Saw mill

A couple days ago Doug and i got the saw mill fired up for the first time this season. He gave me a days' worth of instruction on how to use it and sent me on my way. What a cool machine, taking logs from the woods and turning them into any size lumber you need. It's a lot of work man handling the logs but if you use some leverage with a little elbow grease it's not to bad. I took some pics of a few of the steps to mill an 8X8 timber. As long as you check and double check your settings and various tensions the mill is very easy to use. I start off with a log about 9 feet long and 12 inches in diameter. After the log is clamped onto the bed, a few cuts are made in half inch steps until a good wide base cut is attained. All of the half inch scraps are saved and re-sawn into siding that you have seen on all of the newer buildings on Dougs property. What can't be cut into siding is thrown in another pile and later burned in the wood stove. Back to the log, after the wide base is attained the log is flipped over and the process is repeated until you have two nice parallel sides. Then the log is then turned, with one of the sawn edges against the log stops and a cut is made to square up to the parallel cuts. Then the log is flipped over and for the 8X8 timber several cuts of various thickness are made, those boards are set aside and re-sawed into other size lumber, until the 8X8 size is achieved. This is just one of the ways i've cut lumber in with the mill but there are many different ways to go about it. Most of the lumber we are milling will be use to finish framing the bathroom in. And the big 8X8 timbers are going on top of the concrete foundation blocks we've made, that is what the new addition is sitting on.