How We Automated a Timber Sawmill (and did it safely!)

Okay guys, this is Dan from Artistic Timber Works, aka Two Guys Timber Framing, and today we're going to be talking about your sawmill design that you need to design specifically for you. We're also going to show you exactly how we automated our entire mill with just that winch. I'll show you how we designed it for strength, positioning, and all the things that you could actually do with that winch. You will automate yourself to rolling your logs up, flipping your logs, spinning your logs. We do everything with it. It was the best small investment I made, and it's multifunctional. Otherwise, my mill I built really tall. You guys don't need that. Most of you don't actually have the equipment to put logs on your mill, and you're using the rolling system that comes with a lot of these different sawmill setups. Realistically, I'm not going to lie, now we use our excavator to do all of that. Other than for turning and flipping the logs, we do use our winch a lot. Okay, guys, they also talk about where you want to position your mill on your property. Now, out here in East Tennessee, finding a flat piece of anything is virtually impossible unless you have a bulldozer. At first, I was concerned at the placement that I was putting my mill because I've actually got drainage going downhill, and I'm going to tell you it was one of the best things I've ever done. We don't get any water coming in here, actually, the drainage I have to flow around our property. But what happens for us is since my property falls to the back here, I do not remove any sawdust. I spend no time shoveling this or that. Even when it rains off of my mill, it actually creates a gutter, helps me wash my sawdust pile down the hill. Now, you can see I'm probably standing on four foot sawdust right now. And as we keep milling our projects, I'm actually hoping that I can actually turn this into the Tennessee Beach Club and have myself a nice flat piece of land. I actually even bring some of the sawdust home and I use it in my horse's stalls and things like that. But I really do not remove sawdust other than maybe raking it out. It was the best way I ever did it. I'm glad I did it. With the downhill slope, you easily set yourself up log rollers and everything will move in the direction that you want your mill to move in. So something to think about if you don't have flatland. Okay, fellas, a couple of things you do need to buy when you get your mill to make this thing work perfectly for you is naturally, you know, all you got, you can't hook. You can't hook lever. Now, I purchased one of these things and we actually have it on the front of our mill as you can see. So when I'm loading our machine, Jay can actually control the log and then we can actually get everything supported the way that we need it to cut. Now another thing that you should buy is you definitely should buy the knee boards. Now at least get one of these knee boards. Now us, we bought one for the front. We've got one for the back. Frankly, I got tired of moving it forward and backwards and I use this thing all of the time. So a couple things you that you want. Our mill, we do not have the pro supports and I think that that's something that we are going to definitely improve our mill with and even we're going to try even the pro bunks because if we work the pro bunks, the pro supports with our giant logs that we're going to use with our winch, this whole system will actually just roll on its own. Okay guys, now I didn't do anything special than actually take my winch off of my truck because I got tired of actually hand rolling. Now this is a very good product that Woodland Mills makes and you guys are rolling small logs and things like that but if you honestly look over to our lumber mill, we do nothing but giant oak logs and these things weigh 3,500 sometimes 4,000 pounds. So I know I started off just like all of you guys, no shed, trying to load my stuff. I did use this, gave my arm a good workout and I'm much much happier doing it this way. Now all I did was take this thing off of my truck so it has my two inch receiver hitch here and my buddy Jay mortised us a perfect hold. So this thing is now stable into this. I've seen a lot of guys putting winches on mills and and having metal, I don't want to say metal thing, metal racks and things. This is the only way you're going to roll a 5,000 pound log. Now even when I say it's multifunctional, the truck gets stuck in the mud, take this chain off, the whole thing comes off. So mine is not run by electric. If you're out anywhere, got a battery off my truck, yes I'm plugged in and have a charger, you can easily have a solar charger if you're in the middle of nowhere. Now the other very important part of the design of mine is that I made the structural integrity strong enough to hold the log that I'm going to do. And this actual centerpiece that I have is an 8x8 white oak and I built this knee brace system here exactly where I wanted my winch handle to be. Now if you look, some guys have it in the middle here. We don't transport our logs this way. We're worried about getting them on, turning them, being able to secure them while you're working alone. So if you look, mine is towards the inside and for two specific reasons, not only for the massive strength that I have my pulley on my beam, but it's actually the position you're going to need to roll a big log. Now I've seen guys pulling straight up like this. You actually lose control of your log that way. When it's actually being pulled into it, it's forced up against, watch your head, log dogs. And that's what we want. A lot of guys will roll them in reverse to save their blades. We can't do that. These things are massive. So you're thinking