iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Dedicated Slabber

Started by Frank_Pender, February 28, 2002, 08:21:06 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Frank_Pender

  I am looking for someone in the Willamette valley area that has a Peterson Dedicated Slabber.  HELP!  :'( I am getting so many calls for slabs as tables, mantle pieces etc, and I am  unable to cut but only one such item per log with my mills.  :'( therefore, the "slabber" seems to be an item I can utilize readily and get more than one slab out of some of these non-productive mis-shapened logs.  8) I just got an order for four tables out of a Black Walnut log that was good for nothing as far as lumber, but for table slabs it was great.  ;) I do hope that someone can send me in the right direction, soon. :-[  thank you in advance. 8) 8) 8)
Frank Pender

Tillaway

Looks like a heck of a good excuse to buy one to me. ;) 8)
Making Tillamook Bay safe for bait; one salmon at a time.

Kevin

Frank,why doesn`t the mill you have now cut more than one item,( is an item a slab)?
I usually cut four items  :)  off each log I mill with the band mill, and three items with the Alaskan.
Most of my items get turned into firewood.

Frank_Pender

You are correct Tillaway. ;) :D 8) It is my biggest excuse.  :'(
Kevin, I have  Mobile Dimension Mills.  they are designed primarely to manufacture dimensional lumber.  I can have one major slab left after the amjority of the log is turned into lumber.  some of my logs are not condusive to producing and good lumber for much of anything but truning stock.  In those types of cases I would be better off to produce a table or three.  I guess you might call it cutting through and through with a band saw every three or four inches as you move downward from the top side of the log to the bottom side of the log.  Yes each item is a slab as I described above.  I hope that is clear, Kevin.
Frank Pender

timberbeast

Hey,  Frank,  kinda time-consuming,  but on a couple of big logs I wanted to make wide slabs from,  I took 4" all the way across the log,  leaving the top flat,  then flipped the log flat down,  dogged it and worked my way down to the slab thickness,  taking dimension stuff as I went.  Get what I mean?  
Where the heck is my axe???

Frank_Pender

  Yes, Timber Beast, I get what your mean alright.   But, I have many logs that would make several slabs rather than just one.  For example, I have an Balck Walnut log tht is 28" and not goo for lumber because of the knots etc., but would make six coffee table  tops, at $125.00 each.  the log is 10' long and I would make the slabs each 5'.  Six times $125.00 equals $750.00. 8) 8) 8) ;)  All the way to the bank, for me rather than the two slabs I would get otherwise. :'( :'(
Frank Pender

timberbeast

Man,  Frank,  sounds like if you have enough logs to support it,  it could be paid off pretty quickly!!  (a slabber).  My pop built a slabber quite a few years back using a 084 Stihl,  adjustable by threaded rod at four corners,  and the saw was pulled through the log with a boat winch.  If I hadn't sold it,  I'd send it to you for shipping.  Wish I had his sketches,  he could make most anything.  I think he adapted it from some plan in Fine Woodworking.  We used to slab 4 or 5 20" plus Poplars in a day.  Maybe Taunton Press has an index of past articles online someplace.  Didn't cost much to build,  we already had the saw.  I can't ask him,  he went to the mill in the sky 10 years ago.  I may have a photo somewhere,  I'll look for it when I get a chance.  Could be a cheap way to have a big-buck sideline business....
Where the heck is my axe???

L. Wakefield

   OK, this brings together my eyeballing the weird 5-pointed tree leftover the other day with this slabber and table top thread, and I come up with-YES!- another dumb question! From your description it sounds like yer turnin out slabs that are cut in the same plane as conventional boards. If you- say- wanted to take something weird-o like that 5-pointed crotch and CROSSCUT to make a slab that had the 5 points and the central trunk caught- heartwood wandering out into the rays of the 5 points- would you have to handsaw that puppy to start and then plane it down to what you want? Or could you maybe cut off fairly stubby and then jig it into your mills? It would be weird- I doubt those things are designed to crosscut (but a saw is a saw..)- and then there would be the stress on both saw and wood as it caught in each 'arm' and then released. Has anyone tried something like that? Jeff's coon mount looked a little bit like it. ::)  lw
L. Wakefield, owner and operator of the beastly truck Heretik, that refuses to stay between the lines when parking

Frank_Pender

Yes L.W. you could do just that with the Peterson Dedicated Slabber.  It will cut up to 60" wide.  I have done that with my mill, but only got one table slabe from the block of wood, just like Timber Beast discussed above.  With the leftover you speek of, with this slabber you could get, perhaps, thre or four tables with at leat two of them showing the rays you speak about using for the tip of the table.

