Whatcha Sawin' ???

PA_Walnut · March 30, 2018, 07:41:46 AM

Quote from: YellowHammer on March 29, 2018, 10:39:58 PMThese two book matched ones were sold within hours of being put on display. Pretty nice look from a poplar tree.

Yeller, that is some REALLY nice poplar! I have about 10,000 BF of poplar logs awaiting the saw. A lot of dark/large heart, but don't look rainbow. :(

Most are big enough to quarter though--smart, high-end furniture builders like it due to the stability. It makes excellent drawer pieces. The simple grain patterns also makes it great for paint, and so it doesn't compete with the featured woods in the pieces.

Always great to compare and contrast how different people and areas find different ways to get marketable wood!
8)

Jim_Rogers · March 30, 2018, 08:57:52 AM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 29, 2018, 07:44:10 PM
Jim,

Did you have any spalt in the boards?

No spalt that I saw. I did see a black line around a seam or split around the pith/hearth.
Jim Rogers
PS. I have a bunch of smaller logs to saw up for him. We'll see how they look after we open them up.

Southside · March 30, 2018, 09:08:40 AM

How do you not have massive loss with 1"-2" trim on poplar and red oak? Around here you would probably be thrown out of the yard showing up with that. I was delivering a load of logs once to a grade mill and watched the owner get into the loader and load up a pile back onto a truck, I never asked what the issue was, the owner is pretty easy to deal with and the whole thing did not look good.

Ga Mtn Man · March 30, 2018, 09:20:11 AM

What am I sawing? With a certain amount of guilt, this guy!

Magicman · March 30, 2018, 09:27:06 AM

Oh my, a Golden Retriever and it is watching for your next move.

Darrel · March 30, 2018, 09:57:59 AM

That woulda been tough to cut up. Glad you took his picture.

WV Sawmiller · March 30, 2018, 10:10:11 AM

I think I'd be cutting that end off and making as many cookies as that pattern allowed.

terrifictimbersllc · March 30, 2018, 10:12:34 AM

Man's best friend. You should be ashamed of yourself. :D

Ga Mtn Man · March 30, 2018, 10:22:33 AM

If I had seen what Magicman (and apparently others here) see I really would be ashamed, but me and two other guys at the job saw (and I sawed)... ET! It did look a little different in real life. I do see the dog now and I'm glad I didn't take an "after" pic.

Magicman · March 30, 2018, 11:59:57 AM

I am glad that you took the "before" picture even though you had already cut it's throat.

I would have to frame that picture.

YellowHammer · March 30, 2018, 12:23:53 PM

Wow, that was cool! I guess you are a cat person. ;D ;D

Jim_Rogers · March 30, 2018, 02:17:41 PM

Today the customer showed up to pick up his 2 3/4" x 24" x 12' tulip popular slabs. Three were still on the mill, and the other 7 pieces were on my trailer.
After sliding the three off the mill we parked trailers tail end to tail end and slid them off one and onto the other using a piece of 4" pipe as a roller.
It worked pretty well over all:

His trailer had a little tail weight on it but he said he'd hauled heavier stuff with it then this lumber. The toolbox says yellow popular is 3.2 lbs per bdft, and I figured his load was around 1680 lbs roughly.
I offered him my roller but he said he has some back at his place.
We'll be cutting the rest up on Monday, as he has family matters to deal with tomorrow.
The butt of this tree was cut to 6' long and it is 48" in diameter on the narrow end.
He wants two cookies out of it near the bottom. And then we're suppose to cut the balance into quarters so we can put in on the mill and slice up some more slabs for benches and such. Hopefully without hitting any metal.
I did see some purple stain in one or two of the center pieces but I didn't see any metal. I didn't inspect them closely.
Does tulip popular turn purple when reacting to metal?

Jim Rogers

WV Sawmiller · March 30, 2018, 02:34:11 PM

You will see the "normal" black or dark blue stain if there is metal in it as in most other woods I have experience with anyway.

BTW - I show 10 slabs 2.75" X 24"X 12' to be 660 bf X 3.2 = 2112 lbs.

Jim_Rogers · March 30, 2018, 03:14:20 PM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 30, 2018, 02:34:11 PM
You will see the "normal" black or dark blue stain if there is metal in it as in most other woods I have experience with anyway.

BTW - I show 10 slabs 2.75" X 24"X 12' to be 660 bf X 3.2 = 2112 lbs.

