Bob Seymour demonstrates sawing a 10" diameter black cherry log with the Woodland Mills HM130Max

In late February, George Ritz, Jessica Leahy and I (Bob Seymour) spend a day and a half harvesting 19 black cherry trees from Ritz's woodlot. These trees were almost dead from competition and the tent caterpillar, so we came with our Kubota 1120D and LogRite arch and yarded them roadside to George's field. I retrieved the Woodland Mills mill (on a trailer) from my son Andy's place in Pownal, and set it up on George's land in Bradford, Maine. We made about 40 8' or 6' logs from these cherry trees, sawed them into mostly 4/4 boards, and generated a big pile of slabs and cut-offs for George's firewood pile. We sawed 4 short days (5--6 hrs) and probably generated 800 board feet of cherry lumber, plus some burl slices. We piled this down roughly for now (see another video) but I will trailer this back to my lot in Orono, extract some high-quality boards for cabinet making, sticker it, and sell the rest. If you're local and want some cherry lumber, give me a shout. March 27, 2023 Update: Just sold about 500 bf to a builder for $900, after stickering about 400 bf of clear boards which I will keep or sell later. Advertised on Craigslist for $2/bf log run, $2.50 if you pick. Also sold $50 worth to a friend.
Mill owners will note a few mods here made by Andy. The best and most useful is replacing the hand crank height adjuster with a Makita 18 V right-angle drill. Woodland Mills now sells an electronic height adjuster for several hundred dollars, but this is actually better and cheaper. The battery lasts all day on a single charge. A 5-gallon bucket to catch the sawdust on the outfeed is another simple low-tech tweak. I added Hud-Son's lumber scale which gives a direct measurement scale, along with marks for 4, 5, 6, and 8/4 boards. Just buy a roll of magnetic tape and stick it on. We also have a Makita 18V leaf blower which is very handy to clean off the mill periodically. We also bought the optional clapboard sawing mechanism, which I have used to make 6" pine siding boards.

[@hillbillyfranks]

Nice machine you got there I got AHM126 it's an older one but it works good keep on Cutting🎉🎉

[@terryatpi]

I wonder if you could rig up a second pointer more at eye level for the smaller logs. Possibly of heavy copper wire that could be bent out of the way for larger logs. Idk. Really good real time video. Ty

[@tmimotf]

Thanks. I think the new Woodland Mills upgrade will do the job.

[@rickvaiBBB]

Looks like you are doing good with the machine and have it figured out. Have you ever thought of getting an automatic feeder so you don't have to push it along?
One question. Why was the first cut so deep?

[@tmimotf]

You need to vary the feed rate based on log size, species, etc so a fixed-rate feeder would not be optimal. Plus I don't mind the exercise. Yes, the first slab was a bit thick; I might have got a 4" board from it, but we were trying to finish and I didn't want to fool with any extra edging for such small boards.

[@rickvaiBBB]

@@tmimotf You can them them with variable speed settings but I get the exercise part, thanks.

[@tmimotf]

​@@rickvaiBBB I get more "steps" on my phone and Fitbit when sawmilling than any other daily activity.

[@garymay5665]

Can you share how Andy modified the crank to use drill motor?

[@tmimotf]

Just remove the stock crank and attach the Makita, like it was a drill bit, using its on-board chuck key.

[@garymay5665]

@@tmimotf thank you!