Well Today is Norwegian Constitution Day, a large holiday in Norway, something like out 4th of July here in the states. Lots of parades, traditional dress, and other celebrations. One of these days maybe I will get there to see it myself. But for a Norwegian, it is no small honor to have my birthday on that date also. As has been my tradition the last 2 years, I start a new thread on this day, just because it is a date I can remember. I don't want the server to get too bogged down with my never ending drivel which at this point is something like 29 page in the old thread, which can be found here: Staying Busy and Out of Trouble '20-'21 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=110766.0). (The one prior to that can be FOUND HERE (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=106265.0).) I thought long on the title for this one but could not find anything suitable so settled for what you see. Maybe I will modify it later when I think of something catchy.
It still amazes me that so many folks read and respond to my pitiful offerings here. Because its my b'day and because I have been feeling a little down the last few days because I am so tired, I have been thinking a lot about my dwindling ability to produce physical work on a consistent basis. It sucks to get old. Don't get me wrong, I know I have many blessing's that others may not enjoy. I am healthy and have no medical issues that I am aware of, I don't even have any prescriptions to take daily. I do have a shop, and some decent tools, and I have managed to find some good clients. I found this forum which has exposed me to a lot of the details and knowledge that I had been lacking and provided some amazing and generous mentors to answer my questions. I would not be where I am right now without it, that is for certain. In fact, I have even gotten a couple of personal messages already this morning wishing me a good day, so thanks for that. You guys are nicer to me than I deserve. Each of these blessings is a big thing that many would love to have and I should be grateful for that everyday and I think I am. But I am having trouble staying up with the workload I have developed. In addition, the work demands some investments in better equipment and I am not too interested in jumping up to large trucks and heavy equipment that I know in a few years I would be working to pay for in repairs and upkeep while getting even slower myself. I am still searching for that balance between making some extra money to keep us afloat, and building something that becomes a beast I have to work everyday to feed. I don't mean to whine or give the impression I am feeble. My ability to work is still a lot better than a lot of other folks. My neighbor across the road can't keep up with me for an hour, let alone a day, and he 'works out' nearly everyday and is at least 15 years younger than me. I am just not happy with what I can produce compared to my expectations of what I should produce. Working in the woods puts you in a situation where the environment doesn't give you a break based on your age. It treats everyone the same and will hurt you quick if you let your guard down.
Maybe I am just thinking about all this stuff too much. :D
Anyway, new thread today.
The conversation on the prior thread at the end was about the upcoming Mushroom log harvest trip which hopefully begins at the end of this week. After the suggestions and discussions I was pondering the idea of mounting a truck bed crane in my trailer right about mid-ships to lift log bundles out of the Mule and into the trailer. I found a cheap one locally, but I have to do some measuring to see if I can mount it and still drive the mule on the trailer. This might have to wait until the new trailer gets bought. But I think if I jazz it up a bit for speed with an electric winch it might save time and sweat. Just before I went to bed I also came up with a modified idea that began with WV Sawmiller's suggestion for a forwarding trailer. As I explained to Howard, the terrain is too rough for that in most cases, BUT his idea is a good one that I had been looking into for a while before I set it aside. Well I let it roll around in my head for a few weeks now. 'Yeah, the ground is rough, but what could I do to mitigate that?' As often happens, I found my possible answer from back in history. I am contemplating making a stone boat of sorts with skis of something of that nature that I can drag behind the Mule adding to the capacity. Perhaps not even skis, but a flat poly bottom if I can find some surplus material someplace. Anyway, the idea has merit and I will pursue it once I spend some time in the woods figuring this all out. It also depends on whether reducing the number of trips out of the woods to the landing will really improve my 'cycle time', which, in many case it won't. So for now it is the 'load/unload' issue I will focus on first. That one will have a big impact on allowing me to work longer without having to lift and load each log at least 3 times. A 35# log isn't much to lift and move, but when you do 100 of them times 3 in a single day, it adds up quick and can really take the life out of my legs at the end of the day.
So now that I still have some time before I can get in there, I have been trying to figure out what my numbers goals are to make this work for me (and the clients by keeping the cost where they want it). My initial goal is to cycle through 150 logs/day (from the slash pile to my driveway inventory pile). If I can do that it should put me at just over the break even point, if I can do that for days in a row (without a rest day) it would be very workable. If I need rest days, then the viability goes down. (getting in and out quickly is very important so I do not have an impact on the logger's schedule. That relationship is worth much more than to me than the logs could be.) If I could do 200 logs a day (I think my current rig can handle that) then I am in pretty good shape. I am hopeful that I can cut more than I can haul in a single trip, so my plan is to cut as much as I can each day, take the load I can and leave the rest stacked. Then the next day get up there early and load those first (a fairly quiet operation), take a break, then start cutting again until the trailer is full and I have more stacked up. If this happens, eventually I will have a mess of logs queued up and can take a day and make multiple trips or do a run with the dump trailer to catch up (more handling involved in the dump trailer, so I'd avoid that if I can). When I run out of time or steam I make one more run to fetch the Mule and gear and whatever logs are left in the truck bed and remaining trailer space. If I can pull this off, it is a workable plan.
As it relates to orders I have on hand right now, the first run (150) should satisfy a 'co-op' order I have (I need a day to deliver that) plus the two tiny local orders. After that I have the order for Cornell (which is still in some limbo as to the details) which is 300-500 logs, and 2 commercial orders for 100 to 400 logs each but one of those is white oak only. I don't know how much of that I will find, if any. Balancing those large orders to make everyone happy will be tough, but this all depends on what I can get in the inventory. The commercial buyers are willing to wait until I get the right stuff in the right quantity. Also, this first lot I am cutting is a new one, not the one my plans were based on. It's a rush clearing job that just came up. So I have to be fast and when it ends, if all goes well and my relationship remains in good standing (and I am still standing), I still have the 'big lot' coming up in mid-June. Hopefully the money from the first lot can put me in that bigger trailer, I will have learned a lot and outfitted myself better as time goes on. My last ace in the hole is that I have one or two sturdy folks who have offered to help me when I am ready. This means I will have to figure out my system so that I maximize their time and make it worth while for them. I also need to be pulling enough productivity to pay them, so for now, I work alone until I get my act together.
Anyway, that's my plan. I wanted to put it down in writing so I could come back and see how close I was, and what I completely missed. Second guessing myself is a cheap hobby. ;D
Here we plunge into another year, let's see what this one brings. For now, I'll just worry about today.
Gosh and I thought I had a lot to do!
Happy Birthday Tom. Take a minute to celebrate LOL
Happy Birthday Tom! It is good to have another! Enjoy your day and do something fun or enjoyable, maybe not work related! My daughter's birthday is also today. She's a bit younger than you. :D
I think the totes I use for firewood might come in handy, modifies for your purpose. with enough they could provide storage and inventory management. can be moved with a crane or forks, or pallet jack on a hard surface. they are about 3.5 x 4 feet so could handle your size logs. could help keep them sterile and such and with the plastic liner, help to not damage them. just had to get a comment on here so it pops up on my cue. Happy birthday!
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Tom,
Happy birthday. I assume you are wearing your fancy silver buckle shoes and your fancy little knife all day today.
Good luck on the stoneboat idea. I used to use an old p/u truck hood with the right curve to pull behind my little gravely tractor. I just ran a cable or piece of old guy wire through the metal and it would tear out after a while but it was cheap and fast to replace. The old car hood laid flat, the front curved up to ride over obstacles, and I could butt the back up against the big stone or boulder and it was easy to roll a big stone over one flip then drag it to a low spot I was filling. I'd cut a locust pole and lay it across 2 trees or stumps as a dam and fill in behind them. I read a blurb here somewhere a while back about a guy in Tennessee who had made stone boats all his life. Was pretty neat. i watched the Mountain Men show where Eustace Conway down near Hickory NC made one to drag his logs out. Looks like a fun project. I don't know what kind of swing arm loader you found but I think HF makes a cheap one worth investigating. Good luck. Stay safe. Keep those posts a'coming.
Happy B-day Tom, OGH. As always, you are well deserved for your service to all, and the break (of sorts) that you get from your past life for "da man". Now, you are "da man"!
Good job on what you DO!
Happy Birthday young feller!
Happy birthday OGH!
Happy birthday, have found that many of my friends and neighbors can't keep up either, a couple guys younger than me are having a hard time just getting onto their farm equipment. One thing I have observed, when you get to be an older farmer, all the younger guys want to be your friend. So now I have more friends than ever. Having a good time. About the prescriptions, been avoiding that stuff, but the doctor is determined to get me on a statin. So have been having oatmeal for breakfast, beans for lunch and an apple for supper. All supposed to help you get your cholesterol down. Think I could run my truck off my own gas if I just had a way to get it into the fuel system.
FFK,
Remember in the famous words from my then 6 y/o granddaughter "Never trust a fart."
Happy Birthday Tom, it's a good day every time you have one.
Brent
Happy birthday Tom. Those AG/FIBC bags are cheap, light-weight and I believe sized accordingly. They could be a great way to minimize handling if you add a crane lift and are cheap enough that you could charge the buyers a "deposit" to cover the bag if they don't return them.
Happy Birthday OGH. Take comfort in knowing that you have no monopoly on the trials and tribulations of our age group. Keep plugging!
First of all, Happy Birthday. I have a landowner where I hunt that is 87 and still getting out some to cut and split firewood. I found out he no longer can start a chainsaw and has been using a battery operated one for small wood. I gathered up my son and both chainsaws and cut a few cords out in the woods where his daughter and himself can split it and haul it in. We could have done the whole job but to preserve some of his dignity (doesn't like to accept help) we did it this way for now. Not only do I feel obligated to help this gentleman out, I will be in this position some day and I feel that the Good Lord will send me someone to help me out as well. I can see the coming signs as I try to flex my arthritic fingers after a good days work....
Happy Birthday Tom!
Yes Harbor Freight has a small bed mounted hyd crane that will lift about 700 lbs.they used to be on sale for around $70 with reg price around $100. I have 2 of them mounted an different trailers. I mounted them at the front of the trailers on the frame with about a 3' extension using 6" well casing and 3 1"x 1" side braces, that gave me enough height to load items like skidder tires , engines, etc. I also added an extension to the Boom by sliding a thicker, longer piece of box tube over the first section down to the lift cylinder mount, then the outer boom section slid inside the thicker piece added about 24" of reach.
Happy Birthday, Tom! Looking forward to more "dribble" :D
popcorn_smiley
Birthday greetings smiley_beertoast
Happy Birthday! I can't believe its been a year since you started the last thread and what a year it's been. I have more to do than I have time to do it. I have logs to mill. I have 2 live edge tables to build for customers. I have to build a fancy dog kennel that will double as a stand to hold an aquarium. Summer is coming and that means when I'm home my boys will be home with me. I love them, but they are not helpful in me getting projects done. Ohh and I have a pig roast to go to. Let's not forget that.
From a Dutch guy to a Norwegian : Gratulerer med dagen!
Happy Birthday young fella. We survived the past year so the future should be easier. Keep grinning and plodding along, it will keep you young for a long time. 8)
Well first, thanks, I am truly overwhelmed with all the responses. I never anticipated that for sure. Our flag pole is down for painting otherwise I would have had the Norwegian flag flying today, that means as much or more to me than my birthday which is just a reminder of aging. None the less, good wishes from friends always gives one fuel, does it not? So thank you all.
Funny how a day can go along and change quickly, this time it was my own fault. I mentioned just last night on the other thread that adding a boom crane to the trailer might be a helpful idea, but would be down the road. Even when I started this thread this morning it was a back burner thing. But I thunk on it some more and decided to take the plunge. We ran up to Harbor freight and picked one up that I checked out. Now I read most of the reviews on this one and attributed the major complaints to operator error and a lack of basic engineering knowledge during install. I looked at videos and even saw the results, but all problems were related to getting it installed solid, not in sheet metal of flimsy frame parts. I decided to take the plunge for $160 bucks. I have made bigger mistakes, besides, I have a welder. ;D
So we got it home by 1:30 and it took me about 2.5 hours to install (it was hot in the sun). I drilled through the outside rail for two screws and caught a full length cross rail for the third and the forth is just through wood and the supplied angle iron. Looks like this on top. I added a piece of 7/4 RO underneath to spread the load out and squeezed it between the supplied angle iron and the deck. This, I hoped, would spread the load. It did.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210517_160358520_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621289956)
Looks like this underneath.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210517_154838282_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621289595)
Then I gave it a test. First with one log.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210517_163920874_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621289618)
then with 3 firewood logs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210517_164534759.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621289379)
Ugly install, no trimming or cleaning up. I am thinking I will yank this off here and use it on the new trailer when that day comes so I didn't want to start cutting things yet. Note in that last photo that the crane column is at full load for those logs and is still dead square to the bed. Also the boom is at full extent. The bed flexes before the crane does. I should add a drop jack on that corner the firm things up, but for now it just peachy. I am glad I made the decision and went ahead. I think this is going to make life a lot easier on my legs if I can get the rest of the process to comply with this system. The crane is rated for 1,000 pounds in the shortest boom position, 500 at the longest. No issues with the workmanship, but I didn't have time to look it over real well. The hand winch came with pre-frayed wire rope. ;D They did a lousy job spooling it and I pulled it all out and started over with a tighter lay. I believe this thing is strong enough to drag 12" and under logs up on the trailer too. All in all I am pretty dang happy with it. I also got some 6' double eye slings so I can bundle and lift loads. I spent some time brainstorming with NYBHH this morning and looking at bundling options that won't break the bank. We came up with a couple. More work on that when I earn some cash.
Gotta run because my daughter came over to cook us a birthday dinner, some kind of special pork chops, I'm told. It's a secret.
All in all not a bad day. Thanks again for all the good wishes, they caught me off guard but set my day aright.
Tomorrow I test load the mule to see how this all fits. I did make one mistake and meant to put the crane on the other side so Mule loading was easier. Tomorrow we find out just how much of a mistake I made. :D It should be fine, but.....
Anyway, that's for another day.
And another one and another one....
Just hope that they go on as long as you do 😄
Happy Birthday 🎂 Hope your Birthday dinner is a good one 👍
Happy birthday and hope your pork chops were awesome!!
Well dinner was, as Trimguy said "AWESOME". I have never had pork chops like that, over an inch thick and as tender as could be! After dinner we had Birthday Apple pie (my preference) and ice cream. I was stuffed, still am, I think.
After dinner I got a call from an old buddy who always calls me on my Birthday in recent years. He is a Luthier and part time musician. His business is busting out and has been for over a year and all the pros being stuck at home taking advantage of the time off to get repairs done, and the semi-pros doing the same or ordering new instruments. He gave up trying to keep up with the workload a long time ago and just plugs along as he can. ANyway we had a really nice chat for an hour or so about everything from the pandemic to wood selection, raising kids, the influx of city folks driving up land prices well beyond reasonable and the effect on our community. I haven't enjoyed a visit like that in a long time. I miss seeing them, and especially his little girl and is growing so fast and learning even faster. She's about 8 now, going on 15. ;D ;D I finally hit the rack around 10:30.
Today I will test load the Mule for fit, but I also have to screw down some flat bunks on the trailer so that when loaded I can get a strap under them for picking. The trick is to make sure that the bunk locations don't interfere with the Mule position on the trailer. I don't mind if the tire is on top of the bunk, but I do want to make sure it is either fully on, or fully off the bunk so it won't be on the corner and maybe move when it is not 'desired' or get jammed against the head rack or tailgate. I am just going to take some HW boards I had been culling from the lumber rack and cutting for firewood. Its a better use. Just a couple of deck screws should hold them in place. Then I really should get the lawn mowed and finally remove the barrier around the new grass and cut that. some of it is going to seed. I could rototill too, but I am not sure I am up for that yet. Supposed to be the warmest day so far this year (mid 70's) so I will play it by ear. Trying to rest the legs but get things ready. I also have that chimney repair to do and all the parts are here, so if it gets really hot I can do that in the cool(er) shop.
Time to get at it.
Happy belated birthday Tom. Enjoyed the read. As Ross Perot once said, just do it. And you did.
I can tell you see life as a journey and are enjoying the trip. Have another good year.
Quote from: Cedarman on May 18, 2021, 06:53:25 AM
...... As Ross Perot once said, just do it. And you did.
I can tell you see life as a journey and are enjoying the trip. Have another good year.
Well, no doubt I tend to over think things like this because most of the time when you buy something like this and expect it to perform as advertised, you will be disappointed. I expect this to happen, and that is OK, IF one has time to correct and improve the issues with design corrections. In this case I did not want to add another project this week, but the research I did gave me a feeling it would work OK if I just added more support from the get-go. The function of the crane itself was another question but I watched a video of a guy using that unit to lift a V-6 from with ground onto his truck bed, with the engine stand attached. Except for his diamond plate bed flexing, he did it just fine and got 4' of lift with that little pump jack. SO I took a chance. I am very pleased with the way it works and it lifts much more than I really believed it would.
But I am trying to run a business, or at least pretend to, so the cost has to be justified or else I am just playing with a new gadget. SO the cost of that gizmo, all in, is about 50 mushroom logs or 1/3 of my first trip. I know it's small potatoes but the point is if I watch the small stuff and make careful decisions, the big stuff never shows up. Again, this might seem like a lot of thought over a small thing, but I try to do that on everything, that is, relate it to how much work I have to do to pay for something, or more often, get it to pay for itself in productivity improvement. This should be saving a lot of wear and tear on my leg muscles and that has value in that I can work a longer day. Being able to use it for firewood unloading is a bonus I didn't expect. I will at some point need to add a drop jack on that one corner to reduce the twist load on the trailer frame, but that can wait for now. Maybe just put it on the next trailer. For under 200 bucks, this worked out pretty good and I remain surprised at my luck.
Thank you for the good wishes. I hope the coming year brings us all better days, I think we have earned them.
What a great birthday present ;) . I hauled a lot of 8' cordwood home for a couple yrs with the same setup tho mine was mounted to the front center of a 4' x 8' repurposed boat trailer. Next Sunday Rita will turn 67 and I get to call her an old lady ;D till end of June when I turn 68 and she goes back to being a spring chicky bab'e :D ;) . Hope you have another great day today too.
Tom,
If permanent bunks are in the way why not just make slots/brackets out of angle iron or wood that your bunks (I assume something like 2X4 or 2X6) slip between, cut the bunk boards to length, stack them up and ratchet strap them down where convenient during transport then lay them in the predetermined slots when you want to use them.
You know what is fun about your thread is we can all respond with totally insane suggestions that take lots of work and cost plenty of money and we never have to do any work or spend any money in the process. :D :D
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on May 18, 2021, 09:26:23 AMYou know what is fun about your thread is we can all respond with totally insane suggestions that take lots of work and cost plenty of money and we never have to do any work or spend any money in the process. :D :D
Well, maybe for you..... but for me what's fun about this thread is that people get to throw out insane ideas and they lead me into thinking of something useful that solves my issues and I can figure out a way to do it without spending lots of money. There is quite the brain trust here. :D ;D
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Now to the task at hand. This morning I pulled a bunch of junk boards off the rack, mostly live edge and cut up the bunks and laid them on the trailer about pretty much where they go. Then I tried to drive the Mule up. Tried. But that post and crane were impeding on the Mule just a little bit. Apparently when I did my measuring, I measured the distance between the outside of the tires. I didn't notice that the doors and cab are just a tiny bit wider, maybe an inch.
So I reconsidered. I took the crane off the mast, that gave me 1/2" or so. Then I took another run at it and scooched the Mule as far to the left as I could. I got it on. Still I was rubbing the crane mast on one side.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210518_101759691_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621381435)
And it was pretty tight on the other side.
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It fits, and I think on the next attempt I can get it tighter without the mast touching the window. But it fits and I can work with that. It is a 'bit' harrowing to drive it up there so I am not doing it on a whim more than i have to. A bigger trailer will make this a non-issue. I checked the bunk locations and they were all good except the one that the rear tires fell dead on. I don't want the Mule like that for transport, so I cut that one up. When I get on site and dismount the mule I can run the screws and for the sectioned pieces. So I screwed everything else down.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210518_191236202.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621381482)
So that's pretty much as ready as it is going to get. I did some other little odds and ends on the trailer and parked it. Had a client come by for a vacuum machine I fixed for him with the oil it needed so we loaded that in and it works just fine. He is happy. He wants to know when I can start working on his place. ;D Well, I dunno just yet.
I checked in up north to see if we were on schedule for this Friday/Saturday and it turns out we have to put it off about another week because of unforeseen circumstances. No big deal, this is our life. Weather, machine breakdowns, they own us. ;D I just made a call or two to try and pull in some of the other clients I had put off and it will work out. This is the nature of the business and we have to roll with it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I have SO much stuff to do that even if it didn't work for my clients I could work my butt off here every day doing things that I really need to get done. It's all good and not even a hiccup.
So I mowed the lawn and got that new grass cut for the first time and it looks better. My shop compressor blew the breaker hard yesterday and I just ignored it. Today I started looking into it, got the covers off and found the motor and pump turn freely. That's as far as I got. I'll get into it tomorrow. I still have the woodstove to refit and get that done. That's a days work right there. So I have plenty to do. ;D
Tomorrow is another day and I'll just keep pulggin' along. :D
Great thing about dead ash for firewood is it makes procrastinating on that big stack of btus a lot more forgiving 😉
Could you weld a plate on the side of the trailer to the rear of the fender well outside the bed and use a bottle jack under it for support? It would need to be braced so when the load swings into the trailer it does not bend the crane into the bed. This might put the mast/crane on the outside of the bed area and make more room.
I think the obvious answer here is to buy a narrower UTV ;)
not sure of all the applications and reach, but in line with what NYBHH just suggested, one of the front corners would be well braced as well
Quote from: nybhh on May 19, 2021, 12:52:36 PM
I think the obvious answer here is to buy a narrower UTV ;)
Quote from: doc henderson on May 19, 2021, 01:27:05 PM
not sure of all the applications and reach, but in line with what NYBHH just suggested, one of the front corners would be well braced as well
Or both 🤔
Geez, some 'interesting ideas' once again. Actually Sam may be onto to something, but I am not planning on having this trailer too long, so I will wait. I think I would use a swing down jack instead of a bottle jack, but same idea. Brandon, we can discuss your idea tomorrow. ;D Doc, I hope you were referring to Sam's idea, not NYBHH's idea.
Well I had forgotten today was the monthly food shopping trip, so there went half the day. When we got home and got it all stowed I went out and dug into that compressor issue. Thought it was the pressure switch/relay and bypassed that to confirm the motor worked. It did not. Motor turns fine by hand, but blows the breaker in an instant. I think it is the starting cap, but I am not going any further. Its a craftsman 6HP/30 Gallon and I can buy the same unit working for $150, so I am not going to put a lot of effort in it. That thing is a noisy screamer and I hate it. I'll deal with a replacement later. But I do have an oldie and goodie that I have been meaning to get back to working, now that one is worth my time.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210519_150422534.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621459407)
You don't see these around much anymore.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210519_150429185.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621459372)
When I moved this over from my Dad's house it wasn't developing much more than 30PSI and I had no time to get into it then. Today was the day. I figured the valve in the head needed cleaning, so I pulled the head off and cleaned all the pieces the best I could, put it all back together carefully and started it back up. As soon as it got up to 35psi it was building air a lot slower, if at all. Everything seemed fine in the head area and how it sounded. I looked elsewhere and finally thought of checking the bleeder cock on the bottom. Sure enough, it was leaking, the screw pulling in the taper was loose and is was bubbling away. DUH! So I tightened that and it began to build air again! Went up to 110PSI and shut off (Dad was always conservative on pressure). Now this thing was never a speed demon building air, but it makes air and holds it. I let it sit 2 hours and it dropped 5psi. I am pretty happy with that, at least I have compressed air.
I did notice one thing, while it was building air, there was a constant leak from a bleeder vent on the pressure switch. In the photo below, it is the little open line going from the switch off to the right.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210519_150509744.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621459419)
That is an open line and I assume it is a pressure let off in the switch, but should that be venting when it is making air? When the unit hits pressure and shuts off, that line no longer leaks. Does anybody know if it should leak air while running? Inquiring minds need to know.
Anyway, this will fill the bill for now. I will keep my eyes open for a newer unit as I have time, but for now I can run a temp line from the shed where this lives over to the shop and just tie it into the circuit. That will include the tank on the dead compressor and give me a little more reserve. I don't think this one will keep up with the water pump on my tank, but time will tell. It is a HECK of a lot quieter and that's funny to me, because when I was a little kid, I thought this was the nosiest thing in town.
In the middle of all the compressor work, my son showed up with a rented stump grinder on it's way back to the rental place, He thought he would grind up a couple of stumps on our front lawn I have been mowing around for 5 or more years.
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He made quick work of it. When I finished the compressors I went out and raked everything out and picked all the rocks he ground up. Nice little machine, works well.
It was hot today, it hit 85! I am not used to that, for sure. A few days ago I was wishing for 60. Tomorrow I am back in the woods and I am also using this extra time to think through more of the details on log handling during the harvest work. Think I will make a beam with an eye bolt and a 4x4 to lift the slung logs from the mule to the trailer with. Something to play with anyway.
Tomorrows another day, I'll figure it out then, if I have time.
yup, I just peaked back down below, and did not go far enough. :) maybe admin will move this to did something dumb today! :D
It's quieter because it's in the other shed. :D :D
and you cannot hear crap after years in the trades/industry. :o :)
Quote from: trimguy on May 19, 2021, 09:01:38 PM
It's quieter because it's in the other shed. :D :D
Well um, yeah. True enough. :D :)
But side by side the old one is much quieter than this Crapsman Oil less compressor. True it doesn't build air like the newer one, but it is old. I think it needs a ring job and I sure wish I could get the valves apart, but I am afraid of breaking the shanks.
I have lots of options. I can leave it where it is and just run a line to tie into my outside line and back feed the system. Or I could move it into the shop, tie in the tank from the old one and run that way. I could also put a spare remote switch on the old one in the shed and turn it off at night without having to walk out there. But frankly, it's a just a compressor. I need air, but it's not a big one on the list as long as I have it. Most likely I will spend the summer cruising CL waiting for the right unit that is not too far away. I'd like to get another older one that is quiet but makes air in decent time. Then I can leave the one out in the shed where it is also useful as a secondary system and a backup. If I was in a hurry, I found the exact same crapsman on CL and hour drive away for 150 today. but I have paying work to do, so it will wait for a while. Worst case, I still have another small compressor (10 gallon) that carried me for 35 years in the shop ready to go. It's just small and kind of loud. There are always options when a guy isn't backed into a corner, and on this, I am certainly not. ;D ;D
my brother always remote located the intake and that really reduces the noise. if you do not fix the old ones, you could put the tank in the attic with a drain downstairs, and have a lot of volume for the times when you need a bunch. mine is in the basement so I can barely hear it. and i have a little hearing loss too. :)
I recently bought a California Air oilless quiet compressor for my woodshop and it's really quiet. Have you looked at the DR versa trailer pro xl200? It looks like it would be great in the woods behind your mule. Just saw it in the new catalog I got today.
Quote from: 21incher on May 19, 2021, 10:24:55 PM
I recently bought a California Air oilless quiet compressor for my woodshop and it's really quiet. Have you looked at the DR versa trailer pro xl200? It looks like it would be great in the woods behind your mule. Just saw it in the new catalog I got today.
I don't think I would be looking for a new compressor. Used should be just fine, but that could change.
On that trailer, yes, I have seen that one and the price, compared to others, is attractive, but still pricey until it earns its way. Now I see that all these builders are offering free shipping which I assume is built into the price somehow. The one I had my eye on is the Iron Baltic Pro 1000 which is also 2,000# cap, but comes in at nearly a grand more and a lot of the need accessories are extras (log bunks, lifting mast & winch, etc) so you are really looking at around 4 grand all in. It
appears that the Iron Baltic is built heavier, but who can tell from photos? I don't know anything about DR but see they are in VT and wonder if that is where their shop is? DO you know of their reputation? Have you bought anything of consequence from them? It's a 4 hour drive for me, but I sure would love to see one of these before I buy it. I have to work too hard for that money. ;D
In any event, this would be a 'next year' thing, because I would want the cash in my hand before I bought. I know I am playing roulette with the market and economy. The bottom could drop out and prices drop with 'fire sales', or steel could be even harder to get and prices go up or they go back to charging $350 for shipping. But first things first, I have to upgrade the main trailer for moving stuff over the road.
Well time to get the truck loaded.
Check out Midsota trailers they build some small ones that look pretty nice
in general, I like the pipe rail trailer vs angle. for the type of work you are doing, it would be easy to torque a stick of ankle rail. they seem to look nice longer. your son seems handy, can he be subtlety tasked with scrounging up some materiel and helping you build one? good experience for the grandsons. made to your specs. build the hoist mast into the frame, custom trailer flooring. tool boxes and saw racks, tip or ramp the way you want. your title no longer says "keeping busy" so I assume you have lots of time, and I am sure you have thought about it. we have lots of oil field pipe around here that people make lots of stuff with. just thinking on the keyboard.
No oil pipe around here Doc. Finding cheap or free materials is pretty much out of the question these days. You suggestion reminds me of the expression "Just because I can does not mean I should." My son sure doesn't have time for a project like that and neither do I. Yeah, I could, but it would not be fast and would consume a lot of my time that I surely don't have now. If I could find the materials, I might build a walking beam log trailer over the winter, but I would need to get my lathe and Bridgeport back up and working which are other tasks yet to be done.
Well today I spent most of it feeding a chipper and made a nice pile with all the tops and slash we built up over the last few weeks. We also loaded another trailer load of firewood. I got that home and tried using the trailer crane to unload just to get used to it and seeing home it worked. I leanred that the trailer needs to be level or else gravity takes over and the boom wants to swing to the low side. SO spinning a 500# log around against the mast lean is tough. I even got this green maple beast off.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210520_155412604_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621554390)
It took a fair amount of work, but it was different muscles being used, mostly upper body. I think this is going to work out as a big help. I managed to top off this stack, so there is that.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210520_185016572.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1621554368)
No, its not easy, but do-able. It would be nice if there was a way to extend and retract the boom while loaded, but that's not going to happen. I was just surprised it handled that maple log because it is heavy, which makes a bundle of mushroom logs look pretty easy at this point.
Pretty tired tonight and will probably be in bed by 9.
Tomorrow is another day.
I know the old DR products were reliable but all the new stuff is basically drop shipped from China as is everything else these days. I have been trying to buy a side by side about the size as yours for over 2 months now with none available to buy and was thinking about building a trailer to go with it but then saw this one that would work for my yard. The thing is most utvs have a 2000 pound tow rating on level ground that drops to 1500 pounds or less on angled terrain that includes the weight in the bed. This trailer comes in at 650 pounds that would leave another 650 pounds for a load and 200 pounds of tools in the bed. If l built one it would definitely be heavier limiting the load and take a long time to finish. They sell refurbs that have been returned under their guarantee at a good savings I was thinking about. Steel just went up another 30% and I think price increases won't be far off if you can even find stuff to buy. Crazy times we are dealing with caused by over stimulating the economy.
I built a trailer out of an old hay stacker a few years ago. Copied one my neighbor bought, one that the floor tilts down so you don't need ramps to load your mower or atv. The angle was all 1/4" thick, made a pretty strong trailer. Got the parts needed from Red Neck Supply in wichita.
Old greenhorn, on the booms that I mounted on my trailers (2) I welded a piece of pipe just larger than my jack handle at 90* to the post so I could insert my jack handle for some swing control. I also made a new jack handle out of thick wall pipe about 24" long for leverage so I had better control of the swing ( I learned the hard way).
This is what you need Greenhorn. You could pull those logs on and off that trailer by hand smooth as silk
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/4D0CD522-B034-4D5B-ACDA-6FC493DB63CC.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1621593269)
Quote from: Walnut Beast on May 21, 2021, 06:34:45 AM
This is what you need Greenhorn. You could pull those logs on and off that trailer by hand smooth as silk
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DO you mean by hand or in conjunction with the hoist?
In the first case I am afraid my legs aren't up to that work and I already have too many things wearing out my legs. ;D ;D
In the second case I think those are a bit too long and I will lose all my vertical travel room. I already have a pair of log tongs but opted for the security of having a choker all around the log(s), because a slip could be dangerous.
For mushroom logs these are definitely out because they will scar the logs, but I know that's not what you were intending.
I had spent 40 minutes with a detailed reply to all the previous posts and then fat fingered it away. I don't have time to re-do that now. I am working at home today, so maybe this afternoon. Suffice to say right now that I appreciate all the suggestions and keep looking at these options, if not for a direct answer then for a lead into something better. Thinking is good, and these make all me think. (Some make me think a few of you would do well with a little counseling. :D )
Quote from: Walnut Beast on May 21, 2021, 06:34:45 AM
This is what you need Greenhorn. You could pull those logs on and off that trailer by hand smooth as silk
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/4D0CD522-B034-4D5B-ACDA-6FC493DB63CC.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1621593269)
How hard was it to train the dog to use those tongs?
"I'm not crazy, my mom had me tested!" Sheldon Cooper of the Big Bang Theory.
Looks like that winch worked out pretty well.
Quote from: Nebraska on May 21, 2021, 05:11:34 PM
Looks like that winch worked out pretty well.
Yeah, color me surprised!
Doc, Sheldon was talking about himself, the jury is still out on you. :D And some of these other guys are a bit concerning also. ;D ;D
Well, its been a few days since an update. Not much exciting going on with me. Friday I fixed some stuff and piddled around, pretty tired from the day prior chipping and unloading those logs. Still it is heartening to see that my legs and back are holding up better these days and recovering (mostly) by the next morning. Friday I got a call from the Ashokan center, they were looking for about 3 yards of fresh Harwood chips to make a chip bed for planting mushrooms as a demo project on their campus. So I made some calls and when my logger buddy drove by I followed him back to his yard to give him some cash one of his clients left with me. We talked and he had some cleaning up to do at his place chipping the brush I left from mushroom logs back in March and a little bit of thinning on the new 60 acres he just bought across the road. SO we made tentative arrangements for me to do that work with him 'sometime in the next few days'.
Saturday was hot and I decided to be a bum. The wife and I went to a flea market for its opening day and I ran into some woodcarvers and we chatted for a while. They plan to give me a call in a few weeks, but they said that when I met them last year. ;D I bought a knife to replace the one I lost a few weeks ago from them, and the wife bought a cutting board shaped like a fiddle for my SIL. When we got home the mail had arrived and the book I ordered came in. Lee Marvin's biography. Since I am working at a house that I was told was his, I got curious about the man and got a used copy of the book looking for insight. He was an interesting guy for sure. I had been wanting, when I retired, to get back into my old reading habits, but for the last 15 years I have had increasing issues focusing and relaxing enough to read and enjoy a book. It has concerned me quite a bit. I have hundreds of books in my library on everything from outdoors living to American and other histories and lots of biographies. Many are not even in English, but they were important to what I was doing, so I muddled through. But when my head began getting messed up with the Fire and EMS stuff that kept me up at night, I lost the ability to get lost in a book and I want that back. I bought several good books from their authors over the years and could never finish one of them.
Well Saturday was hot and I was a bit weary in general, so after chores and such I grabbed a chair and set it in the sun, along with a beer and started in. It was a pretty good read for me and I got through about 200 pages by bedtime and finished the book Sunday morning. Sunday night I ordered another book by Lee Marvin's second wife. As she is from Woodstock, I am hoping that will have some better references to the house in question. I also looked up the online legal records and managed to figure out that the property was bought by Lee Marvin's father in 1946 and Lee spent time there after he got a medical discharge from the USMC from wounds suffered in the battle for Saipan. He (Lee) worked as a plumbers apprentice for a local family business that is still active in the area. (He kept his union dues paid up until he died.) Anyway, when Lee's father died, the property went to Lee and his siblings and eventually to Lee, then to Lee's widow, Pam. Her estate sold the property to my current client for something north of 500 grand. Interesting that on the parcel map I see the property also includes a section across the road, which my client never mentioned. I wonder if he is even aware? Will have to follow up on that.
Anyway, it was good to read a book, it's been a long time.
So Sunday I got the call that we could make some chips and I put my chainsaw pants on for another hot day. We hooked up his smaller chipper to the smaller dump truck (F550) and started working around his 80 acres finding and chipping up the stuff that had been left here and there during other cutting operations and we also thinned a few trees here and there. We even found a catalpa tree we trimmed up, a first for me, I didn't know we had it around here. Grows like a weed. Along the way, we also had a trespasser drive through on the private road that bisects his property. Some youngish hippy type in a little car. I was walking back on the road and when he drove by me, he didn't wave or make eye contact. I thought that strange. Then a little further down the (barely one lane) road, he encountered the dump truck coming back the other way. No way to pass and my buddy wasn't going to yield on his own property, so the little car backed all the way up to where I was still walking. My buddy stopped the truck and climbed down and we both asked the young fella if there was something we could do for him? He stammered and said, "well um, it looks like I took a wrong turn", 'Yeah, you did'. I told him he looked familiar (and he did, I am certain I have seen him somewhere else) but he seemed to have no interest in discussing it and he hastily backed up, turned around and left. Thinking about it now, I suppose we made a bit of a sight to him, two guys in hard hats and filthy work clothes covered in sweat and woo dust with a big truck, one short young, wiry, muscular dude and the old guy with him, not looking all that happy either. Now wrong turn is one thing, but when you are driving down a 3rd class road and pass 2 red signs with white lettering on either side that say "private property, no trespassing", one has to wonder what one might be thinking, does one not? ;D Anyway, we got back to work and filled the truck, then did a walking tour of the new property for my benefit. Looks like he will be waging war on those beavers killing all his nicest white oak stems. It's almost like the beavers know how to high grade. ;D Anyway, it was hot, but it didn't take long to fill the truck. His smaller chipper is a 12" and it swallows quite a bit. We parked the chipper and I took the truck over to make the delivery, but unlike I was promised, nobody was available to show me where and lend a hand. I had also left the gate code back in my truck. So I got hold of the caretaker (90 miles away) and got the code, then got some folks on the phone to 'sorta, kinda' tell me how much they wanted dumped in each of 2 locations.
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I got that done and headed back and parked the truck. My buddy was just pulling his log truck into the shop. The gasket on the filter port of the hydraulic tank was leaking so I gave him a hand getting that apart. Then he had some Sunday company show up to test out his pool, so we had a beer and I headed home around 3. I am just glad I could get them their chips before I get into the log harvest at the end of the week. I have enough to do right now. Not even sure what I am doing today, but there is plenty.
Time to get at it.
Not much going on here these last 2 days, just chores mostly trying to clear the board for when I get into this mushroom log thing. Bucking firewood, mowing the lawn, rototilling the garden, cleaning and sharpening gear, just lots of odds and ends. And it has been hot, so I slow down and work around the sun.
Got another email from Cornell today, they are moving forward with this 'river transport thing' and wondered if I would be ok with them videotaping me harvesting logs. Seems they want to document this thing where the product gets harvested, transported to the sloop in Kingston and then follow it all the way through from woods to 'farm'. I still don't get the whole deal with the boat and such, but I can play. My job is just getting the logs to them. I told them I can probably shoot some video, but they would have to do the editing. They said 'Oh No, we will send somebody up to do the filming, you don't need to worry about that'. I am thinking 'OK, if you want somebody to meet me at 7am I am game. Whatever, just let me do my work.' I just hope they can make all their arrangements quick because I may start delivering their logs before the end of next week. 500 logs is a lot of work and a lot of trips. ;D
I hope I can get started on these Friday or Saturday. I figure the first day as a loss while I try to get set into a routine and figure out if my plans are accurate or not. After that, I am hoping for the best and hoping my legs hold up. :D
Tomorrow is another day, and if I get the word, I will load up in the afternoon for work on Friday.
I hope the documentary goes well. We spent the last week going to Fla and back for a buddy's wedding and overnight on the way down to see the daughter and Shirley Temple look-alike granddaughter and her brother. Boy is she a sweet kid - probably gets it from her grandpa.
I picked up my metal roofing for my outhouse/composting toilet and got all the framing done today. Now I just need to build the door, figure out the windows and put the siding on. Another customer is calling tomorrow for 3 similar sheds. Its getting hard to price them. The metal and pt lumber for the base is double what it was a year ago. I'm tempted to cut up locust posts into decking frames.
Must be mating season for raccoons as I hear a couple raising cain outside. I first thought it was an old doe deer snorting. They do that a lot when we walk out and startle one in the yard and such. Boy are these guys loud. Sampson is happily sleeping in front of the TV and wants no part of them.
Well, nothing from me lately because I was waiting out the 3 days of rain. I filled the time doing chores, fixing chimneys, etc. As noted on another thread, Eric dropped some trees for me yesterday.
SO, TODAY was the day to get started on this mushroom log harvest. I overslept until 6:30 and barely made the appointed meeting time, I had hoped to be 1/2 hour earlier and get a nice breakfast, but I ate as I drove and was only 5 minutes late. We went up to the site and did a walking tour. I had looked at the plot layout online and the sat photos, so I had a pretty good idea of the layout, but you can't see the skid trails on those. ;D Especially anything that was put in yesterday. :D Anyway, its a sweet layout for me and Eric made it easy. I could get the Mule right up to a tree, cut out the usable stuff for me, throw a soft choker around it and drag it out, CTL and load. Some of the roads were just a little wet and the Mule should have handled them fine, we both agreed. And for the most part it did, but the Mule weighed about 750 pounds more going out than coming in and after a few runs I was taking a toll in some spots. But as with many things, you learn to pick a better line through those areas and it got much better, but there were a few moments than had me sideways, hooking it up, and hoping for the best. ;D
By the time we walked the tour and Eric left me to my own designs, I got unloaded, squared away with the right tools (mostly) in the Mule, and got to the first tree by 10am. It took me a while to figure out an attack pattern, but I finally settled in on picking the sections that fell within my diameter requirements, and did as I mentioned above. Sounds easy and it is, but it's hard work. I cleaned one tree, got a full load, ran it back to the trailer. and then started messing with the lift and swing system. It worked fairly well. I do have to work on the bundle sizes more. Too much and it is a real bear to swing, handle, and lay where you want it. So I would leave larger logs out of the bundle and hand load those to fill in spots. I took the bulk of the load out of the Mule in one shot and hand moved a few extras. I did of course lose a load as I was landing it in the trailer, (you gotta find out where the limits are and I found that one) so I just took the straps off and shuffled them around. So I think this bundle and crane thing saves a little time when it works right, but what it really saves is me lifting every single log by hand and that means my body holds up longer, so in that respect, its a winner and the ones I hand load are a small percentage. I cleaned out all the wood that I could get access to, but there was no way to get the Mule into, or out of the skidder wallows. I needed more logs and was searching for what I may have missed and found a few here and there, then there was one tree about 75' across a big wallow so I pulled the mule as close sad I could and pulled out the winch line, cut what I could and tried to drag them in with the winch. That turned out to be a poor idea. I worked harder for those 5 logs then any others all day. (Obviously not worth it in hindsight but I had to try and learn why.)
So I went back and unloaded, pulled the tools from the Mule, secured the mule and parked it behind an old horse trailer, bound the load and pulled out at 4:30, the truck thermometer said 85° and I was parched in spite of drinking water all day.
Some Photos are in order. I could get a fair load in the mule, maybe 15-18 logs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210601_112925622_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622595690)
Loading the trailer on site, As long as I had the load balanced, it was fairly easy.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210601_115154688_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622595695)
Offloading at home, not so bad either, the crane worked out pretty well if the trailer was level. I am pleased that idea worked out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210601_185019181.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622595469)
Stored the mule behind an old horse trailer, surrounded by old tractors, it is invisible in this crowd. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210601_162841241_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622595460)
(I just looked at that photo and realized I left my axe on it.)
I came across one of these today. Does anybody know what it is? What kind of power plant? Interesting little unit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210601_162754579_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1622595738)
Anyway, I came down the hill and stopped in Uptown Conesville at the Conesville Country Store and had one of their world famous vanilla shakes, I was parched and tired and it gave me a nice kick on the drive home. Got home after 6, had the trailer unloaded and parked by 7:30. so exactly a 12 hour day and I am suitably tired. Some rain tomorrow and more coming Thursday dang it. I only pulled 47 logs today which is less than half what I was hoping for. BUT we have to keep in mind that this was the 'prototype' and setup day. I only took 15 minutes to eat lunch and worked the rest of the time, even when a neighbor came by to make sure I belonged there and we had a nice chat, I worked through it. It was pretty much a 12 hour loop.
I am learning that one of the issues here is that I have a small diameter spectrum to cut from, between 4 and 6" which means I am really not taking a lot of each tree. (and those 6" pieces are over 50# a pop.) This is a lot of work. I am not complaining, I am just saying that compared to what you are getting out, you work really hard for it. There is no textbook for it (I think I am writing it. ;D ) I am pretty tired, but for a 'proof of process' day, this was pretty good. I have some things to think about, but I am pleased I didn't come up short on tools and methods to do the work. I had what I needed. I didn't get hurt, no pulled muscles, not exhausted, just pretty tired. Just a few scratches to prove I worked today. :D
Oh and an aside to Brandon who brainstormed with me on those bundle straps quite a bit. Turns out those sling chokers were a no-go, just too short to do what we intended. BUT those 1" cheapo ratchet straps are THE WAY TO GO. They worked like a charm and I'll get a bunch more. You take a good guess, try it, and learn, then move on and improve. Having two ideas to try at the same time saved the day today on that score.
I am off to bed folks.
QuoteI came across one of these today. Does anybody know what it is? What kind of power plant? Interesting little unit.
Quick search online, "Coot amphibious ATV" looks like that machine. Looking at pics of other ones, the drivers compartment and cargo bed should twist articulate.
Sounds like the first day of shroom logs was pretty good considering the setup involved and learning the lay of the land. If the loggers don't know exactly what you are looking for, marking trees ahead of time might be a good option if you can get access. In some ways, I think your best play is to be a kind of "shroom forester" and go in and mark trees before a cut and then buy appropriate logs directly from loggers as a middle man. Even at $0.25 - $0.50 per LF, it probably beats pulp or firewood prices and leaves a healthy profit for you as middleman and keeps you from working yourself to death. Problem is going to be finding and educating loggers and landowners but it wouldn't take too many willing to deliver logs to a landing to meet your demand. Especially if it just means is a smaller burn pile and a bit more cash w/o extra trucking.
Quote from: nybhh on June 02, 2021, 01:45:27 AM
Sounds like the first day of shroom logs was pretty good considering the setup involved and learning the lay of the land. If the loggers don't know exactly what you are looking for, marking trees ahead of time might be a good option if you can get access. In some ways, I think your best play is to be a kind of "shroom forester" and go in and mark trees before a cut and then buy appropriate logs directly from loggers as a middle man. Even at $0.25 - $0.50 per LF, it probably beats pulp or firewood prices and leaves a healthy profit for you as middleman and keeps you from working yourself to death. Problem is going to be finding and educating loggers and landowners but it wouldn't take too many willing to deliver logs to a landing to meet your demand. Especially if it just means is a smaller burn pile and a bit more cash w/o extra trucking.
Well everything you said right there makes perfect sense of course. I had plenty of time over the winter to think about that, and 'think on it' I did plenty of. Even talked to a few guys about it. I learned some things and continue to learn more every day. It is beginning, even to a dunce like me, to becomes more clear. Just a couple of months ago my thoughts were pretty much (OK, nearly exactly) the same as yours and it made a lot of sense to me. SO you will understand why now I can tell you that the ideas are nice, but just not workable. I am not arguing here, or putting down your ideas (you know me much better than that) but am sharing what I have learned thus far, because your thoughts make perfect sense until you get into doing the work.
First there are some 'truths' we have to consider: the logger has to make time, they fight weather, equipment breakdowns, cutters and drivers that don't show up, or show up in a non-working condition, they have landowners to sooth and please, and pretty much the same with foresters and buyers. Keeping things moving and cash flow going is a day by day battle. There are a lot of days they don't win and on the days they are winning, they have to keep the hammer down in order to pay bills, wages, loans, etc. In the end very few (OK, none of them) are tooling around on the weekend in their Mercedes convertible (mostly because if the weather is good they are working all weekend). A slight loss in efficiency for them can mean a complete loss of any profit. Now I may be off on my perspective in this a little, but those are are in the middle of this should feel free to correct me. For now, that is my picture.
Yes, I can and do tell the loggers I work with what I need and they pratty much all hear me and realize that this is the junk they can't use anyway. But loggers are cutting each property with very different end goals on each depending on the landowner or forester's marking. I can show them good examples trees, but it's not my to place to mark for them. Besides, the 'ideal tree for me is also one I can drop and buck in about 5 minutes. 8" on the butt, straight pecker poles of the right species. These are often the keeper trees for future growth, so I would conflict with the end goal here. Consequently, I have to take top wood branches off the larger trees. which as you said, is a lot more work, but it is fine wood for this purpose.
Having the logger bring selected logs to the landing is nearly impossible for 3 reasons. 1) they would have to skid them and that ruins the wood, 2) I would be leaving what I don't take (too big, or too small) on the landing, adding to the mess they don't want there, and 3) I am finding that on these branch pieces I am almost always removing jus the middle. I go up the branch until the diameter drops to 6" and begin marking and cutting there and go on until I get down to just under 4", this leaves more top and a lot of bottom wood. Yes, it kills me to leave a lot of branches that are very close but too small or too big because I already spent time getting them out to take what I can.
On cost: well that is touchy because of the market. Bottom line basic price right now is $4.00/log to the end grower, plus more for delivery (I charge a fair price, but enough that I don't mind delivering). If I pay what you suggest for wood it would come right off the profit (I use that term very loosely here). Doing the long shuttle run with nearly a half tank of fuel a day is already pushing the limit on making any money and taking another $1.00 off my selling price per log to pay the logger would kill it entirely. Certainly if a logger were to cut to length and leave a stack for me to pick up, this would be a very workable situation, but no logger I can find would consider doing that. I don't believe it would pay their hourly rate or even come close, but I can't speak for them, I just know they won't, because I have asked. :DAs soon as you mention taking them out of the woods in a pickup bed or loader bucket the conversation dies. I have been extremely lucky (and blessed) in that nobody who I have gotten logs from has charged me a penny or accepted my offers of payment. I can't say if this is because they see the work involved (I doubt that because they are not there working with me) or the little I can pay would not make a difference to them. Most likely is they just want to help me out as long as it doesn't cost them too much in time. (I am told I can be a likeable guy at times.) I have offered as much as $.50/log, but any more and I would not making anything at all.
I can say that if the best I can do is 50 logs/day, then I am pretty much in a loosing situation. I have to get that number up to 100 or better. I am sure we can, still working on how.
I have talked to a lot of folks in the last three years about how this is best done, including the big expert at Cornell university. The only common thread I have found is that nobody does this for a profit, per se. They do it for extra cash from wood that would either become firewood or chip, and it almost always done on one's own land or for a neighbor. I have yet to find anyone with a clear handle on the economics, it's just extra cash. The closest I have found is a fella with 80 acres he maintains as a sugar bush and thins trees as time goes on, each year he takes the right sized and species wood and sets it aside to sell as Mushroom logs, but he and I had a long talk about the economics and he readily admits there ain't much money there and it is a pain, even on his own land with proper equipment.
So the learning adventure continues. All your thoughts are valid, common sense ones. That's why I took the time here to talk about them. I figure if this doesn't work out for me I may as well share the story so somebody else can figure it out better than I have. So far this whole thing reminds of that old saying: "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is". But I will keep at it because just for myself, I need to know if I can figure this out. I continue to treat this whole thing as an experiment in learning a new process, or developing one, as the case may be. I didn't unload the trailer last night because I had to, I unloaded (even though dog tired) because I wanted to see if I could do it while I was that tired and what effect it might have on me this morning. Because if/when the day comes that I am doing at least a full trip per day, I will have to do the complete cycle in a day. Yesterday's work provided a huge learning opportunity and gave me a leg up in understanding this. The conditions were pretty close to ideal and I have Eric to thank for that.
Today is another day. I best get at it.
Everything else is going up, maybe it's time to raise the price on mushroom logs. When I Went in the business for myself, I had a guy tell me " if you get every job you bid on your too cheap ". With that being said, I hate to see work go elsewhere. Just something else to think about.
Looks like all the adventures are going well OGH! Keep on trucking!
Yes, almost certainly the price goes up next year, but I can't say how much. For now I made promises at the current price point and will hold them.
I will also add in a sliding scale for small quantities of some sort, because doing a deal for one or two logs isn't really worth it except to make a new contact. I am learning as I go, but I am not going to charge my customers for my pricing 'errors'.
You are correct, nobody has complained about the prices except one person who found a cheaper source (free) and choose that.
I was thinking the same thing. Even the wholesalers will take all you can give them (at this price) I assume you have gone on line and found a price point. If you are going to break even, there are ways to do that without all the work. maybe even spend time with the family. You are a smart guy, and i know you will figure out what it is worth to you. Sounds like you are getting your body conditioned for this kind of work again, and that can be healthy to a point. If you get taken out by an injury, then it is all for naught. :)
This seems like minimal work in comparison to what you are doing otherwise but could you toss a battery operated drill on that winch handle (or the nut it's attached with)? I feel like that'd save you a little time and muscle but I've never really paid attention to how those winches work.
Quote from: Resonator on June 01, 2021, 10:26:18 PM
QuoteI came across one of these today. Does anybody know what it is? What kind of power plant? Interesting little unit.
Quick search online, "Coot amphibious ATV" looks like that machine. Looking at pics of other ones, the drivers compartment and cargo bed should twist articulate.
Yup, that's it! A 12HP tecumseh engine is all it has. I didn't touch this machine to look for the engine, just took a photo. These seem pretty slow and strong footed but meant mostly for fun and carrying people. I was wondering hoe it would handle roached out skidder tracks and found some interesting videos on you tube. Not sure what this one would need and not sure I'd be looking for another project. (I don't like Tecumseh engine at all.) But still it might be a fun machine to mess with, given the time.
It would be a conversation starter, all painted up with your logo on the side.
Quote from: aigheadish on June 02, 2021, 09:47:14 AM
This seems like minimal work in comparison to what you are doing otherwise but could you toss a battery operated drill on that winch handle (or the nut it's attached with)? I feel like that'd save you a little time and muscle but I've never really paid attention to how those winches work.
Well it's impossible to see from still photos, but the hand winch is really just light duty and used for making the cable taught. (Also, it will probably need replacement after not very long because it is cheap.) All the lifting is done with the hydraulic jack. The few cranks I use the winch for go pretty quick. I have been thinking on this crane thing quite a bit as I use it because it is working well as far as it goes. It would be nice to have a small power pack to work the hydraulic jack with a remote so I could use my hands to guide the load in and down. It would be hugely more useful (game changer) if I could adjust the boom length/reach while under load. This would be a huge increase in usability, but there is a balance in that and how much load I can put on the trailer mount point. More to think about or shop for a better setup. Something with an 'elbow joint' would be ideal, but as the reach increases, the mount becomes critical. These are indeed the things that keep my mind going as I work.
Quote from: doc henderson on June 02, 2021, 09:44:01 AM
I was thinking the same thing. Even the wholesalers will take all you can give them (at this price) I assume you have gone on line and found a price point. If you are going to break even, there are ways to do that without all the work. maybe even spend time with the family. You are a smart guy, and i know you will figure out what it is worth to you. Sounds like you are getting your body conditioned for this kind of work again, and that can be healthy to a point. If you get taken out by an injury, then it is all for naught. :)
Yeah Doc, I have been watching the 'body/conditioning' aspects pretty close because this is an undeniable limiting factor. I got a wake up call back in March when I harvested logs for a half day and I was really sore and had the life sucked out of me beyond what I had expected. Happy to report now, that is not the case and I appear to have improved. I am very aware of things like water consumption, Sustainable work habits, avoiding stupid moves (as much as possible), getting good rest when I can, and preventing injuries. So far, so good, but it only takes one slip.
Pricing is what it is for now. I will use my current price to get some clients and then next year after they see what I supply, they can decide if the increase is worth it for them. Honestly, I can't say I see this turning into a long term business for anyone for a number of reasons. First, this is a current trend that may go away (growing mushrooms) or die down, second these logs last a grower 5-7 years with good care, so how many will they buy year after year? Third, getting a raw log source is a never ending road. Fourth there are all the details of proper cutting, time to cut, finding buyers at the right time, access to and transport of the logs, etc. Unless somebody is in just the right circumstances it is just a lot of hassle.
On that Coot, yeah, it looks cool, but I am not sure it is a better solution that what I have now. Just fun to think about. I don't think I need another project, especially if that has a blown gear reduction unit or something like that.
50 sticks your first day out sounds good, you will get more efficient with time. Add your heavier trailer, plus other improvements to your crane system I bet it gets to be a fairly smooth operation.
Well I was back up there yesterday with an altered plan and was in the woods by 9. I spent some time scouting trees and was getting really disillusioned. Lots and lots of maple and beech but no RO except those that were too big or too small, finally I found one, then another and so on. I finally had to start flagging trees so I didn't lose them before I came back to cut. It didn't take me long to fill the mule and on my way out to load the trailer I ran into Barge's friend that lost his shop last week. When I realized who it was I had to sit and talk with him for a while. The poor guy is heartbroken and I sure get that. We talked for quite a while because I sensed he needed that. I felt so bad for him. He had two younger fellas with him and they were all looking at the iron around the property for any special finds. I suggested the 'Ford section' over where i was cutting. ;D
Anyway, I lost about 40 minutes there, unloaded and got back to the Ford section to fell, buck and move another load. They wandered through while I was cutting. When I went back and was filling the trailers again I ran into them as they were leaving. The young fellas left and the old fellas talked some more. By that time it was 2pm. My son was having a get-together and the wife was a little ticked I was working, so I cut it off early and headed home. Traffic here on the weekends with all the tourists is bad because they are all distracted and can't seem to maintain a steady speed or even drive at the limit. It makes for a long drive. I got home and unloaded the entire load, took a shower and made it to his party by 5, but again, I was pretty tired. The temp was up near 90 and the sun would suck the life out of a man.
I only pulled another 45 logs, but I did that in about 3 hours less than the previous visit. An adjustment in tactics seems to have paid off. I am pulling some larger logs, up to about 7-1/2" but these are beautiful logs for mushrooms, almost all fast growers and 90% sapwood. A growers dream. I am also pulling out 90% of every tree I drop. This load was pretty much the same size (count) as the last one but weighed about 30% more. I'll be back up tomorrow. I needed to rest the muscles today big time and get the lawn cut.
I have a friend that might be coming to help with labor on Wednesday to see how that goes, time and production wise. Thursday I am due to deliver 120 logs a few counties south of here. Then I have to see if I want to go forward with that 500 log order. It seems daunting right now finding enough of the right trees and having enough wind in my sails.
Tomorrow is another day. Lets see what happens.
I wrote an update last night but just but before I hit 'post' the cat sat on the keyboard and it was gone. I was too exhausted to re-write it.
Hit it hard again yesterday (well, as hard as a guy like me can). This hot weather sucks the life out of me and the black flies are the icing on the cake. Near 90 with a heat index warning. I went through a lot of water.
Bottom line: started cutting by 9am, out of the site by 2:15. 58 logs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210607_134659315_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623108841)
Ran into Barge when I stopped for a late lunch to eat on the way home. He looked more tired than I felt. It was a long drive home behind some guy that thinks 55MPH is a suggestion and he did anything from 40-60 randomly for 30 miles with a line of about 10 vehicles behind him.
I could not wait to get those chainsaw pants off when I got home. Changed into shorts and unloaded. I now have about 135 logs in stock, most of those get delivered on Thursday.
Nothing else to report of note, just the usual daily extra couple of holes in my arms.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210605_161551342.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623108810)
While I was cutting I did run across this in the woods. Nice shape, looks like it just needs a tune-up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210607_105758670.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623108792)
Maybe a little cleaning up on the body work too.
I was in bed before 9 last night and didn't sleep well at all because of the heat.
Today is an off day because I am shot, have to do invoices and arrange the Thursday delivery details. Tomorrow I am bringing up a friend to supply manual labor and see how a 2nd person affects the operation. It sure will be nice to have company and a second set of eyes. I keep finding fresh bear scat all over (like 'last night' fresh) and often feel like my 'bear repellant' is too many steps away in the Mule glove box. (I already have too many things on my belt.)
Have you ever noticed how 2 oblivious little chipmunks that are fighting/playing/mating can make as much noise as a full grown man coming through the underbrush? :D
Anyway, I don't see any break in the heat coming this week and tomorrow will be a long one loading up for the next days delivery. I'll decide on the next steps as I drive down to do the delivery.
Tom,
Looks to me like you better leave the cat alone if that is the cause of the punctures. :D Stay cool. Drink plenty of fluids.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on June 08, 2021, 08:54:38 AM
Tom,
Looks to me like you better leave the cat alone if that is the cause of the punctures. :D Stay cool. Drink plenty of fluids.
No, that wasn't the cat at all. That was just from brushing up on logs here and there or getting whacked as I cleared brush or whatever. Old skin is really thin. ;D
Well yesterday was a pretty good day, in fact my best so far. I had a helper, an old friend from around town and our years together in the fire department. He is 70, but seems to be in better shape than I am. In fact until yesterday I always had thought he was younger than me. He was using the day as a chance to get outside and away from the day job for some change. He was also curious about this work I am doing. It was VERY nice to have company and he and I work just fine together. I walked through the process on the first tree explaining as I what I was doing, why, and what I was looking for. After that he fell right in and I didn't have to go over anything and he was thinking ahead of me, so that was just great. HE even spotted a couple of trees I had missed. I ran the saw and he loaded logs and cleared brush. We kept moving until we ran out of breath. Temps in the mid 80's, but some clouds helped. It was still hot in those pants.
Ran into Barge and his mechanic fixing the Timbco and had a short chat, then went back to work. Got back into the woods loading up and my dang phone rings. First I was shocked I had a signal, then I assumed it was another 'your vehicle warranty will expire calls', but I looked at it, and it was Barge! So I answered, turns out he needed to cut some blocking to support the buncher head while they did the pin swap and he was in the wrong truck without a saw. Well we were just loading up so we finished the load and ran out, while my helper loaded the trailer I walked out and cut what was needed and helped set the blocks while he positioned the head. Then I cut a safety pole to stick behind it in case it rolled backwards when it was disconnected. I guess it worked out ok, and we got back in the woods. Barge had left to get another truck and the mechanic was laughing "What kind of logger doesn't have a saw in his truck?!" I just said, 'well it happens when you have so many trucks'. I was just glad I could help.
I had commented at some point that I didn't have any new holes in my arms yet or blood leakage as usual. 10 minutes later I am dropping a tree and apparently had some chips up inside my face shield so when I looked up at the top for movement a big chip fell right into my eye and held good. That hurt like the dickens and I was blinded with a face cut and most of the back cut in the tree. I could not get that chip out and my partner grabbed a water bottle and I flushed it best I could and got the where I could see but it was still there. So I got the tree down and flushed some more until it felt like it was either gone or parked in a safe spot, but it bothered me the rest of the day. Got a feww small ones in the other eye also.
We got 72 logs on the trailer before I ran out of steam and left the site at 4pm. We each picked up a world famous shake at the Conesville country store for the drive home, which went easy. We hit the rain we were trying to beat getting out of the woods, but it was spotty. Strange weather pattern for our area and hard to predict, we heard thunder off and on during the afternoon.
I dropped my helper off, and got home pretty exhausted. Got those dang pants off went out and took all the tools out of the back of the truck, removed the bed toolbox and started loading more logs. By 7:30 I had about 120 logs on between the truck and trailer and it is a bit more than I would like, but I ain't doing 2 trips. Rough calculation show about 4500# but I think I am over that a bit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210609_201828496.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623320880)
It's gonna be a long 2 hour drive with this load to deliver today. It was a full 13 hour day and that shower felt good. After dinner I sent emails to the clients regarding delivery and at some point rubbed my eye and out came this big 'thing' looked like a mashed up dog tick but with a loop I could see it was a wood chip covered in eye goop. (this morning when I woke up and rubbed my eyes I got another one out, smaller though.) Anyway I was really exhausted and had one beer and was in bed before 9pm. It was a good day and a true pleasure to have a good helper with a second set of eyes and a brain. It took a lot of stress of me watching for bears, etc.
Today will be another long day to deliver, and then I am staying around here for a few days to recover, rebuild that 350 (the parts came yesterday finally) and get some chores done before heading back out. I am already 90 logs into the next 300 log order.
72 logs sounds like a great day and all of them are pretty! Sounds like you are finding a nice groove!
Well I was right, it was a long 2 hour drive going down. For those that have been through the southern tier of New York driving truck, you have probably heard or driven up "the Wurtsboro Hill" and with the load I had I was not happy about doing this. Thankfully my shortcut route had me on a secondary road climbing that grade and I got on 17 near the top. I thought that would be the worst of it, but needed to be on 17B and they have construction, which of course I expected. The old saying is "Route 17 will be a GREAT road, if they ever finish it". I am 66 and they have been trying to 'finish it' since before I was born, no joke. Truckers will back me up on this.
Anyway, the construction I hit they only had one way traffic (single lane). They were holding vehicles for 30 minutes in one direction, then switching directions. I have never seen this, usually 5 -10 minutes, but 30?! There was 3 miles of traffic behind me when they finally let us through and I followed a fully loaded belly dump gravel tractor up and over the hills at 15 to 30 MPH. I surely did not mind that, with my load bobbing and weaving I was happy with the slow speeds and speed zones, better to keep up.
On the way I called the woman who was getting 50 logs but needed me to drop them at her farm because she could not come to the meeting point and pick them up. She was only 10 minutes further away. She had not responded to any of the planning emails I had sent this week. Apparently she has been too busy to read the 5 emails that went around since Sunday. She had no idea I was coming and could not take time to drive over to pick her logs. I should just drive to her. Directions were sketchy at best, but I have GPS and know how to use it, she was NOW complaining about buying summer cut logs. There was other stuff, but I didn't even listen once she started talking like she was doing me a favor buying from me. I focused on the first drop, and that woman had gone out of her way to give me solid directions contrary to GPS guidance. Her info was on the mark and she flagged her driveway and made room for me to turn the trailer around. Easy peasy and a pleasant experience. She was grateful for the logs and told me I was the closest supplier she could find. She said she had a call form the other woman who was almost ranting "I really didn't want summer cut logs.... Next time I will find my own logger..". and on and on. The gal finally said, "look, he is helping us all out, if you don't like the logs, don't buy from him again, if you think you can find a better supplier, go ahead, it's your business, but I am happy he is working with us and coming all this way." She told me all this and I smiled, I said "Look I don't care. If I get there and she starts complaining I can take my logs and leave. I really don't care, yes I will loose her share of the delivery cost. These logs are already sold and if she doesn't buy them I have another buyer waiting. I don't care. I don't sweat the small stuff. I don't take sass, but on the rare occasions I do, I charge for it." She liked that.
Anyway It took an hour to unload in the sun with a little bit of help form the client, but she couldn't lift the big logs. I dropped her order which she picked out, then and order for another fella that is away traveling (he paid me yesterday by pre-arrangement). About 70 logs there total. Then I texted the other gal I was headed over. Directions worked fine but I did miss one turn, easy fix. As I am 100' from her driveway I get a long text telling me that if I have an over height or over wide rig I need to take a different route because of bridge construction. I am at her driveway, no mailbox, no house number, pot hole filled crushed stone and mud road, and only one lane wide. So I am calling her and getting no answer. I need to locate the right house/farm/hovel/thing. Finally she comes walking down her driveway asking if I am 'Tom'. Yup. She says "park it there and walk up and see how you want to do this". So I leave the truck in the middle of this 'road' and walk in. She has a specific spot she wants, and it ain't easy, but I decide to pull in forward.
From here on it gets complicated, let me just say that we unloaded while she complained that the logs were too small. I mentioned that I had asked several times for her size preferences (along with EVERYONE else who sends me an inquiry) and never got any details from her. She pointed out which logs she considered useless and also made it clear that 'summer cut' were not really any good. I mentioned the science and quoted the research experts I have been talking to weekly as well as some industry folks that have been growing for 20 years, and explained that some of the information that is widely accepted turns out to be anecdotal and not really accurate when they do controlled studies. I gave her some industry experts she could contact to verify. She said she would check them out to see if they were as smart as 'her guy'. :D She also asked in a very accusing manner "how long have these logs been laying around?" I said "Ma'am, less than 24 hours ago that was a tree sitting in the woods minding it's own business when I found it." She decided that was OK then. She said she wanted to have these inoculated tonight. THAT is the moment I realized she is an 'internet farmer'.
Getting out of there was another chore that included a 30 point turn and disconnecting the trailer. I was glad to be done with that. After I left I called the first gal and asked if was interested in how the other drop off went. ;D She said "OH my yes, that is all I have been thinking about, I hope she wasn't as much of a [I can't type that word here] as she sounded like." So I gave her the story and she just said "Well as hard as you work, you don't need customers like that, that's nonsense, you did a great job and these logs are beautiful." For the route home I wanted another path, any path that didn't bring me through that construction and I picked a more northerly route without looking too close. GOS said it was only 10 minutes longer. Turned out I picked the backroad route that brought me up through Grahmsville and up over Sunddown and Peekamoose. That is a long grind and the road is beyond lousy, but I didn't care, never really got over 30 mph, but with an empty trailer it was no concern I took my time and enjoyed the drive. It takes you UP a long valley deep buried in the Catskills and when you get near the top you can hear banjo music out both sides of the truck. ;D Last time I drove through was 20 years ago and I don't remember the road being so bad Today it was horrible, hardly enough room for two vehicles to pass each other safely and the drop off on the right went down 50' with no shoulder at all (I mean the blacktop, where there was any, was flaking off down the hill). Still a nice drive while dead-heading and I just loafed along.
Got home to more emails about this river transport thing and haven't dug into the details yet. That's the next project. For today, I am tired and need to recover from the last few days.
Tomorrow is another day and I will worry about it then.
This is one of the 3 loads I delivered today, all totaled about 120 logs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210610_120412012.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623364905)
Tom,
Sorry to hear about your "special" customer. I guess we all need them one of them from time to time to make us really appreciate the good ones like the first lady. I know money is sometimes tight and people may not have a lot of extra cash on hand and watch their pennies but if they will be up front and tell me "I only have this much money to spend" I can watch the work and stay in their budget. The ones who truly appreciate the wood and the work involved make it worthwhile. I had two guys come by Monday and I found them a piece of basswood that was perfect for their project and I got them to help me plane it and I sanded and trimmed the ends and I watched the one guys eyes light up. The other was so near blind he could not see but he could see his partner was excited. I got the same look the next day when I delivered it.
I think with your lady I'd have just shifted those 50 logs to my next 300 log order. I looked at a new ATV yesterday and called to order it today. I am pretty sure I threw a rod on my old one and it has finally done its due. I have to have a good working dependable machine. I looked at UTVs but I don't think I can get them up my trails and into the places I need to go.
I have all the siding on my composting toilet and started cutting the roof pieces today and will finish that tomorrow then I just have to do the trimwork. I am not pleased with the window trim and may re-do that.
My daughter, SIL, 4 y/o GS and 2 y/o Shirley Temple look-alike GD are coming up Saturday for a couple of days. Weather looks threatening but I hope to get the kids out and catch a fish or two. They never have fished. I might build a chipmunk trap with my 4 y/o gs and see if we can't catch a chipmunk or two. I also might get him out and catch some nighcrawlers. Any time spent with him is always time well spent. The GD may be more interested in the fishing, trapping and worming than her brother.
Tom, I have lots of experience with internet farmers, your frustration is understandable. Sounds good though you made a bit of brass for the pocket.
Yes, Nebraska, she was a piece of work, but I expect her money is as good as any other. I don't expect to hear from her again, but if I do, she will be charged accordingly. ;D The profitability on this venture is not there, but that's my fault and I have learned a lot along the way, but of course you are right, it's good to put some money back in the bank after laying a lot out on expenses.
Howard, glad the outhouse/toilet/bus stop/deer blind is coming along in the new version. Can't wait to see the finished photo spread in Better Homes & Gardens. :) Enjoy the weekend with the kids.
As for me, I didn't sleep well at all last night (family issues) and was up very early so I took the time to read up on this sailing ship taking my logs to Brooklyn or someplace in the City. Finally got the captains name and email and sent him a quick note last evening. This morning I went through the ship's web pages to understand what they are doing.
They have a tracker on the ship and I could see that it is birthed here in Kingston right now. Seems like there is a lot of time and money invested in this man's dream of moving cargo up and down the Hudson river to reduce carbon footprint and they are either using horses or peddle power to deliver the last mile. Interesting project and a nice looking ship. If you are interested, you can read about it here: http://www.schoonerapollonia.com/ (http://www.schoonerapollonia.com/)
I am not sure I will fit the exact bill they want as a supplier, there is no way to get my logs to the ship without using motors, but it paints and interesting picture if you think about it. :D The plan as it stands now is for me to deliver the logs to the Maritime Museum over a couple of weeks, then when they dock they will hand load. They also want 50 logs for a workshop the day of the loading and will make an event out of it. They'd like me to be there to talk to whatever press shows up or the public about the logs and how they are selected and harvested. Sailing date is either the 3rd of 4th week in July. I have to recount the logs I have in the yard and get back to collecting more.
Glad I have an off day today to play catchup. I am sore and tired. I have to update my notes, expenses, and records for the log project to keep it all square for a final accounting. I also have that 350 to rebuild since the parts finally came in. At least its cooler today!
Now there should be some folks (Amish or otherwise) who could horsepower those logs to the ship for them. We used to have a client that had a wedding buggy. Seems like they had a wagon they used for just training horses to drive. You might suggest they try to find an equine veterinarian. They just might have a client that has a team the could pull that load down into Kingston. If they want to make this fossil fuel free there are a few teams of horses around....Just a thought.
Well we have no Amish folk around here unfortunately. The only route from my place down to the river will put you on a state road at 55MPH with a lot of city and Jersey drivers on it and in a hurry. That would be a 10-12 mile run. But to really keep it 'clean' I would need horses in the woods (and I don't know that there is room to turn a horse around where I am cutting, let alone a wagon (can't drag them) but I guess a good handler could do it), then hauling nearly 70 miles to the river. We would probably pick a dockage further north like Catskill to flatten and shorten the trip to 50 miles. See? I did actually think about this. :D I will say that for some of the other cargo loads they are in fact using horses to bring the goods to the boat. Believe it or not they also have a horse team with a freight wagon in Brooklyn delivering some of this stuff. Go see some of the press articles on their web page, amazing to me. Who'd have thought?
I just got back from meeting with the Schooner's Captain, she is a fine looking vessel and can take a little over 10 ton in cargo. We went over logistics and details. They make it easy for me and I will probably do my deliveries early in the morning the day after I cut while the sun is still low and so is the human activity. They are going to build bunks for me to stack on and I can back the trailer right up to it. From that staging spot it is a about a 35' roll slightly downhill and directly to where the boat will be tied. They have a jib crane on the boat . He was surprised I knew boats and asked those questions and knew about rigging, knots, tides, navigation, etc. I didn't mention I was raised on a boat and took my first steps as a toddler on the boat. Seems the swaying of the boat made it easier for a wobbly kid to stay upright if the timing was right. ;D Then we found out we have common friends in some musicians that were playing on his river tour boat last night. They are my neighbors and also property improvement clients. Small world, right? Wait, then as we are talking, a fella comes out of the Museum and I recognized him as a long time friend that I have worked with for years at the Woodstock Invitational Luthiers Show. Mark is the co-founder. I had forgotten that he was also involved in this museum. Turns out, he sits on the board of directors. After we chatted and he left, the Captain says to me, "It looks to me like we could not have spec'ed out a better person to bring us logs, seems like you already know everyone, AND you know your knots!".
So even if I don't make any money, I will at least enjoy this experience and that is just as important to me and one of my main goals. Working with, and for good people has a lot of value to me. YMMV. I am anxious to get back in the woods and get those last 200 logs out. I have 100 exactly here ready to deliver when they get the rack made. They need all the logs by July 23rd and that is quite do-able.
Tomorrow is another day.
Well, as predicted today is another day. Over the weekend among other chores, I hand loaded the trailer with every log I had (100) left in the yard in anticipation of a Monday delivery. Then just let the trailer set there. I put the toolbox back in the truck bed (removed for that last big delivery).
Yesterday I got the call from the Captain and met him at dockside just as he was setting up the bunks. No problem getting the trailer in there and close for the unloading and the two of us made quick work of it. Getting out with the trailer was another matter and it took me two hits to make the turn through a narrow gate. Glad he was there to spot me for the first trip. So, Off to a good start.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210614_120654551.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623746162)
If you look closely in that photo you can just make out the Schooner in the background with a black hull. It's moored across the creek. That's the one these logs will go down on.
I got home and started loading back the tools in the truck. I have been watching the weather and I guess I blew it when I decided not to go up on Sunday, but I had already loaded the trailer, so I was stuck. Plenty of rain Sunday overnight into Monday, about .6" and I am worried about the trail I use the most. It is already squeaky from repeated trips back and forth loaded in one or two bad spots. I won't know until I get there.
My buddy down the road called me last night. He made a last minute decision to run up to Woodmizer today and pick up the LT15 he ordered for making long beams. He runs a new LT50, but keeps getting calls for long beams in the 30' range, so he ordered the small mill last August and it has been sitting at WM since April waiting for pickup. So my buddy wanted me to take a ride with him for the day, which I had offered months ago. But I gotta stay on task and had already got everything ready for today's run and the week is already planned. He went on about all the rain we'd get today and my day would be a wash, trying to talk me into it. But I had to stick to the plan, even though it would have been a fun day.
So I hit the sack early, hoping to get out early this morning, get a load on and be out of the woods before 2 and the predicted heavier rain. Well, that whole conversation about the rain and the trails was on my mind, and having gone to bed early, I woke up at 2:30 and could not get back to sleep. I kept thinking this could be a rough day and working alone, if I get stuck I will be in trouble. Finally gave in and flipped the coffee pot on at 3am. Getting ready to leave now and get to Conesville by around 6, then in the woods before 7, I hope. Maybe I can find another path in but there is a lot of stuff in the way. There is only one way to find out.
Time to hit the road.
Well, yesterday started out rough, but was productive. I knew getting up as early as I did would make for a long day and I was right. I got on the road at 5 and was at the store by a little after 6, but the cook had overslept and all I could get for breakfast was a bagel. So that had to cover me.
In the woods cutting my first tree by 7 after loading the tools in the Mule. Now that I had the go-ahead to take sugar maple(which I finally got via text at 6:45), it was a little easier to find trees. I had been using just one path to get in and out of the cutting area and with all my heavy loads there began to show two areas totaling about 150' long that were getting really muddy and slick because it was so tight my tires were in the exact same track every time I went through. I mean, the tread pattern even matched up. SO I knew I needed another way in. Somebody had been in there in an atv or something and I could see their tracks through the high grass, so I did some exploring and found another path in as well as another access option if it got worse. In the process of walking lots of dead ends through the fields of cars and such, I found a cute little garden tractor trailer with a 5' long bed and a walking beam suspension. It sure wouldn't take much to pull that box off, put on some bunks, raise the clearance a bit and have a nice little forwarder trailer. But it had been marked for sale already. Bummer. Later in the day, I found another one, with brand new tires and wheels, but that too was sold. Never saw those before so I should get a photo next time and look around. I am noticing now that one of the things that is affecting my turn around cycle in these woods is how many logs I can fit in the Mule. It's not size, it's weight and load on the ground. So a little trailer could help that if I can make all the turns, some are tight.
Anyway, it was easier to find trees and fill the Mule. The knee high grass was soaking wet and eventually my pants and boots, then socks were soaked through. The weather was cooler and workable which was the biggest improvement. But it did rain on me and twice I had to take a break, drink water, and wait it out in the Mule. I could get a tiny bit of cell service here and there so I checked the radar and could see these little downpours were going to increase for a few more hours. So I bagged it on the last load, because I need time to empty the tools from the mule to the truck, bind the load, park the mule, and get through the gate.
I had pulled 63 logs, my best working alone so far and if not for the rain I would have been over 75 but the early wake-up was beginning to wear on me. So I stopped at the Store and ran into Barge who was in the middle of fixing something what broke again. He looked like it was one of 'those' days for him. We chatted briefly for a bit, but he was busy, and I chatted with his Dad a bit too, another really nice fella as you might guess. I got one of those world famous Conesville Country Store Shakes for the ride home. Seriously if you ever pass through, stop in and try one, they are super! Ask what flavors they have before you decide. Yesterday I got a Blueberry Cheesecake one and it was excellent. Then before I left I put on dry socks and shoes for the drive. I had a hard time staying awake for the last 5 miles home and when I got in I flopped on the couch and took an involuntary hour long nap while I was talking to my wife. So just another day.
When I was cutting I found this tree growed around a bottom plow and knew the plow was coming out, so I took the tree for mushrooms. I thought it would break away when I cut it off, but apparently not. You may have seen this photo in another thread last night.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210615_121759000.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1623795992)
Nearly every tree I take comes down straight and I have to cut 40" at a time off the butt until eventually it is short enough to fall over. I don't know why I even bother to try to hinge them in the 'best' direction because they only lean 10° in that direction, and never break a hinge. I have to walk everyone down a log at a time. If I did 10 trees yesterday, I walked 9 down.
Well I am off to deliver logs now and hope to be halfway home by 8am before the traffic builds up. Then off with the wife for the monthly food shopping. Today is another day.
Has somebody bought that salvage stuff already? Most of that would go for less than weigh up price around here. A forwarding trailer that you could get for the price of a dozen shroom logs would be a deal...
Sounds like you had a good but long day.
Yeah, it occurred to me that maybe I could make an offer where it sits. I might text Barge and ask, but I don't want to give him another thing to do.
It was a long day and this morning I delivered those logs with no issues, we got the shopping done, I fueled the truck, picked up beer and cigarettes and am good for another week or so. I just have to mow the lawn, sharpen my saws and get ready to do it again tomorrow. 140 logs to go on this order. ;D
Well yesterday was just another day. I am starting to get that 'time to make the donuts' feeling when I wake up these days and yesterday was the first time I set an alarm in over a year. I knew I wouldn't get up at 4:30 on my own, just too tired. I goofed off longer than usual and didn't hit the road until just before 6, breakfast at the store, then in the woods by 8. It was a slog scouting for trees and I was just hitting one here, one there and it took quite a while and 2 loops to get just 33 logs on the trailer. Too slow. Then I found a small pocket and whacked 3-4 really good trees and got another 23, so 56 logs for the day, raising my overall average, but not near my best day. This leaves 81 logs to finish the current order (2 more trips). I arrived home wiped out again. The routine along with the 3 hours of driving each day is beginning to wear on me and it is starting to feel like 'a job'. It is taking me away from other work for too long and I have clients patiently waiting for my return to their work. I also grow increasingly aware of the hazards I take on by working alone, constantly watching for spring bears and dancing around trees as I take them down 40" at a time and the fall direction changes with every cut. But my skills are improving and it is becoming like a ballet on some trees. The work is heavy but healthy. I am grateful for good (and cooler) weather and the fact that my muscles hold up through the day although near the end they get tired and sometimes wobbly. I need that rest and delivery day in between trips to recover. So when I got home last night I had to jump into fulfilling a promise to a neighbor that I had neglected too long and forming up a proper invoice for the current log order so I might get paid. No telling how long that might take. Dinner, then bed by 8:30.
This morning I again squandered some daylight and got down to the dock only by 7:30, unloaded and was home by 8:30. I have to replace a tail light on the trailer today because I am tired of folks telling me it is out. Pretty soon it will be a Trooper telling me, so I best get that fixed. ;D
I think I will take the crane mast off the trailer too because I no longer need it to unload bundles at home, they stay on the trailer until they get delivered so hand loading/unloading is just as fast, but I do have to lift every single log 3 times. Gotta figure something out for that going forward but I think it will be more complicated and expensive.
While I was at the Museum unloading this morning a boat pushed off from the dock to head out to the river. I haven't looked up the specs on it yet, but interesting to watch them swing that thing around in the creek, then head out to the Hudson for (I assume) a southbound journey. Quite the little runabout that. I also added the log pile at the end of the video. It's still uploading as I type this, but here is the link:
Renegade on the Rounout Creek 6/18/21 7:30am - YouTube (https://youtu.be/wIsq2fNS2iE)
That's a pretty nice little boat! I could sit amazed, for hours, watching any big vehicle like that move. It's incredible to see when it goes from backing up to going forward. And, yeah, that turn did look easier than it should have but my guess is that thing has a bit of everything on it.
Yeah, as soon as I looked up at the sound while I worked, I immediately turned on the camera. I am the same way and it was such a beautiful quiet morning on the creek. If you search for details on this dingy, make sure your put 2 "n"s in Rennegade and put it in quotes. Some specs if you're interested: she is 112' long has a beam 23.4' and is 235 gross tons. She is powered by twin screw diesels totaling about 3,900 HP. It was a nice surprise in an otherwise mundane morning. I was taken by the widescreen TV playing on the afterdeck. We didn't have those when I was casting about over the waters. ;D :D
👍 from Tacotodd
I don't have the skills developed to do that, by ANY shot. But I don't play in/near the water. I'm a woods-n-critter guy!
Well, I know today is Father's Day, the traditional day for me to hang around the house and "relax" while setting up projects so the kids can 'do things for me'. But I am afraid I disappointed them today and had to use the weather and get back in the woods. Low 80's today and high humidity but I got a good start with the trees I left marked from last time. I had 62 on the trailer by 2pm and it was time to strap them down and head home. I was out of breath and sweat.
I only need 20 more to finish the order but I will give them some extras. Deliver tomorrow, then rain Tuesday, so I expect to be back up there Wednesday. I have another client that wants 100 but we haven't touched base in a month, so I sent an email today to check in. They wanted only 4" diameter or so and I now know that I can't do that. Just too much waste that gets left in the woods. I won't cut good trees to take just 3 logs from each. As it is, I am foraging further into the woods from the trail and carrying logs further to the mule which takes a lot more time and effort. I am running short on trees I can find now, or rather, they are there but harder to find. Either way, it takes more time. If they don't need logs from me that would be fine. I am ready to get back to other work.
Tomorrow is another day.
next time I guess if you get and early start on the season (if that is even possible given the complexity of mushroom logging) you could rack them according to size to organize and accommodate preferences, assuming their are also folk who want medium and larger diameter size shroooom logs.
Quote from: doc henderson on June 21, 2021, 02:11:49 AM
next time I guess if you get and early start on the season (if that is even possible given the complexity of mushroom logging) you could rack them according to size to organize and accommodate preferences, assuming their are also folk who want medium and larger diameter size shroooom logs.
That's one of the things I have learned through this season Doc. Most folks don't really know what size they want or need, they know what they '
THINK' they want. I tell each potential client what size I cut as standard (4-6" x 40" long) then I ask them what their preferences are, what is the minimum diameter, and what is the maximum diameter they will accept. Almost nobody answers these questions even after a second request. Then I deliver and they say they only want small ones, or large ones. One gal who asked for just 4 logs, but needed to have them all around 4". When she got here to pick up and I asked how she was growing and offered some other thoughts for her to consider. She wound up leaving with 4 of the largest diameter logs I had in the pile, around 8"+. :D The exception to this is one commercial grower (15 years) who knew exactly what he wanted. "White Oak only, 6-9" diameter x 48" long" period, "nothing else". Well I can't find white oak in any quantity, so that is out, but it was refreshing to talk to someone who is specific and I still have my eyes out for white oak. Out of the 500 logs I have taken so far I have cut exactly 2 puny (4") WO logs and that was a blighted tree that was going to get crushed anyway. The only others I have seen were seedlings.
Sorting by size sounds good, but that means I would collect through the cutting season and unload in my yard by size, then sell that way, by reloading and delivering. The minimum I handle each log now is 3 times each, already too many, that would add 2 more handlings and a bunch of time (which is expense).
I have been keeping good notes and put it all in a 4 page spreadsheet so that I can do an analysis at the end. I mentioned this on the mushroom thread the other day. I will be posting the final analysis summary when it is all done for others to get what they might from it down the road. Right now I can say the $ aren't looking too impressive at all, but I am not 'loosing money'. I am also 3 weeks into this exclusively and there is other work waiting that would pay much better on a daily rate than this. Another factor is the physical workload: I can't do it every day straight through, my body won't handle it, so I have a harvest day, and the next day is a delivery, maintenance, and rest day, then repeat, if the weather allows.
So there are a lot of moving parts and a lot to think about. I'll have more on this when the final numbers are in. It's been an interesting experiment and I have lost some weight and gained more muscle (and bruises) as I have learned my way through. No regrets. I am just an old coot, still learning, and today is another day. :)
well I guess you can look at the hours and cost, and if it is not what you need/want you can stop if a price increase negates all the clients.
Quote from: doc henderson on June 21, 2021, 09:00:41 AM
well I guess you can look at the hours and cost, and if it is not what you need/want you can stop if a price increase negates all the clients.
It is one of the options under review at this time. ;D ;D
I look forward to camping next door to you at the pig roast.
Quote from: doc henderson on June 21, 2021, 09:16:23 AM
I look forward to camping next door to you at the pig roast.
As am I, its on my mind a lot lately. :)
Quote from: doc henderson on June 21, 2021, 09:16:23 AM
I look forward to camping next door to you at the pig roast.
Careful what you wish for ;).
Looking forward to hearing some good stories when OGH gets back from that!
next door campers is better than sharing a tent! not as many sounds and smells can get through the camper walls. :o :o :o 8) :) :) :)
Truly, we have thought this through. ;D What's that old saying about fish and company having something in common? :D
We arrive Thursday afternoon/evening and depart Monday morning, so that puts us in the area for 3 days. That is of course assuming I don't have to pick up some migrant work to pay for the gas to get home. :)
Not to worry Brandon, Doc is a big boy. He will soon see the error in his choices all by hisself and make better choices next time. ;D
Well yesterday I delivered another 62 logs and only have 20 to go on that order, plus some extra. Today was a rain out and I can tell I needed the rest because it was 10am before I realized I had been goofing off catching up on the forum all morning. I got an answer back from the next (and last) client that she does indeed want 100 logs in what sizes I can provide. So that means I am not wrapping it up tomorrow as hoped, but have a couple more days in the woods yet. Oh well, maybe it will change the bottom line a little.
The Schooner Captain invited the wife and I out on a evening music cruise he is skippering Thursday. A couple of Virginia boys playing an eclectic mix of of Banjo and guitar tunes. Sounds good to me and it's a solar powered boat so that should be interesting. My wife isn't much for the water (motion issues), but she is game, so what the heck? It's a short trip anyway. I miss being on the water. I miss live music, so win-win, right? I haven't done anything 'just for fun' that isn't also related to work in a long time, so maybe I am due? As it is I will use the trip to deliver the last of the logs and save on some mileage. ;D
Time to get the saws sharpened and clean the truck up between the rain, looks like we have a steady few hours of rain this morning. I also have some follow up emails to get out.
Today is another day.
Benadryl, Dramamine or scopolamine patches.
The cruise would be loads of fun OGH! The romance of that sounds beautiful!
Well no cruise for us tonight. It sold out within a day and I was clear I did not want to take up the seats of any ticket buyers. The museum needs the money more than I need an hour on the water. ;D
So yesterday when I was about to head into the woods another neighbor showed up to see what I was up to. In a rare twist, this fella actually knew what mushroom logs were and I didn't need to explain. He turned out to be the same age as me, we came from the same area as 'kids' and we had a lot in common. He used to be an arborist. We talked for a while and I didn't get cutting until 10am. But I'm retired and I make a point never to walk out on a good conversation when I don't want to, so no regrets. Nice fella.
It was a PERFECT day in the woods, cool, low humidity, a few clouds, I could have worked a lot longer but I still get tired. None the less in 5 or so hours I only loaded 48 logs, not my best day by far. It's getting harder to find 'right sized trees. Since Sunday I have 2 more orders for a total of 120 logs THEN I am done. I had hoped to finish yesterday, oh well.
Today I delivered the final logs to the museum so that is done. Now trying to arrange payment. I put 24 logs or so in my pile for the orders so just need 100 more. It will take 2 more trips, but I was hoping to hammer it hard tomorrow while the weather holds and maybe get 70 done so that on the last trip I can just load 30 in the truck bed and bring the Mule home and be done.
BUT I got the call today that the videographer is available tomorrow and would like to come up to collect footage. I know this is going to slow me down. Especially since I told him to meet me at the store at 7:30 and he wanted to make it 8am, then settled on 7:45 (ish). It could be a long day. Hopefully he shows up on time, he gets his footage, and heads home. I don't see much that is very exciting in all this, small trees, most of which do not fall over when cut and I have to piece them down as I dance around them. Oh well, I guess that is his problem. :D I have carefully considered my wardrobe for this 'thing' and it will be my same old ratty chainsaw pants which are now very overdue for washing, and the rest of the usual stuff. I believe I will wear my "Big Johnson Sawmill" shirt to get @trimguy (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=47881) a little cameo. I don't have any of my own shirts yet.
I just need to get this done soon, the video guy will slow me down for sure but I did say it was OK, just thought it would have happened earlier.
Ah well, tomorrow is another day and I'll make the best of it I can.
Drat! I guess there is no time for me to get a "Green's Sawmill Services" hat up to you in time for your camera appearance is there? Just my luck. More free advertising out the window. :(
I agree on the talking to the new guy. That sounds like time well spent. Stay safe. Enjoy. Smile big for the camera. Remember all us little guys when you hit the big screen and become famous.
Do you have a Forestry Forum hat?
I am sure the dangers of dancing around the trees will be dramatic. Don't drop a tree on him!
Well if your going to wear my shirt tomorrow, no screw ups ! 😁
Gee, I never thought of opportunities to provide brand exposure. That might have been one way to get my over $9.00/hr on this project. ;D
I don't have an FF hat.. yet. Maybe in August?
Howard you could send it FedEx overnight if they can guarantee delivery by 5:30am. ;D
I am not much of a dancer, but hopping around trees comes naturally. :) If I drop a tree on him, it will be because a) he is not fast enough on his feet, or b) he is keeping me from getting anything done.
I just hope I can find the trees I need, having this guy on my back will likely throw me off my pace. I have a couple of trees tagged, but they are more difficult to get to and will require work work to get them into the mule. Not ideal. So I will take a new survey to see if I can find some better ones. If I hit a pocket of stuff I missed before, then the day goes quick. But I think I am out of those pockets, part of the reason my last trip came up short. But I talked to Barge this evening and maybe my horizons just opened a little. ;D There's a few bigger trees I've had my eye on, but the bottom log will be a firewood log for him. Win-win. ;D ;D There's also some car/trucks/tractors/farm implements that can't be removed until the trees are cut out of them. So I might as well, as long as I am there. ;D
Trimguy, I shall endeavor to maintain the honor of your t-shirt. If I drop a tree on or near this guy, it will likely not be an accident, it will just be a physical manifestation of a Freudian slip.
It is what it is, just another day in the woods.
Take the hard to get to trees so they know how hard you work for their mushroom logs and will understand why the price is going way up. ;D
Yes if 1/2 inch plywood is 63.12 a sheet, mushroom logs are surely worth more next season... 😉
Well it's 5:45 Howard and sadly your hat did not arrive. I will look for the fedex guy as I head down the road and flag him if I see him. I guess I will just have to wear the sweaty hat I have in the truck. ;D
To make The Big Time, you have to talk about a tree smoother. :D
Tom,
I guess I sent it to the wrong address or it was on that plane that went down in the Pacific with Tom Hanks.
If you are going to do another video session be sure to let us all know a week or so ahead of the event and post the address to send our advertising and you can walk into the ring with more FF member advertising on your body that Rocky meeting Apollo Creed.
Let us know how this session went and if you need help dragging the vidiographer out from under the tree. I can just imagine his final conversation:
"I see you have stopped complaining about everything I say and do. I am the expert you know. By the way, why are you cutting that huge pine? It is way bigger than all the others you have been cutting and they were all hardwoods. Don't you think I should move further back? Are you sure this is a safe spot for me to stand. Okay, I'll stand right here and start videoing. Wow. That tree sure looks big through this lens and it looks almost like it is coming straight for me instead of falling the opposite direction like you said it would. Hey, it is coming my way. I've got to goooo..."
Sorry, I know a couple of you wanted to hear how it went yesterday, but I was really shot when I got home. After taking my daily junk in from the truck, I promptly fell sound asleep in my desk chair. Woke up for dinner, tried to catch up on the forum after, and was in bed by 8pm. I was spent.
The video guy showed up pretty much on time and I explained the lay of the land and what I was doing. Nice fella in his early 30's. So we went up to the property and got setup. I had warned him that if he was looking for the transitional clip of a tree being cut and gracefully slamming to the ground it was not likely to happen that day. The woods are too thick and overgrown. I am also having to look harder for trees so time would be consumed by that.
So we found some I had marked previously and I managed to drop it all the way down. Limbed and bucked it as he worked around for different camera angles and such. Then found an cut another right near it. As I was limbing the second one the saw tip got pinched in a little branch and threw the chain. This is only the second time I have thrown a chain in my life, the first being about 2 weeks ago. Still not sure why that happened. Anyway in the process of resetting the chain and talking to him I really must have messed up because I found myself with the side plate in my hand with the brake band activated. Try as I might I could not reset that brake band and after 15 minutes of messing with it and him standing around I just apologized and grabbed that silly battery saw I keep on the mule to cut myself out of a pinch and finished up with that. I really didn't want that on video, but what else could I do? Meantime the video guy was trying to angle shots so that the junk cars and treasures carefully stored in those woods would not show up in the photos. He though it unappealing. I explained to him that this is the real world. All forests are not pretty and filled with flowers and happy little critters dancing around collecting food. This is property management and in order to get this 'stuff' out and restore good growth, some trees have to come down. It's called 'work'. I don't know if the message made it home.
I left him in the woods and ran back with the short load and got the 372 out of the truck and returned. It seemed overkill to cut 6" trees with a 28" bar, but what else could I do? So we cut more trees and moved around a bit and I showed him some of the other work going on. At some point he said he needed to do an 'interview' which would be an opportunity for me to explain my business and talk about why and how I do what I do. He clipped a tiny mic on my suspender and asked prepared questions written by the fellow who hired him. He seemed quite pleased with the answers and I managed to keep them fairly short (well, for me anyway). Apparently the purpose of this video is to show this project, the people involved in it, how the work is done, and how the whole thing affects a good forestry management plan. They want to present opportunities for small operations like mine to get a little wider exposure. I didn't know this until the interview began. So I got a few polite plugs in. But as we all know, what I said, and what they will use are two very different things. ;D
So I shuttled the camera guy back up to the truck and he took more video of me loading the trailer. Then he wanted some wide overhead footage so he launched a drone. While he did that I took a quick walk just to say hi to Barge and his mechanic who were finishing up all the other work they had done on the Timbco and putting it all back together.
The video guy packed up and left I think around 11am. I had only about 24 logs in the trailer, not good. So I went out for another round with the 372 and found a couple of good trees with high yield and a firewood log for Barge besides. But the 372 was giving me issues, the low idle was set too low and it kept stalling, then as I finished that last tree, I could not re-start it. I was frustrated and considered bagging the rest of the day. An otherwise prefect workday. It was now hot, I was soaked through and equipment issues make me lose my cool.
So I went back and unloaded, brining me up to about 38 logs. I sat in the shade drinking water for a minute and decided I needed to fix that 450, so I pulled it out of the truck box and took it apart, cleaned out the junk, took apart the side plate to make sure the brake band was not broken, put that back together and eventually managed to get the brake reset. But I had another problem. When I threw the chain many of the drive teeth on the chain got all burred up and would not run in the bar slot. Another new experience. Once I figured out what was happening I put another chain on, put it all together and I was off to the races. The whole mess felt like it came from the pages of "Did something dumb today", and yes, I even had a witness, but no pictures.
Back into the woods and I found a few more trees putting on a full load in the mule. I was now well past the normal time I quit and I was also pretty tired and starting to feel sunburned and dried out. I finished up with 60 logs which is just 3 short of my best solo day. Good enough. 60 was my minimum goal and 75 was my stretch goal.
I packed it in and closed the gate at 3:15 headed home. Too tired to even stop at the store for a milkshake. I had a hard time staying awake the last 10 miles, but at least the driving was steady, which says a lot for a Friday evening at the height or tourist season. Last night was the first time my back was just too tired to unload, so I left it for today. I only need about 40 logs to finish up my current orders, so one more cutting trip and I think another to fetch the Mule home. Maybe I can do it in one shot, but it would be a push with all the weight, unless I find small logs.
I have no idea when, or if this video will come out but when it does I'll let ya know. ( I can say no videographers were hurt in the making of the film.) Not having Howard's hat, I wore the one I have in the Mule which is from my friend Steve Martin's 'Unreal Bluegrass' radio show. He recently sent me a new clean one, so now I can wear the old one for work. I doubt you can see it very well in the video, but it is pretty sweat stained. I guess I should get a couple of my own hats made up. @trimguy (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=47881) I did wear your shirt, but I don't know if there are any pictures of my back. Wish you had something on the front, it would have shown up in the interview part, I think.
2 days ago I had thought I would try to get back up today to finish off, but there is no way my body can do that, so it will have to be tomorrow. I have saws to work on today and a trailer to unload. And a disgruntled email to compose. It seems I have been playing tag with the accounting department at Cornell trying to get paid for these logs. The guy I dealt with said it might take a week or two, but now that their purchasing department is handling it, they can't seem to find an acceptable way to pay me in a timely manner and want me to fill out forms to get registered as a vendor. They say they have payment schedules of 30 or 60 days and expect me to understand 'that's how they do it'. Well I don't. Working with getting money from an academic institution is not new for me and it never goes well. They shut down for the summer, only answer emails every couple of days and think the world just goes on hold for them. Very frustrating and one of the main reasons I retired. I do not suffer fools well.
Its another day, time to get at it.
We had that Debate about the shirt before we ordered them. I said on the front, wife and two young uns said on the back. I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it.
OH, I was thinking the nice art on the back and a smaller logo on the front. Still thinking about how I will do mine.
Well tomorrow is slated to be hot. It is also planned to be my last day cutting for this season. They say temps in the high 80's with a heat index over 90 something. Back to the weather we had last weekend which nearly sucked the life out of me. I need at least 40 logs to finish up, 50 would be better. My plan is to get in as early as I can and walk and mark trees I can find, then start cutting by 9am. It is Sunday, so I want to respect the neighbors, even though I don't know if they can hear my saw. I am just a visitor there. I am also going to try using chaps instead of the pants and see how that goes. I haven't worn chaps for a couple of years now, except for a quick tree or two. I can say that already I can feel the higher humidity coming in and I am sweating as I type this, for no reason at all.
