A day cutting wood

[Jim_Rogers]

In between caring for a 95 year old mother, taking her to her doctor's and dealing with all the issues with that, I managed to cut some wood today.
First day since I've been back from my trip to NC.

A fellow called me up who had a 13" diameter log about 4' long and wanted it cut in half to make a bench seat. He said he had some "stump" pieces that he wanted cross cut to make the legs for the bench.
I told him to load up everything and come on over.
He said he'd be over in a half an hour.

Ok, one cut down the middle and cross cut the stumps with the chain saw, easy enough.

Shortly after that, a new customer calls and asks if I have some 1" pine boards on hand. And that he needed 132 lineal feet of it, random widths. I told him I did and he said he'd be over in about an hour.

Great two sales in one day, easy.

Well the first guy shows up and we proceed to saw his log into two bench seats. I sliced off one side of the log and flipped it 180° to slice off the opposite side. Blade marks on the log showed it was dull.

I figured it was only going to make three cuts and I thought it would go ok.

Half way through the center cut the blade breaks.

Well, it was an old blade and I was risking it taking more cuts after seeing the dull blade marks on the log.

I replace the dull broken blade with a "fresh out of the box" resharp blade and follow it down the center cut. Snap broke the blade.

I never had anything like that ever happen before. Two broken blades in one cut in one log. never.

Ok, so now we're on the third blade.
Instead of risking it down the middle of the same cut, we spin the log end for end. And it slices through it like a hot knife and butter.
I thought that maybe there was some metal in the log and both blades hit it and that's what caused them to break. But no metal showing after separating the two halves.

Customer decides to take another one of the logs he brought and process it the same way. We do and all is fine.

As I'm finishing up the second log the second customer shows up. He see a pile of lumber there and starts making a major mess of it taking out things and not working his way down from the top.
I mentioned to him that I'd be a few minutes and I'd be right over and help him with his order.

He asks if he can start loading up pieces. I told him that I needed to write it all down as it was being loaded.
Well, they where in a van and started sliding 16' and 14' long 1x8's into the van as I walked out with my clipboard.
I told the first customer to sit in his truck with his daughter and cool off a few minutes while I dealt with them to get them out of here so we could go back to making his "rustic" benches.

He did.

So, I ask them if they still need 132' of stock. He said he was way off on that. I asked what did they need the lumber for? I didn't get a straight answer.

We picked through some lumber and they loaded up three 1x8x16, one 1x8x12 and one 1x8x14.
I left them to come in and figure their bill. When I got back that asked it if would be ok if they took the lumber out of the van and cut each piece in half, in length so that they could easily transport the lumber in the van.
I was not happy hearing this.
I had an order for some 1x8x14's and was going to work on getting these out and ready for that customer, before these guys came along and bought up what was right on top and ready.
I mentioned to them that I wasn't happy about them taking my long stock if they only needed 8' pieces. I told them I had a lot of 8' pieces that I could easily sell them instead of taking all of these and cutting them in half. That sentence fell on deaf ears.

So they pulled the van up and out of the way and proceeded to cut each one in half while I figured their bill.

After they paid me and I thought they were done, I went back to the first customer and continue with him, by selling him some pieces of an 8x8 timber cut to 12" lengths to make "legs" for his benches.
I mentioned to him that I wasn't happy about them buy my long stock only to cut it in half right in front of me. I'm not sure if they heard me or not. But shortly thereafter one of them comes over and tells me he needs two more 1x8x8's. I sell them two of those. And off they go.

I don't know why that bothers me to see my long lumber cut in half, but it does, when I have shorter lumber on hand that they could use.

All in "a day cutting wood"......

End rant.

Jim Rogers

[barbender]

Jim, I've been trying to fix that by charging more per board foot on the longer stuff. Then if someone wants to cut my 16' into 2 8' pieces, I don't care, because they paid extra for the privelege ;)

[Peter Drouin]

Some days are like that, Jim.  barbender I do the same thing longer is more

[Jim_Rogers]

How much more are you guys charging? 10 cents? 15 cents? I charge 25 cents more for longer than 16' stock.

Jim Rogers

[drobertson]

Not much sawing today, but loading up for the charcoal kiln,


  

  

 
this last pile may very well be torched, but time will tell. price is 15 bucks a ton, so it depends on the heat,  this should have been handled long ago.  My fault.

[leroy in kansas]

drobertson, can u give a bit more information on the charcoal kiln ? I'm not familiar with this operation.

[Peter Drouin]

How much more are you guys charging? 10 cents? 15 cents? I charge 25 cents more for longer than 16' stock.

Jim Rogers

Hi Jim, I'm at .70 a BF for 16' lumber to 20' From there I go 1.00 a BF to 24' then up all depends on how big the wood is.

[backwoods sawyer]

Hit the road early this morning as it is 90 miles to the mill site out in a hot field. (They could see the smoke from the Springfeild mill that burnt to the ground last week)  Got set up and going good making a stack of wood when this customer doubled his original cut list. A couple hours later we started getting error messages "low voltage" made a few checks, Alternator is dead, finished the log on the mill, pulled the alternator, went to town and got one ordered for in the morning, lined up another milling job in the area while at the parts store and since we were twittling our thumbs and this trip was looking like a lot of red ink we took a side trip up in the mountains to a favorite swimming hole and cooled down for a while before making the trip back home.
I have some schedule shuffling to do since we were running a tight schedule for the next couple weeks as it was.