about your winch and it's a dead lift. So if we're actually trying to pull up and work our log, this would be considered a dead lift. So you, even though I have my pulley system up here, which is going to actually give me a little bit more power than just straight at it. You can only consider half of the amount of pull power that's on a winch that you'll be able to dead lift the log. Not roll a log, dead lift, completely pick it off the ground. So think about that. A little bit bigger of a winch is actually going to give you a little bit more work than when you go and buy one of these. I don't want to say, you know, very small winches. This is actually from my truck. So like I said, it's a 12,000 pound winch. I don't think you need that much, but it depends on the wood that you cut. Now we're going to give you a demonstration. Even though I have not done this realistically in a long time, we are going to roll you up a massive oak log. We'll cut you a slice. We're going to show you how we flip it, secure it safely so that we can work on this mill daily without being worried or your wife being worried you're down here alone. Think about it. A little bit of extra thought. You got wood, you got a mill. Build yourself something strong enough that's actually going to work for you. Not maybe, actually work. So we'll get over to the winch here. Now me, I told you guys I'm using the winch from my truck. This is a 12,000 pound winch. That does not mean that you could pick up a 12,000 pound log. A winch works off rolling weight. So it's meant to move your truck. So if you actually have a small winch, 2,000 pounds, honestly, you're only going to be able to roll about a 500 pound log. So a lot of guys have these on their truck. I showed you how to make it universal for your truck, for your mill, but realistically, fellas, I know I promised you an oak log, but what we did put out here is we've got a giant hickory. And one of the reasons, two of the reasons that I actually did that was if you guys know about your log weights, hickory has a higher log weight than oak does. So it's going to prove my point about rolling that log. And then point number two, we didn't really need an oak log. And Jason and I are getting ready to do a videos and we're going to turn this log, which is a hickory log into our hardwood flooring. And quite honestly, fellas, I dropped these trees a while ago and I want to see what's inside there. So I've got my winch open and I'm going to give you guys a test run. And I told you, I have not done this. Honestly, I'm thinking back minimum of a year and a half. So this is almost like the first time we're all doing this. So I've actually just pulling my winch out the same exact way that you would use the Woodland Mills winch. And unfortunately, Jay is filming us and I'm doing this by myself. This is one guy, not two guys. So you basically do the same exact thing. Feed your hook through the and just like you would with your actually other with your other winch, you just do that now. Okay. So fellas, this is actually a 22 inch hickory log. And I did a log weight test on this thing and you're running about 2500 pounds. Now you could actually do a bigger log. I don't think this demonstration needs a bigger log because no person is rolling this up there. Now you can use the hand winch, but we got to save that for other stuff too. So guys, first attempt. Let's just see how it rolls. Going good. And that's how you put on a 2500 pound log. Look, very small, no need. But sometimes this is a 16 foot log, my friends. So this thing is heavy. And quite honestly, that's about the limit where you wouldn't want to use the other winch as a guideline. But you see how simply that went up. The whole mill handles it. I was going to try to show you a whole episode about me sliding this in, but it rolled in perfectly. So somehow I'm going to take my excavator and I'll pull this out. I'm going to show you how we can actually secure the front with our cant lever and use our winch to move around what we need to do. Because this is, fellas, come on. You kidding me? You ain't just moving this thing. It's ridiculous. Now, we realistically don't roll our logs anymore with our machinery. But if you guys start to do massive logs on your own and try the winch system that we put together, and if the logs are really long, if they're 10, 12 feet PCK, but if you want to start to put an 18 or 20 footer on, I actually will take my actual winch that I bought from Woodland Mills as I'm actually going to put my cable around and put it down here. We're doing a big log, so we would be at the end. Our winch would be in the middle. I would run this out as a guideline. And normally when guys are going to be doing a massive, massive log, you at least have a friend with you. So you can either have a controller on your winch where you can reach both of them and crank it, or your buddy can crank and use it as a guideline. It'll help keep the big log, the big, big log straight. Other than that, you usually just roll the winch, pop them bad boys right on, and you're ready to go. Okay, fellas. So you see, sometimes you get your logs up there and you're not positioned against your bunks. So the perfect part about having this cant lever is Jay. Hey, Jay, for me, you So basically what we're going to do is that our logs are so big, you could wrestle this thing in. I mean, don't get me wrong. You could wrestle it in. I'm going to show you how easy it is for number three of the super winch. And it's actually positioned. This is why if you look where my bunk is, boom, it's actually lined up with where I want the logs to do. So what I'm going to show you right now is we're going to strap this thing in, in two seconds. We're going to pull this in. No effort