Friday, June 29, 2012

No fly-in for me this year...

I just realized that this weekend is the annual ultralight fly-in at Mark Smith's Posey Patch in southwest Indiana!  I'm a bit bummed that I won't be able to go this year.  I thought about it earlier this month and decided not to go, but now that the day is here, I wish I had chosen differently.

I have been busy doing other things, like milling some lumber for my hardwood floor with my brand new TimberKing 1400 bandsaw mill.  It's a lot of work, but it's really cool.  The sawing isn't the hard part, it's the cutting of the logs into sections, getting them on the mill and stacking them to dry that will work you to death!  At age 50, I'm in good shape, but I have some issues with my back an shoulders and the work required causes me some pain, but still, it's a good way to stay in shape and have a useful product when it's all said and done!

All-in-all, I'd rather be flying more than anything else.  Believe it or not, the sawmill is all part of the flying "plan" so to speak.  I'll be cutting the pine near my chosen airstrip site and milling it for lumber to build more of my house, to mill siding and interior wall covering, and to build... get this... a hangar!  Once all the trees are cut I can call in the earthmoving equipment to cut and fill in the required places and I think I'll be able to get 400-500 feet in length to be able to fly from my property!  Sadly, this is a couple years down the road as I have other things to deal with first.  Still, it's a dream and a plan!  We can't really live well without them, can we?




Monday, June 11, 2012

I had the opportunity to visit a local small sawyer on Saturday.  He was sawing some small black cherry logs on his old Wood-Mizer LT30 sawmill.  It was a great experience and the only time I have actually touched a band-sawmill.  The lumber was going to be beautiful when it dried.  I wish it was going to be mine!

Friday, June 08, 2012

Post and beam barn? Why not?

I'm having grand visions of constructing a huge post and beam structure now that I will have a way to cut large timbers for cheap.  I'd like a huge gambrel roof barn, but I think I'll have to settle for something a bit smaller and simpler.  I've ordered some books on post and beam construction and I'm hoping they come in today!  You know that it has been said that the first 40 years of childhood are the toughest...

Monday, June 04, 2012

Forget the chainsaw... How about a bandsaw?

Back in the 90's, I did a lot of digging for facts about portable band-sawmills. I came to the conclusion that I didn't have the funds to buy one, nor a good source of trees, nor a customer base to support the cost of owning one. I also had too many costly hobbies already and I could barely afford to keep enjoying them.

Again, in the mid-2000s, I did the same thing and came to the same conclusion. It's now 2012. I now own 60 acres of trees, I'm building a house in the country that exists without siding, needs a wall finish and floor finish on the interior. A few weeks ago a storm blew over 6 or so large pecan trees on the property of an acquaintence of mine and he has agreed to let me cut them into lumber for only the cost of a few of the boards. Sounds like a perfect time to make the investment in a mid-sized bandsaw mill to cut lumber.

I have done about a month or so of research and after narrowing it down to three different models from three different companies, I have chosen to buy a TimberKing model 1400. I plan to order it today and expected delivery would be sometime in early to mid-July. I don't even have the mill yet and already on facebook there is a friend of a friend asking if I can saw some wood for him! Isn't that a blessing! I'll post more when the mill comes in!

Here's a link to a video that shows the same model in operation... TimberKing 1400 in action.

I'm excited! please fogive the cheezy music in the video...