Timber Beast, it would be great if you could find a picture of such a critter.  I would buy an O95 and place a 6' bar on that hummer with a stinger handle and I could be set to make slabes.  8) 8) I would just have to find a ripping chain that would fit the bar or grind a crosscut chain to the correct degree angle for ripping.
Frank Pender

L. Wakefield

   wuzza stinger handle- signed- clueless
L. Wakefield, owner and operator of the beastly truck Heretik, that refuses to stay between the lines when parking

Kevin

Frank,
I can save you for just a little over $300.
Pull yourself from the perils of evil and set yourself free with an 80" Alaskan.
You`ll have that born again milling fever feeling!
Free yourself man, get a grip on an Alaskan mill!

DanG

I was about to suggest the same thing, Kev.

Frank, you already have the saws, so an Alaskan would pay for itself in one day. I say, GOPHER IT!
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Kevin

Frank,
It`s the American dream and it`s well within your grasp!
Just think ...
Twin screws bolted to a double ended bar, the sky is the limit.
With a set up like that you could mill the moon!

Frank, you`ll make a lean , mean milling machine.

Frank, I have a dream Pender.   8)

Bud Man

Ca' Ching- 8) 8)   Ain't nutin for  "A Stepper"   8) 8)
The groves were God's first temples.. " A Forest Hymn"  by.. William Cullen Bryant

Jeff

Kevin, there is just something wrong about you using the phrase "American Dream"

Are you considering conversion? ;)

What's the Canadian equivilent to the american dream? Ah shoot I remember, the old saying.

A sled on every porch and a beaver in every pot.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Kevin

We only have nightmares.  

DanG

Hey, Kev's a Amarkan! There's 2 Amarkas, and he's in one of'em. He's just in the Canuckadadia part of it. :D

Kev, do you think my 62cc Echo saw would do OK for an Alaskan?  What would be the longest bar you would consider for it?
"I don't feel like an old man.  I feel like a young man who has something wrong with him."  Dick Cavett
"Beat not thy sword into a plowshare, rather beat the sword of thine enemy into a plowshare."

Frank_Pender

KEVIN, thanks for the thoughts.  I have real night mares, they have four legs.   I have to feed them all the time.  As to the Alaska Mill, I will give it serious thought.   :P  It sure is strange though, that I have been punching these keys for over a week trying to find a fella in Estacata that supposidly has one of the Peterson Slabbers.  I have sent two messages to the folks Down Under and have not heard hardly word one.  L.W., your question, "What is a stinger." It is a handle system that is attatched to a very long chainsaw bar for a second person to hold onto while sawing very large timber.  they are almost a thing of the past, as are the trees they were designed to be used in cutting.  

   An addition support for such a purchase, be wheat it will, is, I sold another slabe today for one very pretty face fo Ben Frankilin.  the size was, 5' long by 32" wide, and 4 1/2" thick, Oregon White Oak. 8) 8)  ching, ching, klink, klink
Frank Pender

Kevin

Dan,
Your 62cc Esaw will handle items between 12 and 16 inches .
24" bar is  max.
With a 24" bar you can mill a 20" item but that`s pretty hefty work for a 62cc saw.
A 20" bar would be better suited to that saw and you can still mill a 16" item.
Now that doesn`t sound like much but if you buy a mini mill you can remove the two side items from the cant and be milling a full 16" beam or board which is decent lumber.
Does your saw have a side chain tensioner?

Gordon

Ok I've got a question. What is the advantage of the "slabber" over an Alaskan mill? If any. Pros-cons of each? Prices of each? Output of each? Ok well it wasn't one question but actually a few questions. Just wonderin.

Gordon

Kevin

With the Alaskan you can pick up and go where you wanna wanna go and do what you wanna wanna do.  8)

A six foot item is a biggy!
A consideration of having twin screws on one bar would be in order for such a large item.

sawmill_john

Frank, :)  This is John up at Mobile. You know one of our customers down in Klamath CA was going to adapt a slabing blade like the lucas/peterson type mills, I'm sure you could adapt one to your Mobile Dimension Saw, it should have plenty of power.  8)  If you would like to contact the guy down in CA let me know, I'll get you his phone number.  If you need help let me know, we haven't had many inquiries for that kind of slaber, but it might be a nice option.

Frank_Pender

Price is abig issue, Gordon.  That is why I want to see one on action, up close and direct,  if at all possible.  Kevin has a good point on the dollars.  However, I am also looking for accuracy, efficiency as well as ease of operation.  :P
Frank Pender

Frank_Pender

Let design and build one, John.  I will be there tomorrow to start. 8) 8)
Frank Pender

Frank_Pender

By the way, welcome to the Forestry Forum, John.  Sorry I misses your arrival date. 8)
Frank Pender

Thank You Sponsors!