wasted. Safely, fellas. Safely. That's the whole key point about these videos. Safely. So, so okay guys, immediately, as soon as we get our logs on, and this happens to us all the time when I'm loading it with my excavator, trust me, we just don't care about it because in two seconds, my friend is to me that I could actually pick it up, but what the hell I'm going to show you anyway, there's my winch still hanging around instead of actually putting a loop or anything in this. All we're doing is we're going to cradle our logs. Now we've got control of it, controlled off of our building. Two seconds. Why Jay's down there holding on the end of my thing into our cant lever. All I do, give a quick pickup. Now you hear the weight of that? Boom. You see that? I wish I'd showed you that perfectly. All you do is just get the little bit of weight off of it. And because I positioned my pulley system, it's going to slide exactly to the bunk where you need it to be. Now you've done that securely. You've done that safely and you're not actually struggling. Everything is a piece of cake. We're cutting this log only for you guys here, but we actually want to see what's happening inside this hickory. And then we're going to flip it. I'm going to show you how to securely use your flip everything. Okay, boys, you're out here by yourself. Now you see this is a massive, massive log. Now it's easy. I couldn't really do it alone. I like to have my buddy with me, but really I just get my strap through. Now I use these straps. If you look at my videos for everything, we crane everything to it. I don't have 500 of them. I have a few dozen, but what I'm trying to say is all we do is at this point, we're not slinging it. We're actually going to put a small, uh, we're basically going to snatch this thing is what we're really doing. Okay. Normally he's standing there on the other side. So this goes a lot faster, but here we are just dead, which might be just you. So now usually before I've actually unclipped any of my straps, I'm actually secure. My log is secure. You know, when you've done this and you release these straps, this log might want to roll this way at you right now. Not going to happen. All we're going to do is we're going to release two clips that are going on over here. Nice job, Jay. And then look, come on over here. Come on around, Jay. Come on around and people. So now you look, I do not have my cable. I want to climb up here. I don't like climbing up here, but here we go. You see, I am not straight up and down. You do this straight up and down baloney. You're actually going to be able to lose control of your log right now. I've got total control against my actual, I'm going to call him a bunk again, but I know it's I'm going to say it again. We're getting the pro posts, but regardless it's against your post. You're secure here. I'm by myself. I'm rolling. We caught a snack. Here you go. Rolling my log. Now I can move this. You see how little I moved the thing. My number two bunk. I'm going to tell you guys, I don't have them all crazy level. I use my number two all the time. Just me. I had them all level that one time with all these giant log twists and rolls. But you see at this point, this log is completely secure. We're sitting against the bunks exactly where we want to be. Now, if I want to, I go over, I'm going to check my square with my saw. I might be able to roll back. You see the log rolled back. You have total control of this log. And that is the most important thing when you guys are out here milling alone is that it'd be done safely. So there we go. I've locked myself back into where I need to be. Okay. Really? It's too good. That's one. Now I'm able to walk over here safely, securely. My everything is taken care of. I pick up my bunk. I lock everything in place. I'm done. I walk back around. I'm going to release my cable. Everything is going to stay exactly where I wanted it to be. So I mean moving fast. This is about as quick. If you're going to be able to automate your own mill. Now, Jason and I, we do this hundreds and hundreds of times a day. So it's very simple for us. It's almost like second nature. I don't have to worry about all the other cables and chains and stuff like that. I'm working with a little strap. Oh, 20 bucks. No funky chain, no funky hook, no funky anything. And 100% secure. You, your wife and your family will be happy about it. Okay. Fellas. We also use our timber mill and our winch set up to make the most awesome, precise timber frame joints that you can make not only on the sawmill, but anywhere. So if you follow us guys along, we're going to show you how to make joints just like this. Okay, guys, after years and years of practice, this is how you can automate your standard woodland mills or any other standard side mills. Because I was going to purchase one of those $60,000 hydraulic system lift this hydraulic system lift that. And I'm 100% glad that I actually purchased this mill. Use the dang winch I've actually already had since I actually purchased and save money on buying this woodland mills. And I bought actually every little aspect they have into it. Even the sharpener at one time, we're going to show you that. But the money I saved guys, I'm going to tell you, I bought myself this excavator that I work with. And if you watch any of our videos, you're not going to believe that I brought my crane too. So now I have a crane, an excavator and a woodland mills mill. And Jason and I build the most awesome product. And I've automated my mill and we are using the biggest logs here. So all I got to say fellas, is that if you like anything, anything that you see in this video or anything that we have, follow us on YouTube. Give us a thumbs up, even a little comment. We'll answer and then subscribe.