Not all ten were full 24" wide, due to round edge scale method.
and a couple were not full 12' long
Jim Rogers

WV Sawmiller · March 30, 2018, 07:31:59 PM

Jim,

Thanks for the clarification. You know any time you put figures out on the forum somebody is going to double check them for you. :D

I got out in the mud late this afternoon and cut a 14' log off a long ash log I had on a rock bar a hundred yards or so from my mill. Of course in the process I broke a weld on my 6' blade I was pulling from. Oh well, I have a young neighbor who is pretty good at repairing such things. The log got me 6-2X6's and a 2X4 (about 101.3 bf right? ;)) I will use to make another stacking skid to put some live edge slabs on to air dry. I forgot to take pictures.

caveman · March 30, 2018, 08:17:05 PM

A fellow called me yesterday evening about some logs he had stacked that came from blow downs during Irma. Since he only lives a couple of miles from me I agreed to meet him this morning. Most of his pine logs were nice but he cut them at 16' 2" and he also had some small, low quality, crooked water oak logs which he concluded would aid in warming the planet. We walked around his place a bit and he pointed out some of 2000 bald cypress that he planted a few years ago and a big pine or two. One was a wolfy example (can't remember if it was a loblolly or a slash) that was over 39"dbh. I do not know why loblolly is laughing at me.

He was considering purchasing a mill to produce his own lumber from his numerous pines and was asking me about our mill. Neither of us were incredibly busy today so he loaded them up and brought them to my place and we started sawing 8' 1" 1x's. Quite a bit of time was spent cleaning logs and discussing ambrosia beetles, sticker stacking, edging and a host of other topics encountered when trying to turn logs into lumber.

The slash pine we sawed produced some beautiful, clear boards but it was incredibly sappy. The hearts in these logs were 10-12" and despite borderline excessive use of Pinesol, dish soap and liquid laundry detergent mixed with the water, I had to spray the blade with diesel almost constantly to keep the band relatively clean and cutting flat (my diesel IV lube bag and flow adjuster needs to be replaced). He also had a live oak that we sawed into 2" slabs for outside benches. All together, he got about 400 bf of nice lumber and we had a good time even though an 87° F, south wind kept the warm sawdust and diesel mist blowing into my face all morning.

Mark, If you want some "pecky" cedar, let me know. I can bring you a trailer load. ;D

Briankinley2004 · March 30, 2018, 09:17:58 PM

Kwill · March 30, 2018, 09:30:51 PM

Sawing cedar today

Magicman · March 30, 2018, 09:48:04 PM

Nice save Brian collecting sawmill dividends.

You are moving along nicely Kw and that mill is kicking the sawdust quite a distance. Your cant/lumber looks super. You have done well.

Kwill · March 30, 2018, 11:20:08 PM

Quote from: Magicman on March 30, 2018, 09:48:04 PM
Nice save Brian collecting sawmill dividends.

You are moving along nicely Kw and that mill is kicking the sawdust quite a distance. Your cant/lumber looks super. You have done well.

Thanks

Crossroads · March 31, 2018, 04:55:43 PM

Spent yesterday cutting 5/4 and 12/4 slabs of maple for a customer who does a lot of wood work. Some of these short chunks were pretty frustrating to get on the mill and held in a position to saw, but it's still fun to see what these chunks look like on the inside.

Magicman · March 31, 2018, 05:31:12 PM

I did my 64 mile road trip today sawing Sinker Cypress plus some 8X10's for a raised bed garden.

What it looked like when I arrived, so let's take a closer look. The small logs that would not make 8X10's did not get sawed.

The Sinker Cypress logs have been bucked into fairly solid 8' lengths.

But of course the butt ends are ragged.

The first log loaded and leveled with the toe board.

The top of the first log.

I barely could squeeze by these 28" two live edged 1 1/8" boards.

What on earth can you get out of something like that??

I'd say some fairly nice boards.

That wimpy tractor is bringing me the last Cypress log.

The last Cypress log. ;D

1443 bf of mostly 1 1/8" two live edge boards.

And eight 8x10 timbers for raised bed gardening. I hit a nail on the first one which added "character" to the rest of the timbers. The blade was toast so I sawed sloooow.

I started sawing at 8:00 and was finished by noon. Well 12:15, but that is close to noon anyway. A very good job and a very happy customer. ;D

My next scheduled job is also a ~70 mile road trip.

Crossroads · March 31, 2018, 05:50:22 PM

Nice work MM, I got a little spoiled the last few weeks with jobs close to home, but yesterday was 130 miles one way. I'm not very centrally located though, my customer base only extends about 15 miles to the west due to the big pond on the west coast, so most of my business comes from the East side of me.

SawyerTed · March 31, 2018, 05:55:56 PM

First mobile job sawing Aromatic Red Cedar or Eastern Red Cedar (around here it depends on where you are from which name you use). All went well. The handling of logs could have been quicker. The help slowed me down trimming limbs, moving the logs and off bearing. Still made about 600 board feet in 4 hours. The logs were only fair quality so that slowed me down a bit too.

Magicman · March 31, 2018, 06:07:48 PM

My ERC sawing is mostly "hourly rate" due to the slowdowns that it generally cause. That plus saw through on a cant/log and the whole inside is punky.

Crossroads, it's kinda like "run with the big dogs or stay under the porch". With most folks now using their phones/internet to find sawyers the portable business has drastically increased.