In theory I should be able to pull 50 logs by just after noon, if I can find the trees, which is getting tougher. I think I left two trees marked yesterday, so that's a start, maybe 8-10 logs. 40-50 logs is just a bit too much to fit in the truck and haul the mule behind in the trailer. I could, probably, but why push my luck? I'll make another run up Monday or Tuesday and grab the mule. Maybe the wife will go along for the drive. (hey, it could happen. :D )
Today I got my saws sharpened, tuned up the 372 so it runs better, I think, and fixed the chain that got buggered up when it throwed itself yesterday. Charged the battery saw too, so I have 3 saws on the truck to get through the day. That should cover me. ;D
be sure and wear some clothes under them there chaps. :) you may find you get 100 logs with your wife, and will need her in the future. :D. good luck! need to invent a ac/fan unit to push some air to the Netherlands. :o :o :o 8) 8) 8) ::) ::) ::) :) ;) :D
Nah, not likely. The wife would just be going along for the ride, but I might give her a tour of the woods before I load up the Mule. At least she can see where I was killing myself working. ;D
Well today was IT! I got the last 45 logs and called it a job. On the site was a lot of activity involved in removing the rusty treasures contained therein and I didn't want to add to the congestion any more than I had to. It was interesting and enjoyable for me to see some of that stuff come out from under the undergrowth into the light of day again. Truly there are a lot of treasures in there for sure.
It was hot, but moreover it was HUMID and I sweated like a pig all day, just soaked through. I was glad I used chaps but I made a stupid rookie mistake and wore jeans instead of cotton work pants. I felt like an idiot and suffered appropriately for the error. I had to work hard for the wood, only one tree fell, the rest I had to piece down. Last tree of the day was a small one and it was right next to a '73 dodge Ramcharger, the first truck I ever owned and the roof on this one was better than the one I owned in 1982. ;D There were 2 or 3 poplars growing up right along the body lines, and I knew they would never pull that out with those trees there, so I took them down also.
Here's one of the last full loads going out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210627_095733889.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1624833846)
That load kind of squished the tires a wee bit. ;D
Anyway, done and loaded out. I have to take a run back up there to fetch the mule. No way to get that and 45 logs home in one shot. I don't mind the extra trip, I like watching the progress. Not yet sure if I am gong up Monday or Tuesday, depends on if I can schedule a delivery for tomorrow or not.
I am pooped out, time for a break.
Glad you can finally call it a day(s)!
I had a 1977 Ramcharger that was my grandparents. I never had it running well enough to be reliable and back in those days I didn't have a place to store it, or money or time to work on it, so I got rid of it. Probably my biggest vehicular regret. That thing was cool.
Quote from: aigheadish on June 28, 2021, 01:58:48 PM
Glad you can finally call it a day(s)!
I had a 1977 Ramcharger that was my grandparents. I never had it running well enough to be reliable and back in those days I didn't have a place to store it, or money or time to work on it, so I got rid of it. Probably my biggest vehicular regret. That thing was cool.
I loved mine, it was a beast. It had a special order transmission in it. In 4 wheel low lock it would creep along and could pull dang near anything. I could back over a stump, but it in 1st, get out, hook a stump, all while it was chugging away, then climb back in before the chain got tight and yank the stump. Only issue it had was blown ballast resistors. Took me a week to figure it out the first time, then 30 seconds for the fix each time after. Finally had to give it up when we had our first baby and the front wheel bearing pockets wore open. straight bearings, not tapered, and the whole front end would shake. Would have made a great doodle bug. The body was falling apart as it spent the first 5 years of it's life on the beach and the saltwater killed it. I put on a new hood, roof, tailgate, and doors, covered the lower half of the body with aluminum all around after a trooper stopped me saying he was going to give me a ticket for littering because he saw pieces falling off as I drove. ;D I did love that truck. Never failed me.
We called that gear Bull Low in my neck of the woods. ;D My Old Ford had it.
Yeah, mine had more holes than floor, but somehow it made at least a drive from Cincinnati up to Dayton with me in a seat the whole time. It also had sidepipes! I'd love to get another but they appear to be in the $20k range if they can be found to still be running.
Well I had written a long post this morning but I fat fingered and the whole browser dumped. I didn't have time to re-type it. SO a shorter version which is probably better for the consumer anyway. :D
Its been so HOT and humid it's really hard to work. Yesterday I finally heard from my farm customer, who seems to be fickle. They were not ready for delivery and asked that I deliver on Thursday after 4pm. I am wondering what kind of 'farm' this is. They picked the rainiest part of the rainiest day of the week and at the end of the day. I balked and we compromised on Friday after 10am when they have help there. Weird. So yesterday I had to unload the trailer so I could go fetch back the mule today, then Thursday I will reload those loads and more in the trailer. I will be glad to be done with this. I am not charging enough either for the logs or delivery, that's for sure.
It was so hot last night I couldn't sleep past 3am and finally got up at 3:30. I sent a note off to the accounting department at Cornell that was pretty 'direct' complaining about their lack of responsiveness. An email every 2 or 3 days with nothing concrete is no way to do business and I told them so, and a wee bit more.
Instead of sleeping in today as planned, I was on the road to get the Mule at a little after 6. Had a nice final breakfast at the store and ran into Barge's Pop again. I really enjoy talking with him and we touched on the subject of rifles today. We may just talk more about that soon. I guess Barge was out hauling late last night and I didn't see him this morning. Got up to the property, loaded up, and headed home and was back by 11am. I found an email from my contact at Cornell who asked me to take it easy on his accounting folks and take my frustrations out on him. He said they are 'working on it' and I repeated my complaint that if they are working on it, why can't they tell me that and what they are doing. He thought 2 weeks for payment was reasonable, and I agreed that it was and reminded him the invoice was sent 2 weeks ago and there is zero movement except to tell me it may take a few more weeks. Finally we found a method of payment they could use if I issued them a paypal invoice. I did that and finally got paid, less 40 bucks for the paypal fee. I sent him a note to thank him for payment and pointed out that the 40 bucks in fees is equivalent to 4 hours of my heavy labor in the woods cutting his logs on this project. He sent a note saying he would make it up to me at the workshop with petty cash. AT this point I don't care, but I made my point and it's done.
This heat makes it harder to do anything, but tomorrow I will regroup and figure out where to dive in. I am not quite ready to jump back into the property work until this heat breaks, it doesn't make sense. So I will look at getting back on the mill now that the Mule is back to move logs. Probably start by checking bed alignment and finishing cleanup on the drying racks which stopped when I began the property improvement in the spring. I also have one more hazard tree to take down behind the mill area. Have to get a high rope on that one.
This afternoon some good rain came thru for 20 minutes and the temp dropped from 99° down to 82° in 5 minutes. It was back up over 90 by 5:30 and still climbing.
Tomorrow is another day. It's slated to be 90 with another heat index warning, But I gotta get some work done.
Tom,
Sorry for the hassles with clients and accounting departments. I am pretty lucky with most of my clients and only have one accountant representing one of my clients who sent me a deposit to start work on some sheds and a composting toilet. I had already ordered the metal and bought the PT lumber for the base and the hardware so I was getting a little nervous. I finished the final base for the biggest shed this afternoon. I had taken wifey to the doctor for a pooper snooper exam. They knocked her out and she said it was totally painless and all clear results so that is good. I picked up my old beater of an ATV so don't have to run my new one in the rough stuff.
I know what you mean about the heat and humidity though. I sweated through 2 sets of clothes yesterday with a cool shower and a long rest break in between. Went through another set this afternoon. I had a long mobile trip tomorrow but we rescheduled for next week due to high chance of rain. I don't like to make a long trip unless chance of rain is real low and I know this will be a long day but barring breakdowns I should finish and return the same day.
I lifted a board off a maple stack today for a floor board and surprised a chipmunk resting between the boards. he jumped down and hid under the bottom. Sampson was no help even when he scooted out later. I'd seen where they were eating acorns and such between the boards but never expected to uncover one face to face like that.
Yeah, I think we are all suffering through this heat. It's hard to stay motivated. We got over 1/2" of rain overnight, but it was still 72° at 4:30 this morning. Gonna be really humid today for sure. I am sitting here with my second cup of coffee and trying to get my head in the game for today. I have to get a move on here and make up some time.
I am glad your wife made out so well and can relax now. As for your chipmunks, that happens to me all the time, they are getting pretty gutsy here and even tell me off when I invade 'their space'.
I was thinking about you yesterday. All the shows I was hoping to do have been canceled this year again and with the mushroom log thing taking over and the spring property work, I didn't finish a lot of projects in the shop. Well on Monday I got contacted about setting up a table at a woodworkers show in Kingston at the same museum I have been delivering logs to. The local woodworkers club is running it and they want to connect small local businesses with their members for supplies and wood, also carvers, turners, etc. They also have a boatbuilding school there and it is planned for a 2 day show. They are just organizing it and it sounds like they want to keep it to only 10-15 booths of hand picked vendors with the right stuff to sell. So I was pleased to get the call. I need to get going on the mill and figure out how to do this to fit their needs. Then yesterday I was offered a table during the Mushroom workshop near the end of July. Not sure what I would bring to that or if I will do it (I am going anyway). But it's more to think about and prep for. SO it seems I need to build some boxes, get some more wood milled, and figure out a booth as I choose what to bring. The woodworkers are mostly looking for smalls and shorts for hobby projects. Maybe I will make some 'bench kits' with a live edge slab about 12"x48"x8/4 and 4 legs. I also have basswood to cut into carvers blocks that has been drying about a year now and some more to mill up.
Time to get at it.
Tom,
Good luck with the show. I like to go to them and talk with people. For me they are mostly advertising as I give out cards and pick up a few, often very belated, mobile jobs. I have even had the guys I talk with hand off their card to friends and I picked up jobs that way.
You mention of the boatbuilding reminds me I will always regret not building one with my old mentor when I was in my late teens to early 20's. He built several plywood fishing boats using cypress or juniper sides. We even owned one of his boats at one point. The last one he built was just a shell with removable catwalks and seats and such to keep the weight down to something he could more easily handle. He used Marine grade plywood, brass screws and nails and such. He would have built one with me and I am sure I'd have put it to good use. My grandfather built a small 8' plywood johnboat he used the last 10-15 years of his life that he was real well pleased with and got a lot of use out of it.
That also reminds me on the boat we owned form him Dad loaned it to a co-worker friend and he and his son used it. The man told Dad a few days later they had caught the most fish they ever did but when they got back to the landing they found there was a hole in the live well and all the fish had escaped. Dad said he had hit a snag and knew he had a hole in the bottom of live well but he said it was so small he had never bothered to repair it as no fish he would keep could get out of it anyway.
Not much to report here, the rain has slowed things down quite a bit, but it's cooler now. Chance of rain through the weekend too. We got another .7" in the last 24 hours or so. I have 1 more log customer to dispense with. The other, a 20 log pickup finally showed up yesterday afternoon after standing up up twice because he 'got involved in something else'. Not too happy about that as I make sure I am here and watching at the appointment time so that when they pass the driveway I can find and redirect them in. I figured if he didn't pick up yesterday, I would tell him to forget it and sell his logs to the farm. but he did show up, loaded his own (he's a big boy and had no issues with those 60# logs), didn't even drop his tailgate. He also bought a bag of maple sawdust I had saved out for somebody else who changed their mind. Payed me in cash and didn't want change, then asked me about other services I could provide. He managed to change himself from the PITA column in my book to the 'good' column.
I had re-loaded the trailer yesterday morning during lighter rain periods and today will deliver to that last farm and be done with this for a while. I was supposed to deliver at 10am but got an email at 1am this morning asking me to come at 11 when she would have people there. Well, I thought that was why I was going at 10? Weird farm op if you ask me. So now it pretty much falls in the middle of the day which I am not too fond of, but whatever, I'll just get it done. She may have some cedar poles I can swap for, to put up posts around the garden. I have been looking. But we will see. What's a 8-9' cedar pole worth these days? I just want to get done and get some milling moving along.
As I said the rain has stopped, but we will be overcast all day with a high in the low 70's. It's 66 here now. I'd like to get the lawn cut so we can invite some neighbors over for a fire on Saturday night. but we shall see how the weather pans out. Right now it is way too wet.
It's just another day.
OK, the last mushroom logs have been delivered, so it is done. I just need to work up the final accounting to see how poorly it went. I surely did not lose money, but there were no big bucks made here. However, I learned enough to make some changes going forward and I think I understand this process now better than pretty much anyone and now know what I can and can't do or provide with much more certainty than before. I also think I have a much better understanding of the variables.
The last 100 logs headed out for delivery:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210702_074641112.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1625309330)
I made my last delivery yesterday and was home by a little after noon. I was greeted by an email with a press release about the schooner project and associated workshop. I was pleased and surprised to see that they had listed my little company as one of the partners in the project. If you have an interest, you can read the press release HERE (https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/logs-to-nyc-project/?fbclid=IwAR39kyR_uGmvtZroMsy5ITK4wfdaZeIxYqP_rcMah2Wzs8LV3yvi7Y9UfKg).
Anyway, got home, unhitched, unloaded, and had lunch, and we had the Grandson's to watch for the day. Heavy overcast, with mist and light drizzle all day. I got out the weed whacker and took down the grass around the yard edges and especially out back around the mill which was getting high and ugly and depressing. Found that the storm the other night broke off a rotten tree top and it is horizontal, hung in another tree about 35' up. It has to come down, and it is not an easy task, so I am thinking on that a bit. Then the trunk has to come down too, but the only way to get it down safe is to fell it on the neighbor's property (yes, THAT neighbor). So I guess I have to talk with him. The trunk is about 22" DBH and I'll need to put a safety rope on it because the risk is too high if anything goes wrong. It would flatten my shed or worse. So just another 'project' I wasn't looking for and I might have to take my climbing spurs off the hook again.
The air dried up a little in the afternoon and we had almost 8 minutes of sun break through but the radar looked nasty. I finally jumped on the mowing tractor and started mowing but in some places I was leaving a wake in the deeper puddles. We have clay and it doesn't seep in very fast. Two of the boys wanted to take turns sitting in my lap and steering. One did the back yard and around the mill, the other on the front lawn. My son showed up with his landscaping trailer and mowers and offered me one of the zero turns to finish the front lawn with, but I was rolling and the sky was getting blacker by the second. He took his other mower off to do the 2 lawns he does near my house. I told my grandson to find something to hold onto because it was time to get this done and off we went. We did get it done, parked the tractor in the shed and I sat in the shop garage door just as it started raining. Then it came down hard and a few minutes later my son came up the driveway on his mower and I though he was done, he was certainly soaked through, but he just grabbled a rain jacket and went back out to do the other lawn. Then the rain came down in a heavy curtain and the wind picked up. I noted that the radar had turned a lovely shade of crimson and wondered if perhaps my son had gotten mired in a new mudhole. Just about the time I was going to get in the mule to check on him, he came up the driveway totally ignoring the 'no wake' rule I have. ;D He loaded the mower up and came in the shop to put on a dry shirt. A lot of good that did him. :D It rained pretty much through the whole evening and we got just under another inch for the day, so probably around 3 inches in the last 10 days. I think we are good now. It also rained a little more overnight so I am not sure how today will wind up looking.
I was really hoping to have some neighbors over for a fire and some relaxing conversation and adult beverages tonight. But the whole prospect does not look to be shaping up very well. The ones across the road went to St. Maarten for the weekend, the ones behind us headed to Germany for a few days and I haven't heard from the newer gal down the road. She may be somewhere else. Our long time redneck friends that live just over the hill were planning on being at their cabin, but are not sure now and would love to come over if they stay home. They have dropped the precip potential to about 30% through the day as I had expected, but we will have to see what goes down as the day progresses. I still have not invited my Logger buddy down the road, waiting to see how the weather goes.
No matter what it will be a wet and soggy day. I have to pick some tasks to get done and get on them.
Today is just another day, right?
Great article and good publicity! Hope it has positive outcome for you.
I noticed the logs transported by bike trailer on the other end!! Oh boy that would be quite a feat!
Quote from: samandothers on July 03, 2021, 09:55:59 AM
Great article and good publicity! Hope it has positive outcome for you.
I noticed the logs transported by bike trailer on the other end!! Oh boy that would be quite a feat!
Those bikes will handle about a 400# load, so figure 10 logs on average per load. Glad it's not me, I already put enough sweat into this project. :D
As I try to get back in the groove after that Mushroom thing it seems like just doing the commute north for a few weeks allowed enough time for things to start falling apart here at the house. Some things I can tolerate for a long time, others need immediate fixing. We got a lot of rain in the last ten days and one of the old rotten maples out back finally gave up its top. So over the weekend I shot a line over the widow maker and hailed up a 3/4" sisal rope. The piece that is still connected is very small and I had fears it could give at any time so I wanted to get it down. Then I could take the trunk at my leisure.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210704_174114035.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1625566320)
As you can see, there isn't much holding wood. The branch is about 14" diameter. SO I anchored that rope to another tree, put a snatch block in for a re-direct and got the Mule to give it a tug from a very safe distance. About 50# of rotten junk came down but the branch stayed put. As I pulled and jerked more, the rope parted. So I retied and changed the anchor point to alter the angle. That didn't work either and this time when the rope parted all of it came down, so I will have to re-shoot and haul up a 1" rope to see how that works. I don't want to take this tree with that hanger on there, there are too many options for things to go wrong and my cold storage shed is too close. Still, at least I know it won't come down in a light breeze. It is a sizable chunk of wood.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210704_174118391.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1625566391)
Also last week, all the rain finally overloaded the back gutter on the house and the rotten facia tore most of the way off.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210701_154805571.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1625566322)
Not a fun job 2 floors up. My son grabbed some materials and came over yesterday and we started poking at it. Lots of wasps to deal with as e tore out and added some blocking before putting up the new facia.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210705_130225342.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1625566361)
We painted everything before hanging. It got pretty hot which slowed us a bit working in the sun. It took all day, but the fix looks pretty dang good I think.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210705_172454524_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1625567592)
I didn't get a photo with the gutter rehung, but that came out good also. So at least that is out of the way.
Today will be a lost day for me, I have to go help a neighbor make "party favors" for his wedding and that looks to be taking all day. (Don't ask). While I am there I can hopefully get some time in laying out the stage I need to build for them.
Just another day, right?
Haven't checked the article yet but it sounds like, though wet, a few good days in there. (edit- Now I have checked out the article, you got top billing! Nice! [I don't count Cornell Small Farms Program as it looks like they run the show]). Also, this part: "support the livelihoods of foresters and loggers" In my mind that says up your prices, substantially!
As my kids get older (15 and almost 13) I'm finding myself prematurely envious of your relationship with your son. The amount of time he seems to come over, for whatever reason, sounds nice and that's just from me reading how many times you've mentioned him in these posts. I lost my dad a couple years ago, unexpectedly, and it was just about the time I was starting to have a better relationship with him, though it took until I was in my 40's and we didn't have a great go of it prior to that. We didn't have a bad relationship, just consistently not comfortable. Now, as I get more into messing around with woodworking and stuff like that he's gone and I don't have his genius to question.
I'm glad to hear you are through with the mushroom logs, for now, and can look at your data to determine what to make of it for next time, if there is one. Sounds like loads of hard work.
Yeah, mushroom logs are done, but of course I got a call on Wednesday from somebody who wanted to order logs. ;D
Yes, I suppose I am lucky to have the relationship I have with my son, but things are not always as they may appear. There is quite a bit of stress between us in recent years that has not yet been resolved and gives me grief daily. But that does not mean I love him any less and I assume he feels similar toward me. We can set that all aside because if we can't find a way to work together it will be a poison that will kill one of us. So we do these things and when he gets in a bind he calls me for help or advice. He also comes to help with the things he knows are getting beyond my means to do alone. It's a life long quest. Life is not easy, it takes work, all the time. That's all I go to say about that. He needs me, I need him. We make it work as best we can.
----
Well I was right, Tuesday was a loss, but we made about a gallon and a half of 'party favors'. We got rained on a bit, but muddled through. During the day I got contacted by the 'little sister' of a good frined through the high school years. I have not seen her since she was about 15 years old, so nearly 50 years. Her and her husband have a family summer place up this way, they still live on the Island. They have a tree that needs taking down right next to this house and asked if I did that stuff. Well, I knew it wasn't a job for me, but I wanted to help them out and it was an excuse for a visit. SO I drove the hour and a half up to Roxbury on Wednesday. About 15 miles west and south of where the log harvest site was but in the middle of nowhere. I measured the tree and looked over the hazards. Power line through it, 22" DBH EWP, 55' tall, easy fall, but the wires make it a climb or bucket job. I got hold of my buddy that night to see if he would drive that far. Still working on that, and I asked them to get a quote from the local insured arborist as a price point. I'd like to save them a few bucks if I can. I am trying to talk my buddy into doing it on a weekend and I'll be the ground guy for him, so he doesn't have to pay a crew. Still working on that. But we had a nice visit catching up on old times and it was a great day for a drive.
Yesterday it was all rain all day, and wind, and lightening, and flooding. I got nuttin' done. Seems like I am still recovering or just lazy. Today was the monthly chiro visit and more rain finally stopping around noon. We are over 5.2" for the week, I lost count. Tomorrow my son and his boys are coming over for another work day to replace the facia and gutter on the garage and maybe split some wood and stack, maybe move some dirt and crushed stone. We will see where it goes.
Tomorrow is another day, right?
Well, I figured everybody could use a break, so it's been over 10 days since I posted here. You're welcome. :D
The rain continues, every day so far. I lost count but we have to be over 8" by now. Very depressing. I haven't seen the sun for more than 15 minutes all month. The ground never dries up, everything is wet, even in the house it's very damp. I can't seem to get motivated, I split a little wood, do some stacking, run errands here and there, but not much else.
I did have a request from a neighbor lady to make some custom trim for the new tile floor she put in front of her new woodstove. Not much, about 13 linear feet. I made it out of ash and she will do the finishing. Just some planeing ripping and sanding then the miter cuts. I'll help her install if if she needs it, but she is probably good. I cut the tree that wood came from 3 years ago and it was about 100' from where her woodstove sits. She thought that was pretty cool.
That little job was enough to show me that my wood allergy is not limited to pine. All I worked with was the clean Ash and last night my arms had the rash again. Dang, this could be a problem. This morning it is clearing up.
Yesterday I also got a call from a magazine writer who is doing an article on those logs being shipped downriver, actually the whole project. He had me on the phone for close to 2 hours. We will talk some more at that workshop and boat loading event on Saturday. I hope the weather holds for that and I'll be glad to have it behind me so I can move on. I ordered an embroidered shirt and hat for the event so I look 'proper', whatever that is.
Time to get a move on and slog through another dreary day. I hope this breaks soon.
Good to hear from you, sorry to hear about the allergic reaction to the Ash. It's weather it will change, then hopefully you can get something done. I need to get busy with firewood as well but it's over 90 for highs all week. We will be needing rain by then. It will be interesting to see the article on the mushroom log project when it is published. Hang in there.
After yesterday's post I started to realize that I have been really depressed these last couple of weeks. Not just a bad mood but something more sinister. I am not the kind of guy who would ever be accused of 'being in touch with my feelings', you'd have to hit me in the head with a pipe to make me think on that for a bit, but things were really dark and that fact finally dawned on me. So I took the day yesterday to try and figure it all out. I'll not share the reasons, but it tuned out when I put them on the table, it was quite a pile. Financial issues, family issues, daily stressors, and environmental changes plus all the the never ending RAIN, that just all added up to put me in the hole. My wife is out of town until next week and that hasn't happened in a few years. Usually I use that time to do things I want, when I want and enjoy myself without worrying about the normal schedules. I eat adequately but not the best food and conduct a simple life while she is gone. (I like 2 meals a day.) No, there is no whooping it up or partying, but I might go visit someone, take a drive for no reason, or stop at a diner or something. (Yeah, that is me whooping it up.)
But it also puts me 'on my own' and she is the 'regulator' in my life, so it's weird. That wasn't the trigger, but it may have helped.
Anyway, I thought about it all day, took a nice hot shower and put on some clean clothes and 'thunk on it' then went to bed a little later than normal.
Today was a new day and I got out and milled a log first thing. That's a good sign, I haven't opened up a log in months. I cut up a green red maple junk log that came down in a storm and creamed the mill area a few moths back. It was small, about 12" diameter but I made about 9 or so wheel barrow handle pieces out of it. I have 4 wheel barrows that need handles and I'll be danged if I am paying what they are asking for those cheapy replacement handles. This has been on the list for a year, so I got them cut. The mill ran great. I guess the tweaking I did a month ago between rain storms worked out. (Part of the reason I was avoiding firing it up, I didn't want more problems to deal with.) But the skies threatened and I did a complete cleaning on the mill bed, hosed off the cover, and buttoned it up. Shortly after my back was making noises, so it seems I was right in not rolling that next log up. 1 log was good enough for today. I got something done.
This afternoon I noticed that 'the rash' is back on my arms from that short milling session. This is concerning since I wore gloves and never really had any contact on my forearms. It's mild, but it is there. In fact I think it is already going away, but boy this is starting to worry me.
I attended an online zoom session on Ginseng harvesting, cultivation, regulations, and all that stuff, which was interesting. One of these days I may look further into that ($500./lb.!!).
I sent some emails regarding the workshop thing on Saturday and now they want to know if I could possibly cut about 25 of those logs in half. Yeah sure, no big deal, take a few minutes. BUT there is really no place to do this at the museum, it's all manicured grass and not that much of it. So I will probably make up a sawbuck tomorrow to bring down, then put a tarp under it to collect all the chips. I can't take mine, it's 8' long, so I will make a little one. At least I'll have something to do for a little while besides look pretty. Publicity for this event has been in a lot of places, this morning I got another press release from the museum with my picture in it. Not sure if any of these have made the local papers, but they sure are trying. Cornell had two, the Schooner had one or two, and now the museum. Maybe we will have more than 5 people show up for this thing? We could be inundated and have, I dunno, maybe like 10? :D :D
So in general I am feeling better today and a little more productive and energetic. I even looked to see if any of my friends had a gig tonight or tomorrow I might catch but my timing is bad. One buddy was playing an hour before I started checking the listings, so I missed it. It's been well over a year and a half since I looked at gig listings. Maybe next week. At least I started looking.
Tomorrow is another day, let's see what it brings.
Tom,
Catfish therapy in WV sounds just like what the doctor ordered. I have 50-60 night crawlers in the fridge in the barn that I think are calling your name. They will live for weeks like that. I assume your trip to the Pig Roast should also do the trick especially if you are in the camp with Doc and few others like him (Did I really say that - I am sure there are no others like our own FF Doc).
You mention sawing some logs in half but I did not catch what they were. Are these mushroom logs you had already harvested or some other logs? Do they want them split (Sawmill) or just cut in half lengthwise (Chainsaw)?
Stay safe. Remember phone therapy is just a phone call away.
You know, you may have hit the nail on the head there. It never occurred to me that I need to go fishing. I had gotten out of the habit in the last decade whereas before that I would focus on opening day of [any] season to an obsessive level. My gear is all a wreck as the kinds 'needed' to borrow this or that and it came back broken, if at all, but I think I could still piece together a rod or two in a pinch. Usually I go with my son and his boys, but that just means I don't get to fish more than a couple of minutes and spend my time undoing snags, baiting hooks, etc. Maybe I just need a day to fish, actually fish. It has, on reflection, been a pretty long time. In this day of instant licenses over the internet, I really have no excuse even though mine expired a couple of weeks ago. Thanks, good advice.
I don't think I need phone therapy (is that a 900 number?), but a chat with old friends is always fun.
The logs are just whacking some of those 300 logs I delivered in half (crosscut), hence the sawbuck. Quick easy work. I'll whip up a sawbuck in the morning if I still have some usable pine 2x4's on the pile.
Take care OGH! The rain can really suck it out, especially when you are thankful for the rain for all it's wonders for the first couple days but then it just gets to be too much.
Ginseng is very interesting. From some of my minimal research it's marginally easy to grow and if you have the market to buy it you can make a decent bucket of money.
Is it possible the rash is stress related and not wood related now that you are seeing it with different species? Don't know if that is a thing, am a hillbilly not a doctor ???
Be well and take care, catch some fish and a couple shows!
Tom,
Do you even need a new fishing license? Many states exempt people 65 and older from hunting and fishing licenses. WV gets one last dig in and sells us a lifetime hunting, fishing and trapping license for $25 when we turn 65 - started this about 10 years ago. If older than that automatic exemption applies. We still have to buy special stamps like trout stamps or extra deer stamps and such but get the basic authorizations and bag limits on the lifetime license. I bought lifetime infant HFT licenses for all the granddaughter for their first birthdays so they can hunt, fish, and trap with Grandpa in WV their whole life.
As you know you don't have to actually catch anything just spend time on the water and in the woods. Good luck.
Howard, in my state they squeeze out every penny they can, so they only discount the fee for those 70 or older. And I think they still charge 5 bucks/yr at that point, but not sure. I just did it online (for too much money) and am good to go, also checked my reservoir permit and have a couple of years left on that. The DEC will give you a ticket if you don't have a state license, the DEP will arrest you if you don't have a reservoir permit and are caught with a fishing rod. If you don't have a fishing rod, permit or not, you are trespassing. It's all part of their "Good Neighbor Policy" on behalf of the government of the City of New York. :D >:(
That's a bummer but glad you are legal and ready to go. We'll expect pictures in both the outdoor and food threads soon. ;D Remember - grits are a great side dish to eat with fried fish.
Howard - Fish is a good side dish for grits. There, fixed it for you... :D
I am ignoring the mentioning of grits, it's just my policy, sorry. (The voice in the back of my head says "Do NOT ENGAGE!")
I did however, get the license and go through some gear (I have a lot) and picked out some of the rotten stuff, but it would take me a half day to sort it all and figure a tackle box setup for the reservoir. In the 33 years I have lived a mile from this reservoir, I just never got around to that detail, just grabbed what was handy. I don't have a boat there and never caught anything of consequence walking from shore. There are plenty of big fish in there, big browns, steelhead, walleyes, and others, but none have met me yet.
So I dug a few worms and headed over for a little while and just set up a chair in a poor spot. There was a big crowd of noisy folks where I wanted to be, so I went around the bend into a cove where it was quieter. I tossed a couple of worms and they lived about 5 seconds before the little guys poached them. Switched to bigger floating plugs with diver lips and got nothing. I tried several colors and sizes....zippo. So I resolved to just sit and enjoy the non-raining afternoon. I watched some bugs get consumed off the water surface. Lots of small fish.
Eventually the skeeters got to be more than I could stand and that noisy crowd had a good echo working off the trees across the cove from me. Next time I will pick a less traveled spot, which means a good walk in, which means I need to get my kit a little better put together for the walking part. Its a big reservoir, lots of walking in.
Eh, it was a start anyway.
Today I have to get my stuff together for the workshop tomorrow and get it all in the truck. Now they say somebody else is going to hack those logs in half because I am not covered under their insurance. I think it's ironic that they believe it is safer to have a guy that hardly ever picks up a chainsaw do a job while a guy who runs a saw every day stands there and watches. Whatever, I don't care, it's their party.
Rash and just feeling down and out? My mother just went though something similar and turned out to be Lyme. She doesn't recall the tick. Just wanted to through it out there. Might be worth the test.
QuoteI attended an online zoom session on Ginseng harvesting, cultivation, regulations, and all that stuff, which was interesting. One of these days I may look further into that ($500./lb.!!).
$500 a pound sounds like wild ginseng, not cultivated. I live in the Marathon co. WI, regarded as the ginseng capital of the world, and growers here are getting $30 to $50 a pound. You have to wait 4 to 5 years to harvest it, (if the bugs, mold, weeds, and bad weather doesn't get it :D) and once you grow it on a plot of land, you can't grow it there again.
Well it was a long day yesterday, but easy 'work', meaning I really did nothing. ;D Left the house at 7 and got to the Museum at 7:30 to help setting up for the day. The Cornell expert arrived, and the boat had gotten to the dock Friday around 6:30pm after sailing down on the second leg from Hudson, not much wind made for a long trip.
SO there was a lot of stuff to set up for inoculating and they were teaching 3 different types of Mushroom cultivation: Shitake's, Lions Mane, and [i forget]. Broken into groups they did the log drilling, inoculating and waxing and one side, and the other cultivation on the other side.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210724_102258504.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627214699)
The log drilling station:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210724_103307052.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627214754)
We set up and worked under the shadow of the last remaining steam tug bug from New York Harbor, The Mathilde, which has been at the museum since the mid 80's.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210724_111937926.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627214720)
I am wondering if @BargeMonkey (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24634) ran around on this one for a while? ;D Certainly he knows the company well.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210724_111949348.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627214735)
All went well and there were lots of happy people. I answered a lot of questions about log harvesting here and there. Around noon they took a lunch break, then around 1 we began loading the boat using everyone in the class and even a few folks walking by who joined in. With a bucket brigade setup we just passed them along across the grass, over the bulkhead, then dock up onto the boat then down in the hold. So I got to take the front of the line and pick up off the pile, giving me one last opportunity to lift EVERY log one last time. :D They took everything we had, so about 280 logs, in about 25 minutes.
Then the Captain gave a little talk about the boat and invited folks on board to look it over.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210724_133636953.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627214782)
It was full high tide when we were loading and the Captain was anxious to get underway and catch that ebb tide to get down-bound asap. While we cleaned up the mess we made, he and the crew got the boom crutches stowed and cargo secured, 15,000 pounds of logs, maple syrup, honey, brewing hops, some river mail, and other stuff is loaded on this run. I followed the progress on the ship tracking APP and they finally tied up in Poughkeepsie at 11:30 last night. Next leg to Newburgh/Beacon today and they got underway at 6:30 or so. I believe they have another event to make.
Anyway, I left the museum around 4 and grabbed a little food, then headed over to some kind of Brass Band music fest across town. A friend was running their first aid group and asked me if I could come fill in for a cancellation last minute.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210724_172524778_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627213974)
So I played EMT for 4 or 5 hours and got home between 9 and 10. They had about 400 folks on a working farm and plenty of loud music.
Long day, I have to unload the truck this morning. We had more rain overnight and the air is really heavy this morning. Not sure what I'll do today, but I'll do something.
Sounded like a good day,
Quote from: Nebraska on July 25, 2021, 08:48:39 AM
Sounded like a good day,
Well I did get a sunburn on top of my suntan. ;D
Funny thing i forget mention: They decided a couple of days before the event that we needed to cut about 25 logs in half and I offered to make a short sawbuck and do that. But apparently there was a big deal with me using a chainsaw on their property with respect to liability and insurance. I am not an 'employee', so the Captain who works at the Museum, had to do the cutting. I didn't care, but rather than have a guy with the proper gear on and a good saw get this done, we had a guy in bare feet with no other gear using a little battery chainsaw do the cutting because he was insured and I wasn't. That didn't make a lot of sense to me, but apparently they found that to be acceptable. :D The lawyers run the world and common sense is nowhere to be found. ;D
neat! wish I was closer. 8)
Did you ask for volunteers to bucket brigade logs in the woods?
That all sounds like a neat day. The romance of that ship seems really cool!
There were no 'volunteers in the woods that didn't have 4 legs, and of those, the ones big enough to lift a log were big, furry, and black and would have been hard to train, so I avoided them. :D :D I only had a helper one day. The day the video guy came up he didn't lift a finger except to do his work.
Yes, it's a nice boat, steel hull, sleek lines and very nicely done rigging. I admit it tore at me a little bit and I mentioned to the Captain that if he ever came up short on crew he might give me a holler. He seemed to be pleased to put me on his backup list. I had tracked the boat down bound Saturday night and could se they retally had to work the second half of that leg to hit their tie up by midnight. There was a LOT of tacking involved to hold that 3MPH breeze. The next morning they were off at 6:30 and made their dockage in Newburgh by early afternoon. I had been texting all along with the Captain and it turned out they were 24 hours ahead of schedule so had a day to kill with boat work until their appointment today at noon. Time moves very differently on a boat, especially under sail. If you are in a hurry, you shouldn't be in a boat, especially a Bald headed Gaff rigged schooner. (http://www.schoonerapollonia.com/the-apollonia-2) Still, I wouldn't mind spending what will probably be 2 weeks or so in bare feet crewing on a boat such as this.
If you go to this LINK (http://www.schoonerapollonia.com/track-the-ship-2) and click on the 24 hour or 7 day track, you can see how much they had to do in working with the breeze which I don't think got over 4mph in the last few days.
I don't know that I'd do well on that kind of ship but as I mentioned the romance of it is pretty cool. I'm reading Robinson Crusoe right now and while it doesn't go deep into sailing across the ocean it does make one think about how crazy an idea that is. And, it was mentioned (could be baloney, I guess) like 4-6 months to make it across the Atlantic. I can't imagine.
Stepping back in time, with the boat you are talking about, has got to be interesting, and it's cool that it sounds like you are making a friend with the captain. I bet he calls on you some day soon!
Am I seeing the tracking thing correctly that it took a week to get what I assume would take an hour or two in the car? Does that river flow the wrong way or am I misreading it? 40ish miles? Weird!
Last question first, I am not sure how you configured the tracker so I don't know what you are seeing, but it took about 8 hours to travel [very] roughly 20 miles on Saturday night, and a little less for around 15 or more miles on Sunday. They had almost no wind, and that is a tidal river, so when down bound you want to catch the ebb tide, and upbound you want to catch the flood tide. There is little way to find this unless you have favorable winds of decent velocity. There are also come merge points and very tricky bights in that river one would want to hit at just the right time in the tidal cycle because of the odd currents. If you zoom in on the plot, then click on one of the icons along the route (the little sail boat) it will pop up a window with the speed, heading and time, so you can just look at a a bunch of those to figure time and distance traveled or pick the beginning and end of a leg to see the overall time difference. I really don't know very much about traveling under sail though. I do know a little about boats, having been raised on one for the 1st 7 years of my life.
As for sailing big water; I am Norwegian and my Grandfather was raised in the old country. When he was a boy(late 1880's)they all went to school and worked the farm until they were 14 years old, then the males were expected to spend a year at Sea and upon returning home decide where they wanted to spend their life, farming or on the sea. That was just before steam really became something viable, so he was on a large 3 masted schooner running cargo from the west coast of Europe around The Horn up into the middle east and India. In his first year they spent 2 months becalmed in the middle of the Indian Ocean. That was enough for him. When he returned home he began plotting a way to get to the USA and he started studying steam engines. In 1893 he emigrated and also earned his license as a steam engineer running the big steam power and heat generators that supplied heat (and later power) to many of the big office buildings in NYC. His main office was 2 blocks away from where some crazy guy named Tesla used to have his shop and he met him when he was feeding the pigeons at lunch time one day. They struck up an acquaintance and there is another story for another time.
At rate, travel by sail is a whole different world. ;D
Thanks for sharing that tid bit of your grandfathers history, interesting. Norwegian. Aren't they use to the rain and overcast skies? :D
I don't know where my blood is from Britain I think but I do know my family has been in Nova Scotia since the American revolution, loyalist and all. Nickerson in both sides of my family.
Quote from: HemlockKing on July 26, 2021, 01:22:52 PM
Thanks for sharing that tid bit of your grandfathers history, interesting. Norwegian. Aren't they use to the rain and overcast skies? :D
.....
Used to it, yes. Happy with it....NO. Actually 'my people' (including me) are most happy with clear cold and snowy weather, stormy seas are just another day too, but constant rain and mud is definitely on our list 'happy places'. I don't much care for freezing sea spray either, that scares me. There is no bad weather, just bad clothes. ;D
I never worked for Mac, 3yrs at Moran and Reinauer for 10yrs. I've been up the Roundout a few times. Spent more time in Feeneys fixing the boat than we did running the boat. A couple guys from Dann Ocean and I "caught" a barge that broke away one weekend, Tim sent us down to Mariners and we crawled thru the gate that night 😄
Funny, it was tough spending a day baking in the sun on the creek and not going up to Mariner's at the end of the day to 'cool off'. It was only 100 yards away. I had another place I had to be. Haven't sat at their bar in about 3 years now. I should fix that, but as I recall their were always women that wanted to talk to me. Very distracting. ;D
Feeney's is what, about 1/2 mile upstream of the museum? I have a buddy on the board at the museum and when he saw me showing up there more than once, he began working on me to 'get involved'. I like the guy and the museum's mission, but I gotta buy food, y'know?
Quote from: BargeMonkey on July 26, 2021, 09:50:26 PM
I never worked for Mac, 3yrs at Moran and Reinauer for 10yrs. I've been up the Roundout a few times. Spent more time in Feeneys fixing the boat than we did running the boat. A couple guys from Dann Ocean and I "caught" a barge that broke away one weekend, Tim sent us down to Mariners and we crawled thru the gate that night 😄
My attempt at a joke was that the Mathilde sunk at the dock in around 1980 after being out of service for a number of years. She was(is) a steam tug, the last one serving in NY harbor. She was built and originally served up on the St. Lawrence river for decades. There is no way you were even old enough to work on her. I guess I didn't serve that one up quite right. My bad, I have to work on my delivery. ;D
The story of your grandfather is neat and meeting Tesla would be super cool!
Not that it's the same at all but over the past few months I've done some reading on the some of the main folks of Dayton history, including The Wright Brothers, Charles Kettering, Edward Deeds, Arthur Morgan, and John Patterson, etc. I can't imagine some of the crazy stuff they were thinking of and coming up with and it's very interesting to think about how the world has changed by the course of a handful of people, living in the same era, within about 4 miles of each other.
There is a commercial playing on local radio for one of the history museums (Carillon Historical Park (https://www.daytonhistory.org/visit/dayton-history-sites/carillon-historical-park/)) that said the Cheezit was invented here! (among many others)
Aig,
Tom's ancestors are actually quite famous. We hosted a Norwegian exchange student, Ruth, for the 1991-1992 school year and she has been back here many times and we have made several trips over to see her and I worked a project in Kristiansand Norway from 2007-2009. She said, truthfully so, that Norway looks a lot like WV. You follow a a winding macadam road through the mountains only when you reach the bottom of the mountain in WV you find a sparking mountain stream while in Norway you may find a dark blue Fjord. Tom's great grandfather Eric was very famous throughout the country and has been immortalized in song famous all over the areas of Europe where he frequently visited as Norway's leading "ambassador" and it has become popular here in the USA as well.
Ray Stevens - Erik The Awful - Bing video (https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=eric+the+awful+by+ray+stevens&view=detail&mid=9935EE47945BE3883E2A9935EE47945BE3883E2A&FORM=VIRE0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3deric%2bthe%2bawful%2bby%2bray%2bstevens%26cvid%3d74578b6d38f14c9fb92b1930f630384c%26aqs%3dedge.2.0l3.133542j0j1%26pglt%3d299%26FORM%3dANSPA1%26PC%3dU531)
I visited many places while I was working there in Norway and the results of Eric Lindtveit's "travels" were readily apparent. While in the rest of Scandinavia the women were typically tall, blonde and blue-eyed, in Norway it was common to see women with red hair, jet black hair, almond eyes, and other traits. Apparently they "immigrated" to Norway with Grandpa Eric and his shipmates many generations ago.
O, now that's just weird. ;D
No it was funny :D :D ;D. Ok back to work....
Subtle as a chainsaw, lacking all the Social Graces :D
Quote from: Hilltop366 on July 27, 2021, 12:39:57 PM
Subtle as a chainsaw, lacking all the Social Graces :D
Like it or not, that description does pretty much describe me a little too accurately sometimes.
........
Well lets see, Saturday I was contacted by and old work buddy who retired a month before me, he had a slab for me to finish and we played phone tag all of Sunday and part on Monday (cell phones are great unless you want to actually talk to somebody). He and his GF came over Monday afternoon and we looked it over and reviewed options. I'll start on that soon.
Yesterday my wife was returning from Oregon but she had a late flight and I was not overly excited to be driving up the Thruway to pick her up at 11:45pm. I am not used to the late night driving and have become set in my ways about 10pm bedtimes. So I was concerned and stayed up late Monday watching the Olympics hoping to sleep in yesterday and be rested, Great plan, but one of the cats decided I REALLY needed to get up at 6am and he kept walking all over me dropping hints. He was hungry. I fed him and tried to go back to bed, but got up at 8 and just took a lazy day. Last she texted me (that I saw) her flight was delayed 20 minutes. I left the house just after 10pm and got to the airport around 11:30 (15 minutes before she should have landed). When I went in the terminal and checked the monitor it had her landing at 1am, an hour and a quarter late. I checked the airport listing online and it still said the aircraft was 'on time'. I was a tad ticked off. So I got to cool my heals for an hour and change. There was nothing open in the airport so I couldn't even get a cup of coffee, not even a bloody vending machine I could find.
We finally got home at 2:30 this morning, not what I am used to and that drive down the Thruway with nobody on the road to speak of, even at 75mph seemed really long. I hit the rack as soon as we unloaded. Glad that is done and she had a fun trip.
Now it's on to the next thing, which is cleaning out the truck and getting it ready for the drive to MI! I have to go through clothes and such to select just the right wardrobe :D :D ;D ;D :) :) and then get it packed. That alone could take over an hour. :D So today I will get a start on that. It's been a LONG time since I did any long driving, so I am 'interested' to see how that goes. I am more susceptible to white line fever these days as I get older. We planned room in the schedule for and overnight at a motel somewhere along the route, so this gives us lots of options to break up that 15 hour drive.
As always, with any trip I am excited to 'get there' and smelling the roses along the way was never my strong suit. I'd like to see if I can adjust this a little and learn to relax a bit more on the way out and not be so stressed.
Today is another day and I am glad the wife is back home and the cats can follow her around for a while. ;D
I hates airports! Glad you made it back home to your loving felines. I am sure your trip planning and packing for your stay will go smoothly. I hope you have a great time and keep the Doc in line.
Are you going to be getting together for some picking and singing with the rest of the folks. I am sure you will have some great jam sessions while you are there. Did you ever tell the rest of the forum members about the original source for your musical talents and especially your famous Uncle Ned from your mother's side of the family who was so popular back in the 30's and 40's who was your inspiration?
ned nostril song - Bing video (https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=ned+nostril+song&view=detail&mid=9A6934745649A59AFD5A9A6934745649A59AFD5A&FORM=VIRE0&ru=%2fsearch%3fq%3dned%2bnostril%2bsong%26cvid%3d594ac90371f4423e9fb21b544ad3f127%26aqs%3dedge.2.69i57j0l6.10593j0j1%26FORM%3dANSPA1%26PC%3dU531)
Have a good time and drive safe.
Well just because I really like all my friends here on the FF I am leaving my instruments at home. It's been too long since I have picked one up with any kind of commitment and I would have to re-learn every tune I ever knew from scratch, which were never many anyway. (However, if somebody needed a loaner, I would bring one for them, happily.)
No, I never did share that heritage you refer to, which was hitherto unknown to me and in fact is still a little dubious. ;D That particular tune I had never heard before. Ray Stevens has to be the king of novelty tunes.
Time to get at it.
You'll be good, just pick a Johnny cash song only 3 chords lol
Quote from: HemlockKing on July 28, 2021, 04:08:43 PM
You'll be good, just pick a Johnny cash song only 3 chords lol
Great advice, thanks! Now all I need to know is, what is a chord? ;D :D
I am more of a single string payer (think 'hunt and peck' for the mandolin).
Well today I knocked off one of those chores that has been hanging around for a while. Back in early October last year this dead ash came over and hung up good and tight on the crotch. I promised the neighbor I'd get it down and out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20201008_101235037_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1602199667)
It was just about a perfect 45° angle. I cut the stump at a compound angle to allow it to ride up and out, but also roll to the downhill side. That part worked perfect and I didn't pinch the bar at all. But when she slipped and rolled as planned she bit in pretty heavy and did not slide down on the hung end very much. As it was right off the driveway I got my truck to do the yank instead of abusing the mule. I hung a snatch block up at abut 7' on a close by tree to give some lift with the pull and because the butt had that nice angle on it, it popped out easy. It came down quick at that point. ;D
I got 2 nice 12' saw logs out of it, assuming there is no cracking. one is 19" on the big end and the other is 16", the 3rd log is about 14" x 10' to the crotch. I got two of them up to the side of the driveway for easy skidding. The others I think I will yank from down below and bring around, it's easier access.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210801_151943062.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1627860278)
I also have the top branches for firewood and I'll clean them up in the next day or two. At least I got it down and up to the driveway edge with no drama or damage and it's on the ground and they can stop asking me about getting it down before the wedding. ;D
I'm just trying to keep my mind busy before we leave. Tomorrow I have some pre-trip errands to take care of and some other chores. It's another day, right?
Keep on keepin on! suns out guns out! Glad to see the rain cleared lol
Well I had planned an easy day getting my packing list together and making sure I didn't forget anything, it's been so long since we traveled anywhere in the last 2 years that I was worried I would forget something basic and stupid.
But, there is the tree job across the road we are trying to get done before the wedding for safety and appearance reasons and it needed to be a bucket job. I had seen my buddy headed out yesterday with the bucket truck and texted him that if he had a short day I could help him knock this job out in an hour and he wouldn't need a ground guy (I work as cheap as it gets). Well he didn't get available until 7:30 last night and that wasn't really a good start time. Today he texted me and said if I was available he could be there around 3:30. SO there went my shower time but we went down and got it done. He had his ground guy and a chipper and with 3 of us it went quick. Hopefully now Bridezilla can cut me a little slack. ;D Earlier I had to teach my other buddy how to assemble his, um, apparatus for um, creating certain adult beverages. He's never done a run without me as the tech guy. So I lost a bunch of time out of my day, but no matter, I think we are in good shape, lets see what time we can get on the road tomorrow.
When we were finishing up the tree work my buddy (the aborist) asked me if I would run his mill to fulfill a contract order for 2,100 linear feet of 6x6's. He just cant take the job and do it himself, so if I don't run the job, he will let it go to someone else. He doesn't have anyone else he trusts to run his mill, a 2 year old LT50. I'm a little intimidated by this machine, considering my manual mill experience. Yeah I know how to cut up a log and get decent wood, but running that machine is a different story, I don't want to mess up. I have until I get back from the pig roast to make a decision. I am thinking I will give it a shot, knowledge is power so I guess I should take the opportunity to get some new knowledge and experience. But I am still thinking on it and have set up a consult with somebody at the pig roast I know can set me straight and help me get my head in the game. If I do it, I have to jump right in because, of course, he has a deadline. :D ;D No pressure.
But for now, the goal is just to get the Bride and me to the pig roast. Tomorrow is another day and it should be a good one. (Traffic aside)
Bridezilla - :D :D :D
Who is providing the logs? Are you just sawing or logging too? Who is doing the loading and off-bearing? What MHE is available and who is running it. What are you doing about the side lumber? What species wood is involved? I assume you will be running your buddy's LT50 if I read the text correctly. Are you just sawing at one central location or are you going to have to move the mill around to different log landings?
I'm thinking if the logs average 10' each that is 210 logs if you were just boxing the heart on 10-12 inch diameter logs. For multiple 6X6's from a single log I'm thinking 5 per log but that would require something like nearly 30" SED logs. If you just sawed 30 of the smaller logs/day you'd finish in a week if someone else is providing loading and off-bearing which should be a piece of cake with an LT50. If you're doing the logging that could be quite a chore and I figure you can draw on your mushroom log experience for the amount of time and work involved.
Good luck but be warned - sawing with an LT50 has been found to be highly addictive. I sawed on one less than an hour one time and I still wake up in a cold sweat sometimes and I typically already saw on a hydraulic mill. Good luck.
Your going to have to wait for answers on these Howard, its just a sawing job with a tail gunner and MTE, logs brought to me.
I overslept and need to get on the road to the pig roast, if you wanna take a run up, we can talk about it at length. I gotta fly, see you on the other side.
Safe travels Tom and everyone else as well!
Well the pig roast was a blast as I have well documented in other threads. We got home late Monday and I spent yesterday getting over that driver's hangover and unpacking. I was tickled that I could do that drive without pain after the 5 hour mark because I haven't been able to do that in more than 20 years. Usually the 5-6 hour mark my back starts screaming but this time, no issues at all. I thank my Chiro Doc for that, he has fixed me up well. Zero issues and I was sure that was not possible, but I was wrong.
So today I followed up on that contract milling job. The order has been reduced to 1,700 linear feet of 6x6's. I went down and spent a couple of hours learning the mill (an LT50 Wide), controls, doo-dads and what-not. We milled up a 6x6 as we went through everything, hit a couple of nails, did a blade change, I played a lot with manipulating the log or cant with the hydraulics which are all new to me. I noticed a few things here and there that seemed out of whack and when I asked the answer was the same "I have the new parts, but just haven't had time to do it". Yeah, this is why I think he wants me down there. He knows that stuff will make me nuts and I will just fix it. ;D Everything is working fine, but some adjustments and replacements are needed (bent debarker blade, mis-alignment on the debarker a little bit and some other odds and ends and there is some kind of issue with the swing motor on the debarker that WM sent a replacement motor for with a brake). If I get through the job I will take a half day and fix all that stuff, it's really easy. We went through blade replacement (after we hit the 3rd nail) and I am comfortable with the manual operation in general. But, as a very wise man advised me just a few days ago, the Accuset2 is another thing. (MM was right ;D) That will take some time. We left it where I will go over in the morning alone and work through a few logs by myself, I figure that's a good way to figure out what I missed. Then we will hit it as a team (2 of us, maybe 3). I think I am getting an off-loader and I will have a log loader sporadically. Can't work over the weekend, they have their big annual party and we'll be there. Maybe a little on Sunday, weather permitting if I feel like it. We have about a week and a half to make the order and with a slow guy like me I am a little concerned about that. I know a good guy like MM could probably knock this out in a short day but there are so many ways to crash this rig, especially with that accuset that I am going to just have to take my time and make good wood, even if I have to do it all manual. One good thing is that he needs as many 4/4 jacket boards as I can make while bringing in the cant size and I don't really have to edge them unless I want to because he just got an edger. He needs tons of 4/4 for roof decking on his new shop extension. It's a big roof. :D
So I guess I'll learn something about this lt50 and have access to it if I need to do some of my own logs and I might finally get some bobcat time moving logs, never done that. He also had a brand spanking new Kubota skid steer with only 100 hours on it or so. Seems a dealer dropped it off for him to try out. It has everything, hi-flow hydraulics, air conditioning, stereo, backup camera, and stuff I don't even understand. Screens and joysticks. :D
Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Lets see what happens.
Quick update: Remember the Mushroom log Schooner project? Well one of the articles I was interviewed for just hit the press. I thought it was nicely written.
Building an Alternative Supply Chain for Shiitake Mushroom Growers | Civil Eats (https://civileats.com/2021/08/11/building-an-alternative-supply-chain-for-shiitake-mushroom-growers/)
I am a little preplexed to hear that I have a 'gruff New York accent' but I guess that's better than running a 'board smoother'. :D
Some of you folks know me now, be honest, do I have a 'gruff new york accent'? Really? No offense taken and I have been accused of a lot of tings, but 'gruff' is a new one for me. :D
Tom,
Nice article. Sorry about your sore throat. :D
I'm excited to see your LT50 contract sawing come to pass. One feature I saw on the LT50/Accuset I could see being useful is the blade up. I envision if I were sawing I'd drop the blade to my first face to get my 6" cut (Maybe 10-11 inches or such), set the drop setting (say 1-1/8" for 1" side lumber) then hit blade up till I figured I had as small a board as I'd want to keep, saw then just hit blade down till I got to my original mark, rotate 180 degrees, start on my 6" mark then come up till I found my starting point, saw, drop, saw, drop, etc. till I hit the 6" mark, rotate 90 degrees and repeat the whole process. There may be an easier way but without knowing it I'd start there. Good luck. Keep us posted on the progress.
Yeah um, no sore throat here, just somebodies perception. Maybe that's his perception of a slightly backwoods accent, I have no idea. But I did ask him about that comment a few minutes ago, lets see what he says. :D
Yeah, that accuset thing, for the moment, appears to me to have been the work of the devil and a well meaning but un-named co-conspirator. ;D. It will do things you didn't anticipate fast enough, and it will do them quickly. Yeah, blade up is nice, but don't hit blade down until you clear the log or very bad things will happen. That's why the debarker blade was bent and the right blade guide and arm had been ripped off during the owners learning curve.
So I am going to break this into two parts. Learn to operate the mill manually using all the hydraulics first and just the 4/4 presets on the accuset (every time you hit blade down, it goes 4/4 plus kerf). Getting used to the toe boards (and putting the dang things back down) working the clamp to flip the cant, separate the filtches, then collect them again for edging, dealing with the drag back, and all that stuff will be tough enough to get 'adequate' at. Then when I have that nailed, if I haven't finished the job, I will start looking into the accuset. 50 years of running all different kinds of computerized machines has taught me the best way is to get the basics nailed before you move on to the fancy stuff. Too many guys skip the fundamentals to rush into the bells and whistles stuff. I can't learn that way, its just me.
I am almost sure I am going to have a boo-boo at some point and I am just trying to put it off for as long as possible. When I sat down with Lynn to talk this through on Saturday he offered me some thoughts here and there but mostly he said "you can handle this, you will do fine" but then he added "now that accuset2, well for that you are on your own". I didn't know what that meant at the time, but now I am getting an idea. :D
Hey, it's a little adventure and tomorrow is another day, right?
Tom,
Its all like learning to drive a stick shift up hill and making a left turn at the same time. It seems overwhelming at first then it all becomes second nature and automatic.
Take pride in your accent Tom! We got interesting sounding accents in NS too lol
Tom, you've got a lot less pronounced NewYork accent than my southern accent I'm sure. Go with it, I had absolutely NO problems with understanding anything that you said to me when I met you at the PR. Besides, if people don't like it, sucks to be them!!!
Yeah, but the thing is...I don't have an accent! DO I? Well maybe, I dunno. I just never thought I had one. Maybe I have to get used to that idea now?
I mentioned that statement to the writer and he wrote back and apologized saying he intended it to be an endearing comment and would change it if I wanted. I told him to leave it as written, no harm done and a good chuckle. But really, the definition of 'Gruff"
Definition of gruff
(Entry 1 of 2)
1: rough, brusque, or stern in manner, speech, or aspecta gruff reply
2: being deep and harsh : HOARSE (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hoarse)a gruff voice
It just surprised me is all. I thought I was rather jovial and friendly during the interview. I guess he was trying to paint a picture that I was some typical roughened up logger. I am neither roughened up, nor a real logger, but I guess it makes good press. Just like a board smoother. :D
for the record, everyone has an accent except for people from Kansas. (middle of the country, all averaged out). I had one for a while when I lived in NY. coffee, and Albany, had different prolonged vowel sounds. I think @Magicman (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=10011) and dear Miss Pat, had a little accent, but not as bad.. I mean as good as yours. :D
Its probably just a carryover from Great Grandpa Eric. :D
I am sure glad I ain't never had no accent nor nothin.
Doc,
Festus used to talk normal till he got to Dodge City. 'Nuff said!
West Virginia? No way you don't have some kind accent lol my least favourite accents are the french mixed accents probably(sorry maritime acadians lol ) it sounds sort of like they're drunk and slurring words together
HK,
Remember I was not raised in WV - I was nearly 40 y/o when we moved here and of course in N. Florida we had no accent.
My most difficult accent to follow were the Scots and Welch and some of the Irish with that heavy brogue.
In Norway I don't know if it was just the language or the accents of the people there so I understand Tom having some difficulties to overcome. :D Remember the Sykhus (Sick house) is the hospital, Radhus (red house) is the courthouse equivalent, and parkering is parking. ???
Tom, im bad about not detecting minor 'merican accents. It's the influence of other languages that make it hard for ME to understand. Like my sociology prof said (WVSawmiller) plain midwestern vanilla is easy to understand (and kinda boring) but I had ZERO problems understanding you. I thought that you were great to talk to. No accent detected really. It's usually mine that people have a problem with. But it's like I said when I posted to you earlier, it their problem, not mine. I try to speak clearly, but I grew up around a very hard of hearing father, so I don't mind repeating myself. And folks, remember to just slow down and take the time necessary to speak clearly, there is no need for increasing the volume (mostly 🤦🏻)! I dealt with so many customers in my day in the automotive parts world that I just take it in stride and never notice much of it anyway. Keep on keeping on!!!
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on August 12, 2021, 09:37:36 AM
Its probably just a carryover from Great Grandpa Eric. :D
I am sure glad I ain't never had no accent nor nothin.
Doc,
Festus used to talk normal till he got to Dodge City. 'Nuff said!
Now lissen here
Matthew Howard...
Hehehe
That article was cool OGH! I read the "gruff" as the article writer calling you a "real man!"
I like the idea of that organization tracking the logs and mushroom growth all over the city to see how it goes. I'm not a great data analyst but it'd be neat to see all the comparative growing methods and their results.
I'll also contend, though I've never been in the log seller or mushroom growing market, that even 5 buck logs aren't your selling point. The article claimed 12-20 bucks a pound for those mushrooms, but with the story that goes with them they should be selling to high-end grocers for more. 6 bucks, for all the work you did, still seems cheap. I'd be curious if you could talk some of those city slicker, weekend warriors that you've mentioned invading your neighborhood into interning with you, in trade for some knowledge of how to safely navigate the woods and felling trees. It seems like, as time goes on, we'll have more and more people moving to mini-farms that could really use a lot of that kind of info and while maybe the number of participants wouldn't be super high, with your credentials, I'd bet you can find a few skinny hipsters who want to bulk up, naturally. If you can't beat them join 'em (or get them to join you, and teach them properly how to do things!)
Quote from: aigheadish on August 12, 2021, 02:02:53 PM
That article was cool OGH! I read the "gruff" as the article writer calling you a "real man!"
Oh good lord, I am glad he didn't use that term. I know real men, and I ain't what I would consider one of them. I just keep trying. Yeah, he mighta coulda thunk on that one a bit more, but whatever. At least he didn't mis-quote me. I used to get mis-quoted all the time when I spoke at public hearings and such, so I took to printing out my remarks and bringing copies to hand to the press. Problem solved AND they wound up printing a lot more of my message as a result.
But, I still maintain that I have no accent. ;D On the subject of difficult accents to understand, for me, it would be the deep Scottish accent and also the heavy downeast (Mainer) accent. That's a lot of work for me. :D
-----
Today I went back down to my friends mill after waiting out some morning sprinkles and got 3 hours of quiet time alone to work things out in my head at a slow pace so maybe I can 'get it'. There were 3 logs queued up and I had a rocky start. Seems I did not have a sure enough hand on that forward feed and it stopped 18" short of the end. Turned out I just had to up the feedrate pot a little, but I didn't figure that out and wasted time backing out, checking everything for obstructions, and generally second guessing myself to death. I tried moving the log closer up to the head which was stupid, then had to mess around with rotating it to realign to the original cut and go a little lower. When I figured out that the feedrate pot was touchy, that problem went away. Then I could not get the debarker running and finally gave up trying. No, I did not check the breaker, I forgot that detail. Dang it.
Anyway I worked through that log and took a bunch of 4/4 off it and the final 6x6 was really nice with a centered pith. I spent a lot of time working out the controls in my head trying to get to where I don't need to look at which joystick is which. I am getting there but it's slow. I quickly gave up on the drag back, opting to pull the boards by hand. I had some issues with the accuset presets but that was all operator error and I think I have it figured out now. I am deathly afraid of crashing this mill and breaking something, so I would prefer to do some stuff the slow way until I can get my questions answered. I need to discover what I don't know, then get those questions answered and move forward. Now that I am working with hydraulic toe boards I need to remember to keep the dang things DOWN when not in use, that caught my once, but I* only had to take a LOOOONG wedge out about 0- 3/8 thick. Still they seem to creep up on their own sometimes. ;D ;D
SO I did 3 logs in about 3 hours. The goal was to learn, not to produce. I think I made some headway and I have a tiny glimmer of minor confidence in the basics. I will add more as I go.
There are some things I would change about the setup, but that can come down the road a bit. The slabs are in a bad spot and I need some better bunks for flat stacking. But it's a little tight in there. Sawdust is an issue also and we have to get some of that taken out. Here's the general setup I am working with:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210812_112001248_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1628804943)
You can see on the right side of the mill the sawdust hits to rock face wall and has no place to go. It's probably 5' tall and sloped into the side of the mill. It is a nice setup up overall with a roof covering, but the sun is on my back after about noon. You can also see logs piles everywhere.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210812_121014925_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1628804960)
So I finished up my practice logs by noon or a little later and the heat index was pretty high. As I was leaving, 'the boss' was coming in to check on me, so I had to back up 300' so we could pass each other. He saw I got those logs done and asked "so what are you doing now?" I didn't think, and I said, 'well until I have more logs, I guess nothing'. He says he is on his way out to woodland valley to do a 'quick' emergency septic repair, did I want to come and give him a hand. Without thinking I said, "sure, why not?" (I did something dumb today) SO I dropped my truck at my house and he picked me up when he went by. He had some pipe and the mini-mini-excavator on the trailer. We stopped to get a sandwich and some fittings along the 1/2 hour drive. I found out this plumber was called in to clear the line and he hit a hard block. Something wrong with the pipe, maybe a collapse. We get there, no homeowner and no plumber. Pretty sure we had the right house when we found the open septic tank. But we had to figure it out. Well whoever put in that tank liked to use 45's... a lot. The house was built on dry laid stone, about 12" off the ground and we can barely figure out where the pipe comes out (the vent, it turned out, as 10' from where the pipe exited the 'foundation') so we did some exploratory holes and finally got the line and traced it to the wall then uncovered and found that where the original clay pipe was joined to the newer PVC pipe, it has settled in and pulled apart (no fill under the pipe, leaving a gap). It was a cluster of joints and fernco fittings and short pieces of every thing. So we ripped it all out, checked the pitch because it looked funky, but turned out to be good. We redid it all with proper fittings and joints and added a cleanout. We flushed it and checked the flow, all good. So we covered it up, put all the garden hoses back in order we had to remove (wow, lots of hose to water their lawn!) which was complicated with some kind of automated timer thingy. Loaded up the tools and got back on the road. 3 hours baking in the sun on a 96° day. Not what I had planned for today. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210812_142354843.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1628804983)
I was supposed to help my buddy go pickup his 3 half kegs of beer for his big party this weekend, but after he dropped me off and got home he had another client call and he is off to look at their 'emergency' before he heads to the beer dock and other errands. I told him I would tap the kegs for him tomorrow night after he gets all the lines sanitized and the kegs have calmed down. ;D Hey that's what friends do right? They help each other out and he needs to know I am here for him. :D (Gruff though I might be.)
I still have no idea how I went from being a contract sawyer to septic guy in the space of a few hours.
Tom,
I was waiting for the punchline where at the end of the drain repair/renovation you were going to tell us it was the wrong house. ::) Kind of like digging out the wrong car after a bad snowstorm. :D Anyway i am glad you guys got it all fixed.
Sounds like you made a good start on the sawmilling and learning about the new machine. You may bend it a little but it will be hard to break. I don't know what you will come up with on the set up mods. Maybe you can borrow Brandi's huge fan and stay cool and blow that excess sawdust out at the the same time. ;D I can't comment on the dragback as I have never used one. Did you use the toeboards and push them off the end? I did that last week cutting big posts and beams and when we were doing the cabin job. I wish I'd insisted on doing more. I lifted the cabin logs as high as possible on the toeboards and the customer slid the forks under, lifted and removed them but she missed and stretched my chain a time or two which I am sure is contributing to my current power feed problem. Anyway, like your job, I was learning a new technique and next time will be different.
Todd,
Your comments reminded me of all the times I saw American's speaking to other nationalities who did not speak English. When they realized this they would speak louder and slower. Unfortunately that still did not teach the listener English and they still could not understand. :D You can speak Japanese or Urdu to me as loud and as slowly as you like and I an still not going to understand either. :D But it is funny to sit back and watch.
I think of it as talking to my wife's dogs. Have an example with you when you say NO! But that's how "I" have learned what little Spanish that I have.
Tom, a tip Jake (customsawyer) gave me when I went from manual to hydraulic was to lower the toe boards each time you turn a log as your first step/motion even if they are not even raised. It becomes instinctual after a while. Think of it as always the first step in turning a log each and every time.
Quote from: WDH on August 13, 2021, 10:24:40 AM
Tom, a tip Jake (customsawyer) gave me when I went from manual to hydraulic was to lower the toe boards each time you turn a log as your first step/motion even if they are not even raised. It becomes instinctual after a while. Think of it as always the first step in turning a log each and every time.
Funny, but after the first boo-boo I kind of got in that habit of making sure the boards were down at the same time I checked that the clamp and stops were low enough. Not the same step in the process, but a step none the less, and yes, I quickly fell in the habit of pushing both handles down on every log turn. I caught and saved myself several times doing that. Making it the first step might be the better way to go, but I am still working on consistent habits. It just takes time and focus. Thanks for the tip, good to know I am on the right track.
Looks to me you have picked up a part time retirement job, that ought to pay all right.. ;)
Looking at those pictures I think I'd move the mill over about 2' to the outside to give me more room to move the sawdust and such. I assume you have a stationary control panel because you sure aren't walking beside the mill like I do. Not with that sawdust pile blocking the access.
Did the breaker on the debarker solve your problem? I've broken/pulled free a wire on mine a time or two and to test you can turn the debarker on, set the speed control all the way to the left so the head does not move then start testing connections. WARNING - if this is the problem and you make a connection the debarker will spin so stay clear of the blade during such testing.
The debarker breaker will trip when it gets into too much of a bind such as running over a protruding knot or with increasing flare when the big end of the log is at the far end so you need to feather it out a little as you move down the log in such cases to keep the tension down. You just want the blade to lightly kiss the bark. Good luck.
I didn't get back down there yet to look at it, waiting for more logs, but today we are going down for his big annual party, so I might sneak over to the mill and check it. I see that the issue I had with the feedrate pot may not be unique to me. ;D Apparently you are thinking you may have had the same issue with your 'forward feed problem'?
I can't move that mill. He has it where he wants it to allow for a stack of logs on the concrete slab ready to load. But I agree, a couple more feet would be a big help. I just have to wait for the right time to broach the subject. There are plans to re-do the drainage in the spot next to the mill to prevent the flooding during heavy events, then we can see about other adjustments. Last week's rain had all the wood floating around that slab. His problem is no time to do these simple fixes. Perhaps if I learned how to operate a skid steer and mini-ex I could get some of it done for him. He has all the materials in the yard: culvert pipe, gravel, sand, stone, etc. Just take the time and do it. With 80 acres, the mill, septic business, the logging, arborist work, the shop, his rental properties, and the trucks to take care of the guy just has no time. He just got an edger and also has a slabmizer with no time or people to run them. He got a LT15 just to do long beams which he ordered last summer, was available in late April and he only picked up 3 weeks ago. No time to pour the slab and put it together.
The shed looks nice but the layout looks unfriendly to me especially since I normally offload my slabs and edgings off the operator side and throw them on the other side of the sawdust. In fact now I park the tractor with FEL there and unload directly on the forks.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/IMG_2705~2.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1628946598)
This layout looks too confining and awkward with a lot of extra/non-productive steps required, especially if you are working alone. It looks to me like you have to cut the slab, stop, walk around the front of the mill to take it off since the sawdust on the operators side won't let you access it from there. What has been the process for sawdust removal in the past? Is somebody shoveling or vacuuming it out? There is not enough space to run piece of equipment with a bucket or blade to remove it. Is there a non-functioning vacuum or blower system that should be removing it? It does not look like somebody has been "taking steps to prevent steps" here. It looks to me like you have a finely tuned, high performance machine with the training wheels still left on it. If the guy wanted me to run it he'd have to agree to make some changes to allow me to be more productive. Good luck.
Well there are some natural restrictions/obstructions you can't see in just those photos. Rock wall 30' striaght up on one side, road on the other, log piles everywhere else. The kind of stuff where if you were standing there you would say "OH yeah, I see why you had to do that now. Not great, but it will work". Also, when he built this 8 years ago, he didn't own the property on the other side of the road, and now he does which changes the options. quite a bit. Certainly not the best and improvements could and will be made, but he (I think) wants me to spearhead them and I am not sure if I am ready to jump in.
Take your time make the changes as you can, remember all of them can be changed again down the road. Sounds like a great excuse for you to be proficient with a skid steer and a mini excavator, you won't break stuff by abusing it (stuff breaks anyway). You also have a clue and resources to ask.
Hook up to the mill, pull it out of there. Clean up the sawdust pile and put the mill back.
Then put a sawdust removal plan in place. Half-hour job.
Careful when you do decide to move the mill. Packing up/setting up many established ways to break something you won't have to invent new ones.
Ps follow preparing mill for travel and setting up instruction sequences in manual as well as your common sense. Being surprised by unexpected head movement and its weight consequences are the big things.
Yeah well I know he wants to get me into his 'adopt a sawmill program' in the worst way. He only has a couple of guys he can send on other work and know they will get it done. None of them have any skills on the mill/lumber/woodworking side and even though I consider my skills low on that score, they are more than he has seen in anyone else. Plus he trusts me, having known me since he was 12. I just think it's a slippery slope and I have to be cautious. I don't mind picking up some new skills though. ;D
But today is not for that, its a party day so I hope it doesn't come up. This morning I went fishing with my son and just one grandson (the others are off on a different adventure). We tried out the boat he just bought and put in the reservoir while we were at the pig roast. Not a lot of luck, but my son got one nice 16" small mouth, so there was some activity. I had one good hit but lost him early on, never saw him. Overcast but hot, about 80° with almost no wind.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210814_150008.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1628968377)
Technology sure has changed. My son pulled this depth finder out of his backpack. Tiny thing, throw the transponder in the water and Bob's your uncle. Geez, my portable is a mini-suitcase.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210814_113901368.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1628968593)
Anyway, we had a good time, I think.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210814_114716540_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1628968590)
We (I) lost track of time and we quit around 2. I shot home, grabbed a shower (felt really good!) and made a sammich. Just getting ready to head down to the party in another half hour or so.
TT is right - Yeah I think you're going to have to do a lot of digging or vacuuming just to get to the landing gear to raise them to move the mill and be sure the hydraulics are collapsed and clear of the ground - especially the moveable clamp which is the lowest one on my mill I have to watch for. That much sawdust can't be good on the mill with the chain and the hydraulics buried in it.
Good looking shots on the lake. You don't have to catch a lot of big fish to have a good time making memories with the kids and grandkids.
Just a short update because I am pooped out, need to get cleaned up and into bed. I am getting better at learning the details of running this mill except for the breakers that pop for seemingly no reason at all, I am learning my way around. Considering I have less that a week on the mill I think I am doing OK. (I ain't boke nuttin' yet.) I do wish that Wood-mizer would put blinking strobes on the machine to let you know when the toe boards are up because I am making too many mistakes with them, forget about that debarker light put an alert on the dang toe boards!. Mostly I wind up shaving off a very long shim to correct my mistake, but I did mess up one cant and that has me pretty ticked at myself. Too many things are too easy on this machine (I know, that's the idea, but...) and there is a lot to keep track of that I am used to doing with my hands. It's my problem, not the mills, I know that. I broke my first blade today, EVER on any mill, so that was interesting. It was shot, but still, BAMMM!
I also had my first tail gunner today, which was very nice. He handled all the sideboards and slabs, and fed the log loader, but I gave him a hand with the 6x6's and he learned a little about how a mill works and what is going on. I tried to get him to remind me when a toe board was up, but it was hit and miss, he did save my butt once. Baby steps. A complete newbie, but he knows his safety and he never moved on something until I gave him a nod, then he was right there. Can't ask for better than that. He has to learn how the mill runs too and what I am doing. So I took a little time to explain some of it.
I am getting comfortable with the accuset II and trust it (a bit) now. (See Lynn, that wasn't so bad ;D). It did take 3 days of operation before I trusted it because it wasn't working when I thought it should until I figured out exactly how and WHEN it worked (when to engage and disengage). Programs, menus, and all that are still a little confusing, but it's just a PLC with ladder logic and I can figure that out and am getting better, its just a few more button pushes to find it. Fortunately I am so used to running the numbers in my head, that when it went sideways I could revert to my head math fairly easily.
My only remaining hurdle (in my head) is cutting speed (feedrate). I am still thinking in manual push speeds. The owner runs this thing twice as fast as I do and that's probably where I am lagging. I just want flat cuts and don't want to blow up a blade. I haven't yet got the trust the lube system, sometimes the blade gets loaded and I have to do a flushing cut to clean it.
At the end of today we talked it through and it became clear the customer has a really hard date on Friday for his 1300 linear feet. We (I) am at about 300 feet, mostly because of my learning curve and slower feed rates, I think, plus small logs that I only get one 6x6 out of and a bunch of 4/4 x 6. I am focused on using all of the log instead of just the 'order'. I don't want to throw a lot into firewood slabs, you can only use so much campfire wood. I don't think we can make the order by Friday unless he starts feeding me logs bigger than 14". A LOT of them. I spend a lot of time on a single 6x6 taking jacket boards and carrying them along to finish up 1 x 6's along with the 6x6. Yeah, I get a lot of his 4/4 lumber done for his shop roof sheathing, but that's not the order lumber.
I have to take the wife on the monthly food shopping in the morning, then down to the mill by noon. The 'boss' plans on using that time to clear up the mill area and do a reset for easier production as well as loading us up some better producing logs. I see some long days ahead, but we will put a dent in this. Actually today was a long day, but ZI lost half of it to getting the dang mill running. I got home at 6:30 and the wife was wondering if we quit early and were sitting around drinking beer. No, not hardly. >:(
Time for bed, tomorrow is another day.
OH and Happy Birthday Howard!
Tom,
Thanks.
What did you do about the sawdust pile?
Howard, OGH used it for one of your composting toilets ;D
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on August 18, 2021, 09:46:09 PM
Tom,
Thanks.
What did you do about the sawdust pile?
I did a lot of scraping and digging this morning whilst I was contemplating the aforementioned stoppage of productive work. ;D There is more to do, and we are now agreed we need a more better working solution going forward, but we have to get through this job first. So grunt work is the order of the day. Keep it moving.
Good progress! As you know, it takes time to learn a new machine and process. You will get faster, keep chugging!
Well yesterday I lost half a day to the food shopping with the wife, but I hit it hard when I arrived before noon determined to make better time. I was doing 'fair' and around 3 the tailgunner showed up and we really started moving at a good pace. Best production day so far but still far behind the goal of 1300 linear feet. I need bigger logs. I only worked about 6.5 hours but the humidity never dropped below 90% and my t-shirt weighed about 2 pounds. I quit at nearly 6pm only because I was just shot and my thinking skills were going out the window. Some of those logs were water soaked and weighed a ton just as 6x6 cants. I am getting much better at handling the jacket boards and milling them against the cant as I go, so there was a very neat pile of 1x6's ready to nail on a roof when I was done.
I am told the customer is getting vocal about his deadline and will push it until Monday, but he has to have it all then. We have just under 500 linear feet down so far. I am headed back in a few minutes to get an early jump and see if I can do a long day. I am not sure how we are going to make this, but I sure will try.
It would seem to me that 500 linear feet would be a good start to any project, unless you have an army of minions at your disposal, you would struggle to use that much in a day. The only reason to be ouchy about a deadline like that may be linked to transportation of the product to the point of use. Good luck hope you have a productive day!
Well, just a quick update, had a pretty good day, nothing broke (OK, I blew up one blade with a bunch of miles on it because I got the handles mixed up for a micro second and that was all it took). I am starting to get in a groove of sorts and getting my feedrates up, also getting a little better at planning logs so there are almost no extra flips involved. Lastly, I got some bigger logs today. So we got over 250 linear feet done which brings us to around 725 total. Loaded on the truck for delivery tomorrow morning.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210820_174127095.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1629501614)
I had a tailgunner all day and 'the boss' was very attentive with the skidsteer bringing logs before we ran out, pulling slabs out, and removing the product and loading the truck. That also helped a lot. Here is a partial of todays work before it got loaded, also a bunch of 1x6's that I am making from the jacket boards as I go along, these will go on the shop roof for sheathing. The guys went up and nailed some more down after we quit tonight and invited me to 'play' too, but I was shot and 2 story work (actually 3) is no longer my bag. ;D ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210820_135950095_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1629501626)
So half the order is done, but I don't have much more time available. I have to teach "an instructor' how to teach the class I had taught for 3 years, because he doesn't understand the material or know how to teach the information. But he is 'qualified' to teach an accredited course and I am not. So they are paying me to teach him the material. Not sure what planet this makes sense on, but that's what I am doing Sunday, and Saturday I need the afternoon to pull all my tools out and set up to teach this 'fella'. So I will start early again tomorrow and work until early afternoon, then come home and set up the shop.
When I stop milling the boss will take over and he pushes things a lot faster than I dare, and will make very good time. I am getting used to this LT50 and the accuset2. The 'board down' and the 'mill to bed' features or whatever they are properly called are really neat and you can save a lot of time with them. Blades changes are not fun, but I have yet to see a mill where they were. All in all, I have yet to come up on something (so far) that the mill can't handle or slows me down to figure it out. I am also getting more confident with the controls and that saves time too.
Tomorrow is another today. I am pooped.
Tom,
I think most of us have bumped the up or down lever and done the same thing to a blade or two. Some of us will even admit it so don't feel alone. Payin' your dues man, payin' your dues! Let us know when you forget and roll a log completely across the mill because you forgot to raise a side support. :D
If you ever see an LT35 (and I understand an LT70 has the same feature) you will be a happy blade changer. They have hinged blade guards and you just swing them open to access the blade then close them when done. A piece of cake! I am sure there is a good engineering explanation why the others don't offer that feature but I don't know what it is.
Your teach the teacher reminds me years ago they opened a new HS here. They had a photo lab but were not going to offer photography classes. My wife is an experienced free lance photographer and she saw a friend of ours who was a school board member at the time and she told him "They have a photo lab and I offered to teach the class but they won't let me and the kids want it." A week or so later the school superintendent told her to get her lesson plans together as they were going to offer photography and let her teach it. She and the kids loved it but after 2 years they took the class from her and gave it to the art teacher so they could offer it as a "Fine arts" elective instead of as a general elective as when she taught it. The art teacher did not know how to use a camera so she'd get with my wife every week and try to learn enough to teach the next week's class and she would bring her any questions the kids asked that she could not answer.
Stay safe and keep squaring up them logs.
'Them what can, do. Then what can't, teach" your wife's story, and mine, tell me where that phrase comes from. It's BS and why our school systems are producing what they are producing. That's all I got to say about that.
As far as the mill goes, yeah, I know these are rou8tine issues for me. I have been reading about these for years here, so when I do it, I know I am not alone, those much better than I have proceeded me. ;D ;D
In fact what I learned here form reading about mills I never thought I would have my hands on played a large part in cutting my learning curve down by a significant amount. I can't pin down any particulars but there were many little things that happened where I would think "Oh yeah, don't do it that way, bad idea, do it this way". Had I not been reading all the stuff here I would have really been lost.
As I explained to my young tail gunner today, the only difference between a manual mill and a hydraulic mill is that you can make a lot more scrap faster if you don't know what you are doing, plus you can make some really spectacular mistakes in an instant, but on a manual that is hard to do. :)
OG, you left out the "those that can't teach, teach teachers."
And those that can't do any of the above go into politics and tell everybody else what to do. ::) :( :-\
Well I only worked a half day today because I need to get home and ready the shop for teaching the teacher tomorrow. I felt bad not getting it done. I had overslept this morning and had to skip breakfast and only just got there at 7:45. My tailgunner was already there cleaning up and raking out sawdust. I like this kid. My brain wasn't working as well as I would like, I don't know why, I was just 'off'. But we gave it a good shot and were rolling along until those dang toe boards, which I thought I was finally getting used to checking 'all' the time, jumped up when I wasn't looking and I lost 3 out of 4 6x6's from one cant. We put those on the side and he may sell em anyway, but they didn't meet my grade.
We got about 270 linear feet done (810 BF) which seems good for me in 5 hours. It was hot. I smashed a finger twice, once was my own dang fault and the other time I had help. ;D Then I slipped in the mud and went down right in it and was covered. That's why they call them 'work pants'. I am going to have to hang them on the fence and hose em off. Full of mud and gravel still. Didn't even wear them into the house.
SO the tally at this point looks like just about 1,000 feet, which leaves 300 for him to finish up today and tomorrow. Very do-able for him. I am sure he will load bigger logs for himself and get 4 per log.
Time to change gears.
Tom,
Four per log scares me because that sounds like you are planning on splitting the pith. Is that the case? I did that for a customer with a campground who was using them for timber framing and told me he did not care how much they curved so I sawed him a demo and sure enough it just about crawled off the mill by itself but the customer saw it and said it was fine for his purposes so I sawed the rest like that for him. I prefer one or 5 or sometimes 3 if the log is too oval shaped.
One log I got 6 off of. The client is using these for bunking under some kind of heavy equipment or some other big delivery he is getting. Doesn't really care. one he unpcks and sets the equiment he will get rid of these timbers. I pointed that out and explained my attack on a log to the 'boss' but he said 'send it, it doesn't matter, they're just bunking'. "OK". Wane is pretty much the same thing. I do what the boss man tells me.
The boss never did come back "in an hour" like he said and when he left at 10 and no milling got done after I left. I ran into him at a yard sale (3 hours later) when I went out to the store (got m'self a nice pair of STIHL suspenders!) and he is talking about me finishing up the order on Monday now. I am concerned about all this rain they say is coming. That mill area is going to be a mess, there are already 6" deep puddles in front of the deck and the mud is 4" deep where we are stacking product (up on slabs). If it were me, I would have hammered it out today, tonight, and tomorrow morning and be done. But I don't have the time right now.
Well I spent the day teaching the teacher yesterday. I think it went well. I'll be curious to see how his class goes. A little concerning that he never had hands on any of the inspection tools or surface plate. He wanted to borrow my stuff for his class, but I declined. ;D "In this world there are two things dear to life, a man's tools and a man's wife. You don't ask to borrow my tools, and I won't ask to borrow your wife." :D
It was an easy 400 bucks. :)
After he left I called the boss to see if he had worked at the mill which I strongly suggested given the rain coming in. He had, and was just finished with the order before the rain got heavy. He picked me up when he went by and I took a ride with him to deliver the balance down at the power plant. Impressive operation. It started raining hard on the way back and he asked the wife and I to join his family for dinner. So he dropped me off and I grabbed the wife and an empty growler and we went on down. We had great pork kabob dinner with corn and a lovely evening shooting the breeze and got home fairly late (with a full growler to go :D).
I slept in this morning after a long week. It rained steady all night and through the morning. We have around 4" total from the storm so far. Today is house cleaning day. My buddy is driving up from Kentucky for this weekend's music fest. He'll be staying with us for a few nights until we both move over to the site for the weekend. Wednesday we'll kick around a bit and check in at the site at some point. Thursday a little more work there, then Friday we move over for the duration. I should get the lawn mowed this week, assuming it dries up. We have the wedding the following weekend.
Back to cleaning.
If it's house cleaning then it's usually LESS than fun. If you are cleaning your equipment, then you can see the positive outcome that it will have on your work, because you've been there before!
Either way smiley_big_grin3
Yeah, it was house cleaning but we were (over)due anyway. We got it done an hour or so before my friend Jerry arrived from KY. We had a great time catching up and visiting. It's been 2 longs years and we were working our first festival together for just as long. He does sound lighting, camera work or whatever and I sit around and take care of whatever boo-boos happen during the event. We both help with setup and teardown of whatever else happens Jerry plays good bass and a pretty good 12 string after hours. :)
Jerry moved over to the site full time on Thursday and I went over on Friday for the duration. Nice event, family centric with lots of little kids running around and some good music all weekend. Considering all the changes we had to make for COVID concerns, it came off pretty well. The crowd was slightly smaller, but not a lot. Instead of the two stages we normally use with full sound and lighting on both, we went to one and did a single mic setup. It was a little challenging for the performers to adjust their set lists but they all seemed to enjoy the opportunity for 'something different for a change'. I enjoyed watching how the artists dealt with it. It's not easy if you are not practiced.
Anyway, it was an easy weekend with a lot of sweat as usual. We had no serious medical stuff to deal with and I only had 3 or 4 patients I did follow up work with to see how they were doing. All was well. Shut down was the usual mass of work bouncing from one thing to the next. I finally ran out of steam around 8pm and headed home. Jerry had left the site at 6am and I got a text that he arrived home just before I got home, so 14 hours on the road for him.
It was kind of nice that I didn't have to empty the truck and get to work today because I am retired. 8) SO I spent some time catching up with the wife then went to bed to try and get back some of the sleep I lost over the weekend. Today I lounged around and put the gear away, also nice. :)
Now a change of pace and I begin getting the yard ready for the wedding next weekend. They hired a parking guy (whom I know) to work with me and I talked with him at the festival over the weekend about the arrangements. Tomorrow I will go out and put my survey marks down where I will mark the parking spots with surveyors paint, we will cut the lawn one more time, then lay down some lines. I can easily get 40 cars in here so they can each leave when they want. Then I have to go in over flow mode. Only needed that once. For this wedding I also need a bus parking spot for unloading and turn around. That's new, but I have a plan. ;D
In between the prep work I have some log and milling business to follow up on. I got some calls during the festival I need to return. In the meantime, the work backs up. I am so far behind that I am starting to feel poorly about it. I am not sure how I can find time to make it right with a lot of folks. This balance thing is a continuous challenge. Keeping everyone happy is not easy to do.
But tomorrow is another day.
I seem to be back into lazy mode while I get back on a normal schedule after the festival. Forgot to mention in the previous post when I was over at the festival they pointed out some benches they had made from the lumber I milled for them 2 years ago.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210826_150950200.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1630584803)
(Ash, which they (shamelessly) augmented with box store doug fir for some reason.)
Tuesday I (we) did get the lawns re-cut and weed whacked a lot going back into the fringe a bit. I laid out dot marks to figure out my parking lines and get a rough number of spots I could easily put in. I came up with around 30 or so before I get into using he larger part of the lawn, so it should be easy. I spoke with the Bride/GC on this project to coordinate a little more. I also had to do some cleaning in the shop to make room to store their Porsche during the weekend (apparently there is some rule that it may not sit outside). Late in the day they sent their ATV up for storage because they needed the space for prep work in their garage (which holds 5 cars and is largely empty now). Not sure if they want the atv back for the wedding yet. I am beginning to feel like a service provider more than a helpful neighbor.
Yesterday was the rain-out we expected (over 4"). I did some desk work then headed down to the mill around 11 because I knew the boys would be having a shop day. I wanted to get a handle on what is coming up and how much time it will take. I also wanted to follow up on that motor replacement I did on the mill. Turns out it is a mid-level revision that will likely never bee documented because they have several revisions after that. The main point I took from it was that I had done the wiring correctly. Still, I'll feel better when I run it for a few hours.
I have 2 'orders' to mill. One is, I think, more 6x6's but longer at 16' and I still don't have a cut list. I believe it is more dunnage. The other is for his shop extension build, now approaching 3 (4?) years of piecework as time permitted. He is getting close to finish framing and decking the roof and wants it weathered in by the time the weather gets cold. Yesterday it was raining harder in that part of the shop than it was outside. ;D ;D He uses older equipment he is constantly rebuilding. Right now he has a dozer all apart in the main shop replacing the final drives. It takes up a lot of space. Gotta be able to use the big shop extension before the white 'stuff' comes. We need another 3,000 BF of 2x8, 12, and 14's in varying longer lengths. So there's a few days work there.
Today is sunny and 57° so a good work day, I will pick up where I left off, get more of the parking line work out of the way and follow up on other stuff. Next week after the wedding is over I can put my head down and really focus on what I have to get done. The list is long and this cool weather today is putting me in more of a 'hurry mode'.
Tom,
Are the benches for the wedding? Is the 2X8 lumber for more benches? If they are for the wedding, what are they doing with them afterwards?
Maybe that is a new sideline - bench rental for special events. I've even thought about making a bunch for that. I have a bunch of 15' LE ash slabs just stacked up waiting for use. I could add extra legs every 4' or so in line to support the extra weight. I probably should not make them over 8-10 ft long so they would fit in the back of a pick up or midsize utility trailer
I have a customer coming this afternoon wanting a custom built bench to put at the end of a bed. I told them to get the width they want and they can pick the slab and we can make it while they are here.
No, unrelated events. Those benches are at the Ashokan center where we just had the festival this past weekend. It is their standard design they have been using for decades and they are all over the campus. The lumber I am milling is for regular construction use as noted. I am not making anything more for the wedding. The milling work is unrelated to the wedding and is a mile further down the road. You are getting my jobs confused and some days so do I. ;D
I like your rental bench idea but I lack any storage space for them. For you it could be a winner.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on September 02, 2021, 10:42:07 AMbut I lack any storage space for them
Naturally weathered benches! Of coarse the rental rate is a bit higher for those.
Tom,
That's part of the problem as I am also "storage space challenged". I'm still trying to figure how to get more vertical space and also a design for standing slabs up so they are more accessible and display better. I guess I could store about 24 in a 5'X 5' X 10' space by doubling and going 3 levels high or 32 if I went 4 levels.
Shesh did you give up the milling/mushroom logging and get into the storage business ??? lol lol
Just don't let em forget and really put em to work when you need help in return :)
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on September 02, 2021, 11:24:46 AM
Tom,
That's part of the problem as I am also "storage space challenged". I'm still trying to figure how to get more vertical space and also a design for standing slabs up so they are more accessible and display better. I guess I could store about 24 in a 5'X 5' X 10' space by doubling and going 3 levels high or 32 if I went 4 levels.
Have you looked into those shelter logic garages for storing stuff? I just had to move my car into one, really weather tight, paid like 500$ CAD. Only thing I did was buy additional steel 3 ft rod to anchor it into the ground. Mine is 12x24
No but I periodically consider cutting some thin strips of wood and laminating them together to make a dome like a greenhouse.
EDIT/Add-on: Well my customers came as promised and miracles do occur. They fell in love with a simple, unfinished 4' long ash bench and bought it instead of me having to make one from scratch. Of course I already had all the tools laid out to make one and the bench was the one on the bottom. People never buy stuff off the top of the stack. ::) Anyway I was glad to sell the bench and especially to know it has a good home. ;D
Quote from: HemlockKing on September 02, 2021, 11:24:53 AM
Shesh did you give up the milling/mushroom logging and get into the storage business ??? lol lol
Just don't let em forget and really put em to work when you need help in return :)
No, this is just something I feel I need to do for neighbors. I can't put them to work on anything, I have tried several times. If I ask them just to come up for 5 minutes to give me simple lifting help it takes forever for them to show up and I usually just figure out another way. When they do show up I have to teach them the simplest things and worry about them getting hurt. I was running the splitter once and asked if he wanted to try it out for fun. He looked at it like it was going to eat him alive. The boy wears gloves when he goes into the woods (rarely) just in case he touches anything. Sorry, I just can't work with that but I did try at first. The one time I did get the father to help me place a beam 5 years ago, he said he couldn't walk right for a week. He is more than 15 years younger than me and they pay a personal trainer 2 - 3 times a week to 'keep them in shape'. I don't get it and I gave up trying. It's easier to do it myself, and quicker too.
The new "Oh, by the way..." revelation last night is that I need to park the band's tour bus here. Normally no big deal but it's a 40' bus with 12'6" clearance. my phone wire running to the house is at 12' even, so I'll have to figure that out, then come up with a way to transport their equipment down to the stage which should be easy except that I am concerned about this poorly defined 'big Hammond Organ'. If it's what I think it is, I will need some help and of course they have set everything up around the stage blocking access to back my small trailer in.
I'll be quite happy to go back down the road to the sawmill on monday. ;D
Well, since I ended my last post with a prediction, I am here to tell you it was accurate, I was very glad to be back at the mill this morning (normalcy). 8)
The wedding went great, we had plenty of room for all the cars and the bus and the bus cleared the wires after I had raised them up the other day. The driver was sharp and had no issue pulling it down the driveway across the road and making a 5 point turn to flip it around and unload, they unloaded in in less that 15 minutes and he ran it back up and backed into his spot without a second glance. He was happy to have a nice, clean, easy, and secure place to put it. He reversed the process on Sunday to load out. Easy peasey.
All the other little stuff went smooth, but kept me busy until the wedding itself started, then I could relax until around 11 when all the hired folks were packing up and heading out. I put up the preplanned lights on their long driveway then went back to the party until sometime the next morning.... ;D Sunday I laid low and cleaned up around our place a bit and put stuff away. The last cars left our lawn by 11am. I declined an offer to go mill logs Sunday. :D
I got to the mill before 9 this morning and was surprised to find SOMEBODY had finished removing the rest of the sawdust around the mill. You could see the wall and the tire and everything.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210906_085846354.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1630961241)
I started working on the 35 2x8x17' joists he needs. Sometime during the morning these 2 guys showed up to help tailgun but they were of little help. They're kind of whimpy and have no thumbs. So I sent them packing and worked alone. I don't need any chickenshoot gals hanging around just making noise.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210906_103709085_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1630961285)
I started slow because longer logs require longer thought from me and as long as the mill was relatively clean I took the time to clean out the working parts especially the umbilical chain and track and a few other things before I started. (I found those manual stops once I cleaned the machine.) I will say those 2x8's that long are fairly heavy.
I wound up with 19 of those 2x8's, so just over half what I need, before I ran out of logs on the deck. I am determined to keep it clean now and I found an electric handheld blower hidden in a crack in the rock wall, so I blew the whole mill off. Then I raked out all the new sawdust into a pile to be picked up with a bucket before he brings new logs. It looks even spiffier now than it did this morning.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210906_135916757_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1630961296)
I was on my way home by 2pm. Tomorrow is another day.
Tom,
Glad to see they tunneled in there and found the wheel still connected to the mill. I agree you need to keep it clean now. A good leaf blower should be a standard accessory on every sawmill.
Glad the wedding went off without a hitch. Well, I guess without a hitch it would not be much of a wedding.
I am sorry you ran out of logs before you finished the order. Maybe the owner will learn more about how many to leave for you in the future and you get more familiar with the mill and output increases. Some days are just faster than others anyway. Be careful hauling that heavy oak.
Sorry about the help or lack thereof. I sawed Friday with a guy who provides the logs and helps me saw and he is the best help I have had. He had another good helper but he is now a no show. With the 2 of them I never had to touch a flitch or board or wait for a log on the arms. With just the owner helping I'd have to help him carry the big flitches and heavy (3X12's) boards but that did not take long or put a big strain on either of us. He provides the poplar logs and helps me saw them to customer's order then I buy them off him for half what I sell them for so we basically split the fee and it has been working great for both of us. The customer picks up their order there and he loads their trailer with is tractor.
Stay safe, keep enjoying that LT50. Are you sure you can't work out a "rent to own" plan with him?
Well he knows what I need for the order but he is searching and re-arranging his stacks for the right logs. This stuff is all pine. Usually he leaves me 6 or 8 on the deck which make for the majority of a day, but with all the cleanup time he spent on the mill over the weekend he could only pull me out (find) 3 logs @ 17'. Truthfully I was glad for just the 3. About the end there the sun was beating on my neck something fierce for a while and doing all the handling alone had me tired enough for the day. I left him a pile of sawdust to remove as well as a stack of slabs, then he'll bring more logs. Although the deck will handle 6-8 logs, those long 17 footers are a little unwieldy to work around and move alone. I only need 4 more to finish them, then I move to 2x12x10' 6" for another 90 pieces. Then we'll stuff the deck for those.
Update, as I was typing this he called me, he had just stopped by the mill and may have been a little surprised that I finished up the logs and got good yield out of them, plus I cleaned everything up and tidy when I was done. As soon as he gets time to pull the dust he will give me another load of logs. He also mentioned he may have some older stuff he forgot about already milled up. So he needs to re-count. He needs to run those through the edger to bring them down to 8", so maybe we will be running that soon too. That's currently in another location just about 30' (vertically) above the mill site by the shop.
No, I enjoy running that mill but wouldn't buy it. I am too old for expensive adventures and I don't see this point because I can already run any of my own wood or jobs through it whenever I want. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free (or very cheap)? ;D It works for both of us, he gets the work out and gets his equipment maintained properly and I get some cash, or logs, or both, however I want to work it.
I have to say I am a little surprised nobody had anything to to say about the chickens that came to help. Who is it that has the chicken thing? I thought @Southside (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24297) would had said something for sure at least.
Maybe you need to post the fowl creatures on the food thread. :D Add grits and biscuits and gravy and even more will come. ;)
Honestly I saw the "no thumbs" comment but thought your were still just complaining about poor/lazy helpers. ::)
Don't worry Tom, because all that chicken spit will take care of itself :D
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on September 06, 2021, 09:28:39 PM
Honestly I saw the "no thumbs" comment but thought your were still just complaining about poor/lazy helpers. ::)
I am thinking you didn't have your glasses on when you looked at the photo below that comment. The chickens just showed up and started walking around, over, and under the mill when I was taking a sweat break.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on September 06, 2021, 09:01:09 PM
I have to say I am a little surprised nobody had anything to to say about the chickens that came to help. Who is it that has the chicken thing? I thought @Southside (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24297) would had said something for sure at least.
They're hard to secure to the bed but can still be sawn lol
Nah, I don't want to saw those, the cleanup is worse than sawdust. ;D Besides, referring to my comment above about cows and milk it is the same with these chickens. Once a week or so I come home with a dozen or two eggs these guys produce. It's another excess commodity they produce and it's common when the boss checks on me late in the day as he is leaving he hollers out the truck window "Hey! Don't forget to stop at the house and pick up some eggs on your way out." They don't sell them, just raise for themselves and give away the extras, LOTS of extras. :) After they had their annual party I was coming home with eggs and a growler of beer every night to help get the kegs finished off. Just doing my part to help clean up. I like to be a team player.
Yep, way to take one for the team!
Never let it be said that I didn't do the least I could do. ;D
Tom,
I seem to remember an old thread on here somewhere where somebody used his mill to saw a frozen elk or hog or such in half to butcher it. As I remember he decided not to do another as it took forever to get the band wheels cleaned out and such. I think somebody even sliced a watermelon but I have not heard of any chickens coming off one yet.
Sounds to me like your mill at home may be getting a little lonesome and may get jealous and quit on you if you keep hanging around the neighbor's 50. You know sawmills have feelings too. :D
Yeah, I know. I have had 3 logs queued up there for months waiting to roll on. First it was all the rain, then other stuff happened. Now I really have to get on fire wood when I am not selling myself down the road. ;D
Yes, Southside has the chicken fixation.
Quote from: WDH on September 07, 2021, 03:00:58 PM
Yes, Southside has the chicken fixation.
ANd I have chickens on the mill and yet nothing. ???
