First customer/Sawing job

WV Sawmiller · March 22, 2015, 01:58:45 PM

I completed my first sawing job this week for a customer. Was one of my son's best friends and a real good neighbor so he got a real deep discount. Had 2 red oak trees made 5-8' and 3 14' logs. The 8' logs were off a fresh blow down, green, straight and made some beautiful lumber I was real proud of. The 14' logs came off a dead oak with a lot of pith, sweep and hard knots and made some lumber I was not as happy with but I guess we did good to salvage what we did.

The man who owned the property will be 96 years old in May and is a real character. He stayed out to watch most of the work. He is a WWII veteran who drove a truck load of medical supplies across the Burma Road as one of the first vehicles on that road. His mind is clear as a bell and he is a pleasure to be around. It is amazing how active he is. He told me at the end of the job he wants be to square up some big 20' long locust beams for him to build a tractor shed on. He'll build then move the shed.

Moved the mill on Thursday. Was only about second day my pasture was dry enough to get a truck out there to move it. Had to back it out as I had stacked lumber and logs in some of my turn around areas and my 4 wheeler is sick and I could not move them. Drove 2 miles to the site and unloaded and set up but started raining and spitting snow so we just covered it and left till Friday morning.

Friday woke up to light drizzle but we attacked it anyway. Customer had a good tractor and forks to move and load the logs. The 8' logs ranged up to about 28" diameter and we a real pleasure to cut. Customer wanted 1X8 and 1X4 sheeting for board and batten building. Once squared and split in cants the board just flew off the mill. Customer was impressed to see side by side cants producing 2 boards at a time.

When got to the 14' logs things slowed down. Blade would dip and rise around the bad knots so I had to just crawl over spots. Cut these into 1X as we could get boards out of them. Nothing over 8" wide.

At the end of the day we had 6.5 hours on the mill and 1512 bf of lumber. Had about 2 yards of sawdust the old landowner said he was going to keep for oil absorbant, a moderate stack of oak slabs for firewood and kindling and a happy customer and a couple more future jobs lined up by other neighbors who stopped by to watch. Customers 7 year old son got off the bus and had to dig an walk through the sawdust and took a couple shoefulls home. My wife stopped by at the tail end to take a few pictures and supervise (i.e. explain what I was doing wrong). Loaded up and came on home. Was a real satisfying day. Am trying to include a few pics of the good and bad. https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/QN5A7753.jpg[/img]

Magicman · March 22, 2015, 02:12:20 PM

I enjoyed reading about your "first", but be very careful about giving discounts. Not saying never or don't, just be careful. People (customers) talk and you do not want to be in a situation where you charged customers differently.

I noticed that your blade climbed a bit when you entered the butt log. That is not necessarily uncommon because the butt contains some seriously hard and compressed wood. Entering from the small end will minimize that, plus using a new (sharp) blade and insuring that your blade guides are dead on level with the sawmill bed.

I would have loved to meet that old Veteran.

WV Sawmiller · March 22, 2015, 04:44:35 PM

MM,

The way the old man is going he will outlive us all. My wife has done photo shoots on his farm and sold pictures of his old barn and cars. He and his family were the original settlers here the town is named after.

Thx for the tip about small end start. I will try that next time. I guess I can load the log and still do a quick test run the length of the log to be sure it will pass. That would verify too. I was trying to start at the butt end thinking if the saw head passed through that end it would sure make it the rest of the way. I'll double check my blade level. Coming up on my 50 hour service anyway. My debarker was riding high and I adjusted it today as far as it will go but still looks a little high per the maintenance guide that came with it. I will check it on some wood I have here in the lot later this week, weather permitting.

As to discounts the young man is like a son to us anyway and he will be up with his tractor to help me lift some 150 lb beams into place when I get further along with my lumber storage shed so some trading of work involved. That is real common around here. He asked what my rates were for others and I told him so he knows he was not paying "retail" rates.

Getting out in the public and the visibility looks like it will pay big dividends too. Thx again.

red oaks lumber · March 22, 2015, 04:49:20 PM

wavey end i would say to much entry speed, entering slower gives your blade a moment to find itself in the log.

drobertson · March 22, 2015, 06:01:37 PM

Quote from: red oaks lumber on March 22, 2015, 04:49:20 PM
wavey end i would say to much entry speed, entering slower gives your blade a moment to find itself in the log.

Not doubting Steve here, but will say I thought the exact opposite, the pack dust on the clamp side of the cant looks like a slow feed, as does the close pattern on the coolant marks, but, conditions vary place to place, log to log, I say very! nice job, looks like it was a relatively tight set up with the Hill right there! good ole WV country! gotta love it! nice rigs you have there as well,