It's been toooo looong!!

[maple flats]

After spending my time on maple and in the blueberries, I finally took on a sawing job. My Peterson sat for about 16 months, under a tarp cover. The customer brought a trailer loaded with cherry that was cut last year. When he cut it, he called to see if I would saw it for him (I said yes, I have sawed 3-4 other times for him, twice at his place, the rest at mine) but then he never got things ready to haul them here. Yes, my mill it portable, but I no longer travel with it. Among other reasons I like using my excavator to load the mill.
2 Days ago, I tried to start the mill. The battery was dead and would not hold a charge (yes I know better but just never made the time to top off the charge). New battery, won't turn over. I tried to pull the rope, won't turn over. Then I pulled the spark plugs, sprayed in some Blue Creeper, let it set about an hour. Then I pulled the cover at the output end of the engine and turned the pulley gently using a big pipe wrench. It turned easily with that. After replacing the guard, I turned the key and it cranked well. After about 4-5 seconds it sprang to life. I sure hope the cylinder walls are not too badly pitted. I will in the future, if leaving it set idol for long periods, pull the plugs, put in some Blue Creeper and turn it over with the ignition off a few times, to prevent this in the future.
Today I will saw. I like opening cherry, often the grain patterns are great. The logs were all from one tree it looks, about 22-24" at the but. However he saved some of the straighter limb wood and some of that goes down to about 6-7" which is quite small for a Peterson. We discussed that, and will decide when those get loaded if they should be relegated to firewood.

[drobertson]

Yea that's quite the off time on sawing, weather ought to be nice for it now, perfect time of year for doing some saw jobs,

[Magicman]

It's good to hear that you have sawdust in the air again.   8)

[isawlogs]

 Heres hoping all goes well from here on with the mill, I had mine under tarp for one winter a few years ago anf will never do that again ... Every thing on the mill had rusted and needed help, the tarp trapped in the humidity, no air could get in, after that mill got a tin over the engin and alternator, rest was left to breath. Been good as in the spring , its a turn key operation. 

[timberlinetree]

Gotta love blue crepper. Glad you're up and running.

[thecfarm]

I don't use mine mill much,unless I have a building project. I always enjoy seeing lumber coming out of those logs. 

[maple flats]

I'm glad to report that all went well on the sawing job. The Cherry that was supposed to be 24" turned out to be 18" at the small end. I did get some nice 5/4 boards out of that load of logs (he had me cut it all to 5/4) by as wide as up to 8". With each final cut on a row, I set it to get the widest board available.
It turned out that one tree was cut a year ago, the other was cut 2 yrs ago. He had the logs stored on pallets in a lean to shed. I think the lumber suffered a little by being dry. I suggested if he cuts ahead again, that he might do better sealing the end grain soon after the cut or setting a sprinkler (cherry) on a timer to keep the logs wet. This is what a local furniture company (Harden Furniture) does. They specialize in cherry and they have several acres of logs stacked about 15-20' high, then sprinklers wet the logs every several minutes to keep the logs at their full potential beauty.