Well, so far this has been my kind of week, I guess. Monday I was down at the mill making long 2x8's. Tuesday I finally resigned to get started on the firewood, lest I put myself in a jam. I made some good inroads on that but have a long way to go yet. Starting is the hard part. Late Tuesday afternoon I had just sat down for a sweat break and my phone rang. It was a mushroom guru who gives a lot of classes, guided mushroom walks, and grows a lot of stuff making elixirs and oils and such to sell to stores and at farmer's markets. He is growing himself a pretty nice business and has a couple of folks working for him. We have talked back in January about logs and he gave me some useful free advice, but said he cuts his own and doesn't grow exclusively on logs. Anyway, he called because he was in a bind and was calling anyone who might be able to help him out of it. He has a regularly scheduled inoculation class he runs the second Saturday of each month. He supplies the logs and everything else needed for getting it done, then walks the students through the process. He started to cut logs last week and rolled his ankle spraining it badly and couldn't walk, let alone forage logs. He was looking for 40 logs, by Saturday morning. He knew it was a long shot but he was desperate.
This fella knows his stuff and I told him I don't 'stock' but happened to have just found a storm damaged pair of hickories (see other thread). He pulled out his chart and said 'that will work fine'. I also told him what they would look like (not all straight, some smaller, some bigger) and that I might not be able to get the 40 he needed, but maybe 30. He was tickled pink to get what he could and I said I would go down and re-asses the trees for his needs before dark and call him back. I ran down after dinner and figured I could get maybe 30 logs, perhaps a few more. So I called him back and we worked out details on costing (I kept my regular rates).
Wednesday morning I started on it at 9am and came up with the first 14 and unloaded and gave him a call to find out about pickup. After some dancing around both our schedules we agreed that I would deliver the logs out at his class site that afternoon (35 minute drive) and he would meet me to help unload as he could. But he had a Doc appointment at 3 so had to be done by 2:30 to make it. This meant I had to hustle. So I got at it, skipped lunch and breaks and only stopped to sharpen the saw. Hickory is hard, but rocks are harder and I touched one. I got it done ad loaded everything in the truck in a hasty mess and made the drive out, he met me on time, we unloaded, he gave me a check which he rounded up a bit. I had brought 44 logs and told him to pay me for 40 (I always throw in extras), but he insisted on paying me for every one, added in the delivery and another 20 bucks or so. He then made it clear how much he appreciated it and how I saved his butt and did him a huge favor out of the blue. I explained that I understood having a small 'cottage' business can be rough and we need to stick together, us small operators. I grabbed lunch at a deli on the way home, around 3pm.
I have a feeling this may have had more value as a developing relationship, than as a one time sale. He is looking to do a workshop every month and cutting logs is getting to be a hassle for him with all the other stuff he does so he mentioned he would like knowing when I find log sources and could supply him with logs for his classes. Since they are scheduled, I will know well ahead of time when he needs logs. It might work into something because when I am doing property improvement jobs it may give me an outlet for those small trees I come across from time to time which otherwise turn into firewood. He was very pleased with the logs and not overly picky like most buyers. I believe this is because he cuts his own and knows the deal.
So it was a surprise order that generated a bit under an SGU for about 5 hours work. I shoved it all into that short time frame because I have a chiro appt. this morning and need to get back down to the mill either this afternoon or tomorrow. I took no photos, there was no time. If this had been a 'typical' buyer I would have spread the work out over a couple of days and into next week, or even let it go entirely, but I knew this guy was in a bind, and he helped with with some free guidance and advice back in January so I figured I needed to pay that back.
Today is another day and I will wait a bit before deciding to mill this afternoon or do more firewood. I want to see what the weather is going to do first. We had rain off and on all night. Glad I am seeing the Chiro Doc today, I am a little crampy after the last 2 weeks.
I bet you if someone told you 10'years ago as a machinist you'd be doing mushroom log work in 10 you'd look at them like they had 2 heads lol
Quote from: HemlockKing on September 09, 2021, 11:19:50 AM
I bet you if someone told you 10'years ago as a machinist you'd be doing mushroom log work in 10 you'd look at them like they had 2 heads lol
Probably, and then I would ask "What the heck is a 'mushroom log' anyway!?"
You never know exactly what life will throw you. :)
that's true and I gave up trying to guess about 50 years ago.
Now that I am retired and really trying to survive al the expenses, these little 'changes in direction' are alternately fun and somewhat frustrating depending on the day.
My young boss just stopped by for a beer on his way home and my plan for tomorrow is milling some 2x14x 20' to make a ridge beam up over a 60' span. OK, I've never done that before, lets see how this goes. Saturday's plan is to run his new edger and make 2x8's out of long dried 2x12's, never run an edger, but OK. Somewhere in between he expects to fill a big void in my education and teach me how to finally drive a skidsteer and operate a swivel grapple. This is a bit of a challenge for me because he has 4 or 5 of them and they all seem to have different control systems, some joysticks and some foot control, and some seem to have both. Well, whatever, I am up for it. What could go wrong? :D ;D
If it CAN go wrong, it WILL! :(
NAH! I don't see an issue here. But stay tuned and I' let you know ho great it turned out. ;D
AND, the saga continues for another day :D
Tom, once you spend a little time in a skid steer, you'll get the hang of it. First time I ran one I was just barely a teen, it was foot and hand controls. Last one I was in was all joystick with a roller switch to run the aux hydro's. Just like anything else, take your time, try and be smooth, and try not to get into too many tight spots until your kinda comfy!
PS- back up cams are great, but most have mirrors too, I'm pretty fond of knowing what I'm backing into/on/over
;D
I agree with Granite and I'm excited to hear about your skidsteering adventures!
I have, essentially, no experience with an SS but I've got a fair amount running a backhoe and while it can be utterly terrifying at times it's also very rewarding and fun. The amount of work you can do is astounding.
Quote from: Nebraska on September 09, 2021, 09:57:51 PM
You never know exactly what life will throw you. :)
Well today was yet another one of those days. I
thought I was going down to run the mill and make lumber and we did do that eventually, but the road was blocked when I got there (long story, trespasser problems) so I went up to the shop, nobody there, so I went to the house and found my buddy, his wife, and friend all starting a lazy day. More friendly conversation than work. We talked about the genset I found him on CL last night and called the seller and made arrangements to see it around 2pm. It's a little 120/208 3 phase genset that puts out about 600 amps. ;D Runs off propane or natural gas. He is looking for something to run the future woodshop off of.
Then we went up to the shop and fire4d up the edger to make some boards for his friend. We played around a bit with the edger at the same time. It needs blades before we can really load it up. SO his friend left, then a pipe saleswoman showed up and that killed another 20 minutes. Finally we drove around to the mill and pulled a 20' log, got rid of the sawdust pile and loaded it up. We di a tiny bit of skid steer instruction, but got involved in the log work more. He needed 3 2x14x20' for his ridge beam being set tomorrow. So we got that and some 5/4 x 14's for the facia boards. Mission accomplished. We left it on the mill so we could check with his master carpenter in the morning for any adjustments before moving it up the hill to the shop. Then I hopped in my truck and he in the skid steer with a grapple full of 5' slabs for the OWB and headed out, BUT as he rounded the turn he nearly had a head on accident with an amazon van being driven at a high rate of speed around the corner, probably doing close to 30 on a PRIVATE 10 MPH road. He went off. He jumped out and asked her what she was doing there, she said she had to get through. He said back up and get off my land. She said I have to call my boss. He said you can't do that here either, we don't allow cell signals on my land (no way could you get s signal there, no coverage for 2 miles at least). She said 'just let me through this once. I don't think I can back this big truck up'. She was driving a mini-van with New Jersey plates. :DHe went off again and pointed out that she passed 3 signs that said "Private property, landowners ONLY" and 3 signs that said "10MPH MAX speed". She ignored them all and drove like a bat tearing up the road, and on that basis alone, the conversation was over. She just said 'I have to get through'. After a few more choice words, he said "let me make this clear to you" and he climbed back in the SS and lifted the load all the way up and opened the grapple spreading slabs all over, then he laid the grapple on the ground, took the keys out, and walked up the road toward me, I backed out of site so she would think I had another way out and we waited about 3 minutes, when we went back, she was gone.
Almost every day these delivery drivers come flying through hoping to make it without getting caught. Sometimes they get lucky, sometimes they don't. When I am at the mill I park my truck in the middle of that road. Last week it was a tractor trailer coming through, totally lost.
Anyway, when we calmed down I headed home to check on the wife and drop my truck, he picked me up a few minutes later and we ran some local business errands, took down two quick trees hanging on telephone lines, and headed out to see the generator. It has either a cracked head or a bad gasket leak, but we picked it up for $3200. which would make it worthwhile to fix or repower with a diesel and then either use or flip it. Cost new is about $30k. It's a bit more power than he will ever need. Could probably power the whole road or most of it. On the way home we stated making calls to arrange the right equipment to pick it up next week. We finally settled on a roll back truck to just winch it up on the bed and chain it down. We figure it is around 5,000#.
So not at all the day I planned, but it was a day that was interesting. I have to change into shoes and head across the road for my neighbors informal birthday party. Just a bunch of guys playing music with a bunch of leftover home made hooch from the wedding. What could go wrong? :D
Tomorrow is another day and I think I am milling again, but I would bet on it just yet. Too soon to tell. :D ;D :)
Makes me happy my land is one way in one way out, makes harder for thievery too. Sadly that won't be the last yahoo your friend has to get aggravated with for trespassing.
Quote from: HemlockKing on September 10, 2021, 07:07:58 PM
....... Sadly that won't be the last yahoo your friend has to get aggravated with for trespassing.
No, it won't. it's nearly everyday. The dang maps show it as a through road. For the 35 years I have lived on this road this passage through there has been a major issue for whoever owned that land. The town won't maintain it but the actual road is not included in any property owners deed. The property owners spend their own money, time, and equipment to maintain the road, which is not easy or cheap, given the winter damage, the flooding several times a month, etc. SO when these yahoos go flying through ripping up the road, yeah, they go nuts. Then there is the issue of some landowners in there who do not contribute to the overall road and only take care of their own piece, but want access through the whole thing. Then there is the issue in that the road crosses a town line. It's a confusing mess.
Put gates at both ends that need to be opened to go through. People are lazy. Yes it's a wee bother but not insurmountable. I have a set of gates on my drive out to the highway.
Or maybe a big pipe cattle guard crossing like out here...that would look different enough to deter lots of folks.
Or just move out in the boonies like me, that'll solve most of your people problems. And that is priceless to me
Can't gate it, but he does have a gate at one end to indicate it's private land along with the bog sign that says "PRIVATE LAND, LANDOWNERS ONLY!". The are other landowners going and coming from their property all the time, but just a couple and they have families and get legitimate visitors. He also gets business traffic during the day, such as tool salesman and material deliveries. That road is a short cut to the next town over and it is a 15+ mile loop to go around the other way. This is why they try to use it all the time. Or they get lost and can't read a map. The maps indicate a normal secondary road, which it is not in any way.
Painful yes but don't shoot yourselves in the foot. Anything you do to make it harder on unauthorized access will make it harder on the bona fide residents too. ::) An electric controlled gate or cross-arm would likely solve the problem but then you have to get all the residents to cooperate and contribute to cost and maintenance and maintaining security of it and from your discussion about the unwillingness to contribute to the road work that would likely be hard to do. Also the residents would have to coordinate access with all their deliveries and friends coming to see them which would be a PITA. Could you make it a toll road to collect for maintenance of the road and reduce cheapskates coming through? :D To keep it simple you might hire a couple of former Wal Mart greeters to sit on each end of the road during the day to collect and verify/pass through the ones who were supposed to be there. Maybe you make it voluntary so they just keep what they collect. I always wanted to set up my own private toll gate. ;)
(In Africa they would build cross arms to block the roads during the rainy season and not let the big log truck and such go through till it was safe. Of course these all quickly became toll gates especially when they saw a white guy like me in the car. Oh well, it was a small price to pay to keep from getting run over by an out of control log truck on a wet clay road in the jungle.)
I know the delivery trucks are a pain but I bet they are delivering to the residents too. And if the delivery truck got the gate code for a legitimate delivery he/she would have it for future use for personal convenience. No doubt you want those deliveries but you just want them to respect the speed limits and such and not just use it for personal convenience. I wonder if GPS systems are showing that road as a suggested route? If so I don't know how you'd fix that.
I read last week where a delivery service, I think it was Amazon, had been sued for and had to pay out for loss of overtime pay because the drivers were overloaded and having to take extra time to deliver and unload at the end of the day and were not able to take their breaks and such and not getting their overtime pay for their work so I can understand they are frustrated too. Their bosses were actually changing their time cards to avoid excess overtime payouts and several had kept records of reported vs actually paid hours. We are lucky, our FedEx lady who comes here is very polite and friendly and gets out with a doggy treat for Sampson. Somebody up the road complained about her being scared of dogs or such and I told them it must be someone or something else going on.
Well, catching up here. The last few days have just been 'box of chocolates' days (you never know what you are going to get). Saturday I worked on that edger getting dimensions and learning my way around the guts of it (see other thread) and did some research. The boys were working on that shop extension tying one roof into the other and it took all day to get it worked out right (two hip rooves at 'about' 90° to each other) and get all the little odd rafters cut. SO they pretty much have the lower halves of the hips done now. Next is the set the ridge beam and do the top halves. They are poking along at a steady rate.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210911_113338065_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631621305)
Having the bucket truck is mighty handy because it is a ways up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210911_170400440.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631621305)
When I got to the end of what I could do on the edger research I came home and did some more firewood. Sunday all the boys came over and 'helped' with more firewood, but I can see I am slowing down and can't seem to work as many hours straight as I could just last year. Not sure why. But the boys had fun and now that they each have their own hard hat, I feel a little better. I gave up trying to get them to wear ear muffs with the hat because it just ain't workin'. Their pumpkins ain't big enough. SO we taught them how to put in foam earplugs. That was a new adventure for them and they had mixed results, but better than the muffs. The youngest wanted to run the saw and I figured out a way to do that safely for a cut or two. (Kind of like putting a kid in your lap when you drive around the farm sort of thing.) We got some wood done and the pile is bigger than when we started, but here it is nearly mid September and I haven't finished the shop pile yet which would mark my halfway point. I have yet to start on the house wood. My log pile is whittling down and I am going to need more for sure to fill those piles. But it will work out, it always has before. ;D
Yesterday I got on the phones and started making the calls for the edger and got the ball rolling on a blade order, hopefully will pull that trigger today. I went down and got the two dimensions I had missed on the first go-round to finalize the design requirements then talked to my buddy. I guess I should give this guy a name for y'all since he keeps coming up here and is my pseudo boss on some days. His name is Bill. Anyway Bill went and picked up that generator he bought on Friday and dropped it not far from the mill and we looked it over some more. We talked through the rest of the day and he had stuff to do around the property and some short service calls to clients. After 4 he had to go get a load of logs to deliver for firewood. I asked him where and then he tells me he is bringing them to my daughter's house. (He and my daughter went through high school together and she always thought of him as the older brother she never had.) Well, that isn't too far from where I have to pick up some logs so I asked him about doing both and he was game. On hindsight, I should have thought that through better. ;D
I went home and waited for return calls on the edger project and ran some more firewood. I also called the guy we were picking up from and warned him about when we would be there. Around 4pm, Bill picked me up in his log truck, a 35' tri-axle he had just got back in June. It is beat and he has already done a bunch of work on it, but it needs a lot more and the exhaust leaks like a chicken wire fence. It is also LOUD and you can't talk while it is moving. You can't yell either, it does no good. ;D SO we went and picked up this full load of firewood logs, then did the long route around to my daughter's place (weight limits and bridge clearances really change one's perspective quick). We had some engine issues (you should see the mocked shocked expression on my face :D) but it cleared itself and all was good. Then we figured out how to get to that pickup house and after 're-arranging some of the decorative rocks' he had lining his serpentine driveway, we managed to get the rig backed in for easy loading behing the house.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210913_190401510.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631621344)
Anyway, we high-balled it back home on familiar, winding, up and down roads at speeds that kept me alert. ;D It was well after dark when he dropped me off around 7:30. I am hoping he can sell some of that red and white oak. They are clean straight logs about 18" but were cut off at varying lengths between 9 and 12' and not a lot of them, maybe 6-8 nice ones. If not they will be milled for flooring or something. Nothing goes to waste around here. ;D The scrappy pieces might wind up in my firewood. :)
Today is another day and I am still waiting around for a return call from the blade guy. I'll probably do another round of firewood and then find something else that needs getting done.
Well today was as routine as it gets. Made another call looking for that edger blade quote then went out and cut.split stack firewood for a while. Then ran down to Bill's to collect some gear left in the loggin truck last night and try to measure up that drive key for the floating blade on the edger. Came home, made some egg salad for lunch (I love that stuff, actually I love eggs and the fact that we get ours free from Bill is even better). I sometimes wonder if I eat too many eggs, but I don't know that you can. Anyway, I went back to splitting wood, the neighbor (known herein as the idiot) came over to ask if I had any wood in the 3x3 range he could use for an oddball cabinet finishing job. After playing 20 questions, I showed him some basswood I had messed up when I milled and came out small at 3x3x 10'. He thought that would be perfect and I explained it should be ripped to final size+ and then planed for cabinets. He said 'yeah, I get it, I can do that. It's rough but there is meat on the bone to work with. He wanted it tonight, so after he left I pulled it and put it in the shop. Then I went back to splitting. At around 4 my wife came out and gave me the signal to shut the splitter off "now!". She was on the phone with my son. He was sick. Pretty sick. He sent his guys out to work and stayed home for the second day in a row, he didn't feel well at all Sunday when he was here. The guys came back from work and were cleaning the gear while he was talking to them from the back door. He finished and closed the door and passed out. Woke up on the floor an minute or two later and began to think he might need some help, so he called. My wife drove him to the local clinic. The RN that took care of him was a gall that 'apprenticed' under me when I was the EMS Captain. My son was in the department in those days too. They gave him a rapid test and checked him out otherwise. While they were doing the exam he passed out on them again. His orthostatic B/P was a mess and would drop when he stood up. My wife texted and said they were sending him to the hospital by ambulance. It would have been faster and easier (and a LOT cheaper) to drive him. That's when I found out who the attending nurse was, so I texted her directly. Now HIPPA applies here and she can't violate that so I will just say that she was very helpful without violating any laws. ;D Then the medic on the ALS rig was also someone I worked with in the fire service. He found out who my son was and talked about how great I was all the way to the hospital, so I assume he had me confused with someone else. The hospital wouldn't let my wife into the waiting room so she sat in the car waiting for a message from the nurses desk. This hospital is in sad shape. I call it a medical sewer, but let me be clear, it has nothing to do with the fine professional medical staff that works there and much harder than they should. The administrators have killed this hospital in the interest of profits and have patient loads for Doctors and nurses that are beyond workable. Last week they lost 40 nurses and as a result, several others just quit because they could not properly care for the number of patients they were given. It continues to get worse.
Anyway, there he sits, waiting for tests. He is positive for Covid, we know that and have already notified his ex to keep the kids home and notify the school. We are pretty sure one of the grandson's brought it home from school last week and passed it along. The wife and I aren't too worried because we had the stab, but the ids are another story. Just to be cautious, we will stay home for a few days and do a rapid test Thursday (they are sitting on the shelf, I got them just in case something like this went down). I am anxious to get my son home and resting. I don't want him admitted there in any case. So my wife is home and we are waiting for his release to go pick him up. That's our plan, but this hospital, who knows. His doesn't have any of the things that would indicate admission, but they have a habit of taking forever to get things done and make decisions.
Yeah, Life is like a box of chocolates and today we got a sour one. Yeah, I am worried, but we will figure it out and do what we have to. I am hopeful somebody will think to do orthostatic B/P's to see if the IV hydration is making a difference. If it is, then we have and answer and a discharge. I hate that hospital.
I wish him and the family well.
Sending prayers to you and yours Tom!
Godspeed for your family Tom.
Well we got Pete home around midnight last night. Offered to let him stay here, but he wanted to be home to take care of the pets and just sleep. He did admit he didn't drink enough water when he was feeling poorly and the IV they gave him perked his BP right up and the syncope stopped. Now it's a wait and see to let it run it's course and see what kind of road it puts him on.
Today is another day, lets see how it goes.
I am just glad that everything thus far has not been a fatal decision.
Good luck for you & yours.
God speed!
Glad he's on the mend and home.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on September 14, 2021, 09:40:47 PMWell today was as routine as it gets
It might of started that way but the end of the day was :o.
Glad to here he is doing better!
True. I hope that kind of day does not become routine for anyone.
Something something life is like a box of chocolates.. like you said. Hope all will be better from now onwards with your son.
Didn't do much today, was mostly distracted thinking about my son. He slept most of the day. Finally made contact and got a shopping list from him to carry him for about a week. I put on a mask and went and picked it up and put it in his garage. Got to see him for a minute, he looks better but tired. I took a ride down in the woods earlier in the day looking for whatever chestnuts I could find and peeled them when I got home. On the way down I came across these mushrooms growing on top of a root system for a large white oak, about 22" DBH:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/mushroom2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631749437)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/mushroom1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631749436)
I ain't no mushroom guy, so I sent the photos off to my new guru and he tells me they are Omphalatus Illudens aka the Eastern Jack-o-lantern. Apparently they (the gills) glow in the dark, but this is also apparently disputed. Maybe I should run down and check? Its raining now, but perhaps later or tomorrow. More rain is coming yet.
Ah, tomorrow is another day, right?
Good to hear about your son, Tom!
I like your new avatar and those mushrooms are neat! Are they edible? I guess most are edible, just some may leave you feeling goofy or dead...
Well, this is a day by day thing. We'll see how he is doing today.
Thanks for asking about those mushrooms because I should have mentioned that they are poisonous.
From Wikipedia:
Toxicity[edit (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Omphalotus_illudens&action=edit§ion=1)]
The poisonous chemical compounds illudin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illudin) S and illudin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illudin) M were isolated from Omphalotus illudens.[5] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_illudens#cite_note-Anchel_1950-5)[6] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_illudens#cite_note-6) In addition to their antibacterial and antifungal effects, illudins appear to be the cause of human toxicity when these mushrooms are eaten raw or cooked. Muscarine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscarine) has also been indirectly implicated in toxicity,[7] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_illudens#cite_note-Clark1913-7) but modern studies to demonstrate its presence in O. illudens are needed.
The cytotoxic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cytotoxicity) effect of illudin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illudin) is of interest for treating some cancers, but illudin itself is too poisonous to use directly so it must first be chemically modified. Inside human cells, illudin S reacts with DNA and creates a type of DNA damage that blocks transcription (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcription_(genetics)). This block can only be relieved by a repair system called nucleotide excision repair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleotide_excision_repair). Damage in non-transcribed DNA areas is left unrepaired by the cell. This property was exploited by the company MGI Pharma (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MGI_Pharma&action=edit&redlink=1) to develop an illudin-derivative called Irofulven (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irofulven) for use as a cancer treatment. Its application is still in the experimental phase.[citation needed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)][8] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalotus_illudens#cite_note-8)
So yeah, don't eat them. :D
Looks like that rush mushroom log order the other week is leading to more. The fella has another workshop on 10/9 and needs 45 more logs. He asked me to keep my eyes open for the proper species. This could work out because all the variables check the right boxes A) predictable orders (gives me time to hunt), B) He is open to whatever species tree will work with the spore he has or can order, and C) The quantities are such that I can cut them in about 1/2 a day or less.
Wasn't it Doc who said "All mushrooms are edible but some only once?" :D
True, I wasn't thinking about that. :D
Well Pete is doing better today and I just passed a COVID rapid test (negative), so there is that. We have spent what feels like most of the day on the phone trying to get our cable service (and bill) straightened out and reduced. It's something I have been intending to do since I retired. Too much money for a bunch of junk. It is frustrating working with these folks and I always feel like we will get screwed in the end, because we always do. But we are giving it our best shot. Next time, we will just shut it off. Still on the phone as I type this. I think we are in our 3rd hour now. I'd rather be dodging trees.
And I thought that you'd dodge That bill by shutting off the cable (but not the phones) because free airwaves are great. It's what I grew up on. Yes later in life I had cable when I lived with mom&dad but for several years afterwards I didn't. Now my entertainment is revolving around my phone :D I love it, no cable or satellite bill for THIS guy. My wife & I had airwave TV for about 4yr when we moved to our current location, now we've got satellite and a healthy bill regarding, I tried to tell her it'd be that way, but what do "I" know ::) I just, well, don't know how to 'splain things to her but that's not gonna change :o
Not to go too far off topic...
I got tired of my local cable - crappy service and bill that just kept going up. So I dumped it. Put up a regular antenna and I get 30 or 40 stations. A few local (English) (I mostly just watch the News), a bunch from the Bay Area and a ton of Spanish, Korean, Japanese, etc. :D Then I picked up a Netflix account for $7.99 (now $8.99) a month. That's enough for me. But, my daughter wanted more so she pays for Disney+ ($6.99?) and Hulu ($2.99). There is more content than we can ever watch.
Well, you are in a different part of the world :D. During the heyday of real broadcast TV and before we could even get cable, we had an antenna up and got 3 stations, poorly if at all. It took a long time for cable to reach us, in fact the cable company said 'never' but I guess things changed. There are still many here who have no access at all. We will dwindle down over time, this is the first step. At the end of my road, as I may have mentioned there is no nothing. No cell service, no cable, nothing, but folks live there. If they have kids in school, they are out of luck with zero options. We have Netflix, that is just OK because even they don't really have anything useful. Just entertainment and not much that interests me. Perhaps 2 or 3 shows a year. They don't have hardly any old but good movies that are worth watching again. I find myself watching stuff that is just junk, but it is something. I have a TV in the shop just as noise to keep me company but it's not connected to cable. I just run videos or netflix on it. In a rural area we are second, or third class citizens if regarded at all by the politicians that 'negotiate' these cable contracts.
My guess is that you are out in the hills enough to not get decent reception OGH, but if you haven't tried rabbit ears since they switched to digital you should give it a shot. You may be surprised by what you can now pick up and all the major stations have sub-channels now, so there's like 5 or 6 PBS, and typically your normal broadcast top 4 and all their sub-channels.
I've got several of the subscription services but mostly I watch Pluto.tv it's free, with lots of bad commercials, but there is a ton of content on it. I'm a fan of the 24 hour a day Love Boat channel. If you have the internet you can watch Pluto.tv.
Well TV is not an important thing in our lives. ;D just heard last night the town is likely going to amend the cable contract and get the line down to my buddies house, but that may take 3 years. I am still in shock over that.
I sent an email off yesterday to some guys that do a local radio show up in the hills about local forestry once a week. They have interviewed a number of people I know. I asked if they are going to do another on mushrooms and when they do could I give them some stuff to talk about regarding log harvesting and sales. Education on this would be helpful to the growers and I know the mushroom guru they usually have on for this shows would do a good job (he is a client now).
They responded this morning and asked me to come on the show and speak to it myself. I countered and suggested a joint show with the guru but left it up to them. Maybe this will help folks learn a bit and give me less grief with phone calls and emails, or maybe not. :D
Anyway, we will see what develops. I do have a face for radio, but perhaps not the voice.
Today is another day and we are food shopping since we both cleared our rapid tests. Then off into the woods hunting trees.
you will prob. get more calls, with the free advertising. good thing this mushroom log thing is so easy! :)
Yeah, right good thing. :D
The point was to get some more accurate information out there based on reality for both the buyers and wanna be log cutters. I am beginning to wish I had kept my mouth shut. Last night I got another email that they really thought I could easily carry an hour show and wanted me to go solo and gave me three dates in October. So I thunk on it and made some talking point notes for myself to help put it in some format, then I emailed them back and said "OK, lets do the first Wednesday in October." Got an email back shortly that said they already offered that date to the Mushroom guru. SO I said well, doing two shows in a row on mushrooms might be a bit much, so then we had an exchange of emails and they suggested doing a single joint show. I have no idea where it stands now. I left it up to them, it's their show. I can do what they want either way.
I know Spike60 has done this show a couple of times. But he talks about stuff a lot of folks 'get' everybody knows what a chainsaw and portable equipment are even if they don't use them. There is an easy connection there. I am not so sure how this subject will fly. I am used to speaking to a classroom full of folks, that's easy, and I can't count the number of times I have done interviews for radio shows or print subjects, but this strikes me as different. Because it's different, it has me a little apprehensive. I am sure it will be fine, but I already am anxious to get it over with. :D One good thing is that you can be mis-quoted on live radio. So there will be no "board smoother" remarks to deal with.
In other news, my son continues to have a rough time of it even though he seems to be working through it. The inactivity is killing him as much as the pain in his lower back, I think from sleeping and sitting so much. i talked to him today and he needs to walk around more, take some Advil for the aches. He is just lack luster with zero energy. He has no sense of taste and little appetite. Looks like it's going to be a longer haul for him. I wish there was more I could do for him besides wait.
In more frivolous news: the mosquitoes are as bad here as I have known in 30 years. Sprays and such are not helping much and they are driving me out of my skull. Today when I was splitting wood, I nearly whacked myself in the face with a pickeroon. That would have left a mark. They bite right through my t-shirt now. I have blood spots on my shirts all down the back. Looks like I lost a paint-ball battle. Tomorrow I am going to look into getting my propane fogger cleaned up and working again. It's the only tool I have left that might provide some relief but it requires just the right conditions to work. After that, I go through my rolodex looking for friends that still have a valid blasting permit. ;D
check you security/game cameras, maybe it is vampire bats. :o :o :o 8) 8) 8) :) :) :)
can you spray your clothes with permethrin. (sp) I have tons I have not used cause I am too mean and taste bad, and they only bit me once. :D best wishes for your son.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on September 18, 2021, 07:41:45 PMthe mosquitoes are as bad here as I have known in 30 years.
Out here with the lack of rain, the mosquitoes are nearly nonexistent this year! But I'd put up with them if we just got a little moisture...
Quote from: ljohnsaw on September 18, 2021, 09:25:03 PM
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on September 18, 2021, 07:41:45 PMthe mosquitoes are as bad here as I have known in 30 years.
Out here with the lack of rain, the mosquitoes are nearly nonexistent this year! But I'd put up with them if we just got a little moisture...
Be very careful what you ask for ;D :D it is insanely bad here right now. A few weeks ago it was the deer flies on my ankles. I could kill 3 with one swat, now the skeeters have outdone them.
Haven't seen a deer fly in at least 2 weeks, mostly black flies and skeeters now although not many, and the black flies just circle you rather than bite much?
OGH- Do you know if the radio show makes a podcast out of their show? I'd be interested in a local forestry show. I don't have tons of time for podcasts, or radio, but I'd be interested. Even more so if you were on the show. Sounds like it'd be a neat opportunity.
Yes, their podcasts are archived on The Catskills Forest Association website, you can find them all HERE (https://catskillforest.org/radio-new/). Or if you do listen to podcasts, they are available on PodBean. The name of the show is 'From The Forest' and it centers on forestry, land management, local woods related 'industries' such as sugaring, wood craft, trees, sawmills, Ginseng hunting, mushrooms, hunting, hiking, and the cultural aspects of some of that stuff. You can peruse the titles on that page I linked above.
As I said, our own Spike80 has been on the show a couple of times as his knowledge and experience in many of those areas is helpful and pertinent. You can also listen live on the radio station website. I still have not heard back what week or with whom I may be on with. I don't expect anything I may contribute would be worth anyone's time, but assuming it does happen, it might be fun to try it once. Heck, I'll try anything once. :D
Thanks! We have a stuff like gardening shows and mechanics on our local talk radio show that I enjoy. I'd imagine this will be similar.
For what it's worth, you can copy the following into pretty much any podcast app and listen also:
http://feed.podbean.com/fromtheforest/feedxml
When I looked up From The Forest I didn't find it but I did find the feed address on their podbean site and adding it to my podcast app worked.
Well you can play it directly from the link I gave at the top of my previous post and I figured I would give it to you that way because many don't listen with an app on their phone and with that link it will work on anything with internet access.
Another round of emails this morning and it looks like we have settled on me doing a solo, not joint show, and on the 13th. SO that's done. We will be having our yearly visit to family in VT the weekend prior, so maybe gives me some thinking time during the drive up and back. I hope this goes well and I don't sound like an old fool. :D Time will tell.
The last few days have been routine chores. I have been forcing myself to stay focused on firewood but it's just not as fun as it used to be. Now it is just work and I am having a hard time staying with it more than 2 hours at a stretch. I also checked in down the road a time or two, first to scout some mushroom trees, then to check progress on the shop building. I have not yet gone down to see how far they got over the weekend. I hope that ridge beam is up, then they can really start making time to get it weathered in. While I was there Friday we went down to the back lot where the excavator had blown a hose and they were replacing that (Friday's are 'fix-it' days usually). While back there I found a nice timberjack that just needs a little work.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210917_135622741.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632228512)
I bet he'd make a good deal on it for somebody with skills (and parts). It does need a little engine work (well, it just needs an engine), and maybe a wheel hub. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210917_135633663.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632228513)
I also got a look at his go-tract which is ready to roll, just waiting for the right work. I haven't seen this since he bought it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210917_143845733.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632228522)
It has an interesting track system.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210917_143733093.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632228519)
But for me, the goal right now is to get the firewood done. I got a bunch done for the shop so far, but still about 1-1/2 cord short. Then I started splitting some of the really dry dead stuff for the house and here is the first trailer load (of about 15) to head out for stacking. The shop wood is under the bulging blue tarp.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210919_161030499.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632228529)
And the beginning of the house pile.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210919_133224029.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632228526)
I have just about cut and split everything I had bucked up. I have another tree to take down, but that's a project for a half day with rigging involved, and some slabs to buck up and stack. I will finish what is waiting to be cut today and that will fill another trailer load, then get that stacked. Then I have to find some more wood and get it home. I am still way behind, but feel like I am catching up a little, but it takes a lot of time. Bill wants me either running his sawmill or edger, I have an order of Mushroom logs to cut and deliver, there are two slabs in the shop for a table and bar order, and my poor property improvement clients that I have neglected badly. I am still waiting for an approval drawing from Sharp on those edger blades and want to get that in the works ASAP. I also have to replace that catalytic combustor in the shop stove which will be a real chore as the new stainless screws I put in last year don't want to come out. I'll have to sprinkle them with Blue Creeper today before I forget.... yet again.
I had better get a move on here.
How many cord of firewood do you typically burn a winter?
That go tract is some super cool!
I cut and stack 10 cord, 5 at the house and 5 at the shop. I generally do not burn it all. Last season I had 1/3 to 1/2 cord left on the house and 3/4 to 1 cord left on the shop.
That machine will handle and dump a fairly decent load for it's size.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210917_143739795.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632236597)
But the cab is pretty spartan and can be rough on the body. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210917_143818452.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1632236594)
I need to take it out for a spin some time. Maybe a big mushroom log harvest? ;D :D
That little cabin makes it seem like it's a tiny tank! Which it is I guess lol
Probably decent in the winter too. I wonder how much that would sell for.
From The Forest is a pretty good show, so far. The hosts are mellow and kind of funny and seem pretty knowledgeable. I've only listened to what appears to be the oldest episode and about half of the 2nd oldest, but I'm enjoying it.
I'm curious how much of its Catskilledness applies to all forests... I assume a fair amount but I'm not sure.
I would say that there is a good deal of commonality between the Catskills and other forest areas in the eastern and northern half of the country. Particularly when they have in-depth discussions about tree diseases and blights, etc. We have Oaks, Beech, Pines, Hemlocks, maples, apples, Cherry, sycamore, and many other common trees you would find in these areas all the way up through Ontario.
What may be 'different' is that the history of the white man goes back further here (1600's) than it does in more western states. In the 1800's these hills were almost entirely clearcut and bald for the bark used in the tanning industry. They would cut trees, peel the bark on site, and leave the wood. Only a few inaccessible spots were left uncut and you can still find first growth there, but these are very few. You can also still see many of the 'bark roads' when hiking in the woods. Since that time and after all the farm abandonment in the 20th century, it largely grown back and looks pretty and green but it not as well rounded as it should be. Striped and red maple have taken over in great numbers, Hemlocks are still everywhere of course but now we have the Wooly Alegedid (sp?) coming in and stressing those to death. The ash borer pretty much cleaned out all of our Ash. Land masses are largely broken into tiny plots of 15 acres or much less. Fires are put out when they start. The state makes rules and laws to help justify their own existence. True management becomes a fleeting task.
Still I find the show enjoyable in the main. The two hosts both have forestry degrees and work in the field daily so they are in touch with today's challenges to landowners. You may hear them refer to a guy named Michael Kudish or one of his books. He is an fascinating guy. One of his books is called "The Catskills Forest: A history" and it is a brilliant piece of work. Out of print now, it can be found second hand for a hefty price. He tracked the history of our forest from pre-historic times by core sampling peat bogs all over these mountains and building a profile and the forest growth and animal life. He also chronicles the progress of man in these mountains, the railroads, quarry work, tanning industry, tourist industry (1800's), chairmaking and other pursuits which affected the forests. I met and spoke with him once, fascinating guy. Great book.
Anyway, enjoy the show.
---------------------------------------------
Yesterday I did another round of firewood and overloaded my transfer trailer. I have to finish stacking that today, but that runs out all the wood I had on hand to cut. Time to make more. We did get some rain overnight.
Around mid-day I was talking to a friend and it came up that he quit work early on Saturday to attend a funeral. When I asked 'who?' it turned out to be the young (23) son of somebody I know who grew up just 1/4 mile down the road from me. The young man was killed by a falling tree and I had heard the rescue call last week when it happened but of course had no idea who it was or what the outcome was. There was nothing in the paper (typical). I don't have any details yet, but the washer-woman's network has it that it was a freak accident and the tree that killed him fell all by itself and was not close to the trees he may have been working around. It is not clear if he was cutting at the time. I'll find out more in the coming weeks. He passed away during the flight to the hospital. When I heard the news I was heart broken for his father, a good, hardworking man and family. I can't imagine his pain. So that gave me something to think about for he rest of the day as I split and stacked. Seems like we lose somebody this way about every year and a half.
Well, today it another day, I best make something of it.
Hope the rest of your day is filled with better news Tom. Sorry to read about your neighbor kid. Those things hit home pretty hard.
Well I continue to be bothered a great deal by the loss of that young man's life. Such a waste and tragedy for the family. A family that has had too much tragedy already. It hung on my mind as I stacked wood this morning and I am sure will linger for a few more days. I can't imagine the sense of loss they must feel. This is partly why I retired from the Fire and EMS service. I take this stuff to heart even though I know I shouldn't and really have no reason to. I did get some details on what happened. The victim was working on a road building job and there was no tree work going on at all. The logger doing the clearing had cut all the marked trees 2 weeks prior. Apparently a small wind came up and a tree out on the perimeter which had a silent rot in it just let go right at the ground line and broke clean off. He never saw or heard the tree coming and it whacked him.
But I got some work done, however the mosquitoes have really gotten out of hand and taken over the place. I just can't stand it anymore and continue to pray for a freak overnight freeze. ;D I am out of wood, everything I had is cut split and stacked. Trying to negotiate for some logs or I'll have to go find some.
I took care of some household paperwork (got the expired truck registration re-upped) and saw my son briefly as he had his first day 'out' on wobbly legs.
Mid-afternoon I headed down the road to Bill's to give him back his edger manual with the data and drawings on his sawblades I ordered for him and also a compression gage I borrowed a couple of months ago and did not return in a timely manner. I don't borrow tools easily and I sure hate to lend them, as he does. It burned my bottom when I found that on my bench and realized I had it for 2 months. i needed to get that back today with an apology. SO I drove on down and found him at the shop for a change. I made my apologies and he laughed, just glad to have his gage back. He was happier to see that I well documented his blade order so it would be easy for him to find where and whom I got it from as well as all the dimensions on those blades with a full drawing. He mentioned that after I had messed with the edger it 'didn't work so well' the next day. I took a look and realized I had screwed up big time when I put the blade back in. SO we took the blade back out and with the two of us, we got out the fixed blade I could not manage alone last week. We put the fixed blade into the floating blade spot and this time, set it correctly. It took 4 hands to do so. We left out the other blade, he will shop the local guys and see if anyone can silver solder on new teeth and grind them. The we fired it up and ran some partly rotten 2x10's thru and made 2x6's out of them. It cut pretty well but feeding was not easy. We looked the machine over and are pretty sure the infeed rollers are set higher than the infeed drive roller. SO that is the next task, to set those rollers all lower ad see how she runs. The blade, with 6 out of 14 teeth is working OK for what it is. Waiting 15 weeks for new blades will be rough. Stuck between other tasks, it will probably be late spring early summer before we get it tweaked and add some rollers and other mods to make it more workable, but it's a nice machine and will really do good production when we get it tweaked.
I kind of like working down there off and on. His guys came back at the end of the day and did some odd fix-it chores, then at quitting time we had a beer or two together and they headed home. He gave me a controller from one of his wood furnaces that he had blown up and asked if I could find a replacement relay. "Yeah, sure". I headed home and in 10 minutes i had the relay on order. I guess I will be back to doing PC board work when it comes in. :D It's been a while, but I have the tools. I just don't know if that will fix it yet. There is this black mark on the board that concerns me. ;D
Oh, and I picked up another mushroom log order for 40 logs at the end of October. It never ends.
Tomorrow is another day and I have no idea where I am starting. That is actually a nice feeling.
Tom,
I can understand your feelings about the EMS type work. My daughter is a Child Life Specialist and she works with a lot of terminal kids and I always worried about her state of mind and how she handles the pain and loss. One good thing is in her job she says she knows the kids know she is their friend and she will never do anything to hurt them like shots, blood draws or such. Her view on the matter is "Even the ones who are dying need help". She tells amazing stories of the kids and their siblings and such and I am glad there are people like her for them.
Glad you are lining up the new mushroom jobs. I looked at a one tree/2 log job today 35 miles from home and will go saw it Monday. Minimum fees and mileage apply and he is fine with that. I may stop on the way home and saw a couple of small hemlock logs for my son. I'll likely schedule another one day job for the next day as long as I am already loaded and hooked up. Then I have several more jobs in backlog and just picked up another for a repeat customer from a couple years ago.
Sorry about the loss of your family friend. There is no easy solution there. Take care and keep those chips flying?
Each new day is a gift, that none of us are promised to receive.
Been laying low the last couple of days. Within an hour of making that last post I got socked with a totally unexpected financial hit that put me on my knees so to speak. I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how to deal with it as I didn't have much time. I'm not getting into details except to say it was personal, not business, and is related to a family issue that has been troubling me for 5 years now and I am still trying to work out. I had no choice but to come up with the money. SO I spent the rest of the day doing firewood so I could think it through and decided to pretty much empty my business account to settle the debt. There will be another couple of grand due in January, but at least I have time to find work to pay for that. So just like that I went from being a retired guy making money on the side for the necessities of life to being a guy that has to make money regularly to pay these bills. It was/is a bit of a tough pill to swallow and it doesn't change everything, but it does change quite a bit. Until I can get this monkey off my back I will have to focus on some kind of steady income to prepare for these hits. So much for the new trailer or woodstove/furnace. It will have to wait for while longer.
I just need to make the adjustment in my head and that will take time. Today is another day, right? Time to get back to work. Thursday was a lost rain day, so I started on a table consignment job that has been sitting in the shop all summer, just an 8/4 maple slab already planed out. It needs a bunch of small epoxy pours to stabilize minor cracks and knots before sanding and sizing. I did a small pour in the morning early, then another in the afternoon where some settling had occurred. I also did some research on the music for that radio show coming up and sent the detailed information over to the shows host. I kind of fell down the rabbit hole on that one as I often do with musicology. @Resonator (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=37685) will likely get a kick out of this little aside:
So this show plays an instrumental, slightly jazzed up bluegrass version of "Fox On The Run" for it's intro tune every week. They have never credited the tune. I have listened to every one of the 335 shows they have done and not once have they said who performs this tune. Every time I hear it my brain tells me two things 1) "I'm SURE I know that banjo player, the phrasings he uses and the bounce in his picking are pretty clear and distinct. He HAS to be a Bill Keith student, but who?" I did have one guy and mind who is a great local player, but didn't produce a lot of recorded work. The 2nd thing was the fiddle player, again, unmistakable style and bounce, unique minor phrasings, etc. I was sure I knew it was one of only 3 possible people, all local and all very good.
So when I agreed to do the show, as part of the 'negotiation' I asked if I could pick the 2 break tunes they played, and they had to tell me the discography on that intro tune which by now was driving me nuts every week (short trip, I know). They were happy to let me pick the tunes and bring them along as I have selected locally grown music. As for that intro tune, well, in my request I mentioned that I thought the banjo player was John V. but could not be sure. They said they didn't have any information on the tune except that yes, John was the banjo player and the front man for that band when it existed. They knew nothing else. Well, John is a friend of mine so I contacted him and got what I wanted. The name of the Band and all the players. Turns out I was right on the Fiddle player also, it is my Son-in-law! John said they really wanted Evan on that tune because of the bounce he added and I agree. So I wrote all that up and collected info on the other two tunes I am bringing, which brought me down another rabbit hole on one and right back home again. But that's a longer story with a lot less interest for most folks. Lets just say it's a smaller world than I thought. The whole thing provided a needed diversion for a few hours. Yesterday afternoon I got a note back form the show host who had no idea I knew all these guys and so much about the local and not so local music. He said it would be a nice addition to the show, but as I explained, the music environment here is just another product that is exported from the Catskill Mountains and that is one of the themes of their show. It's not unique, but it does have it's own distinct flavor and is very good. :)
Friday I flipped that table top and poured the top side. Then the wife needed to run a church errand down the line so I drove her out there, waited, and then we went to lunch, sort of a date. Then we drove home and I changed and headed out to cut Mushroom logs. Got down the road and found it blocked by a skid steer (see previous discussion regarding trespassers). I knew the key should have been in there somewhere but hard as I looked I could find it, so I turned around and came home as the guys were all out on other jobs. I texted Bill to let him know I aborted and he texted back that the key was in the skid steer. I told him I couldn't find it so he questioned his helper who had hidden it in a spot where apparently my hand could not fit. When I went back later and they were running firewood, we all had a good laugh over the helpers 'skinny fingers'. I gave them a hand filling the truck and running the splitter then Bill came by to get help getting the skidder un-stuck. He had culled out some oaks and the skidder was bottomed out where he tried to get through the mulch piles. You couldn't even tell he had any chains on it, they were packed full of mush. So we got it out with an easy tug from the excavator and I cut about 14 logs off the tops to get my order started. When I finished that I couldn't find the crew anywhere. I checked the shop, back lot, side lot, up on the roof, sawmill area. Nobody. But their trucks were still there, finally walked down to the house and found them all in the kitchen having an after work beer and doing their weekly time sheets. I forgot it was Friday. So I had a beer with them, collected some money myself for a change (which was well needed) and headed on home a little after 6.
Today I will do some sanding on that table and try and finish off the log order, but I am not sure in which order I will do that yet. it doesn't really matter, does it? It's just another day, right?
Tom,
Sorry about the bumps in the road. I hope they will all be smoothed out soon and you can get back in total control, as mush as any of us ever are, of your life.
Well these things happen, but hopefully not as such a surprise as this one was. a few hundred bucks is one thing, several grand is quite another...for me anyway. One can always make more money, I guess. I'm not going to dwell on it, just push forward like most of us do. Work a little harder I guess.
But I just got back from another round of mushroom logs. My friend Bill heard me cutting and came down with his gator and lent a hand hauling them to the truck. He was surprised to see I had moved the skid steer this time and asked if I had any problems. 'Nope, not once I could find the key'. He said 'I thought you told me you never operated one before?' I replied that I hadn't until today. He smiled and wondered if I had trouble with the grapple controls. "Nope". He just shook his head and kept smiling.
Anyway, I worked up a good sweat to help purge my thoughts and think I have just enough logs for the order with a bunch of flagged trees for the next order in 2 weeks.
Pretty cool that you knew the musicians and one is your SIL. It's crazy that you can pick out stuff like that! The music on that show is pretty good!
I've now listened to 3 or 4 of the oldest episodes on their podcast feed. I'd listened to their episode on tanning leather the day you mentioned it above.
Hope your finances get sorted. That kind of junk is no fun.
Well the last couple of days I have been trying to reset. Sunday I did some more work on one of those commission tables to keep it moving along. I did some chores and sharpened saws. Monday I did a little more sanding then in the afternoon I headed down to see if I could find where I left my gloves that turned up missing. The second pair in 2 days and it was driving me nuts. I found them on the last stump I had cut. I found the other pair on my woodpile at the house. While I was down there I collected the other logs I had cut last week and had to carry them about 100' to the truck, but I have enough for the current orders. One or two more to go in the coming weeks, I think.
Today got past me quick. Still a little nervous about that interview coming up so I wrote down the questions I know he will ask and typed out some prepared reply notes so I can be clear and succinct. I tend to ramble as you all know and I really don't want to do that with a finite amount of time. Apparently it took more time to think it through than I thought and 4 hours went by while I worked on it. It's not easy trying to get me to get to the point in short order. ;D
After that I worked up an order of routine supplies from Madsen's for flagging tape, crayons, wedges, gloves, and other perishables. I also threw in a logging tape my buddy Bill needed after a long discussion on which tape style is best, we agreed to disagree and I ordered what he wanted. :D It's funny how much money you can blow through on these little supplies, especially when you don't have much money left to work with. >:(
After the rain stopped I went out and washed off some of the logs that were covered in mud. Tomorrow I will deliver those when I take the wife on an errand 20 miles down the line. Saves fuel. In the afternoon I may go and do some more milling if we get back early enough. He still needs a mess of 2x8's and 2x12's.
Tomorrow is another day, right?
Sorry to hear about the money issue. Good luck to you!!!
Tom,
If you start buying those cheap HF work gloves you won't spend much time worrying about where you left them. I know there are better, more expensive gloves out there but I find I can tear them up just as easily as the cheap ones.
Good luck on the interview.
Well I had been buying the HF gauntlet gloves before I stopped buying from them completely. Sometimes they would fall apart in a week, and sometimes last a decent amount of time. I am down to 2 pairs and I really don't recall where I bought them, so when I lost both at once it really annoyed me. I just ordered a couple of more pairs from Madsen's with my other perishables. I also ordered some wool faller's gloves that may work as liners for cold weather work. I have a feeling I will doing to more outdoor work in the cold months this year that I did last. One of my least favorite things, half my body sweating, the other half frozen.
Today I dropped off those logs and took my wife on her errand at the same time. Came home, had lunch, then headed to the mill. I got some stuff milled up into 2x8's, but turned out I was staged with logs about 8 inches too short for the requirement. I had no idea and just milled what was on the deck. Not really my problem is it? ;D The boss showed up and we discovered the error. His mistake, not mine. They looked like 17 footers, but measured at 16 and change. Not enough. They'll get used. I suggested building a shed roof over where I stand at the console so I can read the dang screen, he thought that might be a good idea. Keep the snow off me too he thought. I didn't much care for that thought.
Anyway, I played a little more with the skid steer and grapple. Moved some logs, learned some more of the buttons. Worked my way through it slowly. I queued up a few logs on the deck and then let him get the rest of it done in the interest of time. Baby steps. We have more than a days work for me on the deck now and a few logs I can grab when/if I run out before I hit the BOM requirements.
So all in all it was about a 1 SGU day. If I keep that average up for a while I'll be happy.
Howard, that interview isn't until the 13th so I still have time to worry on it. ;D I am looking forward to hearing the one the week before me because that is my client I delivered logs to this morning and I will have to 'follow him' the next week. He's the expert, I am just the log guy.
I just use the cheap leather palm HF cloth back gloves. They don't last long but are only a couple dollars a pair and I have plenty of White or Brown Mule brand heavy leather gloves tear up just as quickly.
You'll get that mill broke in at this rate and sounds like the skid steer is next.
Tom, as far as cold weather gauntlets go I've been using my welding style. If you want a tighter fit then use the tig style, for a normal fit the wire or stick type of stuff. Pretty durable but probably not the best bang for YOUR buck considering. However they make excellent work for working around a fire also because then you'll be able to take your time (within reason) while the fire is going and put the wood exactly where you want it. It's always worked for me. They make great impromptu camping potholders as well ;)
Those stick welding gloves are too heavy and long to suit my outdoor work and the TIG gloves are too light. But I have, and use both for other purposes. I have not found a source for good fairly priced wool glove liners in decades so I took a shot. These arrived Friday and I am pleased. Fine 100% wool, made in USA. They are a little tight inside the gauntlet gloves I ordered (Large) so I will just order a couple of pairs in X-Large next time I call an order in. The Gauntlet gloves are made in china (by the "American Glove Company out of Oregon), go figger. But they seem a lot better than the HF ones, so now I am done looking around and will likely stick with this source. This is still the best solution I have found for working in single digit or less temps with a lot of snow and they dry overnight by the stove.
---------------
Well Thursday I ran the mill some more but those 17 footers with no help are killing me so it wasn't a full day. Friday I had to help the wife setup for a large weekend craft show, her first major one in 2 years, then came home and did other stuff around here. Saturday I got a late start but got a fair amount of lumber cut up. I had planned to do lumber in the morning and cut Mushroom logs in the afternoon to get started on the next two orders. Well I finished the last two 17' logs and they had just about kicked what was left of my butt. I was ready to fold for the day after I did some 2x12x12's when my Tailgunner showed up. We finished all the logs on the deck in another hour or so, cleaned a bit, and got ready for the next order. It made for a full day. Everybody else left and Bill and I took a ride in the Gator so I could get a better idea of his new property lines and we found some more trees but I didn't have any flagging with me. We did 'unflag' some trees I had marked and he wants to keep, and we moved a couple of other flags to different trees.
Sunday I hit the Mushroom logs and cut about 47 of those to get started. The client needs small logs for this weekend mushroom retreat he is doing but I am feeling guilty charging him for some of these even though they are cut to his specs. I think I cut 5 trees and still have more marked, but I focused on the small stuff and left the bigger stuff for the next (last?) order.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211003_130828326.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1633287156)
While I was cutting Bill heard me and came down the hill. I could hear him working with the skid steer over at the mill for a while (about 250 yards away through the woods) then he came over to see how I was doing. Now that I am cutting on his property and we have walked around a few times together I am getting a better idea of what I can take out, and he is getting a better idea of what I need. Yesterday he mentioned that and said "You know, now that I understand what you are looking for and why, I am see these trees everywhere! And they are all trees that need to come out." Yup, I know. :D So I am still very careful to make sure every tree gets his 'okey dokey' before it gets cut, but I will be trying to mark a bunch of trees before the snow comes, then I can winter cut much easier as I get an odd order or two and the trees will be 'pre-approved' so there are no worries. it is pretty nice being able to cut 2 miles from home, rather than 60. ;D So he went back to work and I worked until the showers started again around 2pm. I stopped at the mill to drop off a half dozen jugs of water for blade lube mix and saw that he had set up the deck for the next milling job with a trailer backed in for the stacking. This is a load of customer logs to be milled mostly into 1x12's and some 2x6's.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211003_132350838_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1633344292)
The wife got home late last night and was pooped, but had a very good show, so her work was worth it. My daughter helped her pack up the show and get it home. We emptied my daughter's car and got her headed home by 8:30. We'll do the wife's van today.
Today was predicted to be a rain out so I have shop work planned. Now it appears much of the rain came through overnight and we are in a break until more comes in this afternoon. I'll see what happens when it gets light out. It's just another day, right?
Tom,
If you are flagging your neighbor's trees pending his approval have you tried using 2-3 colors of tape? I'd suggest that. Flag with one color as proposed then let him confirm it with another color so you know you are cleared to cut them. I guess you could use a 3rd color for him to deny approval for the ones he wants to keep. That could help preclude you marking them again in the future. Just a thought - remember, free advice is worth what you paid for it. :D
I am glad you have a good local source and it looks like the sawing is going well for you. I don't, nor do I need to, know what kind of compensation y'all worked out on that but I assume it is working well for both of you.
You'll have to negotiate a raise in a few months when you are a more experienced, more valuable sawyer. Of course he may backbill you for training hours on his mill. :D
Glad your wife's show went well. I like the idea of having a wealthy wife. I wish I had one. ;)
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on October 04, 2021, 03:31:42 PM...
Glad your wife's show went well. I like the idea of having a wealthy wife. I wish I had one. ;)
I wish I had one too. ;D This was her first major show since Sept or '19. What she makes in a year I can make in a month, but this is what she enjoys so.....
Yeah, I am messing around with flag colors but I don't want to go nuts and the flags can sometimes be hard to find. I used green for approved trees and blue for trees I marked needing approval. I just got some blue/white tape that is easier to see and I am going to give him a roll to keep in the crummy so he can mark any trees he comes across. We are coming closer on what we both choose and I am going to make an afternoon we can walk together and mark a bunch for winter cutting in January thru March. He is beginning to see that he is getting free TSI work and getting into it a little now.
We worked out a deal that I find fair to both of us wherein he just pays by the BF I produce at .30/bf. That way it doesn't matter when I work or when I come and go, or how long it takes me. It just works for us. The only issue I have to stay ahead of is when I am milling and he is grabbing stacks and getting them nailed up as I go. It can be hard to keep track of what I did. But that's on me to stay up on. If you look beyond the log deck in my previous post, you will see some lumber. Saturday around mid-day that area was full of lumber of various sizes but he needed it on the shop extension so was gabbing bunches through the day and when I took that photo Sunday there wasn't too much left.
He's a generous guy, I have no complaints. I do some other odds and ends like troubleshooting machines and repairs and such he just can't make time for. Today I removed a burned out relay from a PC board and replaced it with a new one for his OWB controller That's something he is not equipped to do. He also likes having an old guy around for his young help to watch and learn from. ;D
I get to mess with equipment I have never run before and learn some stuff along the way. I'm old and like many I know a lot, but there is a lot I don't know and I always enjoy learning and getting good (or moderately competent or even discover I suck) at new things. I also enjoy working with the younger guys.
Sounds like things are working out pretty well. When you started down this rabbit hole did you ever figure on being a mushroom logger and a paid sawyer?
:)
Quote from: Nebraska on October 04, 2021, 04:56:57 PM
Sounds like things are working out pretty well. When you started down this rabbit hole did you ever figure on being a mushroom logger and a paid sawyer?
:)
In a word ....................... NO.
I had only hoped that on my trip down the rabbit hole I could pick up a few bucks here and there and maybe get into something totally different than what I had been doing the last 50 years. When I fell in, I didn't know what a mushroom log was and when I first saw a WM hydraulic mill it scared me a little. :D Never expected any of this.
Tom,
That sure sounds like a fair deal to me especially since I gather he provides the mill, bands, fuel and maintenance materials. The TSI in exchange for mushroom logs and firewood and such also sounds like a good deal for both of you.
I have an old neighbor 1/4 mile away who asked me about some logs off some trees she was having cut. She had a tree trimmer cutting them away from her house. I agreed on a decent little red oak and even a beech butt log. I took my tractor, trailer, chainsaw, cable and snatch block down and cut and removed the logs I could use and her daughter and SIL had stacked a big pile of limbs and brush in her yard. I did not think she had any way to get rid of it so I asked, she did not, so I offered to haul it off in my 5X8 trailer behind my ATV to a burn pile in my pasture. I did that today. The tops and limbs I will go cut, and cut and removed the first load today, into firewood. It is nice wood and I was going to have to cut some on my place anyway so I figure I might as well get that out of her way and we both benefit this way. Sometimes things just fall into place.
Yeah, my neighbor across the road got all of his skid roads cleared and his woods cleaned up for free and I got about 3 years of firewood out of it. Still get a little now and then when I have the time. win-win.
Yeah, Bill takes care of all expenses, I am just a grunt, In fact he gets a kick out of it when I find a problem and give him a part number to order or adjust and fix things. He just doesn't have time to make it the way he knows it needs to be. Last week on a Sunday he installed a 25 gallon off-road diesel tank next to the mill with a crank pump, so all I have to do to re-fuel is stick the nozzle in the tank and give a few cranks and the nozzles kicks off when it's full. He said he has been meaning to do that for a year, had the tank and everything but when he saw me humping that 5 galloon jug around he just decided to get it done. Works really slick. Probably in the spring we will do a small rainwater collection system for lube water. I bring water from my system at home every week or so.
SO far, so good, :)
Well, I had planned Tuesday for a full workday but that tanked when my neighbor had a boiler issue and I had to hang around and let the service guys in. (The neighbor is back in the city.) He needed 2 new expansion tanks, they were water logged. Lucky it didn't get worse and run the boiler pressure up too high.
So by the time I got to the mill with a full deck on it I only got a few logs done and it was drizzling anyway. I got home around 5.
Yesterday was much better. I got to the mill before 10 and started right in, knocked out a couple of hundred board feet without issue. Shut the mill down at noon because I sensed the fuel was low (it was nearly out) so I shoved the nozzle in to fill it and only got a couple of cranks and found out the storage tank was out of fuel. I couldn't tell exactly what I had in the tank but it wasn't much and no point in starting back up just to run for 20 minutes and have it die in the log. So I cleaned up and did my tally. I headed across the road and up into the woods and found a nice place to sit and enjoy lunch. Then I cut a few more mushroom logs, cleaned up the brush and staged them by the 'road'. By then my back was getting pretty sore and I decided to quit for the day before I did something dumb.
A funny thing happened. When I drove into the woods I went through to spy out the marked trees, went to the top of a little knoll to turn around and park, then cut my way back down the road. As I was getting gear on, my phone 'pinged' with a text message. I know I have mentioned several times there is NO cell coverage in that area, but apparently in that one spot on top of the knoll, a text will come through. So I sent a text to Bill, letting him know I needed fuel, had found and marked an Ash log for another order and where it was, that he needed to pull out slabs because the pile was getting too high, etc. (I didn't get a reply until after 9:30 last night telling me it was all done and ready for me again. :)) It did take about 10 minutes for the text to go out, but it did go, so there is that.
I still have a few more marked trees to take and I am hopeful that I have enough to cover the two orders I have on hand. Tuesday I had a phone chat with my monthly client trying to find out what his needs are going forward so I can figure out my plans. He is well pleased with what I have supplied him and it frees up his time for other parts of his business which are growing, including those inoculation workshops. Not having to cut logs makes it easier for him to schedule a workshop every month except December-March (weather) and perhaps November. He also picked my brain on how it is going and together we worked out a plan that leaves either one of us an 'out' if things change. After I finish the current orders I will get with Bill and we will mark a bunch of trees while there is still some leaves so we can assess their condition. These will serve as the 'standing inventory'. Then when he needs logs or I get another order I can cut those trees needed as time and weather permits. This assures him the logs are available, it gives me a big mental buffer (finding trees is my only stress point in this game) and life is easier for both of us. He doesn't need to commit to anything and those trees can stand until needed. The landowner knows exactly what is coming out ahead of time. Everybody wins. My client also said if I am really looking to sell logs, he will gladly hand out my cards at his workshops and give me a plug. Last night he did the radio show I will be doing next week and he not only mentioned my name, but also the business name and gave me a nice plug and let folks know I will be on next week. It's still not a lot of money, but it is getting to be more regularly enjoyable work as I tweak the operational side and arrange things better. It is turning into the nice fill in work I had hoped for.
Today we have the monthly chiro visit and the timing is perfect because I need some mechanical work done to keep me going. :D Too many heavy slabs. My wife has a list of errands to run after that in prep for our annual visit to my cousin in VT this weekend. I need the weekend for work here, but I also need to just relax for a weekend and catch up with family a bit. This is one of those times where I am forcing my self to stop and have some R$R. I might get to the mill this afternoon, but I am thinking it's not likely. Friday I will hit it harder and see if I can get the deck cleared off. That would leave me with a good feeling, then next week get the mushroom logs done and delivered.
Today is another day, lets see what happens.
At least you keep priorities straight 👍
Sounds like you are getting a good system with the marked logs ready to cut on demand/as needed. Kind of like keeping deer on the hoof till needed.
I have about a 3 day job 15 miles away then about that much more the opposite direction for the same customer that I am doing alone and was going to start today but it is drizzling rain and looks the same for several days ahead. I had hoped to go catfishing 2-3 days next with a couple of old neighbors but looks like that may be hard to schedule.
Catching things up. I did make it down to the mill Thursday and just milled up one log which was Ash to cover 3 different orders. Some 10/4 planks for trailer ramps, some 6/4 planks for dump truck side boards, and 3 10/4 slabs with one live edge for bookmatched table slabs all 12' long. Only 220 BF but handling those slabs was a bit of a bear alone without a forklift and I didn't have time to go fetch one.
Friday I went back and knocked off the last 3 of those customer logs and tallied up the trailer total. 657BF total to close that out for the customer. I cleaned up and buttoned up the trailer. Then I went over and cut some more mushroom logs, headed home and packed for the weekend trip after sending the boss a list of what was done and what is needed at the mill next. ;D
Saturday morning we headed off to VT and there is always a ton of traffic this weekend because everyone from CT and MA and NY goes to Wilmington to see the fall colors and spend money, I guess. We didn't even stop at the quilt shops in town, I guess my wife is done with that nonsense. (She knows all their inventory by heart.) We did stop at the WIlmington Flea market where I always look for and buy several folding knives with a belt clip because I lose a couple in the woods every year or the clips break. I get them for $5-10. bucks and look for smooth blades, not that dang serrated nonsense. I found a few, plus a Trump knife for my buddy I think he will like. :) It's a good flea market and there are a few vendors I always buy cheap shop supplies from and sometimes even find a 'treasure' I have to have. This year I found two pulp hooks and a hay bale hook at the same guy, he had the hay hooked marked at 7 bucks, but I picked up all 3 and asked 'how much?' and he said 'how does 15 bucks sound?" I said 'that sounds like a deal to me' and walked away happy. I had looked at getting a pair of pulp hooks for lifting and loading mushroom logs 9 months ago, but at 40 bucks a piece I took a hard pass. 5 bucks each is much better to try out the concept.
SO we got to my cousins house and settled in. They have added a full bathroom upstairs in their house just for our convenience and it is super! 100 year old farm house and it's tough going down those narrow and very steep stairs in the middle of the night. We had a great steak dinner and lots of great family conversation. Every year when we go on this weekend many of my hunting cousins go further north for early deer season and are not around. But my one cousin is now fighting prostrate cancer so he was home and we got to see the new house they are building. It's a timber frame and they are doing a super job. My cousin appears to be having success in his cancer fight. We also visited his Pop, who is, I think, my oldest first cousin now at 93 (still driving every day). Good family visits all around. We did some driving around on the way home and the women all went up to a craft fair an hour north while the guys messed around at home. This morning I went out to the back of their property to check on their apple trees that are over 100 years old. Lest year they never grew a leaf and they looked dead and done. This year they popped out leaves on the top third and one had some fruit, I collected some apples in a bag, but not a lot, maybe 5 pounds. Then I hiked over to check the trees on the north end of the field and in the process I found the soft spot in the field where the water came up over my ankles and filled my low hikers. ;D Anyway, that one had popped back nicely and there were a lot of great bright red fruit on the ground in perfect shape, so I picked up another 5 pounds. It was worth the wet feet. I am glad those trees are coming back. They really need pruning, but should survive anyway. I do wish I had thrown another pair of shoes or boots in the truck. Mid-morning we said our good byes and headed home (me with soaking wet feet). We di stop at a place on our way out of town at a place my wife thought was a pottery store. It was the Vermont Bowl Company and their products for sale were 95% wood. Half the store was turned wood products, cutting boards, spoons, forks, shar-too-ray boards, etc. The other half was tables, benches, and slabs, either finished or not. Thata was the Vermont Live Edge store. Pretty good prices (fair, I thought) an I picked up a few ideas. The boss wasn't around, I would have liked to talked to him. When I got home I checked the website they listed and they have good photos I can reference to try some ideas. We did get a few small things my wife wanted. (Note to the bench makers here: go take a look at the benches on www.vermontliveedge.com just another set of ideas different from what we do.)
Anyway, we made the rest of the drive without event and when we got home I unloaded everything and we had lunch. I sharpened up those pulp hooks and gave 'em a try and I think they will work fine.
I walked up the road to look over my buddy's new Egg stand he set up by the side of the road, diagonally across from us. He put it in last week, but didn't level and stock it. I guess he did that over the weekend. His only scratched a price on a piece of scrap paper and it looked poor, the wind had flipped the paper over. So I came back to the house and printed out a proper sign on the computer and made a pair of multi-colored signs to put on the sides that just said "EGGS" so that folks would know it wasn't one of Howard's bus stop/deer blind/out house's and that they could get eggs if they just slowed down. I laminated everything and brought them down and stapled them up. Bill was out building a road for somebody somewhere, so I sent him a text and told him I made an improvement he should check out on his way home to make sure it was OK. He texted back and said "OK I'll check it out, I hope you didn't mess up my awesome sign". :D :D :D ;D "Nope, I left that sign just the way it was". (I had forgotten to pull it out. ;D)
I heard his truck stop down there earlier, but I haven't heard if he was OK with it yet.
Tomorrow is 'back to work day' and I have a full week with milling, the radio show, and a mushroom log delivery.
One day at a time, right?
Nice benches, I like the wedged tenons on the stretchers.
Tom,
Glad you enjoyed the family time. Many happy returns. Now for those apples you just need a big jar of crunchy peanut butter and and a stadium cup full of unsweetened ice tea with lots of ice and plenty of refills. digin1
I checked out the website. Very pretty wood and apparently it is moving at the prices listed because many were marked Sold. I was hoping to see the joinery he used to conned the top and legs. Nice leg stretcher design.
Yeah, I was curious about that too. No visible fasteners. It appears he puts a long rectangular tenon on the top the leg and a tight matching mortise in the seat bottom and it just sits there. The stretcher holds things stiff and square. That would allow for flat packing and shipping.
The benches remind me of the one that I made for Raider Bill. These pics are before the pure tung oil finish was applied. No fancy joint for the legs just lag bolted on with the holes plugged with walnut plugs.
At the price point on the benches in your link, OGH, you can't spend too much time on fancy joinery unless you like to work for free.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_0638.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1409697538)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_0644.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1409697695)
From what I can glean, he has some pretty nice equipment in his shop. He can probably knock in a through mortise in a couple of minutes that would take me a couple of hours. I just found his design concepts interesting.
OGH, you guys have a good method to dry the 10/4 ash? I haven't messed around with drying anything, officially, yet but that seems on the thick side. I have a ton of ash that I'd love to do stuff with and plan to turn a shed into a kiln of some sort over the next several months and I'd like to keep it thick, but also flat and straight. Just the normal sticker and stack methods?
Danny,
Those crotch wood legs look real sharp. Very well done!
Yeah Danny, those crotches caught my eye. Nice application and execution. I am hoping to get back on some benches this fall/winter if the milling and mushroom logs ever dies off. All these ideas are dancing in my head that I want to try.
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Yesterday was 'back to work day' after the weekend of leisure. I guess I need some re-retraining after 3 whole days off. I forgot my belt knife and my smaller tape measure, both of which I depend on for daily work. I got to the mill and was cutting on the first log by 10am after filling, fueling and a little arranging. Just starting the second log and saw that the top of the band was holding sap and sawdust even after I turned the flow way up. This has been getting more and more annoying in recent weeks. I just can't seem to keep that blade clean, top and bottom. I decided it was time to figure it out or go no further. SO I cleaned the head unit and tested it and found nothing coming out of the top nozzle. Well, that would do it. SO I removed it and fond that besides being plugged, it has taken a good hit from a band break oe something and the hole was closed off with mushed up brass. Of course I didn't have any small drills or a needle file set at the mill and no knife to work with. SO I drove up to the shop and with nobody around searched for needle files. No joy, but I found a hacksaw and could use that to open the hole a little and I found a tiny drill to ream it a bit by hand. It was passing air, so I drove back down an put it in and it worked better, but not perfect. It got me through the remainder of those 10'+ logs. Just as I finished up, Bill showed up between truck routes and showed me he had a brand new spare wire tied to the machine, so we swapped it out and I took the bad one back to my shop and fixed it last night. I still have one 12' log to do today, but the 2x12's I did yesterday were scooped up before I left and brought up to the shop for rafters. The guys were notching them when I left. Seems like I can't stay very far ahead of the build requirements and whne I do get ahead, we stick a customer order in and I am behind again. We got another small order over the weekend. Anyway, I finished up there and did a quick minimal cleanup, then headed across the road into the woods and took a couple more mushroom trees, bucked and stacked for pickup on Thursday's delivery. I only need 20 more for what I think is (the third version of) the end of the season. It may rain this weekend, and if it is enough to prevent roof work, Bill and I will walk and mark trees for winter cutting on a different part of his property he is exploring and I have not yet looked at.
WHen I finish this I am back to the mill to get that 12 footer done then back home by mid-day for a shower, lunch, and clean clothes. I have to head out to Roxbury for that radio show at 5. If any of y'all have a boring life like me and you want to waste an hour, you can listen live on WIOX HERE (https://www.wioxradio.org/index.html), just click on the "Click Here to Listen" button. The show runs from 6-7PM eastern time. It should be available for replay in a week or so on the Catskill Forest Assoc. web page. Let's hope I don't make a fool of myself, I think it should go fine though. Tomorrow I have logs to load and deliver.
Time to get on it.
They are actually WDH-made crotches. Imagine a live edge piece about 22" to 24" long and 14" to 16" wide. A rectangular piece. This will become the crotch leg. Split the piece into two equal pieces. Cut angles on each half so that when the angles are put together, the two pieces create a flare with a point on one end and a large splay on the other end. Trim to shape the crotch leg. Take a jigsaw and match the angle of the natural live edge with the blade then sculpt the insides of the crotch leg with the jigsaw to match.
I take a piece of cardboard the exact same size as the original live edge piece and fool around with the angles to find the right one to give the bottom of the splayed leg that sits on the floor the same width as the width of the bench top to make a super-stable bench.
A picture is worth a thousand words. With this technique, the WDH Crotch Leg Technique (WCLT), you can make beautiful crotch leg benches from any slab.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/FCC501EC-B831-4E8C-A966-5B860A7A3A74.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1634128481)
"Those crotch wood legs look real sharp"
oh good @WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) I thought this was a prosthetic for a pirate who lost his leg very very high up... :D :D :D
Quote from: doc henderson on October 13, 2021, 09:41:52 AM
"Those crotch wood legs look real sharp"
oh good @WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) I thought this was a prosthetic for a pirate who lost his leg very very high up... :D :D :D
The heck is all this crotch talk and drawings of pants? lol
Now I am really glad I edited my first response which went something like "Danny I really like how your crotches look on that bench".
So now we need to know the rest. How do you join the crotch pieces together and do I see 4 screws going through the seat into the ends of your crotches?
Clamping is a little tricky but I glued them. It is mostly long grain so the glue joint on the crotch leg is strong. As to the attachment to the top, on the bench pictured, I simply used long 1/4" lag bolts to bolt the top to the legs and plugged the holes with walnut plugs. Did not try to hide it, instead, I wanted to make the walnut plugs a visual feature.
On another one, I cut a blind mortise into the bottom of the bench top and made a tenon on top of the crotch leg and glued the leg to the top. However, that is a time consuming procedure and I decided that the time cost/value relationship was negative in that I could not recover that effort/cost easily in the selling price for a rustic bench. The lag screw approach is not fine wood working or all that fancy but it is relatively fast and used with glue, it is strong.
A better way might be to use dowels as floating tenons instead of metal lag bolts. I think that I will do it that way next time. I don't make these for charity so if I cannot make some money doing it I may as well do something else that does return value. One good thing is that every bench that I have made, and most of them used the Rite Legs, I have sold for enough to make it worthwhile for me.
If someone wants something for nothing, they can go elsewhere. If someone wants something cheap, there is Walmart or IKEA (although the IKEA junk is actually not cheap junk it is expensive junk). I spend a good bit of time on drying my bench stock properly for the intended use (8% for indoor use) along with a good bit of time on the sanding and finish. Nothing worse than making a fine beautiful piece then doing a crap job finishing it.
Good job Tom. I missed the first part, but I heard the last 30 minutes. Before I met you I had never heard about the whole mushroom log business. It's interesting.
Tom you sounded like a natural mushroom log expert. the audio was great, but I never got the picture to tune in. lol :) :) :)
Quote from: HemlockKing on October 13, 2021, 12:13:00 PM
Quote from: doc henderson on October 13, 2021, 09:41:52 AM
"Those crotch wood legs look real sharp"
oh good @WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) I thought this was a prosthetic for a pirate who lost his leg very very high up... :D :D :D
The heck is all this crotch talk and drawings of pants? lol
at least in the diagram he labels where the waste is so you know how to put the pants on...wait there are 3 of them.. :)
Thanks for the details Danny. I had guessed you glued and screwed, but then I wondered if you migh have had a mortise hidden under there. Turned out I guessed right both times, sort of. ;D Nicely executed! I too spend a lot (too much?) time on finishes soemtimes sanding it all off and starting over. What's the point in a pretty piece if the finish is crap? I envy Bill's skill at applying what I call 'fancy stuff in fancy ways' and it always comes out perfect on the first go. If I were a lesser man, I would be jealous. :D
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Well, I got down to the mill today and 'whipped out' some 2x12x14's. Only got 6 out of the log, not much of a 'daily tally' but those were so heavy I couldn't lift them and the forklift as a half mile away. SO I left them all on the loader arms. Those slabs were dang heavy too and even after I cut them into 3 pieces I had trouble moving them to the pile. No matter I was out of logs and leaving them where I did makes an easy lift to get them up to the shop. No more logs on the deck so I was done anyway. That worked out fine. I had to get home for lunch and a shower.
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I tried to get a nap in but no-go on that. Wasn't tired. I am not used to going out at night and was stressed about the radio show a little. I left the house before 4pm to make it to the CFA office by 5:15. Even though I hit some slow drivers that mad me a little nuts, I still arrived 25 minutes early, so I cooled my heels in the museum parking lot across the road then pulled in on time. I should have just showed up early because they (2 guys) were just waiting for me. I had a good feeling when I saw a LogRite ATV arch in the parking lot. SO Ryan, the host and his co-host Zane and I piled into Ryan's truck and headed another 20 minutes up the line to the station and did the show. I was a little nervous, but I don't think it came off too poorly. I will have to listen to the show to hear what I said. I do know my cell phone text message beep went off several times before I could get the dang thing turned off AS I was trying to answer a question. I don't want to say what that was all about but the offending text message senders have names that rhyme with Bill and Bryan, as I found out when I finally got home and looked. :D :D Thanks guys!
The show should be posted a week from tomorrow and I am anxious to hear how it went. I could have relaxed more and it would have come off better, I know that for sure. I did get some music plugs in for local music and I am happy for that anyway but I didn't include all the discography I wanted to because there just wasn't time. Oh well, it is what it is (was). Done with that, it was fun, tomorrow is another day.
I have to load mushroom logs and get them delivered by 1pm, then I might be stopping to look at a simple tree job on the way home that could yield some firewood and a few bucks besides, but we shall see. So another light day, then Friday back to milling, I am sure there will be a list to be cut for the guys to get nailed up over the weekend. Hopefully there is a deck of logs loaded to support that list. ;D Friday afternoon and sometimes Saturday milling means I have a good chance of having a good tailgunner and whacking stuff out.
I'm just gonna have a couple of 'pops' and hit the rack and start again tomorrow.
Happy Birthday @doc henderson (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=41041) ! 8) 8) smiley_clapping smiley_bouncing_pinky smiley_bounce dancing-jack smiley_hillbilly_tub_base smile_banjoman smiley_fiddler
I hope you have a great day Bryan! (I figured if I put this here you would see it for sure.)
Thanks Tom. up since 5 am yesterday, long night last pm with meetings this am. having a blue moon after work so I can sleep. I feel all of 61 this am. I was born at about 7 am about 23 miles from here. God bless all. Doc
I'm excited to listen to the show, Tom, it's become one of my regular podcasts to listen to now. It's relaxing, informative (even several hundred miles away), and funny. I forgot to listen live but I'll catch it soon enough.
It should be up by this time next week. They post the previous weeks show just before they record the new show and it takes overnight for it to trickle through the system. There is a new show up this morning from last week wherein I got a little plug from the grower that was on who is also one of my clients. In fact I am leaving to deliver another 65 logs to him in a few minutes.
Well, with a couple of days messing around with other stuff I got the feeling I needed to catch up on things at the mill. So i headed down this morning and as I expected, there were some logs cued up for a customer order and more shop framing. the 5/4 x12x12 were pretty easy and I got exactly what the customer needed out of one log, but it took some fancy footwork. The 2x12x10'6"s for the shop were pretty easy too but I came up 1 short on the log for what we needed. The slabs were pretty heavy (lots of taper) even after I hacked them into 5' lengths and by the time I was done on that I was pretty pooped. The milling was fine, the tailgunning was wearing me out. I was running out of room for all the slabs from the last 3 or 4 sessions. Then I blew up a blade, ran it too long, a problem for me on this fancy machine, I continue to work on that. I figured I would at least start on the 14 footers but my back was screaming. I got it canted up fine, but geez louise those slabs weighed a ton, even cut to 5 footers I couldn't lift them and had to 'walk' them to the pile, which was out of control. I gave up on any 'neatness' at that point, standing upright was hard enough. But what the heck, I milled up 7 2x12x14's and slid them over onto the loading arms. No way could I move them. I was done, no more logs, and as far as I could tell I was caught up on the orders. I only needed 4 of those 14 footers but got 7, so that will more than make up for the deficit on the 10+ footers.
I cleaned up and parked the mill, but it was only 2 and although my back was screaming I decided if I wanted to give my back a break going forward I should get a little more practice on that skidsteer. So I drove up to the shop and parked my truck and jumped in the skidsteer, played with the controls a bit to remember, then headed back to the mill.
Funny thing abut running equipment, it really helps to have somebody whispering in your ear which button does what, how to do things gently, where the throttle should be etc. On the other hand, if you are like me, it also helps to have time alone with no distractions to figure it out and get it parsed out in your head so it makes sense to you. The problem arises when you can't quite figure it out and there is nobody to touch base with when you need that one piece of information. That would be me today. ;D
It took a while to get down to the mill and I was in no hurry, trying to get used to the limited sight profile in a skidsteer, watching where the grapple is out in front of me and negotiating curves in the road in some fashion without looking like a spastic. It just takes time, i know this and am in no rush. I ain't getting paid by the hour anyway. ;D So I got to the mill and it took a lot of spastic grapple motions to get the load picked up off the loader arms without making contact with the mill. I am SO glad nobody was watching and there are no video cameras. It wasn't pretty, but I was gonna do this, so I just tried again until it was pretty much right. I did munge up he bottom 2x12 just a bit, but I got the load up and got it out and clear. The I just had to bring the load of 14' boards up a 10' wide road, so I twisted the load a little and wound my way on up. It took a while, but I made it and managed to lay it down as gently as anyone could have wanted. It would have been nice if the pile didn't fall over, but I couldn't help that. It's up there and saved them a trip (which could have been done in less than half the time by anybody else. But I am learning, this is all brand new to me. It just takes time.
I parked the skidsteer where I found it, jumped in the truck, headed home, had lunch at 2:30, ran to town for fuel and beer (low on both), then came home and mowed the back lawn, which took 2 passes and still looks terrible. There is something whacking in the mower deck I have to fix, so I didn't do the front lawn. Then I went back down to Bill's because we were going to walk the woods and flag trees. Well he had a salesman there (I have no idea which job he was quoting) and I apparently arrived at beer-thirty, so that's what we did for an hour or two and talked about 'stuff'. I finally had to get home for dinner time, so I took 5 dozen eggs and drove back then re-stocked Bill's egg stand across the road from my house for the weekend and took a dozen home for us.
Man, my back is hurting worse tonight than it has in a year or more. I keep looking at the clock and waiting until I can take some more advil. I overdid it, apparently. This may be gone in the morning, but we shall see. Sleep might be tough tonight. Tomorrow is gonna have to be a lighter day for sure. Bill thinks it will be a rain out day to do office work, I am thinking it will be a good working day until late afternoon. Either way, tomorrow is another day. Lets just see what it brings.
Well I slept OK Friday night but as soon as I got out of bed yesterday I knew it (my back) was still an 'issue'. Hurting pretty good and I had no choice but to lay off for the day. Thought it was going to be a rainout anyway, but the radar showed we had at least 8 hours before the front would hit. I texted Bill to see if we could get out and flag some trees, but he didn't respond and I assumed he was doing family stuff or up on the roof nailing rafters in. I lazed around for the day and took a pretty good nap, which in itself is unusual for me, so I guess I needed it. By mid-afternoon I was going a little stir crazy so I got in the truck and drove down to Bill's. Nobody was home and the dog didn't even bark at me, so I assume she was asleep in the house. I dropped off some jugs of blade lube by the mill and stopped by the pond to watch the birds for a little bit. There are some kind of fish in there and I made a note to check that out sometime. I headed home and the wife had gotten back from her craft show. She did OK for a small show. We made an easy dinner and that was the day. I finally heard back from Bill around 8:30 last night, they were out picking pumpkins with their little girl and doing other family stuff, and it was a good day for that. We made tentative plans to go out and flag today. My back is still sore, but a little better than yesterday. If it's not better by tomorrow I will call in to get a quick fix done, but that costs me another day in lost time. I need my last (I think) 40 logs by the end of the week and I think there is yet more milling to do. I am at around 3,000 BF so far this month. (Interesting note, this will be the 3rd time my 'mushroom log season' has ended this year. Every other time, somebody would call and I found myself at it again. I don't think that will happen this time because I should really wait until late December to cut anymore when the sap is way down. I am hoping the snow gives us a break so that I can cut in January and February and stock up a bit. Those winter cut logs can sit for a couple of months because of the low sap content. Hopefully I can mark some of those trees today.
Time to get a move on.
OG, the back/spine is the Achilles heel of humans, while also being so important obviously, the human body is so resilient, but good lord how easy it is to get permanent back pain. I’ve been so careful since my first injury 8 years ago(lumbar bulging disc) and just to injure my spine around the shoulder blade area(I believe this injury came from the incident I posted in did something dumb today thread, small tree fell on my head), now when I hover my head to look down I get a pain, at least at it seems to go away with activity as my lower back pain does, sciatica down the left leg usually stays though.
HK I am aware of that as clearly as could be. ;D :D You need to find a good Chiropractor, mine changed my life. After he fixed my intial injuries 3 years ago he started to find other issues and asked me about prior injuries, sometimes it took a day or two for me to recall an incident from decades prior related to that injury, but sure enough he was right every time and he did some adjustments to put stuff back where it belonged. I am at a point now where 'dumb things' that used to take me out for 2 weeks of recovery are now gone by the next morning. My body and bones are more aligned and the load is absorbed better by all the various parts. It's pretty amazing. Friday's dumb move was picking up a couple of 150 pound slabs and carrying them to the pile, not once, but a dozen times. Stupid. Today wasn't so bad, just a little tweaky as we picked our way through the woods marking trees. I might get in Monday fora tune-up, but maybe not. We will see what the rest of today brings. I am going to attack that stove repair job, which should be 'light duty' once I get the screws broken off and drilled out.
I thought you'd taught yourself how to run that skid steer thingy he's got up there. ;) last time I really kinda jacked up my back it was slab wood as well...
Quote from: Nebraska on October 17, 2021, 06:36:28 PM
I thought you'd taught yourself how to run that skid steer thingy he's got up there. ;) last time I really kinda jacked up my back it was slab wood as well...
Yeah, [hangs head and kicks at the dirt] I kinda did. Call me an 'entry level operator', but I didn't feel like climbing the hill to go fetch it and usually when I cut the slabs into 5' chunks, they are easy, but not this log. My bad. I also need to learn how to change implements. The forks would have been easier than the grapple. Bottom line I have to get over is time. Everything takes time and time is money, so I went for the quickest solution and that's what done me in. I wanted to get the lumber done and get onto other things. My tasks at my own shop are mounting. I thought I would have it light this week and might get a little caught up, but today he gave me another order for about 100 4/4x12x10's. At least those are shorter. But yeah, next run I will get a machine down there with something on the front of it.
So just summarizing the day, because it was a fairly good one for me, I got out and found another 3 gallon jug I forgot about, so I filled that with rain water and threw it in the truck. Got down to Bill's around 10am and dropped the jug off by the mill then went up to the house and nobody answered the door, so after the normal search (check the shop, etc.) I decided to wander the part of his property I had not yet walked. I only got part way through when I heard his voice through the trees and then little Inga's voice (4 years old and cute as a button with no fear) We marked some trees where I was, then headed to the shop and pulled out the gator. He has had a problem with it we think might be vapor lock, not sure yet. He had this idea to put a primer bulb in the line to push fuel in when it shuts off after running a while. I guess today was the day to do that. 15 minutes later the 3 of us piled in and started cruising for trees. We were also on a mission to see if we could find his property markers. We'd drive 100' then park and wander and mark some trees, drive a little further and find some more. Inga had a good time climbing all over and asking questions and giving directions. :) At some points we spent more time wandering looking for property markers than we did for trees. All told we drove around for a few hours and I counted 28 trees marked. I believe we had a bunch more, maybe 35, but I didn't hit the clicker on more than a few of them and lost count. I think that would give about 200 mushroom logs and maybe up to 250. Most of these will hopefully be cut in the January/February timeframe assuming I can get to them and find them and get them out. I may use Bill's gator instead of my mule, that thing goes everywhere. On our run back the gator finally quit with that pesky problem and the primer bulb worked like a charm. So there is that.
We got back to the house and they had a visitor whom I knew, so I went in and visited a while, then headed home and made lunch around 2pm. I heade out to the shop and started in on the woodstove which I have put off too long. Those stainless screws are a bear to drill out and I wnet through 4 HSS bits but got the top hat off the stove. Set the chimney aside and started chipping and wire brushing, then grinding the residual gasket material off. I still have the studs in the holes to deal with, but by the time I got that much done, I called it a day. Getting the studs out will take a fresh mindset. Then I may open those holes up to 1/4-20 instead of the 10-24's they are now. I also need to make a new gasket, set the new combustor in, and resetting the gasket and sealing it all up. I figure that will take the better part of a day, but I might need to order gasket material somewhere in there, I haven't checked my 'stock' yet.
Anyway, my back felt fairly good bopping around in the woods even though it remains tweaky and spending a few hours with a 4 year old finding all kinds of neat things is always fun. I did enjoy that a lot. Plus I did actually get some things done. Tomorrow I will focus on that stove and stay around the house and shop. The weather is changing and I need to get things ready for heating quickly. I am still worried about getting the rest of the firewood put up, but I saw some nice dead standing ash at Bill's we might make a trade deal on. That will help a bit.
Tomorrow is another day.
Sorry for busting your chops a little but Changing the implements on the skid steer is very simple if they are quick attach Bob Cat type latches. Two latches to undo (plus quick attach hydraulic couplers....don't get in hurry and forget them. ::) just saying for a friend) and you are good to go. Other systems are probably about as easy just only kind I have. Takes five minutes max to switch including walking across the place to get the machine. You can handle it easy.. If you can make the skid steer go it will make you more productive and save your body for important stuff like hiking in the woods with a four year old.🙂
Sounds like a good day. I had help home yesterday, we got a bunch of odds and ends done stove is ready to go. May actually mill some cedar this evening if all goes well.
Quote from: Nebraska on October 18, 2021, 08:21:37 AM
Sorry for busting your chops a little but Changing the implements on the skid steer is very simple if they are quick attach Bob Cat type latches. Two latches to undo (plus quick attach hydraulic couplers....don't get in hurry and forget them. ::) just saying for a friend) and you are good to go. Other systems are probably about as easy just only kind I have. Takes five minutes max to switch including walking across the place to get the machine. You can handle it easy.. If you can make the skid steer go it will make you more productive and save your body for important stuff like hiking in the woods with a four year old.🙂
Sounds like a good day. I had help home yesterday, we got a bunch of odds and ends done stove is ready to go. May actually mill some cedar this evening if all goes well.
Well, one of the mental challenges for me is that he has 4 or maybe 5 skid steers (I have never seen them all in the same place at once) plus a tool cat with 4 wheel steering. Each seems to have somewhat different controls. Some you have to latch and unlatch the locking levers manually, and some have hydraulic releases. Operating controls are also in at least 2 different schemes and with the short periods of time I am in them, it's hard to keep it all straight, so I shy away from it.
Cool here last night, maybe that will help get me moving on the stove today.
OGH, if you were in my will, I would bequeath you a paragraph spacer ;D.
you will have to latch on to one, maybe that stays at the shop or near the mill. My cat has a control selector to do cat or case controls. the electric over hydrolic pilot joy stick controls can be configured for each with a flip of a switch. with one you steer with your L hand, and control the bucket with your right. in the case # 2, you steer with both hands front and back like the old manual type, and the bucket with both, moving side to side the control pistol.
Quote from: WDH on October 18, 2021, 09:59:04 AM
OGH, if you were in my will, I would bequeath you a paragraph spacer ;D.
Sorry. I wasn't aware, until now, that this was an issue. I will endeavor to do better henceforth.
Tom,
Don't let that Dawg bite you in the butt. Just tell him you have too much to cover and too little time to be wasting it on punctuation and grammar and such. Spelling ain't real high on the requirements list either. Remember when Johnny Inkslinger of Paul Bunyan fame quit dotting his i's and crossing his t's he saved several barrels of ink each week. (What - you don't remember Johnny Inkslinger. Shame on your HS history and English teachers for not properly imparting the needed knowledge to you as a student!)
@WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) Hilarious!
Howard, I had forgotten about Mr. Inkslinger, but I went back and did some remedial study to get me back up to speed. We didn't cover that in High School, I think we did Paul in elementary school. Doc, I'll be enhancing my equipment usage if I am to stay at this sawing gig much longer. I just have to.
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Well Yesterday I jumped back on the stove and stayed at it all day. Those little 10-24 stainless screws were a bear to drill though but after a handful of bits and some re-sharps I got the holes opened up. Some of the holes had 'moved' when the drill slid off my chosen path, so I opened all the holes up to a tapped 1/4-20 and then spent some time with a file adjusting the holes in the top hat to match. I found some steel 1/4-20 black socket head caps screws and stainless washers to use this time. maybe they will be easier to get out, if there is a next time. Rest assured I will be much more careful loading wood so I don't hit that dang combustor.
I got all the parts cleaned up best I could, cut new gasket parts, installed the combustor and had it ready to go back together by 2:30 or so. I was a little short on gasket sealer, so I let the wife know I was going out for a tube at the local store and should be back shortly. Well, the local stove shop is closed on Mondays and rather than lose the momentum I drove to home despot, where I found plenty of plastic Christmas trees on display all over but when I asked about woodstove supplies was told, 'Oh we don't have those out yet, they didn't come in'. I noted loudly how they have a fine display of things nobody wants yet but lack any of the stuff needed now and walked out. I went to Lowes and although they had their woodstove stuff out (but well hidden) they didn't have the stove gasket sealer I wanted, just some silicon garbage rated for 600°. Not what I wanted and I don't compromise on some things. Again, I left in disgust and headed to Tractor supply. They had 2 tubes of the right stuff left and I bought both.
By the time I got home it was almost 5:30 and dinner was cooking. So we did that and the after dinner chores, then I went back out and did the re-assembly without much trouble. Not even sure what time I came back in the house. Just as I sat down with a beer my phone rang with a surprise call from a fellow FF member and we had a nice 'catch up chat' for about an hour which was a nice way to close out the day. I was in bed by 9 and pretty tired.
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Yesterday while I was having SO much fun with the stove, I entertained a series of emails from a new customer wanting mushroom logs. He just got in under the wire because I was calling it quits after this final order this week. He has very specific requirements, but nothing out of the ordinary, just picky on sizes. He's new, he'll learn. :D Only wants 20 logs but that means I have to get on it if I want it all done this week. SO the plan for today is to get that chimney finished and I may move the stove a little in the process, then once that is done I hope to head down and start cutting some to get a jump on this. Seems like things keep popping up to keep me from finishing firewood. Today is just another day, but with the backlog I have I will have to start driving harder to get this stuff done before the weather gets unpleasant and that could happen any week now. I figure I got 3 weeks tops before it gets cold.
Time to get at it.
I didn't realize the bounty of machines at your disposal. I would negotiate a dedicated "yard" machine that you can grab and become comfortable with. Subtle differences in machine controls can cause a little heartburn at times.
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:D :D :D
Glad you got the stove done those 1/4 inch bolts should be better if you need to deal with the catalytic burner again.
Nice breaks. Much easier on the reader, Sir.
Tom,
OK, maybe Paul Bunyan was grade school and not high school. I am glad you guys covered him. BTW - the US Post office did a tribute to American folk heroes including Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, The Mighty Casey and John Henry. Please note of these only one was a real life character - John Henry. He helped dig the railroad tunnel at Big Bend here in Summer's County at Talcott, WV and we have a John Henry park with a statue and history of him. When you come visit we'll take you to it. His wife, Polly, is buried in a local cemetery here.
Okay, back on track. I am glad you got that spacing thing figured out so our hound dog (OK - Bulldoggie) fan can keep up better. It takes so little to get them confused and bewildered and you have to take special care to accommodate them. Sort of like herding cats or teaching kindergarden. :D
Glad you found your sealant and got you stove fixed.
Early post today, I am fading fast. ;D
Hit the rack early last night and got up at 4:30, so I was out in the shop early and attacked the chimney issue. I put in a new 45° elbow, decided not to move the stove because it would just make things harder and got the chimney all screwed back together. Working on the ladder wasn't fun or easy and put a load on my back, but I got it all done. Removed all the temp supports and started a little fire which I finally got burning well by 9:30 and let it gro for a while until it was ripping a little and put a load of dry junk stuff in it. By 10 I had a decent running fire and finally got it up to temp and burned off all the Blue Creeper and such I had used for tapping and drilling fluid as well as when I foolishly thought I could get the screws loose at all. The shop filled with smoke and I opened some doors for a bit and then got the temp in the shop up to about 62° and that was good enough. I throttled it down to a normal burn, came in an had an early lunch around 11.
The extra Mushroom log order had me feeling a little pressure to 'get it all done' so I can move on. I wasn't sure how much I could fit this 'picky new buyer's' needs into the trees I had marked combined with the other order I had left or how much I could get done today. So I headed to the woods to get started. I went way back up and in, thinking it might be the harder area to get to when the snow is deep. I wasn't really finding trees that fit his 'requirements'. Trees are funny and I don't get to pick the best trees, they stay and grow. My trees are the ones with 'issues' old scrub mark, lightening strike, bad tops, heavy twisted leaners. Funky stems that will never grow well, that's why I get them. Too big, too small, I get 'em all. I leave some butt logs for landowner firewood and stuff like that so the yield is a lot less than I'd like sometimes. Sometimes I get 90% of the tree, but not often.
SO I started with 3 trees and got them down and bucked up, some for each order. Then I was pooped, and took a short breather. My back was giving up on me. Back to work, cut some more, another break. I got a text from my ongoing buyer and he reduced his order just a little bit because he still has logs from the last order. That worked out fine, I got his text, did a quick count and realized I was about to cut my last 2 trees. :) SO I got everything down, bucked and stacked by the trail. Then I just had to load and keep them separate (different lengths and size limits). That pretty much finished off my back.
I crawled on out (such is my habit, too much to look at) and when I got back to the area of the mill and the {ahem} 'main road', I had to sneak back between the firewood log piles (zero clearance) and turned onto the road I looked and saw that 'somebody' had removed the roadblock logs to get through. Those logs were in place when I went in, but they were pulled aside and NOT replaced. I figured it was the amazon guys again, but the fact that they snuck through only bothered me a little, that they didn't put them back really set me off. Kind of that thing about leaving farm gate the way you found them, I was brought up to put things back the way they were and THAT really set me off. I got out and reset them and before I cleared the property I ran into Bill coming home and told him what I found. He figured, as I did, it was the Amazon drivers again. SO later tonight a bigger log will be planted just a little further down the road. Last Friday he found 2 Amazon drivers, one on each side of the roadblock, exchanging packages. At that point, he called the cops, not that they would respond that far out, but the complaint is on file, then he called the Amazon dispatch office and told them they could deal with the police from here on. Then this today, seems like we have a war brewing up pretty well now. When I get back to milling I will have to start writing down license plates and taking names. ;D Maybe I should dig out my old badge.
So I got a good days work in, actually got more than I hoped for completed, but my back is wrecked again. I didn't give it enough time to really recover since Friday and with the stove works yesterday, the ladder work this morning, then the logs, I just plain overdid it. Tomorrow I plan a true shop day of cleaning up and straightening things out. I have made a mess of it in the last 5 months and I can't do much before getting things mostly straight. I'll worry about that tomorrow, for tonight I will just moan a bit and go to bed early. Tomorrow will take care of itself.
Thanks for the continuing saga of life for you Tom. It's good to know just exactly how your constant work at being retired and trying to make a buck to stay that way are. It was truly good to talk to you last night. More for later, I have more FF to catch up on pc_smiley
Quote from: Tacotodd on October 19, 2021, 08:52:24 PMIt's good to know just exactly how your constant work at being retired and trying to make a buck to stay that way are.
I fell into a weird sideline money maker. I run into various contractors remodeling stores. They toss out all the old fixture and buy new ones. Sometimes there is some good metal for my
junk pile stockpile. I ask and they are more than happy for me to take them. I break the metal down on the spot (to fit flat in my truck/trailer) and toss the wood and plastic in the dumpster. I get up to 1,000 pounds and make $100-200 for a few hours work taking the metal to the steel recycler. Mixed steel is fetching $260/ton and cast iron $290/ton. One time I got around 125 pounds of NEW aluminum poster frames for in-store signs. That was $100! Over the last 6 weeks or so, I've made over $1,000. I also respond to the close ads on CL for free metal.
That sounds too much like work to me John. ;D I'd rather scrounge for other income sources, but if it works for you, good on ya!
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Well, yesterday turned out to be mostly a lost day. I had forgotten it was our monthly food shopping day, which means I lose half the day right off the bat. On top of that I had to, once again, roll out of bed and reconstruct myself in an upright position with some difficulty. I had really finished myself off with Tuesday's work. But in true fashion I told myself it would feel better after I walked it off for a while, so we went shopping and about half way through the store (I push the cart, search CL on my phone for deals, and say 'Yes Dear' a lot, then do all the loading and carrying) I realized I was in rough shape and this could take a couple of weeks to smooth out, plus it would never really smooth out if I didn't get thigs put back in line in the first place. So I texted 'my guy' and shortly he texted back that he could stick me on the end of his day at 5:30 because he would be gone the next 4 days to a conference. After carrying in a couple hundred pounds of food I was nearly back to using a cane again, so the rest of the day I moped around and did very light work, didn't even do much in the shop at all. Well, he worked on me for about 45 minutes and put me in fair condition. I still need to do some healing and he wants me to walk as much as I can "without carrying logs or slabs or tools or anything!". He's got me figured out too well. ;D Apparently my L2,3,4 had each shifted in different directions and were fighting it out for who was right. I am much better this morning just sore and achy and promise to take it easy today. Glad I got all those logs cut Tuesday.
____________________
In other news, the radio show I did last week was released this morning. If my dragging on here hasn't shut your brain down yet, you can go hear the show directly AT THIS LINK (https://catskillforest.org/radio-new/). It will be the first show in the listing for the next week. If you look for it after that, just scroll down and look for the one with the title that begins with "Woodsman Forest Products...". It is also available as a podcast now on many of those players (PodBean is their main one) on a podcast called "From the Forest".
