From Good, to Bad, to Worse, to AWESOME !

[Kirk_Allen]

Well the weather was awsome today and those spalted maples were calling my name.


These boards were solid with awsome color and figure.



 
Things are GOOD  8) 8)

Then it came   That paverbial ZING, ZING!  You know the sound. That bone shuttering nails on the chalkboard goose bump noise of NAILS :( :(   NO WAY, this log came from DEEP in the farmers woods.  Well, I guess its time to check EVERY log even when you know where it came from. 
 
Things are BAD :(

Put on a new blade and got back to cutting the last of this awsome maple.  Got to the end of the cut and the last 10 inches of the log snapped off and was THROWN into the blade guide assembly with a VENGENCE

It broke the weld on the frame and shoved the guide wheel assembly into the dust shoot.





  This is definatly worse.  :(

I called WM and they have a replacement part that you weld on and BOLT the guide assembly to it instead of having it all welded.  Best part, they told me if I get my Mill over to Indy around 11:30 they will weld on the new part for me and get it all back in order! 8) 8) 8)  THIS IS AWSOME!  And on a Saturday no less  8) 8) 8)

[Bibbyman]

OUCH!

I'z about to go cross-eyed zig-zaging around to see all the pictures.    By the time I got to the last one, they started to blur out.

Looks like it was time to change out your roller guides anyways.  It's been a long time since they've had the kind with greese fittings.

P.S.  I wish we had a WM station within an hour's drive.

[Kirk_Allen]

Jeff sent me a note on the new picture format but I cant seem to get the text to wrap around the pic like he did.  I adjusted it as soon as I saw it.

The guide rollers on there are two years old. I have replacement bearings for when these go bad so far all is good. 

[Bibbyman]

BTW,

In the 13 years we've been sawing,  I've never had anyone ask for rotten wood. 

I've had one guy that came and picked through my walnut collection looking for figure.  That was OK by me because most everyone else wanted stuff with straight grain.

[woodbowl]

It broke the weld on the frame and shoved the guide wheel assembly into the dust shoot.

Kirk, that almost happened to me a few years ago. I kept noticing my blade guide flexing. I reached over to pull on it and it was just about ready to break off. It had almost rusted into. I put a lot of weld beads around it to reinforce it and it was good as new. If you go this route make sure it is set in the right spot to accommodate the range for the blade deflection. Tack it, check it with a blade, hammer it up or down as needed then built up with the beads. May also need to extend reinforcement an inch or more around the perimeter to fill in any pits.

[Corley5]

That stuff looks like 40 pulp cord I cut up for firewood.  Nice and dry ;) ;D

[Kirk_Allen]

This stuff was definatly dry.  I cut those boards in the pics to 14/4, two of them were 22" wide and the others were around 16-20" wide. 

I have a 12x12 cant left to cut that is full of the same spalting and figure.  Hope to get back from WM early enough in the afternoon to saw it up.

[beenthere]

14/4?  that be 3½" thick?

[Kirk_Allen]

Actually they are 3&17/32" thick  ;D  Great for turning blanks or sold as boards to be resawn for book matched projects. 

[Kirk_Allen]

Forgot to mention, ..............THEY WAS HEAVY   Good thing I only had to carry them about 30 feet into the barn

[Daren]

I wish I had let this lay a little longer, I was so excited I couldn't wait.



I sawed a dozen+ 50" wide 4/4 books (there is a 24" framing square on top of the one on the right)

[Jason_WI]

I can sell spalted maple faster than regular maple. I have about 1000 BF ready for the kiln and it is already sold.

Jason

[Kirk_Allen]

I have about 2000 bf of it air drying and another 1000 bf or more to cut.  I plan on working on the Kiln Chamber in about 10 days when my buddy from AR comes up to get hay.  We have 5 days to knock out the chamber.  My luck the weather will turn cold and we wont get anything done.  :(

[Daren]

My luck the weather will turn cold and we wont get anything done. :(

Don't be suprised, we have had it GOOD for the last month and 1/2, I figure it is due to head the other way soon. Next week doesn't look great, and it could be alot worse.

[Norm]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it was 10 degrees with a 25mph wind out of the NW this morning, you will probably have it at your place shortly.

I let a couple of hard maple logs spalt for a year before I cut them up. A wood worker friend came over to see our new shop and when I showed him the boards he was drooling all over them, said he'd only seen pictures of wood like that before. After I get them dried I'm going to surprise him with a couple of em.

[ronwood]

Norm_F,

Weather is turning colder here in Mo. also. Jan was pretty nice. Do you do any thing special to get the log to spalt or do you let nature take is coarse?

Ron

[Norm]

I didn't do anything special Ron, they sat in my log pile off to the side where I keep the knarly logs to cut on a slow day. They had set about a year before I cut them. The spalt had only gone in about the first couple of boards off the sides. Patty's going to make us a door to our bedroom to replace the pressboard one on it now.

We walked home from work on Thursday and it was in the upper 50's I had long underwear on and was sweating up a storm. :D

[gpennell]

hi
excuse my being a newbie but you mentioned checking every log for nails etc
how is this done particularly for the shrapnel that may be buried deep inside the log
regards graehm

[Radar67]

gpennell,
     You can check the logs with a good metal detector. Do a search at the top of the page for metal detectors, a lot of good info in here.

Welcome to the forum.

Stew

[iain]

Darren them spalties look real good to me

iain

[SwampDonkey]

Upper 30's F to lower 40's today, depends on where your standing. Lotsa ice, melting sun and same for tommorrow withalittle rain mixed in. ;D



Here's some yellow birch spalt out of my stash.  ;)

[Kirk_Allen]

Well we have gone from the Good to the Bad to the Worse and yes to the Awesome so I am not sure what to call the next phase..................STUPENDAS 8) 8)

Took the mill to WM and about half way there we hit the snow storm.   ??? ???  Norm, didn't you say something about it coming our way :D   We didn't get snow at home but it did get cold.    :(

Anyway, by the time I got to WM in Indy it was a full fledged snow storm with several cars in the ditch.  I pulled into WM and within 5 minutes Garey Moore brings me to the service section and starts working on the mill. 

In less than 40 minutes I have a NEW guide mount system that gives me ANOTHER 7/8" of in an inch in MAX WIDTH of Cut  8) 8) 8) 8) 8)  He had to cut the old stub block off and weld on the replacement block that has two bolts that mount the guide assembly.  He put on a new blade, got me a new handle for the drive side panel, then adjusted the roller and in a total of 45 minutes I was back out the door and never spent more than $108 bucks 8) 8)  $48.95 for the new guide block mount assembly, $2.00 for a new handle, NO CHARGE on a new $20 blade and only $50 bucks for labor on everything.  Looking at the free blade value you could say it only cost me $30 bucks to have them get me in and out in under an hour. 8) 8) 8) 8)

OK, OK, I know, I had to drive 85 miles to get there and back so some fuel costs but what the heck, its always worth a bit of gas to see such great people at WM. 

WM, MY HATS OFF TO YOU!

[beenthere]

Yep, your bad luck is better than no luck at all.  ;D

[Furby]

Kirk and bad luck don't belong in the same sentance! :D