Passed a sawmill in the area but no fresh sawdust :

[Magicman]

Passed a sawmill in the area but no fresh sawdust : 

I see that quite often.  I just scheduled a sawjob that is 90 miles away.  I will pass three FF members and several other sawmills sitting seemingly idle. 

I noticed an unusual bump on the side of a sawmill tire Thursday, so I gotta get a new one tomorrow.   :-\

[Peter Drouin]

I noticed an unusual bump on the side of a sawmill tire Thursday, so I gotta get a new one tomorrow.   :-\

Didin't you have that before? And is it on the same side of the mill?

[Magicman]

No, it was the mate on the other side.  I guess that goes to show that tires of the same age should be replaced in pairs??   ???

[leroy in kansas]

No, it was the mate on the other side.  I guess that goes to show that tires of the same age should be replaced in pairs??   ???

Magic, M. How old were your tires. I never get tires on the trailer worn down to replace them. They just get old and go bad. Seems like I have to replace about each 5-6 years.

[Magicman]

Same here.  The OEM tires separated and bulged, and now both of these replacements have done the same thing.  I keep them properly aired, but that sawmill does weigh over 4K lbs.

[backwoods sawyer]

Glad you caught it when you did ;)
When I bought the mill it had a new set of tires, I have changed two on the rail side and one on the loading arm side. A large tailing slipped while off loading and landed edge on the tread on the rail side couple months later I was changing that tire other then that they reached the six year experation date on them.

Went to pick up the alternator at the auto parts store and it had been delivered to another store 25 miles farther north out on the west side of Eugene, entered the address in the GPS drove up and picked it up. They swapped the pulleys saving me a tailgate swap. 10 min after getting on site the alternator was installed and tested good and first log was being loaded on. 230 miles, small pitchy pine with lots of taper and deformities, we still got 1,600bft, used two swirt bottles of deisle along with soap water, had to clean the globs of pitch off the bed rails several times. 

[ladylake]

If I was running a WM on the road I'd have a spare alternator in my parts box..  Steve

[Jim_Rogers]

If I was running a WM on the road I'd have a spare alternator in my parts box..  Steve

x2

[Magicman]

In over 12 years of sawing and over a Million bf sawed, I have experienced one alternator failure.  It was rebuilt that day at my alternator shop and I was sawing the next morning.

[ladylake]

  Well being as were bragging I've sawed over 2 million bf and never had a alternator failure,  anyway from reading posts on here WM alternators do go out quite a bit due the heavy work load and I sure would carry a spare when I saw quite a ways from home.  I sure carry spare parts for my TK such as belts, guide rollers, solenoids for the up down motor, toggle switches to name a few.  Steve

[Magicman]

No brag intended.  I was clearly addressing the alternator life, not mine, and I completely agree with the list of spare parts that Steve listed above.  Only a few weeks ago, a seized cam follower was a 15 minute pause instead of a couple of days shutdown.  Mechanical failures will happen and good judgement prevails.   

[backwoods sawyer]

Well I guess I should have carried a spare alternator for the car as well : Came in  last night with lights getting dimmer by the mile. But do have a spare car ;D
Agree with the full parts boxes but it is hard to tote along a spare mill :-\
A good many things you can tell when they start to go bad and can be carried for when they are needed. Both alternators just stopped working with no warning. I did keep the core and will have it rebuilt but do to space in the truck it will live on the shelf in the shop ;)


 
Any guesses?

[Magicman]

Looks like a "Chunky Stone"?


 


 
That our Native Indians used during a game of skill, but I guess that yours is something different.   ???

Geode??

[biggkidd]

You guys might want to check out DG electrical on the net. I could put a link but some sites frown on that. I've had great luck with them. One time I did have a problem had a replacement in less than a week. Only a one year warranty but the prices are good and shipping is super fast. They carry most things electrical. Also many times have over size alternators in the same case as factory. All new no core charge either.

  Larry

[Chuck White]

I just bought an alternator, from Ga Mtn Man a couple weeks ago!

Yesterday "a rain day" I took it to the Auto Electric Shop to have it checked for output and to have a pulley put on it, I also took the one off the sawmill and had that one rebuilt, it's been about 3-4 years now.

Cost $59.97, now I have 2 good alternators for the mill.   

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I just bought an alternator, from Ga Mtn Man a couple weeks ago!

He buys those things on EBAY, paints them up and goes fishing. You didn't bite did you Larry?  :D

(I'm just kidding the both of you.  )

[backwoods sawyer]

Good info on the alternators.

That is a ball of Gritts "well sort of"
It is a ball of pitch that was gathered off the mill with some sawdust neaded in to keep it from being to sticky to handle. Had a helper who was bored and the pine logs were candidates for an ugly log contest ;) Sure gummed up the mill, The clamp would not raise, everything engadging, but the clamp would just wiggle, spayed it with PB blaster and tapped it with mini Thore as it was being worked and the pitch ran off it. Picked up a pitch braclet on both arms from handling the tailing, went thru twice as many saws as they were dirty logs to boot :   
Brought the mill home and it was pushing midnight when we pulled in after four days of early morning and late nights with over with 800 miles on the road, conflicting weather men had it it 90-100 ??? just know it was on the warm side everyday.
Rest of the week will be in county, milling barn siding and enjoying the heat :