So I got to hear the show for the first time this morning and it didn't sound as bad as I thought it would. I can clearly hear the tones from my cell phone when those text messages came in from Bryan and Bill though. ;D There was a lot I had on my list to talk about, but they did a good job covering the subject for a first pass. I enjoyed doing the show, but I don't see that they will have a need to have me back again, I am not that deep. :D It was fun for a one time deal, time to get back to work. I have a customer coming to pickup logs tomorrow (Friday) afternoon, and I have to go down and fetch up the rest of the logs for Saturday's workshop delivery, which I will stay for. It was mentioned in the radio show and as this one is sponsored by the CFA and run by my client who was on the show the week before me, it just worked out to have us all together to answer any questions the participants may have. After that, I have no idea. I have an order pending at the mill for 1,000BF, but we have to pick logs and get me a machine with forks down there to work with. I've got to get a little smarter, if that's possible.
Today I hope to take it easy but with all the stuff I need to get done, that might not be as easy as it sounds. One day at a time, right?
Excited to listen to the show Tom! I'll probably check it out tonight as I try to finally finish a mantle that I've been sitting on much too long.
I have some back issues myself but have learned with stuff like your slabs you were speaking of getting a bunch of weight out in front of me often causes big trouble. I'm usually not too bad with weight as long as it's kept close to my body but that's not always an option.
Thursday I played lazy guy and kicked around on little things, following the Doc's suggestions, mostly. Sharpened my saw, fixed a few little odds and ends, etc..
Friday I headed to the woods to pick up about 13 logs I had queued up to finish off the 'last order of the season' (?) so I have abut 30-35 in the truck. But when I picked one up, something in my back went out and I felt that $60. chrio visit evaporate into the foggy morning air. These logs are only 40-50 pounds each, but I guess that was enough. At any rate, the last load is on the truck.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211022_093001961.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1634986039)
I came back home and started working on a electrical issue on the Mule, all the auxiliary stuff I added was out. Blown fuse, but why? So I pulled the panel and worked on that for a while, doping it out. In the meantime my log pickup client showed up and got his logs. He had to load his own because my back wouldn't have it. After the usual chit-chat, I talked him into picking up some eggs at Bill's eggs stand just across the road and I saw him stop there after he pulled out. ;D
Then I went back and finished figuring out the electrical issue. A cheap toggle switch that failed and had a leak to ground. Also, that fuse may have been just a little small for a full load on it, which I rarely do. All good now...I think. I really need that light bar for plowing season.
Funny thing happened on my way down to collect those logs. It's one of the interesting things about working at Bill's place, you never know what you are going to find. As I pulled in around the house I found this sitting there, he must have brought it in on Thursday.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211022_092936010.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1634986036)
Yeah, an Ice Cream truck that just needs a cab, engine, and drive train. Otherwise, ready to go. :D Why? I have no idea. Maybe he wants the refer unit? I know he already has a refrigerated beer trailer that holds about 8 kegs plus food, so it's not that. I texted him about it when I got home but he hasn't replied yet. My only thought is that is might be converted into a kiln. A rolling kiln would be kind of cool, I think. But we shall see what he has in mind and I am curious to learn how he came how he acquired it, which is usually an interesting part of the story. There's always something a little weird going on around here. ;D :D
Today I am heading out to make that last delivery in a little while, then I will stick around for the class in case there are any questions about logs. Maybe it will be fun to just hang out for a few hours. If I can work it out I may try to stop in and visit a FF member and catch up on his projects. I have a B'day party to make in late afternoon for one of the Grandson's, so it might get tight. But at least I'll be giving my back some time to catch up. Standing around in the shady woods on a damp, cloudy, cold day is not my first choice, but there are a lot worse things I could be doing. ;D
I am being good and letting my back recover as it may, which is quite slow, just like me. I delivered the last load yesterday morning and very carefully unloaded, taking my time as I had plenty of it. Then I hung around for the workshop and helped them get things setup, which included walking across the road to the orchard and picking apples for the attendees to eat during the class. I found my client to be an excellent teacher and instructor full of information. Glad I stayed, I learned some new things and feel myself slowly slipping into trying my hand at growing some of these things, perhaps in a mulch bed style. It seems like an interesting way to grow wine caps. He also introduced a method, new to me, of expanding mulch beds by laying oak cookies on top of the bed to be used as foot treads for a year while the mycelium propagates into the cookie, then you transfer that cookie to another fresh mulch bed and the mycelium propagates into that bed. Looks like I will be supplying him with a few cookies for each new workshop he does next year. He demos this technique for each class but had no cookies. I can fix that. ;D
He also shared his plans with me to improve his outdoor classroom with better fixtures for log inoculation, some more permanent tables and things of that sort. I mentioned it was all stuff I could make and he lit up and said "have at it, I don't really have the time. That would be a huge help." So I guess I have to mill up some materials and find some others. :) I think we can do something to fix things up for him.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211023_115317656_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1635080047)
I headed home after the class and answering questions for some of the attendees. Late afternoon we headed over to my son's place for a grandson's birthday party which was as loud as you might guess. I ran into Bill's right hand man there and asked about the ice cream truck. Turns out they got it for Bill's buddy who has a camp/home up in Maine. They will modify it into a trailer before bringing it up there for his game meat refrigerator or something. I later ran into the step father of of my son's ex and he saw my woodmizer suspenders and asked if I knew anything about sawmills because he was thinking about getting one to build a small cabin from his trees. ;D So That was a conversation that sounded a lot like so many FF threads we have all read. :D
As for today, I will just let it come as it may and follow my nose without making my back worse. I am running out of advil.
Tom,
Sorry about the old bad back. When you go visit your family and friends in Norway be sure to take plenty of Advil with you as it is hard or impossible to get there. Our Noggie daughter (Former exchange student) always tells us to bring her several bottles when we come. I had more problems getting medice there in Norway than I ever did in remote villages in Africa or the Amazon jungle or the mideast. All medical care is socialized in Norway so people got to the doctor for everything and OTC meds are in very short supply compared to what we have over here. In the remote areas there are few is any regs on getting even prescription meds.
I hope that Hersey's cooler works out well for a game cooler. Should do the trick!
Tom, I listened to the show and you did great! It was interesting to hear your gruff voice (ha! You sound like a man's man!), and you had lots of neat stuff to say. Your episode and John's before you were both fascinating! You did great on the music!
Did you say you were on a cell phone for the show? It sounded very good!
I get the feeling that YOU are the market maker on your mushroom logs. 5 bucks per log, with your stories of how you get them, seems cheap.
Howard, when I visited for 3 weeks back in '93 I was once again nursing a bad back injury and I had a bottle of prescription pain killers which I did not take for the whole trip until near the very end. I had been sleeping in a 'too short for me' bed and finally one night I took the painkillers, which knocked me out. As I was normally up by 6am, my Norsk cousins became concerned when 9am came and went I was was still not downstairs. When I finally got up at 10am they told me they thought I might have died in the night and were having a discussion as to who would go up and find out. :D That's the last time I took those dang things. I'll stick with Vitamin "I".
The cooler will be what it will be. I understand the compressor motor runs, but the unit kicks off after about 2 minutes. They are looking for a refer tech to take a look at it. I ran into the actual owner yesterday, he says it will work really well for slaughtering season. I guess between game and live stock they process a lot of meat in the fall and this will allow them to age it without worrying about bears and flies.
aigheadish, I was in the studio for the show, my phone was on my belt, but I have a very distinct and fairly loud tone for my text messages so I can hear them while working. SO when Doc and Bill sent me messages during the show, you could hear them fairly clearly, but in the background. I was trying to stay on track for whatever I was talking about, but madly messing to the phone to get it turned down or off. I think you can hear a little hesitation in my thought as I was fumbling around. Anyway, that's done with. I was with the two fellas that hosted the show again on Saturday for the workshop and they said they felt it was a good show and thanked me again for coming on. I don't however, see a need for me to do it again. They have a very deep bench of guests that can be much more interesting than me, and frankly I would rather listen to those folks. Our own Spike60 is one of those folks.
Yesterday I did very little. I went down to Bill's for Sunday morning coffee with his family and his Dad (who lives across the road from me). I was going to ness around with some machines, but frankly my back was still tweaky and somebody showed up and needed to borrow a log splitter tray to try on his machine, so I headed back home and messed around with light duty shop stuff. I also played around with some ideas for a log drilling sawhorse for those mushroom log classes. I have two different ideas I may try based on the standard lumber sawhorses many of us make. It rained over 1/2" through the night and will be very damp all day. I have some phone and correspondence chores to take care of and still need to clean the shop.
It's just another day, right?
I would enjoy seeing your saw horse design with mods for mushroom drilling.
Quote from: doc henderson on October 25, 2021, 10:19:31 AM
I would enjoy seeing your saw horse design with mods for mushroom drilling.
So would I.... :D
I have to run it by the client first and see if he will bite. It includes some small rolling tires and that will add to the expense. Not sure how far he will be willing to go on the cost.
maybe can make a traditional set of sawhorses that can stack, with an adaptation that sits on the top to stabalize the log. I have a log buck I made that folds up, but too big for your smaller logs. could be modified.
What about a pair of simple tall V's that you can C clamp to the top of saw horses that you line with some thick carpet to protect the bark? Maybe a bungee over the top of the log?
Seems obvious to ask, Tom, but have you tried a weight belt, like the big thick variety that goes from mid butt to the bottom part of your back? I've used them a few times and it's kind of amazing how it forces you to lift things more properly.
That's actually a good idea. I should give that a try. I used to wear one years ago before I met my chiro and haven't needed it since. I used to have 2 of them somewhere. I will have to look around and see if I can still locate one.
Quote from: aigheadish on October 25, 2021, 07:17:57 AM
Tom, I listened to the show and you did great! It was interesting to hear your gruff voice (ha! You sound like a man's man!), ...
Its a good thing it was a radio program and they could not see he was wearing a pink tuutuu and little button down shoes. :D (Sorry, the devil made me say that. :D :D :D)
Well, that paints quite a picture. Thankfully it is not true and I apologize on Howards behalf if any children read that and will now have trouble sleeping. ;D
The truth is that I have a face made for radio, and frankly am a little self-concious about how my voice sounds. The one time I was asked to sing back up on a recording for a friends band was very traumatic for me and hearing my voice over and over and over in the studio as they were doing rough mixes was very difficult. In fact I have have bad dreams about it from time to time. The engineer saw my discomfort and finally suggested I go for a walk in the woods while they worked it out, which helped. So it's never easy for me to listen to ..me. I did however listen to it once and of course thought of all the stuff I meant to say but forgot or the things I should have said different, but I don't think I said anything really dumb, so that was good anyway. It's history now anyway. Moving on...
Today I did some phone work and finally got a client to decide on the legs they wanted for their table and after a couple of calls I got them on order with the good folks at RiteLeg. I'll be excited to see them. I already have the tracking info, those folks are fast! I did some final sanding on the top as well as the cutoff and tested the finish (oil based poly, semi gloss) on the bottom of the cut off. I am going to do the same finish on the cutoff as give that toi them as a bonus top, it's just the right size for a small side table. They can install whatever legs they want on that one or use it for something else like a shar-tu-ray (tm) board or something. It's about 14 x 18. I also relocated the shop fridge off of the bench and into the back room. Bench space is too valuable. I have to make up an 8' extension cord to plug it in and find a small table to put it on, but it's all set up back there. I might put an electric coffee pot on the bench now, but that takes a lot less room. I have the 12 cup I brought home when I retired that I can put back in service after a good cleaning out with vinegar. That might be a project for tomorrow between coats or other stuff.
I fired up the woodstove today to dry out the shop for the finishing work and will try to keep that limping over night if I can on junk wood and off-cuts. It was 71° in half the shop when I came in for dinner. The high for the day didn't hit 65 and it should go down to around 50 tonight with rain through most of the night and all through the day tomorrow. Hopefully keeping that stove running should help.
Tomorrow is another day.
Yesterday was a boring routine day, just the way I like it. The shop was almost 70° when I got out there in the morning, so I got to work beginning the finish on that table. The client wants semi-gloss poly and I don't like the way this stuff is going on, but I will make it work. After that was done I brought out the electric coffee pot I had at work before I retired and cleaned that up and ran vinegar through it, then about 4 runs of clean rainwater to flush it out. I had moved the fridge that was on the bench into the back room to open up bench space for the pot and more working room. Maybe today I will make some coffee out there.
Did I say those Riteleg folks are fast?! Yeah. The legs I ordered on Monday arrived here on Tuesday in great shape. It was raining so hard that I kept and eye out for the UPS guy not wanting them to sit in the rain, but I still missed him. So they sat in the rain for about 15 minutes before I found them and I unboxed them right way. They are HEAVY! This pleases me because a 34" tall table 6' long on two legs could be tippy. Not with these legs. These are extremely well made legs. They difference between these and what you could find elsewhere are night and day and I am extremely pleased. 8) My hat is off to @Tam-i-am (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1461) with Kevin and the crew for some fine workmanship. I can't wait to see how this comes out.
Right after the legs arrived I got a call form my son. He is doing a kitchen tile job about 35 miles away and one of his clients called with a tree down across their driveway and they had to get to the airport for an international flight. My son was over an hour out, so he called me and off I went in the downpour. It wasn't a big deal, but these are older city folks and can't help themselves. Less than 10 minutes work and I checked the rest of the driveway. They didn't even come out or wave from the window. I had looked at this place 6 months ago and pointed out over 20 trees that needed to come out before they fell. Well, they didn't want to spend the money at that point, so now it's an 'emergency'. I told my son he should charge accordingly. ;D
I also played phone tag yesterday trying to find a local outfit that could re-tip and sharpen some strobe blades. Will work on that again this morning. Then more boring sanding and finishing work. I have to begin figuring out how to best put these legs on too, there are some challenges.
Well just catching up here a little. I am working full bore on that table job to get it sanded and finished. I took a more thoughtful look at the legs and noted they have provided holes for a stringer across the bottom. These are not clearly indicated in the sales info either in their brochure/catalog or on the web, but I was glad to see them. However I was not prepared for that and didn't have wood ready for it. I looked around and could not find anything handy that was suitable so I called Bill and he had some stuff 5 years dried in his garage, he calls it 'river birch', looks like yellow birch to me. Anyway I got a piece of that on Wednesday night and thursday I set up the planer and jointer and planed it out and jointed the one edge, the other I left live to match the table. I tried to buy some brass carriage bolts to attached it to the legs using those holes, but forget that. Best I could find was about 12 bucks a bolt for 1-1/2" long. The flattened round heads, I think will look nice, I sure didn't want stainless and the board is only an inch thick, so screwing from below is not a good option. But I sat down by the woodstove and thunk on it for a bit and I recalled in the back of my head, that I just might have some (very) old stock on those. So after a short search out in the shed I found them then some brass nuts, then some brass washers. All 5/16, all NOS. I will have to open the holes on the legs just a tiny bit, but these will work and look good. I brought them back into the shop, polished the heads, and hit them with some spray on urethane to keep them from tarnishing again. They will look slick, I think. After that I started again doing the third try at a first coat on the finish after a full sanding to start over. You can read all about that debacle in the other thread in General woodworking, no sense repeating that here. When I
In the meantime, while I was doing all that I was trying to find a local place to retip the carbide on those trashed strobe blades we have on the edger. I had called a company I did a lot of work with off and on for the past 35 years at two different jobs. They are an hour up the line, but have a sales guy in our area for drop off and pick up every week. I finally made contact on Wednesday morning, packed up one blade so we could keep running and UPS'd it to them Wednesday. We weren't sure what the turn-around time would be, so we held one blade back. My contact sent me an email Thursday with the quote of $48.00 plus tax and shipping to retip and sharpen the blade. Turned out they had an arbor on the shelf to fit just that blade, which was my concern with cost and time. So I gave him the verbal go-ahead and told him I would get the credit card info from Bill and call him back. He said he wasn't worried about getting paid, he trusted me from my previous history with them and he knew I was sending the second blade right along anyway. We also talked about setting up a pickup exchange with his sales guy, so he gave me that number and I called the guy to get a feel for his schedule. He comes through town every Thursday. Maybe next time. They shipped the re-worked blade out on Friday morning, so a 24 hour turn-around. :) I had hoped to get Bill connected with these guys so he had a semi-local source for big blades and it looks to be working out. When the wood shop gets set up this will be handy for him.
I was still working in the shop when Bill and his wife stopped by on their way to dinner that evening to drop off the CC info, and he brought a beer for me and himself, and she had a glass of wine in hand. We hung out in the shop talking and soon my daughter dropped in on a whim. She knows them since junior High and they all grew up together. She calls Bill the 'older brother' she never had. Not long after that, my wife came home and wondered what all these cars were dong here. :D So we had a little party going on in the shop for a while. I don't get much company, so that was a very nice change. We had dinner late that night. ;D
Yesterday I called in the billing info and was told the blade was done and being packed up to ship. :) I sanded in the morning and started all the tables pieces over from scratch. Ran to HD and got a new can of finish and some better brushes, came back and did some (successful) first coats. So moving forward finally on that.
While I was at HD i checked to see if they had any 120 grit sanding discs. They have been out every time I looked in the last 6 months, and this time they had them. The pack also contained about 10 of these mesh 120 grit discs with an interim pad to hold them as a 'bonus pack'. So I tried those out and by golly they work good! I did all 3 pieces removing the finish without changing a disc. I would just bang the junk out of it and put it back on. I am very pleased, so I am passing that tip on, if you can find them.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211029_141110224.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1635598056)
In the photo above, the interim pad is on the left, a new disc is in the middle, and a used disk is on the right. I will have to look into these some more for other grits. They also cut a lot faster than the regular discs and as I hate sanding, this is a real timesaver.
Doing other chores during the day I ran into one of Bill's guy's who said they would be working in the yard that afternoon if I was bored(?) and wanted to drop in and hang out. So around 4pm I drove on down but after touring the complex found nobody was there. I drove down to the mill and didn't see any logs on the deck, but I did see he has been culling out the next logs and bucking off flares and bad ends bring them to the needed lengths. Then I drove up in the back where I had dropped some apples last week. I wanted to see if there was any deer activity, because aside from one big scrape, I have seen nothing but the rare pile of old droppings, mostly very old. Nearly all the apples were gone, so there is that. I also found this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211029_161714319.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1635598057)
That was not there last week, it just 'showed up'? It does need a little work. Broken bunks need some major welding work and reconstruction but the running gear looks pretty sound.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211029_161807004.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1635598063)
No idea on the hydraulics,I am guessing there are some issues based on the way he left the grapple, but a neat forwarder for sure. You never know what you are going to find at Bill's place. ;D I sent him a text "Where did the forwarder come from? It looks pristine! :D ;D" I didn't get a reply... yet.
Ah well, back to work. Gotta flip and put another coat on the table parts. This afternoon we will head all the way across the road for some kind of halloween party. I am somewhat looking forward to the arrival of somebody in a dog costume. ;D It's just another day.
looking forward to seeing pics as you complete the table. smiley_beertoast
Have you ever tried using one of those sandpaper erasers? I'd never heard of them until it was suggested to me, likely on Cramazon, and it works really well on every type of paper I've tried it on (orbital and belt sanders mostly). I think they are pretty inexpensive and upon my use I get much more sanding done, per piece, than I did previously.
Yes, I have a couple of those in the shop, but hand sanding is worse than the worst (have I mentioned, I HATE sanding?) and at the very least I need the ROS to keep things moving along after the belt sander which is for large sins. These mesh things work like crazy and I am calling that a winner. I checked the other day and HD has these down to 400 grit, so I will pursue this further as time goes on.
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Just a short(for me) update. Been working on the table parts mostly and with mixed (poor) results (more on that in a bit) but in between I was trying to get other things done. I am way behind in fall prep, I am still 2-3 cords short on firewood, which keeps me in a foul mood under my gruff exterior, the yard is still in summer mode and I have implements and such to move and re-arrange for the winter white junk, Water tanks to drain, and the shop is a mess. Work at the mill is backing up too.
I got the fist strobe blade back from re-sharp on Saturday, a very nice surprise, but didn't get it installed until Monday when I swapped it for the other one. We have yet to test it out. I called to meet the sales guy for a pick up, which happened Thursday during his regular route. I met him at a large wood products shop he does a weekly stop at just off the Thruway. It's a 12 minute drive for me and saves about 15 bucks UPS each way. He will have the blade back to us next Thursday. Re-tipped and sharpened.
Tuesday I voted for a new bunch of high minded self-serving idiots. Wednesday I got down to the mill and just milled one log and got the next ready to cut and my back was complaining, so I cut it off at that. I can't afford to lose another week because I went and messed my back up again. I have to force myself to stop and this time, for once, I did. Also on Thursday I did some minor re-arranging and cleanup in the shop to get this dang stainless veterinary lift table positioned up near the bay door. My son has it up and marketplace or something and we finally have a buyer coming to look at it someday soon. It's a very nice table, but I have no room in the shop for it. It's worth a grand or more with the scale built into it, but hard to find a buyer at 200 bucks. Seems like everything I look at in the shop is a source of frustration these days. At the center of all this is that table job.
Yeah, so between all those other fun things the table work fills the day. I continue to have finish problems big time and I have sanded and re-finished it so many times that I have used a half gallon of finish (so far). Yes, I am learning a lot, and yes, that other thread where I will add more details as time allows has helped me think this through and make headway, but getting a really nice finish on the final top surface eludes me. Yesterday evening got me the worst results yet. I tried going heavy and hoping it would 'float out' but it dried into a blotched mess. As I said, no details here, we can beat it around in the other thread, but man, this thing is making it hard to sleep at night and I was back in the shop sanding well before first light this morning. Waiting for it to heat up now.
I did manage to make progress on the other pieces where I am not quite as picky. I am calling that cut off piece of the top "done" as I managed to get an acceptable finish through all the different things I tried. The stringer is also "done'. Yesterday I laid out the holes on the stringer and drilled open the holes in the legs. The bottom holes in the legs appear to be drilled to take 5/16" bolts. The bolts I have are 3/8". The legs also have a bigger clearance hole through the bent section to allow a nut to fit through. It's a nice design, but not made for 3/8" bolts. I left those lower holes as is because they are in a curved section and opening them up would be a mess on a finished product. I will deal with that in some other way.
I carried the legs upstairs and put them together with the stringer. It doesn't look too bad.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211104_121813332.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636111831)
I am also happy with how the bolts that I selected appear on that Birch.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211104_121821415.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636111833)
Did I mention that I am REALY happy with these Riteleg legs?
Oh, and here is the top as it sat last night, still mostly wet:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211104_151941664.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636112914)
It's a nice piece of Maple, but a little boring to me, but it's not for me anyway.
I'm gonna make some breakfast and get back at it. During the night I resolved to try yet another approach I have never done before today. If it doesn't work I can add that to the 'knowledge base' of things that don't work. If it does work, I will finally have this figured out. This issue of 'getting a good finish' has plagued me for decades and I need to figure it out and get past it. Why is it that the last 10% of the job takes me 90% of the time to accomplish? I could really use @tule peak timber (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=25190) to be around now, but I think he is very busy opening up other parts of his life these days. I just keep telling myself I will get through this if I keep trying 'stuff'.
In other news I found out they have a pre-release copy of the video (Mushroom log project) put together that I could review. I watched it a couple of times and sent them a couple of comments. They spelled my name wrong and did not include my company name in the credits, bit of which miffed me a little bit considering the hundreds of hours I spent getting them the logs for this thing. But what ever. The stuff that made me cringe was my own fault, not theirs. I had an issue with my main saw that day and threw a chain which messed up the drive links and the bar. I couldn't use it without shop work, so I used the backup homeowner battery saw I keep in the mule in case I get pinched, then switched to the 372 clone saw on my next loop back to the truck. So the video shows 3 saws in use and two of them are ones I would prefer not to be seen using. (I do harbor some vanity afterall.) The editing in a couple of shots makes it appear that I am tentatively approaching cuts (like I don't know how to swing a saw) while the real issue was avoiding bark slip, which was pretty bad at that point in the season. I did try to advertise some friends 'stuff', so I wore my buddy's radio show hat for the interview section and had on. I also wore the shirt that @trimguy (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=47881) gave me, but with the suspenders and editing it barely shows up. Sorry Arnold. Anyway, all those things only matter to a tiny % of the population (like 3 people), so it doesn't really matter. I can't share the video yet, but as soon as they release it I will pass it along.
Maybe today will be a good day, maybe not, but at least it's better than the job I used to have, on all fronts (except money). ;D :D
These pan head lag screws are made to attach the stretcher/shelf board to the legs from below as well as the bench top to the legs. I have not found bolting the stretcher shelf on from the top to be necessary. I prefer not to see the bolt/screw heads.
https://ritelegco.com/Category/Hardware (https://ritelegco.com/Category/Hardware)
You can also plug the holes with 5/16" black plastic plugs if you are not going to add a stretcher shelf. This finishes off the legs well without visible holes that make you think that something is missing.
In this bench the holes have been plugged with the black plastic plugs, but it is hard to see them in this pick. Some people like the stretcher shelf, some don't.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_2127.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1508931690)
This bench has the legs plugged where the stretcher shelf attaches. If you blow up the pic and look at the left leg, you can see the plugs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/6811EED7-F497-425E-9C81-6B1AF0E4407B.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1636118865)
Your progress looks great from here OGH.
I'll have to look into those mesh sanding disks, sounds interesting and I like the 400 grit aspect as 220 never seems like enough, though it seems to be industry standard.
It's amazing how quickly the cold weather is rolling in and I imagine it's happening a bit faster up there. Thanks again for the tip on From The Forest, as it's helping me learn to pay attention to the trees and land I have. I'm probably not taking great notes on how my yard progresses but I am paying more attention.
WDH- those benches are beautiful! I really need to start sawing more slabs to mess around with.
Tom,
I have not used the half legs yet. Yours in turning out very fine. I really like both your live edge slabs.
Well it took about 3 hours of sanding to get that top back to fresh again. Every time I thought I was done I found another level of spots, drags, or other poor appearance, so I started over with 80 grit a few times. Then I tried my new approach and it seems to be better. After drying I will know a little better, but the second coat is always where I run into trouble. I have to go get more poly because I have just about finished another quart off.
Danny, nice benches! Which screws are you talking about? The threaded inserts or the lag screws? I bought the inserts to use on the top (from the bottom up), but the stringer is just under an inched thick and those inserts are 7/8" long, so that would still need a through hole. Those lag screws are 1/4" diameter and the holes in the leg are over 5/16" so that would work well either. I opted for the carriage bolts thinking the brushed brass would look like a nice accent and I think it does. Everybody's mileage varies though. I would use them on a table for myself, but I don't think I have enough left for me to use. ;D
I am off to run errands and leave the shop to settle and not raise any dust. I'll update the other post when I get time later today.
The 1/4" lag screws in the 5/16" hole allows for expansion and contraction of the wood. This is especially important if the bench lives in a non-climate controlled place like a porch which sees large swings in humidity from day to night and from season to season.
Well, yeah, I get that. But this is a 5/16" clearance hole which measures about .350" in diameter, and that is nearly enough for a 1/4 bolt head to go right through. Even 5/16 is a bit bigger than I would like for 'loose clearance'. Next time I order from Riteleg I will get a box of each of their screws just to have on the shelf. I don't like using those short little lags in wood, too easy for them to rip out. I'd eventually like to get to a good enough relationship with Riteleg and some shop throughput so that I could keep a pair of bench legs and table legs here in stock, but that's down the road a bit. I do like their stuff and I like doing business with them.
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But with the finish issue seems like I am closing in on getting this thing done. Now it's a matter of adding coats, letting them harden, and light sanding before the next coat. The coats will be thinner now, but better quality so I just need more of them. I just have to work my schedule around the drying time and keep at it. Easy, right?
Well yeah, but a lot of other stuff is closing in on me. I mentioned some in a previous post but now I am getting polite texts and calls "checking in" with subtle hints. My son has a maple trunk I need to get down, about 30"dbh he wants to do in the morning. I got 2 more new orders at the mill today on top of the 2 I haven't gotten done. I need to get the house chimney cleaned and my son is bringing the boys over tomorrow to 'help' move dirt and crushed stone so the driveway is cleared off for snow plowing but I have to get to the mill at some point. Starting to feel a little pressure these days.
I'll get it all done, just gotta put in longer days.
Tom, almost everyone on here has more days behind us than in front of us, so just take your time and do it right. Be in the state of mind that: slow is fast and fast is slow. Remember that speed comes from practice at doing it (whatever "it" is) correctly, not just because you feel the need for speed.
You're only in a race with yourself!
It's the time in your life to go slow and do it right, not fast and do it wrong (twice). Ask me how I know ;)
That's how I got good at round filing my saws and about to start my square file journey.
Well, it's not a need for speed. I just need to get it done once, correctly, and move on. I do take my time, but I have to learn how to do it right, or do it all over again and that last part is what is killing me. Doing it right the first time is always the fastest route, regardless of time spent. Add to that all the other tasks I need to get done and the weather steadily closing in on us and I am feeling a little stressed.
I stopped rushing in haste years ago, but getting it right is the challenge. Headed out there right now to fire the stove up, light sand, and get another coat done before I load tools to go cut another tree, then in the afternoon, down to the mill I hope.
I just have a lot of stuff to get done is all. That table isn't due until Christmas, but I need to get it, and wrapped up, and out of the way for other work.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on November 05, 2021, 09:48:20 PMBut this is a 5/16" clearance hole which measures about .350" in diameter, and that is nearly enough for a 1/4 bolt head to go right through
Washer?
Well, yeah, you could on one hole in each leg, the other hole would be a challenge, I think. Yu might need to shape the washer into a "D" shape. In any event this didn't strike me as an elegant solution and I am very pleased with those solid brass carriage bolts. For the top, I will of course be using the inserts that Ritelg sells, which reminds me, I have to find some appropriate bolts about 1-1/4" long.
As long as I am here, I might as well give a quick update on my finish issue. It would appear I have found a solution through dilution. That is to say, thinning the poly with about 25% mineral spirits allows me to get a full and even coat on which dries very nicely with the desired semi-gloss finish. I am quite please with the. Second coat done this afternoon and it just gets better with each coat.
You don't need a washer if you use the 1/4" pan head lag screws.
I don't know, off hand, what the head diameter is on a 1/4" pan head, but you are probably correct. However, just because it fits or will do the job does not mean it will look any better to me, and I wanted something appealing. Also Lag screws depend on good solid wood for the grip and over time as tables get moved around and leaned on, especially heavy ones, those lag screws can loosen and eventually pull out. It's just my design decision is all that played in here.
Forgetting about my finishing miseries for a while and realizing there are other things to get done, I tried to do some catching up yesterday and take advantage of the weather, which was crisp and lovely.
I re-loaded the stove early yesterday and did a light sanding around 7am on the table top with 400 but it was just too cool in the shop to take a chance laying down another coat (61°) so I packed the stove, then packed the truck and headed off to my son's place. There is a large hard maple trunk that needed coming down and firewood conversion. He had an arborist do all the top work back in the early spring, it was dead and threatening the house. Measured about 30" on the stump. My big saw would not start (first time for everything) so I did it with the 50cc saw. I expected heart rot but there was none. It was a double trunk but I took them as one because it gave me the fall line I wanted. It came down fine and didn't split apart until it hit the ground, just as I hoped. Nice size stump. I don't get many of these.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211106_105315820_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636282407)
Didn't think of photos until after I started bucking, so here are post-bucking photo with half the rounds already in the trailer. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211106_105301310_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636282406)
So we got that done and loaded. I headed home dragging back my little firewood shuttle trailer. We had a guy scheduled to look at that lift table we are trying to sell at noon. My son is supposed to be handling the deal and would follow shortly. I got home, dropped the trailer and was unloading saws when the guy showed up....at 11:30. >:( He had called and asked if he could come early and we said 'no' because we were 5 miles away doing the tree. Anyway, he looked at it, admitted it was a sweet deal, then tried to chew the price down further than he already had with my son. I wasn't buying it. The unit sells new for over 4k and should sell now for close to 1k and he is trying to get the price down to $150 bucks? No, that was where I drew the line. So he paid up and we loaded it and he was gone. I had lunch, the son showed up with the boys and their lunch. While they ate I went out to the shop and layed down another coat now that it had warmed up. They finished lunch and we started moving dirt and gravel. Mostly we want to get those leftover piles out of the driveway before snow removal time, but I also have some low and wet spots to fill. So we put down the crushed stone in the deeper spots then spread topsoil over that and in the thinner low spots. We did about a dozen wheel barrow loads before our backs started talking. The boys went in the house with Grandma and my son went up on the roof to sweep the chimney while I prepped the stove inside. It took 10 minutes and he blew out the gutters while he was up there. I will let the dust settle in the stove and clean it out in a day or two, then we are ready to fire it for he season.
He took the boys home to drop the dump trailer and change his shirt. We met an hour later at the diner in town and had a big family dinner. Long day and I never made it to the mill as hoped.
I got home and checked the table, it is looking fine! I still have teeny pieces of dust showing up in the wet finish, but when it dries they disappear into the semi-gloss. I am pleased with this and will do another coat this morning.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211106_144325591.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636282410)
I forgot to mention this but I took a photo just so I could, so I will. When I was in HD on Friday I found myself in the lumber aisle and noticed they have 'bandsawn lumber' which looks to me like it went through a resaw or was cut with a lousy blade. What caught my eye was the price:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211105_134234277.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636282398)
That is $2.45/BF or twice what we get off the mill for what I would call 'shorts'. Of course, we do get a better finish. :D I was just a little surprised to see that. I am not familiar with what 'S1S2E' means and I should have pulled a board to look it over and figure it out. Maybe 'sanded one side, sanded 2 edges'? nah, that can't be right.
Anyway, today is already wasting away, I have to get at it and get a coat layed down, the shop heated, and then head down to the mill and try to make up time. I have 4 orders outstanding, they called yesterday trying to entice me down to do a few 'quick timbers', but I couldn't go. I gotta make it up to them today.
Carpe diem, right?
Surfaced 2 sides 2 edges.
That's why I will never understand this stuff. Not sure how thy came up with S1 meaning that it was surfaced 2 sides. In my brain, that would be S2. :D ;D
I wrote that wrong and screwed it up. Should have typed:
Surfaced 1 side and 2 edges (straightened).
AH! OK, now it starts to make a little more sense. :D But don't worry, in a month or so I will forget and have to be retrained. That wood actually looked like it was simulated bandsaw cut with a texturing roller or something. If my mill or yours left marks like that we would both shut it down until we found the problem. At that price I would never buy that staff. Ugly.
Because it was Sunday, "a day of rest', I thought I could catch up a little. I had one simple goal, get to the mill and get lumber on the stack. We got a lot of stuff done today, but that wasn't one of them. Out in the shop by 7 and got the stove stoked up. Did a light hand sanding on the table and prepped it for another coat. Came in and made a good breakfast, back out and put another coat down and cleaned up. Threw my saw in the truck and headed to Bill's before 10 (it is Sunday and I know his Dad comes for a family breakfast every Sunday morning, so I delayed just a bit). I passed Bill's Dad coming out as I was going in, perfect timing. I pulled up to the house and saw Bill headed through the trees so I cut through the woods and found him at the OWB. The blower gave up last evening and needed replacing, the system was down and house and shop were cooling off. So we did that, it didn't take long to get it back up and running. Then we decided it's about time we fired up the edger and tried out the newly re-tipped blade. It cut 'right good' so we edged all the boards that were laying about and made 4 nice stacks of 1x6, 8, 10, and 12's. Only working with one blade still, so it is slow, but we will have the other blade back on Thursday, then we can rock and roll. All the scraps went right in the OWB, so that mess was cleaned up and you could walk in the area again.
Next it was time for toolcat training, so we went through all the controls and then took it down to the mill and cleaned up a pile of short slab chunks and odds and ends that had been growing. I like the 4 wheel steering, but in tight quarters you have to plan well. ;D We over filled the bucket and drove back up to the OWB and I got some practice manipulating the bucket to drop all that junk in the burner. It was eating all this junk up trying to settle out the heat in the house and shop and 700 gallons of fluid. It was finally beginning to catch up.
Next I swapped over to forks and went back down to the mill and picked up the last stack of boards I milled and we stickered them all because it may be a while before they get used. We checked out the pole barn I had never been in on the new property. That is planned to be a wood shop. I was trying to talk him into storing some wood in there this winter to dry, but he wants to pour a cement floor in it this winter then insulate before putting anything in there. It has a lot of 'stuff' in there that doesn't have much to do with anything, but it will get done eventually, maybe 2 years.
ANyway, we went back up to the shop and did some routine service on the toolcat and fueled it up. We had a beer and I came home and did another coat on the table before dinner. Bill is off with his crew on a larger job tomorrow so I will be at the mill for as much as I can do. With the toolcat, it should go easier. So today I never got to touch the one thing I felt I needed to do today, but we got a lot done anyway and my back doesn't hurt anymore than it did when I got up this morning. :) Some days are like that, you know? :D
Tomorrow is another day.
:) Tool Cat, good deal that will make you much more productive and less strain on your back. Glad you got the finish solved.
Back before I retired, I just hated Monday's. Now, not so much. :D Yeah, I am still in a bit of a rut, but it's a good rut to be in, I guess.
Same deal this morning, stoke the sho stove, do some sanding, come in and make breakfast, then go back out and lay another coat on the table. Then come back in and do some other odds and ends, then head to the mill.
I got there around 11 this morning. BEAUTIFUL day! Started with a jacket and sweatshirt, quickly down to the sweatshirt, eventually that came off too. A little later I took the shirt off and finished up in a t-shirt. I will say that ToolCat with the forks does make things easier for sure. I slide the slabs right onto it and keep milling.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211108_110908458_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636413179)
I wasn't shot at the end of the day, which seems to come sooner now with the time change. Small logs today and I only got about 300 BF done going into 3 different orders. Left one log on the mill and stopped a bit early because now I have to clean up the slabs and hack them into 5 footers for the OWB, then run them up. So having the toolcat gives me more to do now which takes from my milling time. I could just cut and stack them, but what the heck. I could hear the boys had come back and were banging around on a bunch of stuff at the shop. When I shut down and headed up I saw they were outfitting the 750 chip truck with a 12" suction unit for doing leaf collection jobs and doing some maintenance work on the truck. They opened up the OWB for me when they saw me coming and I dumped the load.
After a little BS'ing I realized I never tallied the lumber, so I went back down and did that and grabbed another pile of slabs and dumped those in also, then parked it.
All in all not a bad day in the sunshine. I still have to think more on my workflow with the machine, it's a new dimension for me, but it's definitely better. ;D Said goodbye, headed home, sanded and did another coat, brought firewood into the shop, then dinner.
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A couple of weeks ago a very kind FF member who wishes to remain anonymous sent me a raker guide I had trouble finding and a pair of mesh goggles I had been thinking about trying. (Both mentioned in other threads in past months.) He claims he didn't need them and wanted me to have them. The raker guide works as expected, I have the same one for 3/8 chain, but couldn't easily locate one for .325. He had a brand new one in the package. Now those goggles I had no experience with at all. On saturday I took down a good sized HM and wore them for the whole thing. I call them a winner, they worked well and sweat is not an issue at all. Today there was a slight breeze at the mill and I had a lot of dust getting in my eyes, so I tried them again and wore them for several hours. They work like a charm. Now these have the elastic head band which worked just fine for chainsaw work. However on the mill I found I wanted to pop them off once ina while to read a tape or see just a little better when the head got to the far end of the mill. (I am working under the shadow of the roof.) That was a little tricky with the muffs holding the strap in place. So I think I will be using these all the time on chainsaw work, because they are perfect for it, but may buy a pair with the regular ear thingys for sawmill work. I tell you, these are really nice and act a little like sunglasses. I sure would like to thank that member in a public way, but he asked me to not mention it. Maybe he will declare here at some point. But at any rate he has my sincere thanks, it makes a difference in my day and I am grateful. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I have a face made for radio, but I did take a photo.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211108_123001122.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636413179)
I think I got a little ZZ Top thing going on, even if I have a short beard.
Tomorrow is another day.
Tom,
Sounds great. Remember it is a marathon not a race. Kind of like the old Rules for Gun-fighting quote about "Nobody remembers who fired first just who was still standing at the end." The goal is to still be standing at the end of the day and ready to attack the next day.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on November 08, 2021, 07:02:53 PM
Tom,
Sounds great. Remember it is a marathon not a race. Kind of like the old Rules for Gun-fighting quote about "Nobody remembers who fired first just who was still standing at the end." The goal is to still be standing at the end of the day and ready to attack the next day.
The only quote that stands out in my head about gunfighting (besides never bringing a knife to one) is that there are "No Second Place winners" [Bill Jordan] and insofar as I know, this is accurate. I do have hi book around here somewhere I should give it another read sometime.
Other quotes include:
Shoot twice - bullets are cheap, lives are expensive.
Never use a pistol whose caliber does not start with at least a 4.
Be polite and professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
If your stance is good you are not moving for cover fast enough.
Somebody may kill me with my own gun but they'll have to beat me to death with it because it is empty.
Always cheat. Always win. The only unfair gunfight is the one you lose.
You can't miss fast enough to win.
Warfighting rules include:
Don't draw fire. it annoys those around you,
When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is nobody's friend.
If you're involved in a fair fight - your tactics suck!
If the enemy is in range - so are you!
Those are all pretty good. You brought to mind another that a long ago friend and gunsmith who was an Army Ranger used to say: "The definition of firepower is one well placed round"
Tom, I did tell you all of those things about the goggles, didn't I. And like I said, they are SUPERIOR at what they are supposed to do, just a PITA when you have to continually take them off and on when you have ANY kind of headgear on.
I am glad that you're liking those 2 things. Like I also told you, I don't have any need for them. I'm just glad that I could help a fellow FF member. Just like Bruno helped me out with that handlebar for my Echo chainsaw. Bruno, if you are reading this, I don't have the same saw that you have but it fit BEAUTIFULLY 👍, thank you very much. I told you that I'd pay it forward, and Tom, you pay it forward as well. Nuff said.
BTW Tom, you make those goggles look good.
Indeed you did, and they are not an issue with chainsaw work, but are a distraction on the mill. If I were wearing ear plugs instead of muffs it would not be an issue. But I am having some ear issues this week and the ear plugs can't be used just now. Either way, problems or not, I like them and will likely buy a pair of the eyeglass style next time I put in an order. Thanks again!
Running late this morning, overslept, guess I need it. Yesterday wound up being about 14 hours. Two (actually 3) beautiful working days in a row with perfect weather and a little warmer each day. Didn't even have the sweatshirt layer on yesterday and today will be the same. I am getting used to that toolcat and trying to figure out the handling process and cycle as I make lumber. I got bit by the dang toe boards again and screwed up a few pieces. They will become 1x8's today. Nearly done with one order for concrete form lumber, then focus on the two others (or is it 3?).
I also managed to flip the table top, resand it all down to fresh and start over on the bottom. I got 3 coats on through the day and it is coming along nicely. Last coat around 7:30 last night.
I forgot to mention but I got an email at about 5:30 Sunday morning from a gal who heard me on the radio show. They would like me to come and walk their property with them to help them figure out a plan for the future. They have 100 acres they bought about a year ago and their daughter lives on it now and they would like to retire there. Right now they live and work in D.C.. So I wrote her back and said I would be interested to come take a look but made it clear I cannot manage and do all the work on their parcel. My niche is to help them figure out what they want, how to get it done, and who will be doing it. She said they will be having a consultant come in the spring and they plan on hiring a forester for a written plan. Anyway, I answered her in some detail and never heard any further, so forgot about it.
Well just as I was leaving for the mill, she called me. Turns out she never got my email, which I then resent. We chatted for about 20 minutes, she gave me the address and I looked at the property on the maps as we talked. it's quite a parcel, even has a nice lake. They are just looking for an advisor to help them pick general directions and find the right people and understand what they have, which is what I can do. We made arrangements for me to go up the first weekend in December and I will bring the Mule with me so we can cover the property better. The previous owner sold all his equipment before he sold the property, so they are looking for help picking up a few machines as well. They have done good research on the property history and seem to be very attuned with what they need to do, in general. She was raised on a farm in MD, so this ain't her first rodeo, but the northern woods are new to her,so she is looking for some 'grounding'. This sounds like fun and I should be able to help them along. I don't think I will be doing much hands on, which is good because I have other clients I am WAY behind on and need to catch up. But at least I pulled something out of that show I didn't really expect.
Anyway, I gotta get at it here. Hoping for another long day.
Way to go getting some work from From the Forest, that's pretty cool.
Listening to those guys and reading your post leads me to a question about foresters. Ryan and John talk about going to people's property for consultations and stuff like that. I assume, locally, there are foresters that would come look at my property but they don't do it for free, right? What kind of money goes into that sort of thing, anyone know? Is it like 50 bucks or by the hour, or much more? I have no idea and while I'd heard of foresters I didn't really know what they did until listening to FTF.
Well, Foresters can do a lot of things, among them is helping to develop a written management plan for a land owner as well as helping with timber harvest plans, finding a logger or a landowner, etc. There are more than a few Foresters hereon the forum, better you should ask them more about it. As far as Ryan, John, and Zane go, they all have degrees in Forestry and I think Ryan and John at least are certified as foresters, but I am not positive. All 3 are quite knowledgeable about the hills around here as you can tell. All of them are employed full time by the Catskill Forest Association. (I think there are 5 employees total, plus a board of directors, etc.) Members pay an annual membership fee. As part of that membership they get certain benefits (depending on the membership level) and one of those is a free 1 hour visit and consultation to look over their property and provide some advice and guidance. One of those fellas will be invited to walk the property I mentioned in the last post next spring. I consulted informally with a neighbor a week before Ryan came by to give her more professional advice. When I checked in with her and asked what Ryan said shoe told me "He pretty much said and discussed all the things you noticed and had similar recommendations", so I know Ryan and I are pretty much on the same page.
If you go to the CFA website you can see what they have available to their members, they have portable sawmilling, fruit tree grafting, workshops, GOL classes, etc. and other stuff. Fees vary for each service/event. They also put on a Forest Festival each August which hasn't happened in 2 years because of the plague. I had planned on displaying at that festival this past year and was pretty ticked when they cancelled it, so I didn't pay my dues. Next year, I'll be in though. I miss the GOL loggers competition, it's fun to watch and I usually know a few of the competitors. Of course, if I have a booth, I can't go watch, so there is that.
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Today was another good day. Got another coat on the table then got to the mill before 10am. It's different now that I have a machine and am more on my own, but I have more to do. I cleaned up a lot of live edge stuff into dimensional stuff and put up about 400BF of saleable stuff. I bucked up some logs, moved them to the mill deck, cleaned up all my slabs and some junk left from yesterday. I learned something new today: If you overfill a toploading OWB, it is a real STINKER of a job to get some of that wood back out as the thing is flaring up with 3' flames. ;D :D I hope I only have to learn that lesson once. I did manage to keep most of the hair on my arms, but not all of it. ;D
I have one open order left and some 'fuzzy stuff' (orders without clear quantities or might come from other stock), so I guess I am catching up. Hopefully this fine weather holds up for a while longer.
Came home and did a light sanding and another coat on the table bottom. I am done for today, tomorrow is another one (I hope).
Thanks for the info Tom! Our weather is getting rough right now, hopefully it stays south of you!
Another pretty good day yesterday. Got to the mill by 9 and got a couple of lousy logs out of the way, one should have just gone in the OWB but I got some 1x10's out of it. Did the chores (cut slabs and dumped them in the OWB and got home by noon and had a quick lunch, then headed into town to meet the saw blade delivery guy. This fella is a nice enough guy, but I don't think he is the sharpest tool in the box. I understand his travel and time constraints and went out of my way to meet him at one of his other customers so he doesn't have to lose a minute or go one step out of his way. I just asked him to send me a text when he is close. The last text I got from him was wednesday night saying he would be at a predetermined spot between 1:30 and 2pm. I answered "fine, just text me when you are getting close." Yesterday I get no texts so I text him at 1:15 and tell him I am heading to town now. I finally get a response when I am just around the corner from the place telling me he has left there and is headed out of town. The time is 1:32. (I missed him by 2 minutes tops) He says he will meet me at the gas station by the thruway (there are 3 gas stations there). So I call him as I turn around and head back, a little miffed and tell him where I am. He says he will pull off on the road and he does that right at a precarious entry into a traffic circle. I am thinking this is NOT a good place to stop and meet, and OH, I now need to turn around AGAIN. He gives me a song and dance about how he doesn't have time to spare and I try to explain that if he had just let me know he was running early I would have been there and it would have taken 30 seconds like last week. He says something about how 'they' don't want him going out of his way unless there is a decent sized order involved. I am thinking "they' must not want the business. I was ticked, but I got the blade and shook it off to a single person who is sloppy at his job. The company does nice work, the delivery guy, not so much.
I came home and worked on the table. I hit the bottom with some fine steel wool, cleaned it, then put on a coat of hand wax. Looks pretty good. So I set the top and measured it up for the best alignment and marked just 4 holes. I wanted to be careful as this is my first time using those inserts. I took it off, flipped it, drilled the holes, installed the inserts and reset it and the screws dropped right in. The table doesn't look half bad I think.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211111_162657338.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636725775)
There is one spot on the bottom that slopes off from the original mill saw cut (not me) and the client wanted me to leave that in there. The issue is that it does not sit flat on the legs. I knew this all along. I have to make a tapered shim from Maple to go in there and fill the gap so all the screws are tight and it stays flat. That will just be some slow fitting work I hope to start this afternoon. The gap runs from zero to about 1/4" over a 3" length.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211111_162751272.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1636725775)
I also have some of the finish to touch up before I button it up, take it apart, and bring it downstairs to put it back together for the client review. Just another few hours of work. Today is a rain-out, so a good day for it after my monthly chiro tuneup.
Yesterday I did a little more research on that new property client. Turns out it's a 98 acre estate, very nicely manicured around the main compound. It was listed for sale at $1.6 million when they bought it for around $900k. Several buildings, barns, living and playing spaces. The woods are what I can't find much history on. It appears at some point somebody did some major digging and dredging on the lake to make a formal swimming/boating area, deeper water, and a beach dockage section. Probably before 1953. I'll do some more digging, but it looks like most of the clues will have to come from walking the ground. She told me there had been some cutting and was a log pile left I could have if I wanted, but no idea on the age of those logs.
Anyway, after the Doc appointment I have a shop day today, unless it stops raining. In that case I may run down and put the new blade on the edger just to get it out of the way. Otherwise I surely would like to get that table closer to finished off if I can.
Another day & 1 step at a time. Slow is better than stop!
The last 3 days have been pretty routine. I'm getting a in real rut just going from one thing to the next trying to make a buck. I worked on the table some more, then headed to the mill and made some lumber. Saturday I worked ont he table some more, checked out a tree cutting job for a friend, then headed to the mill where we shoved I bunch of old 2x6's ad 8's through the edger to make 2x4's for an order. There were 3 of us and we had a heck of a time forcing the boards through. New blades cutting well, but the feed system wasn't working well at all. When we finished I looked it over and decided to lower the input roller feeding into the feed rollers. Bill and I had a 'discussion' about this and he had a different idea but in a rare moment I invoked my 'old man with experience' attitude and overruled him and talked him into humoring me and just trying it. He is smart enough to know that I might be right and if I wasn't, he could razz me about it for a couple of weeks. Before we could try it, the drizzle turned into rain and we shut it down, covered it up and went in the house to drink coffee and eat bacon. :D The rain wasn't letting up so we called it a day and I went back to the table work.
Sunday I did some table work early, then went over and cut a bunch of trees for my friend and we hauled them up to his firewood pile. I got home and did more table work and some other chores. The table is looking good now, after compounding, polishing, and waxing it is slick as glass. I took it apart and moved it downstairs and took the stringer and began re-finishing it one last time.
I didn the last coat on it this morning and re-finished one edge area on the table I found some drip marks. I got to the mill around 11 and sone after learned the customer was sending a truck to pick up the form lumber order, which was not yet done. We still needed 400 linear feet of 2x4's. Bill found some more stock we could cut down, so I stopped work at the mill and went up and the two of us got to try out the new adjustment on the edger. Man, that thing worked like a charm compared to Saturday. Mostly just start a board and it feeds through, but when one hangs up, it didn't take much at all to get it moving. On Saturday it often took all two of us could do to get some boards through pushing and pulling at the same time. Bill was happy. Now that we know my theory works I just have to go through and adjust the other rollers to match. All of the idle rollers appear to be higher than the feed rollers (except the one I adjusted down).
Still we were short 150 feet, so I headed back to the mill and made the last boards about 5 minutes before the truck showed up. ;D Bill loaded him and I went back to making lumber and finished off the last log on the deck.``
I closed up and cleaned the mill and deck, then headed back to my shop and did the polishing work to finish off that stringer and put the stringer back on. I only have the one re-touched edge on the top to polish and it's done.
So tomorrow I'll do that little bit on the top, then put a final finish on that little short bonus slab I did for the clients out of the off cut and call it a job. When I get to the mill I have to hunt up some logs and get them on the deck and go back to 1x12's. It should be cooler tomorrow, but more sunshine so quite tolerable with the right clothes.
Well, still routine here. Every morning work in the shop for an hour or two, then head to the mill for a few hours, then back in the shop for the late afternoon evening. But now that that table is done it reduces the workload. Today was predicted, and turned out to be a super weather day. All I did in the shop this morning was tend the stove, I wanted the temp to stay warm through the afternoon. I got to the mill by 9, well I got to the Bill's shop by 9 and the routine for me is to throw whatever gear I need (chainsaw, blade lube, my kit bag, etc) into the Toolcat and drive that down to the mill. AT the end of the day I drive it back up with a load of slab wood and dump it in the OWB, throw my tools and empty jugs in my truck and park it.. It saves him firing up a machine when he gets home to load the OWB and it helps keep the mill area uncluttered as much as it might be. Bill seems to like that deal. ;D
Anyway, today I knew I had the table client coming for an acceptance inspection this afternoon around 3pm and wanted to get the most out of the waning good weather. Picking my own logs to mill is a mixed blessing. I am learning to manipulate the logs with the forks, but forks, as I am quickly learning, have their limits. ;D Working with high logs on the piles at odd angles is 'tricky' and in some cases a little risky. Put that together with my entry level experience and I work very slowly and carefully. I have a lot of hours on factory type forklifts. A Toolcat is not one of those. ;D You can't use the side of those forks to swing things quite the same, at least not without making some steel do things it shouldn't, like bend and there is no way I want to damage the machine. I could never live that down. SO I go easy and gentle and think every move through. Later, I know, this will come faster of course. But I am mindful these logs weigh thousands of pounds. You know that when the slide down the forks and slam into the fence and shake your teeth. Yeah, I could go back to the shop and trade off the Toolcat for the skidsteer with a swivel grapple, but then I would have to swap back for slab handling. I am learning and it just takes time and I have to allow for that time. SO I wrangled some logs up to the deck and did some milling. All in about 5 hours work with bucking slabs and filling the OWB. I think I did my best solo day so far as far at BF milled, but nothing to jump up and down about. A few hundred feet, but it was a pretty good day and I felt good about it.
I really hustled near the end to get it all done and cleaned up and be back in time for the client. I was a little concerned about this visit. I had not indicated in my general quote that it would cost what it wound up costing but he did have an idea. I couldn't ask for the true amount of time I had in it because as everyone here knows, I had lost a lot of time figuring out the finish and that was all on me, but even without that time, I still had a lot into it. No, I don't think my price was high at all in fact I had two guys look at it and tell me what they thought it was worth and they both came in close to twice what I charged. So I compromised. I put a price on it I would have liked to get (still not what the other guys said), but I gave him and "Old friends discount" to bring it into closer to what he must have expected. Then I just waited to see his reaction when he saw the invoice.
Well I shouldn't have worried. He was over the moon when he saw the table, then the little bonus slab I threw in, and he remarked that he thought the price 'much more than fair, even low for what is involved' and kept remarking how much work was involved. Good enough for me. He paid on the spot and will pick it up the week after Thanksgiving. He's happy and I am relieved that he is happy. I gotta raise my prices. :D I have to admit, I have done enough of these things now that they just look like another slab to me. Getting the finish right is the tough part, and when that's done I have a hard time getting too excited about it. I need to find something that excites me. ;D
It's raining now, but should clear overnight and tomorrow should only hit the low 40's for a high, but I'll be back at the mill looking for a full day. I have 3 orders I am working on at the same time. Just another day.
Still routine Here, ho hum. Friday and Saturday I worked at the mill for 4 or 5 hours and worked at home a few more hours. I 'caught' a tractor trailer on Friday trying to sneak through Bill's property past the mill. At least that driver was 'qualified' and apologetic. He had claimed to had a delivery next door to Bill's place and though he could get out 'this way'. But he saw the log across the road and by the time I hoofed it over to him, he was moving the log, which kind of set me off. He explained he just rolled the log forward so he could get a little further ahead and have room to back his trailer into a side trail and turn around. I explained the 'lay of the land' to him and stressed that he had to drive slow because over 10 MPH might make shots begin to ring out. ;D He seemed to get it on the first go. So I left him to turn the rig around and went back to work. In a few minutes he was crawling back out with a wave.
Saturday was the same, but Bill was working at home so we had a little time wrangling and picking logs together. I had started around 9 and left by 1pm, went home and started splitting firewood. I have some big maple rounds and had to flip the splitter vertical to handle them. Backbreaking work. Just doing 6 of those rounds overfilled the trailer, just over 1/3 of a cord. I stacked that and quit with a sore back. It did kill me a little to split this stuff because, as expected when I dropped the tree, this was very nice ambrosia maple. But I need heat more than pretty wood right now and am SO far behind on my stacks that there was no choice.
Today I did take some cookies off one round and set then in the shop for final drying. I will make some tables out of those over the winter at about 20-22" diameter. They don't have much more drying time, the tree was dead 6 years before I took the trunk down.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211121_112948320_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1637546457)
Anyway, I started the day by making some drawer fronts for a job my son has. No big deal, but they came out looking pretty good. Easy with that router table I made last year.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211121_105659388.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1637546458)
Pete brought the boys over today and they helped for a while with loading the trailer and stacking until they had to get to a birthday party. (Man, these sub 10 year old's go to a LOT of birthday party's!) SO when they left I stayed at it and did another load until I ran out of gas on the splitter with just two small chunks left to split in half. I pulled the trailer around and stacked it all, then put the gear away ready for the next session, which will be smaller trees from the swamp.
While Pete was here, I had him help me put that table in the backyard so I could take some photos. They didn't come out that good, but at least I have something. Here's the front edge:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211121_125749479_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1637546465)
And the back edge:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211121_125803669_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1637546468)
And an underside view where I had to add the wedge:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211121_125942975_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1637546471)
By the time I quit at about 4pm I was pretty pooped out. This last year I am finding things take me a bit longer each passing month. Bones and muscles ache all the time and Advil flows on a 4 hour rotation. Its just the way life is. This last week I have been having a fair amount of pain in my right wrist from carrying lumber to the stack over and over. I tried my braces, but they only seem to make it worse. It was really hurting by the end of today with all the manipulating and handling of the splits over and over. RSS, no doubt and the only solution is rest that I know of, but that is in short supply right now, so I will catch up in January and live with it for now. ;D Last time I had this hand problem and my chiro Doc worked on it, he had me in tears of pain, and it took a week to feel OK again, but it did feel OK. Now I've gone and messed it up again and am not sure I want to go through that treatment again, not to mention the cost
As for tomorrow, I have no clue yet. Raining overnight tonight, clearing in the morning. The sawdust is really deep at the mill and causing problems again. So I may just go down and put in some hours shoveling the stuff into bags for chicken bedding to get it out of the way. I just know it is slowing me down, so a maintenance day and picking and bucking logs for the queue may be the order of the day. I won't decide until I have made breakfast. ;D :D
Table looks great Tom!
I occasionally have some wrist trouble also. And some back trouble (right now that being true, I lifted a box, it was too heavy!). A guy at work told me about Tens units (I think they are called, it's "Tens" something) that basically send electrical impulses through some pads you stick to different parts of your body. I've used it, with some success, on my wrists. The units are cheap (maybe 20-30 bucks) and seem to provide some relief to me. They'll also, if you turn them up a bit too much make your muscles do weird things, I suppose, similar to getting tased. Might be worth looking into.
I have had some good results using the Large size Salonpas patches to help with shoulder and lower back pain as needed, also I take the Costco brand Glucosamine with MSM and Glucosamine with Chondroitin for joint pain daily and it works for me. When I am not able to take the pills then my thumbs and shoulders start aching, just something that helps make life easier for me.
lidocaine patches work well depending on the pain source. my wife uses them and she is a pharmacist.
Thanks guys, but it's OK. I'm old, that's all. It's repetitive stress. I feel it mostly when I am cranking up the pressure on the blade tension with that short handle. It subsides with rest, so I switched over to doing firewood for a couple of days. Although I did run down to the mill and rush off some 6x8's that it turned out, did not need to be rushed off. ;D Those were heavy enough that I used the machine to get them off the mill. It'll be fine.
The weather is beginning to get cold, no getting around that. Last year I was dreading it and was prepared well ahead of time. This year I seem to be getting on with it a bit better and maybe ignored it a bit more than I should have. My son had a hole in the schedule and came over with a short crew (4'9") to do the fall cleanup (leaves, etc) and I had to pitch in of course. When I was doing the pre-winter chores I realized I waited too long. A fitting had frozen and split on my water tank system. So I set that all up to drain into the creek and found the hose frozen also, replaced that and as it was draining I started looking around. I found my PW extinguisher by the mill, a couple of water buckets, and the mill lube tank all frozen. SO I took care of those, with no damage. They are all thawing slowly in the shop.
SO the boys came by and did a lot of 'stuff' and the yard looks good, for now. I pulled the pump off the tank and brought that in the shop. I filled in with bucking some logs up for firewood and other chores. Never had time to get to the mill today. It was full, But....
When I came in the house at 5 I checked the weather forecast to see about milling tomorrow and that's when it hit me.... Today is Wednesday, tomorrow is Thanksgiving day. Somehow I lost a day this week, a complete day. I was sure today was Tuesday and I would lose a day of non-productive work and tomorrow I would make it up. I have no idea how that happened and it's a little disconnecting.
Yesterday I did get some time at the mill and wasted a lot of time measuring and marking logs trying to find what I need for the 6/4x8x14' order, but not much joy. I also wasted time on milling up some poor logs trying to drag the lumber out of those but when I was done, the quality didn't pass my test and they went on the 'some other use' pile. I hate to hack up 20' logs for 14 footers, but it's looking like I might have to because I am wasting a ton of time and logs that don't make grade. On the one hand, that junk needs to be gone anyway, but on the other, it needs to get sold or used in the shop build. Cleaning up the log yard is part of the job and helping Bill get a plan going is also part of the job as I see it. I dunno, but we will figger it out somehow. I may part ways just a tad with what he wants and start milling up lumber to build a covered drying shed a little at a time. I just need to find a place to hide it until the time is right. ;D I have a few ideas. Anyway, he is starting to see my point with these thoughts and come around.
Bill is thinking about getting a resaw attachment for the mill and I asked why. He said he has been getting calls for tapered siding. I am thinking about the board footage we would have to mill to get ROI and don't think we should pull the trigger until the spring at the earliest. He is trying to set me up as his full time sawyer and although I appreciate that, I am not looking for a full time gig. Just getting in a few hours a day is tough enough. I don't want him buying equipment that I have to worry about paying off, and I will worry about it. I have thought about this a lot and first we need some covered drying areas, then we can play. I also need to find a tailgunner I can get on some kind of schedule that suits us both. With winter coming pretty quick here now, I'd like to taper off for a while.
I have to remind myself we are making some progress. That mill had 130 hours on it when I started. It now just turned over 200 hours and I have about 8,000 BF under my belt getting my feet wet, so to speak (although with the mud around the mill I have been getting my feet wet daily). The log yard looks a lot better now than when I started, we are using up junk or putting it in the OWB and getting to a point we can do some sorting to suit production better. So, progress is being made. But there are a LOT of logs (I should do a video for you to get a feel, it's very hard to explain).
I like challenges like this because it's not so much about the physical work as it is about figuring out the workflow and setting up the equipment and resources to handle that flow with the least time expended. I can't do this work for Bill indefinitely, but I can help him setup the workflow and resources to make it work for him or someone else.
Anyway, I driveled on there as I was thinking. Tomorrow I will take the day off, Bill will hunt in the morning, I will sleep in a take a leisurely shower. :D I am already tiring of being cold.
Tomorrow is another day.
Tom,
Have a Happy Thanksgiving with the family and plenty of non-Noggie foods. That funky lutefish, smoked lamb chops and rutebegas just ain't the same as turkey and ham. :D
Good reminder on the tanks. I need to bring my lube tank off the mill and store it in the well house where I have heat lights that come on when it gets to near freezing. I did disconnect it and blew the line out the last time I used it so the line should be good.
I hope Bill has good luck hunting today. I'd tell him before he buys a resaw or shingle/lap siding attachment I would make sure I had at least one customer with a big enough order to pay for it. I have read of others here on the forum who did that and it seems like a reasonable way to make such a purchase. The first customer pays for the capital outlay and any sales after that are gravy.
mmm, gravy ;D (and MORE food)
Yeah, Thanksgiving wasn't much around here, family streesors are fairly high these days. But it's all fine and we did have some turkey and leftovers the next day, which I enjoy more than that actual meal. All gone now.
Turns out Bill went out for about 45 minutes to hunt but then started thinking about work, gave up, and ran off two cords of firewood and got them delivered before noon. Then they went off to his Mom's holiday feast. I just played 'bum'. Friday was lousy weather and I did the same again, just couldn't get motivated in that weather, nasty snotty, overcast, and damp. Bill gave me a call in the evening and told me the plans for today and said I was welcome to come play if I liked.
Still in a funk this morning I let both stoves (shop and house) burn out. I don't have enough firewood to burn full time this early in the year. But it is chilly today. High of about 39 and low of about 30 but we did have some blue skies and a wind average of 15 MPH. I got to Bill's before 10am and we ran a mess of stuff through the edger making 4" battens and "frost boards" (whatever those are). 4 of us working as fast as we could move. Quite the pile, we also ran off some 8 and 10" stock. Then we went down to the house and puilled the planer out into the 'driveway' (well, a frozen muddy spot in front of the garage doors) and set it up and started planeing everything we has cut. After an hour or so, Bill went in to cook lunch and we kept planeing. We hit a break point and went in for lunch.
Lunch conversation soon turned to that RS-2 purchase. I stood my ground on 'drying racks FIRST!' and Bill's closest friend (CJ) was on my side "yeah you really gotta have that first" he said. I learned that CJ has an LT35 hydraulic on order he is waiting to get in the next couple of months. He was interested to learn about this RS-2. He is a full time carpenter/builder and all the wood we made today was for his work. Smart young fella. I told Bill I would call WM on Monday and check the lead time. Bill said he was gonna call WM Monday and order it. I can't win, but he is the boss and he signs the checks, so whatever. :D
After lunch we went back at it and planed both sides of all that material. It was a pretty good looking whack of lumber we loaded in CJ's 1 ton truck. We quit around 4:30 and CJ said he was going to pull his truck in the shop before he left to see if he could get his headlights working. :D Yeah, that would be handy to have out on the state road, he has a 45 minute drive home. Maybe I'll hear a story the next time I see him. ;D
I grabbed a couple dozen eggs and headed home, my toes were frozen up pretty well. Just another day in paradise. Not sure about tomorrow, I may head back and help CJ plane up the little bit we didn't get done today or maybe I will do some more firewood. I dunno, but tomorrow is another day, at least I hope so.
I'm out of beer so I have to settle for a bottle of Jack and an early bedtime. :) :D
Tom, I can see your quotation now, "I can't believe I drank the whole thing". ;) :D
No Todd, I didn't drink the whole thing, just a little, but now I remember why I don't drink that stuff very often. ;D Everything is a little fuzzy and my back still aches anyway. :D ;D
Well Sunday we woke up to everything being white which was not really in the forecast (imagine that) and I got a call that CJ wasn't going to finish up his wood that day. Just as well, mu funk carried on, but I thought I should restart the shop stove before the building cooled off too much. Well I noticed a lot of smoke backing out of the stove, much more than would be normal with a cold chimney. By the time I realized I had to do some cleaning I had a half a load of logs in there. I had been doing other stuff, like splitting wood and house chores and the fire just limped along. SO I let it go along figuring Monday morning I would do the deed when it had burned out. Monday I took the chimney apart and cleaned it, but found a couple of spots where the acid had eaten through the steel. Nothing real structural, but leaks none the less and it would be stupid to put it back together. About that time I realized that every woodstove shop in a 3 county area if closed on Monday. I checked into and thought about ordering online, but then it might be a week before I got the pipe section I needed. Better to wait until today, and sure enough I found a shop that had my pipe in stock about 1/2 hour away. SO I finished the job today and as I type this the shop finally got up to 50 and is slowly climbing.
So for the rest of Monday I did 'office work' because it was way too cold in the shop and overcast and nasty out enough that I wasn't going to the mill. I have this new property improvement client who contacted me for an appointment about a month ago. I am supposed to go meet with them this coming Sunday. which I conformed yesterday and set a time. In the meantime over the last month I have been doing a little research on their property here and there. They provided a good start, gave me the first owners name and some info on him. He had a sawmill, tavern, and other businesses on the property such as barrel staves established about 1798. He was a JP in the town, and the town was chartered around 1808. They knew most of the owners up to them. In my searches I discovered there are 9 boxes of records for the first owner in the State research library.
So yesterday afternoon I began to get into it and found county soil surveys with detailed information on the various soil types around their property. there are detailed interactive maps online where you can find the different soil composition plots on a specific parcel. It is fairly complex (I don't do this stuff) so I decided to break it down for them because it speaks to how they might section their property for different uses. I made a lot of screen shots with each soil types and descriptions of each type. I organized it into a report of sorts (the soils section is 'appendix A') and listed their expressed plans, some discussion material, as well as a list of questions and some discussion about how to formulate a plan going forward. If nothing else, it provides something to refer to for questions and scribble notes on. I don't want to overload these folks with a lot of verbal information. Putting it in writing for them gives them something to re-read and think about. Right now it stands at 28 pages before I get there to start looking at trees, ground, and terrain. On 100 acres, there is a lot to consider in accomplishing their plans. All property clients are different. some know exactly what they want and they just need a hand, others need help figuring out what they want and how to get there. These folks seem to have an idea what they want, but are not sure the best way to get there and I believe they are looking at a 10-15 year plan. I am just trying to see them get off on the right foot with an awareness of what's possible and what is not practical.
Anyway, the work so far has been interesting and I am already way over the 6 hours I usually figure for these first visits. In no way do I make money on these things, but they are very interesting and a lot of fun for me. They also keep me out of trouble. ;D
BTW, in my research, I found that this original landowner, according to county records was an "Orthodox Quaker" and was granted a Tavern License. Now I never knew that there was such a thing and as an "Orthodox Quaker" or what that means. I did see that there were many others in the same period who were named as Quakers of many different variations. I also did not think Quakers were the types that would run Taverns. Again, this was around 1800. Anybody have any knowledge of this? Quakers were very populous in this area between 1675 and 1850, but they seemed to be many small groups rather than several large ones.
Tom,
Sounds like your plans may be like my old boss used to say "Give them something to criticize." Its not really that negative. They don't know what they want but when you give them something the gray areas now start to become black or white and they can say what they like and what they don't and you can adjust from that. Many people just can't get the ball rolling but once you give it a nudge they can keep pushing it. Good luck with them Sorry about the snow. We had a few widely scattered snow flurries last week but nothing close to sticking yet and that is fine with me. I am covered up with little 1-2 day jobs around here and December looks like a real busy month if the weather permits. It is messing up my hunting schedule I did not go today as I knew I did not have time to work one up if I did shoot another. Stay safe.
Well Howard, I hadn't thought about it, but I guess you are right. I seem to have dropped back into my old habits as a project planner in my previous 'life'. I would always make a list of every consideration and possible concerns when doing major machine installations. Everything went on the list and I would solicit concerns from everyone involved. Everything went into the pot from truck size requirements, over the road permits, bridge heights, door sizes, power requirements, floor weight capacities, technical issues and training on the new equipment, required support tooling, storage, and on and on. Then we would meet and either discard an item, or include it in the plan or discover new sub-items. After that everything went into a Gantt chart which listed the required time and materials and placed it in the timeline where it had to be so as not to interfere or hold up other tasks. This also helped identify items that could be handled in parallels with the same resources, saving time and/or money. When that was massaged around and balanced, it produced a workable timeline. (Then the boss would just demand that it happen in half the time :D).
So yeah, I have found that to be a reliable approach to start a major project that has always worked for me. If you sweat every small thing out in advance, the likelihood of having a large issue pop up at the worst time is greatly reduced and when that does happen, you are almost always in a better position to handle it.
I always enjoyed the project management part of my job and I think I was pretty good at it because I got a lot of the major ones thrown my way over the years. Maybe, without realizing it, I am bringing those skills into these new projects as you say. I never realized that until now. Thanks for pointing that out because I was trying to think of a way to reduce the stress on this for the clients and not make it seem so daunting because that can be a scary thing and turn folks off. It is supposed to be a fun thing when you are forming up your retirement and legacy property and I hope to keep it that way for them. There will be unpleasantries along the path for them, but they should be expecting those and be able to deal with them if I have prepared them correctly.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 01, 2021, 07:14:32 AM
So yeah, I have found that to be a reliable approach to start a major project that has always worked for me. If you sweat every small thing out in advance, the likelihood of having a large issue pop up at the worst time is greatly reduced and when that does happen, you are almost always in a better position to handle
Prior planning prevents p poor performance!
Sounds to me like an enjoyable project. You will give those folks a few paths to take to enhance the legacy of that property for the next generation.
How often do you have to clean that chimney? I thought those catalytic stoves burned enough cleaner than standard stoves to to really reduce the buildup issue. Just seems you've only burned a little more than I have (just short of a cord = me) Just got me wondering now.
I agree it sounds like a neat project and learning about new areas around is always cool. I'd love to dig up the history of my "neighborhood". I assume, fairly positively, that it was just woods or farmland up until maybe the mid-1900's (first houses on the road appear to have shown up in the late 1960's maybe, other than a farmhouse or two). I've gone back and looked at historical Google Maps but that doesn't always show much.
Yes guys, this is a neat and fun project. I base my one time fee on 6 hours expended as a consultant (no physical labor or tools involved) and I have to agree with those who keep telling me I don't charge enough. I've got about 8 hours of research in writing in so far. Originally I had been working on small plots of just a few acres, this one is 100 and has a real history going back to around 1780. The soil considerations all play into it also. As I am not a trained forester, I have to work a bit harder to do the research. I also confess that I easily fall into interesting rabbit holes about prior owners and land uses. (I now know what an 'Orthodox Quaker" is.)
So I spent a few more hours last night working up an appendix that discusses various ways to manage their project to consider. This morning I put another 3 hours into and appendix with regard to working with contractors and how to build a relationship. Much of that was learned form listening to all of us hear discuss good and bad clients as well as a local experience I have picked up over the decades. It stands at 35 pages now as a 'pre-field survey report' and I am about to send it off to them. I am concerned that it might be like drinking from a fire hose for them and it will be interesting to see how they accept it. I am thinking they should have time to read and think it over and develop good questions before we meet. Whichever way it falls will be interesting to see. My instinct tells me they will recognize it as useful work.
It matters not to me. I have been enjoying the research quite a bit and learned quite a few things. My hope is to help them get started ont he right track, but as we all know, it takes two to tango. ;D
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Today I got the shop up in the low 50's after a good overnight fire and didn't go out to work there until 1pm when I stoked it up and started cleaning and putting things away. Clearing the decks, in a manner of speaking. I did get the temp up to 59°. I did a lot of overdue vacuuming upstairs and put a bunch of tools away from too many little jobs already forgotten. I also did a few small out side chores, new batteries in one of the motion detector lights out back of the shop and other little doo-dads that needed doing. I should have gotten firewood stacked but I copped an attitude.
Tomorrow is another one, maybe I will have a better plan. These days I check the weather in the morning before I decide.
OG: Same here, what to do with my day is decided over breakfast while looking outside at the thermometer and the strength of the wind. It's the kicker that says: an insider or outsider kinda day? 🤔 Then I balance that off with the better half and get a reading on the emotional weather report. 😏
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Thinking of all the research you put into a report for the clients. It might be helpful for them if you included an Executive Summary. It should describe the results you've come up with, and the most important part, what their next five actions to achieve their goal would be. Those five hopefully overlap with what you'd like to do on their acreage. Less than a page long and bullets for the top five.
That way, if they want to just decide next steps and getter done, they can. If the want to dive down the research rabbit hole with you, they have references and thirty five pages of deep thoughts to think on.
Andries, that's a very professional idea! Not sure I can pull that off. :D Actually, seriously, I like that and will do it after I do the field survey. I can't be sure of course, but I don't sense these are the kind of folks that would only read the executive summary. They have too much invested and are planning a legacy property through several generations. They will go over all the details. Perhaps not now, but in due time. These strike me as intelligent folks.
I did send them the preliminary stuff and also added some 'reading caveats' lest they try to read too much into what I've written before we have met. I wanted them to have time to absorb some of it, but told them "If it's boring, skip it".
We'll see how it goes over.
Quote from: Nebraska on December 01, 2021, 07:40:50 AM.....
How often do you have to clean that chimney? I thought those catalytic stoves burned enough cleaner than standard stoves to to really reduce the buildup issue. Just seems you've only burned a little more than I have (just short of a cord = me) Just got me wondering now.
@nebraska, sorry, I meant to address your question before and it slipped my mind (not much room in there). The cause was clearly my poor burning habits. During the winter months, with a nice supply of wood I burn for heat and keep the stove at relatively good working temps. Yes, it might be choked down overnight to hold the fire, but in the morning it gets stoked back up to bring the shop temp up. When that happens I hear the creosote just tinkling down the chimney. Those combustors require that the stove hit a certain temp before they kick in and the catalyst goes to work , and you can tell when it does, because it starts to glow red and a LOT of heat starts to come off that section of the stove (650° or more). My 'issue' was burning it low all the time because it was warm outside and I just needed a steady dry heat. The combustor never got to working temp and a lot of junk went up the chimney and cooled off. Now, I have a stick I use to give the chimney a whack once or twice a day which knocks that stuff down like icicles. On a conventional stove design it would all fall back into the stove. But this stove has a full smoke shelf and the junk falls on that and piles up (does not burn off). The pile gets higher and restricts the outflow. I can tell because when I open the door smoke rolls out continuously, also it can never really pull a good enough draft to make a good fire. So that means I have to let it burn out and at least pull the bottom chimney section out and clean out the pile inside the top of the stove. During a steady burn season this almost never happens. So I had cleaned the chimney in the late spring, just because and I noticed one of the 45's was getting whimpy and failed when I tried to put it back together. I ordered two and replaced one, knowing the other would go next time. This time as I was replacing the second one I saw the pin holes in the lateral 4' section so had to get one of those also. These issues are one of the reasons I am contemplating the purchase of an indoor wood furnace with a bigger firebox so I don't have to choke it down so much at night, but of course I will use more wood. That (firewood), for this year anyway, is an issue. Not enough hours in the day or gallons in my tank. I may augment with oil this year. I never fired up the oil burner all last year, not once. Now I am thinking a few bucks in that tank might save me a lot of work in firewood.
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Well, I have been bouncing around on a bunch of things the last couple of days. I ran the mill for a little bit yesterday, did something dumb in the process and will likely do my penance on that thread in a little while. I burned up some pretty ugly logs that just needed to be gone from the pile, lots of sweep and knots, etc. But I managed to pull some boards that are saleable on existing orders and some that will go into the shop roof. It could have been worse. We had BIG wind overnight and it was still windy enough this morning and I decided not to go run the mill in a whirlwind of sawdust. So I stayed home and worked a little more on that property evaluation report (37 pages now), stacking another half cord of wood and I did a quick check of the neighbors property's for downed trees. My neighbor across the road where I did all the TSI work was in fine shape, nothing to report. But the other neighbor got clobbered with a single tree.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211203_143512111.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1638577373)
Simple tree removal, but.... Her house is fed power by a set of primaries. This tree is being held up by what's left of those primaries. She has three poles coming down from the road to her house, on the last pole is a step down transformer for the house feed. That pole and equipment is fine thankfully, but the tree put enough stress on the lines to snap them into brillo pads. The middle pole in the string took the heat. This is 6' off the top of a 65' pole.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211203_143914661.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1638577370)
The cable and phone lines are intact. We could move the whole thing a little further down on the pole, but code requires a 65' pole for primaries. I called her to let her know what I had found. She already knew of course and had called Bill in the morning and he was working on it. So I called Bill and we coordinated. He was trying to get hold of the line crew that would be working on the job and working out the details with them to try to save the gal some money and get her back up ASAP. All that wire is her responsibility. So I kept my eye out for the crew but had to make a run to the store (I'm out of beer and I am not doing that Jack stuff again for a while) when I jumped in the truck and was pulling out, 3 utility trucks drove past, so I followed them while I called Bill but got his voicemail. So I walked up the the foreman and introduced myself. Before I could finish my first sentence, Bill pulled up driving his bucket truck home. We all walked the job together. Bill politely tried to politely wangle to figure out how we could get her back up with the least impact (did I mention Bill was very polite?). She has plans to bury that line completely, but with all the rock we have to get through that is a big expensive job. That pole is about 3,500 bucks and when the line is buried, it's (the poles) camp firewood, at best. Try as we might, the foreman had to recite the code and primaries require 65' poles. Bill is going to have to check his stock on poles to see if he has one, when the sun comes up. At any rate, we have a plan, the line crew was sympathetic and even gave us a replacement insulator for one that busted when it hit the ground. Saves us rooting through stock for one or a trip to the supply house.
It kills me to see her having to deal with this. She is having a tough enough time going through her cancer right now as a single woman and didn't need this. We really want to make her life easier if we can, at least on this front. So tomorrow we will regroup, the line is locked out and we are good to proceed. We are all cool with the line crew and they gave us a few 'cues' on where we could save a little on stuff that will never be looked at. We'll hit it in the morning and see what we can get done. Bill may call in a few guys to help move it along. As long as the lines are down, we will likely drop a bunch of other trees that were marked to come down anyway. Ironically, the one that caused all this was not marked. Go figger.
My table client came this afternoon and picked up his table, he continues to be pleased. :) So that's gone. I wasn't too happy when he said he was going to hide it in his shed until Christmas after I had been heating the shop for 3 weeks just to keep the thermal cycling low on that thing. Oh well, it's his now. :D
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So let me ask you folks something because I want to know if I am nuts or not. (Wait, don't answer yet, even if you can. let me ask the question(s) first.)
So I did a beer run this evening and because I am only buying my cheap beer I don't want to go all the way to town and I just go to the local food store. Now this used to be a local family owned food store until Hannaford bought it up, fired most of the staff and changed everything to fit their corporate scheme. Now there are always long lines at the checkout because they don't have enough clerks and I never recognize any of the staff in there. None are towns folk whereas you always knew more than half the staff as neighbors and the kids of your friends, etc.. It's sure not the same, but whatever. The prices are a lot higher and they don't carry the stuff we used to buy there anymore, they have a lot of stuff we don't buy. But the place is a mecca for the weekenders who don't know any better and think they get good prices there. They also never venture far enough to find the good food stores down in town. Anyway, I walk in the door and see this sign on a bread rack:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211203_165835899.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1638580135)
My first thought is "what the He** is THAT supposed to mean?!"
Now, the bread on this rack comes from a bakery 2 hours drive from here, so NOT local in my book. In addition, we have several local bakeries that make good stuff and one of which makes VERY good stuff and is 15 minutes drive from this store and employs about 40 local folks. Their baked goods ship to some of the best shops and restaurants in NYC and we USED to be able to buy their bread in this store, but no more. Now they truck it in from 100 miles away (and call it 'local'). So THAT really set me off. What kind of BS is this? The second thing that bothered me is what does that DANG sign mean? Is this playing up to the city people and telling them 'If you buy THIS bread, you become a local'? What kind of nonsense is that. Yes, we get it, city folks who own preparty here want to feel like they 'belong', but can they be so gullible as to think buying this bread makes that happen? Who thinks this stuff up, some pinhead sitting in an office 200 miles away?
So my question(s) is(are) this(these): would this burn your bottom you if you saw it? Am I being a crotchety old curmudgeon? Am I overreacting? Should I continue to fuss over these things and call them out when I see them or just let it go or as my wife says "get over it"? Really this annoyed me so much that as I am tying this I am thinking I may go back and have a talk with the manager and at least let him know what B**S*** looks like. Am I all wet on this? I can say that even though I was thinking about picking up a good quality loaf of nice multigrain bread, I passed on the whole thing when I saw this.
AH, tomorrow id another day and I guess I can pretend to be a lineman for a day, I always wanted to try that. ;D :D
Great just fat fingered a post off into never never land....Thanks for the answer..
Anyway Tom yes that sign bugs me as well....
My idea was to leave a snarky sticky note stuck to that shop like a local sign saying "yeah some where else" or "at Lovetts Bakery" (insert correct name)...
Just a little mild act of disobedience. Just leave them every so often
I use an add on wood furnace as a supplemental heat source. My chimney is insulated stainless steel inside a masonry chimney that rises through the
center of the house so most of it holds heat and if I do a good job burning, it doesn't creosote up just some at the very top. I have a chimney thermometer I watch and it keeps me on track keeping the flu warm enough.. It's just a farm store add on but the wood furnace has served us pretty well. It a model that was made by US Stove Co.
It has a pretty good sized fire box and burns the sawmill waste just fine as long as it is reasonably dry.
Bless you guys for helping that lady out!!
If I had a 65 ft pole in my pile you'd be welcome to it.
You know Nebraska there are neighbors and there are neighbors. This gal (I am guessing in her 50's but I am likely wrong) has all the 'markings' of just another 'weekender', yet she is not. She is a corporate lawyer working on music licensing for major clients her company produces. I am sure she is doing 'OK' financially. So you think you have a picture of how she 'fits in' but you'd be wrong, as I slowly learned. Her Dad and uncles were all loggers in Oregon where she grew up. She is no stranger to real work and has no issues shopping for a good splitting axe and stacking up her own firewood. When she does actually ask for help, it's because of a missing skill, not an unwillingness to do the work. She had a woodstove installed, but laid all the tile around it herself and asked if I could help her find the right kind of molding to trim it off. So I happily milled and machined up some nice ash that came from a tree she could have seen out her sliding glass doors when it was there. She liked that a lot. She not only showed up at a redneck party at Bill's that has a bit of a 'rough reputation' but she had a blast meeting folks and getting on with them. She gets it, embraces it, appreciates it, and soaks it in. She has been to more places around here learning the history and opportunities in the last year, than I have had time to see is 35 years. Yeah, she gets it.
So yeah, when somebody like that could use a hand, it's a no-brainer. Drop what your doing and let's get this done. If she could help, she'd be right in the middle, but we need her to stay in a warm apartment/condo/thingy and watch her health until we have the heat and lights on for her. and the house is up to temp. We want to keep her around. She is on a chemo break right now and intended to be up this weekend, but I told her to stay home. Folks like her are easy to care about. I don't feel like helping out with this as a favor, its an obligation. But that's just me.
Tom I hope I'm not way off base but...
No I disagree it's an obligation not to you or her. Itsan obligation to the generations before us that raised us and taught us the right way to treat each other. It's respect. She was raised by people with a sense of community back in Oregon. That's why she fits in yours.
:)
Of course you are not off base, we agree, and I think I said that, or did it read wrong? This is what you do for people wo are part of your community. That's how I think anyway. maybe we both missed something here or I expressed it incorrectly.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 03, 2021, 08:53:22 PMAm I being a crotchety old curmudgeon?
Get off my lawn!! smiley_old_guy
:)
Quote from: Hilltop366 on December 03, 2021, 11:08:10 PM
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 03, 2021, 08:53:22 PMAm I being a crotchety old curmudgeon?
Get off my lawn!! smiley_old_guy
:)
Yeah well, somebody has to remind folks about how things are done right.
Tom, you're doing the RIGHT thing for helping her out! Cancer is no joke. Hard to have a remission but easy to relapse into a bad spell. She sounds like good people and would help you guys if she thought that she could be of PROPER service, but you and the guys made the right call.👍 Good for ALL that were involved and her for remaining cognizant of the possibility of that relapse that COULD happen. Chemo is not fun on the best of days. If in doubt all that we half to do is talk to brother Ed about his cancer journey. Just wish that I could be there to help you guys. If nothing else I could serve as an example of what NOT to do. After all, I'm willing to try new stuff out but I'm not real sure just how much help I would be. (I've always had a heathy respect for power lines and left them alone. Just always seemed safer to me that way.) My hats off to you guys for going that extra mile for your neighbor. She'll not soon forget it either!
Well It was a long day yesterday with more equipment than people. Self loading log truck, skid steer, bucket truck, compactor, and a few other odds and ends. We worked past dark and Bill kept asking "can you tell me if that line is straight?" and I'd reply that I couldn't even see that line. :D
We took down the offending tree, which was the smallest of the day and 5 others, 2 white pines, 2 WO and a big ask. Except for one WO, the others were all around the 22" class. All dead and previously marked. Most of it loaded and some left for the homeowners firewood. (Smaller stuff that could be bucked and split easy, I'll do that later.)
We got the birds nest of cables squared away, pulled the broken pole, set the new one then started the tedious job of getting it all strung back up and getting the right tension on the cables. It just takes time. It is 95% done. We came up short on one pickle to make a splice and a short piece of alumaclad to make a connection. We wound up leaving the bucket truck and skid steer there to finish up today.
Unfortunately I can't help them today because I have that land consult visit to do. I came home last night, took the wife for a quick dinner a the diner we like, then came home, loaded up the Mule and hooked up the trailer, tended both stoves, took a shower, finalized my paperwork, and went to bed. I was beat and my bad foot was just getting it's feeling back.
Up early today and walking out the door in 5 minutes for the hour drive. Here I go again. ;D
Tom,
Glad you guys could help your neighbor lady. I often find some of the hardest work I do and greatest reward I get are often the ones I never collect one dime for doing.
That's ok Howard. Sometimes we're repaid in ways that no dollar amount can EVER be used. I'll even do that same stuff for folks. If I ever get burned, never again. I remembered, I'll do it repeatedly for folks. Because you can't put a dollar figure on it. Good job guys. I've not repeatedly interacted with ANYONE on this forum that did not seem to be good folk. I quite often wonder why you folk tolerate me, but that's the kinds of good folk that you are! Thanks for allowing me to be part of the family. YES, I said
F A M I L Y
bon_fire
The "Local" sign would bother me too, OGH. I thought the same thing as Nebraska with the post-it of the name of the legit local bakery, or maybe just standing there asking loudly, on occasion, why they don't carry the one right down the road.
Good on you for helping your neighbor, like the others are saying, it always makes you feel good to help out those that really need it, and not expect any compensation or anything like that.
Well yesterday was the long day I expected but it was a good one. I had everything loaded the night before and hit the road around 7am for a 8am appointment. I could have taken the Thruway but I don't like dragging the trailer at those speeds and I did want to drive the local area with an eye toward what was growing around there and how similar properties were being used. Just an hour north of me, but the soils and tree species are very different, as is the agriculture. The economy is pretty similar.
We managed to get 3 adults and a small child in the front seat of the Mule and I am glad I brought it along, lots of ground to cover. This property runs from well manicured landscaping around the living complex to overgrown conifer woods. in the remote sections. It has meadows and one spot we found at the high point had a nice, partly mature hardwood stand with a lot of chestnut oaks. From what I could tell it had been cleared land 50 years ago and al these hardwoods popped up with most growing nicely. It is due for TSI work to release the better trees, but it would be easy work.
Along the drive we discussed all the questions they had about everything from buying a chainsaw to hiring a Forester. There was evidence of a lot of hand work done to open up trails. I learned that the son in law had done all the cutting with a chainsaw they rented from HD. (I didn't know you could do that!) He had done a lot of hard work, but the cutting was ugly, very ugly. I suggested they get him a decent chainsaw fro a dealer that could support them and that they get him some training, as he clearly needed it. I offered (when he gets the proper equipment) to come up and work with him for a day.
So I met the mother, daughter, and grandson, but not the husband (traveling) or son-in-law. Turns out this woman is no stranger to work and runs a non-profit horse farm in Maryland. She is formally trained in permaculture and had a business doing that for years. I asked her, at least twice, why she called me? ;D I did offer her some reading suggestions and concepts for further study to fill in what she felt she was lacking. I also looked at one structure on the property at the end of the lake that I found amazing. It had been rebuilt for hand-hewn timbers found on the site. Judging by the hand work, I would put them at at least 200 years old with interesting joinery. Quite the piece of work and likely from the remains of the sawmill operating on site in 1797. I should have taken photos.
We managed to finish up by 1pm, she paid me, I loaded up and headed home.
Got home around 3pm (I stopped at harbor freight since I was passing it) and make a quick lunch then headed to the neighbors to see if Bill still needed a hand. He did not, everything was back up and running and I cold tell the house had power because the little frog pond pump was running. So I came home, put the Mule away and drove down to Bill's to drop off a new OWB controller I had ordered for him that arrived yesterday. Nobody was home.
I came back, tended my stoves and started working on finishing up the report before dinner and also after dinner. I quit around 9pm and will finish it up this morning. Long day, the client is happy, and now it's time to get back to work.
Tom,
You said you asked her twice why she hired you. What was her answer. :D I try to send sawing customers to other people all the time, especially the ones far away, but often it doesn't work. Generally, they still turn out to be very good jobs so it all works out.
Sounds like you had a pretty good day and I am glad to hear the neighbor lady's frog pond is active again. ;D
Sir, Your paragraph spacer is AWOL ;D.
I assume that comment was directed at Tom not me. :D
Johnny Inkslinger strikes again. ;)
when I read, I scroll with the mouse 4 lines at a time
Quote from: WDH on December 06, 2021, 10:27:14 AM
Sir, Your paragraph spacer is AWOL ;D.
Fixed.
Sorry, I was slacking off.
I must have written it too fast.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on December 06, 2021, 10:09:13 AM
Tom,
You said you asked her twice why she hired you. What was her answer. :D
In keeping with WDH's Theme, I believe you left out a question mark. :D
She had a good answer. Basically she said she knows what she knows, but also knows what she doesn't know. She knows rolling hills, pastures, agricultural stuff, but doesn't know much about woods and managing wooded property. She had heard me on the radio and wanted to walk and talk with someone to get her tuned into what she should be focusing on and noticing. I think she also wanted a local feel how stuff is done around these parts. I was the first of what I believe will be several of these walk-and-talk's as they focus in on what they want to do and how they want to start.
One thing I learned is that I have to raise my rates or create a tiered system. She handed me a check and said it was not near enough for what she had gotten out of it. I resisted making my usual involuntary snarky come-back ('I won't be insulted if you pay me more.'). I am getting better. ;D When I am done she will wind up with everything in writing in a 45 page report. I have never done that before but this property has a lot going for it and some of these things needed to be in writing for future reference.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on December 06, 2021, 10:37:50 AM
I assume that comment was directed at Tom not me. :D
Johnny Inkslinger strikes again. ;)
That's right, Howard. You got lots more than a paragraph spacer that you need to worry about :D.
41-24.
It is hard to beat them and the Angels that watch over them at the same time.
Been there - done that. :(
You two fellas want to get a room? ;D :D
And here I was fixing to compliment you on such a nice posting over on the Sawmill employees thread. :D
NAH, you weren't. :D :D :D :D ;D :)
Tom I've been wanting to ask you what it's like sawing on a new hydraulic Woodmizer with setworks etc compared your manual mill? I was sawing the next log up on my little mill and wondered what you thought.
I need to replace my drive belt, the farm store off the shelf blue belt isn't getting it done.. So as I could tell it was slipping if I pushed things too hard, I was wondering what more than 11 hp would feel like on a dry ash log....
I really started wanting (key word there) a bigger mill....
Well, I am finding there is a slight difference. ;D I had to think on it a bit to come up with a way to describe it and this is what I cam up with for now:
It's kind of like the difference between
A) Being resigned to a life getting around on crutches where you have to think about exactly how you are going to get yourself to where you need to be. You always get there, but it takes time and a good plan to keep yourself whole.
-or-
B) Having a chauffer driven limousine and your only concern is to choose what sights you would like to see along your route.
AT Least, that is the best I can come up with. With that machine I can do in an hour what used to take me a day or more. It is a double edged sword, because you can also produce scrap at a much higher rate. :D I believe the lessons learned about reading and cutting a log manually were priceless when I stepped up to the big machine. 16" logs were my preference on the manual, now I look for logs in the 22-28" range for better productivity. I used to get hurt loading, unloading, and pushing the head. Now I only get hurt handling slabs (working on that). Certainly that accuset is a dream to work with. I have mastered several functions I use all the time and there is more to learn that I have not needed yet. Misuse or overuse when you should be using your brain, can also lead to some extra firewood. When you find the proper blend (15% brain and 85% accuset) I think that is when you can really fly. Material handling becomes a little more of an issue with higher production, especially working alone. I often feel like Lucy in the Chocolate factory when trying to stack boards as the machine is cutting the next one and frequently finding myself jogging to keep up and catch the head at the end of the cut. If I have a helper, any helper, those 1,000 BF days are over pretty quick.
SO yeah, there is a slight difference. Bill has an LX25 new in the box we are hoping to set up early next year just for doing long beams. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
I assume you would be looking at an LT35 or 40? Lots of options on those. Your only limit is your bank account. I see a big difference between the LT50 and 35/40 models and it seems reflected in the cost. :) I just feel lucky to be running somebody else's $60k machine for them.
Kicka$$
Well, not the most pleasant weather here so far this week, damp, solid overcast, some very light snow cover. It all puts me in a funky mood and I don't feel like doing much. Monday I did some household chores, took the screen door off for the winter, cleaned up and stored some yard junk, fixed a chair for the wife and did a bank run.
Tuesday I split a little wood and did some other odds and ends in the shop. I talked to Bill in the evening and we discussed finishing up across the road. We also worked through a little mis-understanding. Apparently when I saw the broken pole problem and texted Bill to say "let me know how I can help" he assumed I would be on the clock. SO I told him that he was not to charge for any of my time and he protested a little but understood. He said he wouldn't have got it done nearly as fast without me and I said, 'That was the point'. :D
Wednesday, more of the same and I headed across the road the the neighbor gal's place to pull a lot of the smaller trees that we left and get them yarded up for bucking and splitting. Just before I left to go over I got a text from the property client I was with on Sunday. She had just tested positive and was enduring minor symptoms. She wanted me to know. Great. This is like the 4th time now I have been through this. So when I was working at the neighbors and she came out I told her to keep a good distance. No way would I expose here while she is undergoing chemo. But it was cold and crisp and snowing so we could chat while I threw the stick for her cute little puppy that apparently likes me. :D After she got cold and went inside, I finished up most of the logs and headed home, it was nasty again. I just have a couple more small red oaks to drag in. Bill will bring his 6 way splitter over and we will shuttle split wood to her pile with the skidsteer bucket. Hopefully get it done before her family arrives for the holidays from the west coast. I talked to again Bill last night and he told me he had put in an order to WM for the spare parts I requested and had confirmed with them that my thought of flipping the direction of the dabarker blade was a good one and we should do that.
Today almost looked like it would turn nice. I split more wood and then decided with the sun coming out to head to the mill and flip that blade rotation. As I hadn't mentioned I was going to do that, the road was blocked and nobody was around. I didn't feel like moving trucks and trailers for a small task, so I parked up by the shop and climbed down the cliff to the mill. I flipped the blade and changed the wiring and checked the operation, all looks good. I also checked on my blade lube mix and see that my 'formula' is holding up and it is not freezing yet. There is full ice on the swamp and pond waters now. By the time I finished up the simple task my toes were frozen and it was solid overcast again. Nasty.
OH, and @WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) I have been doing a study on this paragraph issue. I have done full testing and determined that the forum software is making me look bad. ;D It is my habit to add a blank line after each paragraph and I have come to learn that the software removes or ignores this, hence no space. If however, I add two blanks lines after a paragraph, one of those lines remains in the subsequent post. Just thought you might want to know, it wasn't all me, I had help. ;D :D
Tomorrow is Chiro day and I am truly due for a tune-up. I have been feeling a lot of 'close call' tweaks lately. Not sure what I am doing in the afternoon yet.
That paragraph eureka moment is good. When a post is many many lines long with no breaks, it is difficult to read. You don't need to be more difficult than you already are :D :D. (Just kidding.....).
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 09, 2021, 05:15:28 PMI have come to learn that the software removes or ignores this, hence no space.
I do the extra return to get the spacing good. What I did notice early on was when it removed the single blank line, I could go back into "modify", add one back, save and all was good again. Seemed like modify used a different algorithm.:-\
Tom as I figured your reply to my query would be as such. I haven't had a chanced to reply and thank you. Lately I've been on call and working a bunch and a dear friend from high school happened to be in Omaha by chance with work so I spent my free time yesterday driving to Omaha and back on marginal roads but I got to see Jerry for the first time since he lost his dad a few years ago. So we had a high school class reunion. It's a very small class.
When i started this reply, I had made big plans in my head to go out fire up my rusted Yugo and saw the rest of the Ash log that I have sitting on the mill, and dream about how quick and easy your Ferrari would make the job and the next several logs in the line up. But the office just called and somebody is on the way with a Chihuahua in some sort of distress. So no escaping to the sawmill today yet.... I hope I get a chance later.
Glad you had a good visit, that can do a lot for one's soul.
I think I own the rusted Yugo compared to your mill. :D The biggest thing I notice is the rigidity and how mush better things work with less effort. But I still think learning on the smaller basic machines is great training.
I think an LT15 would be a huge step up from the mill I own now, but that's not part of the plan. But the plan is always fluid. ;D
If you go manual, the LT15 with the 25 hp engine and the power feed is as good as it gets.
Well, a pretty lazy weekend here, just not a lot of motivation for some reason. The weather has a hand in that. I did some stuff, then some other stuff, nothing of note accomplished. It happens. The only exciting thing that happened was sleeping the whole night through until 8am this morning. That hasn't happened in a while.
Late this evening my son dropped off firewood logs from a clearing job, 2 dump loads, and here is part of it. Looks like I can get my firewood done, so I guess I need to get to work.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211212_173732248.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1639360153)
That's gonna keep me busy in my free time. I hope I can get it done before the snow flies for real.
