DIY Oak Lumber

It’s a good small mill.

We bought it about a dozen years ago.

I spent a generous amount of time researching all the sawmill offerings. There are some nice machines to be had … from Plain Jane models to models with all the bells and whistles. Small mills. Big mills. Automated mills. Manual mills. Mills that cost a few thousand dollars. Mills that cost a lot of thousands of dollars. Mills for the backyard hobby sawyer. Mills for the professional full-time sawyer.

The Hud-Son Oscar 18 seemed to be the most realistic offering that would set me up as a backyard hobby sawyer. This particular mill is powered by a 6.5 HP Briggs and, once a log has been squared, allows 18 inches between the blade guides. I’ve yet to cut anything 18 inches wide but I have milled some 14’s from pine with the mill.

The mill sat for several years down at the other place without being used. It took a little productive tinkering and piddling to get it going after moving it here to the hill.

The actual operation of the small manual mill is pretty simple.

The mechanics of the thing aren’t at all complicated. The biggest thing about it is to not hit anything with the blade other than wood … things like the log dogs that hold the material in place. I ruined a blade by that mistake. Nails hidden in a log are a mean culprit too. The only way I know of to avoid a hidden nail is to use a metal detector on a log if it came from an area where someone may have nailed something onto the tree.

The real learning curve involves material handling.

Logs are heavy. An 8-foot Southern Red Oak log that has a diameter of 20 inches weighs right at a thousand pounds (991). Longleaf Pine, of the same dimensions, weighs just over half a ton (1030). It seems strange that this type of pine is heavier than the oak but those are the estimated weights generated by the log weight calculator.

Safely handling that sort of weight, without the assistance of wheels and hydraulics, isn’t terribly complicated. It does involve returning to and applying some ancient Old School science. Personally, applying and realizing the effective results of this old school science is quite gratifying. Ropes, ramps, levers, and fulcrums. It’s amazing what these four will do for us.

The first main thing to remember is to keep body parts, especially fingers and toes, out of pinch points.

The second main thing is to always think ahead and take steps to control the roll of a log in the event the sum of movement + gravity + weight creates a potentially dangerous situation.

There was some tree work that needed doing here on the hill. Two trees needed taking down. My son in law and I studied on these two trees for a long time and decided that these were trees that posed the potential to get the best of us despite our best efforts. Both trees were potential future problems and taking them down required the assistance of an experienced tree man with the necessary gear to climb and top them out before laying the logs on the ground.

The tops were turned into firewood. The logs made their way to the mill where they were milled into some nice material for some rustic furniture projects.