Shed for a bandmill

[Ed Thayer]

Good morning all,

I am still considering my options for a saw mill and would like to construct a shed for it when I get one. My plan is to pour a concrete pad 12′ x 24′ to set the mill on. This would allow me to saw 16’ logs with a little room to spare.

I would like to keep it simple and just use a single pitch shed roof. The front wall being 12’ tall the rear wall being 10’. Metal roof and a clear span in the front. Opening of the shed to the South of course.

Are there any engineers out there that could recommend the steel size needed for that 24’ span sitting on 6×6 posts?

Ed

[near horse]

Hi Ed,

Happy New Year. Can’t help with the steel beam question but near here a guy saws wood for flooring, siding, finish etc and he uses his covered area for the sawn material with the mill out in front. He doesn’t get near as much snow as you do but do you have plans/thoughts on how/where to put store the cut material? BTW – he added a profile cutter to his setup so he can do some molding too.

[Donn Hewes]

Hi Ed, Couple of thoughts I had. First, if not steel, you could build a 24 truss. 2 x 6 bolted together, etc. Also 2′ of pitch is shallow, why not let the snow slide off? One more thougth. if I had one I would keep my saw dust out of the weather. Much easier to sell it, load it or move it. Perhaps 24 x 24 with slab on one half. 24′ trusses with the gable end facing the side you want to load logs from. I built a 24 x 24 pole building and it is a drive trough so I can park PTO cart, baler etc. Don’t think I have any pictures of it. I made home made trusses, but often you can buy the 24’s trusses for not too much.

[mitchmaine]

hey ed,
if you only needed room on your front wall to roll in a 16 footer, you could sheath 3 1/2 feet or so on each side of the front wall, therby needing only an 18 foot header. hemlock 6×8 would carry that alright. you could move the opening anywhere on the wall, for that matter.

[Jonathan Shively]

I’d pour the concrete floor. Set the mill. A blue tarp can be your friend for a while, you can saw up what you need and build the shed around you using your own material! Also this will give you a specific known idea what foot paths you are using, where a pole would be handy, unhandy, in the way, out of the way, etc. A pitched roof/truss style will give you the great opportunity to expand in both directions with lean to roofs. A buddy of mine set 2×2 angle iron angle up on RR ties and made his own mini RR and used some steel rims with a groove to follow the angle iron to move a log in and set slab wood on and run out the other end of the mill. His I beam and trolley with chain fall were outside the building above the RR track so you backed in (and were no where near the mill and building) and with log tongs or chains lift or drag out logs and load on his homemade RR cart and take to the mill. Just some ideas. Oh, and if not wanting to spend the money on the treated posts, there are U brackets for regular posts on top of concrete that keeps the end of the pole dry then.

[j.l.holt]

Keep in mind you can put a removable post in the opening for the logs. this carries the load while you are not there. Mount a barn door hinge and life it up and away.

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