I had the usual Sunday night text messages with the boss: "What are your plans for tomorrow?" "Work?" "coming to the Mill?" "I dunno, probably", "I could use a few pieces for the shop framing", "Sure, shoot me the sizes and qtys" "2x8x14' I need 4" "OK, gotta find a log for that one" "There's one across from the mill" "OK grab it down with the grapple and I'll be down around 10am". And that is how the
beginning of my week gets planned. ;D
Hey Danny, as long as you are here chcking my paragraph spacing, could you give me a clue what this thing is?:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211206_155549256.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1639360155)
I found it on a property walk last week, and I only found one. I don't know if its a nut or an acorn. I went through my books and keep running in circles. The hardwoods in the area were lots of chestnut oaks. I found one of these somewhere else months before and it wound up on my beside table but I have no memory of where I found it.
So tomorrow, I guess I am milling in the morning and firewooding in the afternoon.
It looks like an acorn that has shed its cap. I'd be more specific but I don't know my vegetation like I should.
Just like to play with my chainsaws :embarassed:
Tom,
Looks like an acorn to me too. The size and shape looks similar to a live oak but you are probably too far north for that.
I ended up in firewood mode yesterday too. A dead ash across the road from me fell in the road the night before last. Someone coming by pushed the pieces aside on both sides of the road so I went out with my ATV and chainsaw and cut the limbs out of the road and as much of the top as I could reach then I climbed the steep bank (I slid back down a couple times till I got past the worst of it - its bad to get old and fat!) and cut the rest of the fallen log then cut the 20' snag and another beside it. I cut to manageable lengths and dragged them up the macadam road 100 yards or so with my ATV to my lot and cut till I emptied the gas tank on my saw. I guess I cut over half to firewood lengths. I still have to split (easy task with straight grained mostly dead ash) and bring them in the house as needed but there is probably 3-4 more weeks worth of firewood there plus I get community service credit for clearing the road which the county sure wasn't going to do.
Todd is right. Acorn missing the cap. It is a white oak acorn. Chestnut oak is a white oak so that is a likely source.
any humans on the forum, ever taste/eat an acorn, if so, how are they?
Unpalatable.
Closest thing to acorn I have ate is red squirrel because that's all they eat if they're lots of acorns around lol
is it the tannins? surely Howard has eaten them. @WV Sawmiller (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=28064) I will see if I can find one. we have lots of walnuts, I will eat one of those, if you will eat an acorn. :) :) :)
Doc,
Danny nailed it. I have tasted them, especially white oak acorns which are supposed to be much sweeter than a red oak acorn and I could never keep it down. Indians and such who ate them pounded them into flour and leached them out several times to remove the tannic acid as I understand.
At the Wolf Creek Indian village at Bastion Va one of the guides said Indians and possibly early settlers used to do the same with buckeyes but he is the only one I ever heard talk about anyone eating a buckeye. Even squirrels never eat over half of them and only the young, inexperienced squirrels even try them.
Maybe you could just boil them acorns like deer antlers lol , acorn soup base!
My goats really liked the white oak acorns.
My goats loved them just like the deer do. My cows, horse and mule also liked the big chestnut oak acorns that fall on and around my barn
Well I was off working all day and this thread certainly went to heck quick. :D Food, Goats, but what, no chickens or grits?
Thanks for the leads on the acorn. I suspected Chestnut oak, but it was impossible to find another one with the cap or enough to give me a good feeling and we were walking and talking with a lot of ground to cover. Next time I will stop the parade and do some research. I do like those chestnut oaks and I have none in my immediate vicinity, but they are just down the road for some reason and I have cut some for mushroom logs.
Man, today was a long one and I am bone tired. I thought I would work at the mill for a few hours then come home and do firewood. Bill texted last night that he could use some 2x8x14's for the shop build. I didn't know he would have his crew there today trying to get the roof framing, decking, and papering done. They were kind of waiting on me for lumber, another little surprise. I got to the mill and found Bill had a 17.5' log cued up already. So I jumped on that but handling those long slabs alone just takes time and I got exactly what he needed from that log plus a couple of jacket boards that dropped into existing orders. I ran those up to the shop crew and it was 'interesting' trying to navigate all the way around and up the hill with the 17'+ boards on the fork. The 'road' is, at best 15' wide, but I managed (thank goodness for 4 wheel steering) then came back down and milled for an order of flooring boards. One of the guys came down when I was nearly done with the logs and told me lunch had arrived (another surprise) so he helped me finish off the log and we climbed up the cliff and ate. During lunch I got the next 'shop order'. They had made a 'little mistake' and they wanted to make it right without tearing it apart. So they needed a board that was 14" wide and 14'6" long but 3-1/2' thick on one end and 1" thick on the other. I like a challenge, but I needed a big log. They also needed several 1x14x17's.
So we found a log just under 18' and big enough to do the job with just a little sweep. I managed to get a 14x16 cant out of it, but man those slabs were heavy and I had to cut them into 5' chunks for the OWB while they were still on the mill. They were still heavy to get on the forks. Now I am like every other sawyer here in that I have made a few 'long wedges' by accident (you guys know my love/hate thing with toe boards) but this is the first time I had to do it on purpose AND hit dimensions at both ends. It took me a while to figure it out and get it right, then remeasure about 6 times. I didn't want to do this twice. I had to hit 3 things: front end thickness, back end thickness, and the rate of taper along a 14'6" length. As it turned out I had the log set so that the 14'6" point was laying right on the last fixed bunk on the mill, so I could use that for a fixed pivot point, but I had to remove that rear swinging bunk which was interfering with my plan. (Note to self, I need to put that back tomorrow.) Anyway after second guessing myself several times I pulled the trigger and cut it.
Now it would be a real nice story if I could tell you that it came out perfect. I really wish I could say that. But I had hit 3-1/2" dead on the front end (easy of course), but when I measured out at the 14'6" mark, my thickness was around 7/8 to 15/16, so I missed it by 1/16 to 1/8". I was a little ticked at myself, but really I didn't think I could do much better than that. So I laid the cant flat and took off the scrap piece, then flipped it 180° to take the wane off on the other side (I was leaving the wane on until I knew I had that odd board done, in case i needed more meat to do it again. I never trust me). Then I did the 1x14's they needed and left the cant on the mill for future instructions. I dumped the slabs and picked up the stack and had another lovely trip up the road to deliver them. These boards were all for facia, and the tapered one was to compensate for the end rafter having been nailed on the wrong side of the line and not discovered until the deck was mailed down. But while I was playing they finished the whole roof, except the facias. Daylight was fading (ok, nearly dark). So we quit on that for the day, then they decided we had some time and could finish planing those boards up we started 2 weeks ago for another job. The planer was set up outside and we needed some of those jobsite LED lights and planed away for a couple of hours. At 5:30 I had to leave. My wife thought I was coming home around 3 and I knew dinner would be cooking. They were nearly done with the planing anyway and 3 guys were enough to keep the boards moving on the last pass which feeds right into the truck. :) I only milled about 500BF for the day, but never really stopped working, except for lunch.
As I said, I am beat. The bottom 6" of my pants is covered in mud and my boots look a lot worse (I gave up trying to avoid it, too much effort), my back, hands, and shoulders all ache more than a little, but mostly I am just tired. The last thing I felt like doing was chores when I got home and of course I had to load the wood carts for the shop and the house tonight and both stoves had nearly died out because I was gone so long. The shop seems to be OK now, but I need to tend the house stove, then bed. I don't know how you guys that do portable sawing do it. Long days for sure.
Tomorrow is another day, I'll figure it out then.
glad you are retired Tom. you were tired last week, and now you are tired again today. :) God Bless sir!
Lately I feel like I am getting re-tired nearly every day. I am thankful that when I get up in the morning the aches and pains of the previous day are pretty much all gone.
With this RETIRED talk, this scene came to mind from a very funny movie lol https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FLwD60hPK4I (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FLwD60hPK4I)
Hemlock, I may be a little of both. ;D
Well, I seem to be falling further and further behind. Firewood has been the thing that bothered me, not having anything to cut and split. I haven't had time to forage for it. As I mentioned Pete (my son dropped off some wood from a property cleanup. SO now I have as much to cut/split/stack as I can handle. The photo doesn't show the load that Bill dropped me off last night of stuff he has a pain processing, it's fine for me though. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211216_153456329.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1639700992)
I mentioned working at Bills on Monday milling up lumber for the shop. It occurred to me that we did pretty good on the log to nail-up timeline. At 10 am this was a log and at 11am it was floating through the air as some 2x8x17's to be nailed in. I guess you would call that a 'just in time' product flow.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211213_113252049_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1639700990)
Anyway, that's our version of a redneck skyhook. Although the roofing metal isn't on, it is all closed in on top and the siding is next. AT least now the water won't be dripping down in the shop on rainy days when trucks get serviced. There were times I thought it was raining harder and longer inside than it was outside.
I woke up this morning and one of the Grandsons was here. He had a cold on Monday and they kicked him out of school and said he couldn't come back until he had a negative third party covid test. He got clean results yesterday, but now they won't let him in because he has a cough. Anyway, I guess my plans changed and after breakfast we were out in the shop building a birdhouse. Then we played in the yard and other stuff while getting some chores done. After he got picked up, I went out and hit the log pile. I got a bunch bucked, but man I can't stay at it like I used to just 2 years ago. I ran out of steam about the same time I ran out of gas on the second tankful. I tried dragging the splitter over by hand and decided I would do it with the mule tomorrow. Nothing left in the tank, I guess.
SO I did other smaller chores and quit around 4. Tomorrow we have to do the monthly food shopping, so that will kill half a day, then I think I'll start splitting. If I could stay at it, I will solve my wood problem with what I have in the piles, but that's a lot of wood to process and stack. One good session with a friend or two helping out would make a big dent, but I don't seem to have that option right now, so I just keep plugging along. It will get done eventually. They're calling for sleet and freezing rain/snow on Saturday changing to rain, but I will see what I can get done. Crunch time, I guess.
Tomorrow is another day, right?
By the Way, if you haven't seen it, the 2021 Christmas contest is on! I had a great time working through it and it was a great walk back through the year. Lot's of fun. Looking forward to the drawing as the next fun forum thing, but youse guyz should really get in it to add to the fun. Just sayin'
Wat a difference a year makes, right? A year ago yesterday we had 18" of snow on the ground. today it was 15° and dry in the morning. Good thing too, I still don't have my firewood done yet and it's depressing me. I have lumber orders at the mil,, but I have got to get this wood done before I can't. Normally it's done by June 1st, but mushroom logs kind of killed that this year. Then one thing after the other came up and now I am in a bind.
Friday I busked and split a full load and brought it around to the house but just ran out of steam to stack it, so I did that Saturday morning in the light rain and ran the trailer back for another load but the rain got steady so I set the trailer and put the Mule away. It rained the rest of the day and I did other stuff. Sunday wasn't so bad, windy, overcast, and cold, but workable so I bucked a bunch up and did another load, then managed to split some more but not a full load. I left the trailer parked and took the Mule to visit my neighbor and meet her parents, in from Seattle for the holidays. We thought it would be good if we met, either one or both of her folks will be staying at her house for a few days alone while she heads back to the city for her next chemo round. I just figured it would be nice if they knew somebody on the road they could call if they had any questions or need something. I think they are both in their late 70's and very nice folks. He is retired Coast Guard, so there is a connection there. We hit it off.
I went to bed with a sore back and aching wrist last night. Hit it again this morning. Beautiful day, little to no wind, clear skies and in the mid 20's, finally hitting 32 for the high. Great working weather for me. Not so much for the splitter and starting it was hard. I nearly quit on it, but finally she kicked in, albeit very reluctantly. I bucked, split, moved and stacked a very full load. Then I put the trailer back by the splitter and bucked up a bunch more. By then the sun was behind the trees and the sweat on my back was cooling quickly. My back was sore again and my wrist was killing me. I bagged it for the day. Hopefully with the temps a little higher tomorrow, that splitter will start easier and I'll keep at it. I ain't fast, but I keep plodding along.
This year certainly has gotten away from me. I didn't even realize Christmas was this week until yesterday and no kidding, that hit me like a shovel. Last year, I wasn't so focused on selling stuff and making a few bucks, this year it's become more of a survival thing and I have to. So all the time intensive stuff I did last year in the process of learning and playing with ideas I just can't do now unless there is a check in there somewhere. I am blessed in that there are a lot of opportunities for that check, in fact much more than I could handle, but my ability to work 12 hour or more days is fading fast. The semi-tangibles, like firewood, that I need for heat, especially in the shop, but doesn't 'make any money' directly is very labor intensive. I am going to have to do some serious thinking over the winter as I have time and find some improvements.
Right now all I can do it keep at it and tomorrow is another day. I am just hoping the snow holds off for another couple of weeks like it did 2 years ago. I need that right now.
Tom,
Good recap but think about all the things you have learned this year about your new chosen "professions". You really have learned many tips to make the work more productive and efficient. In many cases no doubt you learned things not to do (Which, in many cases, are just as important as the things to do). Remember Edison with first 99 light bulbs. You've been to a pig roast and met a ER Doc from Kansas and many other unique "characters". You have become the duty expert on fungus. :D You have worked on your shop and many of those improvements and features are set up to serve you for many years ahead. You've learned to saw on a mill several generations beyond what you own and started on.
You have learned about indents and paragraphs (although those skills ebb and flow a bit :D) and are now a radio personality. And throughout it all you managed to get some family time in with the son and grandkids and helped out a neighbor or two but you still have a little bit to learn about grits and good southern culture in general but that will come with time and more experience so if I were you I'd put 2021 in the + column. dancing-jack
Certainly that's all true Howard. I didn't mean to sound like I am whining o complaining, because I am sure not! There are just some basic things that have to get done as routine every year and this year I failed on one of the big ones. I am just a little disappointed in myself for that.
In fact today as I was splitting, I was thinking to myself about what a perfect day it was. I recalled being in my office on days like this and remarking to co-workers how I would much rather be outside working. Most of them thought I was nuts, being so cold out. But I knew how good and clean that work felt. Now I can work on these days in whatever way I choose, so yeah, I know I got it good.
Your points are well taken though. My phone keeps popping up photos from 'a year ago today' and I see them and feel like it was 2 or more years ago. You are correct, there has been a lot of new water flowing under my bridge in the past year. Thanks for reminding me.
As for my shortcomings on southern culture, I have to take the hit on that one. My training is lacking in the mid-southern states and jumps from the frozen north to over your head and landing in Texas where the other part of the family resides and I have kept company often. Good chicken fried steak I know and love dearly, grits, sorry, not so much. Call it a flaw if you like, but that's just me. :D Maybe some day you or somebody else will show me some good grits (assuming they exist) and can convert me, but until then I must remain as I am. Happy and ignorant of such things.
Tom, at the VERY LEAST you (and I) got to meet some very good people at the pig roast. You even got some "stuff" from one of them ;) Now you (we) just have to keep at it so that a return trip to Jeff's place will happen again in 2022. I know that I'm glad to have met you in person and I consider you my friend! Friends aren't easy to gain ya know.
Look at me, I'm tearing up just thinking about it...
You had a busy year did and learned lots of new things. Took on a serious part time new job and went many different directions. Being behind on other stuff is just a by product.
New water under that bridge almost flood I say. :)
Ole dog learning lots of new tricks lol
Any more plans for mushroom logs in the spring?
I think I'm gonna try doing that, based off how much mushrooms the slash I left on the ground in the woods has taken off, I think if I actually start drilling holes and so on into the logs as you did will really get me a great harvest.
One of the steady joys in life for me is learning new things and skills, always has been since I was a kid. SO that part of the year was a good success and I thank you all for reminding me of that. I should go back and read where I was last year at this point, but I do recall I was just pondering on selling mushroom logs about this time last year. Over the year I moved between 1,000 and 1,500 logs with a lot of labor attached. I learned a lot on that score.
I have contemplated, but will hold off on doing any inoculation of logs myself for sale. Yes, the markup is great (about 8x the cost of a dry log) but the time and labor are also considerable and again, a young helper would help make that a reality. There is a fella just up the line that added that to his sale goods this year and I need to check in with him and see how it went.
As for the coming year, yes, I will continue to sell because I have a closer source which allows me to supply logs on a much shorter notice and the small orders are easy to do now with greatly reduced costs. Also, my log price is going up to $5./log. I attended a season wrap up meeting for the SV Apollonia Saturday evening. If you recall I shipped 300 logs to Brooklyn on that boat to the Red Hook Community Gardens. That was arranged by Cornell University, but I believe they may have moved on to other stuff now. I discussed working directly with the boat to ship logs south to customers who order through some kind of website thing (to be determined). We are in discussions about how that would work and the costing etc. I won't make hardly anything on it, but I like the crew and want to help and be part of that. In addition, it is possible I could sell some benches or small items through the same conduit. So that is a new opportunity to explore.
SO yeah, I am blessed with work and I keep getting asked to do more 'stuff' but I have to decline because of my backlog and limited hours. I surely would like to get a bunch of stuff made over the winter for sale at one or two selected "country fair" type things next summer, but we have to see how the winter goes. I have to get my firewood done first, the snow is coming.
Yeah Tom, keeping the body temp at 98.6 is kind of important ;)
Well, it's not just that. There are three things hinging on wood. Frist is getting it done so I can move on to productive stuff, Second is getting that log pile cleaned up and out of the driveway for plowing season, and third is having a way to heat the shop and house to save oil. This year I may supplement the shop with some oil each working morning just for a quick temp boost. 15 minutes with the oil furnace usually does it.
Mostly, it just hangs over my head as an obstacle right now. I have some green wood in there I can cast aside for now, but I would rather get it all cut and split and drying by the shop for late season or next year. Then the driveway is fully clear and my mental state is a little better too.
My splitter has been complaining and hard starting on these cold mornings. I should roll it in the shop and go over it before I out it away. The primer bulb may be due for replacement and the carb may need a little cleaning as well as an air filter and oil change. It's been flawless so 8 years, so it's due.
Tom you just reminded me of the fact I need to service the motor on my mill. :)
I have fallen into several charcuterie/stove top/noodle boards, and for friends, they are going for 100 bucks a piece. I am not good at charging and only with my daughter helping and making it like a little business have I done better. almost any cut off of pretty wood and be made into a board. even glues up is nice. I have made a few cutting boards.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/C8C154B2-0E3D-4475-876E-07A5D38095EF.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640184421)
little chunk of walnut that set in a shed for years. not much else to use it for but bow ties.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/2EFC5458-0F04-453D-9A97-A46B6DC7D9AA.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640184435)
this came from sideboards that have set in my shop for 5 years. they were 10 feet long, and it is good to break them down and get some use out of them. and now off the wall.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/F51D9C68-C516-4AB3-B10C-AA7A4DC557D1.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640184427)
a sign for a favorite uncle for the neighbors. and his favorite saying. my daughter cropped the face and cigarette out but the family wanted the cig in as that was part of who he is.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/4EA67ECC-5893-4AE3-947C-408DEF5E0507.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640184423)
this maple is spalted and blue stained. it had wane and was twisted. I put a little chunk on the back high corner to make it sit solid. I would have used it to get a fire started in the past. you can find projects to use every little scrap. when I no longer want it, my neighbor @Jim Thomas (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=51700) saw dust Jimmy takes them to make segmented bowls on his lathe. gifts from me are free. some of these are twice removed via friends and they are charged something. most of these have mineral oil for finish or boos butcher block oil.
Quote from: Nebraska on December 22, 2021, 09:49:44 AM
Tom you just reminded me of the fact I need to service the motor on my mill. :)
Just another free service I like to provide. ;D :D
Doc, that's a pretty good idea you have there. I wish I had the engraver to add to it, but just the boards might work. There are a couple of guys in the area making good money on these, but I could make a few on spec and see if they go. At least they stack and store easy. ;D Benches, not so much.
you could see if there is someone in the area. It is very easy and takes 5 minutes to personalize with an initial. I agree that making them personal also adds some value. My friend Jim brings 5 or 10 bowls or boards at a time. We work back and forth, and I do not charge him. My turkey call maker brings a box at a time, and I do glass, slate and ceramic blanks with his logo.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/33F08072-6575-4526-873F-1FFDB6E43262.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1639662004)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/3688CCEC-B5F0-4031-B8BE-F5BA2E91E9A8.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640186015)
Cut-split-stack-cut-split-stack-cut split stack. Seems like all I have done for the last 5 days, maybe more, it's just a blur of boredom. I can't wait to get this done. Tom my point, the only 'excitement' I had to day was when bucking a 20" HM log I felt two strange 'bumps' when I was nearly through. Nothing much, seemed almost like a hiccup in the saw, maybe getting low on gas. Anyway, I flipped the round to see if any telling marks showed up and found this.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211222_105342095_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1640222999)
Yeah, 2 nails. The saw didn't seem to mind much. It was at the end of the cutting session but I did another cut or two and the chain seemed to still cut. I had rounds laying all over, so I switched back to splitting. I'll sharpen the saw in the morning, I don't like cutting with a compromised chain. The teeth sure didn't look as bad as I expected, but this chain is near the end of it's life. One side is in good shape, but the other side got rocked a while back and is much shorter (a stone inside a stump), it's nearly up on the witness marks, So if it takes too much to bring it back, I will swap it out.
Still I can't wait to get this done and get back to work. The house pile is coming along and that has been my main concern, but I have a bunch more to go. Not all of this wood is what I would call 'good stuff' but I burn it all even the chunks and off-cuts. It's all BTU's, right?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211221_160324514.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1640222996)
I've got to pack that whole area to the ceiling before I feel 'good', then I have to go back and add more on the shop pile which is also short. I have a bunch of green stuff I am splitting small to dry faster and will 'back pile' that for burning late in the season. Yeah, I can make some up later on if the weather cooperates, but if we have a heavy snow winter, what I got is what I got and I'm stuck. I have to find a way to do this firewood without spending so much time on it. Right now I am getting closer everyday and that's the best I can do. I used to be able to do two full cycles a day, now I am fighting to get one full cycle done each day, which is only 1/3-1/2 cord sometimes a tad more.. Getting old sucks.
1/2 cord per day better than 0/2 cord per day! Keep at it man.
What do you have for a splitter? I found a 'slip-on' 4-way wedge and modified it quite a bit to fit on mine and it, well, doubled :D the speed on a high percentage of my wood which comes from thinning and is a good size for such a thing. It isn't hydraulically controlled like a fancy splitter but not much else around here is either.
Got a picture of that @mudfarmer (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=27318) ?
I use a Swisher 28ton. It's probably a better quality single wedge machine but certainly not for production. I graduated to it about 8 years ago when my demand for wood increased at the same time my ability to hand split began to decline. Now at 10 cord/yr, I could never hand split all that without giving up all other work.
Swisher does make a slip-on 4 way and the last few years I have considered getting it. Apparently now Lowes sells it by special order. The cost ranges from $120 to over $300 depending on where you buy. I just don't know how much it would actually buy me verses fighting jam ups, etc. Just doing 20" rounds on this splitter is a handful to hang onto. Of course for 'right sized' wood, it would be much faster, but I have quite the mix and would have to re-think.
I have pondered this quite a bit in recent years because it is not necessarily the splitting part that slows me down, it is the whole process combined. So in trying to find ways to remove or streamline steps I have made some improvements over the years, but now it's a matter of how long can I stay at in continuously? If it were just the splitting portion that was holding me back, I could run down the road and grab Bill's Timberwolf with the 6 way blade and ramp things up. Bucking takes a while because with a pile of random 'arborist chunks' and logs it takes a bit to sort and line them up for bucking. Then I have rounds all over I am tripping over. So I buck up enough for a full splitting session, move the splitter close so I don't have to lift, carry, or move them much, put the trailer right next to the splitter, then split and flip them in the trailer. When the trailer is mounded over, I hook up the Mule and drag it over to the house and stack it. Stacking a trailer load takes about 45-60 minutes, about the same as splitting time. When I do the shop wood, I try to get the logs close to the shop pile, then buck. I put the splitter between the log pile and the stack, then from the splitter is goes right on the stack, which is much faster.
Splitting and stacking time gives me lots of time to think on it and I have come to believe that the limiting factor is simply my endurance. I am the weakest link.
Just a couple of years ago I could do 3 cycles in a day, or about 1-1-1/2 cord. Now it is hard to do one full cycle. Maybe my problem is between my ears, I dunno. I do know I don't really like working in the cold too much. Yesterday we had freezing rain the night before and I was getting pretty wet as that ice was melting off the logs as I split. The wind just made it a little more unpleasant and it got dang nasty at the end of the day. I was still stacking when darkness hit with 15mph winds. Not a lot of fun.
Today is another day, I had best get at it. The snow is coming in 'annoyance quantities' and I would love to have most of this log pile gone. Today I have a bunch of 20" stuff to buck and split, and stack.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 23, 2021, 08:32:34 AMJust a couple of years ago I could do 3 cycles in a day, or about 1-1-1/2 cord. Now it is hard to do one full cycle.
You have a couple of grandsons, right? Time to break them in and have them stack the wood from the last session while you buck up the rounds for the next. Never too early to train them up! ;)
I'm not mudfarmer, but I bought a wood splitter and they made a 4 way for me.
top view
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10436/woodsplitterthecfarm5.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1230818559)
side view
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10436/woodsplitterthecfarm4.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1230818559)
and on the splitter
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10436/woodsplitterthecfarm1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1230818559)
It just a slip on type.
I added on to the top of the wedge, so I could split the big pine I had easier. So that no longer can be used. I would split some pine in a vertical mode that I had that was 3 feet across and That standard wedge size would miss some of the big ones, due to root flare and odd shape pieces. I got fed up with trying to move those big pieces when they would not line up right. I added on about 6 inches and all is well now.
Thanks, I do not have a pic but that's pretty close!
Definitely not useful for every piece, and it took me a while to find a groove. Now I split everything that the 4way will love and then take it off and run through the rest. I am not usually dealing with big wood like an arborist would drop off though just thinnings and culls so mostly in the 4-16" range with the occasional bigger log.
Mudfarmer and TheCfarm, you guys are wearing me down. I think you are trying to stimulate the economy by helping me spend my money. :D
But I did think about this today as I was splitting and I realized maybe my mind has been too closed toward this option. I am a big believer in 'the right tool for the job' and trying new thigs before I decide they don't work. That should apply here also. SO I am looking around and think I will order one. As you've said, it won't work for everything but it should save me some time. I looked at how many times a turned a round the get a second split and realized you guys may be more right than I am. SO I just have to order one. It's going to be cheaper than time and material to make one. I don't have much left on the pile now, a couple of days work, but I should get this moving, may have it in hand by the new year to try it out.
As for the grandson's, yeah that would be a good idea, but they are still a bit too young. They help when I am doing the shop wood but for the house wood the working area is tight and the stacks have to be right. They don't yet have those hand/eye skills mastered. They have to be overly supervised. ;D SO it doesn't buy me any time. They will get there though, in a few more years. Last year, when I first started the house pile and there was room my wife supervised while they stacked and they did a dang good job and much quicker that I ever would have guessed. But my wife isn't the best stacker either, so I had to 'adjust' a lot of it for safeties sake after they all went inside to make cookies. ;D
Today I managed to do one full cycle plus a little more before the sun dropped behind the trees. SO that's better. But I had a lot of junk wood that went right into the trash fire pile. I'll use that to heat the driveway at some future date. AT this point I am trying to get all the dead standing stuff split and stacked, then do the green stuff. My piles of swarf and dust are growing and I just move the splitter a few feet so I can deal with it later. I think I will just push it off with the plow because after the wood is cleaned up, that plow needs to go on. The end is nearly in sight. We have snow coming in overnight, but just enough to keep me wet tomorrow as I split.... I hope. It well be a short day, I need to do some Christmas shopping. Saturday is a lost day, I don't want to disturb the neighbors with the saw and splitter running and we have to go to my son's in the afternoon. Sunday I will get back to work and hopefully the weather will let me hit it hard. I'd like to have all the wood cleaned up by Tuesday and move on. I need to get back to the mill.
Well the winter doldrums continue weather wise. Mostly cloudy and damp with a few breaks of sun to tease us into thinking it's going to get better. But the next day is the same. Friday I got another round in, Saturday was a quiet day with drizzle and light rain all day. We spent it at my son's with the grandsons and my daughter.
Yesterday, back at it and did another cycle but I am down to mostly lousy wood and about 15% went right junk pile. It was getting to be a mess so I took some time and used the plow to push all the pithy junk out of my way and remove the trip hazards which makes life easier and safer. I still have a days work left, but hoping to finish all the wood I have today. Had some saw issues during the day. I kept finding dirt in all this junk and got to the point where the saw just wasn't cutting so I had to quit and give it a good sharpening, then back at it and it still wasn't quite right and I jammed the nose sprocket with pithy mush. SO back in the shop and cleared that out, but when I had the bar off I realized it had been 'a while' since I did bar maintenance. There was a pretty good burr on the rails which wasn't helping. So I dressed the rails and sides and gave it a good flushing and cleaning, then cleaned out the saw well and the side plate and put it all back together. Even though I had done the rakers last week, I checked them and found many that were too high, so I did those too. This chain is just about done anyway, I am running up against the witness marks on most teeth, but I want to get through all this junk firewood before I put a new one on. I have put a lot of wood through that chain, about 1500 mushroom logs, several tons of slabs and a lot of other wood, so I am happy with how that LPX chain works for me. I think raker height gets more 'fussy' when the teeth are sharpened way back.
It went down to 27 last night but the shop was 60° when I stoked the stove an hour ago, so that is satisfying. Not a bad sunrise this morning, but they say "Red sky at Morning, Sailors take warning" so lets see what we get.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211227_071153124.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1640609476)
My son says he is coming over today to help finish the wood. Better late than never, right? Looks like rain later in the day so getting it done as early as possible may be helpful. It's already solid overcast, but the radar shows we should have a few hours anyway and the weather guessers are saying nothing until late in the day, but that radar says otherwise. Could be another snotty day but I need to get this wood finished.
Time to have at it, but first I think I'll make a pot of coffee in the shop. :)
Well the firewood was completed yesterday. AT least I am calling it done. I am out of logs, the weather is coming, it is what it is. It's probably the poorest load of wood I can remember in many years. Back to the days when I was working lots of hours and barely could manage any time to do firewood. But it is what it is as I said and we will make do with it. I have a large pile of junk chunks that I won't even bother to carry in for daytime heating. I'll just burn it in the driveway to clean up. My son and hi helper came by for 2 hours yesterday and the 3 of us made quick work of it. All stacked and the junk is plowed up to the side and out of the way. We quit at 12:30 on that and they left, at 1pm it started snowing again. ;D
In the process of doing the last bucking session I managed to mess that chain up again in short time and by the time I cut the last log it could have only been considered saw abuse. I sharpened it again last night, but I am pretty much out of teeth now. Some teeth took 12-15 files strokes. I'll put that new chain on very shortly and save this one for and emergency backup. I never put a chain in the storage box unless it is sharp and usable. I cleaned up some other stuff and put things right for the snow that may not have come yesterday, but will come soon.
Last night I got hit with another unanticipated financial hits, due in ten days. This stuff is killing me and it really brought me down. I had banked cash for the hit that I did expect in a couple of weeks and should be good for that, but this one doubled down on my problems. Now I am pretty much working to pay for these gut shots. I thought I was getting ahead and had enough left to get that new saw after I knocked the known obligation off, but now that just sailed out the window. Between the two bills I could be nearly cleaned out again. Oh well, I've been broke before, I'll be broke again, I'll just keep pushing ahead. What else can a guy do? None the less I went to bed early last night pretty depressed.
This morning I got up, called the bank to make arrangements for the transfer (they have a limit on a transfer amount unless you call first) and paid the debt. Now I just hope I get paid the lumber money I have coming to make up the difference for the next hit. AT least this one is paid and that clears my mind a little bit.
With that done, I tried to focus on getting back to work but I was slow moving. Wound up piddling away the morning here on the FF because I find some joy in the posts I read here and try to keep up with everyone's doings and it takes my mind off my misery for a little while. I'll read something I don't understand fully, if at all, then go off and do some searching to understand what is being discussed. That can chew up a lot of time some days.
Anyway, around lunchtime, I was getting antsy so I called Bill to catch up. He and the guys were out digging an in-ground pool and backfilling as it was getting filled. (Don't ask me, I don't get it either.). So nobody was at the yard and it's been close to 2 weeks since I was down there I think, so I went down just to see where I left off, what new logs were there and how I could best get going again. (I also picked up a couple dozen eggs since we are out.) While I was there, and because there really was no reason for me being there except enjoying the day and getting outside, I thought I would shoot a video for the folks here. It might give you a better picture of the log yard and what I am working with, or maybe not. It's 12 minutes which I think is pretty long, but you get a 'walk around' out of it. I think I mentioned @YellowHammer (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=11488) in there somewhere.
Job Security, The log pile - YouTube (https://youtu.be/QpH7f4j1BHU)
Tonight some more snow coming in, maybe some rain too. Not likely to see the sun for about 3-5 days more at this point. I may have wasted the best day of the week today. ;D None the less, tomorrow is another day, let's see what we get.
That's a lot of logs!
Yeah,, there is some. There is more that don't really jump out. For instance if you stop the video at exactly 2:36 you will see a second shelf cut in the rock where there are some big logs (30"+). This was a bluestone quarry about 125 years ago and that's why the big rock face and cliff where they took out stone that wound up in NYC sidewalks.
There's more logs coming in all the time and we are a little packed up. That spot 'across the road' near the end should be fairly empty but is nearly full up now. A bunch of that junk will get burned, but there is a log truck just outside the video on the road that needs unloading yet. I hope we don't get too much weather tonight so I can make some sawdust tomorrow.
Nice video and walk around. Thanks for doing it.
Quote from: YellowHammer on December 29, 2021, 08:15:55 AM
Nice video and walk around. Thanks for doing it.
Kind of funny, as you were likely typing your reply here I was watching your driveway grading video which, as always was very nicely done. I wish I could edit some of this stuff. I tried adding subtitles on youtube and they show up there, but not when you watch it here embedded in the thread. I should have turned the camera 90° when I shot it, but once I realized that I was too far into it.
The yard is a bit of a mess now, with logs coming in, not enough time to do firewood, trying to get the excavating & septic jobs done before the heavy weather closes in, etc. Things are tending to get dumped and off to the next emergency job. We need to find a spot by that steel building to move the edger to, but with the clutter we may be setting it 1/4 mile to the east (out the rear of that building) where it's flat and clear, then in the spring clean up and make a space for it. Also hoping to pour a floor in that building this winter. The list is long and the projects many and large. The shop still needs to be closed in up top.
Tom,
You mention the edger but who runs it? I got the impression you were pretty much a one man show. My thoughts on edgers is you pretty much need a second operator to run them. While the mill operator runs the primary machine the edger operator trims the flitches and maybe even a cut off saw.
With those of us who do operate alone I have not seen the great value of an edger. I can either run the sawmill or the edger. I've seen the little portable edger WM makes and it looks like a handy little machine if you have the second operator to run it. IMHO edgers are much more useful to a stationary set up.
Nice walk through! Looks like you may have enough work there to keep ya outta trouble for a bit.
Thank you Tom.
My woodstove is perking along and I'm watching your vid because we're at -41 C this morning.
Seeing where and how you're working is interesting, and always gives rise to new ideas.
Filmora is a free decent editing program, and if you have a Mac, it has a good one built in also. I use Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Thanks for watching the videos. I know some people make a killing on videos. I don't. I think I'm making $0.09 dollars per hour but I'm kind of doing it to help other folks by providing tips and useful information and also as a type of home movie that my kids can watch. It gives me something to do when it's cold outside, say near freezing such as 50F. :D
-40 temps is completely out of my comfort zone. Wow. It's 70 here.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on December 29, 2021, 09:28:29 AM
Tom,
You mention the edger but who runs it? I got the impression you were pretty much a one man show. My thoughts on edgers is you pretty much need a second operator to run them. While the mill operator runs the primary machine the edger operator trims the flitches and maybe even a cut off saw.
With those of us who do operate alone I have not seen the great value of an edger. I can either run the sawmill or the edger. I've seen the little portable edger WM makes and it looks like a handy little machine if you have the second operator to run it. IMHO edgers are much more useful to a stationary set up.
Howard, the formal setup for this edger is a work in progress, we really don't know just yet. We have had it up by the shop to resize old lumber that has been dried and sitting for a 'while' to use on the shop build. Also I send up a load of unedged material from time to time they can size into board widths they need. The was a lot of 4/4 material used for the roof decking and we will need a lot more for B&B siding. Likely a lot of the 10" stuff will be cut into 2 4" battens (and a sticker). I am mostly alone when milling, but no way can anyone run that edger alone without a green chain off loading it.
Yes, the machine needs at least two people. We pull the flitches off where the machine sits now and pile them right in front of the OWB. So the machine is by the shop to make widths 'on demand' during the build process. But when the shop is done, that will change and we are 'discussing' the location and setup all the time. I do know that, ideally if I could be taking 4/4 jacket boards off the mill with 2 lives edges and staging them on their own stack, then edging to size as a 'bunch' would be a LOT faster than setting them back up on the mill and edging each side. SO that is how I'd like to do it. Throw those boards in a pile and then maybe once a week get a helper and edge them up to size. Also, if we get an order for a width we don't have we can quickly make up a mess of it from wider boards, faster than on the mill by far.
Ironically, today we pulled the edger in the shop and went over it. Changed oil and filters, pulled a belt to size it for a replacement and I got underneath and removed the bronze slip shoe that controls the floating blade location. It is badly worn and the board widths have been drifting a bit. I made a working drawing of it for a machine shop to make us up a few next week. After lunch we leveled up the machine and went through and reset all the roller heights. Something we have wanted to fix for a while. Today was the day. So when we get all the parts in we should have a much better running machine.
Robert I do have to write off a bad weather day and try to find something to edit videos with then learn how to use it. I run a PC and should be able to find something free to work on it, just to have a record. I use your videos to show others things I am trying to explain because they are clear and move pretty quickly. (I am still struggling to get my feed rates up
near yours, I did better today.) Today it never reached 35° here with a snotty drizzle all day, but we did mill in the afternoon for an hour or so just to clear the one log I had left on the deck and finish off the work day. We needed some slabs to fill the OWB anyway. At least I wasn't cold all day, but I didn't sweat much either. -40C and -40F are the same temperatures and both are too cold to do anything in. Below 20°F I start to get uncomfortable in my feet and would rather avoid that. above 20 isn't so bad at all and even close to perfect if there is sunshine. But we get what we get.
I enjoyed it, thanks.
I neglected to mention in the previous post that I am glad some watched it and enjoyed it. I like watching how other folks work, set things up, and the various situations they have to deal with as well as how they solve issues or work with them. I have learned a lot from watching those type videos. Nothing special, just a tour to see how things lay out. I'd like to see some from other folks, but I couldn't very well ask if I didn't post something myself. Obviously our setup needs a bunch of 'process flow management' and we will work on that as an ongoing project. Right now we have the shop to finish and orders to complete so I just keep plugging with what we've got.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on December 29, 2021, 09:28:29 AM
Tom,
You mention the edger but who runs it? I got the impression you were pretty much a one man show. My thoughts on edgers is you pretty much need a second operator to run them. While the mill operator runs the primary machine the edger operator trims the flitches and maybe even a cut off saw.
With those of us who do operate alone I have not seen the great value of an edger. I can either run the sawmill or the edger. I've seen the little portable edger WM makes and it looks like a handy little machine if you have the second operator to run it. IMHO edgers are much more useful to a stationary set up.
I operate alone 99% of the time and my edger is a huge time saver. I can edge much faster, more efficiently, and with a fraction of the physical effort versus handling those flitches on the mill having to handle and turn them ad finitum. However, I am set up permanent, am never mobile, and never custom saw the junk that people want me to saw for them. We all have a different business plan and strategy. I sell fully kiln dried and planed furniture grade hardwood and pine lumber. I have climate controlled kiln dried wood storage.
That sure is a fancy way to say you don't like to flip boards. :D
Exactly, I am too old for that anymore. Flippin' edger boards on the sawmill is a younger man's game :).
As of yesterday, I now consider myself old.
Quote from: WDH on December 30, 2021, 06:03:46 AM
Exactly, I am too old for that anymore. Flippin' edger boards on the sawmill is a younger man's game :).
As of yesterday, I now consider myself old.
OH, is that where the 'official old marker' is? 68? Sorry forgot to wish you the best on your birthday, I hope you had a super one. I will catch up with you in a year and a half, but by then you will probably be ahead of me again. :D
Yes, flipping boards gets old fast, especially alone and especially 8/4 x 16'. I think milling for yourself gives you one set of priorities, portable milling a client's logs gives you another set, and milling to order (stationary) gives you a third set of priorities. They are all similar, but very different.
For me, it's mill to order, and all but one order so far has been a single specific size (for each order). So anything outside the 'target size' is of little value to me at that time and becomes 'overhead'. In other words, if I am milling up 2x8x14' as my target and I take some 4/4 jacket boards off getting down to my cant size, those 4/4 boards have to be handled and they either have 1 or 2 live edges. I usually throw these on the side for later (end of the day or end of the week or end of the order) but then they have to be loaded back up and flipped and pulled off as I hit various 2" increments (12,10,8,6,4) and then stacked for use on 'something' later. The time to re-load and stack adds up quick and can be abusive on the body. If on the other hand, these boards go into a slightly more remote pile queued up at the edger, then when somebody comes by, two of us can edge a large stack in just a few minutes. The edger allows me to take off some 8/4 jacket boards that can become 2x4's later on. Right now, those go in the slab pile for BTU's. We are not yet milling for stock, not until we build some covered drying facilities. Running a 12' board through the edger takes about 20 seconds and they go one after the other (check out Yellowhammers edger video, makes me drool every time and that is our model to work toward). This 'stack and edge it later' may seem like a compromise solution, but in our case it actually fits in perfect because we are always looking for well organized, clearly defined, productive, short jobs for the hourly guys to do at the end of a work day to fill in an hour or so to work a full day. Lately it's been firewood, You saw in the video everything remains setup and two guys or even one can go down and be filling a truck in a few minutes. They'll do a cord in about 30-40 minutes. This edging 'task' would serve as another one of those productive quick jobs.
The portable game has a different set of goals and usually some sort of help which is a significant difference. 2 people throwing boards back up for edging and flipping is about 5x faster than one person and you can get through them much quicker for sure. The client mostly wants to get the most wood out that they can and usually will happily take those 4/4 boards that hadn't been planned on as 'extras'.
As an example of this, when I first started running this mill around August and was still feeling my way while also trying to madly keep up with feeding 4 guys building on the shop above my head, I took the jacket boards and made a pile and kept adding to it, not wasting any time but to make the target sizes. Within a week I had a huge pile (2 trips with the fork lift as least). But when they got a little time on a Sunday afternoon they ran these up the hill to the edger and 2 guys ran all that lumber through in less than 15 minutes and wound up with a very nice pack of lumber, which promptly went into siding and roof decking. The scrap went directly into the OWB. Yes, we could set it up for a single guy operation and it will be a little slower as WDH does, but still, the overall productive efficiency is huge even though it is spread out over a longer time period. Also consider that we sometimes split boards and get two boards on a single pass because you have two blades working at the same time. SO we can get an 10" board and a 4" batten to go with it on a board that is wide enough and already has one finished edge.
This whole thing is very similar to the original "I'm gonna get me a sawmill and make lots of money with it" issue. You get the mill then realize you have a material handling issue, not a sawmill issue. Well the edger is kind of the same, you get it for the obvious benefits then realize you are back to a material handling issue, but of a different sort. Now you need more space in the right place, roller tables, transfer systems, storage, etc. Once you figure that out productivity can really soar. I do like the way Southside has his edger right downstream from the mill and I think this is what I would like to do. Yellowhammer has his in a separate area, but he edges just before sale, not right after milling and he has the space for that. We need to find what works best for us, then create the space and facility to do that.
Sorry, that was a long answer, but I was thinking it through for myself as I was writing. The edger is a game changer for stationary work, but I can't see the value for portable work unless you are setting up at a long running site such as when Lynn was working in that sand pit. Then maybe hauling in another machine would be worth it.
If you go back through that video to the section where I am near the head of the mill and you look toward the lumber that is stacked and stickered behind it, you can see a very large log pile. I'd like to get that out of there and put the edger there, a little father down and have roller tables to move the product on down, handling it a lot like Yellowhammer does. It's a never ending process.
Tom,
Good analogy and I can see in your case throwing the off size/non-target flitches to the side and letting the helpers come edge them later makes good sense for time management and economics. For mobile sawyers or for people like me with no edger it is generally faster and easier to edge them at the time I cut them to reduce the amount of handling.
I was thinking for those of us who own the logs that a log is kind of like a side of beef for a butcher. He can cut the beef into a mix of steaks, stew, roast and burger with assorted prices to maximize the monetary return or he can just grind it all up into burger for simplicity but which sells for less. If we have the storage capacity we can saw a log into multiple cuts that sell for more or just cut them into framing and 4/4 sheeting. The problem I have is storage restricts the number of cuts I can make and keep available so I have to cut the common items that will sell.
The same could be true with the butcher. Steaks and roasts might sell for more but if he can't sell them he may have to grind them into burger to accommodate his local market.
If I have an order I try to maximize the return of that size and anything that won't match the order I try to cut into stock sizes I can use or sell. That sounds like what you are doing too.
Yeah, that's just about exactly it. Glad you brought the food issue in, makes it official. ;D
About 18 years ago Bill got his first mill, an LT40 (which I thought was a beast at the time) and he milled up tons of lumber, mostly 8/4 dimensional full size, but also some beams and a fir amount of 4/4. By that time he had big piles of logs to 'reduce'. Well over the years he sold some here and there but it was not undercover and you know what the weather did to it. My goal now is to not go down that road again and slow him down and put all the pieces in place for anything we produce now so it will last a long time if needed before sale for use. I am trying to create an infrastructure for him that can continue after I can no longer operate it and not suffer when not attended. The new LT50 is a whizz-banger, adding the edger is super. Now we just need to put it all together. I am hoping for 4 drying sheds total to handle different basic sizes or species. Now that he owns the 60 acres across the road from the mill, we have a little working room. We are still "discussing" the locations of these sheds and have yet to agree. I want to build them on skid rails so they can be dragged around as things may change..
Add into this that I am old and feeble and won't be around forever. Right now I am limited by ability as to how many hours I can work in a row alone. SO my goal is to get this so that somebody else can walk in and take over and just follow the process after I am gone. For instance, yesterday was an 'easy day' with poor weather, we did needed repairs and maintenance and parts ordering in the morning, a relaxing lunch out, then some milling in the afternoon and yes, I got home after dark. Today I am slow starting once again. It does wear me out trying to keep up with guys that are 1/2 to 1/3 of my age, even doing simple work.
So, as with everyone else, there are other things at play that are critical to how we set this up. We all have our little proclivities now don't we?
Tom,
The other issue is are you trying to be a sawmill or a lumberyard?
My definition is a sawmill pretty much custom saws lumber for people from the mill owner's or the customer's logs. You can pretty much get anything you want from a sawmill but you will normally have to place the order then wait for the logs to be obtained and/or sawed to match your order.
I think of a lumberyard as something like Lowes, 84 lumber or HD where they have a large stock of assorted, mostly common use, lumber and related wood products.
Then there are specialty lumberyards like Yellowhammer owns and runs where you can find hard to find specialty items for master woodworkers that the normal lumberyards cannot obtain or do not have enough of a market to stock. I assume in some cases a lumberyard will special order from the specialty lumberyards for those hard to find items. In this case the customer will have wait a while just like he would from a sawmill operation.
The problem with a sawmill, as defined above, is during the normal course of custom sawing you also generate some "Side lumber" that you either ignore and it just goes in the scrap pile or is salvaged and must be processed and marketed somehow. If you are custom sawing a customer's log like sawyers like me do we just ask the customer what he wants made from it and saw it accordingly. As a sawyer it is hard to see potential useable lumber go in the scrap pile but the customer's directions, time and market conditions sometimes force us to do just that.
Under ideal conditions we sawyers have a place to store the side lumber and a market for it. This side lumber can make a big difference in our profit and loss for the year and this sounds like what you are advising Bill about setting up. I hope he listens and it works out well for all of you.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 30, 2021, 10:43:17 AM. . . SO my goal is to get this so that somebody else can walk-in and just take over . . .
Your words reminded me of a Greek proverb; "A society grows great when old men plant oak trees whose shade they know they will never enjoy."
You are a good man OGH, and part of the larger Forum population that is planting oak trees.
The issue of low grade wood is a real problem for us, so we try to cope and adapt. For example, I only buy veneer grade logs, generally, so I will have a large percentage of FAS and better, and very little common lumber from them. Unfortunately, other than a few species, we don't sell common grade wood, so we cut the clear areas from each board, one board at a time, by the thousand, to sell. We burn the knots. We process Common at 67% usable into Premium at 100% usable, only shorter or narrower.
Or I will mill up a log and target different cuts such as live edge slabs, 8/4, or 4/4 and even vertical grain from the same log, trying to target marketable cuts. For example, a knotty face will end up as an 8/4 live edge slab with knots, whereas a clean face on the same log will be cut as a FAS and better, at 4/4.
Live edge requires no edging, so that's a plus. 4/4 almost always requires a little edge tune up, but I wait until the board is dry before I work it, generally.
I edge a lot by myself, and it's certainly a two person job. However, I have the outfeed table dropped about 10 inches so I can feed a couple of layers 4/4 off a pallet and let them stack up on the outfeed table, so I don't have to stop for every board. So I feed in 8 or 10 boards, then go to the outfeed and stack them.
Unfortunately, even some of the high grade kiln dried lumber I purchase needs edging because it's crooked or has sapwood, and I need to bring it up to our specs. That's where a straight cutting double bladed edger kills it. A 1,000 bdft pallet of kiln dried FAS come off the semi truck, all slightly crooked or bark on some edges, (because NHLA allows 10% wane), and after a quick pass through the edger or SLR, 850 bdft of 100% clear straight Hobby Hardwood boards are ready to sell. Since I currently have about 38 species and cuts, I mill the specialty stuff myself (sassafras, quartersawn sycamore, ambrosia maple, butternut, elder, etc) and purchase large amounts of vanilla wood such red oak, white oak, poplar, etc. The problem with purchased lumber is it isn't generally very wide, so I have to make that myself. For example, on poplar, I buy lots of FAS but I still have to saw up and spike that with wide poplar, over 12 inches. So even when I'm buying boards for a a species, I still have to saw some portion of it to augment the selection. I think the only species I don't saw myself that we sell are the exotics and white pine.
Even with me doing that, I still have two maybe three delivery trucks of various sizes of lumber come every week, plus logs. So an edger that runs day after day is essential for us to keep our grade and quality as high as possible, and not waste time.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 30, 2021, 10:43:17 AMAdd into this that I am old and feeble and won't be around forever.
In a year and a half it will be official :D.
Wow, I wish could bookmark that single post! There is a LOT of valuable information there for sure. Thank You Robert for the 'overview' of of big picture. We are a LONG ways from this, but it gives me a goal (which we are never likely to meet). We are not a lumber yard BUT there is value added in that. I think of us as a 'saw to order' outfit that also saws to stock setup (with the sideboards). I'd like to take whatever is not on the 'target list; and put them on the side for an obvious sale in a few weeks, This means 'storage' and that requires racks. We'd also like to cut some hardwood slabs and get them drying. There are Still some usages around here usages for slabs for picnic tables and such with ritelegs. There is also the higher end market which is not gone yet and I didn't mention that we have a slab-mizer to go in that steel building. This is planned for winter work (to keep me "busy").
So Robert's method is similar to ours, but we will remain at a much lower quality level that he and Martha carry forth. Robert, do you just have the one edger, or is there another one near the mill you do flitches with? Dang but I wish I could spend a couple of days following you around. That is a picture book operation you have there.
Quote from: WDH on December 30, 2021, 06:15:09 PM
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 30, 2021, 10:43:17 AMAdd into this that I am old and feeble and won't be around forever.
In a year and a half it will be official :D.
Yeah, I am starting to realize that I am 'old'. I stopped in at a local watering hole because I saw my 'crew' was having lunch there on my way back for town today. I was just going to have 'a beer with them'. We did, they left and I got into a conversation with another couple of uys talking about local shooting, then it turned to landowners, logging, old backwoods patties, hiking the hills and the next thing you know I am nearly late for dinner.
Apparently I am now one o the 'local geezers'. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
"Local old geezer"....I think it's a privilege well earned.
Your operation will be much better set up and running a year from now. I will bet on that... (I realize it's not your own but I think you have a pretty big input)
Your personal ones will be there as well.
Robert started with an LT15 look what that morphed into.
Does the slab wood you generate with the big mill all get consumed by the boiler? I am burning a significant amount of my sawmill waste through my wood furnace mostly evenings or weekends when I am home. I ended up with about 3 cord in totes.
It's not as good as my split firewood but even ERC slabs have heat in them. I looked at those piles of pine logs in the video and wondered if you made excess slab waste. Enjoyed what I watched btw.
Yeah, all the slab wood gets consumed by the OWB as fast as we can make it nearly. That's a big OWB we top feed with the forks or a grapple which heats the shop and the house about 2-300' apart, plus the pool in the spring/summer. I would say it takes two overloaded fork full's or three grapple loads to fil it. Bill has aa air B&B or two trailer type camps for the city folks and occasionally we split up up slab wood and cut it short for them to have for campfires, but that takes just a few minutes for a short truck load. The rest is just dumped in the OWB as needed. Yesterday we dumped a 5' bucket load of chunks and garbage wood and bark in it, then an hour later filled it with fresh off the mill slab wood which is about a 10-12 hour load. The furnace has a 5' by 4' top hatch with hydraulic cylinders to open the top. To answer your question, we never have 'excess' slab wood, it all gets burned. That boiler runs 365 days.
Yes, Robert has what I consider to be, a top notch, state of the art, first class setup. We won't ever match that, but he sets a fine example to shoot for. I'd love to visit some time and work there for a couple of days. That kind of learning has a value you can't put a dollar sign on.
Bill and I have an interesting relationship, with him being half my age and me working for him. He has been trying to bring me into the fold for several years now. I thought he just wanted help from a guy that could take care of himself. Turns out I was wrong. We don't talk about it much, but I am pretty sure he thinks I am a smart guy (go figger) who can help him move ahead and make decisions he has had trouble making in the past. He seems to trust me. I don't know why. I like, respect, and trust him because he has gotten everything he has the hard way. WORK and nothing but work and learning the hard way. I have watched him for 20 years building everything he has from nothing and I am more than happy to help him in anyway I can. He has earned that. He doesn't lie, finagle, or wiggle through things, he's a straight shooter. How can I not respect that? Mistakes? Sure, he has made a ton of them and will make a lot more and will keep driving. So yeah, I want to see this 'kid' succeed. He should, he's earned it. He (I believe) wants me around as an advisor and someone to figure things out with and argue things through to make a decision. I don't know all the answers to what he needs or where he should take things and I never suggest 'you NEED to do this', but he does make adjustments based on what I am seeing and sometimes those are very contrary to his original plan. I am just trying to help and as everyone here knows, any of us can be just as wrong as we might be right.
Finally as to the 'old geezer' thing. I guess that never occurred to me in specific terms. I realized when I was talking to those guys at the bar tonight I was speaking of things that happened the year they were born. History of places they too had spent their childhood in, but a decade before they walked those woods for the first time. Like it or not, I feel old now and 'old geezer' fits, but I can't think of myself like I did about those old folks I sat and drank coffee with when I was in my 20's and trying to learn. Those guys knew the woods and they may have been old, but they were smart and cold do anything even though a lot of them never graduated high school. For me, they were the top of the pile in the knowledge train in all things that mattered. I can't hit that mark, for sure. In my way of tinking, I never will, but it's a little nice to be thought of that way, even if it's misplaced.
That OWB is huge then... dang...I have been around a couple but neither seemed much different than what I run here water system vs forced air but size wise and wood consumed they were similar.
My set up is a puppy compared to it, I didn't realize it was a 365 full time deal.
I bet you appear pretty knowledgeable to the young guys how many of them could live without a cell phone?? We come from a time that didn't have the internet. Your neighbor boy (now a successful grown man) knows that too you've known him a long time.
HAH! yeah, Bill ain't got much use for cell phones but he needs one to run his business so he uses it, but they have no cell service at the house, no tv or cable and they don't miss it. Bill has no internet and doesn't need that either (he has me to look things up and get him odd parts). You get down to the end of my road by Bill's and you start to imagine banjo music wafting through the trees and you are in another dimension. ;D ;D Mostly you perception is correct.
Truly, it is one of the reasons I enjoy working down there, I am in another world where cell phones are useless. You are on your own and best know what you are doing. No google, no 911, no texts. I am fine with that.
I appreciate the comments. Everyone works hard to do their thing and its fun reading this post.
Yes, me and my little bitty 15 hp, hand crank LT-15. That was fun. We used to just sell red oak, and if I sold a board a week, it was a triumph. We used to call our little operation the "Lemonade Stand" because we felt like a couple kids on the sidewalk trying to convince people to buy stuff they didn't really want. However, we learned a lot through the years, and still have a lot to go.
Here are a couple pictures I took yesterday, thinking about this post. This is a good example of sawing not for FAS lumber, but for beauty. The market for each is different and separate, so why try to force a board into one for the other? So this was going to be a wide poplar board, to spike the pallet I purchased of FAS poplar, but with the knots and stripes this board, that wasn't its calling. So I milled it, and a half dozen others, into mega wide live edge boards and they switched category from low grade poplar to striking work of art and now its on the showcase rack in the center of the room. I bet they will sell by lunchtime.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_3108.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640955944)
Here is another picture from yesterday, after we cleaned everything up and are ready to open up in a couple hours. Long rows of different species, virtually all 100% usable, no knots. Even the exotics are clean, no knots. This is a product that can't be bought wholesale - there isn't a commercial grade for "perfect" and that's niche we try to fill. For example, there is only one mill in the country that I can order walnut from that matches our grade, and that is in Missouri. I've tried literally dozens of others through the years. There is only one mill I can order cherry from that matches ours, and that's in Pennsylvania. Sometimes I runout of my wood and have to get some of theirs. So this is how I know we are separating ourselves form other operations, if I can barely find it anywhere in the country, how would anybody else? We have several mega hardwood mills within miles of us, and I can't throw a rock without withing someone with a band mill. So how do were compete against that? We don't. We try to do better. "Better" sells, there is always a market for it, and it is not a commercially available product, generally.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21488/IMG_3109.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1640955951)
So the question is, why would someone buy a commercial pack of wood from us and pay more for it, rather than order it themselves? There are a couple reasons. Maybe they don't have the "connections." Or they just don't want to deal with it. For example, there is a millwork shop that used to say our prices were too high and they just order wood by the bundle themselves. Now they exclusively buy from us because they said our wood is 100% usable and they used to have a full time employee whose only job it was to "clean up" lumber they had ordered, but now that they buy from us, they don't need that, and that employee is back on the shop floor building product. So they pay more for our wood but gain back an employee.
Also, since we try to have a least a pack or two of everything in stock at all times, we randomly get "opportunity purchases" where people from other states call and say they need such and such and can't find it anywhere and do we have a pallet it it? They are out of it and can't get it, anywhere. "Sure, yep, bring a trailer, come on and get it." Just recently sold load of white pine going to a guitar company in Nashville, and a pallet of 8/4 rock maple went to company who ran out of wood a week before Christmas orders were due. We bailed them both out, no problem. Now they know who to call if they need wood.
OGH, I was thinking the same as you about YH's post. I'd love to walk about at YH's shop and see how the place works, and the beautiful wood, that Poplar, holy crap!
I'm a huge know-nothing about milling and all that but as I learn more by reading lots of posts here I get more and more fascinated with wood and the process.
Good stuff!
Tom,
Are you going to start a new thread now we have a new year? ;)
Net yet. If I do another one it will change over on Norwegian constitution day as it has for the past few years.
Quote from: aigheadish on January 04, 2022, 10:16:27 AM
OGH, I was thinking the same as you about YH's post. I'd love to walk about at YH's shop and see how the place works, and the beautiful wood, that Poplar, holy crap!
I'm a huge know-nothing about milling and all that but as I learn more by reading lots of posts here I get more and more fascinated with wood and the process.
Good stuff!
Yes, I have actually checked google maps more than once to see what the driving time was (15+hours) to get down there for a visit. It would be a good business trip. Plus, I am sure making some 'impulse purchases' would be likely also, their stuff is so pretty and perfect.
Robert, you have a lot to be proud of there. You and Martha have built quite the business.
I haven't really posted much in the way of an update here since before New Years. Truth is I am going through that usual 'holiday seasonal depression' that has a party in my head every year about this time. It's nothing special, just normal for me as I look at the past year and the coming year and think about all my short-comings. As has been pointed out recently here, I need not do that and things are going better than I think, which is usually the case, but I still dwell on the negative anyway, it's just what I do. ;D
But, moving forward, the firewood is done, so I can do other things now. I am not really up for milling when it's snotty out, but I do need to get back at it. I have been goofing off more than I should but piddling with other things too. A little over a week ago my son got this from a client who upgraded and wanted this one gone:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20211228_124859084.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1641415714)
He thought I would like to put it on the house. Another time I would have called it a real score. But the devil is in the details. It came with an indoor transfer switch, it's an 8KW unit, propane. I started to run the numbers in my head, concrete slab, wiring, panel work inside, rearranging the wall panels and it all started adding up. Also, I don't need another project. Then the reality set in and I realized we would be better off flipping it and using the money for the taxes due this month. So he listed it and we will see if we can get the asking price and move on. If he can't find a buyer, I will sell it to Bill at a much reduced cost. He would like to have a backup on his OWB system for the circulators that is automatic.
A couple of days ago I had a little time so I took a shot at a prototype build that has been floating around in my head for several months. My regular mushroom log client had mentioned he would like some better jigs for his log inoculation workshops. I took a look at the fancy ones they sell and came up with my own simple idea that was easy to make. Now, this is little more than a functional mockup and needs tweaking for sure.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220103_105048475.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1641415718)
I just used existing sawhorses I made last year and a 12"plank and guessed at some numbers so we had something that worked and we could mess with.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220103_105052963.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1641415719)
I am not sure about the angles for those blocks yet and they need to extend a little further out. The log lays in there between the wheels and blocks for drilling. Thusly:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220103_104945834.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1641415712)
Most folks that make these for themselves either cut V-blocks for the logs to lay in or just space a couple of 2x4's to lay the log between so they log doesn't roll when they drill it. The issue with that is that you have to rotate the log after every row of holes and those devices work so that you have to lay the drilling tool down and use two hands to rotate the log. With this design I have, all you need to do is push the log up with your free hand and it begins to roll on the wheels easily. This makes the process go much quicker and works better than I thought. Once the log is laying back on the blocks it is quite stable for the drilling operation and doesn't slip around.
I sent some photos off to the client and he got pretty excited. He will come by in the next day or so and we will mess around with the design together. Once we get it close, I will build two for him from scratch (I am also not certain on the overall working height we want yet). I will sell him the 2 units cheap, but he will offer them for sale in his classes and I will stick them up on the website. I just have that ugly question of a price to wrestle with. ;D
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So I've mentioned I've been bummed out about financial issues the last 6 months or so and although I am meeting the obligations I have had to forgo my major planned business purchases for that period and in the foreseeable future. All that money went to places unplanned for and for me, it wasn't chump change. I'm not complaining, but I do get a boost when I am able to buy something that helps me do new things or do old things better with better tools and that has been part of my depression. I had to forget about getting a bigger trailer and some other things, but I have managed to pay the bills and still keep a little bit of that money in the bank. Maybe it was Bill (FFOTS) getting all excited about his new-to-him 60cc saw or something else but I kept thinking I have all my eggs in one basket with that 450 husky I use. It's a rock star for me, but it's all I've got. If that does develop a problem, I am in trouble. I have the 372 clone, but that is a beast and it is not dependable (I never really expected it to be) and the last time I needed it, it wouldn't start, so again I have to fix it. So this thought, plus Bill's good fortune were on my mind pretty much day and night for over a week. Well, I got the tax bill I had been waiting on yesterday and also got a sizable check for work done that I knew was coming and when I balanced everything out I was in better shape than I thought.
I had contacted my local Husky dealer (spike60) a couple of days ago about the availability of a 562XP and he had one left. He put my name on it. So today I had to drop off a 395 for Bill to get serviced and while I was there I bought the 562. Ironically it was almost the same exact time Bill was picking up his saw 800 miles away. I got mine with a 20" bar and Bob put the C85 Xcut chain on it. I have never used Xcut, but I think I like it. :)
So I brought it home and did a test cut with it. Cuts like a beast compared to the 50cc. That chain feels like it pulls into the cut more than I am used to and I don't have to work as hard. Then I came in the house and read the manual hoping to learn about this 'auto tune' thing. Not one word in the manual about it at all! I'm also trying to figure out the cold weather baffling adjustment. The I looked into the chain. Turns out the 3/8 pitch Husky roller guide I have is not intended for that chain. It needs a special one. So I gave Bob a call and asked him a bunch of silly questions (it was a rare opportunity for me to be that "annoying customer with stupid questions" :D) and also about the roller guide. He didn't have that one in stock, but put it on his order list for me. I did take a close look after talking with Bob and I could use the roller guide I have but would have to use my brain to keep the drop angle on the file at 0° contrary to what the guide is trying to get (about 10° I think). But frankly I don't think I even need that guide with the 0° drop, filing becomes much easier with only the 30° front angle to worry about, the tooth profile and the file diameter give you the 60° lead angle automatically. By the time I get this chain half worn out I should know if I am going to stick with it, but I suspect I will. Between the 'no stretch' feature, the field observations by others that the chain holds an edge longer, and the way it cuts and pulls in, I don't see any downside yet.
In spite of the money set backs, I have my first real pro saw, even though it is a small one, I think it is 'right sized' for me and I am anxious to get it working. Of course I just finished all my firewood. :D So it will be hacking up slabs until I start the winter mushroom log harvest in late February/early March. It's also no small weight off my mind that I now have a solid second saw. I remain confused as to which one that is, the 50cc or the 60cc, but either way, I am covered and I don't think it matters. At least I managed to pull out an improvement.
Tomorrow is another day and maybe I will get back on the mill in spite of the temps.
When I went to get my saw, I didn't know I was in a race with Tom to see who could get a 60 cc pro saw first. Hopefully I won the race. I had mine about 10am central. I stopped and bought a new stihl 2 in 1 sharpener and a few extra chains. I asked about prices on a 25" bar and chain. That's gonna cost about $110 if I need it. I will not buy it until I have a need.
No, it wasn't a race at all (but you beat me by an hour anyway). :D ;D I think it was just that when you found that saw and I looked up the specs, not knowing stihls at all, I began to realize that was dang close to what I wanted. The I started thinking again about how I had only one good saw and the binds I have had to deal with because of that.
So I wasn't 'competing' with you, more like you showed me the light and led the way for me. I bet yours pays for itself before mine does. ;D
Tom,
I have a genset like that only it is 17 KVA and I have it hooked to natural gas. In fact we had an outage Sunday night and it ran from around midnight till about 10:00 am the next day. I guess a tree fell across a line but I love my genset. It cranks itself 10 seconds after it detects an outage so a quick flicker has no effect on it. It comes up on speed then flips the switch diverting from prime power to genset. When it detects the prime power is back on it it switches back and runs about 5 more minutes as a cooldown. It cranks itself weekly and runs 10-12 minutes to keep the battery charged. Mine runs about 2/3- 3/4 of my whole house including 3 - 220 appliances (Pump, dryer & Oven) which is all I had anyway.
Anyway if the opportunity presents itself I'd look at getting one. We had a derecho a couple years after i put mine in and it ran for 11 days till they could get the lines back up and running to my place. I had neighbors who stored meat in our freezer and food in our spare fridge and would come get water and take showers and such for about a week till their power came on before ours did.
Congrats on the new chainsaw. I hope it serves you well. Neat roller design too. I gather that is for boring holes in your mushroom logs.
I feel for you on the taxes. I had to send in last years sales tax today and looks like I'll have to start filing quarterly or maybe even monthly in 2022 due to changes in our state sales tax rules. Oh well, its all on a spread sheet and their money anyway so no big issue.
I need to pay sales tax soon too. I hate that.
I have to pay Georgia Sales Tax monthly.
We installed a generator similar in our house to be fueled from our LP tank. About 2, 3 months later during the first outage the generator ran for 2 hours and died. While it was running it did not run right, ran rough. Power came back in about 8 hours so not too big a deal since it was over night and not extreme temps. Come to find out when it was installed, they failed to switch it to run from LP versus NG. ::)
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 04, 2022, 01:23:44 PMdriving time was (15+hours) to get down there for a visit
I'm kind of on the way (probably not really) if you want a driving partner...!
Your log spinner is pretty slick! 50 bucks! (now that I think about it that feels a bit on the cheap side)
Driving partner? I'd love one, but better for the next pig roast then down to AL, you are 'a bit' off my path. ;D
As for that jig, geez, I hope you are low. Those wheels are about 25 bucks a piece, new stock, but I have a few of them. I am figuring the saw horse is worth at least 25 but should be more, then there is the engineering, research and development, brain storming sessions (with associated alcohol costs), material losses (bad ideas), environmental costs (shop heat), as well as some other stuff I haven't yet thought of.
I have yet to set a price, I will consult with my Mushroom guru tomorrow I hope, but it has to be at least 100 bucks probably closer to 150. I think the commercial outfits are selling fancy rigs like this for close to 200 or more. My finished version will be painted with outdoor latex to seal it a little and make it look swanky. :D
I know a lot of guys make the same exact saw horse (OK maybe the diagonal braces are different), so what do y'all charge for a sawhorse?
Oh, regarding the generator issue. I have no doubt it would be handy and a lot of my neighbors have them, which is all I can hear when the power goes out instead of blissful quiet. It's a 'thing' around here and it makes me a little crazy sometimes. So in the spirit of 'bucking the trend' as I have done my entire life, I choose to go without one. I have a 4 KW I can roll out to run the freezer or whatever but we seldom come to that. We prefer to go with the flow when 'disaster strikes' because it is seldom a disaster in the true sense. It's just a pwoer outage for a few hours or maybe a day. We have wood heat and can heat food or make coffee on the stove. In the warmer months the camp stove takes 5 minutes to set up and covers most needs, plus we have the gas barbeque. The longest we have been without was about 7 days during Irene and frankly I was hardly home during the period running fire calls for 72 hours straight then covering mutual aid duty shifts in neighboring towns so they could get a break. My wife was spending a good deal of time at the firehouse cooking and helping out. I ran the genset for the freezer and fridge for a few hours, did the same at my folks, then my sisters, then back to my place. Didn't open freezer of fridge unless absolutely necessary once a day. Pull water from the creek to flush toilets, etc. It's pretty easy really. So I don't see the need. It is not the end of the world, really.
The idiot next door has an 8KW screamer generator and he fires it up and leaves it running with nobody even home. It runs all night for no apparent reason. And because he is not paying attention, it runs for hours after the power comes back on until it runs out of gas.
Yeah, as I get older, it might be nice to have one, but when that happens I will get a slightly larger one that should handle most of the house load and do a proper hook-up. I could not see all that work for just a 8KW genset. Especially when I need the cash for property taxes.
Tom,
I understand. It is going to be just as hard and likely as expensive to hook up the 8KW as a 20 KW genset. I first saw these in operation in Haiti and was impressed with how quiet they were compared to the ones we had used in the USMC and even the big ones we set up in Africa.
On the sawhorse/rollers maybe you need to make several pairs and rent them out. :D Just collect a big deposit up front to match your sale price and hope they don't bring them back. ;) I think $50 each is a very fair price. I make and offer similar sawhorses for $25 each and they don't have the wider top, backstops and rollers or the extra labor to make them. In fact, looking at HF prices for pneumatic 6-8 inch castors look like they are $15+ each so you might want to market them at $125/pair and rent them for $25/weekend or such with a $125 refundable cash deposit.
I think you should make a minimally fin ished deluxe live edge version of the mushroom log rolling saw horse. You could use 8 or 9/4 slabs a little too narrow for benches. The deluxe live edge model would sell for more $. It might go big in the city... :) looks like a good project anyway.
Yeah I don't know Howard. First, some details to clear up: these are used as singles. Yeah we al think of sawhorses being used in pairs, but these get used individually. A small family operation doing logs once a year will only need one. If they have a bigger operation and more people, yes, they might need two or more. The workshops I have attended genially have two running with 6-12 people working the various production stages (drilling, inoculating, and waxing). I am leaning toward the $100-125 price point for each. Yes I could buy cheaper wheels at HF and these are very nice US made industrial wheels with friction adjustments, 600lb rating, and zerk fittings that are pricey, but I have them. Should I leave these in the box and go buy more and cheaper ones? I don't know.
I can say that 50 bucks for a complete unit just doesn't seem worth my time. I think 75 bucks is the bottom of what I would like to see Keeping in mind the market around here. (The exception is to make them for my client, I want to set him up with something nice and I will eat cost to do that.) But I would like him to be able to offer these for sale at each of his workshops (by pre-order) and it would be nice if he got a little cut for that and I made enough to make it worth my while to mill lumber and put them together. I could maybe make one or two for him to keep for sale at his workshop location. I actually am thinking about building a small storage shed for his class materials as the 'classroom' is in the woods and he has to transport everything out there each month for a class.
Nebraska, you are killing me. :D It's a neat idea, but I think you are mixing your markets and metaphors here. ;D Except for a community garden down it the city, there is no market down there. This is more for the rural folks who are really raising mushrooms on a small farm basis or even larger production levels. Probably somebody who inoculates several hundred logs at a shot and does it year after year or at least plans to. I don't think that crowd gets taken in by the live edge fad. But hey, who knows? :D I will include questions about this on my next market survey.
Write that down - my first (?) mistake for 2022 was on OGH roller/sawhorse. Now that my annual faux pas has been achieved I can go on about business as normal. :D Yes, I should have realized they are used alone. My bad.
I think high end industrial rollers are overkill for this application unless you just got a whole bunch of them at an auction or closeout at a killer price and you don't have any other planned need for them. Maybe buy a pair from HF and run a test to see if there is any value to buying/using the high end version.
I would think $100-$125 each would not be unreasonable even at HF roller prices. Maybe you can offer a discount based on the number of mushroom logs they buy and with every 5,000 log order they get a free roller. :D
Then again, if its not going to encourage more log sales there is no real advantage to that unless it is just a customer service you want to offer.
Just trying to be helpful. :)
People buy the darndest things.
Quote from: Nebraska on January 06, 2022, 08:54:17 PM
Just trying to be helpful. :)
People buy the darndest things.
Indeed they do, indeed! :D You know all the wild ideas that pop up on here from time to time give me pause and make me think. Sometimes there is a kernel in those ideas that bears fruit too. I have made a more than a few bucks in decades past on some of the (seemingly) stupidest ideas I ever heard or came up with. You never know, do ya?
Howard, I think you are claiming credit for a mistake that most folks would make, sawhorses always come in pairs of course. It was a tiny thing at best and I really think you have something better and more substantial up your sleeve yet to come.
Yes Howard, those rollers are overkill. I got those in a 'special deal' and have used a few in the shop but still have several available. I just can't bring myself to buy new ones, even cheaper, when I have these I keep tripping over.
I don't plan on giving them away and if you recall, mushroom logs were supposed to be a fill-in thing. Last year I did around 1500 logs and that was a killer. No idea where this year might go, it could be a bust and that would be OK. I am happy doing my monthly 40 log order for my one commercial client, but now that you mention it, it is January and I should get on the stick and email all my last year clients to get orders in if they want any logs now so I can do winter cut.
Anyway, this piddling little jig is just another diversion that might bring in a couple of bucks and give me something different to do for a few days. If I sell 4 of them I will be more than shocked.
Tom,
You can't sell a "jig" for $125. You will have advertise it as an "Inoculation Station" or some other fancy title to raise the price. :D
BTW - how stable is that with the biggest log you normally provide? Is it slightly off center to the log side? (That's kind of the way it looks in the picture.) If so you may have to include a swing-out outrigger/additional leg or two on that side. Just thinking - dangerous, I know.
While I still think I'd be out of your way to the pig roast that's a conversation we can have later, it'd be pretty cool to meet you in Toledo and head up from there!
Sorry for my low-balling guess (I also assumed cheap HF casters)! I bought a whole bunch of conveyor wheels at the flea market a few years back, for like 5 bucks, I wonder if something like that would work. I imagine the larger radius tire would roll a log much better than a small metal wheel...
For what it's worth I think you should be charging way more for your mushroom logs as I think you are the market maker on them... Also, if you are interested, I cut some mushrooms out with my laser, on what I believe is like 3mm plywood, I'd be happy to send you some to add to your Inoculation Stations, if you'd like. I don't know if that'd be hokey or not. If you want to give them a try I can send you a handful of various sizes to mess with, no charge! I'll send you a couple of those casters too if'n you are interested...?
Yeah, I had forgotten where Dayton is exactly. Last time I was out there (1989?), I flew out don't recall the directions. ;D We did stop in Toledo to have dinner with my wife's cousin, then spent the night just 15 miles north of them. Next trip is still under discussion.
My mushroom log price is going to $5./log this season as I have been telling all my clients since mid-summer. Right now, that is what the market will bear. (That does not include any delivery costs.) Keep in mind that up until recently Cornell University had been telling folks that they should be able to buy logs for $0.50 to $3.00/log. I have since had detailed discussions with them and they realized they really had not studied to work as they should have. Most of those publications have been corrected, but the bad numbers still float around out there. It takes time to get folks educated. I have also made improvements on the harvesting/sourcing side, so my work is a lot easier and faster/cheaper. Doing 1,000 logs would still be a ton of work in a short period.
Thanks for the offer on the wheels, but I think I'd like to stick with something I can buy locally so it's easy to replicate in case I do actually get some orders. Since this is a working tool I don't think the artwork would add much to it. This is going to be rough cut wood, painted, and out the door. These will likely sit outside all year until they rot away, or at best, in a barn someplace. Mostly I am making these for my commercial client to set up his outdoor classroom better. He could also use a storage shed for his teaching materials and some rustic permanent benches he doesn't have to move.
Howard, you make an interesting point about balance and I will check into that but I think we are good on that score. The logs max weight would be around 45 lbs, but mostly they are in the 20# range. The log center (I think) will nor go past the outside extent of the foot on my sawhorses, but I will look into this closer because when I make the horses for the actual build they will likely be shorter to give a better working height. That's one of the things we will work on this afternoon.
Yes, we will find a better name. I am told the word JIG has lost it's technical definition and is now considered derogatory for some reason. Growing up as a machinist we made jigs and fixtures and there were clear definitions of each. I guess I missed the memo on the change. A fixture is is something that holds the work piece and a jig is something that positions a tool on the work piece, such as a drill jig. SO technically, this is a fixture.
Now traditionally I have only seen these things used for the drilling process, but I see no reason why they would not provide and improvement in the inoculation and waxing steps also. If I modified a couple to accommodate those steps it might increase the value. For inoculation I would add a little side shelf about 10" square with a short retaining wall to hold the pot with the spawn in it or hold the wax pot, or both. Again, I need to consult with my client on the details. I do see in higher production operations they use these stands for all the steps. So it's just a fun little project to mess with.
-------
Snow here this morning and we have the monthly chiro visit today, plus last night it appeared that my shop chimney needs a cleaning so I have my work cut out for me. Only 2" of snow so far. I will leave it until it finishes. I think I will let the shop go cold for a bit and work on the chimney after the chiro appt.. I can get that cleaned and fired up, then hopefully plow the house driveway at least before my Mushroom guy shows up later this afternoon. No milling today. It doesn't look like it will get over freezing temp for at least the next 7 days, so I gotta clean some of this up before it turns to ice.
Tonight the wife and I head down to Bill's for our monthly potluck dinner with him and his wife.
Busy day ahead I guess.
If you sell retail via your mushroom professional, having you name, number and email on it will allow folks to remember your contact info if they want another or a friend wants one.
Tom,
Its a bummer about the bad info Cornell has been printing. Hopefully they can get those out of circulation and reprinted. You don't want customers getting mad at you thinking you are ripping them off just because of bad info floating around. If you can get an updated brochure to show them you can tell them they have an outdated price list and here is the current one.
Its like any other pricing - if somebody says they can get them cheaper I tell them they should get them there and let me know the source so I can buy from them too as that is less than my log or operating costs. ;D
Little shelves should be easy to build with some scrap lumber and such and may be a great addition. I put a 2X8 across a couple of crosspieces on my game and fish cleaning station and it has turned out to be the handiest feature out there. And I almost cut that excess off because it stuck out pas the uprights. I built a similar shelf in each of my shooting houses and also very helpful - except when chipmunks just off of them onto you head or back. ::)
Think about all the tools used for the job and try to incorporate a place for them in the " Deluxe Model" while keeping in mind the order of operations that go into doing the job so the tool placement is convenient for the user.
I guess 10% could be left handed. ;D
Well when I (and another seller) called them out on it they admitted to 'data' they used was anecdotal and mostly based on person to person experiences. Almost all of those sources were unique deals in that sometimes a buyer would cut logs on another's property and pay for the logs (usually around .50/log). Then some would just ask a logger friend or neighbor to cut some for them, so maybe $1.50/log as a one off deal/favor. Everybody had a different deal working. There was no real production harvesting of these logs going on that anyone could find. When they saw what I was doing, one gal wrote up a grant application to do a time study of log harvesting as a straight forward profit/loss/cost business operation. She wants to use me as the study point for data. Because of that, I kept detailed notes of last years season, costs, time, miles, etc. I will share that with her if/when the grant comes through. :D The Cornell publications are strictly online and they have updated a bit of it, at least the references I saw, but they still don't have the prices as high as I'd like to see. No matter, it is what it is.
Hilltop, you are right. With all my years of designing machines, tools, and fixtures for others to use, this is a natural thought for me, so this stuff will get incorporated as the users want. I always think "what would I want if I were doing this, what could make it easier or faster?" Then I add that stuff and the next step is 'what if the user is not me?' They may be shorter or taller, or left handed, or some other thing. So I try to incorporate those things too. Right now for just drilling, all it need is about a 1-1/4" hole drilled into the top of a leg to shove the drill into as a hanger while changing logs. I figure I will put one hole in each left so a user can either be left or right handed and work on either side of the fixture.
Just back from chiro, now I gotta get that stove cleaned out.
Okay, since we are designing the deluxe Inoculation Station by committee here, ::) in addition to the shelf maybe you need to add a power point/outlet box you can hook into with an extension cord and a pair of wheels on the legs on one end and a handle on the other end so you can roll it around like a wheelbarrow or 2 wheeled cart. Do we need to include an umbrella - naah, probably overkill. The next step may be to add roller tables on both sides to make this one step in a production/assembly line. You may have one of the Inoculation Station on each side of the rollers so you roll the log onto one, then drill the holes, push the log over the next roller to the next waxing station and wax the log (Whatever that means) then roll the log to the next station.
USB port and cup holder.
bottom brace to be used as a boot mud scraper. you know it will be muddy!
Can we fit a small fridge under there? :D Maybe a microwave - then the user doesn't have to leave to heat up his lunch. :D :D
how about solar panel, battery, and work lights? maybe blue down lighting to look cool when working after dark. sound system with subwoofer to help the spawn. i was going to suggest a hitch to tow with, but I did not want to be ridiculous. :) :) :)
Oh I like that "green option"... solar powered....goes well with the live edge.
I assume that Tom @Old Greenhorn (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=42103) is too busy out in the shop fabbing up our suggestions to even reply. I assume.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 07, 2022, 06:11:51 PM
Okay, since we are designing the deluxe Inoculation Station by committee here, ::) in addition to the shelf maybe you need to add .......
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D
Um No.
Maybe YOU guys are designing by committee here, but I am working strictly with the client if that's OK with y'all. :D :D :D ;D Let me know how your design comes out and how those sales go. :)
I had made one late night change to raise the angle blocks up a bit and allow for a larger log before the client showed up today. He is more than on board with the concept and we got a little carried away and designed a full length production 'system' to prototype up and test.
Doc you were pretty close in your guess, while you guys were coming up with all the new age ideas, we were out in the shop hashing out details. It just that our results varied from those of the learned colleagues here by some degree. ;D
We spent about 3 hours discussing the working heights, product flow, and a dozen other issues and came up with rough, but close idea of what to build. I will build one and we will test it out, then modify and make a second one, he wants two running in parallel I think. But let's get one working first. Now I need to mill up a couple hundred linear feet of 2x4's and get started. When done, the whole line will measure about 15' long and accommodate up to 10 people working at once. There will also be a 'queueing station' in between drilling and inoculating to handle the ebb and flow of the differences in cycle time for the various tasks (drilling goes pretty fast).
Funny, but with all the off beat ideas that came up in our talks, USB sockets, solar power, refrigerators, boot scrapers, cup holders, and such never came up. :D I did talk him into trying a battery angle grinder instead of the 110v tools he uses now with a generator. It will cut out a lot of hassle. So we are going to test that out too. I have all winter to make it, but want to get started as soon as it warms up. This is going to be a really cold week. But I think this will be a fun project without the fussy sanding and finishing work required. It just has to be solid and work. But I do plan on painting it to make it last a little longer.
Doc, Danny & Pet Doc,
As read the above we now have a free hand to design and sell these high tech mushroom log inoculation stations. You just watch - when our LLC goes public and we all become millionaires I bet Tom is going be beating on the door wanting his share since the basic design really was his idea. :D :D :D
Indeed Howard, you guys have at it! In fact, in the spirit of friendly competition, what say we meet back here in a year and compare to see who lost the least money? :D ;D
I am not going to suggest how you guys should do this, but I would like to offer that you might want to put a bit more effort into your market and user research. I just don't want to see you guys fall too far. :)
Now you just need a fancy name for your enterprise. How about 'Duey, Cheetum, & Howe'? No, that's already been taken. Maybe "Almost Level Equipment design"? "Looks good from Here Builders"? Anyway, I am sure you will think of something catchy. Knock 'em dead fellas! 8)
eye ball construction, was used by the guy that taught me to build houses. If he goes batt. for the drills and such, he could have an inverter on his vehicle to recharge the dead batts... if the solar panels on the inoculation situation does not work out. :)
I think we'll have to put together our plans and contract/partner with Tim the tool man Taylor to do the actual construction. ;D
I think my odds just got better. :D
I can see it now "The Binford 2022 super LOGINATOR!"
Instead of the wheels/castors I think can just hook up a spiked chain on a gear to turn the log. In fact, we may add more chains, sharpen the spikes and just throw the log on, hit the pedal to roll it around a couple of times and the spikes will make the holes and we can forget the drilling. Then just roll it over the spores and the log is already inoculated. :D We can cut our man hours and increase production 10 fold in one step here. ;)
Howard really, that 'suggestion' I made about research would help you out here quite a bit. You are making this way too easy for me. High speed ultrasonic inoculation might work better. At least that is credible. OK, a tiny bit more credible.
Hmmm no drilling you say.
Couldn't we just use a 9mm and shoot the "pre charged" plugs in the log? ;D
Ok... maybe a modified air nailer?
Again, research. 9mm won't work. you need to get closer to .50cal or a little over that to fit the current plugs. Just trying to help you guys out.
.54 cal muzzle loader bullet. Except the lead might be bad have to use nontoxic loads...
How about using an old Singer pedal sewing machine to power the log turner. Might make it about the correct height.
;D
Quote from: Nebraska on January 08, 2022, 10:49:15 PM
.54 cal muzzle loader bullet. Except the lead might be bad have to use nontoxic loads...
How about using an old Singer pedal sewing machine to power the log turner. Might make it about the correct height.
;D
Yeah, yeah. Now you're cooking! Run with that and let me know what you come up with. ;D
I like it. You could fabricate a small claw turner operated by the sewing machine pedal.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 08, 2022, 10:53:18 PM
Quote from: Nebraska on January 08, 2022, 10:49:15 PM
.54 cal muzzle loader bullet. Except the lead might be bad have to use nontoxic loads...
How about using an old Singer pedal sewing machine to power the log turner. Might make it about the correct height.
;D
Yeah, yeah. Now you're cooking! Run with that and let me know what you come up with. ;D
I think Tom is pulling our leg here. He probably knows .54 caliber will cut the log right in half and would bury the spores too deep. I think this is called Industrial espionage when he tries to sabotage the competition. :D Then again we may be able to use the .54 to cut the trees down and buck them to length but some customers may not like the jagged edges. ::)
I served with a Marine who was a door gunner in Viet nam and they used the .50 MG and he said when they take ground fire he'd open up on the muzzle flash and he said small trees would be falling around the area. I asked him once if ever hit anyone and he said "I don't know but they never shot back after that."
No Howard, I am not trying to sabotage you guys. I think you are doing a fine job all by yourselves! :D
It's against my judgement but as you apparently feel that market and technical research would just muddy up your designs I will throw you one little bone here. The standard drill for making these holes is 12.5mm which in real numbers is .492" or just .008" under 1/2". They have a stop shoulder built into the drill to control hole depth. I am not making this stuff up. You COULD confirm this if you like.
This 'thing' you are concocting is gonna be so 'all inclusive' that there may be be enough room around it to actually do any work with it. I can't wait to see your advance press releases. This should turn the mushroom world on it's ear.
So you don't think we can just adjust the powder charge to reach the right depth for planting? :D
I have no idea. You guys are working well over my head. (Or is it way under my head?)
I was only sorta kidding about the air nailer.
https://www.beck-lignoloc.com/en/lignoloc (https://www.beck-lignoloc.com/en/lignoloc)
I'm not sure what I think about that, wooden nails. say_what
Gee, I wonder if they make them in 1/2" diameter? :D
------
Well I suppose the alternate design group has a good jump on me given the good weather they have. Last night it went down to 5° and it wasn't much warmer the night before. With the frozen and split lines on the lube-mizer and the subsequent troubleshooting and repair I haven't gotten any wood made up to work on this thing yet. I got the split check valve out yesterday and replaced it with a straight nipple and it is working fine (or was when I left it). I wasn't too sure about working in 10° weather given my foot issues, but I tried out a brand new pair of military "Mild to cold weather" combat boots with a quilted booty insert. They are 9.5's and I take an 11 but my foot slipped in with the booty and a thick sock. I meant to throw a spare pair of boots and socks in the truck but I forgot and never needed them anyway. I worked on the mill for 2-3 hours and I was just fine. I could have done without the water on my hands when I was purging the last of the ice out of the lines but otherwise all was good. I didn't do any milling because it was getting late in the sun cycle and I didn't have the toolcat down there anyway to handle slabs.
So I went up to the shop. Bill has a grinding machine to sharpen his chipper blades but it is grinding at a taper and he has been asking me to do an alignment on it. So I brought my indicators and started cleaning the working surfaces and figuring it out. It took about 4 hours to go over the whole thing and I could only find it out a tiny amount from end to end (3') and could not account for the discrepancy he was seeing. If nothing else I confirmed what is there and got it cleaned up and working, except for the coolant tank. Next time he has a minute we will run it together and see what we have, but I indicated the heck out of it from 3 different angles and the most variation I can find is .010" over 3' of run. That's only .0025 per blade. With all the junk I found in those blade clamps, it could have just been and issue getting them to sit correctly and square to the machine. At least I get paid by the hour for that kind of work, so I made a few sheckles for the week so far, but not a penny on milling thus far.
It dropped down to 5° here last night and was zooming up to about 12° at dawn. I will wait a little longer than go down and see how much I can knock off. My motivation get get that last log in the deck milled up is high. That's for the mushroom fixture build and with that in hand I can starting making stuff.
Remember that radio show I did a while back? Well I have been a regular listener of that show for a while and the last 6 weeks or so they have had some interesting discussions. But last week they did a show on 'firewood' and they had both my wife and I talking back at them in 'mild disagreement' over some of their opinions. The next morning I sent them a good natured tongue-in-cheek note calling them out on a few of their statements. All in good fun. A couple days later I got back a note from the main host, Ryan, explaining his stance and qualifying his comments. I wrote back and told him "all good, just having some fun with you guys, but you should give your listeners a 'full view' along with better facts". Yesterday I got a note from the co-host John, with similar comments about the show and what they 'meant'. I sent him back a similar note as I sent Ryan thinking maybe I hurt their feelings or that I was truly mad. I was not, at all. Just having fun. (I have been hanging out with you guys too much.)
So this morning as I am writing this post, I get another note from Ryan. They want me back on the show in February to talk about firewood in a roundtable format. I guess it's a slow month. :D I had made some comments about how they failed (IMHO) to educate the weekenders and second homeowners who think wood is just a commodity where you call a guy, buy it, and burn it. They don't understand the ages long tradition of firewood as a way of life, making good solid stacks, mixing the wood you burn for desired effects, learning how your stove works best and all the other stuff that goes along with it. I guess that is where they want to go next. What the heck, not much to do on cold February nights anyway. Why not drive an hour and change in the dark to talk on the radio?
Ah well, I have procrastinated enough, time to feed the shop stove and get moving. We just hit 15° which is over yesterday's high temp. 8)
You can be Gary Mead too!
I'm not caught up on From the Forest but I really do love the show, I've listened to the first many, many episodes on their podcast feed, listening from oldest to most recent (other than I skipped ahead for your episode!). I'll be excited to hear you on it again!
Well, don't get your hopes up. This is more of a BS session on the air. Gary's a poet, I am not. Gary is a skilled craftsman, I am not. Gary holds seemingly bottomless knowledge, I do not. Gary is Gary. I am what I am. You get what you get. But it's February, what can one expect? :D
Just heard back, looks like I'll be on for 2/2/22.
Tom,
Maybe you should send a personal autograph to us FF members now before you become famous then we can show it off and brag how we used to know you back when you were just a regular guy before you became rich and famous. ;)
Why Howard, how could you think I would ever forget the little people who made me what I am? :D :) I'd be happy to hook you up anytime, just contact my people and they will have instructions to take care of you. But give me a little time yet, I still need to find out who my people are. :D
Us "little people" really appreciate that. I'll have my people get with your people whenever we get some people. :D
Well I figured I would try to get back on track today and I made the best effort I could. I got down there around 10am and the guys were working on my ride, putting new skins on.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220112_103242147.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642026113)
They are taking the skid steer tires off (still on the rears here) and putting on steel studded tires with classy wheels. Everything is ice now and all the machines are sliding all over. The toolcat is a heavy wet mess on ice and is used for loading sand/salt in the trucks during 'events'. So yeah, the new tires look funky and are a bit lighter in load rating, but they grip pretty well compared to those skid steer tires. If this doesn't work well enough, we will put the old tires back on and add chains.
So it was 10:30 before I got loaded up and got to the mill. Everything worked well, no lube issues. :) I also had no issues with the cold temps and my feet were great with the new boots. However, I had neglected to consider the icing problems. I could barely walk where all the water seep comes out of the ground and I had a few near misses carrying lumber over the glare ice. I threw some sawdust out on the ice and that helped a lot, but not quite enough to give me a warm fuzzy. Also, the slabs were freezing right onto the logs as I milled them and it was really hard to get them off. I had to drive an ax in as a wedge and these slabs were in the 200#+ class. It was a fight to handle them. I got one big log done and I was shot, and the slabs were so big I couldn't take them all up to the OWB in one load (that's a first). I did manage, at the end, to put up some junk wood (odd sizes cast to the side) and make up a small amount of lumber for the mushroom project. Half of it is covered in ice.
So I cleaned off the mill and headed up, dumped the lumber in my truck and parked the TC by the OWB for the evening filling. The question was asked about the OWB running there and this photo shows it in the background. Gonna take me a while to get used to how those tires look.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220112_130550955.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642026117)
That 'black thing on top of the OWB is the door (lid) and it opens with 2 hydraulic cylinders. For size, you can see a round cutoff sitting there on the top waiting to get tipped in. That's a 24" round for scale. It's a lousy photo, but the only one I have.
In spite of the ice issues and my concern about falling, I will give it another shot tomorrow and get at least one more log done. That should have smaller slabs at least and I am going to try a slightly different process in handling. I have been having a lot of trouble and pain in my right wrist which my chiro worked on and told me I need to rest for a week or so. :D It hurts like the dickens at times and carrying boards and cranking up the blade tension on the mill are the biggest problems. I can use my left hand for one of those, but need two hands for the other. Yesterday I fell up by the shop there carrying a 392 and a little j'red sissy limbing saw over to the bucket truck. I landed hard trying to save the saws but bounced up OK. It is SO slick everywhere. But I gotta make lumber and I have 2 logs to do before I can get to the short one for the mushroom project. We have ugly cold snowy weather coming Saturday through Monday. I would love to be in the shop working on warm (unfrozen) lumber by the time that hits.
Hey, speaking of that radio show @aigheadish (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=53516) , you know you can listen to that live. It's on Wednesday evenings beginning at 6pm Eastern time. Just go to the WIOX web page and they have a 'Listen Live' button. Tonight they are talking about making baseball bats with a plant sales manager, how the wood is selected, slope of grain requirements, drying methods and all that stuff. Pretty interesting and also applies to gun stocks and tool handles if you think about it. I expect in a few months they should have @spike 60 back on also, he is a regular with those guys. I am listening to the show as I type this and they just started talking about making axe handles.
Ah well, tomorrow is another day. Let's see what that brings.
Those little cleats that strap over your work boots for ice fishing will help you with that ice. I can't remember the name ::) ::). I've got some down stairs ok gotta go look, throw some wood in the fire too.
Tom if that is the newer style of Mil. boots, be sure to shake those booties first thing in the morning, prior to putting them on. It was important in the 1970s as well, but mostly in the evening.
Soul Train Shake Your Booty KC & Sunshine Band - Bing video (https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+shake+your+booti&docid=608004787615445669&mid=D2A97365378EF1C9ACBCD2A97365378EF1C9ACBC&view=detail&FORM=VIRE)
8) :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20220112_191125.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642036773)
Yak Trax is what these are called. Haven't used them a bunch but they work. Slips on the boot pretty easy.
Aw geez Doc! ;D
Nebraska, yes, I have a couple of different styles of those but moving back and forth from a concrete slab to ice is tricky. They can be really slick on the concrete or rocks. I'll dig mine out maybe and bring them tomorrow to try out. I was even considering caulk boots, but again moving on the concrete slab could be just as hazardous. I guess I will have to try something. I got lucky with yesterdays fall, no harm. But if I am carrying a heavy slab across my hips and my feet go out, I could be in some trouble. I'm just trying to be careful and get through the season without extra medical bills.
Yeah, the yax trax, I bought those for my Dad a few years ago but I thought he told me they were tricky on concrete. How do they work for you?
I haven't worn them on much dry concrete, Just when mother nature turns our place and the outside pens at the office into a skating rink. At the office it's asphalt or cement all level. I don't remember them being trecherous on the cement floor inside. Just funny feeling. On dry un even rocks they might be not so good. I take them off inside the door when I go see something in the office. I seem to only think of them after I wipe out or nearly wipe when I get out of the truck on those stupid slick days. Thankfully there is not very many of them, but snow is coming in this weekend.
Tom that boiler could eat my little wood furnace for lunch. Thanks for the picture. :)
Well Nebraska, you got me thinking. The ones I have are heavy spikes designed for hiking on ice and dirt or frozen ground. Very uncomfortable on concrete. Those yaktrax originally came out years ago for city folks who walk on slippery sidewalks, which was why I bought them for my Dad when he was having some mobility issues (he was about 92 at the time). So I went to their website and see that they have expanded their designs and have a 'diamond' version that is heavier duty, more durable, doesn't use those springs, has solid traction grippers, and designed for working folk. I just ordered a pair. 50 bucks is high for an impulse purchase for me, but I figure if it saves one E/D trip, I am more than even.
Dang, now I am starting to think like an old man. Not too happy about that. No sir.
I'll try to remember to take a photo next time I open that boiler up up to fill it. If it's empty, it take two fork loads to fill. We try not to let it get empty or bill wakes up in the morning and it's 50 degrees in the house and the shop. Sometimes with a bad load of wood it just goes out with half a load left. Maintaining that complex and all the equipment is a full time job for several folks.
I see that those yax thingy's have a handle. I see it on the left side on the boot :D :D.
Sorry, I am not following. I don't see any handle. Maybe that's for dragging out the body?
Look again, sticking out on the left side of the sole of the boot :D.
Foghorn Leghorn, "It's a joke, Boy, it's a Boy."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aWcZShT4cI (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aWcZShT4cI)
OH, you are taling about Nebraska's photo. I thought otherwise. Now I get it. ;D Yeah, that is the traction control adjustment lever. :D I was trying to figure out how he got his foot to bend up between his knees like that. Looks painful. :)
Yoga....
Now that's a OWB!!
Looks homemade?
I could use one that size. Cuts down on the chainsaw and splitting wood part. ;)
It may be homemade. Maybe he went down to the local railroad tracks and measured the pulpwood falling off on the side and sized it accordingly. :D
'Level the pith" they said, "It's easy, and gives you better lumber' they said. OK guys, here's a question:
WHICH PITH?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220114_131023963.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642195452)
I count 5. Pick one ;D
Lot's of interest in that OWB and today I had a little help at the end of the day, so I could take some photos.
This may help with size or scale. We had a pretty full load in there already, but we wanted to top it off for the coming cold tonight. so rather than just dump, Bill got up on top to hand feed 5" pieces in to pack it well.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220114_141738618.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642195456)
Maybe this is a better perspective?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220114_141857190.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642195459)
And this is the lid detail and one of the two cylinders that support it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220114_141730052.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642195451)
No, it's not a home made unit. I forgot to check the maker. I will say this is like having another kid to watch and comes with a fair amount of care and maintenance. The system uses, I believe, over 600 gallons of fluid.
In other news, we got a delivery today, new toys.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220114_143751628.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642195467)
This will go on that Kubota Skid Steer and makes the third grapple in the 'fleet'. Maybe now I get to keep one down by the mill, which would make life easier for me anyway. ;D It's a real heavy duty unit and has a really nice top mounted winch. These guys make good stuff.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220114_143741683.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642195466)
That's Bill on the Right, and my tailgunner Bailey (I am sure his mother named him after the Logger's supply company) on the left checking it out.
--------------------------------------
Had a fairly good day at the mill today thinking I might be shut out for 3 or more days coming between very low temps and snow on Monday. Got an order for 2x4's the other day and that is just perfect for some of the junk logs I am trying to clear out. As it happens, I also need 2x4's for the Mushroom gizmo, so the junky ones wind up in my truck. 2x4's are SO much easier than the other stuff I have been humping over the ice.
Anyway, I knocked off a couple of good logs and decided I had a good day. Then I turned around and my tailgunner just showed up. Well, I was quitting for the day, but I am not one to look a helper in the eye and quit, so I grabbed a couple more logs and we whacked out some more 2x4's and he helped me with a bunch of other 2 man tasks and we got cleaned up, so even better. And we ran a load up to the OWB (see above in case you forgot). But I am tripping over lumber and we need to get some cleared out. I brought a few more 2x4's home to thaw and see if they wind up usable. A new discovery for me is that frozen logs that are pithy and make questionable lumber which looks great when frozen, is not so great when it thaws and the pithy junk starts falling off. As this is my first year milling softwoods in the deep cold, I am adding to my list of 'things I didn't know and never really wanted to learn'.
