Those guys make a lot of cedar shingles in a hurry. Smells great too.

My great grandad and great uncle used to have a cordwood saw. Neither ever got hurt and burned wood for heat for probably 50 years on that farm. Uncle did nearly remove a foot splitting though!

 

[gmccool]

The one I've always enjoyed watching is the shingle mill. Those guys make a lot of cedar shingles in a hurry. Smells great too.

My great grandad and great uncle used to have a cordwood saw. Neither ever got hurt and burned wood for heat for probably 50 years on that farm. Uncle did nearly remove a foot splitting though!

I've never had a lot of interest in a saw mill but I have a shingle mill that I use every year at our show. It attracts a lot of attention

 

[RedMF40]

They cut cedar shingles at the Berryville, VA show. I have a few on my shop wall since they throw them in a big pile and say help yourself.

 

[Richard G.]

Or a good way to get yourself killed. Frick sawmill, $1000 cash and carry.
WVA FB marketplace.View attachment 106848

I ran a sawmill like that for many many years on my farm. I sold it 2 years ago.
Just have to know what you are doing.

 

[caterpillar guy]

One sold here this winter and it went for about 1100.00 with the track made from school bus frames and the carriage most all of it hydraulic operated. then the engine was an old Cat power unit engiine the size of a D-7 went for 1200.00 so for about 5,000 with cement pirs for the frame to set on you could have been sawing with it. IF I had been 10 years younger I would have bought it .We had the guy saw enough lumber to build a 62x62 with a mow floor in it to keep cattle in when we had the milk cows. He sawed all the planks in 2x12 for the plates and 2x6 for the rafters and 2x4 for the girds and roof boards with 88x8 for the main timbers and 3x8 for the mow floor cross members as well as the floor boards. Was a good saw with plenty of power to saw logs as big as a 72 inch blade would almost go through on slabing the first couple cuts. And some was 22 fot long. Would like to have had some in 30 foot. IF I set one up it would be so I could saw 40 foot long. No it would not be very often, but never saw a mill that somebody didn't bring in logs to long to saw including us.

 

[da.bees]

There's one like that in operation near me. Those handles you see near blade on opposite to house adjusts log angle, cut thickness and returns sled after each cut. Operators normally attach pull ropes to those handles instead of standing close enough to blade to reach handles. There was once a goof ball that climbed up and road the sled when he had and audience.

 

[Wdj]

The one I've always enjoyed watching is the shingle mill. Those guys make a lot of cedar shingles in a hurry. Smells great too.

My great grandad and great uncle used to have a cordwood saw. Neither ever got hurt and burned wood for heat for probably 50 years on that farm. Uncle did nearly remove a foot splitting though!

When I was a kid there were a lot of old guys missing fingers. Most of them in shingle mills.

 

[M-MAN]

It's only dangerous if you hit something in a log or the blade guide breaks. When that happens you hit the dirt. The saw bits flying are like a machine gun and just as deadly. Only had it happen once but that was one time too many.

 

[moresmoke]

When I was a kid there were a lot of old guys missing fingers. Most of them in shingle mills.

Yes, much more likely to lose some fingers in a shingle saw than a sawmill. Especially if it has a trim saw with a push down table.

 

[sonny2]

My grandfather on my mothers side had a sawmill, he ran it with a 28 Buick engine, he would let us grandkids ride the back end of the carriage. Every time I watch a sawmill video and when the saw starts cutting, I Can imagine the smell coming from that log

 

[bc]

Yes, much more likely to lose some fingers in a shingle saw than a sawmill. Especially if it has a trim saw with a push down table.

I knew of a farmer who lost his ring finger jumping down from the side of a grain truck while holding on with one hand. Had ahold at the stake hole and ring caught on the edge.

 

[NDIHC]

I knew of a farmer who lost his ring finger jumping down from the side of a grain truck while holding on with one hand. Had ahold at the stake hole and ring caught on the edge.

Happened to my dad's uncle. He had to learn how to play guitar with a finger missing on his left hand. Some chords were tricky but he was still a very good guitar player, along with several other instruments.

 

[RedMF40]

Since some of you have been around these giant saws, a question: for the carriage, was it moved manually or was there a motor involved? Years ago on a road trip through the south, my girlfriend and I stopped to take a few pictures of an old truck parked outside a business in--I think--Mississippi. It was a crane truck used for logging and the owner of the operation came out to talk to us. Said the truck was still being used even though it looked like it had been bashed every which way and then bashed some more. We were surprised. Logging is rough on vehicles, from what I can tell. Then he walked us around back to an outbuilding that was very much overgrown with vines and small trees. Nothing had happened there in a long time. He showed us the old sawmill--what we could see of it--and its steam engine was still in place. This was during the time of film cameras, well over 20 years ago, and I'm sure I took some photos--especially of the truck. Wish I could remember where exactly that place was.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Normally there is a drum with cable wound around it.the cable goes to each end of the carriage . the drum is turned both ways to wind the cable as it unwinds it from the opposite direction making the carriage travel back and forth the bed of the carriage is only about a 1/2 inch from the blade as it travels. The ratchet works the log closer to the blade as pieces are cut off from the log. depending on how far you move it is how thick it cuts. Usually the guys I've seen sawing would take a slab off then roll the log over to that side and take another slab off then roll it over so the smooth back side and bottom set on the carriage and against the head block. You also don't want to short of a carriage for a long log or at the end it will jump some from the teeth cutting the last couple cuts with the spring of the wood. IT will not do it so bad at the back end as it will when the log starts into the blade. Old guy that used to saw for us had that happen a few times.I think he was pushing it a bit also causing it.

 

[da.bees]

Redmf40 there's still plenty of those beat up trucks being used in S.E. Oklahoma. If you think that winch truck looked dangerous, wait til one like it overtakes and passes you pulling a load of logs. Best I can figure based on what locals and unfortunate souls that have been involved in an accident with one of those trucks each is owner operated and, non are insured. That's why locals take the ditch and give trucks a wide berth. Law enforcement turns a blind eye rather than doing routine safty,license and insurance checks.

 

[sms]

Grew up in Dad's sawmill and logging. Had one of my own until I moved a few years ago.