Getting your feet wet

[BRP]

 This rainy Monday brings up a good topic.What do you guys do when the weather is wet.I'm talking about portable millers here not the ones under roof.
I personally do not mill in the rain,light mist or snow is o.k. Being a farmer I have learned to work with the weather not against it because it can't be changed anyway.So I find something else to do until mother nature says I can go out and play. :D
When I was working for the local mill(circle)we had to be in the rain.I remember a time me and a buddy went to fix a log loader in the POURING RAIN one of the pins came out so we put it back together and welded it in place.When done and in the truck my bud said "Good thing we didn't get electrocuted." He was right
I'm just rambling on since it's raining here and waiting for daylight.By the way ARKY looks like it's dry up your way,have fun and don't rub in in. :D :D :D :D :D

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Dry and dark up here right now but looks like snow.  I have a roof at home to park under and have lots of work here to do.  I have a job on the road tomorrow and I may call him and see if I can do it today.  I bought a tractor with a cab so on really nasty days I can at least move logs around and saw under my roof.  It is days like this that make me think of a bigger roof.
ARKANSAWYER

[Bibbyman]

Once you've got a roof,  you'll want walls.  About half our sawshed is closed in but the wind sure does come through the half that's open.  It's not too bad on the offbearer as I can move to some protected spot out of the wind and dust at least part of the time. And I get enough exercise to keep warm.  

But poor Mary has to stand there and operate the Command Control.  Mostly she complains that her hands get cold. :(

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Mary should get her a small electric heater and put over by that control center.   Some times a little heat goes along ways.
ARKANSAWYER

[BRP]

Yes a roof is in the plans.One customer asked if I could make a roof for the mill and offbearers I replied "That would be nice but how do I get it down the road." We laughed. :D

[Bibbyman]

You know,  I seen someplace advertised on a web site a deal like a temporary carport made of tubing and a plastic tarp.   The unique thing was that it had a light truss framing on one side so to eliminate the center posts just for use with a sawmill.  

Saturday afternoon Mary and I went shopping and stopped at Westlakes.  I spotted a 500w/1500w milk barn heater for $16 and got one.  I'm trying to think of a way to build her a phone booth to stand in.  Maybe she'll change into SUPER WOMAN!!  Hay!! Maybe that should be her handle instead of Pro-Sawyer Mary??

[Tom]

Mine's name is "Sarge" but I dare not call her that. :D

[Noble_Ma]

Bib,

I've looked at those car ports you're talking about.  They are nice but expensive.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do when I saw at home.  Right now I'm in the driveway.

Tom,

As much as we joke about the "boss", in my case she's the anchor too.  Keeps my feet on the ground and my head on straight ;D

[BRP]

Bib,
I saw something similar but I thought the wind might take it out.I do have my lumber drying for the sawshed and I need it now cuz I'm starting to get orders from cabinet makers but I don't want to get to where I saw all the time.I love it but do other things to make a living too like the farm,logging my own woodlot,the hayfields in summer(the reason I don't post alot during that time).Just got hired to do some welding when I get caught up.Keeps me happy and the mind clear.Nothing like working for yourself is it guys....... ;)
Speaking of the BOSS my wife helps when she can,loves the mill and the lumber it produces.She is a petite sweetheart and the old timers don't think she can handle it but she just picks up the board and chunks it.......they sit back down and talk about it for a while.I couldn't get along without her.
Man I haven't typed this much in a while,think I'll clean the office cuz I can't see past the coffee stains.Yall have fun today!

[Bibbyman]

There was an article in Sawmill and Woodlot more than a year ago by a guy that build his own using electrical conduit and a boat tarp.  He couldn't have much into it.  

The way I thought it would work for mobile sawyers would be to have some heavy pipe sections you could drive in the ground and then slide the light tubing legs inside these.  Use a bungee cord or something easy like that to join the two.

Here is maybe the canopy I found before.  At least it's advertised for use with portable sawmill and has a 20' opening.

http://www.necanopy.com/heavy.htm#sawmill

[BRP]

Bib,
Thanks for the link.Maybe one could weld brackets to the mill for the post to set in that way no pipe in the ground or strings although wouldn't be as wide.This could work but first long log that catches it on the far end and HELLO!!

[Tom]

Getting back to what I do when it rains.  I don't saw. Rain turns the sawdust to mud and it sticks on everything on the mill making a mess. The boards are generally flat stacked and rain water is a prime culprit for causing fungal growth.  You know that white fungus that glues the boards together that y'all were talking about the other day?  Well leave boards flat stacked in the rain and that stuff will take over in a hurry.

Usually when it rains, I either sharpen blades or find something totally out of the ordinary to do.  It's kind of like going on a vacation.  I go visit my Old Timers, or old customers.  I nap or whittle or go shopping.  Sometimes I can find some tractor maintenance that can be done under roof but I dearly like just playing around.  It's a good time to take the wife out to eat.  Sometimes we drive 100 miles just to find a different place.

I don't like working in the rain and having to put up with wet clothes and squishy boots and glasses that I can't see through.  It makes my straw hat floppy and the mud gets on the boards and the logs too.  I can think of all kinds of excuses to shut the mill down. :D

I like to make bread and a rainy afternoon is just the excuse.

[Minnesota_boy]

If it is a slow rain and no lightning about, I just put on my rainsuit and saw in it.  I've tried sawing in 90+ degrees and I prefer the rain any day.  I invested in several pair of Goretex boots so I have dry feet, and I ignore the sawdust sticking to the mill and the rainsuit, as a day's sawing will pay for a bunch of cleanup.
If it starts to pour, I just sit in my office (truck) and listen to the radio until it gets lighter or until I decide to go home.  Once the lightening gets close, I'm gone.
I stack and sticker as I go, so a bit of rain in the pile won't bother much.
I like the idea of a shelter, but I'd like to see you pound a post int othe ground here now.  This morning when I left to saw the thermometer showed -2 deg and the ground is rather firm.