All in all not a bad day that I began with the attitude that if I didn't get it done today, I wouldn't be able to do it for 3 days, so better get some hustle going. Now I can hopefully get some work done in the shop an on the mushroom gizmo. Howard, how are you and your 'crew' making out with your designs and prototyping? Any questions or things I might help you along with? :D ;D
SO I stayed out of trouble for another day (so far), but I am bushed. Tomorrow is likely another one but colder. I think 2° is the call for tonight. ;D
That's just a log bucked at a branch whorl, right? RIGHT? NOT a 5 pith tree?? ??? :D
Stay warm OGH, they are calling for -17F low here tonight with wind chills to -30 or -45 :o -15F low tomorrow night and then a buncha snow
Quote...WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO
4 PM EST SATURDAY...
...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH
LATE MONDAY NIGHT...
* WHAT...For the Wind Chill Warning, dangerously cold wind chills
expected. Wind chills as low as 30 to 45 below zero. For the
Winter Storm Watch, heavy snow possible. Total snow
accumulations of 8 to 12 inches possible across northern New
York and portions of south-central Vermont, while 5 to 8 inches
across the Champlain Valley and northern Vermont. Winds could
gust as high as 35 mph.
* WHERE...All of northern New York and Vermont.
I ain't looking at the Weather service warnings, they just depress me. :D
OK Howard, I'll show you mine if you show me yours. :D ;D
Given the cool temps today I opted for a shop day and I thought I had brought home enough lumber to get it done (barely). This morning I got an email from a guy I know who is retired now and starting to do hobby woodworking. I know his wife better than he, they were both long time scouters and I knew them through that. Good folks and he was looking for hobby wood, which I have some of. We have been emailing off and on for a month or so, but today he was ready for a visit. He's a good guy and my generation and I always enjoy a visit form an old scouter. So we set an appointment and I got the heat up in the shop and started working on the mushroom log production setup. First I built the 20" Sawhorse which put the log top height at around 36". This seemed VERY low to me when I was building it, but worked out to be just about right for a good drilling height. This 36" height was the clients spec.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220115_114731909.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642297129)
Then I built my standard height sawhorse which fits the client requirements and made the 'I-beam' rails he wanted. I used one one my existing sawhorses to finish the mockup.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220115_153220585.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642297130)
Its looks like the concept we laid out a week or so ago and is a platform for adjustments and changes. We just need something to mess with and 'figure it out' as we go along. It's rough milled EWP, nothing is sacred here at all.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220115_153235277.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642297137)
I shouldn't share this, lest Howard and his crack crew capitalize on it, but the concept is that the log gets drilled at the station on the left end (in the last photo), then the log is rolled up on the rails down to the next two people in line (one on each side) where they insert the spawn, they then roll it off to the next pair of folks who wax those holes over and roll it to the end where the log gets a metal tag with the date, log species, and spawn variety then gets stacked. Simple operation.
My client wants two of these setups, but I wanted to prototype one, work out the bugs, then make the second one. I already have some simple changes in mind to make it work easier. But I'll wait for the client to come and mess with it. He's a sharp guy and has good ideas.
__________________
Sometime in the middle of this the Scouter showed up and we talked about a lot of stuff, retirement, keeping busy, wood, hobbies, etc. Eventually we got out to my limited wood stacks and he found some stuff he liked. He bought 2 RO curved slabs which I had never sold before. He's a good guy, but not really selling his stuff, just having some fun learning and I just didn't want to charge him much for his pleasure. Still 25 bucks is 25 bucks. I gotta eat too. ;D I enjoyed our visit and I hope he comes back. I told him about the FF here because I think he would fit in really well. We never spent a lot of time together in Scouting, he was busy earning a living, as was I, but I knew his wife well and and she was my son's boss when he worked on staff at the Cub Camp. The are both great folks. I hope he shows up here on the FF..
Anyway, it was a full and productive workday even if I burned a lot of firewood getting through it. ;D Anytime I am busy from morning till dinner is good. Tonight they are calling for zero temps, oh well. I still have one more saw horse to build tomorrow and then wait until the client can come by.
Tomorrow is just another day.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 15, 2022, 09:13:59 PMthe concept is that the log gets drilled at the station on the left end (in the last photo), then the log is rolled up on the rails down to the next two people in line (one on each side) where they insert the spawn, they then roll it off to the next pair of folks who wax those holes over
Are hole drilled all around the logs? Won't the spawn fall out when you roll it to the waxing station?
Our attorney refuses to take our case fearing you have already documented too much of the process as proprietary so I guess we'll have to drop back to our consultant role. Its either that or find a more crooked lawyer and they are all tied up while congress is in session. ::)
I saw this as a "Log deck" and first thought the log in the picture was being sent to the station for drilling instead of being on the exit side. Looks to me like you need one of those on both sides - one to roll the logs to the station then after drilled roll off for the waxing team.
Thanks for the OWB pictures.
@ljohnsaw (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=20640) Yes, you would think it would fall out, but actually no. The logs are drilled with rows of holes about 4-6" apart and on a 4-5" diameter log the will be about 4 rows around the log. But the spawn is actually packed in the holes with the special inoculation tool they use and it holds in tight until it is waxed over to keep the bugs out. So we can do a rolling production line and just keep the logs moving down to the next operation.
@WV Sawmiller (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=28064) I am sorry to hear your attorneys have abandoned you. (I think you were using Dewey, Cheetum & Howe?) But it's understandable they went for the easy money in Washington, who wouldn't? The pickings are ripe there. At any rate, what I have reveled is not in any way proprietary and is commonly accepted as standard process. Our patentable claims reside within technology that is not revealed in the forgoing disclosures. Such is our genius that even after seeing what we have, it is not apparent what groundbreaking revelations we will afford to the Mushroom growing industry.
I confess I didn't understand your last comment/question. Drilling is the first step, then inoculation, then waxing, then labeling. Can you clarify? It's a development in progress, so the field is wide open for ideas, if your legal team (assuming you've found a new one) allows sharing.
Tom,
Now I am really suspicious of both you and our lawyers since you knew who they were which makes it it seem likely you and they have been talking. Besides they can't take on new clients until they finish this sessions term then they have to rush home and campaign for re-election.
What I was saying with another row was I was thinking of a log deck on both sides of the inoculation station. Multiple logs would be staged here awaiting processing. At the start the logs would be unloaded from the cart or truck directly on to the pair of runners then rolled one by one to the inoculation station, the holes were drilled and spores implanted then the log would be rolled out on the next set as shown and get waxed then rolled off on to another trailer, truck or waiting forks of a skid steer or tractor.
If there are other stations involved you could set them up with another set of runners on the other side till finished. You could turn the runners 45-90 degrees based on the the amount of work space you had available.
New raw logs would roll in from one side and finished, inoculated and waxed, labeled, etc. logs would roll off the other side.
Well I have never heard from the rest of the crew so I've have abandoned my shares and ditched the linear production line idea and have gone with a rotary held log system with drill, inculcation and wax at a single station, that will increase production by 40% by my calculations and reduce operating cost by 30% by reducing skilled labour to 1 person per station and the rest can be done by unskilled minimum wage earners or trained monkeys.
You guys may as well give up because of my superior system I will be taking over the mushroom log industry on my own.
Best of luck on your future endeavours. ;D
HT366,
That's because you haven't seen my new vertical set up with a cable, winches, pulleys, and a couple of small sets of log grabs/tongs. We run a cable through a couple of eyebolts, attach a couple of sets of pulleys to run on the cable, set up a small electric winch to lift the logs, hook the tongs in the end, lift with the winch, roll it down to the drill station and bore the holes, inoculate, roll it down to the wax station, dip the log down in a barrel of hot wax, lift with a hefty fan blowing from above to return the excess wax to the tank leaving the plugs in the holes, let it drip while we process the next log then roll it down the cable and lower it into a waiting box. The logs can either be stored vertically or horizontally based on the customers request. ;) ;D :D
QuoteYou guys may as well give up because of my superior system I will be taking over the mushroom log industry on my own.
All three of them? :D 8) ;D
I feel as though I am sensing some dissention from within the ranks of the opposing team, could that be? Don't be discouraged guys, you can do this. Hilltop, good luck in your solo venture, I bet you rake in tens of dollars! Howard I didn't know who your legal team was until you just told me. I assumed it was likely them because of their cost structure and level of ethics I figured would fit in with your business plan. Lucky guess.
Seeing as there is a total lack of any photographic evidence of your progress (and we all know what the means), I will throw you guys another bone. Today I built the 3rd sawhorse to complete the first setup and did some refinements, by moving two of the legs on the drilling station outboard enough that it can overlap the first sawhorse on the deck rails and get closer.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220116_141826390.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642362550)
I also put in some mockup rails to transition the log from the first station onto the deck.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220116_141625277.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642362550)
Howard, I am not sure I 'splained the way this works clearly enough the first time around. The log gets drilled in the roller fixture, then gets pushed up on the deck where 2 people are facing each other across the rail and each one populates the holes with spawn and their 'half' of the log, they then roll it down to 2 more people standing the same way further down the rail who each do their 'half' of the log with wax, The it gets queued at the end to be picked up, labeled and stacked. I may add a small holding rack at that far end just for a couple of logs. So everything is done on this one setup. I will build a duplicate so we can run two rigs side by side once we have the bugs worked out. I still need to add some shelves underneath to hold the spawn pot and hot wax pots. The idea is not to do it 'really fast, it is to do it with the least lifting of logs possible.
We are planning a test run Wednesday or Thursday depending on weather. I gotta go make more 2x4's before I can build the next one and that may take a while depending on how much snow we get tomorrow. At any rate, that will give you guys a chance to catch up.
Not knowing what the consistency of the spawn is or even the wax to plug the holes, I'm going to make a suggestion on your shelves. You mentioned putting them underneath. To minimize bending, stooping, reaching, what if the shelf is just low enough down the middle of the rails so the spawn & wax pots are just below the rails? Then one pot can be used by the opposing workers and they are not reaching under the logs on the rails - just right next to it. Just a thought.
Tom,
What I was suggesting earlier then would be another set of rails as a log deck to roll the new logs to the roller station. Just like a log deck bring in logs to be sawed then another on the other side to finish the processing and remove them. Just a series of log decks with station en route to drill, inoculate and wax the logs then remove them.
ljohnsaw, yeah, that's exactly what I had in mind for my first pass. The spawn pot is 6 inches high and should clear. I will have to rig the bottom to keep it very rigid. The tool is pounded into the pot to fill and pack the spawn in it, then a plunger pushes that packed spawn plug into the log hole. That means the operator is constantly banging that tool into the pot which will case a bounce. If I have another person just down the line with smaller cans of melted wax, that bouncing will not be 'appreciated' by them. ;D I also need to have side rails on the shelves so the stuff cant spill out on the ground. I will dummy up one shelf quick and see what the client says. We are going to 'run it' ansd see how everything feels for the folks working on it, then make adjustments as we see fit. The original concept called for some shelves outboard of the rails, but I am not liking that except for a narrow one to lay tools on, again with edge rails.
Howard, I think you may be over thinking it. These logs have to be picked up at some point so when we do, it's just as easy to lay them right in the drilling rig. This is designed for a workshop class that only does about 40 logs in an hour or so. Yes, of course, it this were at a farm doing production work, those infeed and outfeed decks would work great.
Gee all I suggested was a fancy live edge.
Quote from: Nebraska on January 17, 2022, 07:35:55 AM
Gee all I suggested was a fancy live edge.
Which in fact I did include! :D As I am building this with poor 2x4's that we can't sell for framing some of these have some wane and in one case, the edge brace under the long rail is nearly entirely waned out making it more live edge than wane. So I had to put the wane edge down leaving a good flat to screw the top plate to. I'll try to sneak a pic for you so that you can see your input was not wasted.
Looks like we got about 10" of white junk overnight so when I take breaks from plowing I will mess around with a couple of shelf ideas to give the client choices to pick from. I also have to remember to put an end stop at the far end to keep logs from rolling off by themselves.
White stuff.....yuck you and Magicman can keep it.
(Yes I know we are past due)
Indeed you are, and you'll get yours! :D :D Actually I only measure 8" when I used a tape, but it rained lightly for the last hour or two of the event and got really heavy to push. None of that sinking fluffy stuff for us! It took me a bit over two hours to get it mostly cleared up, but I didn't do the trim work or back by the mill or the wood stacks and I see one of my better tarps got ripped off in the high winds. I saw it twice today, but it kept putting it out of mind with other stuff to do and frankly I am pooped. I should look at that tomorrow before the colder weather sets in and locks it all up.
I did do a little more work on the rig this afternoon, just messing around and sent some photos to the client, but for some reason I cannot find them on my phone after they went into the text messages? So I'd have to reshoot those. I haven't really documented any of this yet. Seat of the pants construction (good company name there if you want it Howard, for the new endeavor). So at some pint I should start writing it down, probably after we change it all around with the clients input.
If I get a minute, maybe it's easier if I just do a short video.
I'm going with " The Inoculator "
"Fungus Factory". Catchy initials - FF - that way. :D
"So at some pint I should start writing it down" -- Freudian slip?? :D
Howard, that should be 'Fungi Factory' to be technically correct. ;D
Mudfarmer, I am not sure I am following you? I must have said something funny, but missed it. I meant I should start making drawings and note on what I am doing so I can replicate it later but perhaps something came across in an unintended way?
------------------
So for your benefit and also to help get something documented in some sort of manner, I shot a quick video. Maybe this will clear up any remaining confusion, or perhaps create some new ones? ;D
Nothing like a Yellowhammer or a Jeff video, we are low budget here, but you get the idea.
Mushroom Loginator development progress - YouTube (https://youtu.be/fX261jof_HU)
Take whatever industrial intelligence you can glean from it and run with it.
Tom,
Thanks for the video. That helps me envision the process better.
Depending on the raw log storage location I still think another set of runners would help move the logs to the location like a log deck on a sawmill. Stage 10-12 or more logs right off the forks then roll them to the drill station, put them in and drill. I realize they are not that heavy but you should be able to reduce the number of steps and time involved fetching a fresh log.
Roll the staged log off the staging rack/runner down to the inoculation station, lift onto the rollers, drill then lift and toll to the next station. It looks to me like if the inoculators take longer than the plugger/waxer, you could have an extra couple of syringes and if the waxers are waiting they can grab a syringe and inoculate a log or two instead of just waiting or they could help the labeler. Everybody can be cross trained and step in wherever there is a slow down. Or maybe even have "spare man" who rotates between the stations to keep the process flowing.
When you really get in high speed production you may have to have a loader and have someone just loading the spores in the syringes, handing a loaded syringe to the inoculator, grabbing the empties and repeating. Kind of like the women loading the rifles for the men during an Indian (or Union) attack.
I assume the spores are colored and it will be obvious when a hole has been dusted so you don't miss any. If not I'd suggest adding some flour or chalk dust or such so you have visible proof the hole was not missed. Kind of like mixing sand or old buggy grits with your turnip seeds so you can see where you missed a spot during planting.
When you really get into high speed production I foresee a set up with 5-6 drills in a rack spaced 6-8 inches apart like a multiple station drill press. Put the log in the station, flip the single switch to turn on all the drills at once, push down and drill 5-6 holes at once, raise all the drills in the rack, rotate the log and repeat till done. Depending on the size of the log, you could drill the log in about 1/4 to 1/5 the time it currently takes by drilling them all at once compared to using a single drill as you currently do.
Of course these are process changes/features we will include in our competition models. :D
Sorry :) Beer comes in Pints, sometimes. I will see myself out :D
Video looks great - pretty much what I understood you to say earlier. My only change would be the little extra ramps you added from the drilling station to the rails would be to extend them an inch or so above the rails to prevent a log from rolling back as the inoculators shuffle the logs about.
Quote from: mudfarmer on January 17, 2022, 05:58:05 PM
"So at some pint I should start writing it down" -- Freudian slip?? :D
OK! NOW I get it! :D :D I reread what I typed 4 times and still missed it. Yes, now it IS funny so I can't go back and correct it. I will confess that beer consumption has occurred during this construction but mostly at the end of the day when I stare it it and think of other options.
-------
Speaking of thinking..
HOWARD... I have implied that you were overthinking things, but at this point I will outright accuse you of it. ;D Really, this is just for a class/workshop and production speed is not a consideration. What is the main concern is to make it easy and safe for folks who may not be accustomed to working with tools to do this work. So all these great ideas you have with productivity in mind don't apply here. The log stack is 2 feet from the drilling station, a rail feed system doesn't help, for instance. It's all about comfort and convenience for the 'students'.
Now I know that your master plan would have you take my very basic and simple design and supercharge it into a high speed system for the log inoculation competition market and pass me by. I am hereby saying, for all to read, you can have at it. :D I have no desire to go there (because there is no "there" there). I would suggest your drilling station, in addition to the 6 drill heads include feature recognition technology as well as log rotation motors to facilitate quick rolls and possibly include CNC control for kicking the logs down the line. With that I think you could get out a finish drilled log in around 12 seconds, give or take. That alone you should grab the entire competition market for you. Changing the rail system to a live deck would help keep those operators on their toes too and would tie right into the CNC control system.
I'll just stumble along in my usual inept manner and you guys should all feel free to use what you can from my full disclosures. It's all just for fun after all.
Ljohnsaw, yes, I has thought about either extending those little ramps (which I did on a whim and don't know if they will stay) or just add a strap or two to keep the log from rolling back. I am going to add something simple like that on the far end for the same reason. Most of this is waiting for the clients review in a day or two. I try to make what the client wants. I'm funny that way. :D ;D
I see said the blind man to the deaf wife on the telephone.
So this is not for production but for training/teaching.
I gather if it was a single operator just doing 40-50 logs for his own personal use or for small time marketing he would be doing all the steps himself.
I'm trying to design an LT70 hydraulic diesel mill with Accuset when the guy just wants to saw up a thousand BF or so to build a doghouse, toolshed and a pigpen every year or so from a bunch of 12" diameter logs he has available and an LT 10 or LT15 is all he needs.
Thanks for the video, is there enough of a need to have a shelf suspended between the rails to set a small electric hot plate/heat source to keep a steady supply of melted wax for the coating station. The depth of the rails wouldn't allow it now but a couple brackets that bolt on and off to hold it would. The live edge was a nice touch. :)
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 17, 2022, 09:49:15 PM
I'm trying to design an LT70 hydraulic diesel mill with Accuset when the guy just wants to saw up a thousand BF or so to build a doghouse, toolshed and a pigpen every year or so from a bunch of 12" diameter logs he has available and an LT 10 or LT15 is all he needs.
Yeah but it's so cool!
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 17, 2022, 09:49:15 PM
I see said the blind man to the deaf wife on the telephone.
So this is not for production but for training/teaching.
I gather if it was a single operator just doing 40-50 logs for his own personal use or for small time marketing he would be doing all the steps himself.
I'm trying to design an LT70 hydraulic diesel mill with Accuset when the guy just wants to saw up a thousand BF or so to build a doghouse, toolshed and a pigpen every year or so from a bunch of 12" diameter logs he has available and an LT 10 or LT15 is all he needs.
Ring-a-ling dig! Now you've got it Howard. Sure, this is easily expandable for a farm/production operation by just rail segments where needed but the reality is that most folks do this once a year for an afternoon and that's it. SO for them, they would likely just go with that roller stand and do all the work right there. Perhaps I will see one or two more of those but I don't know what the market is so it's all speculation. Last year I was hoping to sell a 'couple hundred' mushroom logs over the season and that grew it's own legs. SO I am not going to guess what might happen with these stands. It could go either way.
Nebraska, because we do this in an outdoor classroom with no power source beyond a small generator for the drills, we heat the wax on a gas camp stove on a separate table. We talked about putting the pot on the production line but with all the banging and movement going on, the risk is high we might have a disaster and spill the whole load. Usually one of the instructors takes care of that melt pot on a separate work bench (which is also on my list to build) and we fill smaller cans from the big pot. If one gets spilled or dropped, there is little harm. As for the drills, I have suggested using battery tools and we are going to try and test that out and make sure they are up to the task. This would eliminate any need to haul that generator in and out for each class.
The whole thing is really just a fun job to kill time in the winter and hopefully improve his infrastructure for next years teaching season. I have to build more stuff for him than I can fit in the shop right now, two of these systems, plus a real heavy bench about 3x5' for the melting pot and supplies, with an 8/4 rough milled top, probably 4x4 legs, that can stay out in the woods for it's life, and eventually some sort of storage box or shed so he can store materials out there and not have to carry everything in for each class.
What about the name 'Let's roll one', or 'Be the Funguy'.
Maybe I will just leave that up to the client. His business name is "Catskill Fungi" so I don't know how well that second name would work. I kind of like "The Loginator".
Maybe a simple question but does your spore bucket have a lid or can it get contaminated if sitting under the rolling logs? Maybe something that slides off to the side when you refill, then slides back so there isn't bark or dirt falling into it?
Okay, okay - you don't have to kick me when I'm down. I get it now. :-[
I like the idea of keeping the system easy to disassemble and store since it is only for occasional use. Maybe the roller system should just be the board with the angles and the rollers and the user provides his own sawhorses and sets it on top of them. He can bolt or clamp it on then remove and store it when not in use.
The customer can buy the roller unit, put it on a pair of sawhorses he made or bought, add a couple of 2X4s as the track and another sawhorse on the other end to support them. You might make a little shelf or two that hangs between the runners to store the spores and wax and such. The shelf could actually help stabilize the runners, The roller shelf could actually have a pair of brackets to hold one end of the track so the same pair of saw horses hold that end up/in place.
Okay, I guess I've done enough damage for one day. ;D
Well its a good question. First, these logs are really clean. There are fresh cut mostly healthy trees (bad stuff is trimmed out)and every move is done by hand, so there is little or any dirt on them. So mostly it would be bark and as they are green, not much of that sluffs off either. If it did get in the pot it really would not matter and if by chance it wound up getting inoculated back into the log, well, it's back on the same log it came from, so no harm is done.
AT some point I will show how this whole thing works with real people in real time and a lot of this will make more sense. That pot is getting hit up every few seconds so covering it is not practical. The video I did above was a bit misleading on that. Each hole filled requires several hits in the pot to fill the tool up. Then you only fill one hole, then do it all again for the next hole. So with 2 people hitting that pot, it is nearly constant. We will keep an eye on it, but right now we don't see it as a problem.
Bark and other junk in the wax would be a different story. So again, we use the smaller cans and I think we will put narrow shelves with edge rails along each deck rail on the outboard side for those. Again, it's all a work in progress. I should know more in 24 hours.
Howard, yes of course, many options are possible. (And no body would kick you when you are down, I'd wait patiently until you got back up. ;D) I build to suit the client, so whatever they want is fine. You will however note that the roller horse is much lower than the others. Originally on the first mockup I built it on my standard height sawhorse, but that proved to be way to high for a 5'4" tall person to easily position the tool and drill the holes. so we lowered it about 10". The working rails remain at 36" (for now). So mounting this on a standard sawhorse might make it too high and you would need a sawhorse with some weight to it and a fairly wide flange on top to make it stable. But I suppose it's up to the user in the end.
If its too high on a regular sawhorse they can always built a quick deck to step up on and work on or if outside dig them in a few inches.
Thanks for letting me get up again before kicking me again even though that is poor tactics and not what we teach in USMC. I always say "If you're involved in a fair fight, your tactics suck!" ;)
I watch TV and am always amazed when they punch somebody and always knock him out with one punch. Do all actors have a glass jaw? Don't they have a 2X4, bottle or crowbar handy? You can break some knuckles that way. Then they say "We better hurry up and go before he comes to." That's dumb. If I've knocked him out and he is a threat to me he ain't coming to. And if he does he's gonna look like a coiled up rope or be wearing more log chain than he can stand up with. A piece of baling wire to both of his thumbs behind his back works well but ain't gonna help his circulation much. ;D
Well I have always gotten a kick out of how they can taser somebody on TV and it knocks them right out cold. I have seen many dozens of tasings of real people and never once was one of them knocked out. I will say, it is fun watching someone try to resist a good tasing. I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as when I heard some of the noises that come out of folks mouths when they are getting tased and it seems the bigger and stronger they are, the funnier it gets.
Is the wax ladled or poured into the holes? I wonder if you could use one of those pancake funnel things. You fill it up and when you pull a plunger on the top handle, it lets the liquid flow out the bottom. It could rest in the hot wax pot on a hot plate to keep it fluid.
Well, I can't tell them how to do their jobs, but you may have a interesting idea. The problem might come when you try to clean those containers out. Every one of these operations I have seen either uses small 1/2 brushes or the daubers like we use for PVC cement. The spawn is packed right to the top on the hle and the goal is to just coat it over and seal it with wax to get bugs and other fungi out.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 18, 2022, 10:43:45 AM
Well I have always gotten a kick out of how they can taser somebody on TV and it knocks them right out cold. I have seen many dozens of tasings of real people and never once was one of them knocked out. I will say, it is fun watching someone try to resist a good tasing. I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as when I heard some of the noises that come out of folks mouths when they are getting tased and it seems the bigger and stronger they are, the funnier it gets.
Seen many a good taze session on good ol COPS show....i miss that show. the midget that thought he could break the cuffs and also climbed a telephone pole was great
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 18, 2022, 02:15:16 PMEvery one of these operations I have seen either uses small 1/2 brushes or the daubers like we use for PVC cement.
Ops, yeah, you mentioned that earlier. Slipped my feeble mind.
They used to invite a bunch of EMt's down to the county Police academy when they did taser training and CS spray training so that we could do rehab for them and in case anything went wrong. It Each cadet must be tasered before they can get their endorsement to carry the weapon. Same with CS Spray, except that after they take a direct hit in the face they have to defend their weapon from an assault. The taser stuff is fun to watch and nothing every went wrong. I learned that the more muscle bound a person was, the more they suffered :D. The CS spray training evolution was not fun to watch. Lots of tears and snot and puking going on and it was very rough on the cadets, especially if they tried to duck the blast, then they got a second full load in the face directly. That was a mess to cleanup and get those cadets back in shape. As this was one of the last hurdles in their training, it put a lot of stress on them to get through it and some could barely make it. I'll take the taser any day.
No sweat Ljohn, it's a lot to keep straight and I still get confused. ;D
I do hope you get video of the set up running when it gets put to use, something I have never been around but it would be interesting to see.
where do they get, or how do they propagate spawn?? can you post more info on the process, with pics when you get them? I am interested in trying this.
Having went threw both Taser and CS training more than once I can assure you neither one is at all pleasant. Especially after the first time 'cause ya know what's coming. :'( I've also seen guys that when hit with CS, their only reaction was to get REALLY pithed. :o
Yeah, fellas, it won't be until the spring before we try this out with some victims Willing students and I will do my best to record it.
Doc, making the actual spawn is a lab process that requires sterile working conditions including air filtration. Because of that, just about everybody buys their spawn from such a producer. The spawn comes mixed with sawdust in a 2.5# bag and can be kept in the refrigerator for 6 weeks or more. There are lots of suppliers out there like Field & Forest where many of my clients buy their stuff. The spawn can also be bought in preformed 'plug' you just push in the hole or pegs for inserting in the ground, grain, and thimble spawn. I don't understand the details but I believe it has to do with the inoculation methods and substrate. It's quite easy to do with just a little bit of reading, selcting the mushroom species to match the substrate species, or vice versa and although there are special tools made for the process, you really don't need them. A few simple hand tools will do just fine. You can grow 'shrooms in coffee grounds, or cardboard, or wood chip beds depending on species. Mushrooms are 'decomposers' they just need the right thing to decompose. They have even found a strain of mushrooms that can decompose petroleum and have had successful test growing those on floating oil slicks at sea to break down the oil. Amazing organicisms they are.
I would be interested in the tool that you use to make a plug from the bucket and plunk it in there. guess I need to get a book, and or look on the internet. any good resources. the shrooms would go good with walnut syrup (as a hobby, not necessarily on top of).
Doc, Field & Forest (https://www.fieldforest.net/category/tools), mentioned about has a good site with a wide range of stuff and it is my impression that many or most of the commercial operations around here get their supplies and tools from them. North Spore is another one and they have some good (free) educational materials right on their website. Lastly the Cornell Small Farms program (https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/) has a Specialty mushroom project website with lots of additional educational information available. I know the editor of this last one and have been 'helping him' correct some of his log buying information. ;D
Fair warning, you have just asked me to direct you down a rabbit hole and I only did it because you asked and I have witnesses. :D
"said the spider to the fly" :D :D
We use Field and Forest for spawn. Have had better luck over the years using the sawdust versus the plugs. Great people to deal with.
Quote from: Nebraska on January 12, 2022, 08:22:38 PM
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20220112_191125.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642036773)
Yak Trax is what these are called. Haven't used them a bunch but they work. Slips on the boot pretty easy.
Following up on this one first. I got the new YakTrax today and will likely give them something of a test tomorrow. It took me a while, but I figured out how to bend my like like Nebraska did. You just have to suck in all your breath (hard), hold your mouth just right, and keep telling yourself there is no such thing as pain:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220119_163530167.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642629231)
They do look like they should hold fairly well on the ice.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220119_163547610.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642629227)
They sell several models now and this appeared to be the one they have designed for working folks in and out of equipment all day. Then run about 50 bucks a pair. They don't look very sexy from the side, but I do note they added a handle in the back to either pull them on, or I suppose you could drag the body out with them. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220119_163541151.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642629222)
They weren't too bad to pull on, but they are 'snug'. I'll let y'all know how they work.
So catching up on other stuff: My Mushroom client was due today at 9am to review the work but before that even happened I got an early call from my buddy who had asked me to cut him some ax targets, which I did several weeks ago. He wanted to pick them up today, so I scheduled him for 2:30.
The client was a little late and had another appointment, so we got right into it. He is very happy with what we have so far and I had a punch list of questions to tick down to save time. We added some stuff (shelves, etc.), and removed some stuff (catch rack on the end), talked rough costing, etc. He now wants 2 of these units, plus, I think, a stand up rack to hold the logs on end for labeling. he would also like to have one of my roller fixtures on hand for sale at his classroom for any students that might want one. I also have to figure out a way to make a 'put in place' ridge pole down the center for covering it just to keep the heavy rain off when not in use. I want to avoid screws, to hold it in, so I have to think about it, but I have ideas.
For those who asked, while we had an inoculation tool here I got a quick photo.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220119_102743730.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642631473)
After the client left I finished off my notes and took the wife off for the monthly food shopping. We got home, made lunch, then the other buddy showed up right after I made a fresh pot of coffee and we took care of that (the coffee and the targets). Then I was left to myself. The client had left his drill bit and adaptor so I could see how long the battery pack would hold up drilling logs. He is concerned about how many batteries he might need. I don't think he will kill one during a session. But I thought as long as I had that I might shoot a video for others to understand this drilling process. I know I didn't get it until I finally saw it being done and now I take it for granted because it is so simple, in fact it's a lot simpler than anybody would think. Woodworkers and other builders tend to drill holes rather carefully and thoughtfully. This isn't that.
Mushroom log drilling in a fixture. - YouTube (https://youtu.be/xXolrzV24_M)
Anyway, not a bad day, fairly busy, which I like, and some creativity going on which I enjoy a lot. I need to make more lumber before I can finish this one and then more for the next one. Looks like we are talking a couple or 3 SGU's so that's not bad either, but we can figure that out later. I greatly enjoy working with this client and helping his business, so it's all good.
I have no idea what I am doing tomorrow. I should mill, but lets see if that wind dies off. Even with warmer temps today that wind was a killer and a show stopper for me. It's also supposed to turn back to colder air tomorrow, but that's not as bad as the wind. One day at a time, right?
very good. i also went on the F&F site today and looked around. the only thought I had while watching would be a scale of sorts for non-wood people to give an idea of spacing or just 2-inch marks or colors across the end to help with spacing holes as you drill.
Well, that's a logical thought Doc. In fact I may have had the same idea not too long ago. But the way it works is based on the mass of the log and the locations are really not important, what matters is getting the max yield out of a given log, so the more mass in a log (larger diameter, longer, whatever) the more holes you put in and you try to get them staggered along and around the log both in a longitudinal and radial direction. You'd be surprised, but after doing 6 logs or so you really start to get a feel for it by looking the the pattern around the log and adjusting as you go. The goal is to get the spawn to spread through and around the log as uniformly as possible.
At any rate, your brain starts to make constant adjustments for each log when you get in the right mindset of the end goal and any guides would likely very quickly be discarded. It's just one of those things you pick up very quickly as you go and with most folks, it seems, they pick it up pretty quick. Very small logs get (comparatively) very few holes and are more difficult to handle and go slower. Me, I wouldn't waste time with them, but you use what you got right? My client today remarked that the logs I have consistently been delivering to him are far better than almost everything he has cut in the past. Which is why he prefers to have me supplying his logs. Apparently it's a big load off his shoulders and allows him to do more workshops. I think I became his 'amazon for logs', just call and they show up a few days later. :D
As I remember correctly the formula used to determine the spacing, depth and diameter of the inoculation holes is:
Q = R*LD(pi)/Wi (.5L/C)+DrDia*BT
Where:
Q= Quantity of holes to be drilled
R= Radius of the log
LD = Average Log diameter using at least 4 equally spaced measurements
Wi = Wood index from Chart (Provided separately) by wood type/species as measured at 180 days after cutting at 13% relative humidity
.5L = half the length of the log
C= TBD
Dr = Drill type (Manual, Battery powered or Electric – note different values are used for 110 V vs 220)
Dia = Diameter of the drill bit
BT = Drill Bit Type (Spade bit, Auger or standard)
This formula was developed by joint effort between the University of GA Forestry department and the University of Ala medical department (who had to be on site for testing because the bulldogs kept drilling holes into their thumbs),
Gee, this is groundbreaking Howard. I'm not sure folks will be able to run those calcs in their head for each log, but it's good to know and I really should pass this up the line the the experts at Cornell and see what they think. I can also provide it to several folks doing this in the field for their review and consideration and share any feed back they provide. Given the prestigious source of this data I am certain the academics are already doing their own peer review in the interests in maintaining their own grant writing campaigns against encroaching or conflicting theories.
Also, please do let me know when you come up with a vale for "C" because without it, there is no way to validate it. Oh wait, I see what you did there. :D :D
Tom,
Okay. I suspect C will turn out to be atmospheric pressure measured in Bars or Core Temperature of the log in *Kelvin.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 19, 2022, 09:15:37 PM
Tom,
Okay. I suspect C will turn out to be ......
Just a hunch but I believe the scientific academic types are going to need more that "I suspect" before they go any further. Just sayin'. Are ou quite sure this came from the esteemed and non-glaciated sources you claimed? Because it almost seems like there is a frozen brain involved somewhere. We see that up here all the time.
No, that is not right. You left out that you have to square the whole thing, then take the square root of that.
Quote from: WDH on January 19, 2022, 10:37:55 PM
No, that is not right. You left out that you have to square the whole thing, then take the square root of that.
I was never a math whizz (saved by the calculator age) and I don't have a text book handy, but my instinct tells me that the end result will only change very slightly with that adjustment. :D
Depends on whether the integer was positive or negative before squaring it.
Besides, most roots are round not square. ;)
That bit on the angle grinder?? I don't think I've seen one. I just purchased a Milwaukee cordless angle grinder to match my other 18volt stuff looks like it might be handy.
Good eye Nebraska. Yes, that bit, as far as I know is made specifically for this single application and I have only seen them available at mushroom suppliers. The also sell an adaptor to fit this to the angle grinder. Here is a better photo:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220120_092347156.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642689254)
It has a pilot to help draw it in like a forstener bit and a single lip ground like a wood auger bit, the body is half round like some spade drills. AT the back end is that shoulder to control the depth.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220120_092402687.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642689254)
If you are only doing a few logs you can get by with a 7/16 drill and some sort of tape or stop. These drills generally drill thousands of holes in their lives so I guess there is a big enough market for somebody to make them, even for a niche market.
BTW Howard, Pie are round, Cornbread are Square.
Tom,
I need to show that to my wife. Ever since she found I prefer the corner piece of cornbread she has made it in a round pan just for spite. Them women can really be mean at time. ::)
Well if you are going to show her that, you should show her this also:
I don't think she is being mean, after all she is still making cornbread for you so... No I think perhaps she may be toying with you a bit for fun because she thinks it's cute when you get flustered over something like 'no corners'.
Is she wanted to be mean she would mess with the brakes or steering on your ATV or something like that. :D ;D
She knows she will never be able to replace me. I've just been way to good to that woman...
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 20, 2022, 09:41:56 AM
Good eye Nebraska. Yes, that bit, as far as I know is made specifically for this single application and I have only seen them available at mushroom suppliers. The also sell an adaptor to fit this to the angle grinder.
There is a person on a machinist's forum somewhere with a thread on machining for mushroom industry. I feel he / she is explaining the high material and labor cost of a niche market they have found but enjoy the challenge it presents. I can imagine they are getting a lot of feedback from fellow machinists on ways to change/improve.
Perhaps you are a bit paranoid WV, she is just trying to make you happy with the round cornbread......they are all corner pieces!
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 20, 2022, 11:13:35 AM
She knows she will never be able to replace me. I've just been way to good to that woman...
UM, yeah, OK.
Well a little more catching up. Wednesday was a full day and yesterday I felt punk, no energy at all, zero. felt like a cold or worse coming on, just dog tired all day and I didn't sleep well the night before, bad persistent cough, junk coming up, etc. I was too weary to even keep up with the reading here on the FF and had to force myself to lace up boots and feed the shop stove. I took the whole day off and jsut napped, tried to watch a movie or two and read here some. I filled the shop stove early (and poorly) even though I knew it would be a cold night coming, I didn't really care. I was in bed before 9 figuring I would have a few more days of this.
But today is a new day, I got 9 hours of sleep straight through! I am going to take it easy, it was 2° when I got up, but I will get something done today. I just checked the shop stove after 13 hours and there was barely enough to re-kindle, but I did and it will take a while to warm the shop up from 42°. No big deal. I don't have the wood I need to work with, most hasn't been milled yet, so building in the shop is out of the question, but I will figure out something.
So a couple of days ago I got my first Mushroom inquiry of the season and I sent back a reply not thinking mush of it. I get a fair amount of random inquiries from new potential buyers who I never hear from again once they get the costing and terms, But this fella answered back a few hours later and was good with the cost. He wanted to pick up, which I like best, but he thought he could get 100 logs in a 6' pickup bed. When I indicated what the weight would be (3,500-4,000#) he thought better and opted for delivery. (I charge a buck a mile and it's 104 miles each way.) He is also fine with the delivery charge so this morning we made a deal. He has surgery scheduled for early March and would like to get his logs inoculated before that happens, so I need to deliver before the end of February. This means cutting in the snow and I have to figure out access to get in and remove the logs to the landing. It will be a bit more work and tougher on the body, but anything for a laugh, right? I figure I can either use Bill's gator, tool cat, or at worst the tracked skidsteer to get the wood out and he is fine with that. I would like for it to warm up a bit though. With 'winter cut' the logs can lay around a lot longer because the trees are dormant and there are no bugs to start working on them. I also sent the client a photo of the log stand to see if he has an interest. I could build one and throw it on top of the load for a free delivery. I priced it at $150. just to see how that flies. You never know, right? I am not too thrilled about 3 hours of driving on interstates with the trailer (something new for me), but money is money, right?
Now it falls to me to figure out how to get something productive done today. Maybe I will go see if I can chop some 1x material chopped out of the frozen snow down at the mil to get drying out in the shop. It' too cold for me to mill today, but I am thinking tomorrow with the temp soaring near 20° I might at least finish up the one big log I have on the arms and make 2x4's and jacket wood for the rest of the build. I also want to make some low (12" tall) 4' long sawhorses for stacking lumber on down at the mill to make handling more easy.
Time to get at it. At least the sun is out today and that dang blasted wind has finally died down from the 35 mph stuff we had over the last few days. Now it's all below 20, so that is better.
at that height and to stack lumber, I wonder if a beam say 4 x 12 would work. either solid wood or an I beam like the tops of your saw horses
put a cord on them so you can drag them place to place
always giving advice for problems you do not have. :D :D :D
Of course both of those would work Doc. In this case though, the ground is rocky, muddy, and uneven, so my thinking (yeah, I know..) is that the feet on the sawhorses could be somewhat leveled with blocks to keep the pile straight and stable. My piles on these could be 4' taller or more. This will allow easy pickup with the forks when the snow get deeper. I have been using thicker slabs as bunks but that uneven ground makes it tough to find places where it doesn't slope off. Also, with those, the wood is too close to the ground and the ice and snow build up to freeze in the pile. I figured I would try these and se if it's an improvement. I already have to build at least 4 more sawhorses, so what's another pair while I am at it?
Make your short horses (ponies?) with three legs then it would not be an issue on uneven ground getting them to be (in the) stable. :D
Pulling a trailer hauling logs that you are selling for $ may put you at risk if you are involved in a vehicle altercation and you only have personal vehicle insurance and not commercial vehicle insurance. May not apply in your case but you might want to check.
Yeah, I know WDH, but it's a risk I will take. I only do maybe 2 of these runs a year and that won't pay for the increased rates. Maybe it's stupid, but that's what I am so....
--------
Ljohn, I have never tried to ride a 3 legged horse, must be pretty bumpy. I had thought about 3 pairs of legs because of the load, but I will start with 2 pair and see how it goes. I'll improve from there if needed. Given all the debate generated about a year ago here from a 3 legged rectangular stool I made, I will forego doing that again if it can be helped. ;D :D
I had a bunch of short 2X4 & 2X6 the last time I built another storage barn. I think I cut them to 16" long and made several sawhorses 4' long, I-beam style out of them and I have some pretty heavy loads stacked on them. Since they are on dirt they find their level pretty quickly especially with a load. They work real well so I save all my short 2X stock for such as that in the future. They sound a lot like what you are describing.
Here is my vision. If you can break these, you're more of a man then me!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30640/ShortHorse.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1642783233)
Roughly 4x6 pieces, 4' long and 18" wide with white oak feet to fend off rot?
Yeah, that is pretty much what I had in mind Howard. It can be a little hard to visualize but the site where the mill sits was a stone quarry over 160 years ago. That rock wall the mill is backed up on shows where they stopped taking stone and I walk, stand and work on the bottom floor of that quarry. The stone that was taken out in big slabs wound up in NYC as sidewalks and in buildings. The ground is quite uneven and there is very little dirt except where the big seep fed mud puddle is off to the easy of the mill deck. So getting anything even close to level is a challenge there, especially in the frozen state. ;D
l see now what you meant ljohn, that is a neat idea and might work great. I need to think on that some. Leveling might be a bit easier with yours. Yeah, lemme think on that some.
Not much got accomplished yesterday but I did get out and get some air in my lungs and that was the main goal. Normally this time of year and with these conditions I am 100% in the shop. But times change and I am doing what I thought I would never do. Going down to the mill and trying to figure out how to make more lumber. ;D
So down the the mill I did go, and as I went down the private road I had a 27' box truck with Jersey plates following me. Now I am a non-confrontational guy and didn't really want to get out of the truck to deal with this, but I figured I would either have to deal with it now, or deal with it later. So when we passed the last driveway before Bill's land I stopped my truck and went back and asked the driver where he was headed. It took 2 attempts to understand him because he only rolled his window down a few inches, was trying to talk through the glass and had his face mask on. He says "Back to Joisey". 'Not this way' I said. "How do you think this truck will do on an unplowed road? And do you see that big sign in front of you there that says "PRIVATE ROAD, LANDOWNERS ONLY"?" He mumbled some more stuff and I told him this is why I stopped him here, so he could easily back into that clean driveway and turn around. He wasn't happy but he said he would comply. As I got back in my truck and slowly drove away, I watched him make 4 attempts to back into a 30' wide blacktop driveway. No way would that guy have made it through, he could barely drive. I figured that was easier than having him get stuck....for me anyway.
So when I got to the mill road I saw that a lot of equipment had been back and forth but it remained unplowed and was a little dicey, but I drove to the mill and saw they had cleared most of the working area out and just left the road untouched to keep the riff-raff out. :D I trudged through the snow across the road to the lumber piles and tried with great effort to get out some 1x10's I need for the build but it was so frozen that I had to whack on it with a 3x4 bunk and broke the bunk. Finally got two boards off and got them in the truck. I'll need a thin pry bar to get any more out. I checked the mill area and it is pretty good although we have a lot of thick glare ice and a big pile of white junk that slid off the roof. It's right in the lumber carrying path, so I will have to address that with a steel shovel. Frozen too hard for a plastic snow shovel. I headed up to the shop because the boys should have been back by then, but no joy, so I headed home. Just as I was about to hit the town road the guys were coming in and they talked me into turning around and messing in the shop with them. SO back in I went.
They had been getting the new grapple (look back several posts) rigged up to test on the small bobcat and also doing seasonal maintenance on that machine and re-welding some broken stuff. Bill wanted me to run the chipper blade sharpener that I had tuned up last week, so we went upstairs, filled it with coolant and he showed me how it ran. I finished off one set of blades on one side and it worked pretty well. We need to get better coolant control rigged up because I kept getting wet, but the blades look good.. Now he wants me to do all his dull blades, both edges, maybe 8 sets.
So when I had finished the blades they were ready to hook up and test the grapple. We had to do some 'fit and finish' adjustment to get it to nestle into the mount and lock in correctly. Once done, with the hoses and switching hooked up, we found everything was plumbed backwards from every other piece of equipment he has. Rather than fix that now, he decided to try it and see if there was anything else that needed adjusting. Now Bill is an excellent operator, especially with those grapples on a skid steer, but with all the controls backwards he was having a tough time, really tough. He is used to moving pretty fast. The 3 of us are watching him grab 4' chucks the long way to drop in the OWB and I was impressed with how wide that grapple opened so I started shooting a little video (which Bill hates on a good day). It didn't take long before he started cussin' and when he had the grapple up in the OWB mouth and rotated the grapple the wrong way hitting the lid fairly hard, he really let fly and in fairly direct language told me to get out of the way and where i could/should stick my phone/camera. So in deference to him, and given the language even though covered mostly by the engine noise, I did not upload it, nor will I share it here. ;D I think they are going to flip those lines on the next working day, if they haven't already done it. Anyway, at that point I headed home with a good chuckle. It's rare to see a great operator get humbled like that. I told him "Now you now how I feel every time I climb in that machine." :D
I put those boards in the shop to thaw and after 4 hours, they still had ice on them. It was 51° in the shop. 5 below here this morning, not great milling weather, but the wind is finally below 5MPH. I will probably head to the mill with better pants on today (lined jeans aren't cutting it) and just get that one log done if I can. That should give me plenty to work with for a while. I have given a lot of thought to ljohnsaw's bunk/horse idea and I think I am going to go with something like that and try it out. It should work better than what I had in mind to begin with.
Oh, and I gave those new Yaktrax a good test yesterday on the ice and they worked great, also comfortable in the shop and I had no issue climbing the ladder up to the loft. I will stick with them, I think they were worth it and I am glad I bought the higher end model. Very grippy in the right places.
Time to get at it.
Tom,
Maybe you and Bill need to open a side business as a wrecker service on Bill's road. Then when the idiots try to sneak through and get stuck you charge them a huge fee to pull them free. Since it is private land you can restrict access from the commercial wreckers. Maybe you just call the commercial wrecker then make the stuckee pay an access fee for him on top of what he charges to come pull them out. That way all you have to do is collect the fee and none of the hassle, work or risk to actually pull the customer out.
Well, the legal status of the road remains in dispute with the town, as it has for at last the last 70 years. The town maintains that he cannot restrict access or traffic, but at the same time the town maintains no responsibilities to maintain the road as a public road. They say he needs to maintain it if he wants to use it. So his only legal choice, barring a more specific legal finding, it to maintain that which he needs to get to his house and let the rest fall into disrepair on it's own. Now he needs that bad section to get access to the mill, the other building, and the rest of his property so he only fixes what he needs to, leaves a good wash or two, doesn't plow it much, and lets it go a bit. Part of the issue is that there is no cell service there, so nobody can call for help when they get in trouble (stuck) and they wind up making a real mess. Also, they just drive too dang fast, ignoring the 10MPH speed limit signs. That idiot in the truck yesterday was right on my butt because I was driving too slow for him. That kind of stuff just sets a fella in the wrong state of mind if you follow my drift. I have seen amazon drivers flying past the mill at 30MPH trying to avoid getting caught because they know they are wrong. They saw the signs and ignored them, just like the guy yesterday.
I just don't understand people many times. If I saw those signs, didn't know anybody in the area, and was just following my GPS, I would turn around without any extra thought. I was raised to understand that when a
sign says 'private property' you stay the heck out until you meet and get the owners permission. It's pretty simple, I think.
Thanks for the update on those Yaktrax diamond grip thingies. I had been waiting to hear how they worked out before trying a pair. Just ordered from Amazon and they are only $36.00 with free shipping because we have prime. Said it was the real ones so I will see.
I have several pair of the spring type that I would pick up at BidRL (Amazon return liquidation) for a couple bucks a pair. I managed to break one pair (the rubber snapped). They work ok, just not real durable. Good to go get the mail but not for hauling logs. Then I found some of the chain ones. I think I have two pair now and probably paid $4/pair. I figured it they didn't work good I wasn't out much. Haven't made it up the hill to the snow yet these new one. Some time soon, though.
Well I spent several hours on them today at the mill. The mill area is a clean (?) concrete slab, but outside of that is pretty much all glaze ice, frozen HARD and these worked really well on both surfaces. The problem arises after 5 or 6 hours when you take them off then go outside again. You really have to be careful! I had briefly tried the spring type years ago and quickly gave up because I found them to be slippery on polished concrete or anything like that. They were also made kind of flimsy. I've heard some good things about the chain things, but not sure how they work on concrete.
I will say it was a beautiful day today but it started out at 5 below and only worked up into the low 20's at high heat. If I had been out in it any longer I would have had to remove a sweatshirt. But the mill started (block heaters are good) and ran perfectly and I took time to put a new tire belt on the drive blade wheel, which was on my list. 20 2x4's and a dozen one by tens out of a junk (too short) log. Win-win. Oh yeah and I got some fresh air. :)
Yesterday wasn't a bad day at all. Now that I 'allow' myself to turn on the oil burner in the shop for about 1/2 hour on work days out there, it gets right comfortable at around 52° pretty quick. I find that a good working temp with minimal sweat. I spent a full day out there except to take the wife on an errand and have lunch. I burned through just about all the usable 2x4's I cut Friday.
Which brings me to a new learning point (for me). I have to be much more careful in culling out bad boards when I mill during the deep cold. The logs are frozen pretty hard and pithy wood will appear to be mostly sound. After 2 days in the shop it becomes apparent it should have wound up in the OWB right away. I take a chance on these thinking that I can sometimes get short pieces out of them and ditch the rest. Last night I had done a sweep of the shop when I reset to build the second unit and just left the pile of junky wood and sawdust in front of the stove. Hours later while tending the stove I saw movement in the pile and realized it was the ants coming back to life. Also, some of those buggers had wings! I don't think they were termites, but I threw it all right into the hot stove and they flashed over. Today I will look over everything else and get out the bad stuff.
SO I've pretty much finished the first unit and have most of the work done on the second. I forgot to take any photos and I should have. I still have some details to work out and paint to do, but I wanted to get the heavy build work done and see where I stood on lumber. I have almost no 2x4 stock left over and had to recut one piece that I found unusable at assembly. I need one more 1x10 to finish the second unit. Then I have to cut a lot of trim for around all those shelves to keep things from sliding off. Still trying to figure that detail out.
I did cut the stock for the 'ljohn 3 legged ponies' and should get them figured out today also. There is a teeny bit of snow floating in the air and they are calling for an annoyance snow tonight, lets see what that looks like. Still cold, high for today is to be about 22 and yesterday we actually hit 31 for about 20 minutes. Tomorrow it might break the freezing mark. Oh goody.
Time to get at it.
How are you gonna fasten those 3 legged ponies together? Looks to me like they would like to flop over to one side or the other if you're not careful.
Might think about putting a 45* wedge on the long end on each side of the beam?
i would use carriage bolts, and construction glue. the bolts can be tightened as the wood shrinks. nothing more stable on uneven ground than a tripod. triangulation baby! :o ;) :) :D
I'm a cheapskate. Looks like it would take a 10" lag screw and you'd have to use a long auger to predrill through the 6" beam. I think 4 16d nails (2 in each 2"X6" wedge on each side) will be a lot faster, easier and cheaper than a 10" lag screw. But the other end is a problem since there is not place for a wedge and a lag screw or landscaping nail might be required. You might nail a short 2X4 on each side into both the foot and the beam.
AAAAA, you guys are a bunch of nervous Nellies! First you had me putting diagonals on saw horses that didn't need them, and now you are trying to get me to overengineer some quick and dirty lumber bunks. Well, you got me the first time, but I ain't gonna get bit twice. Here is what I came up with:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220124_144256814.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643066361)
This shows the feet better, they are the same on both ends.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220124_144303330.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643066364)
I decided the 3 legged design would not work well here and I didn't want to glue green wood or waste the time to do it. Quick and dirty means just that. I wanted something easy to move around, these are temporary, for holding lumber until it is either picked up, or moved out. All put together with 3-1/2" screws. If these hold up, I'll make more, if not, I will rethink. If they break and fall over, oh well. We laugh and move on. No big deal. I have other stuff to do.
Speaking of which I spent some time finishing the second unit build today and the shop is getting crowded.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220124_171015373.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643066687)
The only thing I have left to do is figure out edge trim for the selves to keep things from sliding off. I will probably rip up a mess of 1/2x 1-1/2 strips to do this with. I nearly bought a pin nailer today to do this but just could not part with what I think is crazy money for one. I have to place about 50 or more of these little strips. Either I will borrow my son's or figure something else out. I really wanted about an 1-1/2" nail with a head and I don't want to drive them all by hand. I am due for a new tool in the shop, but there are others that would get a lot more use and are further up my list. Maybe I will do a little research tonight.
I did a big errand loop today and found some 'ooops' paint in one of the home center stores (returned or rejected custom color) for 10 bucks a gallon that I think will work fine. But I would like this wood to dry out a little more before I paint it. Another week or two should be much better. I can' t wait too long because I can hardly move around in the shop now.
Some snow tonight, I am thinking it's not much but haven't checked the updates yet. Tomorrow is another day and I have no idea what I am doing, just that I have a lot to do. ;D
Another option would be instead of using a 6X6 for the beam use 3 2X6s and basically laminate them. Then you could nail the first 2X6 into the foot then just nail the other 2 into it. Naahh - that would be too simple.
with the uneven ground I like the 3 footed thing, but if these do not last then you make modifications. screws do not pull out, but shear, nails the opposite. the 4 footed one may tork underweight and sheer the screws. they look great and may work for years. let us know how they do. If you did the 3 legged, it might make it easier to pull up between with forks and such.
I don't know if you have a Lowe's close by, but about 2 weeks ago I bought a bostich brad gun, " new low price " $79. A brad gun has a small head and it wouldn't hurt to put some extra if it made you more comfortable. I don't know what price range your looking for. Sssshhhh,
If you go back to the pro desk and tell one of them " I'd really like to take this with me today, but I need you to help me with this price." , this is usually good for a few dollars.
Howard I have no idea where you came up with 6x6's. I am using 2x4's for these. I need to be able to move them around. If I were going to mill big bunks I would just mill up some 8x8's and be done with it. :D
Doc, the photo might not be clear, but these have 4 feet. Yeah, 3 feet would be better for forking, but the ground is very rough rock and frankly if these are something close to level the screws should allow them to level the tops off.
It's s simple thing guys, just keep the wood off the ground. :D
Trimguy, thanks, I didn't think of lowes, let me see what they have. Something under a hundred bucks would be fine and I don't need to plea for a break. I just didn't want to spend well over 150 bucks for a little tool like this. I am also looking at harbor freight. They have a few that might do it for reasonable prices and since this is an infrequent tool for me, I am fine with that. I have only had one other job I needed one on and there were so few nails, that it didn't matter, but I did think about it for having consistent clean drives.
Sorry, I looked at the design of the beams in the original post and they looked square and I saw something there about 4X6's so it looked to me like you were connecting 2- 6X6's. I never meant to suggest something that big but if you were I was just saying 3- 2X6s would give the same size and might be easier to connect.
OK, I get it. I just thought you were trying to make me crazy. :D You have a knack for that sometimes.
happy birthday @trimguy (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=47881) . a while back at Lowes the pin nailers were on clearance, and they are great. you do not think you need one till you have one. 23 g, and hold a piece for glue to dry. can barely see the hole. I went back 2 weeks later and they were gone. they were Bostich, but I already have one.
you can do it how ever you want. @Old Greenhorn (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=42103) you have done more of this than most. We just like helpin. like that little girl on the shake and bake commercials.
Shake and Bake Commercial 1970 - Bing video (https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Shake+and+Bake+Commercial+1970&ru=%2fvideos%2fsearch%3fq%3dShake%2band%2bBake%2bCommercial%2b1970%26FORM%3dVDMHRS&view=detail&mid=14B5C7B04FC07ED643BD14B5C7B04FC07ED643BD&rvsmid=9E8CB69544991077FD059E8CB69544991077FD05&FORM=VDRVRV)
OGH, you are getting a lot of help.
Yeah, I am. Sometimes I can barely figure out what to do with it all. ;D :D
Quote from: WDH on January 25, 2022, 08:16:16 AM
OGH, you are getting a lot of help.
Help us one word for it! :laugh:
Yesterday we woke up to an inch or two of the white crap, so I had to get that cleared off before it froze again. I also took the time to do some trim work I didn't do in the last dump and tired to plow out the front of my trailer in case I needed it for a delivery. It's pretty well froze in, but I think I can yank it out when needed.
After lunch I headed to Lowes as suggested above and found a 18Ga. brad nailer on sale for 50 bucks that seemed to fit the bill. Whilst I waited and looked for sales help (?) to find where they had hidden them I ran into my 'boss' from Grey Fox and we had a nice time catching up on new babies, his kids and family and plans for this years coming Festival. Was good to see him.
When he went on his way and I got tired of waiting for somebody to show up, I finally spied the secret storage location down at the far end of the aisle about 3 levels up on a pallet rack and as luck would have it a rolling ladder/stairs was close by (it has a chain across with a sign that says "Employee use only", but I managed to defeat the security device, a clever snap clip), so I fetched the one I wanted and as I was coming down and employee shows up and says "Sir, I have to get that down for you!" "OH, OK" says I, "Let me get down first" and I came down with the box and handed it to him. "I need one of these". He asks "Oh, you want another one?" "Nope, this one will do just fine, Thanks!" I took the box from his hands, grabbed a box of nails, thanked him again and left him standing there trying to figure out how that went wrong. ;D There was another customer who had been looking at other tools in the same aisle for a while and he got a real good laugh out of the whole thing.
I arrived home and found the breaker on my compressor had popped, no air, so I reset that and off she went, but it takes a long time to fill. I figure the sub-zero temps were a bit too much for that motor earlier in the week. The nailer worked just fine and I cut up a big mess of these small short strips to put around the edges of the shelves. I glued and nailed them all on and it was very tedious. I hate repetitive work. I did all of them on build number 2, about 35 pieces. Now I have to go back and do build number 1 which is tipped up against the wall. Not sure how I can get that down and horizontal to work on by myself today, but I'll figure it out. Once that is done, I may mess around with some extended feed ramps to get the drilling station further away from the rail section. The client didn't like the way the drilling chips got thrown all over where folks would be trying to inoculate logs. He felt carrying them to the rails would be fine, but I would like to see if I can make up some rails to eliminate that need. I am running out of working room though.
The workmanship on this thing isn't pretty, but it is a dedicated work bench that gets used 2 hours per month, about 9 months a year, and it is made out of pine. So there is a limit to how much time (and cost) I want to put into something that will be banged up after a couple of runs. I already have about 3-4 days in build time and I want to keep the cost as low as I can. I'll try to get a couple of updated photos today. Never thought of it yesterday.
I am stressing a little about this snow coming in. If we get a foot, that may kill my log harvest. The one thing we don't have yet is a snow machine. I should probably get on it (the harvest), but I keep hesitating. I am not sure why but it's been fairly cold and I have other stuff to do. I don't want to start and then get shut out with half the order done. I should focus on how to handle that today. I think, subliminally, I am concerned about being alone and getting stuck out there and trying to figure out how to get the machine, logs, and gear out. It's an unknown for me and I am thinking too much probably.
Well, time to get something moving along.
I don't think our weather matches up exactly OGH, but it does seem that you guys get a lot of the same systems we do just a day later (or a bit less). Regardless, look at the weather mid to late next week, we're calling for 40's, maybe even 50's for a few days. I imagine if you get substantial snow, then warmth, it causes other issues, but that may be the break you need to get out there.
Yeah, your weather migrates this way, then mixes with whatever comes up the coast, mix that all around and add a twist, then send it on up to the Cfarm and Swampdonkey. I have no idea what happens to it after that. ;D
I don't have a good source for any kind of a long range forecast here (suggestions?), but the weather service goes out to next Tuesday and it might get near 40 here if we are lucky. So maybe I will get lucky but there is only one way to find out.
I feel like the weather demon is standing in the middle of the road in front of me and asking "Do ya feel lucky punk? Well, do ya?" :rifle:
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/ny/hurley
Yup, I've got the Wunderground app on my phone and it's pretty dang good. I can watch storms roll in, via it's radar, and sitting on the front porch looking west.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 26, 2022, 01:31:07 PM
Yeah, your weather migrates this way, then mixes with whatever comes up the coast, mix that all around and add a twist, then send it on up to the Cfarm and Swampdonkey. I have no idea what happens to it after that. ;D
A friend that spent some time in Newfoundland said that that is where hurricanes and such go to die.
Ditto on the Wunderground thing. Plenty of ads but I like the nexrad radar feature.
Yeah well DUH! You know, idiot that I am, I never thought of checking that. In fact I always have it up in another browser window to monitor and have several stations saved around the area. I have it on my phone too. BUT I never thought of using the forecast features in it. Never even looked at them until you guys made me. ;D Not bad and I'll be using that more often. They go out a bit further then the NWS. Right in front of my face all the time. Thanks guys.
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Well today I finished up all the detail trim work on the other unit. The only remaining things now are coming up with a bridge ramp from the drilling station to the main rack and painting. Painting will have to wait. I need to let that wood dry out some more. Gotta get the client back to work out the length of those extra rails because there is some jointing involved I don't wanna do twice. I am also out of 2x4's or I might have taken a good guess and just made them.
It was cold today, but clear and sunny and I decided to grab the snowshoes and go for a walk to check the trees down below. We had some heavy winds the last couple of weeks and I haven't been down there in a month so I figured I'd check for new firewood. No joy on that, but it was a nice walk, very crisp out even for a short loop. Might get below zero again tonight. Not sure what I'll do tomorrow. Kind of cold for mill work.
I'll figure it out when I get there.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 26, 2022, 08:08:25 PM
Yeah well DUH! You know, idiot that I am, I never thought of checking that. In fact I always have it up in another browser window to monitor and have several stations saved around the area. I have it on my phone too. BUT I never thought of using the forecast features in it. Never even looked at them until you guys made me. ;D Not bad and I'll be using that more often. They go out a bit further then the NWS. Right in front of my face all the time. Thanks guys.
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Well we aim to please...... ;D
How's walking in snowshoes? Do you have to walk like you just got off a 10 hour horse ride, since they seem to keep your feet farther apart than normal? Granted, I have no idea what a modern pair of snowshoes looks like, but I assume still tennis rackets...
No phone here, but I have that weather link on this desk top.
I know "desk top", let me look that word up to know what it means. :D
Just like now temp is in the double digits minus but by noon 10°
One foot (nearly) in front of the other. :D
Actually I had to think about that for a minute. I've been using 'shoes since I was a kid and don't really think about it much. They are just another tool, like good boots. I have 4 different pairs, Tubbs Adirondacks (that are older than dirt, probably 1940's or earlier), Tubbs modified Bearpaws, (both of these are leather and wood), a pair of less expensive Yukon Charlies (aluminum and plastic), and a pair of camp snowshoes (all plastic, no hinge).
I used the Charlies yesterday because the snow wasn't very deep, but it was ice underneath and those shoes have big claw crampons on the bottom which kept me upright on the steep downhills. They are only about 10" wide and would be good beginner shoes because you don't have to think too much about what you are doing. A slighter wider gait is all you need. Of course if you are climbing or turning and you get a tail of one shoe over the tip of the other, you will go down. I was reminded of this last point only once during my walk. ;D Usually once is enough, some folks need more 'encouragement'
It wasn't long ago I could easily jog along in them, but those days are over, I just don't want to risk breaking my face anymore or something important. They are very easy to walk with and it's only when the snow gets very deep that you have to develop better skills. That's when I switch to the Adirondack's with better floatation, but they are much longer and heavier, and have bindings that allow the foot to twist a little, so your form has to be quite good and turning requires a 'plan'.
It was just a very nice day for a walk and I spent more time looking at critter tracks than anything else, which was likely the real reason I went on down there in the first place, checking the traffic. I can report that it is way down right now. I did put a little bit of a 'burn' into my thighs when climbing back up the hill, which I suppose is good too.
Thecafrm, the temp here wasn't bad overnight, just -2° and it has already popped up to 0.5°, so we are going the right way. :D
Catching up here. Last Friday I went down to Bill's shop to work a little. It was a cold day and they were changing out tires and rims for the logging truck in the morning. I ran the chipper blade sharpener and did a couple of sets before lunch. The we went out for a leisurely lunch plowing out a couple of air B&B driveways along the way for the weekend visitors. After lunch they headed up the line to do the finish work on a new well and water line installation they had dug in the day before. I stopped to check my shop stove on the way back and never got back to Bill's, I succumbed to a nap and household chores.
Saturday we had that snow and it was right cold with the wind. So I cleaned it (the snow) up and spent a bunch of time reading here on the FF and doing some chores. I also worked on my notes for the radio gig this week. In the evening I went out to tend the shop stove and found the last load I put in never 'took' ad I had a stove full of cold wood. It was 38° in the shop. SO I re-started it, and it burned as it should through the night and burned out. I stayed up way too late that night following up on all the advice I was offered on another thread.
Sunday morning I slept through until 9am! That's rare, but being so cold I guess my body was in no hurry to get up and I probably needed the sleep anyway. It was a pretty day, still breezy and a healthy wind chill. More reading and thinking. We need to go fetch Bill's resaw from WM in Hannibal at 'some point' (between now and April) and with my interest in purchasing some calks and learning there are 2 logging suppliers just a few minutes off the route between here and Hannibal, I started laying out the trip to see what the driving time was. Looks like between 8 and 9 hours driving but the logging shops are only 2 hours from here. SO either we leave late (6am) so we can hit those shops when they open, or we leave earlier (4am) and hope we can hit them before they close on the way back. Wednesday and Thursday it is supposed to hit low 40's and steady rain on Thursday (so far). That would mean a good day for the drive. No snow to plow, and water and septic system emergencies are likely to be a low risk (two things that jerk Bill in different directions through the winter). With the rain, doing outside work won't be very appealing. Bill just has to set his guys up with a load of shop work. We'll just watch the weather and workload and see if we can pull it off. Last night I took the wife out for dinner and my son and his wolf pack joined us. :D
Another thing on my mind is getting these mushroom logs started. 40 logs I could likely do in a day, but 100 would take two or maybe 3 days, given conditions. We dodged a bullet with this last storm and are holding with about 10-12" of snow pack in the woods, but it's still fairly cold for an old guy. So I am pushing myself to start today and see if I can get lucky. It's 5° right now, but should hit almost mid 20's by this afternoon. That would give me today, tomorrow, and part of Wednesday. I have to quit early on Wednesday to change into street clothes and make the hour drive out for the radio gig at 5pm, then another 20 minute drive to the studio with the crew. I guess I will just throw some extra clothes in the machine today so I can change off until I find what works best and see how it goes. Gotta start somewhere, right? Besides the late week rain, we have no real weather coming in but we will got back to near or below zero temps on the weekend followed by some slight moderation next week Monday- Wednesday. So I am figuring that for my backup window if I flop this week. First order of the year and I want to see how the trees are and if I can find all the ones we had flagged. That would be helpful. ;D
Time to get my butt in gear here.
Tom,
I am glad you took the extra time to change out of your work clothes into your casual attire before doing your radio gig. I am sure all your listeners noted and appreciated it too. :D
My wife is forever chastising me for wearing a pair of old patched jeans or ragged shirt to the local hardware store to get a bolt or spare part so I have to come in and change clothes, run down and get the part then come back and change clothes again to go put it on or make the repairs.
(Actually the guys at the radio station might not have been too thrilled if they'd had to sweep and mop up a bunch of sawdust and mud after you left.)
Well Howard, it's not the appearance of the clothes that is the issue, it is the quantity. This morning when I left for the woods I was wearing:
Wool blend socks, Military cold weather boots with quilted booties, carhartt flannel lined carpenters jeans, carhartt quilted lined bib overalls, a thermal undershirt, heavy flannel shirt, a hooded sweatshirt, and a quilted glow in the dark winter work jacket. On my head I had a stretch cap under my hard hat. I wore wool fallers gloves under my gauntlet leather work gloves.
It was about 7 degrees when I left and 12 by the time I stepped into the snow to cut my first tree. The jacket came off first followed by the stretch cap a little later. The gloves got changed out as they became soaking wet with snowmelt. High for the day while I was out there hit about 22°.
Sitting in a heated studio dressed like that would be extremely uncomfortable. The other fellas will likely be wearing whatever work clothes they have on that day and that's fine. It's not a fashion thing, it's a comfort thing. Right now both sets of carhartt's are drying out as they are soaked through 10" up from the cuffs, as are a few pairs of gloves and my boots.
If it weren't for patched jeans I wouldn't have anything to wear, my wife patches everything and I have jeans older than my kids, some are pretty bad. I recently took hold of my own destiny (DO NOT tell my wife) and ordered two pairs of double front loggers jeans which each currently have only 1 wearing so are brand new. She thinks this is specialty clothing and I can take care of it. The truth is, I am just tired of these cheap jeans that last less than a year before they require reconstructive surgery(the crotches wear out in the same place on ALL of them and it's an embarrassing place to have a patch, especially round ones). The loggers jeans don't fit like nice Levi's boot cut jeans, but they don't cost 60 bucks and they last a lot longer. They just make my butt look big, is all. ;D They have no sap stains, glue remnants, or anything else so they look like new and should be suitable for church. They just aren't lined.
Anyway, that's my story and I am sticking to it.
i love those jeans and have a few pair of the thin knee pads to integrate into them. i have one pair with the suspender buttons, and a great pair of suspenders from the great logger @Skeans1 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=37446)
OH, I get buttons on all mine. If I can't, I put them on when they get here, I have a bag full. :D I have a mess of clip suspenders but only two pair of button types and one of those is on the short side, I made extensions. I will be building that collection to build out the wardrobe. I am not looking for the 'celebrity' collector series you seem to have started, but I would like some options.
I don't wear suspenders for everyday, but I need them when I am working because pants seem to be overly affected by gravity when I work and that's how I rip crotches or hurt myself. Although I must admit, those Woodmizer suspenders I won at The Pig Roast are particularly snazzy, very useful while milling, and seem to attract the fairer sex. Or perhaps that's just my imagination? Anyway, the clips on those do NOT slip like some others do and I am extremely pleased with them because they are a heavier elastic material which only 'gives' when it really needs to. Some others slip off too easy and are flimsy to where I am constantly adjusting them. I hate that.
OG just a thought on those mushroom bolts. Have you ever used a jet sled (think ice fishing)? Might be easier to move a bunch around versus carrying them?
I've used them multiple times for some real oddball heavy stuff with great success.
The weak point on them is where the rope handle passes through and knots on itself. A piece of scrap wood on the under side with the rope going through it and the sled solves that.
If you pull that out you're getting way to much traction with those soon to be new caulkers.
got a pic of a jet sled? might need one in a few days. :snowball:
Unfortunately I do not. I'd post a link but have not figured that one out yet, strictly my own shortcomings not the forums fault at all.
Yeah, that jet sled is nice and were I back in my Scouting days I might have grabbed one. I see they come in several sizes. We just made sledges for dragging gear using two old skis and rough cut lumber.. In fact I just broke up the rotten wood on the last two I built this past fall, but I saved the skis. HERE is the Jet sled link you asked for. (https://www.eagleclaw.com/ice/shappell-jet-sleds)
In this case though its more than I need. I think the reality of the one 'long carry' I had today was more like 60' which is really nothing. I could have dropped it and come back later with the winch to yank it to the track, but really just easier to do it and be done, then move on. See if you can figure how long it was, but really not bad at all.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220131_122339668.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643675166)
It was fairly cold today (5° at 7am and roughly 12-15° by 10am) but not really bad when you are working. A little problem with my right foot, but I was a happy guy making some headway.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220131_122321077.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643675160)
I will say it was dicey getting in and out, even with the studded snows. If I got out of the track I was in trouble, never got stuck, but had some close ones going sideways. Running up the speed increased the hazard, so I just poked along taking my time and even then I slipped out of the track from time to time and had to think fast. Not a bad little machine though.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220131_122251222.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643675162)
I did two trips in and out and pulled 35 logs, but some will go as 'extras' because the quality isn't quite there. I thought we had a lot more trees marked, but finding them is tough or I have already cut them all? I think I only have 2 left and need a bunch more. This is not a good time to mark trees and it will go very slow if I have to. Much faster when the leaves are out. The criteria is too picky for winter work.
Anyhow, A pretty good day out in the bright crisp air and sunshine. I did manage to rock the chain slightly on my new 562, glad I had the 450 to switch over to and finish up. Apparently I have to clear more snow away from where I am cutting, but it's everywhere. :D Call it a brain fart.
I had a nice lunch out in the woods, but I was tired when I quit. I staged the logs where I can load them on the trailer and grabbed a load of slabs at the mill to bring up to the OWB (why waste a trip?). Tonight I am trying to dry out all my clothes either from snow or sweat, and I did my first pass on sharpening that XCut chain. Lets see how that works tomorrow.
I am sure we marked more trees, I will have to walk some other areas tomorrow where I think they may be. For those we might need to run a cable and winch them out. I think there will be minimal damage with the snow and ice and the bark is holding really tight right now. ;D
Tomorrow is another day, right?
That Tool Cat looks like it's the cats "meow".
At least for mushroom logging. :)
On dry or muddy ground, it works super. In 12" of snow, we are pushing the limit. Better now then when it had the hard skid steer tires on it, then it would just wallow and spin the tires. It's a 6,000# machine.
Tom,
Remember the proper term is "Cerebral flatulence". ;)
So noted, I stand corrected.
Well, catching up here a little. I left you off on Monday when I pulled 25 logs to the landing. Tuesday was just perfectly gorgeous weather wise and I am sorry I didn't pack a lunch and a stool or something to sit on and enjoy the day. I can't think of a nicer day in fact, crisp temps, bright sun, and fluffy snow. I did get the toolcat bogged a couple of times, but I wormed my way out and muddled on. I pulled 35 logs that day. The sun did make it just a tad mushy and I was getting concerned about getting around further into the afternoon.
Wednesday I brought my trailer down and loaded all the logs I had piled, plus another 35 or so. Then I had to head home and put on DRY clothes and go do that show. Between getting home and leaving I got a call from a local logger doing a land clearing job for a house and he dropped some beautiful white oaks. He was thinking of me and rather than skid them out, he picked them up with the excavator and placed them where they were out of the way and I could take the topwood for mushroom logs. He asked me to come by and see if I wanted it. So I ran over there quick and sure yeah, I ant them. That would finish off my order and then some.
SO today I overslept again after staying up too late last night trying to negotiate a truce that didn't happen. It was raining lightly and I figured I had better get my trailer out of there before the road turned to ice. Well I had no trouble getting in, but the mud had thawed a little and the trailer jack settled in and would not get it high enough to clear the ball on my truck. So I hiked up the hill fetched the toolcat, drove it down and lifted the trailer onto the ball. Then I drove the truck out, walked back and drove the toolcat up to the shop, walked back down and took the trailer home, then headed over to the clearing job and cut top wood. I worked at the until I filled the order at least and then the rain got steady and I was getting soaked. Ever notice how you can't even tell it's raining if you have on a hard hat and ear plugs? ;D My only indication was a soaking wet jacket.
I knew the guys were having lunch at a local watering hole/pulled pork joint, so I joined them for a bit and had a burger and beer. I was done with work for the day anyway, they had a long way to go yet. While I am waiting for my food, I check my voicemails and I have one from a gal at a farm on Long Island who wants to buy mushroom logs. SO when I got home and returned her call. She wants 60 logs and will come pick them up with the farm truck. Sounds good to me. I gave her all the pricing info and discussed the basics. Now I am just waiting for a confirmation before I start on that order. Last year I had to work really hard to sell 100 logs in the winter and that one order didn't come in until mid-March. This year I haven't lifted a finger and they are coming out of nowhere. I am running out of marked trees much faster than I thought.
Tomorrow is the monthly Chiro tuneup and I have some things he can work on, but no real issues, which is good considering all the logs I have been moving. Anyway, the day is shot unless that first order client comes for his pickup, which I doubt. The weather looks pretty miserable anyway.
We will figure out what we are doing tomorrow when we get there.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220203_115031996.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1643928600)
Good job on the shroom logs, Tom, you are the market for them!
I hope you guys up there are making it through the storm ok!
funny you should mention it. Bill and I have received confidential super-secret information :o that Tom is without power and working to clear his drive and road, and working to keep his phone charged, working to keep wood heat going for the house and shop. It will be good to hear from him, hopefully soon
Well your intelligence is correct. 13 hours out now. I am not a generator nut. If it gets bad, I will dig mine out....tomorrow. I miss the forum most of all. Heat is ok. Tree damage is everywhere and we still have some state roads closed due to trees. Even the local cell tower is running on backup power so the signal is barely there. So keeping this short. Anxious to clear the tree off my garage tomorrow and see what damage I have. Some neighbors in worse shape.bthe power line job we did about 6 weeks ago needs to be done again tomorrow, but no pole this time. Just splice and rehang. Bucket truck job.
Iwe ain't dead yet. More when I get power back and I have a few photos. Tree tops snapping every 20 seconds or so this morning. It was like being stuck down range during a turkey shoot. Not fun. I put my hard hat on when I step out the door. No mail today either. Whimps. :D
Later folks.
Stay warm the mess will be there tomorrow.
What was that statement (Actually I heard the same thing from my secretary in Norway in 2007) "There is no bad weather, just bad clothes."
Sounds like you need an insulated or battery heated suit of armor to be walking around. If you'd like Doc, and Nebraska and a couple of us can work on designing you one. ;D
Stay safe. Sorry for the hassle. I hope you don't get so snowed in you have to start burning the mushroom logs for firewood. ::) Keep us posted when you can.
Watch that WV Sawmiller. He would burn those mushroom logs in a heartbeat.
Hope your power comes back sooner than later, Tom. I hate being out of power. At least sometimes in the winter when the power is out you can just put food outside to keep it cold. We've done that before.
I'm hopeful that the tractor is going to start tomorrow. I put the battery on charge all evening and when I went out to unplug I gave the key a turn and it turned over.
Well short reply here. They apparently are a bit behind the curve on this one and updated our restoration time to 8 pm tomorrow night. I don't see any of the outages being cleared from their map all day, just adding more. Looks like I wlll have to go to defcon level two tomorrow and tend the stove in 3 hour shifts tonight to keep the heat up. Sunday night into Monday morning they are calling for 2°. Tonight just around 12° I think.
This is getting old fast. I got work to do.
OK, I will try to get caught up here as best I can, it's been a rough few days. Not a lot of fun mixed in either, but nobody got hurt (that I know of), so all good I guess.
The Ice storm came in overnight on Thursday and we lost power at 5:55 Friday morning. No big deal, but ice storms can get real ugly with very little actual precipitation coming down. Such it was with this storm. By daylight we already had 1/4" of ice buildup on everything. Tree tops breaking out all over. It sounded like somebody was trying to use up all their ammo. Every 20 seconds or so I would hear another one let go and many were way too close. I took to wearing my hard hat anytime I went out. It started out small:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220204_085451647.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644242885)
Little healthy branches down like that all over the place by the thousands. The fact that they were healthy and live was concerning. While I was out in the shop I would hear bigger tops or trees dropping within 100' of the shop. I just missed seeing this one come down by seconds, and believe me, I heard it. About 18" DBH.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220204_103127096.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644242582)
That clobbered my garage roof fairly well, to the point I still (3 days later) can't tell if there is real damage or not. It clobbered the chain link fence bending the top rail into an "S" and covered the roof and punched a few small holes through the siding. Saturday afternoon I could finally get in there to take the weight off the roof, but all the branches are frozen in, so I can't pull them out until it thaws... a lot. The ice load is heavy. That Red Oak also took out 3 other trees on the way down and the ONLY Cherry tree I had on my property. Snapped it right in half 8' above the stump. Firewood now. My neighbor next door (who owns the tree that hit my garage, I think) had one come down, just nicked the rain gutter on the corner of her house and ripped her service connection off the house. I helped Bill cleanup that mess to get her ready for a re-hook.
Then I had this red Oak leader come down on my drying rack and snapped the ridge beam into pieces. If that had been a hard roof it still would have been creamed.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220204_130751254.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644242577)
Being out in it you couldn't go a full minute without hearing a top breakout somewhere and your head was on a swivel trying to figure out where it was and how close. Nasty nasty stuff.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220204_072711903.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644242571)
The power company got caught with their pants down and did not get mutual aid trucks on the road as early as they should have. Plus, there was a lot of equipment damaged beyond just coming down. Add to that all the trees that needed to be cleared before they could start putting things back up, and they really got very little fixed in the first 24 hours. They had us scheduled to get power back by noon Saturday, then they pushed that out to noon Monday. 50,000 customers out in our county and by Saturday night they only had 6,000 back online. Not normal at all, but this was unusual.
Feeding woodstoves to try and heat the whole house was getting old by Sunday morning. Bedrooms were down in the 50's, the fridge was warming up. I slept down by the woodstove on the floor Saturday night so I could keep it rolling through the night. We cooked a nice steak on the shop stove Saturday night, and that was very fine.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220205_164558076.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644242588)
I took to filling buckets with snow and melting it on the stove for flushing toilets. As long as I had a bucket full of snow it doubled as a cooler. It was way too cold to leave beer outside, it froze solid in 15 minutes. Temp Sunday morning was 2° and it stayed well below 20 until Sunday afternoon.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220204_205429171.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1644242582)
:) But the fun was quickly waning away. ;D
By Sunday morning, it was time to kick it up a notch. My son came over Saturday afternoon and dug out the generator and took it to his place and ran the 2 fridges over there. He had lots of clients who left their houses to go back to the city and some had flooded basements and sub-freezing temps inside and they were unable to help themselves. They just 'call the guy'. Sunday morning he went to Lowes as they had just gotten a load of generators in, he bought 2, brought them here and we put them together and fired them up. He left one with us which we dead bugged into the oil burner, plugged in the fridge, and charged some cell phones. Then later I thought to plug in the blower on the woodstove and that made a huge difference, duh. He took the other generator and started warming up clients houses. Hop-scotching them around. Around 6pm he came back and got ours and moved it to an elderly clients place. We went out for a hot meal at the local watering hole and ran into a lot of friends and neighbors, so we got some good visiting in. When we got home, the lights were on. So I cleaned up all the extension cords, rewired the burner back to the house and got that running and filled both wood stoves and went to bed. Long 3 days. Not complaining, a lot of other folks got hit worse and still are without power, but that number is quickly coming down now.
My wife and I were trying to recall when we had ever had a winter storm taking out power for that long in the 35 years we've been here. We could not. This one pushed it about as far as I would like to go. I don't want to have to go nuts investing time and money into avoiding a little discomfort. But if we get another one like this, I will start thinking about it. My son is out at it again this morning and he just texted me a photo of a very nice bathroom with the water in the toilet frozen solid. Looks like he has work going into the future.
My neighbor across the road made it sound like they were having a tough time without the internet (whole house generator), but then when his genset blew up on Saturday morning it all looked different to him. He lasted to Sunday, then bailed out to the city and called my son for his generator to run his heat.
It's tough all over. I gotta get some work done. Later folks.
Any update from our favorite sawdust covered ice cube up in NY? Do we need to send firewood? Here's hoping all is well. We do care.
UMMM yeah, Read back a little.
Don't get your G-string in a wad there! I was just thinking of you and as I was typing my query you posted your update. Check the posting times if you like. :D
Looks like a real mess. Sorry couldn't be there to help but I am glad nobody was hurt. The ice storms are what really make a mess. The cable guys come around here with long poles and beat on the lines and try to break off as much ice as they can to help keep them from breaking from the weight. Often the lines sag to the top of the bushes.
Around here the locust trees are shallow rooted and when they get ice after several days of slow soaking rain that has already softened the ground they fall and since they are on the steep hillsides, when they fall they are like dominoes and take 2-3 more with them which in turn takes 5-6 more. I've seen whole hillsides come down in it.
Our poplars and maples and such do like yours did and the tops and limbs break off.
I had a big/42" WO fork fall across my concrete goat barn (It started life as a milking shed). I had to brace it with locust fence posts and poles to keep the weight from collapsing it as I cut it off in pieces. Some of your tops and limbs look like they may need the same kind of support when you cut them.
Stay careful and don't overdo it. Keep up posted.
Goo OGH! I was hoping it wasn't going to be that bad, but I'm happy to hear y'all are safe.
I've been through a couple good ice storms, once as a home owner, many years back, and I don't know that I've ever been as anxious as hearing many of the trees breaking apart in my older neighborhood, where lots of pretty big trees sat right over the tops of houses. I remember going out and trying to map where each tree in the yard would likely fall, if it did, and if I needed to adjust where anyone in the family was sleeping, in case one let loose. We ended up being about the only house in the neighborhood that didn't have any major breakage. Quite scary and I know exactly the noises you are talking about.
Take care man and good luck with the clean-up.
Yeah, after cleaning up after a few hurricanes and ice storms I make sure never to plant a tree close enough to the house that it can fall on my house. I might plant a dogwood or redbud that would never get big enough to fall on the house but nothing bigger.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on February 07, 2022, 10:39:57 AM
Don't get your G-string in a wad there! I was just thinking of you and as I was typing my query you posted your update. Check the posting times if you like. :D.......................
Geez, a tad bit testy there WV? Sleep on the wrong side of the bed last nigh or something? Which G-string are you referring to? The 4th string on my banjo, or the high G, 5th string? I wouldn't know how to get it bunched up anyway, it's hard enough trying to coil those things up.
I just came in from a walkabout, Now that it is finally warming a little (30° now), we are getting that second wave of tops breaking loose as the hangers on melt loose and fall. It's another hardhat day. I was standing in the road talking to a power company line surveyor looking for anything they missed and a silent branch landed 5 feet from us. Stuff like this is never fun.
I remain pretty tired after the long hours over 3 days. Gonna go slow today. I did manage to have that first mushroom order picked up Saturday around mid-day and while they were here they also bought one of those log drilling fixtures I made, so now I have to make 2 more. The couple of SGU's I collected came in handy for the extra expenses incurred since Friday. I have the next order to get done and I don't think I will get it all out with the trees I have here, but I need to get started, it's Monday already. Geez.
Tom,
You know I don't sleep at all.
Can you salvage some mushroom logs from the tops and limbs of the neighborhood trees or are they suitable? You might be sitting in the middle of a gold mine here. Collect a clean up fee then sell the logs. Then again, I highly suspect most of your clean up has been free/community service/good neighbor work anyway. Stay safe.
We've had a few ice storms recently, kinda unusual for the Prairies.
The damage gives rise to a huge supply of downed trees.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/19307/20191011_123110.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1571591290)
Something to watch out for, You'll probably get a bunch of logs that look like this on the inside.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/19307/20191018_125014.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1571592080)
There's no joy in trying to mill this stuff, it really just wants a quick trip to the firewood shed.
Well thanks for the reminder. Lots of this stuff is already splintered, but I should keep my eyes open as I go.
I am starting to head your advice from yesterday a little more. I went out at noon to try and get more cut up, but so much stuff is coming down yet, it's just crazy and the risk isn't worth it. SO I switched to just cleaning some of the junk and burning up a bunch of cardboard boxes. One of the grandsons came out to help. But at 5 years old, he doesn't understand why he can't walk under the trees. When I tell him to move quick when I see or hear something, he doesn't. He thought I was yelling at him because I was mad and he would just shut down. Of course I wasn't and we had a talk so I could explain why we need to be safe and it was my job to keep him that way. Finally we decided together it was time to come in and be safe.
It's only just 34° here now and there are tons of ice up on the trees yet. I am letting it go another day. It's pretty miserable out there. Overcast, feels like rain, some snow falling, very damp, maybe some rain, but hard to tell between that and trees dripping. We have the 3 grandsons anyway, and that is a distraction enough. Schools are still closed. The work will get done when it gets done.
At least there are still no mosquitoes and the pollen count is really low too. ;D Tomorrow is another day.
Got any electric juice flowing yet? I'd send a couple buckets of electricity up there but shipping's complicated. :D
Yeah, last evening it came back.
Good deal, looks like a dang mess.
Glad nobody was hurt. Maybe it'll give you a jump on next year's firewood, so you won't be behind then .😂 Whatever you do , keep your wits about you and stay safe.
Yeah, there are a lot of homes with lasting damage around here mostly because the owners did not have any basic plan in place to mitigate the issues and slow it down. They lack an understanding of what needs to be done in such situations to stretch out the time you have before damage begins to occur. My son was trying to work on one house with no power or heat, the owner just left. He found 2 windows open on the house. Another place, the back door was not fully closed. Nothing drained and their woodpiles were just face cords for the weekend renters and such. Another house they had closed all the doors to the heated outside porch, separating it from the woodstove heated main living area and freezing all the heating pipes out there. Still trying to thaw those 2 days after the power came back on. I would feel sorry for them, but these are the same folks who 'don't want to spend the money' to order firewood, keep their big gensets serviced, and fix air leaks in windows, door, or walls and attics. So the reality is, from my view, that they chose their fate. They have the money and resources to prevent or fix these issues while folks who lack those resources do everything they can with what they have and somehow get through it in relatively good shape. Some say they are 'just luckier' but I know they earned it by working hard at it.
Anyway, yeah, since it was another lost day yesterday I have been thinking how to handle the wood in the interim. I think I will just try to get the brush piled off to the side as best I can, take what mushroom logs I can and get them out and on the sale pile, and buck the rest into firewood and leave it lay in the general area. It's much easier to run around with the Mule and collect it when the ground is firm and the snow is gone, or mostly. Very little melting yesterday, wires and trees are still ice covered, no sun to speak of, so it is still rough going. Only hit 33 yesterday, went to 31 overnight and refroze what melted, so I hear the Emergency services and DOT trucks are busy this morning sanding and salting bad spots and higher passes. Schools should open today after a 2 hour delay. We were supposed to get mostly sun today, but I haven't seen it yet.
I am slowly starting to accept that if it is too tough to break this stuff out of the ice, I should just let it go for a few more days or weeks until that is no longer an issue. Trudging around in this frozen snow just takes a lot out of a person. But I have 60 logs due for pickup in 7 days and I am not sure if I can pull that off in these conditions. I have a little over 10 on the trailer at this point. My energy levels are still on the low side but I have been getting good sleep and not staying up late (what's the point?).
One day at a time.
Can you salvage any of the tops and limbs and such for mushroom logs?
That's part of the plan. It's impossible to judge, given the amount of fractured wood that I can't see, but maybe I can hope to have 25 or 30 logs on the trailer out of what I have on the ground.
I just did my morning walkabout and 5 days after the storm we still have most of the ice up in the trees. New (smaller) branches coming down all the time and ice pieces falling at a constant rate like rain. I got beaned twice going out for the mail with little stuff. I know the drill, this isn't my first rodeo with ice storms, I just have to wait, but patience is not one of my better virtues. The clock is ticking on my delivery.
So I am enjoying watching the 20K men's biathlon today as a distraction. My copy of the Smithsonian Mushroom book arrived today, so I can do some more studying today too between staring at the dang thermometer. (It's 33.6 now.)
Does a mushroom log have to be completely solid or can you get by with a partial crack? It would seem a small crack partway through would not matter as long the log would hold together.
Someone earlier posted about how the wood can be splintered when sawed after storms like that. I sawed a big WO fork that fell in Superstorm Sandy and I only got about 100 bf of usable lumber out of an 8' long, 42" diameter log. I had to chainsaw the log in two to fit the mill. It definitely was not worth the effort.
Well it's certainly not like lumber grading, there is more latitude and judgement involved. They don't need to be perfect clean straight wood. But the bark should be intact without open wounds or very small ones. End splits of an inch or three might be OK. Brach cuts and things of that sort can be 'repaired' by waxing over. The goal is to prevent unwanted spores and bacteria getting a foothold in the log before the desired ones get going and can dominate.
Also, EVERY single buyer is different in what they will accept. I see the experienced farm growers who know exactly what they want and what they will take, and the newbies who admit they really have no clue, so I throw in some free education as I can. I always have extras so they can discard ones they may not like and substitute what they see as better logs. Every buyer seems surprised and pleased by this and I get the clear feeling it makes them enjoy buying from me because they can 'adjust' the log types as they pick them up. Kind of like looking for steaks with the 'best' marbling or whatever it is you prefer.
Ironically, my regular monthly buyer is the least picky and loves everything I give him. He often takes logs I would discard as firewood. But he has been growing a long time and knows he can get mushrooms out of a lot of stuff others can't. He also knows many of his workshop clients prefer to take smaller logs home that they can fit in their little electric cars. :D
Temp is 34.7 now and the ice is beginning to fall fairly regularly now. Still no full sunlight, that will really get it going.
Thanks for the info.
I do the same sort of thing and typically throw an extra board or two on the stack and the customers are happy. I can throw in a short board or two I would just use for projects or such and if they later find a defect in one of their other boards they still figure they got their money's worth.
Stay warm. Its in the 40's think I'll mosey out and feed the horse and see if Sampson and I can chase down Fox squirrel or two for a guy to mount up in Michigan. I never tried shipping frozen rodents before.
I've heard of shipping tails, but never the whole squirrel... ???
Do you have a vacuum sealer? I'd stick him/her in that, then deep freeze and wrap in foam wrap and Styrofoam. I bet if you do it wrong, however you do it, you will find out. :D ;D
I just came in from my 3rd walkabout. Ice has stopped falling and the temp is coming down again (33 now). I pulled out a half dozen logs I managed to cut the other day. I tried to get an estimate on what I can expect. Maybe 20 more logs up to 8" diameter. It's driving me crazy to sit in the house all day. Tomorrow is gonna be a better day, I just decided.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on February 08, 2022, 09:16:54 AM. . . slowly starting to accept that if it is too tough to break this stuff out of the ice, I should just let it go for a few . . .
That's it right there.
Once you accept that we aren't in charge, we learn to work when we can, and to get ready for work when we can't.
Late last week the temps were at -45F. Today, my three year old grandson was in the buddy seat of my loader, while scraping snow off gravel roads at 37F. His job was to operate the wiper switch because it was pouring rain. The weather was just too weird to describe.
Todays fun made me flashback to my time on an icebreaker in Canada's high Arctic. A Russian climate researcher from Moscow said: "Andries, get ready for for extreme wariables in conditions for where you live."
He had given me an accurate prediction twenty years ago . . . the puzzle is, how in the world do you get ready for these extremes?
well, I think frozen if preferred over raw. :D :D :D. i have sent off a few foxes. do you not skin them and gut them? the two foxes were nearly dry after long time frozen, and I had to invert the ears, and pull the cartilage out. they were tanned for softness, like a coat.
Quote from: Andries on February 08, 2022, 04:43:29 PM. . . the puzzle is, how in the world do you get ready for these extremes?
Well in my experience, you can only have the tools and clothing available and then decide and adjust on a hourly or daily basis. In this case I realized I was outgunned. There is no hardhat available with a full forestry package. ;D
Normally it would be easy to just lay back and wait, but I have a deadline of next Tuesday on this log order and not getting on it NOW is driving me crazy. (Short trip, though it is.) I can't even mark the bucking lengths with a lumber crayon because they don't make a mark on ice. In fact, nothing does. If anyone has ideas on that, I'm all ears (paint is unacceptable). :D
On that other thing Doc, yeah, frozen at least gives you a decent lead time. :D
OG, where is the client coming from? they may be in the same shape as you. i hate for you to bust your hump, to have them call up the day of to tell you there is no way they can make it that day. you might touch base, and let them know the reality on the ground. If you want to get to work with the ice, can you poke the cut line with a picaroon and just fracture the ice as a mark, or use a measure stick. some have them mounted or magnetically to the side of the bar, but 3 feet is a long stick.
let them know you have kept them refrigerated to preserve the freshness. :)
QuoteI can't even mark the bucking lengths
Hatchet makes a mark.
Post Office Guy, "Sir, is there anything hazardous or flammable in the package?"
Howard...."No Sir, it is a dead frozen fox squirrel."
Yeah, a hatchet will make a mark, but I can't lose any more bark than I need for the cut. A pickeroon [note to administrators: "Pickeroon" is not a recognized word in the spell check] would scratch a mark, but it's another tool to pick up and put down (same with the hatchet, which I call a hand ax :)). But that measuring stick idea might have legs, during dry weather, that is a pain to pick up off the ground all the time for each cut, but in this 'climate' I just stick in in the snow between cuts. I believe I will give that a try. I wonder where I can find plans for such a thing? ;D These logs are 40" long. Putting a bar on the saw is also a non-starter because I am basically cutting out of a tangled brush pile. It's a messy tangle, which is part of the safety problem, finding places to put my feet as well as keeping track of where my feet are. Easy to loose track under the snow and that happened to me a couple of times last week. I really don't want to test the cut proof qualities of my boots. ;D
Quote from: WDH on February 08, 2022, 05:29:59 PM
Post Office Guy, "Sir, is there anything hazardous or flammable in the package?"
Howard...."No Sir, it is a dead frozen fox squirrel."
I had something similar in my head:
Post Office Person: "Is there anything dangerous in this package?"
Howard: "Nope, It's dead."
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on February 08, 2022, 06:10:30 PM
Quote from: WDH on February 08, 2022, 05:29:59 PM
Post Office Guy, "Sir, is there anything hazardous or flammable in the package?"
Howard...."No Sir, it is a dead frozen fox squirrel."
I had something similar in my head:
Post Office Person: "Is there anything dangerous in this package?"
Howard: "Nope, It's dead."
AH, let me rephrase that:
Howard: "Nope, it's dead. But did you know there is a species of Squirrel's in southern New Guinea that ....."
Moot point. It was too windy and the squirrels were evidently in their den holes. I spotted several den trees that looked active but did not see a squirrel. Sampson had a great time smelling the deer and turkey tracks. I have till the end of the month before our small game season goes out.
I like the idea of the vacuum sealer and may try that. If you read of my demise or divorce you will know my wife did not think it was such a great idea.
The guy wants them for taxidermy. I think I read in some cases they boil and use the skulls as part of the mount and I am sure he is pretty meticulous about the skinning to minimize the incision so he can hide it better in the process.
I take Dupixient for a contact dermatitis and it comes in s styrofoam container with frozen gel inside. I figure that will be about a perfect fit to ship a pair of squirrels.
Danny,
It will be an interesting conversation but this is WV so should not be a problem. I shipped 2 boards to TN a few weeks ago by UPS and took them to our local drug store who handles such for us. I had shrink wrapped the 2 together and took them in and the lady weighed them then asked "What's in it." I told to look again. It was clear and obvious what was there. She said "Oh yeah" and shipped them.
On the frozen rodents when my son was 9-10 y/o we bought him a hamster from our local K-mart. It had a one week live warranty but it died a couple days later. My wife called and they said just stick it in the fridge or freezer and bring it in the next time she was coming by the store. She put him in a ziplock bag and froze him. A few days later she was going to town and took him out but when she got to the car she remembered she had left her purse or something so she laid him on top of the car over the door, went back in the house, came back and drove off forgetting about the hamster. A couple miles down the road she remembered and got out but he had blown off. She was in our subdivision with little traffic so she turned around and went back looking. She found him but the only car to pass had run over him. She stopped and picked him up and drove to K-Mart and walked to the pet department and told the guy "My hamster died. I want a replacement." The guy looked at this flat, frozen hamster sealed in a ziplock bag and asked her "What did you do to him lady? Run over him with steam roller or something?" She explained the whole tale and the guy laughed and gave her a replacement.
While I was typing this I see one of the reasons I'm having trouble collecting a pair of fox squirrels.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/IMG_3009.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1644361811)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/IMG_3007.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1644361806)
This guy was sitting on a black locust limb over my pasture gate about 35 yards from my LR window. I have been seeing him up where I feed the horse and near my shooting house where I've been hunting. I'll check on line but I think it is a Cooper's Hawk. I could not see a distinct red-tail for a RT Hawk.
Quote from: doc henderson on February 08, 2022, 05:05:57 PM
OG, where is the client coming from? they may be in the same shape as you. i hate for you to bust your hump, to have them call up the day of to tell you there is no way they can make it that day. .......
Sorry I didn't address this in my last reply. Yes, I did contact the client today to make them aware of my shortcomings. ;D They are on Long Island and largely clueless about weather conditions up here, as was the case here. (We don't make the news down there.) I still expect to make this deadline, but wanted to make them aware anyway, just in case. They are OK with any delays, but would like to know by Friday COB if they can pick up on Tuesday. :D Yeah, that could happen, but I doubt it. There is a point when 'you get what you get' and I can't do any better than that. I will let them know when the logs are 'done' and I won't delay because I have a lot of other work to do.
Howard I am pretty sure those squirrels are more concerned about that hawk, than they are about you and Sampson.
Sorry about your flattened hamster, that is funny though.
Yeah, I forgot where you were. So I revise my quote:
Post person: "Is there anything dangerous in the package?"
Howard: "Nope, it's dead"
Post Person: "Oh, OK, no problem then"
Howard: "But did you know there is a species of squirrel's in......"
You guys are gonna miss me when I'm gone! >:( :( Nobody to pick on any more. It's bad enough you viciously malign me is such fashion but picking on Sampson that way was totally uncalled for! :'(
Its a good thing I am a conscientious, law abiding citizen or the guy in Michigan would be opening his package and finding a big frozen Cooper's Hawk (I checked on line and that does appear to be what he was) instead of a pair of fox squirrels.
For shame Howard. I was not maligning either you or Sampson, simply observing that the hawk (whatever species) was the bigger threat who does not get distracted or take coffee breaks.
Geez you have a thin skin. When I pick on my buddies, I make it clear I am picking on my buddies. :D ;D
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on February 08, 2022, 06:08:12 PM
Yeah, a hatchet will make a mark, but I can't lose any more bark than I need for the cut.
