First full day of Sawing

[etroup10]

Well today was my first full day of sawing and I had a blast! I had gotten to run the mill a little bit after work this week but I still am learning a lot. I'm just milling beams for a log home company and taking off big slabs to make the beams in as few cuts as possible and avoid blue stain from the sapwood. We then make wood shavings out of the slabs at work so we aren't wasting much. I'm working by myself but have a skidloader which helps a lot with the big beams! The biggest ones I got today were 12"x12"x16'. Here are some pictures of my progress. I didn't get as many beams as I had hoped but I'm still learning and things were starting to get faster towards the end.


 


 


 

There was just a little bit of stress in this slab  :D But the beam was still good!!



 

I had a pretty good slab pile at the end of the day, which is all going to be made into wood shavings



 

[BCsaw]

Looks like your coming along! Nice work.

[dgdrls]

Well done Etroup10,

how about some pictures of the shaving mill??

Best
DGDrls

[drobertson]

You bet! getting a good rhythm is the main thing.  It just takes time and patience to get the flow, working part time has it's advantages, and disadvantages, but full day is a good way to make up ground. 

[goose63]

Looks like a good day  8)

[Peter Drouin]

Nice, But there's a lot of 1x4 and 1x6 in the slab pile 

[etroup10]

Nice, But there's a lot of 1x4 and 1x6 in the slab pile 

Yes there is, but we are getting $.60/bf for the smaller beams and $1.00/bf for anything bigger than 8x12, and any 10x or 12x. We can sell as many of those beams as I can cut and so its just not worth the time to cut the small boards out of the slabs. We don't have a solid buyer for them and since we can just make them into shavings we aren't losing very much if any by not cutting them.

[Chuck White]

Seems to be a good market for shavings these day too.

It does speed things up a lot when you can make fewer cuts and still get your end product!

[drobertson]

I had a similar job a few years ago, the order was to slab heavy and get the beams, some of the pine was bluing, and the logs were large, which made heavy, heavy slabs to pull off and handle.  I made the comment, can I take a few boards off for my keeping if it does not slow me down too much? explaining the weight issues I was having with some of the slabs,  he said go for it, later that day, he said nice call, he  ended paying for all I sawed.  I was picky, but some was just to good to be chipped.  It was a different scenario than what you are in, but close in some regards,  good job on getting it moving too!

[etroup10]

The crazy thing is, the past 2 years they had been turning logs like these into shavings!!!  There were a lot of great quality and clear logs that have were turned into shavings! And just for reference, the big log on top of the pile is 40" across at the butt end.

[mad murdock]

Congratulations!! Nice whack o beams there 8)

[Magicman]

I think that you are doing quite well.   8)

[etroup10]

Thanks everyone. I got to mill again today. The log home business needed some 8"x16"x16'. They didn't have to be boxed heart and could have sapwood. I was able to get a 16"x16" cant and split it in half. It was a shame to take that big of a cant and split it. I should have gotten pictures but didn't think about it at the time. Also, I was having a difficult time trying to turn the log with the claw turner after I got two sides done, and since its a 1995 woodmizer, it doesn't have the clamp that goes up and down which would have been nice. I ended up having to use the skid loader to pick up and flip the log.