Wood Mill – A practical Tool To Have On The Homestead

Reader Contribution by Bruce Mcelmurray
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    Summer is finally here so it is time to set up the wood mill and make lumber.  Lumber comes from trees and not just from lumber yards.  In the course of one hour and about $1.00 in gasoline, I have 15 two-by-fours and several other boards that are all cut true to size, straight with no warp or twist, and the cost is a little sweat and gasoline.  We have through attrition several large pine, fir and spruce that have died and would have to be brought down anyway.  So why not turn them into lumber?

    My wood mill is capable of churning out about 2,000 board feet of lumber in an eight hour day.  I try to get to the trees that have died and are suitable for lumber before they start to break down, insuring that the lumber is already mostly dry and suitable for lumber.  We live in a area that is semi arid and as I write this the humidity is recorded as 11 percent.  It doesn’t take long for lumber to be ready to use at our elevation. 

    When I cut the lumber to dimension, it will stay that size, and there will be no twisting or warp.  The one exception is aspen which I am told has a very high percent of water content.  I have not had much luck with air drying aspen lumber as the grain is twisted and it seeks its equilibrium once it commences to dry further. Aspen has a pretty grain and is a pretty wood but not the easiest to dry.  One help in drying aspen is to seal the end grain with paraffin wax paint.  It also helps if you quarter saw the boards but a log only provides a small amount of quarter sawn boards and there is more waste associated with selective sawing. 

    I have found that the better you take care of equipment the better it will serve you.  That is certainly true with wood mills. I last put my Lucas Mill away two years ago and due to surgery last year I did not get to use it last summer.  I got it out a few days ago, set it up, fueled it up, lubricated and oiled it and gave the engine a pull and it started immediately.  In fact, the Honda 13 horse power gas engine has never once failed to start at our high altitude on the first pull.  I had some logs already cut to length and ready to mill out and so it was time to get started right after I tightened the belts and sharpened the blade. 

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