Expected that answer.. lol ::)
Quote from: beenthere on February 08, 2022, 05:06:53 PM
QuoteI can't even mark the bucking lengths
Hatchet makes a mark.
What about a folding camping saw or a sheet rock saw you could place in vest pocket. The sheet rock saw might be like caring an open knife though.
Thats not a bad idea either. I have a folding pruning saw I keep in the Mule for quick trims. First I will try out the stick and see how that works. Then maybe the saw. Thanks!
Well in fact today did turn out to be a much better day. Just a little ice coming down and once in a while it would land squarely on the hard hat and ring out pretty good, but very workable. I managed to get 49 logs out of that tree, by far a new record for a single tree for me. I just need a few more to put me in the comfort zone and I have the top branch that came down and clobbered my drying rack which should cover it. I feel a lot better tonight. At least the customer will get the pick up date they wanted and I can move on. I still have a lot of firewood and maybe a couple of saw logs to cut out of that tree which turned out to be 20" DBH and about 70' high (well, now it's 70' long ;D). I have the logs cued up where I was cutting and tomorrow I have to move them over to the trailer. Most are covered with a lot of ice yet. I'd also like to drag those saw logs out while the ground is still rock hard.
That measuring stick idea is a winner. Worked like a charm! I will have to draw up plans to build a proper one because I just cut one off of a branch to length and I was constantly trying to find it in the slash all around my feet. I need to make it out of some milled material and put some other markings on it for shorter lengths. I had planned to try all 3 suggested methods, but the stick worked so good that I just stuck with it. By the way, I did learn that you can mark lines on ice with a lumber crayon. Who knew? :D
I did most of the cutting with my 450, but then switched over to the new 562 later in the day when I started on the main trunk and parted off the stump from the root ball. It didn't fall back, I think 5 days was enough to freeze it in place. I bet it settles back over time though. That 562 works nicely though and I think I am dialing in the sharpening on that XCut chain too. Much faster than my 450 for sure. :) I don't cut much in ice, but I think it is pretty rough on a chain. I'll have to hit the chain on the 450 in the morning.
I also got a better look at the garage roof after I got all the branches off but the one that is frozen in place. I may have some shingle damage, but the rafters are all intact with no cracks and I see no penetrations. There is still 4" of frozen stuff on top I can't pull off with the roof rake. I'll just have to wait for a full melt, today was a good start on that.
Pretty pooped tonight, but a productive day which felt good.
Tomorrow is another day and I'll stay at it.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on February 09, 2022, 08:40:56 PMparted off the stump from the root ball. It didn't fall back,
Please be sure to keep the grand kids out of that area until it falls back down!
The strength of roofing is pretty amazing. At my old house I had a horse chestnut tree (or buckeye?) that was between the road and sidewalk, which was about 10 feet from the front of my house. The tree had died and filled with honeybees, there was a pretty big hole in the side and who knows how deep, up and down, into the tree the hole was. Well, after I'd moved out, into my current house, and while I was attempting to sell the old house that tree, which was probably in the 30" range, fell over, more or less straight onto the house. A branch poked through the roof in a place or two, through the shingles, but otherwise didn't damage anything more than my wallet, for 900 bucks to have it removed.
Glad to hear your damage isn't bad Tom. And it's pretty sweet you are breaking records on your mushroom logs.
Yes, absolutely LJohn, that root ball is a clear hazard. That's why I did not cut it free until I had somebody here to watch, because they can do funky things. Fortunately it is located in an odd section of the back lot that gets little traffic. (It's a tangle in that area) The boys will heed the warnings. Stuff like that I usually take them over and show it to them and explain the hazard in detail. Most kids just want to 'see it', so I get that out of the way and make it clear what will happen when it comes down. We can make a game out of it and put a marker to watch it's progress coming down. I try to make learning experiences from things like that.
Aigheadish, that one tree was a fluke. I just got lucky it had a lot of leaders because it grew in an overly tight area and had to branch out to survive. I never made note of how many logs per tree, but this I thought exceptional. I did take top wood off of two big RO's that Barge had hand cut last June and I got a lot of logs from them too, but I didn't count them. Those were big trees with lots of clear stem and maybe a few veneer logs, which was why he hand cut them. Maybe 30" DBH? But they shot up and flowered out on top, so not a lot of extra leaders. I was actually surprised at how few logs I pulled from those because the leaders were mostly around 12" diameter (too big).
Yeah, rooves bounce when they can. I was mostly worried about penetrations, but I can see none from the inside. Now it's just a question of if the shingles are damaged, but perhaps the 6" of frozen snow and ice provided a buffer? In total that one tree brought 3 other trees with it (2 EWP's and a Cherry) and there was a lot of topwood on the roof carrying a lot of weight. 6" diameter stuff.
I must have worked harder than I thought yesterday, I slept until 8am and am groggy, achy, and slow starting today. It's 34° now and headed for mid 40's today, so that will help. Time to get at it.
Wow - that's a lot of mushroom logs from one tree! Well done.
Those root balls can do funny things. We had a derecho 8-9 years ago and a neighbor had a big pine that laid over his drive. I bet that root ball was 12-14 ft across. I started bucking the tree from the top in 8-10 ft lengths and about 10' from the base when I cut the log free the last log still attached just stood right back up.
One time I was bucking some big wild cherry trees that had uprooted in a windstorm. I'd cut one about 3' above the ground level. About 30 minutes later while I was talking to the customer, it just stood back up. I have no idea why it took that long to do so.
I had a big basswood fall on the side of the mountain above my shooting house in November 3 years ago. The ground froze hard in February so I started at the top and bucked the tree mostly into 8' logs I could pull out with my ATV. When I got to the butt log there was one more 8' log on the root ball about 36" in diameter or so at the base. I looked at it from every angle and could not figure any likely way to survive bucking that one. The log or the the root ball would almost certainly roll over me and for good measure probably would take out the shooting house which I would no long need anyway since I'd be a greasy spot on the hillside by then. It is still just where it fell and will remain so.
I can see Tom with the grandkids - "Tommy Junior, hold on tight right here while I buck this log off just above you." Wooosh, as the log stands back up with Tom L III hanging on for dear life. "Wow, Grandpa, that was the greatest ride ever. Can we do it again?" "Yes, but don't tell your mom or grandma." :D
so the mushroom logs are 40 inches by your standard? is that how long you made the measuring stick? do you lay it on or just use it near for an educated guess? can you hold it in your l hand while also holding the handle bar and cutting? do you hold it in the middle or on the end near where you will cut? I must know the answers to these questions! 8) 8) 8) :) I use some big box store 1/4 inch fiberglass marking sticks, would that work well?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/63CB66B8-27B8-48EE-BE31-A865B4BA5B6A.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1644522857)
Gee Bryan I can't answer all those questions. I didn't have the money to conduct a full study. Maybe I should start a GoFundMe to raise the funds and hire some researchers? :D
I prefer a plain old stick and if I hit it with the saw, who cares? Today was a tape and crayon day and the stick is still standing up in the snow someplace. ;D I got about 9 logs off the leader that clobbered my drying rack and another 8 or 9 from 'roadkill'. A red oak that dropped across the road and a couple of passers by cut it up and tossed it to the side. I'll take what I can get where I can get it. ;D
I finished the day with 83 logs (or so) on the trailer, so I have the 60 log order done. As requested I will let them know by COB of Friday if they can pick them up on Tuesday. ;D I hope they have a good truck and this gal is in good shape. I am tired of lifting these things. :)
That rootball I cut off yesterday has risen up about 3' and beginning to close up the hole more. It will just take time, and thawing.
Another day pooped out. Tomorrow I will do other stuff. I have to get back to the mill, but I can see my shop chimney needs mid-winter cleaning, so I will likely let it burn out tonight and do that tomorrow on our last warm day in this stretch. It won't break freezing again until next Wednesday. Entering the middle of February I am hopeful for the spring, but know we have had some ripping snow storms storms and blizzards at the end of this month and the beginning of March. So I know we aren't out of the woods yet, but I remain hopeful.
Howard, I don't 'experiment' with my grandsons, but that would be kind of fun. Maybe when they are a bit older.
so how long was the measuring stick?
Tom,
If you don't think they have enough strength to hold on now, maybe you can fabricate a seat belt or such from an old tree service safety harness or such. You may never have another climate event like this when they are older so you have to strike while the iron is hot - or root balls are cold, as appropriate. :D The hard part will be keeping them from telling Mom or Granny about how cool it is to spend time with Grandpa in the woods. ;) It has been my experience the ladies just don't understand how to really help the kids have fun especially outdoors. ::) ;D
Doc, 40", but I cut some logs 36" as I go because I have a regular customer that will take them that length if they are larger diameter. So when I actually 'make' a stick I will cut it at 40" and put lines on it for 36" and 18" (my firewood) and 16" (other peoples firewood).
Howard, not gonna happen, forget it, let it go. I won't deal with the hassles of explaining to a female why 'the kid' got splattered on a tree, no matter how much fun he had. Besides I just checked that stump again and it came up about another foot, so this is doing a very slow return. Not terribly exciting unless you have a time lapse camera on it. I have cut several of these and have yet to see one pop right back, but I remain hopeful. ;D
Tom,
Okay but you're forgetting those kids are from good Norway stock and I doubt they have been "watered down" enough yet that they'd have any problems riding a stump back upright. :D
I remember walking through a local park in Kristiansand Norway down by the river/inlet where the marina was located and there was a big elm tree that had fallen in the edge of the park. The trunk was about 5' in diameter. The park maintenance people had trimmed the small limbs out of it but left the limbs on the top down to about 12" or so which probably had the top a good 15'-20' above ground. They left it laying there in that condition for the kids to play on and it was one of their favorite park features. You'd see 3-4 y/o kids scampering up to the top and having a blast. They would never have left such in a park in the USA for fear some kid would slip and get a bruise and the parents would sue but the Noggies figured it was good exercise and training.
I think it was one of my secretaries who told me along about what would be our middle school age the school had a program where they would take the kids outside and teach them survival techniques such as building a survival shelter by stacking a row of stones to make the sides to a bed, covering it with branches and peat moss to make an insulated survival shelter. People over there were pretty diligent about keeping a shovel, blanket, portable charcoal grill and some food and water in their cars in case they got stuck in the snow somewhere so they could survive till help found them.
Don't ever forget your roots. ;) :D
Well Howard, you are right of course (did I just say that out loud?). I too noticed things over there were 'different' in subtle but important ways. I also noticed children weren't coddled and protected from themselves either. I recall seeing a few little kids, maybe 4 years old, having a ball getting soaked under a public fountain on a street in Bergen just up the hill from the Quay. There were bare assed necked and having a blast. The closest adult was of of earshot. NO CPS was called and life went on.
Yeah the boys would be all for a 'rocket ride' but it just isn't worth the risk, call me an old fuddy duddy. There will be other ways though. Time is my ally. ;D
___________________________
Today was not a good day at all for me. I am not whining, it is what it is and we all get these days. Just not pleased with what went down and how I dealt with it.
Because of the warm temps I decided today was a good day to do the midwinter cleaning job on the shop chimney so last night I put a light load in the stove I knew would be pretty much gone in the morning, then went out early and opened the door to let it burn out.
Taking some sections out, cleaning and putting it back together should have been an hour job, tops. Not today. First I noticed my brush and rods were gone, my son has them, so a snarky text message off to him. Then I take the lower chimney sections out and find that I can see daylight through the seams. That ain't safe and I can't put that back in. SO I call the local supplier I use. He's expensive but local, so I use him. I get a guy on the phone that 'don't know nothin" according to him and can't check stock, says he'll call me back. That was 11:30. At 2:30 I call again, get a different guy. He says "yeah, I know what you need but we got nobody in the warehouse, they are all out on installations. Just give me the descriptions without the part numbers and let me see if I can get something to get you going. I'll call you back." They close at 5, so I called again at 4:50 and get the guy that knows, sort of. He says he can't check the warehouse until the morning, everybody is shot for the day, but he "should' have something to get me running, just come down in the morning, but not when they open, wait a little bit. I explain I spent the whole day waiting for a call back and now lost a day, and he wants me to risk losing tomorrow and Sunday too? He promises we can find something. I hope he's right, but I remain a little ticked off. I get it, their warehouse is 2 miles from their store/office. It's a poor setup but it's a local business with more work than they can handle and now after the ice storm they are clobbered with stupid requests. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those "just open your checkbook" type things, but I want to get it fixed (right) and get back to work. The whole thing threw me off enough that I didn't get anything else accomplished today waiting for return calls I didn't want to miss. I hope tomorrow has a better (if expensive) result. Cold weather comes back Sunday/Monday.
On the other hand I got a call out of the blue from a gal that met me when we were loading the Schooner with logs last summer. She wants logs for a workshop in April, probably about 50. She needs to work out details with her group, but it looks like another order. 3rd one so far without looking for any of them. Maybe I did something right?
I also got word early this morning that they have finally finished the editing on that video they shot last summer. They broke it into a number of videos so that there are separate videos for each stage of the project with an overall summary video heading it off. It is still not released officially to the public, but if they don't answer my question about "when" shortly, I will let you guys get an early view if you have an interest. They write my name as 'Tim' here and there, but whatever. It's not like they said I use a board smoother or something wild like that. :D
I let the current client know their logs are ready for pickup and somehow they just realized a 1/2 ton pickup is not rated to carry 2,700 pounds. :D :D :D Yeah, well that's why I mentioned it a few days ago. ;D So now they may do it in 2 trips. It's a 2.5 hour drive each way, on a good day with no traffic. I know it well. I told them we can load until the truck is 'loaded' then decide. (I was tempted to tell them "drive fast, take chances, it always works for me". :)) Trucks loads are not my problem, they have to decide on that. I don't care either, they can do another run to pick up the rest anytime. I just cut 'em and stack 'em. ;D Learning pains (for them). I routinely deliver 40-50 logs in my half ton without issue, a dozen more wouldn't hurt, right? ;D
Oh, and that stump is now up at about 5 feet from where I cut it and the hole is nearly closed up. Just doing a very slow roll.
Tomorrow is another day, let's see if I can turn it around.
Thats a bummer Tom. It happens to me all the time at the firehouse. I call vendors about parts and equpmment we need and they say I"ll call you back in a bit. I wait all day for a bit and then call back at the end of the day and then am told, "tomorrow". It's very frustrating, especially when the Chief is waiting on me to get something taken care of. I arranged for a construction dumpster to be delivered to our house number 3 so they could clean out a building we bought behind the station. Chief texts me to confirm that it was arranged. I say yes it is taken care of. The next day I find out that the dumpster never was delivered. This week I had re-arranged for the dumpster. I set an alarm on my phone to remind me to call the company on my day off to make sure they delivered. They actually did this time.
When I installed my wood boiler I needed a 4 feet of 8" stove pipe and a tee for the clean out so I asked the stove shop if they had any thing that won't rust out in a few years, he replied that he had stainless chimney liner but it is expensive compared to regular stove pipe. Never asked how much either one was just sell me the stainless. 20+ years later and still going strong so I bet it turns out it was cheaper, how many times would I have changed the pipe? I'm guessing 3 or 4 by now.
Tom,
I feel some of your pain. We had problems with smoke from the wood heater yesterday but I wrote it off as high winds. Evidently it was more. I got up and the stove was smoking enough to hang meat down in the basement. And the wood and coals in it from last night had not burned up either.
I got the long ladder to get up on the roof, the short ladder to get up to the chimney, the brushes which I noticed had gotten rust on the threads and were hard to connect.
I climbed up and the cap and mesh were completely stopped up so I pulled it off and tossed it down to clean. I ran the brush down and wife cleaned out the ashes, I thought. We have a stainless liner so it cleans out pretty good. I went down and removed the pipe from the heater to the wall/flue and took it out and cleaned it. I'd put a plate from an unused flue upstairs in the back of the heater which reduced but did not stop the smoke from leaking. I put it all back together and it was worse. I checked again and found a big plug had fallen. I finally got it out and the brush came apart in the flue but fortunately I could reach it from below and it and the section of rod were flexible to pull out. I put it back together and it draws great and working like a charm for now. Had to air out the house good to vent the excess smoke. I took a wire brush on the grinder and cleaned out and WD 40'd the male ends of the brushes so hopefully they will screw together better next time.
I had called my local hardware owner and he helped with suggestions. He should be a full time consultant as he is pretty near an expert on almost any home maintenance project from electrical, heating, plumbing, carpentry, tile work, masonry, etc. Guys like that are worth their weight in gold. While I was overseas he put together a list of parts for my wife for our plumber to fix a bad foot valve on a Sunday afternoon. He told her bring back what she did not need and then they'd run a price on it an d gave her his home phone number and said it they encountered anything else to call and he'd come open the store and get it for her. Did I mention people like him are worth their weight in gold?
Good luck on getting your parts and getting the heat back on again.
Your customer reminds me of the guy who ordered a bunch of 3/4" X 6" X 16' boards to take 90 miles away for a project. I asked and he said he was going to get them in a pick up. I reminded him they would drag and he did at least stop and rent a 12' U-haul trailer on the way down.
Well, I get it, I am dealing with a small local outfit that has been hammered by all the second homeowners for a year and a half now and they can't hire the help and you folks all know the song. Let's hum a few bars together... BUT when your warehouse is 2 miles from your shop, perhaps you could find a way to keep a list of what is in your stock back at the shop and, I dunno, TRAIN the guy that is answering the phone to look at the stock list? Just spitballing here. Yes, being overloaded sucks, I get that. But there are things you can do to mitigate it. This happens every time I call them for parts, it winds up being a full day or more to buy a single piece of chimney pipe. Forget about driving down there, it's a wasted trip and there is nobody at the warehouse that can help me either.
Yeah Bill I used to get that all the time when I was working. It sucks when people can't do their jobs and sloppy work is something I have no tolerance for. I always wanted to know the truth from vendors, even if it was not good news. Tell me what IS going to happen, not what you HOPE will happen. If it is NOT going to happen, tell me that and I will deal with it. I think that is a fire service mentality. Nobody expects it to go perfect or even right, but everyone demands to know what it really happening, anything else can get somebody hurt. When vendors lied to me, I would tell them (whether it was true or not) that I had a boss screaming at me and I was taking a lot of heat because they didn't tell me the truth. Therefore if my boss was yelling at me, in a few minutes their boss would be yelling at them, then I would call their boss and lay it out what the cost was to us, and therefore them. I usually only had to do that once.
But now I am the boss of me, so I have to be a bit more patient and try to use reason. ;D I can also decide to let it go and just take my business elsewhere, but I'd rather stay local if I can. We need these local businesses badly. When this internet crap blows it's load there will be a time when things change and we will all look around and wonder where these small businesses went. I want to be the guy with some connections with those folks that are left.
And yes, if I can buy stainless for even part of it, I will. I've had this online for a season and a half now and the creosote oils had rotted out 2 45° elbows, 1 4' section, 1 telescoping section, and 2 12" sections. There has to be a better way. I don't want to add up what that costs, but I have never had this kind of experience with chimney pipe. I have to re-think it all. It stainless is the magic bullet, then I will bite that bullet and buy it. I can say I am not happy at all with Dura-Black pipe. But it doesn't interface with other pipes, so I will need to re-purchase another style pipe and re-do the inside single wall sections completely.
Some days it sucks to be me. Other days ain't so bad. :D
Howard, my nightmare is to have the rods come apart inside the chimney. It has never happened, but I go to great lengths to make sure it never does. Wood heat takes work. You are very fortunate to have an advisor you can call. Did you know those folks are worth their weight in gold?
On the truck loading issue, yeah, this is never a surprise. With the last guy that picked up, I went through the same thing, 100 logs, estimated weight around 3,000 pounds. He was gonna come get 'em with his tacoma pickup until I mentioned the weight. He ran the numbers and re-thought then showed up with a 3/4 ton van and the pickup and split the load. When they had loaded the 100 logs I said "OK, now throw in about 6 extras in case you find some you don't like when you are working with them". They took 3 and were happy. They were concerned about the load. But of course then they bought a drilling rig and threw that in too. :D I don't care, they looked fine when they left here and were both smiling. They proudly sent me a photo of the stickered and stacked logs in their barn later that night. I love happy customers, makes me feel good.
Yeah, I lucked out on the brush being accessible and flexible enough to pull it out from below.
FWIW - We put that Stainless liner in our flue about 25 years ago and it still looks to be in good shape.
Yeah I have a stainless liner in the house stove, one piece from the stove on up to the cap. Very happy with it. The shop is a different issue.
On the customer pickup issue I am beginning to notice something interesting (to me). I had been charging $1.00/mile each way. Customers seem to think a bit more about picking up. I realized after to doing some rough numbers and talking to other locals that I was undercutting myself on that cost. SO with today's order I upped it to $1.25/mile, she thought that was one way, but I explained I needed both the fuel and time to get back home and it was round trip. ;D OK, sounds good she said, and wants me to deliver (about 20 miles each way).
What I have noticed is that more folks, facing and considering that cost, opt to pick up. This works in my favor. First I don't loose all that time, second I get them on my turf, they get a 'free' tour of my shop and other services and it opens the door to other possibilities. I have sold some additional stuff on the whim of the moment, planer chips, drilling rigs, and also drawn interest to some furniture pieces that may bring follow up calls down the road. Maybe I should raise my delivery costs to $3.00/mile? :D
Yeah, I am still undercharging on mileage. I used to charge $1/mile, one way, one time even if I ended up sawing several days so I was eating the extra trips. What I'd find was the logs would not be particularly well organized and at the end of the day I'd have 2-3 logs left and the customer, who was providing the labor for stacking or such, would say "I'm tired. Let's just finish those in the morning." It didn't cost him any more but it did me for the extra trip. Now I charge mileage every trip and I double to mileage for anything over 50 miles. I should charge more but at least the customer knows not being ready or not wanting to dig in at the end of the day is going to cost him more. It's too early to tell but I'm betting it makes a big difference in my bottom line by the end of the year.
We al need t think about the productive time we loose in driving, whether it's a delivery or just getting to the job. For me, if I do a 100 mile delivery its a day shot and gone by the time I get home, plus bought lunch on the road. Even if I just do a 20 mile loop it's a half day shot with unloading, etc. I do hae one customer I do not charge for delivery and it is a 40 mile loop, but he buys every month, I have total flexibility on delivery times/days and usually can tie it into other errands and tasks. He is the only guy that gets a break because he is not only buying logs regularly, but also other stuff. I keep him happy, and predictable business is hard to come by in this game.
Quotethe brushes which I noticed had gotten rust on the threads and were hard to connect.
42 years wood boiler in the lower level (basement) and used Blue Creeper the last 17 years on the threads of the brush rods to keep them usable. Just another plus for Blue Creeper (formerly Rust Reaper). In those 40 years, on the third set of 6" stove pipe. Used the heavy 24 gauge black pipe.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10180/Stack%20pipe.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1192058622)
Are you sure that is 24 gauge? That's what I am using, but it's only .023" thick. Do you recall where you got that pipe?
This discussion get me thinking too that I don't think the pipe from my stove to the flue with the 2 - 90*s has ever been replaced in the 30+ years we have been here and it is just regular stove pipe - not stainless like the flue liner. I can see some wear but only at the ends where it does not affect the performance but you guys are getting me worried about whether I should fab up a spare to keep on hand.
Yes, 24ga, and bought at local farm supply store that sold wood stoves. No seam to snap it together like the 28ga.
22ga shows up on this site
Black Stove Pipe - Single Wall & Fume Free Construction | Rock-Vent (https://www.rockfordchimneysupply.com/black-stove-pipes/single-wall-stove-pipes/sgl-wall-blk-stove-pipe-sizes.php)
Yeah, that's a good site. I may look into that further, decent pricing. But I am thinking I need to switch all the single stuff over to stainless because of the acid issues. UI did manage to get enough stuff to put it together, not my first choices, but fine none the less and I did get stainless for the short bottom section where I put a Tee so I can clean out the creosote that drops down without taking the whole thing apart. That, at least, is an improvement. It's heating up now and drying the air in the shop.
Howard, it never hurts to at least do an inspection. When the season ends, maybe pull a section out and give it a good look. All those years is a long time and it probably deserves a look just for safeties sake. ;D
Tom,
I did give it a good once over when I cleaned the chimney because I had to take it out in the backyard and clean it out good too. I shook most of the soot and such out then hosed it out pretty good. In the past I have poured a good shot or two of gas down it and flash burned it out. That worked pretty good too (as long as you aren't overly concerned about eyebrows and arm hairs).
I replaced the pipe and 2, 45's from my stove to the chimney with stainless 5 years ago? It was pricey, but I did a bit of firewood trading and got it at cost ;D
Yeah, I have been spending a lot of 'think time' on this. Obviously my first design, although safe and to code, is not holding up well in the reliability department. I think part of it was my pipe selection. I have never seen pipe eat through like this DuraBlack does, but I am sort of tied into it because it doesn't mate well with others.
So initially I will be looking to replace the black pipe with stainless as I go. Pricey yes, but it should hold up. Everything else is still up in the air. I had planned to replace that stove with a new indoor furnace this year, but the funds got sucked off to something else. That thought is still in my back pocket. I am also back to considering a full masonry chimney on the outside of the shop wall. As I understand it, every class A woodburning appliance must now have a full chimney liner, so that adds cost. I could put double wall insulated up the outside of the shop wall, but that has a life also. Either way, I have to make it so that it can be cleaned from below. I ain't doing the ladder thing no more for routine chores.
I'll keep thinking on it. I am finding that I am not spending a lot of time in the shop this year as I did last year. Last year, it was pretty much full time everyday. Now it's about 1/4 of that at most and usually just a couple of hours a day except for a few short 3 day runs on a project. So using the oil heat becomes another thought, it's fast and 'on demand', but it is cash. Probably, the final answer lies somewhere in between. Yeah, I gotta think on this a bunch. ???
Got an inch of snow overnight and I am not too motivated today to get on it. I think all the work this past week is catching up and I am just watching the US men take on the Germans in Hockey. I do have to get down to the mill and see where I left off and pick up some eggs while I'm there.
After reading the last couple pages I am wondering about being able to transport those mushroom logs to Long Island as you seem to have buyers doing. Basically to everyone else they are firewood logs and the DEC says it's illegal to transport them over 50 miles. I think with all the agriculture Long Island may have their own rules. Is there some kind of heat treating or insecticide needed to cover your butt and ensure there are no hitchhikers on them should the transporters get stopped? Just really wondering if there is some kind of exemption for mushroom logs.
Yes, there is an exemption for these logs in NYS at least. The actual law refers to transporting wood intended for firewood, so this is not that. These are for agricultural use and classified differently. Beyond the legal aspects, their are practical reasons for this also. Frist, they are cut from green healthy trees. Trees that have bug infestations or cancers are not acceptable for growing mushrooms and get rejected (firewood in my shop). These have to be clean logs and every one is inspected by the seller. Second, they are fresh and there is no time allowed for drying and bugs to find their way in before they are inoculated. Winter cut logs can sit for 6 to 8 weeks in the cold before inoculation, summer cut must be inoculated as soon as is possible and within a week is best, any longer presents a risk to healthy production. The cultivation process also requires the grower to inspect these logs periodically and remove any pest species found. These will cut down on productivity at least. Slugs are the biggest problem.
The exception to this is anything under federal quarantine like Ash and Hemlock, neither of which are used for mushrooms.
It's a good question you ask, in fact I asked the same thing when I started. Cornell could not tell me for sure right off, but about 6 months ago they got a ruling from the state which they now include in their educational programs.
Most of my customers are within that 50 mile limit anyway with the exception of NYC and Long Island. I also did a run to Sullivan county last year but likely won't again.
Just checking in here. Sunday night I got hit with a shutdown inner or middle ear issue that kept me up most of the night and it didn't get any better in the following days. I tried the usual treatments which helped a little and now am running some meds through my system which is steadily improving but this type of thing just takes time and has some painful stages as it starts to clear. I've had this several times before. No matter, I will live, but I really can't do anything in the way of work. My head sounds like I am screaming inside a garbage can when I talk. I am not totally steady on my feet all the time so cutting and physical work is not smart, plus for two days I felt like, well, very poorly. Monday night was rough too. Tuesday I had scheduled appointments, first my commercial client I am building the racks for came for a final review and discussion on the transition ramp length. I had forgotten he had not seen it with all the shelves and trim work completed. He says he is "over the moon happy with them" and confirmed his order for two complete units and we agreed on a price for him. I told him I would make them for others, but not at that price. This was a joint venture and the pricing was special for his use, plus the marketing service he will add when folks ask about it. He will be stocking one of my drilling jigs and offering it for sale in his workshops.
After he left, I had an hour and then my log pickup arrived. We loaded them up with what they could fit and they will be back for the rest "some time soon". No matter, they paid me in full plus a nice tip! That was a first for me. After that it's pretty blurry. Just sleeping when I can reading on the forum, watching the Olympics. Feeling slightly better today after sleeping though the night last night.
This afternoon I got a nice surprise. I heard a loud noise outside like a big engine I didn't recognize, went outside and saw that Bill had sent his two guys down with a chipper to collect all the small branches and junk from my down trees and chip them all up. I was in no condition to pitch in and they didn't want me to. They did a nice job and have to do a paying job next door tomorrow, so they parked the chipper by my shop.
I came in from that and found an email confirming another log order I had been working on for a few days. 10 minutes later another confirmation came in so now I am about 200 logs behind again. :D ;D I have yet to do any advertising or send emails out to previous customers. I am still amazed at how this thing progressed from a short side job into trying to keep up. I will be running out of marked trees soon I think. The ice storm helped a lot to take the load off, but I have pretty much run the course on that wood. Once again, I am anxious to get going on this, as usual. Tomorrow is supposed to be a pretty nice day too.
But I sit here cooling my heels. Frustrating.
Tom,
I was getting worried when I had not heard from you in a few days. Hurry up and get well soon and don't push it too much. Good to hear Bill sent his team up to help with the clean up. Good friends and neighbors are better than money in the bank. Glad your client liked the log rollers. Sounds like another sideline business is building up steam.
I know you mentioned the storm provided some short term sources for logs but have you been able to tell what it did long term? Are you still going to be able to get free or mostly free logs from TSI work or does it look like you may have to start paying for the privilege? Don't you have some sources for such logs from the tops and maybe big limbs from some logger friends?
Good luck. Get well. Stay healthy.
Well, outside of the 'opportunity trees' I have been getting my regular logs from my friends place and he even helped me flag trees in the fall. I keep offering, but he won't accept any money. He says they need to be thinned anyway and the tiny bit of firewood he gets from them isn't worth any effort at all.
I'll find them until I can't, and then I will re-think. Going far afield for them means I would need to change some things and find help to get more out of a days work. The margin will sure drop a lot. I learned that last year.
No need to worry about me. I had been putting up a post or two on other threads, but really just have no spunk.
Hang in there hope the ears better soon.
It's a tiny bit better each day. But every time I get this it takes 1-2 weeks to clear fully. Full nights sleep last night and up at a normal time (5:30). The ear is still plugged and I can hear my heartbeat continuously throbbing in there, all day long, non-stop. But I felt a little bit ore energy this morning and cooked myself a regular breakfast. I had to drive a neighbor to a Doc Appt, then wanted to get out and do a little work. It was windy and I have to keep that ear covered or the pain gets bad and I start over. I had some larger yard I could use for the next order that I could fetch from 2 neighbors and cut some off the red oak that hit the garage. Heavy stuff indeed. This guys wants 10 logs between 10-12" as part of his order and those suckers are heavy. Next time the price goes up on something like this. I had to take the fence that got crushed down and cut the top rail where it bent, then chop the chain link out of the ice to make a clear opening. I made the mistake of 'gently' driving the mule into the yard to use the winch to try and pull the whole log through the fence so I could buck it up. Lost cause. I could get the lo in because of the weight, Ice, and angle but I made a danged mess out of my lawn just driving the Mule in. I wound up bucking where it laid and humping the logs out into the yard. I didn't haul any out. I will wait until the ground freezes up in a couple of days (I hope) and get them out then.
The I restarted the shop stove. Maybe tomorrow is a shop day and the temp will be dropping back down tonight. By the time I quit, my t-shirt was soaked and I had to get something dry on. Weird weather. With the wind it is cold and I zip up the coat, but with the work I sweat and get wet. Now mud ruts in the yard to make it a perfect picture.
But I was happy to be getting something done anyway. I was slow and didn't get a lot done and still feel a little lousy, but I got what I could out of the day. Better than nothing and more than I did in the last 4 days.
Well I have been informed my posts are too long, so I will do what I can to be more succinct.
Still cooling my heels waiting for this ear to open up. The weather hasn't been bad and I wish I could get to working as normal. Going a little nuts. I still have those bigger logs I cut that I need the Mule to move out of the yard and the plan for today was to take my time and just slowly get it don't before the temp got over freezing around mid-day. It would have been very do-able..... if the phone hadn't rung. Bill called and had a tree job today, hard maple, a biggun. It was 70" before the ice got to it. Did I want the mushroom logs off of it? I said I'd come by and look, but just in case, I threw my gear on the truck.
Well, next thing you know I am bucking logs like mad trying to stay ahead of the guys chipping. There are a lot of logs. Filled the truck quick, ran home, unloaded, put on more sensible pants, went back bucked and loaded more. Leant a hand on chipping, stayed out of the way when Bill was climbing and limbing. The guys helped me load quite a bit. I did 3 trips, over 100 logs, the truck bottomed out every trip. ;D It was a short run, maybe 4 miles each way. I worked my butt off trying to keep up with those guys. I had planned to buy them lunch, but they bought me lunch. I am still not sure how that worked out. :D I soaked through both of my shirts in the 56° heat. Beautiful hard Maple (for mushroom logs), too bad that tree really didn't have a good sawlog in it beyond nice slabs. 38" on the stump but a yard tree, so lots of branches. Good for Mushrooms, not so good for lumber. Man the sap was running out of those cuts all over, like water.
Here's the stack of larger logs the customer requested and some normal ones:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220221_153612715.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645489318)
And this is the rest of the load on the trailer, 3 rows:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220211_094336524.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1645489319)
I have loaded more on that trailer, but smaller logs. Right now it's bottomed out on the bumpers, but I am just using it for storage. I actually can't count what I have, but over 120 is a conservative number. I've got a lot of big ones in this run. About 2 weeks ahead of the promise date too. That went fast. What is left from this order goes on the next one, which is a delivery job of 65 logs.
Tonight, I have no trouble admitting I am tired. Working with a good (younger) crew keeps me hopping trying to keep up and be useful. I do ok, but I sure feel it in the evening. Tomorrow we have heavy rain coming in after mid-day, maybe I can do something in the morning (if I can move ;D).
I hope this wasn't too long.
Tomorrow is another day.
The posts you write up aren't too long and I enjoy reading each one. I'm here to learn and make friends and that doesn't usually come from minimal posting.
Nice work on all the logs, the mushrooming seems to be really going your way right now, well done!
At least you are paragraphing better ;D.
I was hoping you would notice. ;D At least there is that.
I enjoy your posts. we are friends, and I revel in your success and hope for better on the bad days. I guess if you only bring us up to date every 3 days, then the post will be longer. I hope you are making at least a buck on each log or more. if less than or at break even then increased business means more losses. many costs are up 25 to 250% on many commodities and goods. make sure the balance sheet is on the plus side.
Yeah, it is going fairly well Doc. After my thorough accounting and cost study last year I upped the price by $1.00/log and that has put in in the black. Plus I have reduced expenses this year over last just due to getting the logs closer to home. This year, if I had to do a 40 mile run for logs the price would be way up. Gas here is crazy. Not kidding myself, I've been lucky in all respects. I lost count but I think I just started working on my 5th order and each one has been 40 logs or more. Last year I got a bunch of 1,2,5,10 log orders in the early spring to get things going. Not seeing any of that this year. Also, every buyer is a new one except for my commercial customer who just stays on the list all the time with scheduled work. That Cornell log sourcing map listing for the Northeast I got put on has brought in most of these new folks. There are still only 5 suppliers on that map.
Investment has been minimal and paid for with the proceeds. I continue to try and find an easier more efficient way as I work these logs in a lot of different weather and ground conditions. But i have to weigh that major investment in returns and overall effect. I am not trying to get rich, just pay some bills. Sometimes when a 'thing' works out well, it is hard to put the brakes on and hold it in that sweet spot, rather than grow it into something you HAVE to do to make it work at a higher rate. Simple is good.
So the work up front last year, although frustrating and slow, seems to be working on autopilot now. I just have to keep up with demand. What I would give for a teenager to lift them up and put them down 1 or 2 days a week. :D The order rate is about what I can handle at this point, but if I get a large bomb order from Cornell again this year I am not sure if I could handle it. I've asked them 3 times now if they have any plans, but they are not replying to any emails about that or anything else. Still waiting on their video releases also.
It sounds like you and Bill have a ying and yang thing going. so that is good. It is like you are both business folks helping each other out. If the big order comes in, maybe with his permission, you can highjack a few of his guys to help out for a few hours. If you get them close to home that helps. maybe work on a pallet system for inventory, storage, and poss. loading if you eventually have or can use equipment.
Certainly all those things have crossed my mind from time to time. It comes down to being manageable and not taking over all the other work I have. The money is OK, so it's worth continuing but I don't want it to grow beyond much more than it is now. Steady is good. It would be nice if it were a bit easier on the body. I was sucking wind yesterday.
Last year I quoted a 1,000 log order and ran down all the right stuff for the job: Flat Bed tractor trailer, forklift, packaging, loading and delivery. Turns out, to my great surprise, that it was all easily arrangeable with people I already knew with the 'right stuff'. But of course, the client had no idea what they were asking until I laid out the costing. Deal breaker was not having a way to unload at the destination (plus cost). But that developed into the Sail Freight project, so still a winner.
The only thig I really need to work on is a better storage system now that I am storing logs for a couple of orders at a time waiting for pickup. Not a big deal at all, jus some level bunks and a place to put them and still get other work done.
Tom,
Loving the posts and basking in your glory salvaging these logs to fill orders and such.
Good luck on finding help. Its a national if not international problem now. You might put feelers out with the VA and see if they know of any retired veterans or such who might want some periodic part time work who would enjoy this kind of work and veterans are typically used to spending lots of time outdoors.
Well Howard I am in the second half of my life closer to the end than the beginning for sure. I worked my whole life doing things I only enjoyed for very short periods before they got ugly or miserable and I remained such in those jobs for wont of food clothing and supporting my family. We do what we have to, that's our job as spouses and parents. Nobody promised us an easy life. So now I have a few years before 'something goes wrong' to mess with the stuff I have and try some things I always wanted to try. I can't do stuff just for fun because I need some additional income to get by or start selling off stuff and live like a hermit. SO this is what I can do. It's great fun for me to work hard and create something successful, no matter how small it might be. I did not have a lot of successes earlier in life that benefitted anybody but the boss or the corporation, or both. Million dollar profits got me a pat on the back and then "What are you going to do for us tomorrow?"
So this is my version of 'my turn'. Small, simple, heavy on the joy, light on the stress, and ideally makes somebody else happy at the same time. I'm just being selfish. ;D It's great fun, as you know, to create something you have never done before and get it to the point that somebody else sees value in it enough to want to buy it. I have little or no intention of going into the 'mushroom inoculation bench' business, but I can make a couple for folks who want them. But if somebody wants to copy it, go right ahead. I don't own the idea, I just built something to suit a need for somebody else and had some fun doing it. Not a lot of us folks left who will take a tree, make the lumber and turn it into a delivered finished product these days, right?
On the labor front, my needs are minimal. Maybe 1-2 days (6 hours or less) every week or two when I have orders coming in. This doesn't translate to any kind of real income for anybody. But a neighborhood kid I can pick up and drop off every once in a while would work really well. I could just got cut trees, then on the weekend, he/she could help me collect and load them in or we could work out some other kind of arrangement. It would be good pocket money for a youngster, if such a thing still exists. I just keep my eyes open and keep asking. I can't advertise something like this because I get all manner of folks calling me with various expectations I can't meet. I have found a few boys of 14-17 that are close, could easily do the work, and I know their families. Unfortunately, playing on their video consoles or whatever it is they are doing in that house all those beautiful days is more important to them. Plus, I think sweating has gone out of style.
Anything for a laugh.
If I lived closer I'd send my son over there in a second. He's found a love for moving the sticks and tree waste our yard drops and it's giving him some muscle he hasn't previously acquired.
Tom,
I understand and agree with the concept of us doing what we had to do when we were younger and had kids to raise and bills to pay. Hopefully we find work we really enjoy. I had periods of that with others less fun but required to keep the wolf at bay.
Hopefully when we retired we remain healthy enough we can shift some of our newfound excess time and energies into doing things we enjoy and if we really get lucky they help pay for themselves and maybe even a little more. I tell people my sawmill business is a cost neutral hobby that mostly pays for itself and keeps me active doing something I like and meeting new friends to help replace some of the social aspects I lost when I left the rat race. I think we are both often finding more compensation in a customer's smile than the thickness of our wallets.
It would be great if you could find a neighborhood teen to mentor who could help with some of the heavy lifting and such. Besides, it is fun to train others who are actually interested in learning. Its like the demos we do (Sawmill for me - mushroom logs and such for you) where we see others get excited and interested in the topic. They keep you on your toes too never knowing what questions they will ask. ;)
My suggestion about the VA and finding an interested veteran was in hopes a retired military member nearby may have some excess time on his hands, be reasonably healthy and financially stable but willing and interested to help fill some of the holes in his social calendar and pick up a little beer money. I realize you don't expect to have a need for a high paid, full time employee but some retirees may just want an occasional work day or two. Good luck.
Well the is no arguing with what you say Howard. Spot on with all points.
I always have my eyes open for somebody that might fit. Funny thing is that even though I am a low margin operation, I can clearly see what the increase in a days work is with help and am happy to split that increase with somebody. Which comes out pretty OK. Last summer you may recall I had an older friend helping me for just one day and the output was just a tad less than twice the output I would have alone. We could have easily more than doubled my best days output but I pulled the plug early. It was 95° that day and I was getting a little whacky. One more loop would have nailed it. Even at that my helper refused payment, but finally took half of what I offered him to take his wife out to dinner. He said he really enjoyed the day.
Last summer (remember summer?) Bill and I were at a neighbors evening fire for drinks and we were both trying to talk their 15 y/o into coming down to the mill to try it out. Told him he could even just sit there and watch if he wanted, anything to get him involved, but no soap. I keep my eyes open everyplace I go, you never know. You also never find things unless you keep looking. ;D
Yeah I have a big healthy 16 & 14 y/o GD and their 10 y/o sister 10 miles up the road. All of them could do some of what I do if just assembling birdhouses or such and they have no plans on breaking a sweat. Just come down and stay on their I-pads all weekend. I'd have jumped all over an opportunity to work with my grandparents when I was a kid if I could. I had an old mentor their age I hung out with an awful lot and my only regret is not building a fishing boat with him. He built a few and I'd love to have shared that time and memories with him.
That's about the saddest thing isn't it? I'm of the age when video games just started up, in the early-mid 1980s, I was really into them and still play sometimes, but we also spent a lot of time outside playing and exploring and building/using our imagination. My then girlfriend, now wife, bought our 6 acres in the hopes that my kids would get to live the life she and I lived when we were kids, out in the woods or just running around making up games or finding little bits of trouble to get into (and out of!) but it's not worked very well. We make them go outside and typically they'll just mope on the trampoline or sit around "bored". We have a go-kart buggy thing that'll do 45mph for the love of God! There's a creek to stomp around in, woods to explore, a backhoe I'd teach them to screw around (safely) in. Not much interest. By the time they realize that their electronics aren't giving them the life they really should be living it'll be too late and they'll have to find a job and stuff. Boo.
Yes but the electronic gizmo is instant gratification and that's an issue, and any more comments I may have regarding such items will stay stacked in my cranium because many aren't fit for the forum. :)
I think I've told this before, couple years back. Apologies if you heard it already:
When we raised our (2) kids I made a conscious effort not to tell them what they should or shouldn't do or who they picked for friends or any of that stuff. I would however make suggestions when they had questions, or ask them questions about their decisions and how they thought they would turn out. This made them think about what they were doing and how it would wind up. If I made rules they had to follow, they could blame me for the results. If they knew it was up to them, they quickly learned the results were their responsibility also. In the main, this worked out OK. When they failed I would of corse be supportive to help them through it and make sure they didn't miss the lesson they had taught themselves.
BUT I did have one rule my wife and I agreed on and di not waiver from: No Video Games in OUR home. I didn't tell the kids they couldn't play them, but not in our home. They could go to their friend's homes and play them and that was fine. But when their friends came here they had to find other stuff to do. Build a fort in the woods, fix or modify bikes, play some kind of ball, make camp fires. Sometimes I would find some old gizmo in the shop or garage and they would take it apart and make something else out of it. But NO video games.
My son hated me for it, and told me so, numerous times, on a regular basis. My daughter was indifferent and had other things to fill het life, church activities, a boyfriend, playing music, etc. Well that's the way it remained and my son held that grudge for a long time.
When he was 19, we were talking and he let it out that he felt he needed to apologize about the 'game thing'. That particular day, he had to make a mercy run to help a buddy change out a flat tire on the roadside. Turns out his friend didn't know how to change a tire. He was shocked and thought about it all afternoon and then it dawned on him how that could be. His friend spent his entire life on the couch playing games and planned on making big money designing them. (Not sure how that worked out.) So my son actually thanked me for being an ashhole for so many years. He said, "I get it now".
But he lets his kids play with the dang things too much and one of them is constant and lost without the thing. When they come here, we can't ban the things from our house. It's too late. So we have a rule that they cannot be used until after lunch. That's the best we could get. I'll let you know in 15 years how it worked out.
I don't hate video games, but I've seen how addictive they are when not tempered with healthy physical activity and learning, real learning. YMMV
We took a little different approach and never had any restrictions against them. In fact we bought a big log home here in WV and my wife set the downstairs up as a kids area with video players and a big TV they could watch movies and such on. The end result was we never had to worry where our kids were - they were downstairs with all the neighborhood kids. Our neighbors knew our place was controlled and safe and were happy to have their kids come play here. That and my wife being the local HS band director meant we always had kids here. Often after a late night ball game several of the kids would just stay the night with us as it was too difficult for their parents, and especially those raised by grandparents, had problems coming down from the remote hills and hollers to get their kids well after midnight. The kids could stay here and they could get them the next day. Before a big competition we have had as many as 20 kids here camping for the night.
My son was especially outdoorsy and he and his buddies would get out and ramble the hills hunting and fishing and looking for morels or such. One time several of them picked wild cherries, blueberries, wild strawberries and such and conned my wife into making a batch of mixed fruit jam. There was probably less than a quart. Then she made a big batch of biscuits and they ate them all so she made a second batch and they ate them and finished the jam late that night. If you ask any one of those kids they will tell you that was the best batch of jam they ever ate.
I can remember my wife getting up on a Saturday and laying down the law on a nice sunny day and when the kids started watching TV or such and she'd start assigning tasks to all of them. One would be mowing, another washing dishes or clothes, one washing cars, weedeating, fixing fences, etc. She assigned work to neighbor kids and band kids just like to our two and they all responded well to it. I noticed when our kids were at friends and neighbors they were respectful and thanked them and complimented the meals, picked up their dishes and helped and the neighbors always welcomed them.
Both our kids grew up to be decent, respectable members of the community and we are real proud of them. We still have old students come by and visit and for years they would come with an overnight bag and just assume (correctly) there was a room available for them.
You and your wife are truly blessed.
Good on ya both! :)
Odd day today, but actually now that I think about it.... a typical day. Yesterday around midday my current client said he had secured a truck and would come up to get his logs today. About 2 weeks earlier than I expected. (I had them done 2 weeks earlier than expected because of that windfall tree job (pun intended) on Monday.) So I had to scramble a little. I still had 6 of his large logs over in the yard and with the rain and warm temps coming, I had to get them moved before we were back into mud season. Too heavy to lift, so I used the skidding arch and could get them off the ground, so no dragging, but the ground was slick. I got it done just as the rain got constant and steady.
Today it was SO nice that I just kicked around the yard doing odd stuff while waiting for the client to show. I found another couple of leaks in that air line I cut a couple of weeks ago. So I patched them until I can bury a proper line between the shed and shop. Then I went and finally could get the torn tarps off the drying racks since the ice was pretty much gone. Turns out that ridge beam had not snapped, all the nails were ripped out, so it's a fairly easy fix. I am gonna go with the 'open air' treatment for a few weeks then re-do it all again, a little better. They actually held up quite well and frankly a hard roof would have not stood up to what came down anyway. So a bunch of little chores that made me feel good. I also fixed the jammed seat belt buckle in the truck which would no longer lock in and was making me nuts. That was more annoying than I would have thought, but all good now.
The client showed up with a 27' box truck. Overkill for the size of the load, but well suited to the weight, and he brought his Pop to help load. Three of us were huffing and puffing a bit. 95 logs between 5 and 6,000 pounds total. Everybody underestimates the weight of these logs. Green wood is heavy (I read that in a book somewhere).
Anyway, they were pleased with their load and I gave them a tour of the shop and when they saw the inoculating rig, well they bought it. So another sale and now I have to make 3 more. ;D :D I hope my original customer who I made them for doesn't mind. ;D I gotta get on the stick making lumber to build more, the deadline is coming.
I have 2 more log orders pending, not due until April but I'd like to get cutting on them. After that who knows? Maybe the logs will give me a break and I can get back on the milling which is way behind. This ear thing is still plugged solid and driving me nuts. I can't tell where sounds are coming from and I hear things very incorrectly. It is strange to have a prime sense all fouled up. I think I hear a truck in the driveway and it turns out to be the washing machine running in the next room. I hope this breaks soon. I just finished the 5 day steroids course I was on tonight.
All in all, not a bad day at all. Nice weather for most of it, a couple of SGU's to throw in the bank and another job out of the way. Snow comes in tomorrow night and we repeat the cycle one mo' time. :D
Tomorrow is another day and it will be what it will be. I have no idea what that is yet. Errands, I think.
Tom,
I promise you that the guy you made the inoculating rig for won't mind you selling his rig as long as you replace it before he knows it is gone. ??? :D
Glad things fell into place today (Who said that?) except for that ear problem and I'm hoping it gets well soon too.
Did you tell the customer to bring the box truck with a lift gate? Do you have a dolly or hand truck or such to handle the logs? Would that work for them? Is this another piece of equipment you now need? ;) I assume from earlier descriptions you have to handle the logs with some care so as not to scratch them up too bad.
Well Howard as you learned with your Outhouse/deer blind/bus stop build; You make the first one and before it's done you see things you will change, improve, or refine. So to my mind, I am clearing out the 'first runs' and my client will get a better version. Besides, he was the one who told me I would sell a bunch of these and he wants to stock one for sale at his classes. Maybe I should make 4? ;D
The customer had ordered a lift gate truck, but there was some issue so no lift gate. No matter. I keep the logs on my trailer to keep them at a good lift height and transfer is pretty easy except for the bigger ones. In addition to 80 standard logs, this client had ordered 10 bigger logs (he wanted 12-16") and I could not get them in the trailer nor had room for them anyway. So I had them rolled up like saw logs on bunks and we did a two man lift. That truck had a deck height of about 5' and that made it a little bit like work. !/2 hour to load isn't bad at any rate. I need the exercise. ;D
Hand truck and dollys won't work in the mud. The only thing that would help is a fork lift that will work on a soft driveway and we all know what that costs. I could borrow one for a huge load, but not for these small orders. Ironically I find over time that I handle these logs a lot better than most of my clients do. They are surprised by the weight and bulk and quickly get sloppy in handling. I remind them once or twice, but they own the logs, they can do what they want. Winter cuts logs with really tight bark are nothing like summer cut, which shed bark if you look at them wrong.
So you just sold a prototype and your customer gets the deluxe turbo charged finished model. I like that idea.
On the trailer to truck if you have the right slope available that is another handy feature. I sold a guy a 4X4 outhouse, a 4X4 shed, and a 4X8 shed. They were assembled but with the roof off. We could lift each individual shed on to my 5X8 trailer and I'd tow it with my ATV. The customer had a 6X16 trailer parked on the front lot that was about a foot lower than my road there so I was able to back my 5X8 trailer over the lip of his 6X16 and we were able to slide them off and he had a winch to pull them forward. It was an easy project using the terrain available.
I guess if you had a compressor handy you could deflate the back tires on the box truck to reduce the height then air them back up after loaded but it would probably be easier to back the trailer up on to a couple of cinderblocks or chunks of your famous Bluestone granite. :D Maybe you could do both if needed. ;)
Yeah, um,,,,, NOPE. I ain't doin' that. My trailer is 18" off the ground and that truck is a good 5'. Besides, it's the customers job to load, but I always throw in my help. I can't resist.
Some things just don't need to be engineered out. ;D
But your comments have me pondering making better storage/holding racks so I can keep the trailer freed up. But that works into some heavy wood and jointing. I'll have to think on that for a while, because I don't want these things in the way all year long.
could make a few skids/sleds that just fit in the back of the trailer, and just drag them off, or tie to something heavy, and pull the trailer out from under. eliminating one of the bouts of handling. like a pickup bed liner. it is just work! :)
Oh, the poor things we say to our dads when we are kids. I've done the same and been that nightmare kid with the video games at certain points. I was around the same age as yours, OGH, when I apologized to my dad for some of that junk.
My relationship with my dad changed a bunch after left home and grew up a little.
It is hard to grow up to be a real man and not a Jerk.
Yeah, It's complicated. ;D I suppose most of us would say that. I think Danny makes a good point too.
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Doc, I am not sure what that sliding skid idea would do for me. I really don't want to get into the material handling business. Because I find the practical limit of what I can do in a day to be about a pickup load I just put them in the truck and either bring them home to the trailer of put them on the trailer at the landing. That last run out in the woods with the tool cat (last month) was probably the easiest I have had (except for the snow depth). I felled and bucked as normal, but could put the forks at a nice height and get about 25 logs on. I'd run the load to the landing and very gently let them slide off the forks into the trailer. All I had to do was minimal pushing and arranging by hand to get them lined up neatly.
Loading out a client is always a crap shoot. They come with everything from box trucks to Priuses', so it's just best to let them enjoy the weight of the logs and getting close to nature. :D ;D
Getting rid of that side rail on the trailer would help a bit though. Maybe a deck over with slip out bunks. A fixed storage rack might work too, but that's another project. Let's see how long this goes on before the fad dies out.
just an idea to eliminate some handling with limited equipment. to keep logs off the ground and skids to be reused. to get things off the trailer for the next load. ;)
could count them once and help with inventory by labeling each skid. you could use the crates like I use and lift them with a crane.
I just got an image in my head of lowering a 4x4x4 crate onto a Prius with a crane. :D :D taz-smiley
Yes, of course if I were shuttling with the trailer that would likely help. When I did that last summer, I found that crane worked fairly well. Putting a power winch on it would help a bit more. I would lay straps in the Mule bed, then load and pull the straps over to bundle it. Then pull along side of the trailer, crane the load out of the Mule bed, swing into the trailer, drop and arrange. That saved my back quite a bit. Then, getting it home, reverse the process on top of some bunks. That part was klugey but worked. A ground mounted gantry that ran over the trailer bed would have been perfect.
I am most interested to see how this year goes. The thing that keeps my mind most busy is tree sources. That problem doesn't seem to have a solid solution and is a constant day to day thing. I know Bill says he has a ton of trees for me to take, but when we go out and mark them, they are quite scattered and we get pretty picky. The marked numbers are lower than we think. Finding them again is another issue. ;D
As to loading I would think a portable log deck would be handy for rolling the logs up to the truck/trailer bed. Maybe something as simple as a couple of sawhorses of different heights from low to higher (Waist height?). They should be cheap and easy to build even though usually I recommend more expensive and complicated equipment for others to buy or build. :D You might build the sawhorses with short legs on one side to deliberately help provide the sloped ramp effect.
I have this vision of Tom loading a pallet full of mushroom logs on a Prius, the load falling and doing $40K worth of improvements to the Prius. :D
My relationship with my Dad greatly improved as we both got older. He'd write me nearly daily the last 10-15 years when he could no longer talk. He'd complain about my two brothers who lived with or near him but if I'd have been around more I am sure he would have more to complain about me. ;) I used to tell him if he'd have just bought an automatic cement mixer and a power auger to dig post holes I'd probably have never left home. He'd reply he never needed them while I was around. ;D He used to write my son after they got closer from a Spring Break fishing trip in 1989 and he'd tell him all the things they were going to do when Dad won the Fla Lottery. On our fishing trip Dad taught Sean the fine art of tall tail telling and both became pretty good at it and enjoyed it. My big regret was that Dad never lived long enough to see and be around his great grandkids.
well look at all of use sitting around the pot belly stove and spitting in the urn. More to learn and appreciate here than just logging, and sawmilling. our version of the barber shop or old fasion general store.
Indeed indeed. That's why I hang out here (plus, it keeps me out of bars).
Well, almost instantaneously (big word, that) as I hit the "Post" button on my last post lamenting log sources, my phone rang. It was Bill, in the log truck I could barely hear him. But he had a red oak job he was going to. So I changed gears, put on almost the right clothes and headed out. 2 hours later I was back home and had just put another 45 logs on the trailer. Gotta make hay when the sun shines, right?
They got an extra pair of hands (such as mine are) and I got a little pressure off the next order. It's a lot colder out than it might seem and we were all a little cold. My feet are ice blocks. 20° with a 10 mph wind but feels dang cold.
I'm gonna change socks and shoes and finally get some of those errands done before the snow, or whatever arrives.
Sorry more cold out here heading your way. It was minus 2 earlier today up to 13 now....fwiw Just an odd thing.... I have a friend in Oklahoma City, they got enough sleet /ice pellets it packed together on the ground it looks like Styrofoam board an inch or so thick. He sent me a picture,... we also figured out they are way ahead of us for total snow fall for the year...
Yeah - I already learnt a new word today. Klugey. Not sure if the NY spelling is right but it was close enough to find the definition especially as used in the sentence.
Now my only worry is since my mental hard drive is full, what memory was dumped so I could learn about Kugey? I hope it wasn't my wife's birthday.:D
Between yesterday and today, we got about an inch of sleet. Its now just a little freezing drizzle coming down. So far we just had to go out for a cardiac arrest and nothing having to do with the weather. My FD truck is equipped with a plow and salt spreader, so I go to most calls right now in case there is an issue with reaching the call.
Nebraska, what do they call that? Sheet Sleet? :D Or maybe it's a Sleet Sheet? :D :D Maybe it's sleet in a sheet? :D Sounds like a Sleety mess. Maybe a sleety sheety mess? :D :D ;D (Pardon me, I need a beer I think.) Yeah, colder stuff is back now. The longer range looks like we are getting close to that early spring pattern t though. Mid 20's to low 30's during the day, low double digits at night for the next week, then slowly it looks like the temp patterns are rising with daytime highs breaking freezing with an increasing frequency. That's the kind of weather that begins to wake me up, because it allows for temp and body recovery during the workday, for me anyway. Today was a LOT colder than the thermometer would indicate. It wasn't just me. When we were doing that quick trees job, even Bill (the ironman) remarked that it was DANG cold! Then a little while ago my wife came and stood by the woodstove because she just couldn't get her bones warm today. It's 74 here at my desk and and I just put a hoody on. Getting old, poor circulation, I guess. I just spent a half hour searching for better winter boots. Something bullet proof warm. ;D
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Howard, on reflection, I think it may be spelled "Kludgey" but I still can't find it in any dictionary either. I am quite sure your wife's birthday is safe. That was actually coined by an old boss of mine when assessing a design concept we were working on. (We eventually removed the kludge element.) Anyway, you are welcome. Vocabulary expansion is just another free service I provide (on rare occasions).
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Bill that is so cool and forward thinking. SO many times I wished we had a plow or more often a sander in the department. We had a good relationship with town highway, and county was just a radio call away, but time matters. We did tanker relays for working fires and in the winter, sand/salt was often required during the course of a response. I did a call once that was a critical medical. I had enough hands to clear the unshoveled walk, but called the town directly on the radio before I went in to do the assessment. By the time we packaged and loaded the patient, the town plow have cleared the rod for us. I only got the ambulance in there with pure speed and determination. ;D
Well the weather is coming in and we get what we get. Starts around 11pm here and should be rolling good by daybreak. Whatever. We will deal with it, we always have. Looks like TN is getting hammered right now.
Tom,
The definition I found was for a process that was a little complicated and inefficient but eventually worked. That made sense when applied to the sentence where you used it.
I'm safe for a while since her birthday was last week and I can always remember it is a week before our youngest GD who is a Twofer baby and was 3 y/o on 2/22/22. :D Of course there is that pesky anniversary looming up ahead in July (Or is it June ::)).
I started to say I did not know which was worse - the sleet or the rain and flood warnings we are getting then I remembered and agree that the sleet is worse.
Take care, how is the ear, keep us informed.
Tom,
When we are out treating and plowing roads, I try to keep my radio scanning between our highway trucks and the county dispatch. If there is a call in town, we try and make sure they have as clear a shot as possible. Sometimes we'll send a one ton to open up the drive for the fire/emt. You never know when it'll be you(me) or a loved one in need of that extra help. So far it's worked out pretty good
Yeah, we all have to work together, and usually do. The incident I talked about above happened at the height of a storm when the crews were just trying to keep the main lanes open. The location was on a short cross street which would have been done much later. There happened to be a guy in a 1 ton less than 1/2 mile out and he zipped over and had the place cleaned in no time.
Still for those 2am structure fires on clear cold nights, few of the Highway guys are on the road and they have to dispatch a special crew which takes time. When the dump tank is leaking water and it's freezing instantly and nobody can stand up, it sure would be handy to have something on scene.
Howard I am glad and relieved your memory remains intact in spite of any unwanted suggestions I may entered into it.
Well it's been about a month since I was told they finished up the videos on last summer's mushroom project. I have been trying to find out when they would release them to the general public, but nobody is answering my emails. Today I was looking something up and found they are actually released on the Cornell pages already. I am not big on self promoting, but I know a lot of folks here ask me about them and followed along through my trails in that project. They did one main 8 minute video, and broke out several other shorter ones, for a total of 9 videos with some details.
Here is the link to the full page. (https://smallfarms.cornell.edu/projects/mushrooms/cme/logs-to-nyc-project/)
If you don't want to go there, here is the overview video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siDe94Nw9-8&t=221s (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=siDe94Nw9-8&feature=emb_logo)
And here is the breakout video that I did:
Sustainably Sourcing Shiitake Logs - An interview with Tom Lindtveit - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyaqAnz3ddw&feature=emb_logo)
I did manage to evade any 'board smoother' type quotes as far as I know. ;D I will say, when the guy asked me to sit on the tailgate and explain briefly what I was doing and how, I had the 'board smoother' thing in my mind and was scrambling to come up with words that would work. I was working off the top of my head and did the best I could.
It is what it is. Moving on now.
EDIT: Not sure why that first video is not previewing here, but it works as a link, sorry.
good info, and you did well.
:) :) :)
Heh, I noticed a little while ago what I was wearing in that video. So I went on the Madsen's FB page where they have a photo of their suspender display in their shop and put a comment along with the video link saying that I should have thought to ask for a sponsorship to get a clean pair of suspenders. They probably won't even see it, but it gave me a chuckle.
The hat I was wearing (on purpose) is from my friend Steve Marin's radio show (Unreal Bluegrass). He had sent me a new hat a while back, but asked for a photo which he gets from celebrates that he sends hats to (like the Steve Martin everyone else knows from movies and such). I never got around to doing the photo, so I wore his hat for the video. But I probably should have worn the new, clean hat. ;D
These are the ways I amuse myself. What can I say? ;D
You did good and not everyone can have tree smoother fame.
"Father forgive me, for I have sinned. It has been over 12 hours since I caught up on all the threads on the Forestry Forum...."
Yeah, I blanked out today. I have been dreading updating my website for months now (6?), knowing I would have to update all the plugins, fix the stuff that got broken from the new version 'upgrades' then make the content changes that were needed. I took a look last night and decided (wisely) to wait until this morning when my system was full of coffee instead of beer.
I was right, it killed the entire day and I never looked at the forum once between 7am and 7pm. But it's fairly good now. I will never get it the way I want, but I got most of the stuff added that has been on my mind. Mostly it was mushroom log stuff because what I had up there was done when I barely had a clue. Now that I have a little more of a clue, it needed to be improved. Plus, we are entering the new season. I also added a lot of references to the last years activity. I still have some other things I would like to do, but for now it is floating along OK. I don't get a lot of traffic there, but the way I use it, I don't need much. I meet people for one reason, they want something, but I also have other stuff to offer. So when they get what they want, I refer them to the website for other stuff I can do. I get questions all the time, and I put the answers up there so folks can go and read it for themselves. Somebody may hear me on that radio show and they go check out the link. It saves me repeating things verbally. I use it for education of my clients. FB stinks, so when I make a FB post, I include the link to the website with the full information. So yeah, I needed to get it updated as I go along and learn stuff myself. It's a lot better now.
Since I get mushroom log questions here often enough, here is the link (https://woodsmanforestproducts.com/mushroom-logs/) to the main page for that. After I was all done, I realized I forgot to put up a page for the one question I get asked most often and deserves it's own page "What the heck is a mushroom log?" That's for another day, I need better photos. I was waiting for Cornell to release all those videos, and now that they are out it was time to get it done. By the time I was finished, I didn't even know what day it was. I thought it was Monday.
Danny I realize that the entire 'board smoother' thing was not at all of your doing, just a reporter who had no clue and made stuff up and a video editor who had less of a clue. But I have been in that situation several times and know that there is no coming back from it. You can't put the toothpaste back in the tube. When I did that interview I was told to 'just talk and describe what you are doing'. They did not tell me they were going to do that interview. They said they were just coming to shoot footage of me harvesting the logs. My concern was that I had no idea how they would edit that. Like you, I talked for a lot longer than what made the final cut and covered several aspects not included in the end. I had no idea what they might do in the editing process so my mind was racing to choose words carefully to avoid the possibility misinterpretation. Honestly, I didn't think they would use any of it. There are things in that video that bug me EVERY time I see them and they drive me crazy. I kick myself every time. But, I know that's just me and nobody else (well, maybe one or two folks) even sees the things that bother me. Most of those folks hang out here, so I'm not concerned. That particular day was the ONLY day I had saw problems for the entire month of cutting is all I got to say about that. ;D
I lost a day on this today, but tomorrow is another one. If this dang ear would break open, I could be back at the mill, but I don't want to risk it yet. But, I'll get something done.
3 more days with not much done. I have lots of outside work and am told more orders coming in at the mill. I just can't work outside with this ear. The cold air on it is no good, wind is even worse, and I have wound up in trouble doing that before. I can't risk it. Monday, since I had hammered on the website all day on Sunday, I kept at it and did another new page. I get hit with the same question about 5 times a week, every week: "What the heck is a mushroom log?" so I added a page just to answer that. So now I have a page I can send folks to directly. I am thinking about getting cards made up with a QR code just for that purpose. That's been something I was meaning to do for 6 months. I also drove to town to pick up some spray on water based urethane and found the shelves bare. In fact, I had a couple of things on my list and they had none of it. If I hadn't picked up beer while I was in town it would have been a total waste of gas.
Yesterday I added another page on the site I have wanted to do for quite a while. Obviously I am about the smallest business one can have, so if I 'endorse' another business, group or other entity, it doesn't mean much at all for them. But from my perspective I search long and hard to find resources and suppliers to help me. When I find a company, big or small that really delivers service or quality products, I like to let other folks now about it. It's a way to recognize people and companies that still provide good value for your dollar, or time, or whatever. It took a while to collect the art, write the words, and get the formatting done. But I'm glad I did it. You have to thank the people that help you along the way.
Today I had one more thing I thought I would do on the website, but the muse was not with me. I got involved in that 'Yellowstone' series a lot of the folks talk about here and this morning I finished off the last and only season I have access to. I can't find that new one on any of the sources I have. I am not a big TV watcher most times. So I decided to bring some finishing work in the house (breaking my own rule). I have something small I wanted to try that water based urethane on. So I had a can of brush on stuff and set myself up with these small pieces inside a carboard flat box. In a 75° room it sure didn't take long to dry. So I got in a few coats on both sides during the day. Whoopee, big production day. >:( But something is better than nothing. I seem to be in a funk. Sitting here watching the work load stack up is making me nuts.
Tomorrow is another day.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on March 02, 2022, 09:26:17 PMI also drove to town to pick up some spray on water based urethane and found the shelves bare.
Yeah, I found that problem as well looking for spray on polyurethane. Only 1 can left.
Right now I'm having a bigger problem. The national chlorine tablet shortage is alive and well! >:(
I go through about 60 pounds a year. I typically buy 100 pounds (two tall buckets) from mail order. That runs me about $150 in a normal year. Two years ago, I got in just before the shortage at $190 ($1.90/pound). Right now (IF you can find it), it is advertised at ONLY $5.19/pound. So a 50 pound bucket is $259. Insane. If you buy smaller quantities (that are available in the stores), you're looking at $6 to $7/pound. :o
Edit: I Googled "Why chlorine tablets unavailable 2022" and hit on one site that says there is no shortage. They have plenty available at $12/pound!
Tom,
Sorry that old ear is still bothering you. Maybe those big old hoop earrings are catching the wind. :D (Sorry, the devil made me say that.)
I like the idea of endorsing good vendors. You just never know - an endorsement from a one man business may mean more to some folks than something from Wal Mart, Chevy or Ford or such would to other small businesses.
I have been ordering my Minwax poly on amazon and get 20 cans at a time, so they fill a box perfect.
edit: I just checked, and it is available and would receive Monday if ordered soon, but up $2 a can, to $11.98 from $9.96 a can.
The brush-on seems to be working OK. I just have to find an easier way to do a light sanding on those little pieces. Hard to hold and not flex. ;D
Next time to town I will check Lowes. I don't use use spray-on stuff much at all and wouldn't want all those cans to store. I was thinking of trying to use the HVLP sprayer to apply the stuff, but right now I am just doing a dozen or less at a time trying different things.
I use toolbox rubber drawer liners to hold small stuff to sand, with very fine paper 220 to 320. could try a little air brush sprayer. the big issue for me with little frequent products, is the waste of material each time you have to clean a sprayer. so, I use cans. For big projects, I might brush a few coats till the grain is filled, and the dry areas sealed, then light sand, and spray the final coat. I have used HVLP prayers, but it has to be a big project. the final coat lays out nice with a thin coat compared to the first few coats. with ERC then it also helps add more finish to the areas like knots that seem to soak up a ton.
I did not know what mushroom logs was either until about 5 years ago, someone came to me and wanted some.
I forgot how much I asked for them. I know it was a good price, the people I was dealing with always want something for nothing.
Now if they have it, it's worth top dollar, but if you have the same thing, it's worth bottom dollar. :D
I cut the trees beside the road, and he loaded them onto the truck.
Quickest money I ever made. ;D
But that was a one shot deal.
It's nice to be able to say that yesterday was a pretty good day. At least much better than most in recent weeks. The pounding of my heartbeat in my ear was barely noticeable except under exertion and I resolved to get outside and get something done. (Today I can't hear my heartbeat at all but I assume it's still going.)
Before the Ice Storm hit several weeks ago I had gotten offered some logs off of a lot clearing job. Bill had dropped the trees and pulled them out whole so as to save the branch wood for me. I had gotten one load of logs on that first day, but then the storm came and threw everyone out of whack. I did get to meet the property owner on that first day and was OK to go back anytime and get the rest. He's a state trooper and knew where I lived because he interviewed me a few months prior during an investigation. Nice fella.
Anyway, I was long overdue to get that stuff out of there and was told nobody would be there but the well driller, who it also turned out I knew but hadn't seen since he was 14 years old (about 35 years ago). So I loaded up and went over. Nobody was there. I marked, cut, and loaded. Got a little over 20 logs out and cleaned up my mess. The property owner showed up and we chatted a bit. He was going to cut up a red maple blow down for his Dad's firewood, so I grabbed my saw and gave him a hand. Took all of 10 minutes and he was happy for the help and company.
I headed home and unloaded, then had lunch. I headed down to Bill's and they had pulled the edger into the shop. Bill took off to grab a load of logs from a recent cut and Mike and I took off the re-sharp blades, installed the new shoe we had made to move the sliding blade, then put the new blades on. We couldn't test it because the blade bolts were shot and I didn't want to torque them at full value until we got new ones. One bolt I really had to mess with to get out and I didn't want to go through that again. Anyway, the machine has all the repairs on it now, all new belts, oil change, blades, etc. When the bolts come in Monday we should be ready for a test and a final grease job all over.
By then it was nearly quitting time, so Mike closed up and headed home and I went down the hill to watch Bill unload a full pile of very nice straight 25' EWP logs up to 30" diameter. He said he only took that job because he was afraid I might run out of logs to mill. ;D I told him he could mill those logs up himself the day after my funeral. :D We got enough logs to last "a while". (for reference, see the video a few pages back in this thread.)
We parked the log truck and drove up to the house to have a beer. I ordered the screws for the edger. We talked about going to Woodsman days (Boonville, NY) in August and I asked if he wanted me to take care of any reservations. Places to stay can be rough during that week. Years ago he found a private place where the owner rented out camper spaces right outside one of the gates. He found the guys number and gave him a call, leaving a message. Hopefully it will be a few of us going for the whole weekend. I headed home just as the sun was setting barely on time for dinner.
So a much better day all around. SOMETHING got done. I have enough logs loaded for my next order, which I have to deliver, but no rush. They need them for April. Today is solid overcast and I am not sure I want to head to the mill. That deck is packed with logs waiting for me. We are entering mud season in earnest now, it seems. It's gonna be warm today (40°), then 60 tomorrow with rain. I will think of something to do today inside, I believe.
The ear is still plugged, but I am feeling better now that I am moving around and worked a full day. I'll try to keep that going. I am excited about Boonville. That was a prime thing on my hit list the year I retired and I have been waiting 2 years to make that happen. Gonne have to focus on padding the bank account between now and August. ;D
Let's see what today brings.
I had a lazy weekend. The ear is getting much better daily now. Hearing is still reduced but some sounds now make it through so small improvements tell me it is nearing the end. Another week I guess.
I spent time in the shop yesterday because I could easily get it up to 60°. I put a few coats of finish on some small stuff and worked on a new idea that struck me. I'll pick up on that again this morning and hopefully the hardware I ordered will arrive today. Just a silly little whim of an idea that plopped into my head. Like many other ideas I have, I am making a few to see if I can do it and how it looks.
Expecting a rainout this afternoon, so I will likely lean into shop work more.
Tom,
Sorry to hear the ear problem is not over yet. What kind of treatment are you using, if any? Is it caused by an ear infection or fluid behind your ear drums or such?
When my son was a couple of years old he had fluid in his ears and they put some kind of tiny tubes in to drain it and it healed up quickly afterwards. I think they said the fluid was like glue and if not drained it would dry up like a tube of glue that was exposed to the air.
My wife used to get ear infections when scuba diving in the Red Sea in Saudi but the local shops had some kind of antibiotic ear drops with a pain killer they she used and they worked real well. Apparently they were not available in our local pharmacies.
I hope they clear up soon and completely.
we have them here but not over the counter. cipro Dex is an antibiotic, and a steroid. they took antipyrine benzocaine off the market as a drop to numb ears in minutes for pain. not enough research but had been on the market for 50 years. hard to get people to sign up their 2 year olds for drug studies...go figure! :)
The ear is coming along fine, thanks Howard. This is just a very slow process. I think the steroids helped shorted it a little bit and this time around I did not go through the days of pain I usually experience at the height of it. I can hear out of it now, but low tines don't carry through well. That will come back too, it always does. :)
Yesterday I got more done on that small project and got the hardware and put it on. Looks OK, I guess. A lot of time spent on small objects, but it was for fun anyway. Just a whim of an idea.
Today I resolved to finally start the painting on those log inoculation tables I built. I hate painting. Dang things took all day, in fact I lost track of time and was nearly late for dinner. (You can read more of that in the 'did something done' thread.) Did I mention I hate painting? Running out of paint (full gallon) was just the icing on the cake. Now I have to get another gallon (custom mixed, at 45 bucks, the first gallon was 9 bucks off the 'oops' rack), but I still have to make 4 more drilling stands and paint those too, so what the heck. It was a lot more surface than I expected and with a 4" brush it took a lot longer than I expected.
These are the tables, about 3' x 6' and all the shelves have trim edges to keep things from sliding off.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220308_180320901.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646787639)
And these are the horses, one at each end end of the tables, asymmetrical:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220308_180411643.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1646787712)
The unfinished one is in the background.
I'll be honest, it's gonna kill me to lay out that money for a custom color in a higher quality sealer, but the final job will look good and have the right stuff on it. Still buying paint, of all things, Geez! Did I mention I hate to paint stuff?
Tomorrow it's supposed to snow, but I'll get down and get this paint bought and finish up the one horse left, then do the spots I missed because as you know, I hate painting (I may have already mentioned that).
But it's another day, right?
Didn't realize these mushroom tables got custom paint jobs .. 8)
Quote from: Nebraska on March 08, 2022, 10:10:46 PM
Didn't realize these mushroom tables got custom paint jobs .. 8)
I didn't either. :D
Now that you have a design figured out it would be easier to make a cut list and paint the pieces before assembly.
Yeah, that is the plan going forward. But you touched on something I whiffed on. I have a design, but no drawings. :D
I should probably get on that before I deliver them. All the dimensions are in my head. At least most of them. ;D
Right now it is snowing steady and out entire half of town has no power, so the shop is dark. But I should get on that.
Act like Ben Franklin and draw by candlelight.
Ha! that was 2 days ago and I still don't have drawings. ;D It just doesn't appeal to me and I keep walking past it. I'll force myself to get it done before these go out.
Had a great day today even though I didn't earn a penny. I had a chiro appt. which pretty much kills my workday normally, but got a call form Bill about a cut they were doing with some mushroom logs. I had already planned on a visit up to NYBHH's place, it's been too many months since my last visit, so I figured a way to get in both visits.
We got home from the Doc and I changed boots and headed up the mountain. I found the property much easier this time (last time I drove around for 30 minutes on the private roads looking for the right driveway), but it took a few minutes of walking around until I heard the skidder screaming, then some chainsaws. They have some stuff I can use, but the issue is getting it out. It's an estate type setting and I can't tear up the nicely laid lawns and landscaping, etc. I had arrived just in time for their lunch break and Bill had a hired cutter there who I knew, he developed the property across the road from us years ago. He's a crusty old guy and I enjoyed visiting with him. Anyway, we figured a rough plan and will work it out as we go. I just have to get in there and get to work on the next available day. Weather tomorrow could put us off for 4 or 5 days. No more freezing in sight and this is a wet spot, a foot of snow will make it rough for a bit. Logs are logs, I will take them where I can get them. ;D
I picked up a new order last evening and another this morning, so I am 100 logs behind right now.
After I left the cut site I headed up to Brandon's and we had a nice time catching up and talking a lot of stuff through. He is doing some really beautiful work on his shop/office/recreation space and I am extremely jealous. Between his skill, attention to small details, and patience, the place looks like it should be in a magazine spread.
We started trying to work out a plan on some things going forward. At any rate I really enjoyed to visit with him. I missed that more than I realized. I have been so busy either being sick or working through each day at a time that I missed taking a day out and visit job sites or people. Sometimes I run right past the important stuff and I need to be aware of that.
Tomorrow we may get a foot of snow dumped. Not sure if Barge will get more than us, but most likely because he is an overachiever. :D Anyway, with the ground not really re-freezing, and the snow on top of that it will make for some pretty lousy conditions. What I wouldn't give for one more week of frozen ground... but it looks like the daytime highs for the next week or more will be 40° or better. I guess the arty is over. I pass cut sites all the time now and two things are happening: they are cutting and skidding to landings as fast as they can, and they are burning as much brush as they can because the state burn ban starts on the 16th. Lots of fires around right now and tomorrow will be a good day for the big ones. I might just have one myself. ;D
But tomorrow is another day and we'll see what happens.
Tom,
I wonder if the snow provides an opportunity to get your new logs out of some type of sled? Do you guys have and use a snowmobile that you could use in this new site to keep from tearing up the owners landscaping or such? If not it might be an opportunity for using some snatch blocks and rope or cable to slide them out.
Congrats on the new log orders and sources. Let us know how it all works out.
How is the ear BTW?
Sources come day by ay, or week by week. This one is likely to be more work that it is worth, but if I fill the orders and balance that against the sources that are really too easy, it all works out.
A snow machine is something I have actually looked into. It's one thing Bill doesn't have (yet) and neither do I. The window for using such is small for us here and dubious at best. We are between heavy predictable snow seasons and no reasonable snow. It's a crapshoot for us. If I did have one this winter, I might have needed or used it 3-4 days and it might have given me an extra day cutting that I blew off because of conditions. Every winter is different here. Frankly, with the current conditions and depending on the actual amount of snowfall we get tomorrow, I am not sure I wouldn't tear things up anyway, even with a snow machine.
I walk a tightrope doing this stuff. My logger friends share these opportunities with me knowing, or expecting, that I will be a low impact guy (in and out quick, no damage). I need to hold that idea forefront in my mind and stick to it. I can NOT make more work for them (remediation, fixing ground, etc.). Sometimes I have to take pass because it will cause more work for them. This one is right on the edge and since I think I can only pull 40-60 logs (tops) out of it I have to be a bit cautious. You know how it goes, one bad job can seal you off from a source forever. I am not risking that. My relationship wit my sources is more important than my relationship with buyers.
Lets see what this weather brings, then Monday let's see what I can pull off. Likely, this storm may hold everything off for a few days.
Tom,
Thanks (But you forgot about the ear - maybe you did not hear me ask. :D)
I can see where you are walking a tightrope there. You need to be helping or at least not hindering your logger friends to stay in their good graces and keep the free logs coming.
I guess an ATV or UTV is probably the best low impact machine available to most of us. Using them with sleds and snatch blocks and small balloon tire trailers and such probably gets you as close to the site with as little damage in and out as anything else out there. I had a guy bring a pair of mules in one time to drag some big logs out and the damage was very little different than my ATV but they were fun and impressive to watch with a good operator.
I have moved some pretty big logs with my ATV by watching the weather conditions and waiting for frozen ground at some times of the year or dry weather at others. That's okay for a semi-hobbyist but won't work for someone having to do it day in and day out to support a family.
Well I think I heared you Howard, I ain't Deef.
The issue on this job is that it's a big side hill. Anything moving across it is likely to make a mess given the seeps and pond overflows, etc. It's rough enough that Bill grabs up his hitch with a few trees and drops over the bank and disappears in 3 seconds, then all you can hear is the skidder wailing along below, out of sight for about a mile till he reaches the landing by the main road where he can grab to logs with the log truck. Every hitch is about a 20 minute loop. Even a run back to the truck for saw gas with the 4 wheeler take 20 minutes.
We discussed bringing in my SXS for the job, but I think it's too sloped and rough. We think we may just have me cut all my logs and stack them, and then borrow the tracked skid steer and latch up the grapple bucket and shuttle logs. Even that is dicey given this terrain.
Whatever it winds up, I won't mess them up. If need be, I will give them a day of my labor and walk away from the logs. Anytime I have been invited to take logs, I always put in my time feeding the chipper and pulling junk out to help with the job. So if I just do that and help them out, that's fine too. I'll get logs elsewhere.
Well another day that didn't end up the way I planned. :D I am absolutely bushed and tuckered out. My plan was to go cut and stack some mushroom logs, then get out of there and head to the mill for a few hours. They (we) are working on a 'view clearing' job as a follwup on a heavier cutting job on the same property last summer. Pretty site (now).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220311_130916052.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647300727)
That photo is taken from up by the house. We are cutting just down over the drop in front of this photo. It's a full blown job, probably 50 large trees or more going out and we have the skidder running a mile hitch down over the back to the landing, it's a hairy path and the site has to be left very clean, so we are burning the tops as we go. The faller takes 'em down, the skidder pulls the whole tree to where we can work on it. We limb it, then the hitch goes down the hill while I take mushroom logs and stack brush for the grapple and the rest goes on the burn pile. Even though it's a 20 minute skid loop it is proving a full time job for me to cut and stack my logs, then grab brush and stack it for the grapple SS to throw on the fire and when the skidder comes back, the skidder operator finds me trying to catch my wind. I felt like I was running all day. When I work with this crew I have to keep up the pace and that can be a bit trying on an old guy. I skipped breakfast and never had lunch either, thinking I could stop at the house between cutting and milling. :D
As I said, I figured a few hours. That turned into almost 8 hours. When I got there some seeps were coming up here and there and a few wet spots, but the ground was fairly firm. By the time we quit I was slogging through 10" deep slop. It's all loose ground on a side hill, so tonight my legs are like jello and I have cramps in one. For some reason I have a rash on both forearms again, dangit. It sucks to get old.
I was planning to work the mill tomorrow, but then found out they have to finish this job tomorrow because after that they can't burn (burn ban for 2 months). It's gonna be a bear to get my logs out on this one and I have to put the guys out a bit helping me with the skid steer. We are still thinking on the most efficient method, but will likely use the root grapple. I am bringing over my small trailer tomorrow. I think I cut somewhere between 45 and 60 logs. That will put me close to covering the existing orders except the 40 for my monthly regular client.
I got home with just enough time to offload my small trailer of firewood rounds and hook it up for tomorrow, get my muddy boots off and sit down to dinner. Yeah, I'm pooped out.
Tomorrow is another day.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on March 14, 2022, 08:14:26 PMIt sucks to get old.
Yes, but it sure beats the alternative! ::) ;) :D
If you can't burn do you have and can you use a chipper to chop up the brush?
Congrats on the continuing mushroom log supplies. Sounds like you are earning them but I'm glad to hear they are going to good homes for useful purposes. Sounds like there are going to be some happy customers.
A nice view. That will take some work on keeping those trees limbs off. And that ground looks rough too. Looks like impossible to run even a push mower around the trees. Will also take some time to keep up on the dead limbs that fall of too.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10436/across_garage2013thecfarm1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1366117182)
I don't have a nice view through the trees, but this is right by the house. Almost a full time job to keep it looking like this.
Than I have another spot that I am kinda doing the same thing. ::)
Well, yeah, we could chip but....
If you look at the photo above, it was a crowded woodlot 16 months ago. Trees were marked and cut, the area stumped, then graded and you can see the line where they stopped laying down sod. This would be the access route and we can't take vehicles across that, we would tear it up and this is a very high dollar place. We can take a circuitous route around the steep side hill with a skid steer or 4 wheeler (which we use for fuel and tool runs), but that's about it. Pulling in a big chipper would be very rough but we could do it and the price would go way up. It was put to the landowner and he is ok with us making a big brush pile after that ban goes in effect to burn at a later date, but frankly, we want to just git 'er done. We are pretty close. 6 trees or less left in remote corners of the cut. The trees are being felled in order to make for the easiest hitching and skidding, so the skidder and the faller take turns hop scotching around the site to let the other guy work. It's probably a 100 by 400 yard area. We need to do a good clean and complete job. Bill is sure when the landowner sees the result, he is going to mark more trees and have him back. These folks really want a perfect view and apparently want to pay for it. ;D
Yeah, I take the logs where I can get them. Sometimes I cut and load 35 logs and help with cleanup and am gone in under an hour, and sometimes it's a whole day. It balances out. I'd have to check but between the logs I have on order and the ones already sold, I am into the season for about 500 logs so far. Last year at this time I was just over 100 and thought I was done.
Yeah Cfarm, they seem to be doing the same thing. When they cut last year I am sure they took well over 200 trees of mostly junk out. The ground here is steep, but not rough like it is in our area. We have all shale and it's really tough keeping your feet. This place is about 12 miles from us, but higher and has a lot of dirt and a lot less shale. Your cut there looks really appealing. As for the view, I have a short video, but I just don't have the focus and energy to upload it tonight. Sorry. Their view looks at the Blackhead range in the eastern Catskills.
Looks like a lot to keep up with OGH, but that view is pretty incredible. I did similarly in my yard but was only a few trees and my view is of the local landfill mountain about 2 miles directly east of me.
Well I said I was pooped yesterday and tonight I am flat out just shot through. :D It was hard getting my old butt out the door before 8:30, glad I hitched the trailer last night. Also glad I noticed this morning that I never cranked the jack all the way up. ;D
The mud is like bad pea soup (not the great stuff my wife makes).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220315_140454208.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647375597)
It really wears out the legs. About 10" deep. As expected, the landowner added a couple more trees to the cut, so we took 4 more today. Skidded out the big stuff, cut the rest for firewood if I could not make mushroom logs out of it. I cut about another 20 logs. We tended the burn pile trying to get it all done, did a bunch more cleanup and bucked and hand-split a load of firewood. Then the skid steer op and I collected the logs and he ran them up to my trailer. It took 5 loops and I still had no idea how many I had cut. I had the small trailer, 5x8 I think. I didn't expect to fill it. When we walked out I found this load:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220315_173520684.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647384794)
Turned out to be 92 logs and I am surprised that trailer handled it ok. We got out of there at about 3:30, so a decent day. They still have to fetch out the firewood, do a little more dressing up, load the logs truck and some other stuff that I can't really help with much. I did mention that video I shot yesterday, so here is that:
Harvest site - YouTube (https://youtu.be/NefWq4Jf3VU)
At least today I had breakfast before I left and had a couple of boiled eggs and an orange for lunch. All in all a pretty nice day. It hit 61° and we were taking off and putting on sweatshirts as the clouds came and went.
Tomorrow we have to do the monthly food shopping, then maybe I will get to the mill. Maybe.
Tom,
Nice load and I don't envy the soupy mud.
I see the top log on the trailer by the rail had a good sized limb cut off. Does that affect your mushroom growing? Can you drill into a bare spot like that or do you need to bore into a bark covered area or does it make any difference?
If it weren't for 'limb cut' logs I wouldn't have very many logs. :D Those can be waxed over when they are sealing the spawn holes. The only concern is entry points for insects or other spores. Once the target mycelium is growing, it has dominance and those small invasions are less important. I tell everyone to do this, but few do. I suppose you could drill those areas. The idea is the get the spawn in the logs in many areas and then the mycelium spreads out in a network and mushrooms break out wherever they decide to. Almost always they do not fruit out of the inoculation holes. I don't know why. I just cut logs. :D
That's interesting the fruit doesn't usually come out of the hole it's placed in. Wonder if the wax forces it to go elsewhere?
That was plumb ugly mud!
Yeah, Nebraska, and that would be fine, but in some spots it was deep enough to suck in half your lower leg and you could never tell where those spots are. The mud is still drying on my boots so I can chip it off with a putty knife later. ;D
Newood; It's a fascinating thing about mushrooms and how they grow. They don't set roots from a seed. The spawn creates a mycelium network inside the log that goes in every direction until it encounters a competing species and then it just goes around it or stops there. This network digests the nutrients within all parts of the logs and grows itself. When conditions are right for fruiting, it comes out of the host wherever it is strongest. There is a movie out called 'Fantastic Fungi' which was on Netflix for a while (maybe still?) and it explains and shows this process and a lot more. There are some 'interesting theories' presented in the movie about other aspects of mushrooms and their effects on humans. Not sure I subscribe to them, but the photography in that movie and the scientific explanations of how mushrooms 'work' is fascinating. I have met a couple of the people shown in that movie and don't necessarily subscribe to all their theories and opinions, but they do know their stuff.
I still remember reading an article about "The Mighty mushroom" where a mushroom grew in the crack of a city sidewalk and actually pushed the 2 sidewalk panels up about 6" or more. I don't remember if it was an edible species. :D
I recently heard that there is debate on what to call mushrooms; plants or animals, and there may be evidence on either. It's interesting how much we don't seem to understand about mushrooms. Looking at the Morell there has been legit debate on how they arrive, as there aren't many people who've seen them come up from the ground, one day they are just there.
I'll have to look for that movie OGH, thanks, I've seen other documentaries espousing the virtue of some kinds of mushrooms on those with migraines and some other mental issues, not to mention the spiritual side of some of them, which I find fascinating.
Isn't the biggest living thing on the planet a mushroom?
I have been told it is the aspen tree.
The Aspen is up there! Here's an article (https://www.treehugger.com/largest-living-things-organisms-planet-4859216)- who knows if it's accurate, and I'm sure there are things we don't even know or understand exists.
Largest, heaviest, tallest, it's all relative. HERE (http://chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fs.usda.gov%2FInternet%2FFSE_DOCUMENTS%2Ffsbdev3_033146.pdf&clen=1201848&chunk=true) is a more technical article from the Forest service on that fungi colony. They are all amazing organisms.
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So off and on over the last 2 weeks I have been messing around with some Maple Business cards that Doc made and sent me. They came out really nice all by themselves and he left up it up to me how I was to finish them, or not. I took a few and tried a light sanding on some, no sanding, water based, or oil based urethane. The thin maple is subject to curling if wetted, so I wanted to seal them a bit considering what he goes through to get them flat in the first place. ;D
But I don't want to hand these out to just anybody, so I started thinking on different ways to use them. I took some nice cherry I had and cut a few blanks out the same size as the cards and glued them on.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220306_135641872.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647526008)
Then I ordered some hardware and made these up:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220307_162756637.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647526010)
No particular idea why I did that, but I thought I might like to have one, so I tried a few. I finished these with Danish oil covered with oil poly. They didn't come out too bad and the laser work looks great. (yeah, photo is backwards and before poly.)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220307_160651782.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647526751)
Then about halfway through that I came up with another little idea to hold business cards. So I made up two of these, setting the maple card in a recess to come flush with the top.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220313_171558017.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647526015)
Still poking around for more ideas to use these on. I may make up a template guide for my router to take out a mortise pocket for these to drop into, then I could put them on the bottoms of tables and things I make and seat them into an epoxy bed.
It was a very nice surprise to get those cards from Doc and it gave me something small to work on while my ear was giving me so much trouble. I am not in a hurry to use them up. I will let it stew in my head for a while and maybe come up with other ideas. I'm sure Howard will have an idea or 3. :D
That's pretty cool Tom!
they look great, and I love the idea to make other things with them. Howard would have clamped them on the sawmill to trim the edges! 8) :o :D :) ;) @WV Sawmiller (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=28064)
I have heard too, that an aspen grove somewhere is the largest single living thing. I read an article about it and it mentioned that Aspen rarely propagate from seed and mainly from roots sending up new shoots.
Quote from: firefighter ontheside on March 17, 2022, 07:47:00 PM
I have heard too, that an aspen grove somewhere is the largest single living thing. I read an article about it and it mentioned that Aspen rarely propagate from seed and mainly from roots sending up new shoots.
Bill, if you check out the link aigheadish posted, it lists a bunch of things and those Aspen are in there as well as the fungi thing. You decide. :D ;D
Doc, I think you just threw down a gauntlet or soggy sawdust covered glove or something. Let's see if Howard bites on this one. ;D (and how hard.) I smell steam or smoke or something else wafting up on a south wind, so he is likely pondering it. :D
I am sure other ideas will pop up, I just need to let it percolate in my head for a while and not push it. The best ideas come on their own.
Booking entertainment at parties? Call the Catskill fun guy! ;D
Ha! Yeah, gonna share that one with the right guy! Just for the record, Catskill Fungi is a partner, It's not me. But it is a catchy name, isn't it? He had said he like some of my cards on his display table at his workshops, so that was how I came up with that idea.
well, I see he clicked like, but said nothing! hmmmm. :)
He's conjuring.
My ears are burning so youse guy's must be talking about me (again).
Since the topic of laser engraving is an issue I don't do, I know nothing about, and know I know nothing about it I couldn't see no reason to comment none about it. ::)
The cards look nice but kind of like Dolly Parton said on Straight Talk "A fish and a bird can fall in love but where they gonna build their house?"
It is a novel and no doubt memorable approach to business cards but how much of a return do you expect from them? I thought putting the basic information on the front and adding a 1/4" Log Scale on the back (An idea I believe I stole from Tom The Sawyer) was sufficiently creative, practical and inexpensive enough for me to hand them out en masse at flea markets or wood shows or leave on the counters at likely businesses. And my simple paper cards are stuck on fridges with magnets all over my area. (I wonder how the wooden cards do under fridge magnets? ???)
Now when you can inoculate them with mushroom spores and have them start growing mushrooms in people's wallets I think you will have really nailed it. ;) :D
Did you know ... (Oops - wrong thread.)
I think you could embed a magnet so they can read it right on the fridge. good idea Howard! ;)
I still think the guy that does the board electrocution should start a thread! electricuted-smiley
Quote from: doc henderson on March 17, 2022, 11:46:47 PM
I think you could embed a magnet so they can read it right on the fridge. good idea Howard! ;)
Send me one and I'll stick it on my fridge. ;D (Send me 3 - I have an upstairs fridge, a downstairs fridge and one out in my log barn.)
I ordered some adhesive backed magnetic sheet this morning and I will give it a try. Good idea.
I expect no return from these. They are expensive to make and were a gift. I will hand a few out to special friends and maybe repeat clients, but am thinking on higher uses for them.
I am off to the mill to get back in the groove.
Just when I thought WV wasn't coming up with anything he drops wallet shrooms. Good stuff.
Wallet Mushrooms, I like it. We will have to grant Howard a paten on that one. ;D He owns it now.
----
Well I will mark today as a great day. It's hard to throw your leg up to the stirrup for the first time in a while but today I got back on the horse and got the mill running again. I knew it would be a slower start trying to figure out where I left off and what parts were done on which orders, etc. But you gotta start somewhere, right? I threw my gear in the truck, filled a few gallon jugs with water for the lube and bypassed the toolcat and just worked out of the truck.
I got everything checked and the lube filled, fuel topped off, checked my cut list and was off. A little slow for the first hour getting my hands retrained, but it all fell in eventually. This 1-1/2" material is making me nuts because I can't take 2x or 1x off as side boards in the same slab. I can't wait until this order is done! So I diddled around a bit trying to maximize the yield from these nice logs and not waste a lot in the opening slabs. Only 300 BF (billable) for the session but a bunch of 2x4's and 1-1/2 x 4's thrown in the truck, which I don't count against the paid work. I'll use those for the drilling stands I have to build (4x) and the bunks I am building for lumber storage.
The weather was just a perfect day with almost no wind and the temp hit 71° around 3pm. I went form jacket/vest/shirt/t-shirt down to a t-shirt in about 2 hours. When I sat down to have my lunch (2 boiled eggs, an orange, a bottle of water, and a cigarette) it was SO quiet and peaceful I could have just spent the rest of the day like that.
Just a very enjoyable day all around and there are few things better than that. In fact, it might have been the perfect day.
Tomorrow they are calling for a rainout. I was hoping to get that run done to Woodmizer, but they aren't open on Saturday. Maybe next Thursday will be a good day for that. In the meantime, I will send the day in the shop tomorrow making Loginators. :D ;D
It's nice to hear of a good day for you after some of the struggly ones Tom!
Well any 'struggling' I may do still weighs in as a much better day than that *&^%# job I retired from 2 years ago. :D
And the good days continued.... Saturday rained, but nothing near what was predicted. I stuck to my plan (for a rare change) and worked in the shop. In the morning I cut a mess of parts for the 2 loginators I needed to build. Then painted the parts before lunch. My wife even came out to help because she likes to paint. I don't think I mentioned it, but I HATE to paint. I had parts spread out on every saw horse in the shop.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220320_092433842.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647863805)
After lunch I cut the transition ramps I needed (above) and painted those, the did touch up paint on the previous stuff. I put the basic sawhorses together. The I did a little figuring on how to make the cover support for whole rig. and worked the design. I finished up after dinner.
Sunday I cut all the parts for the cover supports and painted those. Then I started finishing the loginators making the backstops, and assembling it all on the sawhorses with the wheels. I am now out of wheels. My son got a used ATV and bought new rear tires for it. He brought those over and between my work I help him mount the new tires (great fun!). Then I assembled the cover supports. The shop is a crowded mess now with parts everywhere.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220320_195542680.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647863812)
After dinner, I went back out to finish off the weekend goal of getting some more bunks made for the sawmill. I had enough to make 4 more of those and here is a poor photo of them waiting get get thrown in the truck.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220320_195532554.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647863807)
Sometime Saturday morning I discovered this bump thing on my elbow. I have no idea where I got it or why I have it. There is no pain and was no injury. I consulted with my highly regarded medical team and we are pretty sure it is bursitis. But no idea why. We are calling it an 'El-boob'. We'll just see what happens. It should go away in a few weeks.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220319_174956202.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647863801)
Today I am off the Harbor Freight for needed supplies. But I just found out the oil burner ain't working, so I have to dig into that first.
Just another day in paradise. ;D
the projects look good. what idiot came up with that name? :) and for God's sake, put some clothes on that thing! :snowball: :D :D :D
I had an uncle with an el-boob. I don't know if it was bursitis but he didn't have any issues with his either and it went away, I don't remember if he had to do something to take care of it or not. Maybe it's holding beer or bourbon for later?
which side is it on? if that is your beer drinking arm, maybe you wore it out! smiley_beertoast
It's my left arm, but for consumption tasks I am ambidextrous and sometimes bidextrous. ;D When I put a compression wrap on it in the evenings it does hamper my ability to use that left arm for the purpose for which it was intended. I will live. At least my ear is nearly clear with just a touch of vibration when I talk.
-------------------
BUT, things went from really good to really poor pretty quickly. My post this morning ended when the heat went out. It didn't take me long at all to figure out that the tank was empty. We had a recent delivery. I will say no more about this (and hopefully neither will y'all) except that after a lot of scrambling and humping today, there is a replacement tank all set and waiting for an oil delivery tomorrow and the house is running nicely off a 5 gallon jug. End of story.
But wait, it gets worse. When taking a break from leveling some ground and setting blocks I walked out to fetch the mail. While walking up the driveway I am thinking that the rear right tire on my wife's van don't look right. Sure enough, the rear axle is rotted through and the tire is at an angle. I have no idea what to do about it yet. Too much to handle in one morning. Maybe I could find somebody to replace it, maybe we gotta replace the vehicle, I just don't know yet. My mechanic is out of town on vacation. I looked around a bit, but I am not sure what all is involved in getting an axle. The process for new we can live with but the shipping is another $300 on top of that. Then all the work to replace it. I just don't know. My head is spinning. :(
Once I remediated the first disaster and while pondering on the second I just got in the truck and ran down to Bill's to see how they were making out. They are spending today and tomorrow putting the raised seam metal roof on his shop extension. This is 5 years in the making and we just missed the window in early winter but just the paper on it anyway. Today they have the material and the machine and are rolling out sheets as fast as they can. It looks really good. It did me good to see it. When that is done, we start blowing and going on the B&B siding, windows, then doors. Then the radiant heat loop in the floor will have to get charged and turned on. 5 years, one section and piece at a time between jobs. It did my heart good to see it.
