12"x12"x16' beams

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Ivey asked advice and got the answer he was a looking for.  He is charging more.  I could do it for his price all week long.  I sell SYP for $0.50 a bdft and have standing orders for weeks in advance.  His log cost is only about $0.22 cents a bdft and the 20 inch 16 ft long will produce close to 300 bdft.  He will be able to sell all the side wood and make some money on it as well.  SYP runs big an straight and there should not be any problem getting logs that would make the product.  One must remember the local market and how it moves very slowly.  I can not compete with the big box stores for 2x4x8 by price alone, But I can beat them on a 24 ft 2x4 every day of the week.  I only sell about 200 2x4's a week but they are better quality and at a price that makes me money.
  I am all for banning the small mill operations run by retired people and Amish who work for cash only and pay no taxes.  I am all for price regulation so that the Big Box stores can not sell cheaper then I can produce.  I am also reminded by the scars on my body that I fought for their rights and free trade as well as mine.

[Gilman]

Are these beams #2, #1 with wane, or no wane?

For those going to be pricing beams, there is a huge difference between the two. 

[scsmith42]

There has been some very thought provoking dialog on this post. 

I don't have anything to offer at this time, other than my thanks to Brad, Arky, Don, Ron, Frickman, and Haytrader for sharing their perspicacious insight.

Scott

[DanG]

Perspicacious?  How long did you plunder through the dictionary to come up with that one, Scott? :D  It's a good word, though.  It made your post rather perspicuous*.

*I found that one when I went to look up the other one. ;D : :D :D

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Well,..
:P
I guess this goes to show that erudition is not dead...

at least not in The South!    Very interesting comments and great information!

For another angle on the topic of 12by12s....

A local tree guy has some oversize pine in the 30-32" range on the butt. 
Green and fresh they would have been pushing a total of about 8 tons.   
Today, one of my forester friends said stumpage for Pine Sawlogs in my
area of GA is running $42 per ton, plus cut, load, hauling cost, so that puts
delivered logs from close loggers at about Ivey's prices:  $55/ton.  Because
these tree service logs are past prime, he suggested offering the tree guy half the stumpage price.
That would put me at 7 tons for partly dried logs which should cost around
$210 and yield  well over 2MBF.  That is from five logs which are 17'-6" length.
We swingers love logs like these (not to mention deals like these).
;D
Time to pop the question.

With no market in mind,    what dimension boxed heart beam should I cut
out of these five logs?  (I will be cutting 2X6 and bigger out of the rest.)

Phil L.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  I would think that 16x16 would be good.  Or better yet list for sale some large timbers up to 20x20 and see what jumps out at you.  No matter what you cut them into they will want something else.  I can have (and offten do) 20 mbdft of lumber on the place and they will ask for the one size I do not have.

[deadeye]

i cut some 6x10  28 ft and 24 ft  charged 1.50 bdf .  white pine all of them

[Dave Shepard]

fencrowphil, if you want to leave a cant, try finding a bandmiller that does wide plank flooring. I know that when I want to make the wide stuff, over 20", I have to have a good, large log. Then I have to get the DanG thing on the mill and whittle all the small stuff off of the outside, producing a lot of narrow boards I don't really need. Or if it's a really big log, I have to square up two adjacent sides with the alaskan mill so it will fit on the mill. If I could buy 18"x18" or larger cants at a reasonable price, it would put my in a good position to crank out the kind of boards I am looking for and not have any of the hassle of dealing with the small stuff or the slabs.


Dave

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Verrry Eenteresting!

Since I am using a 10" Peterson Winch Production Frame swingblade,  that big
cant is left as literally a "left over" in the center of the log.  At least that's the
way I must do it, if that cant or beam is to be bigger than 10-1/4 inches square.

If the beam is to be bigger than that (the blade capacity of the big Peterson), here is
the strategy:
   1.  Flat saw the top of the log down to the target top surface of the intended beam.
           This portion of the log will probably yield a 1X6 and several 2X6s, etc.
   2.  Flat saw the left side of the log, using deep vertical cuts.
   3.  Remove the guard and do deep vertical cuts to the right of the intended beam to
          yield flat sawn boards from that side.
   4. Do deep horizontal cuts from both the left and the right underneath said beam to
           release it.   ( Then move it, of course.)\
   5.  Finally, finish the lowest portion of the log flat sawing as was done with the top
           portion of the log.
As you have probably realized, the log stays in place - no turning.  The drawback is
that any stress in the log can be your undoing.   Corrective cuts may be necessary, so
you have to think of what dimension of lumber to pick to make the correction such as
a useable 2by which may vary in thickness (which won't cause much fussing), as opposed
to a badly irregular width (which would definitely require resawing to correct the problem).

This plan will permit a maximum beam size of 10-1/4" by 20-1/2", without turning the log.

So, ... when the swingers get into beams above 10" it takes a little cognition before ignition.
  :-\
Phil L.

[scsmith42]

DanG:   ;D  I catually knew that one off of the top of my head, but confess that I had to pull the dictionary out to confirm the spelling  :D

Phil - when you're making large vertical cuts, does your sawhead tend to jump up and down a bit?  My WPF seems to do a little dancing on any vertical cut more than about 5".

Scott

[Ron Wenrich]

Very rarely will we put a log on the headblocks that doesn't have a good destination.  The only lumber that we have on hand is sidecuts from orders that didn't have a home and some species that there aren't ready markets available - sassafras, locust, and white pine.

We hold onto logs until we get at least 1 Mbf of marketable lumber, then we cut and move the lumber.  That way we have limited risk of not having what is needed or degrade in the sawn lumber. 

Then, there's some logs we don't even saw, we just sell them to someone else.  I haven't seen a cherry log in a couple of years, and only recently got into some walnut. 

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Scott:    In a word... "uh-huh."
             But at least you are always only a hop, skip and a jump from being "done."    :D

Ron:      Have to key in on three words:
             Space.   I have no room for logs, (since all my lumber piles now use it up). ;)
             Scale.   Compared to the commercial yard, the rate which I produce lumber is paltry.
             Hobby.   Sawing from me is my "Overgrown Hobby," so I constantly have to fight the
                           urge for equipment; more land; more buildings; and kilns (of various types ),
Oh, well, you get the picture! :'(

"When I wish upon a star, 
  logs, then lumber...
  scattered far...."                                             Phil L.