[Jeff]

Rain rule. Rain befroe 7 quit by 11. Unless you are sitting in a truck waiting for 11.

[Minnesota_boy]

Jeff,
You quit at 11 and I'll keep working in the rain until 5.  When I get dry again, we'll compare paychecks.  ;D

[Jeff]

I dont sit in a truck, I set in a saw cab. I saw till the work is done.

I start sawing at 5:30. AM Everyday all year long rain or snow hot or cold. I just step over the bodies of the board stackers and weave my way through all the stacks of lumber and start each new day. ;D

[Jeff]

The rule means if it is raining before 7 am it is bound to quit by 11 am. if it starts raining after 7 am it'll rain all day.

[RMay]

BRP one thing about Ark. if it rains one day it will be doing comething else the next day . I,ve got a four foot umbrella .

[DanG]

I guess it's different, up there, Jeff. Around here, it may rain at 7, or it may rain at 11. The only sure thing is, that it will rain when it DanG well pleases, whether we like it, or not! ???

[Tillaway]

As Frank can attest to 90% chance of rain in Oregon means that it will rain 90% of the time the next 24 hours.

[SawBilly]

BRP
I haven't seen your name before, you been aroung long? You said Arky "up there" which means you must be down here. Where might you be hanging around? I am in Conway.

[woodmills1]

although I have cut in the rain I don't much like it.  One time I was working in a full down pour with an inch or two of runoff straming past the mill and my log trucker sat in the cab of my dozer in amazment watching me work.  Nothing beats workin in medium snow fall with an inch or two of slick stuff on the ground waiting to sent you flying at any step :D You have to concetrate so hard to keep from slip and falling that it wears ya right out.

[BRP]

Thanks for all the replies.Looks to me like we all mill in the rain when we have to finish a job but we don't have to like it :-/ Well it's not supposed to rain here today so back to work.

SawBilly,
I have been a member since spring.In the summer I don't post much cuz I'm in hay fields from before dawn to after dusk,also not as experienced as the other members of this forum,love to read hate to type, but if you want to know about a TK then I am your man.I am in Ola so we are neighbors.

JeffB,
The rain rule is right on target

[Bibbyman]

We are pretty fortunate to have a nice sawshed with electricity.  Our mill is situated on the end of a prominent ridge giving us a nice view of the valley to the south, east and some to the west.  

The bad thing is,  on occasion there has been a thunder storm come up about the time we'd like to get done.  I've been out on the tractor with loader trying to get the skid blocks loaded before the storm hit.  One time the storm was moving in and the lightening getting closer and closer.  I thought I'd be all right setting on a rubber tired tractor but then lightning hit nearby and I rethought the situation - Here I was in the open on the highest point around setting on five tons of iron and steel.  

True,  I was on rubber but what happens when I set the forks down?   I shut down and we went to the house until the worst of the storm passed.

[Minnesota_boy]

If you think that a couple of rubber tires are going to stop the lightning after it has traveled a couples miles through the air, better think again!  You were right to shut down.

[Bibbyman]

I thought the weather scientist say that lightning strikes up?  So it would have to jump across a couple of inches of wet rubber to travel several miles.

Wasn't much later I was visiting with a buddy here at the office and asked him about the scab on the back of his hand.  He said in a mater of fact tone; "That's where I got struck by lightning." and turned his hand over to show a worse wound on his palm.   He said he had been helping put up hay when a storm came in.  They jumped in the trucks and he on the tractor and headed out.  He had his hand on the throttle when he heard the lightning strike nearby and then felt it shoot through his hand.  

It was the first time he'd been lightning struck but not the last.  Only about a year later he had pasted through a metal gate on his farm and had went back to close it when apparently the fence was struck by lightening some place.  It knocked him down and he staggered back to the truck but after he finished closing the gate.  No apparent damage was done on that occasion.

[Tom]

The story of "being safe in a vehicle" goes like this.

The rubber tires don't mean doodley squat.  Automobiles are considered to be grounded.  What keeps you safe in a car is that you are surrounded by a cage of metal that has a good ground.  When lightning hits it, the lightning follows the metal around you and goes to ground.  That's why you are supposed to stay away from the sides of the car when in a storm.

Tractors are different.  When you are sitting on a tractor, there is no cage.  You are the highest point on a large ground.  That means that you are in one of the most dangerous positions that a person could be in.  The lightning would actually be attracted to you.

No, it's a fallacy to believe that safety comes from being insulated from ground.  The safety comes from the "ground/cage" directing the energy away from you.

We were taught at Ft. Benning, a lightning intensive area, to immediately move away from our steel pot and weapon and lay down flat on the side of a hill in the open or lay down in a ditch.  Do not congregate.  Separate from groups.  Don't get up until all threat of lightning is gone.  Stay away form trees, especially the lone ones.  Stay clear of fence lines, gates, power lines, poles, bodies of water or any metal.

I think the same rules would hold on a farm.  :P

[Bibbyman]

I guess wisdom comes with age - if you live long enough!

Happy birthday + 1 Tom!

[Noble_Ma]

If you go to the Museum of Science in Boston you can see the largest Van de Graaff generator in the world. It shows exactly what Tom's talking about.  They take someone out of the audience and put them in the cage and produce lightning.  It's quiet the show.  Come on up, I'll take you guys to the show.  http://www.mos.org/whats_happening/schedule/show49.html

[BRP]

Hey Bib your bud sounds like a lightning magnet.I'm glad to hear he was not hurt worse than his hand.I don't stay on a tractor during a storm either,matter of fact a sawmill out in the open is like a lightning rod too.