Then I ran out to get milk and put some gas in the truck (which is also painful). I needed something to make ME feel better about the day. So I have needed a sign I can put at the end of the driveway to help folks find me when they are coming. A couple of weeks ago I ordered a sign from Vistaprint that is easy to see and colorful. It's on coroplast and I wanted to make a decent wood frame to hold it that looks nice. Something with feet I could carry out and set there, then bring it back in. I don't want a full time sign. A lot of guys here know what kind of issues that can bring. So this afternoon I started working on that and the next thing I know, the wife is texting me to come in for dinner.
I never got to Harbor freight today.
Some days are harder than others. Tomorrow is another one.
Sorry for the bumps in the road today. Hopefully tomorrow will make up for it all.
If you need us to help take some of the heavy load off your plate I can contact Doc and Nebraska and the rest of design crew and I am sure we can come up with a killer design for your sign. :D :D
Good luck.
We are not from the government, but we are here to help. ;D
Yes, your entire Design Helpers Team is sitting on Ready.
READY!...
First we need to see said sign... :)
OK, but let's wait until I am nearly done like we usually do. :D
Hang in there, Tom.
I'm interested to see the sign too!
OGH, the executive team has received your suggestion, and will let you know before the first of the year! :)
Quote from: Nebraska on March 22, 2022, 07:23:50 AM
First we need to see said sign... :)
Naah, that's too much information and would probably just muddy the waters with extraneous facts and such. I am confident we can certainly come up with a better idea in our committee.
Don't they say a camel is just a horse designed by committee? :D
OK, if it pleases the assembled committee I submit the following for your kind consideration. First, as requested (with 1 noted dissenting), a photo of said sign:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220322_113913189.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647991891)
Then, lacking any advance guidance forthcoming from the esteemed committee, I commenced to stumbling through on my own. I cut up some parts:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220322_120757782.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647991892)
It's all EWP, some fresh, some left over that NYBHH gave me 2 years ago. Then I threw some stain on it just for a little color:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220322_124332485.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647991897)
After lunch, I put it together for a test. It's screwed together with brass wood screws. I hope this fits in with what the committee has in mind:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220322_160058295.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1647991899)
After that I removed the sign and started spraying on some coats of oil based urethane in case it gets wet. I don't plan on leaving it out all the time, attracts too much attention, but just to put it out when folks are coming 'by appointment'.
I may make a little roof for it. I am still pondering that. The little project was just to get this off my list and also take my mind off the car problems until I figure out how to handle that.
OK guys, go ahead and have at it.
When I saw the first photo I thought, is he trying to make us think he painted the sign given the paint brushes and foam brushes in the picture!?! I knew better given your love for painting.
Good job on the the stand, looks nice! If you decide to do a cover build it so you can suspend the sign from the cover. You can then do away with the legs and wind will not knock it over. You could use carabiners to suspend it.
Yeah no, that is just a commercial sign I had printed on coroplast. :D The logo itself I hired a pro artist I know and like her work to create for me a year or so ago. I think she did a nice job and she gave me al the artwork in digital format in various layers. It was my way of keeping starving artists working through the COVID thing, while also helping me look good.
Anyway, if I do a roof, it will just be a little one mounted on the top of this stand. This is intended to put out on days I expect clients to visit, then remove back to the shop. My zoning allows for a home based business with very limited traffic (which I fall way under) and a sign of a certain size, which I believe this fits in. But I have no desire to have unexpected people stopping in to ask questions and buy nothing, but perhaps complain about something or bring unwanted attention. If I were to put up a permanent sign, it would be a smaller shingle for sure.
Funny but most folks who come here to pick stuff up and have good directions (I tell them it is 7/10's of a mile down from the corner on the right, green house, 1st driveway) blow right past it at 35 mph. I had been telling them I will put an orange traffic cone at the end of my driveway and more than half still blow past it as I stand at the shop and wave as they go by. So for that reason, I had this sign printed on both sides, so when they go by, turn around, then come back, they have a second chance to see it. ;D
Tom,
Well, that will probably work till our committee meets again. :D
We will probably propose a mushroom shape. Or maybe the roof can look like a giant mushroom. ::)
Well done. Looks good. ;)
Its gonna need some diagonal bracing ;D.
Yeah, I knew that would come up. :D :D But I did all the math and consulted with a lot of DonP's posts regrading such and found that the actual sheet value of the sign itself provides that anti-racking support. Kind of like 1/4" plywood on the backing of a bookshelf.
Next? ;D
It looks a little tall on the right but you can put it on the mill and resaw both to get them the same height and angle. ;)
I think live edge on the diagonal braces will be a nice touch too. ;D
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 22, 2022, 10:33:08 PM
It looks a little tall on the right but you can put it on the mill and resaw both to get them the same height and angle. ;)
I think live edge on the diagonal braces will be a nice touch too. ;D
AH, here we go now....
very nice for a guy that is not a woodworker! :D :D :D. could make a little sign to hang below with your cell number so folks can make an appointment. but that may exceed you stated goals. even a board as a flat roof would add some interest and keep water out of the top joints. looks great. OH, and a hitch and rear wheels so it can be towed by the mule... and led down lighting with a battery and solar charger. But I am exercising restraint as to not get too involved in and take away from your very nice design... maybe a water dispenser, and a little rack for business cards, but that may be approaching the proverbial OTT. (Over the top) :o 8) :) :D. well done, and so quick, we could barely think of any suggestions. :snowball:
Looks great OGH!
I have the same issue with my driveway, though I only get deliveries, but rarely does someone not blow by my driveway. I kind of like it that way but it makes my neighbor nuts when folks use his driveway to turn around. I added a pretty substantial slab of wood I pounded into the ground and cut some big address numbers that got screwed to it. I don't know how long it'll last but it looks cool.
Doc kinda thought along the same lines I was. At least with a wagon to set it in. I hadn't gotten as far as donkey cart. :)
I would put some eye bolts (or some other means of attaching a bungee cord to a couple earth anchors, because around here that would likely become a kite. It does look nice and will surely help guide folks in.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on March 22, 2022, 09:04:34 PM
Yeah no, that is just a commercial sign I had printed on coroplast. :D The logo itself I hired a pro artist I know and like her work to create for me a year or so ago.
Anyway, if I do a roof, it will just be a little one mounted on the top of this stand. This is intended to put out on days I expect clients to visit, then remove back to the shop.
I remember when you shared the design, it was/is a hit.
The thought on the sign was to plant posts with a small shed or gable style roof. Eye bolts could be attached. When needed the frame with your business logo could be carried out and attached with carabiners. Whatever is the simplest for the proprietor.
That right shoe does not look the same size as the left one. Like wearing one 13 EEE on one foot and an 11 D on the other.
Danny, I assure you the feet are the same size. Look at the second photo in the posting above and you can se better. Nobody could miss by that much. :D
Sam, that would be a good idea and I briefly considered it but let it go because A) the area this needs to go is solid ledge and I would have to hammer a hole to get any post in, and 2) because I push snow up there when plowing in the winter and no matter how careful I am, I know I will wind up taking it out.
I had also considered the wheels and such, but this thing is so light that it is just easier to carry. I may add a handle at some point.
Doc, you're right, I should have put the phone # on the sign. Next time. Maybe I will do an adder at some point.
A full day of odds and ends today. This morning I ran a small log delivery over the hill to an outdoor educational facility and got to do some catching up with staff friends there. Came back and dropped the trailer, then picked up my son and we finally got up to harbor freight. Between the two of us we dropped nearly 600 bucks on odds and ends. But we got it done.
Came home from that and I put the tarp on the log inoculation bench and figured out how to secure it. That's all I needed to compete the project.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220323_154553833.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648077405)
Having that done, I decided to go ahead without the committee's consent and add a little roof on that sign. I had some white cedar lap siding scraps, so I used that. Stained it to match the rest of the frame and that is 'done'.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220323_175645501.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648077407)
For a quick and dirty job, I don't think it came out bad at all.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220323_175653110.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648077410)
Then I ran down to Bill's to see how the roof is coming and it's nearly done. They have the valleys to trim in yet and ran out of painted screws. Rain all day tomorrow, so they will pick it up on Friday. SO we decided we will finally do that Woodmizer run tomorrow and stop at JS Logging and Charlie Stahl's logging on the way. Should be about a 9 hour loop not counting shopping time. ;D
So nothing earth shattering got done, but I got a few things off my plate. Tomorrow is just a lot of riding in the truck and spending money. It seems to go out as fast as it comes in, actually, it goes out faster. :(
looks great! and to quote Forest Gump, "and that's all I got to say about that"! :)
Well, I guess the old adage "Its better to ask forgiveness than permission applies here." While those of us on the committee may feel slighted by not being consulted in advance, the general consensus is "You done good." thumbs-up
(Is it too late to add a live edge lap shingle roof? Oh, never mind...) :D
Thanks guys. It's just one of those 'little things' that I always wanted to get done. Now it's done.
Yes Howard, it is too late. The committee had it's chance and whiffed on it. I did the best I could on my own. Snooze, you loose. :D
When I was at harbor freight I looked around for a cheap solar walkway light I could take apart and put the collection panel on the 'roof' and the light inside but decided against it. I only leave the sign out overnight by accident and again, too much attention.
I was happy to use up just a little of that cedar. I have a mess of it in 10' lengths. It was ripped off of full width boards to finish the last course around a house job my son did. Between 3 and 4" wide, so kind of oddball. I may paint some oil urethane on the top to help shed water next time I have a can open.
I got an email last night from one of my clients using the Loginator. He is nearing the end of inoculating about 130 logs and was also using it for holding up the totem logs (around 200#) to cut them, like a saw buck. This was not within the market spec for the unit, but what the heck, it worked. Until it didn't. Apparently he put a big log on it and split the 1x12 which makes up the table surface which the chocks and wheels are bolted to. I could not tell if he was angry in his note. I reminded him that it was not intended for such use, but said I would fix the whole thing if he brought it back, or give him a (heavier) replacement board to do his own repair. Or he could effect his own fix which would not be hard and take about 10 minutes. I'll stand behind it and do what he wants. I'd rather have a happy customer then save the cost of a simple board, especially given the amount he has already spent with me. He hasn't replied back yet.
Gee a guy makes his own HF run last night and misses out on that input session. Looks good with that roof. :) but I agree with Howard on the 'live edge aspect"...
Well this was the only tapered material I have. I do have some thing live edge cherry, but I ain't gonna waste it on this. As it is, that white cedar cost somebody 2 arms and a leg (not me).
If somebody wanted to send me the 'right material', I would give it a look over and think about it. :D
Gotta get on the road to WM. Were are picking up the new resaw attachment to make tapered siding on the LT50.
Everybody have a productive day!
Sign looks great!
The broken Loginator was probably due for a good kill test, right? Finding the limits of stuff like that is important!
You speak, often, of stopping to catch up with old friends... Have you (or any of you guys) found a way to catch up but not for hours and hours? I'm great with a half hour conversation but I've got 2 neighbors, that I really like, but it's easy to get caught in chatting for 2 hours if I let it. I don't want to be a jerk and I know there is value in these conversations but man, sometimes it's tough. I usually use the standby of "welp, I've got to go get some stuff done" but I also don't want to put people off. Even though they are neighbors it's not uncommon to go a month or two without talking to them and they have interesting things to say but...
I don't know why you say the design committee whiffed on this one. We were working at our normal speed taking due diligence to prevent future law suits from a truck load of nuns who might be injured by flying sign debris in a storm of the century winds because the sign lacked corner bracing and was not properly anchored or positioned to avoid such breezes. ;)
We on the design committee voted on whether to sanction you for failure to consult with us prior to proceeding. The vote was 57-4 but since it fell just short of the 94% approval required for such sanctions you dodged the bullet again this time. :D
Howard, I am having a hard time understanding how you got a vote count like that with only a half dozen folks on your committee. Maybe a math problem? Either way, like so many Americans these days, I don't like your numbers so I am calling them 'fake'. :D ;D It's over anyway and I have accepted full liability for the design all along anyway, so no worries. If any engineering issues coem to light down the road, I will be sure to inform the committee in due time.
Aigheadish, I consider that there are two (probably more) distinct forms of 'catching up'. The one yesterday was just 10-20 minutes while we worked unloading and just a few minutes after. We all have things we are supposed to be doing and respect each others time. But given the long lapses of time between visits these days, some catching up is in order. The caretaker there I know and also knew he recently lost his Dad. We talked in private about that for a bit before the others showed up. I was only on the property for less than an hour total, doing business most of that time.
Now the other kind is a longer period, sometimes hours. For those I never 'drop in' or 'drop by' unannounced. I find that rude and most times make an 'appointment' or a time that fits both parties and the time is allotted for a good long catch up. An example of this is meeting with NYBHH. We always have a lot to talk about. I so enjoy seeing the beautiful and artist work he is doing on his place and it takes a little time to take it all in and understand how he handled the details. Plus he is just an interesting guy and we always get into conversations that can 'range' a bit. (Fun fact, he has good taste in beer too.) You take a guy like Barge. Everybody knows he works past dark to dark most days and he has a lot of irons in the fire. I would never drop in unannounced. As it is I know that on some of my visits he has taken time from money making work to show me around with small tours. He also knows how much I appreciate learning about the work he does and how he gets it all done. Yes, sometimes I am there for work and run into him, but I know he has someplace else to be, and I keep it short, under 5 minutes. Then we each go do what we have to do. It's just a matter of respect.
If you a re having an issue with a neighbor that is not respecting your time, try using a trick that works for me: If we get past the 5 or 10 minute 'catch-up' and I get a little antsy, I just explain that I am working on something I have to get done by the end of the day and hope they won't mind if I keep working, or hey, maybe they would like to help? I hand them some gloves and a tool (preferably something heavy or very sharp). 90% of the time they remember something else they have to do. The other 10% will actually try to give me a hand.
-----------------------------------
Today was a pretty good day, but a long time in the truck. We were 10 hours on the road. JS logging was inexplicably closed when we got there, nobody around, no sign on the door. We headed over to Charlie Stahl's. I finally got a pair of mud boots. The are Huskies and wound up being size 15 with liners for my size 11 feet. This is why I needed to try them on. I would have gone nuts doing the mail order thing. I'm sure these are made by Viking. They are marked "light 28" whatever that means. They only had one pair in each size, so the pickings were thin. I also got a box of 7/32 files I am low on.
Bill bought a variety of chokers, some replacement hooks, a couple of loggers tapes, and a few other things. He also got pricing on some skidder chains.
Back on the road for another 90 minutes and we got to Woodmizer NY. We dropped off blades for re-sharp, got a bunch of spare parts he had ordered and loaded the re-saw in the truck after altering the pallet with a chainsaw. ;D A straight shot home with a stop for fuel and lunch at 3:30/. Both of us did a lot of phone business along the drive and he had the guys back at the shop to work with. The day was not a rainout, but was pizzily in our area all day. When we got to Hannibal it was blue skies and sunshine. We got home a little after 7pm. Anyway, it was another task out of the way. Now back to business.
Whatever the "light 28" is, is what I have been wearing. Surprised on the 15 for 11 as I ended up with 13 for 12 with liners and they fit great but feet are weird. Tried a real nice pair of liners the other day from a set of Kamik snow boots that fell apart but they would not fit right ::) I tried them because I fell through the creek and filled one with water and it didn't dry out fast enough. If you don't have a boot dryer (like me) you might suffer a little. pulling the liners at the end of the day and stuffing boots full of newspaper then leaving by the wood stove all night became my ritual.
Yeah, I don't know how that worked out either. I have always hated rubber boots and have not worn them since I was 12 years old. But for mud season and the extreme cold you just need something more. These things feel a bit like clown shoes, but I ignored what the labels said and just went with what fit. The liners are half the thickness of the ones in my Sorels, which do a very good job. I will have a learning curve with these and if I wear them enough I will get a second set of liners. Maybe a boot dryer is in the cards too, but I have too much junk now. Life goes on and you try something different. ;D
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Well today I am shot. I did a 70 log delivery today including 5 totem logs which run up to 200# each. I neglected to make it clear to the client that unloading and stacking is really their responsibility and that I have a trailer, so they need to figure how to get the logs from where ever I can get the trailer to their stack. Usually I can get the trailer within 6 feet of the stack point. Today the logs had to be 100' from the closest I could get the trailer. Also, the gal taking delivery was only about 5'4" tall and maybe 110 pounds and she had no help. Well, another lesson I learned the hard way. The only thing she had to help was a homeowner type wheel barrow. So she used that and I carried 2 or 3 logs at a time. I had a tough enough time getting those totems in the truck bed by myself, getting them out, even with her help was a bear. I am shot. Lesson learned, time to update my web page. We got through it, but it took an hour.
Today is the wife's birthday and I am taking her out to dinner. I have to get changed into 'not so muddy' clothes and get moving instead of sitting here sucking down Advil and groaning when I move. :D
Tomorrow is another day.
Tom,
The general consensus from the design committee is ...
Actually we have not met on this issue (yet?) but just a wild suggestion and something that prompts me to try it around here is could you use a hand truck like the one below for moving logs like you describe? I have a brand new one I bought a year or so back for another project and have not used but am now thinking about trying it for move short lumber and logs and such around the yard. Do you have such a a hand truck and have you ever tried it? I have a 2 wheel cart similar to this I use to haul firewood from the box to the rack beside heater. I would think with the length of your mushroom logs that this should work and would not be a big weight to roll around. No heavier than these dollies are I would think you could haul it around with you on jobs like this in the future.
600 lb. Capacity Hand Truck (https://www.harborfreight.com/600-lb-capacity-hand-truck-62775.html)
BTW - what is a totem log? Is it kind of like a chainsaw carving log people use to make chainsaw carved bears and such?
Actually I could have mitigated that issue in a number of ways, if I had known. But no matter what I had available to use, it was all back at the shop. She did not communicate that we had a 100' hump to stack these logs, and I did not communicate that it was her responsibility.
Cool Hand Luke (1967) - The Captain's speech " What we've got here is failure to communicate" - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=452XjnaHr1A)
I have one of those hand trucks of a slightly better quality than HF, but it has a flat tire. However, I just recalled that I may have a brand new set of tires and wheels to fit it. I maty look into it. But again, humping logs after delivery is not my job.
Totem log is a new term to this readership. I should have explained. My bad. Most mushroom logs are inoculated by drilling and inserting the spawn, then waxing over the holes. The logs are stacked in such a way as to allow full air flow until they are ready for forcing a flush.
Totem logs are different. First, they are larger, and usually longer. So 10-12" diameter and up to 5' long. For inoculation they are cross cut through into 3 pieces. Two are about 18" long and the third about 4". They are re-assembled thusly: The first section is set on a stable block, spawn is spread over the top like pizza toppings, the next section is placed on that and more spawn is spread on the top, then the final section tops it all foo. This is covered by a big leaf bag to keep bugs and slugs out. The mycelium spreads within the log and eventually mushrooms pop out all over. The bag is removed once the log has settled in and the growth is established. The process is easy to find with google. There are a wide variety of approaches to this style of cultivation.
Totem logs from my perspective are just a pain to get out of the woods, a pain to load in the truck, and a pain to deliver. After today my price for these jumped to 8 bucks a log. ;D
Thanks for the description of the totem pole and how it is prepped and used.
(My feelings are a little hurt about my HF hand truck but I am sure it was not intentional. :( BTW - Yours may be a better hand truck, but mine is working condition. 'Nuff said. :D I had never thought about applications around the mill and I am going to check it out. It may be nearly as handy as another LogRite for some tasks.)
Sorry Howard, I did not intend to hurt your very sensitive feelings. You said you have a 'similar' one, not the same one. I have a similar one also, about a 1960 vintage, heavy duty, good steel, sturdy, nice welds, just old tires.
I had forgotten about mine because it works so well as an air hose rack that I had forgotten it was under all that hose. I should put that back in the regular rotation. It was very handy for moving short logs around and might prove handy for those totem logs. Thanks for reminding me. Glad you poked up with the idea before waiting for committee review and the (never ending) discussion. :D
Mine is an intermediate duty handcart and should be handy for lots of things I never thought of including moving Composting toilet panels (Pre-fabbed walls) and such around the lot as well as short logs and lumber.
I suspect the committee will propose use of the all terrain, motorized, tracked dolly for future use rather than my quick and dirty, off the cuff suggestion.
I think you need a self loading log truck. That would solve the loading and unloading problem.
Well, it may help with the loading part, but it won't help with unloading when the stacking point is 100' from the closest point I can get the truck.
It depends on whose stacking point you are dealing with ;D. Customer says, "My stacking point is 100 feet up that steep hill." OGH says "I understand that, but my stacking point is right here by this truck." :D
Well, you've got me there. Yes, spot on. I need to make this clearer. I did have words to this effect on my website and I 'strengthened' those words this morning. Be we live in the "TLDR age" (Too Long, Didn't Read) and most folks want somebody else to do their work for them. Perhaps I will boil it all down into a checklist. Maybe they can swallow that. :D
The Design Team can surely help you with that checklist.
Well when you put it that way, then consider my overall laziness (not wanting any EXTRA work), factor in the inevitable peer pressure to help me, and driven by the pain in my lower back from yesterday's humping of logs, and consideration of improving communications with my clients. Well I just went ahead and did a page and added it to the menus and did some other updates. It's a nasty snotty 40° overcast/damp/drizzly day anyway. Might as well do something useful, right? I also had the thought to make it into a PDF file so I can just email it to new buyers. That will save me a bit of email time.
While I was at it, I upped the price on my totem logs to 10 bucks. Hopefully that will discourage or limit buyers for those. ;D
If anybody wants to see it just look HERE. (https://woodsmanforestproducts.com/buyers-checklist/)
Hmmm mushroom logs come in "messes" not whacks I just learned something.... :) I also have one of those two wheeled firewood carts like Howard, you could move 6 to 10 of those standard logs at a time with it. It take about five trips to the totes to fill my 1/2 face cord rack in the basement.
Nebraska, have you been hanging out with Howard again? :D If I could get 6 to 10 logs on a hand truck, they would be sticks, not logs.
I had not noticed the caption under that gallery photo. I'm not sure if I will leave that or change it. It was actually the file name that got tagged on there.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20220326_203505.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648344788)
I would guess that I have been associated with worse folks than Howard. :D
Well this is what my firewood cart looks like. It's made from the finest Chineseium the tires and inner tubes are a joke but enough green tire goo and they have held air all year this year. Should hold several of your standard logs or 2 totem poles. I have a several regular two wheeled hand carts, but two are modified into an air compressor caddy and an acetylene torch cart... This cart wold have saved your back unless you had to cross a bunch of mud.
Lets see,
logs moved by hand more than 10 feet from my vehicle will be an add of price of $50 every ½ hour that I am there. A guess estimate will be done before any product is unloaded. payment up front before any logs hit the ground. ;D
I work in a hardware store,50# of grain is normal. Grain is in the grain room and customers have to drive to it.
Many say, do I have to drive down there?
I say, unless you want to carry it?
Real quick they say, I'm not going to carry it!!
But they expect me to carry it. ::)
And as most of you know. I am 60 years old.
60!! Your just a kid!! There are some Studs on here a whole lot older manhandling the sawmill
Just a saying, 60 year olds should not be carrying grain 100 feet. Nor should they be moving mushroom logs 100 feet. :D
Nebraska, that cart you have is not at all like the hand truck that Howard suggested. That would have worked too on solid surfaces, but not across the muddy lawn we needed to cross. I would think those tires, if they could handle the weight on sloppy ground, would have sunk in about 3" or more. I have several carts for firewood just like that but a little smaller with wider thicker tires. They might have done better but still be a drag to pull over that ground and the axles might have failed. Everybody underestimates the weight until they start moving them, me included. Remember, it's fresh cut green. 50# feed bags are easy (and soft), but these things can get heavy.
Age is relative, as is condition. I am not in bad shape but... I can say that 2 days later and my back is still bothering me. I KNEW when I picked up that last totem log and carried it the full distance that I would be a hurting unit for a while, and I am.
I can work with people, but they have to tell me clearly what the situation is ahead of time. This client was waffling on log length, unsure of what was right for their needs. I told her "No problem, I will bring a saw and trim down anything you think is too long." I wound up never starting the saw. She was happy with it all. I could have done the same thing with moving. No big deal, just another notch in my belt of learning.
I may work on that hand truck today, just in case it is needed someday, for use by a client. :D
I've often thought my real area of expertise would never come up on the FF, I retired as the Chief of experimental weapons for the Army Research Lab, I am envisioning a canon type of launcher using either compressed air or propane. Conventional propellants require too much cleaning and the membership is trying to help relieve your burden.
That firewood cart of mine almost never leaves the cement.. It would be ok a few trips on our soil on turf but your much wetter than we are. It does fine on frozen stuff with just a little snow. But a modified hand truck would cut the back pain. 🤔
Uh oh New product concept....mushroom log cart... makes moving a mess of mushroom logs a dream.... better send this idea down the line for further development. 8)
HMMMM. Gspren, it's an interesting thought. As stated, I am not so concerned about client stacking. That's their issue. BUT I am now wondering if I could use your idea to get the logs out of the woods to the landing? Ballistic characteristics and fire control would be major hurdles because of the inherent differences in each projectile (log). It would require a lot of R&D. We may also need to come up with some sort of jacketing for the projectiles to keep the bark intact. Maybe we should send that one to the committee also?
Nebraska, as I read your last I got a picture in my head or something that might could work well. After making breakfast I am going out to the shop to piddle around. It is Sunday, and Sunday is Funday for me when I can. I might even be able to make it work in the woods. Hold my Beer.
Tom,
The firewood cart I use has the front rails to hold the wood in and works great for its intended purpose. Mine has even smaller wheels than Nebraskas and definitely would not work off concrete. My bigger wheeled dolly would work on grass and such, maybe less well on gravel. A front lip could be added or a heavy bungee cord or rope to hold the logs in place would work and is what I would use if I knew had to move several logs that size any distance. Obviously the bigger the tires the better it will work on rougher terrain. I was just identifying a potentially overlooked and inexpensive tool most of us have or could afford to buy for such a project. I am confident my 600-800 lb HF 2 wheel cart could easily carry 5-6 of the mushroom logs at a time like I saw on your website.
I was just concerned about your health and well being. If I hear you hurt your back I want to hear the next statement that it was landing a big fish or dragging a big deer out of the wood rather than it was because you were carrying too many heavy firewood or mushroom logs. We all have to keep our priorities straight. ;)
Howard, thanks for your concern about my well being. That ship sailed long ago. :D I yam what I yam. That which does not kill us, usually hurts like heck. I'll be fine.
So let's review for a second here: I have addressed the issue of deliveries and who unloads and will never again make that mistake. So it is no longer and issue for me. However, the suggestions for a solution to a problem I no longer have keep on rolling in. Now I have one of those heavy duty hand trucks with pneumatic tires like Howard suggested. I also have a firewood hand cart similar to Nebraska's, but a bit smaller and a bit heavier duty. I like Gspren's idea, but the lack of a test range and R&D materials make it a longer term project. Besides, as stated, this is no longer and issue, right?
Yeah, so I went ahead and mocked up a working model of a cross-over between that firewood cart and the hand truck. Using just the 2x4 drops laying underneath the RAS. Here's what I came up with:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220327_151621955.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648413011)
It's just a working prototype.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220327_151631618.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648413013)
AT the bottom corners by the baseplate there are bolted through from the side, then I captured the back straps to keep the assembly from tipping out or breaking at those bolt holes.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220327_151636457.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648413016)
I out a 7 logs average load in it. The large log on top is near the higher and of the size range and the others are small guys. My back still hurts to much to do a lot of lifting for just messing around.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220327_151359664.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648413002)
I am estimating this 'load' at about 150#. I tipped it up pretty easy and wheeled it around and through the mud, but not really deep mud. It is stable.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220327_151500521.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648413002)
So now I have a good working solution to a problem I no longer have. I'd like to thank everybody for their input and prompting. When this finally reaches the committee's desks, I'd be curious to see what the end resultant recommendation is, as well as how much HP it will have. :D ;D
Tom,
I'd say you understand the overall concept and have a working prototype. I'd have gone shorter and taller but that gets into personal preference I suspect. I'm thinking shorter and taller may be easier to tilt back but if that is working for you then you may have the better design. I'm thinking along the lines of 2 logs deep and 4-5 logs tall. A chain or rope in the middle and tied to the cross piece there to secure them in a consideration but I might not add it unless/until I had dumped a load or two.
If you go commercial and start marketing these along with the loginators remember where to send my commission and the one to the FF. :D
I am thinking this is a tool light enough to transport easily but handy enough to significantly reduce your workload and described in the OP.
The big question, since you say it is no longer an issue for delivery, is will this help you get the logs from the woods to your mule/trailer?
Tracks! It needs tracks for mud.😄
Not if we include a high pressure propane heater/blower in front of each wheel to dry the mud ahead of the wheels. (Remember when designing for OGH to think out of the box! :D)
He could then also use it to light his brush piles and if he is careful heat the shop as well.😂
In certain conditions, yes, it might help. But the bigger question is, will it save time/pain/effort? I don't know. Thinking on all the places I have so far cut there is only one where it MIGHT have helped.
Now TRACKS! Yeah, that put me on another idea. Last year when I was cutting on one of Barge's jobs there was a thing sitting there called a Muck Truck. I had never seen one. 4wd nice little unit with a 5.5HP Honda engine. I should have made an offer, but by the time I had thought about it, it was taken. They sell for about $4,200. and have an optional flat bed for another $700. Still even something like that I have to think on whether it really saves me anything. I generally can get the Mule or truck pretty close and only have to carry them 50' or less. Humping something over branches and stumps can be pretty rough on the body too.
I'll have to po0nder on that.
I guess a burro or two is out of the question then? ;) They are awful surefooted and can navigate narrow paths and mud and snow much better than you'd ever think. ;D
Yeah, but I am thinking they come with a lot of overhead.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 27, 2022, 06:35:54 PM
I guess a burro or two is out of the question then?
He would be the Juan Valdez of mushroom logs.
They would be great business advertising when you have them march in the Memorial Day parade pulling a cart with that fancy sign in it .😁
You can rent them out as organic lawnmowers (Remember to Go Green), watchdogs, take them to kiddy parties and petting zoos and I am sure their by-products can be used somehow to enhance the mushroom industry.
Quote from: breederman on March 27, 2022, 07:00:42 PMThey would be great business advertising when you have them march in the Memorial Day parade pulling a cart with that fancy sign in it .😁
Yeah - I can see the sign "Get off your A__ and start growing your own mushrooms."
You could even set on one of those cool benches you make and toss shrooms to the crowd.
See, this is the issue right here. I begin to entertain and pursue some of the ideas you present and you guys take that as an open license to just run amok. Next thing you know you'll have me in a parade with those mules dragging a small forwarding trailer (on tracks) with scantily clad dancing girls doing [something]. :D
The 'committee' needs to maintain some kind of internal discipline. Really guys. Geez. ;D
But daydreaming and whimsy are where some of the greatest notions of all time have derived from. :)
Necessity is the Mother of invention according to Mr. Plato. He would have made a great addition to the Design Team if he had been born a few thousand years later.
Aw come on Tom. You know you couldn't make it without us. :D Besides, look at the nice new mushroom log carrier you have because of us. Cheap, simple, effective. Admit it. It is going to make your life a lot easier and the work will go a lot faster. ;)
It's been over 20 years but back in the day at one point in my career I worked with a pretty good concept and design team. We would get a RFQ from a potential client as well as their design thoughts and requirements, then come up with a concept, block design, and eventually a full estimate on costs and timelines. If we got the order (and we usually did) we would do a complete design package for their approval before build and test. Usually there were revisions along the way as we saw opportunities for improvements or enhancements.
Our initial approach to the working concept was to bring the whole team into a room surrounded by white boards. We would all spitball ideas and everything went up on the boards, dumb, crazy, or otherwise. Eventually these would be whittled down to some kind of concept and one member of the team would work out a block drawing of the system, while the other members would research the particular specialties for detailed components and feed that the the person doing the drawing. When it was roughed out, we would put it up on the wall with the same group of folks and pick it apart, make changes, add or subtract things, and look for things we had not seen before. Then we would repeat the process for those revisions and do another cycle of review. This went on until we all agreed on a working design and then each specialty person did their part, with a project leader doing the integration and final drawings of everyone's work. There was a final review and client sign-off before we released it to build out.
That was a long process, but it worked. No ideas were stupid and sometimes the wildest things were incorporated into the final design. Often these were the things that impressed the client the most. Some of these projects were very detailed and complex. Frame builds, mechanical transfer systems, robots, software, wiring, programming, ultra high vacuum chambers, HEPA filter systems, and polished SS enclosures were all included in many of our designs (mostly cleanroom work).
I never discount the odd idea without some level of consideration. Way leads on to way, and you never know until you at least think it over. A closed mind produces no art. ;D
Tom,
For a while I was a maintenance management software implementer where we would go out and replace a customer's maintenance management/work process software. We'd get the customer team together and do a "brown paper project" similar to what you describe. We'd roll a big roll of brown paper around the way and start recording the work flow from start to finish with each department or section's actions along the way. We'd put up sticky notes, tape up flow charts, etc. till we could all see the process from start to finish.
Typical would be who found a problem and who created a work order to get it fixed. Who reviewed, prioritized and approved the work. Who came out and planned the work and ordered the parts and identified the tools and special test equipment to do the work. Who did the work? Who inspected the work after and approved re-starting the machine or line.
It might be some worker reporting Machine A won't start. His boss approved the fix. When the planner got there he'd find the machine was okay but the power was off so he'd modify the work order from the machine to the electric panel. An electrician would be summoned with a new breaker and replaced it after proper lock out tag out. Once done the supervisor would inspect remove the tags and restart the line. Behind the scenes the storeroom had pulled or bought the breaker and ordered an additional one. HR recorded the overtime and accounting processed and paid the invoices for the part or contract labor. Most people never realized the part these other people played.
What we always found and identified during this phase was that different departments did not understand what happened before and after their part of the work. We would find gaps and overlaps where somebody assumed the next guy would fix the problem and nobody even knew the problem was there. We'd find 2 parties fighting over who was to do a particular step and cancelling out what each other had done.
I had zero patience for that nonsense. I also hated when people would sit at the desks and send emails around the building to find out what was going on and ask for reports. I was known for walking into a lot of offices and telling folks if they wanted to know what was going on, they could dang well get off their butts and go find out for themselves. (This did not boost my popularity.) The way I made time and got things done was to get the right people working together, which saved them all time. I hated spending time in my office when 'stuff' needed to happen and I resented other folks hiding in their offices when they needed to get involved and make it happen.
---------------------------
Today was another "I have no idea what I am doing today' days. But I texted my log inoculation client and soon we settled on him stopping by late morning to help me pack the larger parts of his systems on my trailer. It gave him a chance to see the finished painted units and he was still tickled pink. He was also anxious to pay me, as he has been for over a month. He wound up paying me $150.00 more than the price I asked because he 'felt that was more fair'. He also saw those engraved business cards and asked if I could embed a card on each of his tables and loginators so folks would know who made it and where to get them. So I have a little more to do before the early Friday delivery time. :)
After he left I did some chores and because the ground was somewhat firm I took the Mule across the yard and pulled out a bunch of that ice damaged tree for firewood. The ground wasn't firm enough and I kept it to one run.
Then I had this brain fart and was thinking on these totem logs because my client and I were talking about them and he was relating the difficulties in doing them. One point it that reassembling them with the spawn is messy and they have to be restrained in some way. I was thinking on this and figured a guy with a chainsaw and some skills could come up with a way to make these logs 'joint' back together after the spawn is added. As I had a saw in my hands, I went over and took one of the leftover totems and tried something.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220329_161130063.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648599630)
So I did a plunge cut through and left tabs on two sides, then put side cuts on the tops of those tabs. I found (after failure) that I had to relieve the bark at the corners in order for it to fracture along the grain when I pried up with a bar to pop along the grain. I don't know why, but it worked. Perhaps this is a better view of the two parts.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220329_161140149.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648599631)
So the spawn is spread in the fresh cut area, and the top piece is carefully fitted back in to match the fracture lines, then tapped in snug.
Anyway, it's a concept. You would need a decent saw and some minimal skills to pull it off, meaning a hobbyist with a battery saw couldn't pull it off, but a lot of folks could. I seen these photos off to my client and am waiting for feedback. He's the expert.
Tomorrow I have some touch up painting on the inoculation stuff, figure out the newly required labels, taking the wife to the laundromat, hitting home depot and the beer dock while she is there and not much else planned, but I am sure the day will fill up. It's just another day.
Tom,
What always got me was when talking with and observing the work process was the disconnects. Since I knew nothing about the process I came in as a clean slate and just followed the process and I'd find gaps that anyone else asking the same basic questions should have found. The foreman says "We do it this way." When you talked to the worker bee he said "No, we do it this way." And of course the overall manager thought it was being done some other way. We probably added more value to the process just by clarifying and standardizing their process than we did by adding a new tool to process, record and collect the information.
Okay, back to today, what would happen if you simply sawed the totem logs into quarters on your mill and shrink wrapped or otherwise reassembled them? Would a banding machine with fiberglass strapping work or be worth the effort to reassemble? Would that be too much labor, time, effort and expense for the return? Is this process providing too much time and exposure to contamination? Just a thought.
I'm stiff and sore from helping a widow lady a couple houses down the road. She had trees cut but the contract was to just leave them. She and a friend or relative are trimming the limbs with an electric Craftsman chainsaw and piling them in brush or firewood piles. Her biggest concern was a big maple in the creek and I cut and dragged those tops out yesterday afternoon. I've cut and/or hauled 3 - 5'X8' trailer loads piled really high with limbs and tops to burn in my pasture and a couple of 3'X4' cart loads of firewood. I'm using my 600 cc CFMOTO ATV for it. I probably have 3-4 more trailers of brush and 10-12 loads of firewood plus a few saw logs.
Several of these would have made you a few mushroom logs. Can you use buckeye as I see several of them. I'll get 4-5 trashy maple logs for saw logs. The firewood is nice but the biggest reward is being able to help a neighbor. She just lost her husband 6 weeks ago and they have always been good neighbors.
Well first, helping neighbors is important and a primary task when they really need it. Sounds to me like that lady earned it. Sorry it is beating you up, but that's part of the job. ;D At least you get some wood out of it. I am certain she appreciates it more than you know. Even if she didn't I am certain you sleep well (if not sore) knowing you did the right thing. Good on ya.
Now on your questions about cutting the logs lengthwise into sections. It's funny you bring this up as I just finished an email with a client about that. He was thinking of splitting logs and trying to find somebody with more knowledge to advise him. I am not that guy, but I find the questions interesting. I believe it comes down to how the mycelium grows within the log. Does it travel along the cellular structure (grain) or can it propagate ACROSS the grain (sideways)? I can't answer this and we are both looking into the known science. I should point out that we do know the mycelium only grows in the sapwood where the sugars and nutrients are. The heartwood provides little for mushroom growth. So any spawn applied in that area will likely die off. Spawn is not cheap, so you do want to apply it where it can grow.
We have gone beyond the limits of my knowledge here and perhaps, the known science, but I am searchig around to see if this has been tried and documented yet. The Japanese have been cultivating these Mushrooms for over a thousand years in logs. I would like to think they may have tested this idea already, but perhaps not?
Tom,
It is good to keep yourself (and others) mentally and physically challenged so just keep digging. My thoughts were if you were going to split the totem logs as described earlier you might as well do it on the mill. Two cuts and you have 4 nice quarters that will fit right back together.
I hauled one more cart load of firewood and a big trailer load of brush and left it on the trailer hooked to my ATV till I get back from shopping with the wife. We are supposed to have a good chance for rain tomorrow and if so I hope to burn it all as I am accumulating too much of it.
Take care.
Splitting logs is a non-starter. I know this has been tried many times. It uses huge amounts of spawn, so is quite expensive, even more than totems, which is also expensive. Also, you would have to keep retying them as the logs shirks and dries. Handling and stacking issues too.
I'm just looking if I can find a small trick or two that helps based on my odball perspective. Somebody else suggested a tongue and groove cut and I am thinking about that but it's a lot of cuts. It's fun to play with anyway. I am easily amused.
you could grow the spawn in your lube tank, cut the logs, and other lumber and "presto bango", mushrooms. 8) 8) 8)
This is all fascinating reading, thanks guys. A large part of my job involves looking at manufacturing processes and thinking about stuff like you are talking about, so your experiences are pretty interesting.
gspren- Man, I'd love to hear about some of the crazy ideas you've seen!
Tom and Howard- Maybe I'm missing something but why not just a shallow 'V' cut, maybe only ~5 degrees off horizontal? Does the spawn need to sit horizontally to work? I would think just about anyone, including the electric saw owner could just slice half a 'V' into either side and the log keys itself together. That shape, if kept shallow, is pretty stable, and not nearly as complex/scary as a plunge cut.
Yeah, I nearly bit on that and got off on a rant, but those days are behind me. close to 50 years as a troubleshooter and problem solver for people who never understood what or how I did my job was enough. Done with that. ;D
Your V-cut would likely work and it's simple, but if it were simple, why would they need me? :D Anyway, I think I will give it a try and see how it sits. Stay tuned.
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Slow day today. Since my wife's van is still out of commission I have become her chauffer for all her little errands and it is cramping my style. I had to run her to the laundromat so while she was there I ran up to home despot and got some stuff I needed, then hit the beer dock, picked her back up, stopped at the bank, and home again. I did a little work in the shop touching up some details on the loginator for Friday's delivery. I added the tool clearance holes last night and today repainted the areas and holes. Then I had to run the wife over to my son's house to get the kids off the bus. 2 hours later I had to pick her back up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220330_162754837.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648685329)
I also added the business cards he wanted on those and the bench ends.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220330_162748367.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648685332)
It looks like his first workshop won't be until May, but he also has a Mushroom Retreat he does annually in May, so I have a while before I need more logs. I did have some left over from the last couple of orders and was going to look for a buyer, but I got an email last evening from a guy who had called a month or so back to buy logs and because he is so far away, I recommended another supplier closer to him. He finally hooked up with that fella and the guy was charging $0.50/log. "Yeah, well OK, then I think you should buy his logs." So he did. But he emails me yesterday and says the logs he got have very little sapwood and big hearts (not great for mushrooms). As he is going to a concert (Molly Tuttle) not far from me next week, he wondered if he could come by and get 20 logs or whatever I had. "Well it just so happens that I have about 15 logs siting here...". :D Guess I don't have to search for a buyer for these anymore. ;D
Truth be told, given that he got logs at 50 cents a pop, I would like to sell him some prefect pristine logs to show the difference, but what I got is what I got and they are not bad logs at all. Since he managed to get 30 logs in a Subaru Outback, I am wondering how big those logs were. I don't think you could get 15 of my logs in a Subaru. That would also explain the minimal sapwood. Anyway, I find the whole thing very interesting and another opportunity to learn.
Tomorrow I have to get the wife to one of her quilting groups, then pick her up someplace else later in the day. I also have to load the trailer and tools for Friday so I can just jump in the truck and go in the morning. Heavy rain coming tomorrow night, so I'll have to cover it all. But at least it might hit 60° tomorrow.
Reading through everything you've written about these mushroom logs it certainly sounds like the 50 cents per log logs were likely just throwaways and probably not treated well. It'd be interesting to keep up with that fellow to see how the cheap logs do. I can't imagine you make money at that game without using big equipment to move stuff around, even then I can't imagine they were cultivated well. Good luck!
Wooden business card is a nice touch.. :)
Well I really didn't want to use up 4 of them, but the client insisted. He feels he will get a lot of questions about the benches and wanted a label on there so he could just point it out and say "Call this guy". :)
AH, I did a little research into the other seller and it turns out he is a forester who works a lot of woodlot jobs and does some cutting or cut managements. I think he is just cutting and setting these logs aside when he is doing tree work and probably throwing them in a truck at the end of his workday, so for him it is found money I guess. I have seen that quality varies all over the map, so yeah I want to find out what this fella got for his 50 cents.
Heard back from my client last night and he wants to see how that V-notch works out. He still doesn't like doing totems because they use so much spawn. I have an idea for a variation that may mitigate some of that I will try to if the rain holds off today. But the rain is coming and I have to load up all this stuff for delivery tomorrow.
Aighead has me thinking again so be careful! :D
I assume this has been tried but what happens if you just score the logs an inch or so with something like a circle saw then inoculate and seal them? I'm thinking my battery powered circle saw would be perfect for this but since you seem to be doing this in a shop environment a corded version might work better. If that took too much spawn and sealant maybe just score the log in several spots with the saw them move ahead and do the next one?
Good luck on the wooden business card on the loginator. (If course I would have attached it to the cross brace on each end but I digress... ;))
I have an order for another composting toilet and ordered roofing and bought treated 2X6 for the floor yesterday. A 4' treated 2X6 is $9 each and no veterans discount allowed on it at Lowes. The metal roofing panels and drip edge is going to cost over $60 for a simple 6' square roof so I have over $110 in the roof and floor that I don't produce on the mill before I even get started. I may have to start sawing up my locust posts to get my 2X6's for the floor as it has comparable durability for ground contact IMHO.
Howard, I'd start milling up that locust and maybe soak in a coat of preservative all over before you nail them home. Glad to see you orders are coming in. We all need those. :D
Your 'alternate' suggestions are much more labor intense than just going with standard hole methods and would appear to use a lot more materials and take a lot longer to execute. I have a couple of ideas I may mess with, but I am racing the rain today. I am not doing this in the shop. Also a circ sawblade kerf is too thin to allow for entry of the spawn. You would be forever trying to pack that stuff into a tiny slot. I am just messing around trying to find something just a little better than a straight sawcut because the spawn is layed on top and the mating piece is replaced. This makes keeping them together problematic. Having some simple mechanical joint would be helpful. It is critical that the spawn is in good contact with both upper and lower halves of the joint or it won't propagate. I am also trying to find a way to not use spawn in the heartwood area as this is mostly a waste.
It's just something to keep my mind busy. As my client said "So many things to try........and so little time to try them."
Between yesterday and today we got over 1.5" of rain and the trend is toward slightly warmer temps. It hasn't hit 60 yet, but I am hopeful. I loaded the inoculation systems on the trailer and had to put the Loginators in the truck bed when I ran out of trailer space. Tarped everything over to keep the heavy rain off over night.
This morning I hit the road before 8, grabbed breakfast on the way and got to the site around 8:30.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220401_083455109.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648857815)
We unloaded pretty quick, ran some screws in to tie it all together, and messed around with the layout a little. I am sure John will think it over a bit more for layout before he sets and levels blocks for the final locations. But they look fairly good and this was the first time I had room to assemble them both completely in the painted form and get a look.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220401_085602858.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648857839)
After messing around a bit and given the off and on drizzle and the appointment he had, we packed them into the storage configuration and fastened the tarps.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220401_091240404.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1648857832)
My client John is extremely happy with them. It's another step in his growth plan and I was happy yo help make that happen. Now I need to make him a workbench that can live there also for the stove and wax melting station and we will add other stuff after that. I could be building him a shed before the end of the summer. He even wants to put in a composting toilet over the hill from the classroom. Howard, how much for shipping?
After I finished off with John I drove over to NYBHH's place because I had to see in person these beautiful cabinets he just built. I saw some photos but I knew it wasn't coming through. Sure enough when I saw these with the Ash grain coming through the stain/dye/topcoat process he used it was filiipn' gorgeous! I'll never have skill like that and even if I did, I could never figure out how to apply them to make a finished product that presents like his does. He has a few more things to do and then needs to get a countertop and backsplash made, but boy, his stuff should be in a magazine.
Then we went for a walk in the woods to re-visit another part of his plan. I'm gonna see if I can manage to arrange some help with that one, I think. I'm gonna try anyway.
Got home early afternoon and did some chores. Still snotty and drizzly all afternoon. It is nice to have the main bay in the shop fairly open after a few months with those benches choking me up. I could finally sweep up. Hoping for nicer weather tomorrow with some sunshine. Bill and I plan to go fetch a van like my wife's that we can pull the rear axle out of to get my wife back on the road and me off chauffer duty. Hopefully when we finally get down to doing it we can get 'er done in one night. This is not my forte'. I can work on vehicles, but I seldom enjoy it. I wish we could just replace her van, but the prices now are out of this world.
Tomorrow is another day.
Looking good. Is that purple paint on them? (I guess you had some left over after posting a woodlot somewhere. :D) I assume if I understand the work flow someone sets a log in the loginator, you spin and drill/tap it, roll it up the ramp and others on the team inoculate and seal them then off the table to a trailer or such.
We had rain yesterday and I was able to burn 5-6 trailer loads of brush so I got caught up on that. We had windstorms last night and heard a tree fall at midnight. I got out and looked but did not see it. Found it was a big dead ash uphill from where we park our trucks but in the pasture and no damage to anything significant. We had lousy weather so it was early afternoon before I got out to work on my toilet but I did go get the metal - $88 for 4 sheets 75" long X 3' wide - enough for 2 toilet roofs.
I finished my framing all 4 sides on it, got the floor framed and ready for adding the floor. I start on a half sheet of 1/2" plywood as a jig to start with a perfectly square base. After the floor is nailed on I remove the plywood for the next time.
I cut up a cart load of the dead ash for the next day or so as we were low especially on kindling. I've got to go get some more 16d nails in the morning and should have all the walls up on the base if I don't get started on the walls. We will see.
No Howard, that brown paint. Very expensive semi-transparent waterproofing and wood sealer paint. It's brown. (We don't have a purple paint law in NYS, yet another way we are out of sync with the world.)
But you missed my question: How much would you charge for delivery? ;D
Tom,
Sorry I missed that. For a load like that for a good customer and the first time I'd done it, I'd likely charge from $15-$50 depending on whether it was a special trip or if some place I was already going. That is still likely too cheap especially since you loaded, unloaded and set up the lines for him but that's a ball park for me.
If it is going to be an on-going need I'd look at something like $1.50- $2/mile (each way) and 30 minutes to an hour labor at whatever rate you charge for set up and breakdown.
OK, go back and read that paragraph and question again. :D
Well, if you meant how much for shipping just the toilet from your house to the site I'd go with the $15-$50 rate. I thought you were asking shipping for the loginator line as shown in the photos.
If you're thinking of me shipping a toilet, trust me, you don't want to know. :D I will be glad to ship you the plans and BOM and you can build him one. ;)
Well you ARE the deer stand/bus stop/composting toilet king, so I figured I would just bump the job over to a specialist. ;D :)
Thanks for the kind words and consideration but sometimes we just have to help others by referring them to someone in a better position to serve them. ;)
I agree, that's why I thought maybe you should be the guy to make the outhouse. I could probably go back through all your posts and find the details on your design and build one. But I think there is a big and clear difference between taking someone's idea and learning from it to incorporate it in your own work, to taking the entire design, copying and selling it to a third party. It just doesn't seem right to me.
In any event, the shed has to come first (after the workbench) and that will likely be full custom to accommodate his needs for storage as well as sales display. It will have to be mouse proof also. Given the amount of time we spent on design options in the inoculation system, I expect it will take time to design this and the exact site has to be cleared of brush and some pecker poles.
He has a long range plan for this outdoor classroom which includes WiFi, functional displays of logs in various stages of growth, different species, different cultivation methods, and internet links explaining each in detail and eventually an open pavilion. When he hires educators to run this, all the aids and displays will be in place for regular classes. When the classes aren't going on, the educator will be inoculating logs, cultivating, picking, drying, etc. This will feed into his extract and mushroom sales business. Unlike me or you, he is looking to hire folks to do these various specialties so that it works without him having hands on minute by minute. These folks aren't easy to find with the skills they need. He travels the world a couple of times a year for research, study, and other things. He participates in major mushroom events around the country as a speaker and needs to keep the day to day thing going when he is away. It is interesting to watch him grow it, learn a bunch along the way, and fun to help him make it happen. I noted yesterday that he now refers to our relationship as 'business partners', meaning two small businesses helping each other out for mutual benefit. When he finally updates his web page he wants to put photos of the stuff we built with links to my web pages because he figures if I do well, it helps him too. I already have references from my site to his because he can answer all the questions I can't and provide services I don't.
The whole thing fits right in with my goal of having work that gives me pleasure and makes other folks smile. John was certainly smiling yesterday.... a lot.
OGH, are you color blind? Maybe the person that mixed the paint is too :).
I think both you guys either need to get your eyes examined or get new monitors. ;D Maybe if you go back and look at reply #1024 you can see the color better. I promise you it is brown. That is to say, I identify it as Brown and the customer identifies it as Brown, the tech guy at HD that mixed it calls it Brown, so it must be Brown.
YMMV. :D
Danny,
Just accept that it is "Northern Brown" and we'll let it go at that. You can't expect people who don't like grits to see things the way the rest of the world does either. :D
Tom,
Since the toilet seat is free standing you can just start with that and put it in one corner of the storage shed and build a separate building for it later (if needed). ;)
I can live with that. So 'Northern Brown' is what the rest of the world calls brown, and 'Southern Brown' is what the rest of the world calls dark purple. Yeah, that works.
Howard, the toilet will have it's own building. Actually I think John has already made arrangements for an outhouse to use until he gets the composting thing up and 'running'.
That's good because you look to be about 500 miles from here (Assuming approximately same distance as Corning - some members are proud of and post the actual name of their town but I digress...) and at $2/mile each way plus a very reasonable and moderate $150 per diem for 2 days, you might just want to build it on site. ;)
My wife was in the area so I got her to help hold the wall frames up while I used my 1/2" impact wrench to put the lag screws in so that went real quick and easy. I'll start on the walls which go up pretty quick at 4-8" wide boards per wall then a 3" batten over the seams.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on April 02, 2022, 12:40:13 PM
That's good because you look to be about 500 miles from here (Assuming approximately same distance as Corning - some members are proud of and post the actual name of their town but I digress...) ....
Well sure enough that's true, in fact some members are even proud enough to go in their profiles and put their location on Google maps so other members need only click on the link to see nearly exactly where they are. Mine will bring you within 1/4 mile of my house. But I digress....
I am another hundred miles ENE of Corning, so a 608 mile trip from the center of your town, which was the closest I could figure. I don't figure costs too heavily when weighing against the best final solution for my client.
I spent an hour or so reviewing all your posts on your original build and the design. I see now that although what you built is perfect for your purposes and conditions, it will not work well for my client. First, the size is too small, but that is scalable. But this shed build needs to be critter tight. Your live edge siding, which I really still like, has too many small gaps that mice can sneak through. I will have to go with a board and batten and seal any gaps. I also need a tight roof with no venting. I will add separate vents. Looking like a 4x8' foot with a 4/4 deck on the roof and steel over that. I will probably pre-fab it here and transport the wall sections and roof it on site. But we have a while to talk about it and decide. I figure just for the P/T wood for the deck and floor and the roofing materials I am already at $325. before any paint, hardware, mill lumber, or labor. This one will run for a while as we work through it. I have other stuff to do in the meantime for sure.
Spent today bucking some more firewood and cleaning the ice storm damage up. Bill and I went and fetched his small 5 ton trailer and picked up that van and brought it back to his place. The axle is a bit different in the torsion bar area, but we think we can make it work OK with a little welding here and there. ;D
Tomorrow is another day.
Tom,
I only ever built one LE lap siding building and it is a school bus stop with no door. Well, I did build a deer blind that was lap siding but not LE. All my toilets have been Board and Batten. I have not figured a good way to build a door with lap siding because the extension on the siding interferes with the door swing. I assume some kind of J-bolt hinge would work better but with B&B I do not have that problem. I use combination T-strap hinges on the door.
There is no insulation in the walls or roof and the gaps are not sealed so they are not designed for people to go pontificate at length. I never knew a lot of people who wanted to spend any more time in an outhouse than they had to and would not likely have associated with them long it they did. The composting toilet should never have the foul smell of an old deep pit head but I don't see them as a great party venue.
I got the sides and back sided and am just going to have enough 8" spruce stock to finish the front/door. I still have to put the battens and the corner molding (2- 1X4's made into a 90). I have several more logs down to cut and need to cut a poplar or two and make some more stock 2X4's and a friend called and placed an order for 20 of them today so weather permitting that will be on next week's schedule.
OK. A grits eschewing Yankee brown.
Danny,
I like that term "Yankee Brown". Ranks right up there with Mustard Yellow or Robin's Egg Blue IMHO. ;)
I may have trouble distinguishing the difference between Yankee Brown and Rust Brown but I guess YB has a more blue (Purple?) tint. :D
I get it. You boys down in the balmier climes are very sensitive when it comes to admitting you may not be exactly correct. I have not brought it up again, but you seem to have a hard time letting go. Call it whatever you want. The rest of us simple practical folks will just stick with 'brown' and be happy with that. I hate painting anything and could not care less about shades and nuances of color. Perception is reality I guess. ;D
Tom,
Reminds me of my dad. He bought a gallon or so of paint to paint (I.e. Us sons to use) the porch. When he opened it it was pink. I wanted to take it back as they had mixed it wrong. He had us go ahead and use it then we had to put another coat of blue or grey on top but he was not going to waste it. ::)
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on April 02, 2022, 09:36:49 PMI hate painting anything and could not care less about shades and nuances of color.
:D. You should be pleased. You have created a whole new color, Yankee brown. You should be proud of it :D.
Actually, I think you guys created the new color. I just painted it brown. :D What's in a name anyway. A rose by any other name would still stink and prick your fingers, right? ;D
Another drizzly day, so this morning I updated my website again with a page on the table system. If anybody wants to see it, it can be found HERE. (https://woodsmanforestproducts.com/log-inoculation-system/) I also added a disclaimer on the drilling bench page that it is not intended for use as a sawbuck or to hold 200# logs. Apparently that needed to be in print. ;D I am getting better at the website work. This time it only took 2 hours to create the page and add all the associated links from the other pages and add it to the main menu and do some other edits. When we get it rolling with a bunch of people working around them, we will shoot some sort of video. John thinks I will sell a bunch of 'em. I think the market is too tiny for folks that could use it, want one, and can't (won't) make it themselves. We shall see. It wouldn't be a bad thing if I was dead wrong. ;D
Nice! But I thought you had the name already - Loginator! Just an edit. Where you say the unit is 9 foot long and the table is 8 foot. You have an extra foot in there - "8' foot". Need to loose the '
So is unpainted an extra $50? ;) :D
Thanks! I made the correction and added a clarification. I don't think anybody would order it unpainted, but I guess I would knock some off it that happened. But who doesn't like plain old brown? ;D Given my love for the painting work, I might give it to them for 30% off. :D (Just kidding, sort of.)
Now that the design is nailed down, I paint all the parts before assembly, then just touch up when it's completed. It's a lot faster that way.
Another quick fix. The link you have to the "Log Drilling Bench" takes you to the FF's Bus stop/Deer blind/Woodshed that WV Sawmiller started. Ooops! That'll confuse the mushroom crowd!
The links at the bottom of the page for the rest of your website just take you to the top of the Loginator page. :-\
OH MY! Now that is funny. I have no idea how the heck THAT happened! (DO NOT tell Howard!) I have fixed that now also. Man I am glad somebody is keeping an eye on me and my fat fingers! Thanks.
Quote from: ljohnsaw on April 03, 2022, 01:51:25 PM
....
The links at the bottom of the page for the rest of your website just take you to the top of the Loginator page. :-\
Sorry, just saw this, Those aren't even supposed to be links, there were problems with htem so I took all the links out. For some reason, they bring you to the top of whatever page you are on. That is going to require some digging to fix and I suspect a bug in the WordPress software and templates I use. I will have to dig into that later. I may just delete that whole thing. It is part of the site footer, not the individual page. Thanks for the heads up.
So, I went to the drilling station page and watched the video. I guess the old teacher adage applies. "Do as I say, not as I do!" ;)
Somewhere you wrote to grab the far side of the log and turn toward you. That makes perfect sense as the weight is transferred to the wheels and allows the log to roll. It also places the holes in front of you so you can see how to alternate the drill pattern. In the video, you awkwardly roll the opposite direction so you end up having to lean over to see where the holes are to alternate. You need a fancy @21incher (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24694) or @YellowHammer (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=11488) video edit with dancing words and arrows to let the viewer know not to watch how you did it!
Guilty as charged. It's a brand new thing for me, and I am working out the terms and techniques. I am learning that most users have their own slant on the details. One fella that bought it has another person stand at the end and do the turning so he is drilling full time and he says he can do a full log in 20-30 seconds.
It will get refined as we go. The first workshop where we get to see a lot of different folks use it will likely teach us a lot. Most folks in those workshops have zero experience with power tools and handwork, but some do. We will see how it goes and do a video of that.
Quote from: ljohnsaw on April 03, 2022, 01:09:48 PM
So is unpainted an extra $50? ;) :D
:D :D :D I am not gonna say anything, not a word :) ;D.
The Loginators look great Tom and I, too, think that should be the name.
Man, after seeing the Loginator in action it's pretty incredible and man that drill and bit really do the job! I didn't think it was that fast of a process but you tore through it!
Well I think we are settling in on 'Loginator' for the drilling bench. I think this is the item that will have 'some' sales. My partner in crime has surveyed his groupies and they have come up with 'Log Inoc Dock' for the full system. I guess we will go with that. I really don't see selling any, or very few of the full systems due to cost, storage size, and the lack of folks that run that many logs in a session. For classes it is ideal.
Danny, are you implying that the benches look better unpainted and should therefore cost more that way? >:( For shame. I know you are not 'saying anything' but I think you just did. ;D
I gotta get some work done.
After this discussion I think it should be called the Northern Brown Loginator that is also offered in southern blue pine for an additional $100. You guys are ready for the comedy club. :D
Quote from: 21incher on April 04, 2022, 03:25:51 PM
After this discussion I think it should be called the Northern Brown Loginator that is also offered in southern blue pine for an additional $100. You guys are ready for the comedy club. :D
Is southern Blue Pine the same as pre-mildewed pine? I have no plans to offer any other color except 'unpainted'.
As for the comedy club circuit, I doubt it. The are too few people that are properly versed in sarcasm or the finer art of sarcastic innuendo. Most folks go from laughing to righteous indignation at the speed of light these days and never slow down in between. The remaining folks that do appreciate it are largely members here anyway. :D :)
I don't know whether to laugh or get mad at that remark. :D
I did finish my outhouse shed today, well except for the corner molding which is just 4 pairs of 1X4's screwed together into 90 degree corners and attached at the corner. I finished the door and roof today which went together quickly. I have just about used up all my Norway Spruce stock and need to saw several stock logs I got from my neighbor and I need to saw some stock poplar 2X4's.
I'll build another seat tomorrow then call the guy to come get it.
I thought about painting it Yankee Brown as an appropriate outhouse color but I'll let him paint it or not himself. ;)
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on April 04, 2022, 09:36:11 PM
I don't know whether to laugh or get mad at that remark. :D
......
I have absolutely NO idea which comment you are referring to, but it's probably best that you just laugh at it and move on. :D
Glad you are poking along and moving out products. I need to do the same, but I am betwixt stuff just now.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on April 04, 2022, 03:57:28 PMThe are too few people that are properly versed in sarcasm or the finer art of sarcastic innuendo. Most folks go from laughing to righteous indignation at the speed of light these days and never slow down in between.
Could it have been this one? ;)
Yeah, it could. :)
If we had a thread titled "I got lucky today" I would finally have a post for it, but we don't, so I'll just stick this in here.
I am stuck with taking the wife on her errands to to her 'things' she does and it is messing up my planning, but I guess that will keep me thinking about getting her van fixed soon. SO yesterday I had to take her to the bank then off to one of her quilting groups. It messed up my morning routine enough that I didn't stoke the shop stove before we left. I got home home around 10:30 and went out and threw some wood in and opened up the vents. I put some tools in the truck and other stuff for the mill, got the mail, went back and checked the stove, it had re-lit itself so I put a bunch more wood in to hold for the 4 or 5 hours I would be at the mill, then went to get in the truck to leave. As I lifted my leg to get in the truck, I recalled that I had not shut down the vents on the stove for an idle burn. I almost let it go, but I turned around and went back in the shop. There was a haze in the air and I could smell that distinctive odor of steel getting really hot. Just then I noticed the smoke pipe (new stainless) at the stove exit was cherry red. There was some smoke pushing out through the elbow joints and some red glowing sparks at those slip joints. "Well, this is different, I haven't seen this in a while" was my first thought. I shut down the stove vents, grabbed a PW extinguisher to have it handy and waited a bit. The pipe temp was close to 500° at the stove exit, but it calmed down in a few minutes. What concerned me was the sparks and smoke at the joints. Its the end of the season and some parts could use replacement and I wasn't sure they would hold under the stress. So I left it shut down and went to the mill.
When I got home, the wood was still smoldering, so I threw it in a steel bucket and put it outside and left the stove open so that it could burn out cold.
Today I took the chimney apart. The 45° elbows both fell apart during the process as I expected. I had a bunch of creosote that fell down into the stove top. I inspected the other parts and they held up well to the higher temps. I ordered 2 replacement elbows, but this time in Stainless and also got a 4' section because that will go next and I might as well have it on hand. Stainless costs a bunch more but I have resolved to make it all stainless, that black stuff is just a bit better than cheap tin. I'll get it all cleaned up and get it ready before the parts show up in a few days.
So yeah, I got lucky. I could have lost the shop. But I have pretty good habits and not 'letting it go for later' and that's likely what saved me. That, and having worked dozens of chimney fires that went bad. Just another day, right?
After I spent my money, I decided to fix one of those things that annoys the heck out of me. When I go down to the mill or go to a local job, I back the truck up to the shop and throw in the tools I may need for the day's work. Now I have a truck box that usually has one saw, some gas, and bar oil along with a basic tool box. But that stuff is not always in there and there are usually other tools I throw in the bed for that days job. Even with just a 2 mile run, those tools or supplies slide all over in that plastic bed and I have to go fishing around to get them back out. I have wanted to make a box from junk wood for over a year now. I had been bringing home those off cuts from the mill that I get when I do a 'saw to bed' setting and take 1/2-5/8" off the top. Seemed to good to burn. I also had a bunch of 2x4 drops from those benches I just finished. I had no plan, just 'make a box'. So I did.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220406_155744229.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649287109)
I only had 2 hinges, looked for 3, no soap. This was a 'use what you got' project. Don't need a hasp. no plans to lock it. Just to keep the stuff where I can reach it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220406_155749621.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1649287109)
If I get caught in a heavy rain or snow, it should keep most of the water off. It will be especially helpful when I bring lube water to the mill. I take it in one gallon jugs, about 7-10 at a time and those jugs roll all over the bed, full, or empty coming back.
I painted this one 'compost toilet brown' and it took longer to paint the parts than it did to put it together, or even cut everything. I don't believe I ever mentioned it, but I hate painting. But I think the paint MIGHT make it last a bit longer.
Another rain day tomorrow it looks like and no idea what I am doing yet. I may bang around the shop and do some cleaning up or other improvements. The bench is loaded with junk and I do have spring shores to do. I should get that water pump hooked up, I think it may be safe now from a hard freeze.
Just another day.
Another Yankee Brown project.
No Danny, this is different paint. I went to HD and asked for "Southern Compost Toilet Brown" but they didn't have it. They told me they don't paint compost toilets down south. But they did come up with 'Compost Toilet Brown" which is apparently popular up in more civilized Northern climates. :D :)
I like the box, I have a little White Oak and Red Cedar and I could make something similar to replace the rubber maid locking tote that holds my travel disaster kit in the back of the truck. It would look better and I could build it to fit the space better. Just never thought about it... :)
That Northern compost toilet brown paint is probably handy for those wayward members with questionable and erratic accuracy who keep missing, or I should say hitting, the seat.
Kind of like the old admiral who got a semaphore message there were four enemy ships heading their way. He told his aid "Go get my red coat so if I am wounded the troops will not know and lose heart." The aid came back with his coat and said "Admiral, the comm officer misread the message and there are 400 enemy ships approaching." The admiral told his aid "Go back and get my brown trousers too." :D
How come you painted that nice box purple?
One more time, read my lips......It's NOT purple. That was a viscous rumor started by some interloper in an attempt to get the peoples of our great nation to pick sides and become divided. The threat is everywhere, don't let it suck you in. ;D
It just looks purple. 8)
I think you guys all need new monitors. :D
" No Trespass Purple" should keep people out of your box, is that why no lock? ;D
I just analyzed it and the color is Puce ;D. That's on a 32 inch 4k calibrated monitor.
It's official, I give up. Y'all are hopeless.
Toolbox Puce is only one row above and three columns to the left of Loginator Brown on the Pantone chart.
I do find it telling that so many folks made time to comment on the color paint I use, but nobody seemed to give a hang about the fact that I could have lost my whole shop to a chimney fire. I guess I focus on the wrong things and I really should think more about how important aesthetics are and more importantly what names we attach to particular attributes.
I find myself having a hard time getting out of that 'rainy weather funk'. It subsided a bit yesterday but rained again overnight and we had some heavy downpours up until about 1pm today.
I went down to Bill's late morning thinking I would work more on chipper blades, having what I needed to fit those smaller blades in the grinder. I stopped at the house and we had coffee, then the rain got really heavy, so we had more coffee, talked through some upcoming plans, and I eventually got into the shop at about 11. The plates I had cut will work fine, but I didn't have clamps that would hold them in place and I needed some think shims and clamps with deeper throats. I looked around his shop but couldn't find anything that would work. So I grabbed all the parts we had gotten from WM to bring down to the mill. Bill had warned me that the water got 'kind of' high down there in the rain yesterday and the water jugs I had left floated all over. He didn't tell me logs had also floated around. ;D I got through the high water from the swamp that covered the road and found two logs blocking my easy entry point to the mill. I thought he had dropped them there in his haste to get something done (he does that sometimes). Turns out those logs floated off the pile and dropped right across the access when the water dropped back down.
So I went in the other way and hunted for the water jugs that floated away. I don't think I found them all, some were 60' away from where i set them. I dropped off another 10 jugs and the parts and surveyed the mess. He did mill some quick lumber up since I was milling last week and I need to clean up his slabs and bark. I shot a quick video on the way out.
It rained at the Mill. - YouTube (https://youtu.be/nYEz4FVUMrg)
I wound up with no paying time for the day, but that's fine. Some days are like that, they can't all be winners and frankly I wasn't really in a working mood today, given the weather.
Tomorrow is another day, lets see what that brings.
Now that you mention it, Tom, I'm happy your shop didn't burn down! That'd been rough!
Spring routine continues here as I try to get back into a working groove. On Monday I got a small mushroom log order from a returning client, so I cut those on Tuesday and she will pick them up next week. I am still 3 orders behind at the mill still. I hacked out some more 2x4's the other day for an order and am getting close on finishing up 2 orders.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220413_130738428.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650022577)
Yesterday I was between logs on the deck and we decided I should mill up some of the old 'nuggets' that have been in my way all along. It was time to find out if we had table slabs or BTU's in those chunks and move them out either way.
So I started with the biggest one, a tight crotch and wangled it up on the mill using the manual back stops. I could reach out far enough to get a clamp on it. It was about 38" wide. Just about the time I was going to start cutting, around the bend come 3 utility trucks from the power company. Then Bill's guys came down with a mini-ex to loan them for the job. They had apparently decided today was the day to move all the wires from the old pole by the mill, to the new pole they set 6 weeks ago. Well, the foreman looked up at the brand new pole, and the brand new holes the local woodpecker had hammered all over it and decided they couldn't use that pole, they would need a new one. This required a lot of debate and discussion on their part. Then they all wanted to see the mill work, so we fired it up and tried to take a slice off, but we just couldn't quite get it through the guides. We backed out (without blowing off the blade!) and I sliced a couple inches off the side with a chainsaw. We opened the thing up and there was too much rot inside so it all went on the forks for the OWB as is.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220414_122320057.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650022577)
The power co. guys decided they couldn't get a new pole in that day and called it off. They all left and Bill's guys took the mini-ex back up the hill. I grabbed another nugget and tried again, this one was nearly as bad, more BTU's. Not a good day, but I cleared some more working room.
Between the bark and all the rotten sapwood, these things make a mess, so I had a lot of cleaning up to do. I took 3 loads up to the OWB. As I was getting the cleaning wrapped up and ready to restart, here comes Bill's guy again with the mini-ex. They unloaded it and parked it. Turns out they got word the power guys were coming back with a pole and going to get it done anyway. I knew they would block me into the mill for the duration and the heavy rain was due in about an hour, so I finished and got out before they arrived. I dumped one more load at the OWB and as I was leaving I ran into the crew coming back in, so I had to back up 1/4 mile to let them pass. This time it was 4 trucks. On my way I passed two more trucks, one with an excavator on a trailer and the other with more crew. Glad I wasn't stuck down there, but I had to ask myself "how many guys does it take to swap a power pole?"
With my wife's van still out of commission I am losing a lot of work time taking her where she needs to be most days. We got a donor van last week and Tuesday night we yanked the axle out of it, planning to get the other one out on Wednesday evening, but the mechanic turned up sick so we put it off for another day. But in the meantime we got a better look at the 'new axle' and released it too has some rot. It's not bent or damaged, but there is no point putting it in the way it is. Bill is gonna try welding some plates on it if he can find a good base to work from.
I remain hopeful.
Today is clear and cooler and I have no errands to take the wife on. So I am going to pack a lunch and head to the mill to see what I can get done.
I am still waiting for my chimney parts. Glad it isn't February. I ordered on the 6th and they didn't ship until the 14th (yesterday). All parts were listed as "in stock". Not sure what their issue is, but I'm not happy. At this point it's all academic, but on rainy days it is nice to have a fire to dry out the air in the shop.
We, it's another day, I best get to it.
Well yesterday went mostly as planned. It stayed a bit cooler so I didn't get soaked with sweat, but a very nice day. I got to the mill and found the power co. guys had finished the pole replacement. They left the old pole (well, 3 months old) and that pecker hole was impressive:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220415_114713147.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650100903)
It's about 7" deep and there is another one about 5' down from the top, the one above is about 16" from the top. We can use that pole for storm damage repair work or something because even cut off we should have over 30'. The new pole has no holes......yet. ;D
So I got to work searching for the 'right' logs to maybe finish the flooring order and I found one I could trim to get good wood out of. It took a little monkeying around to get it on the mill and trimmed but I got nice boards out of it. Before I went for a second (hopefully final) log I went across the road to recount all the boards because I started this job in December and it's possible I lost a few or the count got messed up over time. As it turns out, I had 101 boards on a 100 board order, so it is DONE. I double checked my count and it stands.
Moving on, I scouted logs for the next order to finish, some 1x12x10'+ for fencing. That job is starting either this week or next, so I gotta get it done. Ironically, I found some stuff stacked for the OWB that I believe I can get those 10 footers out of. I need the grapple to pick them out and stage them, and I had the forks on the tool cat. It was past lunchtime so I sat down and had a couple of hard boiled eggs, an orange, and a bottle of water. It was such a nice day, and I was so pleased that the flooring order I hated was finally complete, that I decided to blow off the afternoon. I cleaned the mill and headed home. I took a shower and brought the wife to town, she did some laundry while I got a much needed haircut next door. I've wanted that haircut for over a month, just didn't have time. We did a couple more errands and came home. I did some chores and that was pretty much the day.
Looks like we have rain coming in today so I'm not certain what I am working on. I might cut up some Loginator parts or I might head down and at least pull logs to the deck. Either way, I got stuff to do and another day to do them.
Well today wasn't great, but it wasn't bad either. I ordered the brake parts for the wife's axle rebuild this morning and they were in stock. I did some phone business with LogRite to tweak the order I am picking up on Saturday and then I packed the wife in the truck and took her to her quilt group. That put me 2 towns over so I did the loop and stopped to look over a portable mill site (see other thread), then wanted to top off the gas tank before picking up the brake parts. I couldn't find a gas station with a price that didn't make me puke, so I passed on that, but got the parts the mechanic asked for. I got home and loaded water in the truck for the mill and put my lunch in a bag and headed to the mill. As I walked into the shop to drop off the parts, I realized they gave me (drum) brake shoes instead of (disc) brake Pads. I was ticked. The van has disc brakes an I told them that when I ordered the parts. I put the parts back in my truck, transferred the water and my tools to the toolcat and drove to the mill. All the while doping a slow steam about the wrong parts and another trip to town. >:(
Upon arrival at the mill I found that 'somebody' had been there and pulled out some of the milled lumber. Where it went I have no idea, hopefully to the customer, but what was left, a pile of about 40 2x4x12's and 14's was in a tumbled heap. Worse, somebody had scarred up the ground around the operators area and killed the drainage. So now I have 6 inches of mud to slog through as I carry lumber from the mill to the stack. I confess, I was pretty ticked, in fact really ticked. So I spent a half hour re-stacking 2x4's (they are still heavy) and then I tried to regrade the mud so the water would drain out. I didn't have a bucket down there, so I did the best I could the back end of the forks on the tool cat and did the rest by hand. It was draining good when I left, but it will take a couple of days before it is anything but a soupy mess. All I know is, somebody has some 'splaining to do. ;D
I turned to milling and got the first log, a small knarly 8'+ log queued up. With sweep there would be much left of it, but it's either lumber or BTU's, right? About that time the parade started. Down the steep bank from the house yard came a row of chickens. About 6 of them in single file and they headed right for the puddle to drink. A minute or so later, 4 or 5 more came down. I got chickens everywhere. After drinking they started milling about looking for 'stuff'.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220421_124119213.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1650576093)
I dunno, maybe @Southside (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=24297) can explain it. I figure it was some kind of omen or something.
Anyway, I got more out of that log then I expected, and nice clear wood. (maybe the chickens?) I ate my lunch then I put up another log and got a bunch more. The sky got dark and the clouds rolled in and I could taste the rain. So I packed up the slabs on the forks, cleaned up my gear and headed up. I moved my tools back tot he truck, parked the toolcat in front of the OWB ready to dump the load in and headed home. Called the autoparts place and they explained they gave me the drum shoes for the E-brake and that axle has disc brakes for driving but a drum for the E-brake. OK yes, that's what I was supposed to get. But I had never seen this combo brake system on any cars I had fixed. Guess I am old. ;D SO I didn't have to run to town, I have the right parts.
It's still snotty out and the rain, not a whole lot, did come. I re-started the woodstove in the house to get the chill out of my back. It's 77° at my desk now and I am just beginning to feel warmish.
Tomorrow, depending on when I get moving, I might make up another pair of those lumber bunks before I head to the mill. They are turning out the be pretty handy. Bill scoffed and made fun of them, but now that he is picking lumber off them he likes them a lot. He doesn't mind me brining home the heavily waned 2x4's and coming back with a pair of those so much anymore. :D I only had 3 pair, and I need more. It helps me separate orders too.
If I get going late, I'll just head to the mill and put in a full day and figure out where all these orders stand. Getting a little more organized is something we have to work on together. I think I am loosing track of milled work and need to get a handle on that. I also need to clean the truck out for the visit to LogRite on Saturday. I hope to leave at 7am so we don't miss much.
Tomorrow is another day.
That's a regular event around here. Couple weeks ago a customer was pulling out with a trailer load of 2X lumber and on the back of the trailer was a hen, just perched and going for a ride! :D
Now if I could could train my rocks to ride!!!!
I have been trying to rake here. Got a few of the wife's herb beds done, than the wind really started to blow. Between the too wet, too windy, working, too busy or too lazy, I am not getting much raking done. I only have two oak trees behind the house. Leave all that for the deer to paw for arcons.
Than the wife's herb beds and flowers beds too.
I rake the ditch beside the driveway.
Did finally get to the peas.
Yeah, the stuff we wanna see leave never seems to does it? :D
I dunno, maybe the chickens are good mojo or something. Yesterday I was a little bummed abut 'loosing' around 100 2x4's I know I cut for an order, but I shook it off and did some milling while forgetting about it for the moment. The chickens cheered me up.
I thought about the missing lumber a lot last night trying to figure out how I screwed up my tally sheet or what else I did wrong. I KNOW I made that lumber, in fact I grumbled a little about having it all over and it was getting in my way. BINGO! It then dawned on me that I was complaining about the lack of room and the client was anxious to start his build and came and got what I had milled back in December. I cleared that up with Bill today and he conformed my recollection. All good, I just had to fall back on my tally sheet to know if I had the order done.
Today I finished off that order and made a good dent in another one which I only need a few boards to finish up. We have a running fence order I am near done with for a build that Bill crew is doing and I am not sure where that stands, they aren't either. Seems they might need some longer boards and have me on hold until they see where they stand, then I will make what they need to dress it off. A couple other orders to check over and make sure they are still required but we are closing in on getting even. Then we have to get ready for that portable job.
The chickens did come down this afternoon again and this time the rooster came and stationed himself right in the middle of the loading deck crowing regularly as I worked on my tally sheet. Man that sucker has got some impressive spurs! Glad he's not aggressive.
I headed home from the mill to clean the truck up for tomorrow's drive with the wife, a months worth of coffee cups and water bottles. I hosed the mud and bird doo off of it, but didn't wash it.
Looking forward to tomorrow and seeing some 'like minded folks'. I'm due for a 'fun day' with no goal in mind besides enjoyment and a chance to spend a little money. ;D I texted with Jeff and Tammy a couple of times today, they were making great time....until they hit CT. ;D They should have been there by the time of this posting, I sure hope so.
Tomorrow is another day, and I think it will be a good one.
Looking forward to being in your blog!
Catching up a little bit here. As planned we went to the LogRite Open house on Saturday, but it was a tough trip. Friday evening my vertigo reared it's ugly head in a very real way and Saturday morning was pretty bad. We planned on leaving at 7am and I was up at 5 trying to get my head clear. I did that 'maneuver that is supposed to give relief and let the crystals in the ear relocate, but all that did was cause some kind of vagal response that caused me to puke violently for about 10 minutes. Still I was determined that I wouldn't miss this event and a rare chance to meet up with the crew. I also had a large order sitting at LogRite for pickup, so I was going to have to drive out anyway and it might as well be during the open house I thought.
It's a pretty easy 2.5 hour drive to the east for us on a Saturday morning along 84 but there is a reason I call CT "The Constipation State" and there is always some kind of traffic. For me, on Saturday, this was a drive from hell. The traffic was just normal moderate and we made good time with practically no slow downs. However the vertigo made it such that I had to concentrate on every inch of the road the whole way. You cannot rely on your senses in most normal ways and things appear differently, especially when dealing with motion. I could not turn my head to check traffic because snapping my head around put the whole world in a spin. SO my wife had to do double duty watching our sides and rear. Lane changes were a team effort. Still we arrived safely with zero issues.
None the less, just walking around I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb with my wide gait to keep my balance and the cane. I walked like a drunk trying to get to the restroom in time. So I was not very much on my game at all and missed many opportunities to get the most out of the day and forgot to talk to some folks about things on my mind or questions I had. I had wanted to talk to Shaina about whether they needed a Riteleg rep in NY and if that would be helpful to them because I note that they don't have one yet.
Still I did get a lot of learning just by standing in the right place with the right folks. I hung around with Dennis (TerrificTimbers) quite a bit and learned a lot just listening to him talk to the Woodmizer guys about mill issues. All stuff I can put to use within a week and will likely save me some pain. You can't buy knowledge like that at any price. We enjoyed just sitting down or walking around with FF friends and enjoying the beautiful weather that had been arranged for the day. They put on quite a show but I was definitely off my feed and not feeling well at all.
When it got to the point where I knew we should be getting on the road I knew I made a mistake driving over because the thought of driving home scared the heck out of me. My wife has not driven my truck hardly at all but I asked and she was willing, so she drove home. Surprisingly that was just as tough on me with the swaying of the truck and those 70mph curves around Hartford. But she got us home safe and sound. We had a great time and having made it OK, I am really glad we went. Sadly I took no photos, I could focus my eyes well enough and just getting around was all I could manage.
I think next year I will do the same and plan my large purchases around the open house and save the shipping. This time I came back with 2 pairs of picnic table legs (which filled the truck bed) and a hookeroon and a 48" peavy, plus some extra knowledge and a warm fuzzy feeling. :)
Each day since then I feel just slightly better than the day before but there is no way I would feel safe running the mill let alone climbing into a skidsteer. Still using the cane for balance. We had a monthly chiro tune-up yesterday and my guy found a 'counter rotated C1' which he says probably contributed to the clogged Eustachian tube that started this back in February. He adjusted that and a bunch of other stuff. But today I am only mildly improved from yesterday.
I also had a client come pick up logs yesterday, a repeat client from last year. I had a hard time just helping her load a few logs. SO I am piddling in the shop making some more lumber bunks up to use at the mill and today I may paint and put together another Loginator to have for show. I have just one outstanding pre-order of logs due near the end of May for a workshop and am done cutting any others until late June and full leaf out.
Lets see what I can get done today.
Tom,
Sorry to hear about you being on the puny list. I hope you get over that vertigo soon and shake the double vision, dizziness and problems discerning colors. ::)
BTW - my new debarker blade seems to be working fine on my mill. I did trip the breaker a few times on my last sawing job but it was because of knots causing binding not just because the sharp blade was digging in too much. I did have to stop and tighten the nut on the bottom one time and will keep an eye on that.
Glad to hear your debarker is working well, That's important.
I will get over this dis-orientation thing at some point, it just takes time. Fortunately there is no effect on my ability to discern colors such as you chronically suffer. I can still tell the difference between brown and purple even in my 'weakened state'. :D ;D
Sunday would have been a great day to be milling, but I heard my friend Bill rototilling his Dad's garden across the road, so I drove the Mule over and joined his Pop on the deck watching his son turn up all that nice black dirt and dreaming of the summers big beefsteak tomatoes. Hard work fascinates me and I can sit and watch it for hours. :D Pretty soon we had a bunch of us sitting on the porch, Bill's Dad, me, then the fella that came to pick up the rototiller, then Bill's brother, then Bill's wife. We all enjoyed watching him work as we all sat in the pleasant sunshine. Bill Sr. grows a great garden, about 70' square and he puts some of his stuff out on a stand. Last year just didn't work and he planted 3 times before giving up. The weather (heavy rains mostly) kept wiping out his plantings and he got very low yields. In years past he was supplying local restaurants. I am hoping for a better year this year, as we all are, on many levels.
Catching up on the totally boring slice of time that has been my life this week. I am still 'fuzzy in the head' but each day a little less so. Tuesday I made up more log bunks and in the late afternoon and went down to Bill's to play 'tool fetch boy' for the mechanic swapping the rear end on my wife's van. He gave me a parts list and I picked those up on Wednesday morning and after that that I pulled out all the pre-cut parts for 2 Loginators and painted them, which still takes too long as I can't spray them outside yet. Very windy here yet and too cold.
Wednesday evening back to Bill's with the mechanic and it was all done except to weld the sway bar anchor point on the 'new' axle. Bill wanted to do that, but he was still out working so we left it up on the jackstands. Besides, the tri-axle log truck is parked right behind it (getting a new exhaust system and filters/oil change) and we couldn't pull it out anyway.
Thursday I assembled one of the loginators halfway and remade a top board for the second one because I didn't like the wood condition. I also had forgotten to make the 45° angle backstops, so I made those and painted them. About that time Bill called and wondered if I would have that hemlock siding order done by the evening for him to deliver. SO it went from a 'it will get done when it gets done' job to a 'I need to deliver it tonight' job just like that. Yeah, we have to work on that. "No, I had not started it. but if you need it I can run down, finish off the small 2x order then make that if there is a log there. I am still wobbly so it will take some time, but I think I can get it done." So I headed to the mill around 2:30 and the wind is out of the north (not normal) and coming through the mill area like a wind tunnel at 20-30MPH. Safety glasses didn't even help much. I finished off the 2x order and put up this knarley hemlock log. One side live edge is new for me to do 'on purpose' so I had to figure it out while trying to keep all the boards between 10 and 12" wide per the order. When I got the whole deck sliced at 1" thick and went to flip for the final edge I realized that log had 18" of rot coming in from one end and nearly 2 feet from the other end. I wound up with 6' of usable board which did not fit the "8,10,or 12' long" in the order. SO pretty much a waste of my time. I wouldn't sell that to anyone anyway, but I stacked them so Bill could see what we had. Shame on me for not seeing it earlier.
I have another hemlock on the deck, but it was 5pm, my wife didn't know I would be gone so long, let alone into the evening, and the mechanic was due back at 5:30. So I blew off the job, shut the mill down and brought all the slabs up to the OWB. I used the shop landline to call the wife and bring her up to speed and delay dinner. I waited until 6pm and nobody had showed. I managed to get out a text or two and when I finally had given up and was driving out, I got an answer that the mechanic was on the way. So I figured I would meet him on the road coming in. The sway bar was still not yet welded so there was nothing more he could do anyway, but I wanted to pay him. SO I caught him on the road up by my house, paid him and explained the layout, at which point Bill pulled up. They all went down to the shop, I went in for dinner. It as about 7pm and I was tired and pretty fuzzy.
Around 9:30 Bill is standing at my side door trying to freak out my cat who is growling at him. So he came in and had a beer and we talked for a bit. The he asks me to give him a ride home. I figured he had truck issues or something. He tells me he drove the van down and needs a ride back, all done. :) SO back down the road we went one more time.
Today I will try to get that hemlock done and figure out where I stand on all the other orders because I am nearly caught up...I think. Just some 20' 6x6's and a couple of other small orders. I am still having some small issues running the mill with this groggy head. My depth perception is way off and I have trouble seeing to the far end. Also my motor skills are off, so I have to work very deliberately and not trust my instincts so much. Last night I caught a knot on the log during a drag back and popped the blade off. I seem to get tired easily with all the focused work and thinking. So I'll just get that done, then spend the afternoon in my shop finishing up that one Loginator. The other one I will keep in pieces until I get an order for it or sell the first one. It takes up less space that way and I can assemble it in 15 minutes.
It's another day, right?
Yay to getting the van back! Now get your head back too!
Yeah, it's good to have that monkey off my back....for the moment. She has yet to take it for a test drive and I think I need to bleed those brakes a bit more, but pretty good to go. We really should replace it, but between the cost of vehicles these days and the lack of ready cash right now, we just can't see a way.... yet.
Today was a pretty good day. I got to the mill before 10am. It's still cool, but the wind has dropped a bit and is only gusting at 25 now. I re-cut that live edge siding order out of a nice log and got it done. The other stuff I cut last night will go in the OWB. What a waste of my time. I also completed another order that was hanging on a single 2x6x10. I put up a nice clean 22" pine log and took that out of it and milled the rest into 1x12's, 2x4's, and two 4x4's. All of that came home with me. This is why I HATE 6' pickup beds, carrying 12' lumber is no fun. ;D I stacked all that in the shop. about 150BF. I am still a bit wobbly and dizzy if I swing my head from looking at the log back to the control panel trying to find the switch to move the debarker or blade guide quick and my depth perception is not what it should be either. When I bend over it's a bit of an adventure standing back up and if I am lifting slabs it is even more so. So I had to take my time to avoid mistakes. But it was a pretty nice day, so I enjoyed my breaks a bit more often.
I have to design and build an 3x5' outdoor work bench for my mushroom education client. it needs to be enclosed and secured underneath for storage. So I finished unloading and had lunch around 2 and then set in to designing this bench. I think I am going a bit overboard for a pine workbench sitting outside, but I figured I would use this as a test to see if I can get my mortised lap joints to fit better. It will be overkill, but will look slick if I do it right. I can't charge the client for all my time, but this will be a fun little project. I figure 4x4 legs with 2x4 stringers lap mortised into the legs. Then a 'floor' in the bottom cabinet made of 1x12's. The top will be 2 layers of 1x12's, the first layer lengthwise and the second one on a 45° bias. The sides and the doors will be B&B. I think I have the design pretty much worked out and tomorrow I hope to get a good start on the frame.
Pat has a craft show on Sunday, so I don't know how much time I will have with helping her get setup.
One day at a time, today was a fairly good one.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on April 29, 2022, 09:10:18 PMThe top will be 2 layers of 1x12's, the first layer lengthwise and the second one on a 45° bias.
Thinking of putting a layer of tar paper between them then rain won't get to the inside so easily. Just a thought.
It's a great thought and I considered that but I am wondering if it would foster rot? What do you think? Any water would work down in the cracks, then sit there and have no where to go. I'm conflicted. :D
Yeah, I thought about that, too. Maybe make the first layer with a good gap, say 1/2" between the boards? Maybe use Tyvex since it is water vapor permeable and *should* dry out.
Well I cut the lumber from a dead standing EWP, but of course it is not fully dry. So my plan is to butt the boards up tight and I now they will shrink and open gaps (part of the reason for two layers rather than making the top from a single 2" layer.) The bottom cabinet will have a covered tote in it for tools and materials storage so if water leaks on through, it should be ok. I'd like to make it 'mouse tight' but don't think it will ever be water tight. I may make a removable ridge to hold a tarp pitched over it like I did for the inoculation tables. That would be something I would do it it were mine for holding over winter when it is not being used at all. I believe I will be painting/sealing this. So water running through is better than water sitting. My other thought was that if/when the top rots, it won't be hard to tear it off and screw a new one on.
Tom,
Just remember the design improvement team is standing by any time you need our help. ;)
Yes, thank you. That is an ever present fear comfort in the back of my head. ;D
Speaking of the Devil, putting the two top pieces cross-grain from each other is a woodowrking no-no, like gluing a breadboard onto the end of a tabletop instead of letting it have some room for cross-grain expansion/contraction like with a tongue and a groove. 1X12's will move a lot between dry and low humidity and wet and high humidity.
If you do orient them cross-grain, and if you screw the two layers together from below, and if you leave the hole for the screw shaft in the bottom layer one drill bit size larger than the shaft, and if you use a pan head screw like a pocket screw with a flat washer between the screw head and the wood, there will be just enough slop for the two layers to move independent of each other since the flat pan head will slide on the washer and let the forces balance out.
I made this outdoor table for my bonsai trees to reside on 15 years ago. They still reside there. The top is made with ripped slats with spacer blocks between them to let water drain through rather than pond on the surface leading to rot. The table is weathered gray now, but still solid with no rot. The spaces also allow air to circulate so that the top dries out quickly after a rain.
Offered in the spirit of a committed Design Team Member.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/Bonsaitable.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1192071557)
All great points I now have to ponder. It IS a workbench, not a finished table. However, that does not change the physics. Since I will have the dado blade set up in the RAS, I may just make it into a lap joint top. I have time to think on this a bit more. The frame will take me a while first. Possibly I MAY go with a hardwood top. I have some 2 year drying YP on the rack I could use.
I would either glue and seal it up tight with no cracks or leave a gap so dirt and bark trash cannot get in there and hold moisture for a while. I use the plastic totes with lids for BSA stuff and my logging. It could be a more expensive one with a hole for a padlock and be slid out when needed. I know how you like complex unnecessary design elements, so consider incorporating a chess board into the top for down time. ;) :) 8)
very nice table Danny. Is it Cypress? I got a few books on wood science and ID. I still cannot ID all wood, so I guess I will have to read them. :P :P :P :-[ :D :D :D
Yes Sir. It is cypress.
Man, I wish I could get my hands on some cypress or osage, but I am really not worthy of it. ;D
I forgot to mention is previous posts that when I was down at the mill Friday I had the muffs on (still won't wear ear plugs till that ear is 100%) I heard a new and odd noise over the engine noises. I could not place it and got concerned, so I let the mill idle down and took off the muffs. Sure enough I hear the dull 'whumping' noise. So given my still addled brain functions I begin walking around trying to change the angle and narrow down this noise all the time thinking "What NOW?". Well I finally figured out it wasn't the mill and I traced the sound to way overhead.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220429_140719037.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651403231)
It appears that pileated woodpecker found the brand new pole and has/is whacking in some exploratory holes. That is pole number 3 in this spot, all replaced for woodpecker holes. ;D
I got back to work and finished milling and shut everything down for cleanup and stacking. Took off the muffs again and now I hear a strange tapping noise which I traced to this bark bucket.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220429_112741457.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651403232)
I walked all around it and saw nothing, but clearly the noise continues. Finally I spot the source and got a fuzzy photo as she emerged:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220429_112814765.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651403227)
This chicken who comes down to visit me often climbed into the bark bucket and got underneath all the bark looking for bugs. She was in there for a while, just glad she got out OK.
Yesterday morning I found this guy when I went out for the mail, no idea what species he/she is but it sure didn't seem in a hurry to go anywhere.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220430_123136140.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651403237)
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So yesterday I threw myself into the bench build and cut all the frame wood. I set up the dado blade on the RAS and set up stops to whack out the lap joints and there are a lot of them. So I got those all cut, but the ones that went through the lower part of the legs I could not quite get the depth I needed, the saw would only go about 7/8", so I finished all of them, then set up a router to take the last 1/8" of depth on those 8 slots and cleaned the corners with a chisel.
I whacked it all together and it fit pretty good.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220430_145602593.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651403237)
That photo is with no screws, just the joints holding it. Once I confirmed the fit up, I broke it down and carried it downstairs and assembled it on the floor as I squared things up. By then it was a full day, so I sat down to catch a breath and look it over.
(At this point I should switch to the 'I did something dumb' thread.) As I am looking at it and enjoying how nicely the joints fit up I thought to myself "Doesn't that look a little small?". Yeah. I built a 2x3' frame when I think the customer wanted a 3x5' bench. ARRGGHH!
Well I could still do a 3x5 top with 6" of overhang on the front and back and a foot on each end, but that would still make for a too small cabinet underneath. 6" of overhang all around would be best, which means a 2x4' frame. I put a call into the client to confirm size, but he is traveling right now. I have a call scheduled for today.
I quit for the day at 5 and got cleaned up and changed to take the wife out to dinner for our 45th wedding anniversary. The client texted back that he thought maybe he could work with 2x3 but I am thinking on it and realize I need to fix it. I have to remake the long stringers (4) to 4' and that will give the 6" overhang and a proper sized cabinet. It will just cost and hour or two to do it right.
Today the wife has a craft show and I have to go help her setup and break down, so not sure what I will get done in between. Ah well, the price of education is not cheap. Fortunately this time I have enough lumber on hand to cover my mistake. ;D
It's another day!
You are surely qualified to start using your earplugs again.
I can see now that the Design Committee has been shirking their responsibilities ;D.
You have all sorts of animals around you. ;D
Quote from: thecfarm on May 01, 2022, 07:54:18 AM
You have all sorts of animals around you. ;D
Yeah, but I try to work with everyone. :D
That silly checken follows me around sometimes and runs out in front of the toolcat like she is leading it on. One of these days I won't see her under the mill or something and she might get whacked. The engines and noises don't seem to bother her. Bill has about 40 chickens there, but this one follows me, the rest don't see the attraction. ;D
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Not to worry Danny, not your fault. I know I wrote down the table size when I talked to the client, but I can't find the notepad I wrote it on. I deserve the pain, in fact I earned it. :D
Dennis, I thought about your ear plug comment today and you may well be correct. My ears stopped popping yesterday and today felt pretty darn normal. My brain, not so much. When I get back to the mill I may give them a try because we are getting into sweat season and the muffs get slippery even if they are easier to pop off for breaks.
Thanks to WDH for saving me from my own overdesigning ways. Last night I settled on two layers of shiplap offset by half a board width. But first I had to fix my faux paus. I followed my wife to her craft show this morning and loaded in for her and helped set some of the basics up until she dismissed me. ;D I grabbed a quick breakfast at my favorite diner across the road, then headed back to the shop. I took the 3' stringers off and cut new 4' ones, then setup the dado blade again and made the lap joints (I'm getting quicker) and reassembled the bench to proper size. Now I have a 2x4' base with a 3x5 top and a 6" overhang all around.
Then I set to work on the top. Somehow my brain was not functioning properly and I mis-cut several pieces. My son and his boys showed up to do spring yard cleanup and I think them coming and going and asking lots of questions distracted me, but I am not blaming them. At one point I quit for a bit and bucked up some down trees for them to cart off. Then I tried again and was having trouble with the math and screwed up a few more cuts. But I got the top done. Danny, I screwed the two layers together thinking shrink would be about the same, hope that's OK. I like the way the edges look.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220501_175152289.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651447469)
I may or may not cover the edges with some trim pieces. I dunno yet. I will sand the top and cover it with poly to help it withstand the weather better.
Around 3pm I had to shut down, do a quick beer run then help the wife load out down in town. It was a poor show and she made just a little more than table costs. Oh well. Got her home and unloaded, then back to the shop.
I cut the pieces for the floor and did the corner notches around the legs. I didn't shiplap these parts because if any water gets in, I'd like it to drain out through the small gap. I was gun shy at this point and had to cut and trim a couple of times until the boards would drop in nice and snug. So that is done and it was dinner time. I realized I had never stopped for lunch. It was a longer day than I thought. It seems to be back on track.
I'll say one thing: This sucker is HEAVY! Holy cow, I can't hardly lift it to move it. Solid too. The client can use it for a dance stage if he likes. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220501_175129231.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651447472)
Now I have to do the sides and doors. I should probably get some of that hardware stuff for the doors or something, right? I am not so good with these 'door thingies'. I am running short on 1x material so I may be cutting up everything I have in the shop and using narrower wood. I can use up the mis-cut stuff also, but I may still wind up short. I might have to run to the mill where I have a bunch of 1x10's I could steal from. I'll figure that out tomorrow, right now I am working on some hard earned (cheap) beer. None of that fancy stuff like Doc and FFOTS drink for me. :D
Funny I had the shop door open while working today and my son was there. I saw a 20' trailer headed 'out' on the road loaded with stickered lumber. It seemed to me that must be wood I made. A little while later I got a text from Bill with a photo of that trailer which he had just loaded. So I guess I have some more working room around the mill now. :)
So not a bad day. I did waste a bunch of my time doing stupid stuff, but I made up for my mistakes and the client will get a nice product.
Tomorrow is another one.
That top should work nicely. All the top shrinkage now is in the same direction. An edge strip on the end grain pieces will create another cross-grain situation that will be difficult to engineer without issues. That one shelf board with the blued edges is super cool. That is a fine work bench, Sir.
Well, if I do put edging on it, it will be thin stuff and it might be hardwood, which of course will complicate things. Knowing it will be problematic as it all dries, I won't put much effort into it, for sure.
About 4 years ago I mad an outdoor workbench for my first mill site. I used lumber I cut from a long dead standing pine thinking it would be pretty much 'dry'. ;D It was just in the pre-rot stage at that point. I fitted up the 2x10 top boards with tight butt joints. Man was I surprised at the shrinkage in under a years time and the boards gaps. That learned me up a lot. That bench still sits down in the woods, partially covered, I should go check on it. 6x6 legs on that one. It served well as a beater bench.
The opposite experience I had when I put some t&g pine that had been inside for a year or two on a shed floor, it was exposed to the weather for a bit while I finished the shed. The floor got bigger than the shed so I had to re trim the edge and run the circular saw down the middle a few times to get t to lay down flat again.
Quote from: WDH on May 01, 2022, 07:51:39 AMI can see now that the Design Committee has been shirking their responsibilities ;D.
Danny,
I resent that remark and if you look through the earlier the comments you will see we graciously and sincerely offered our assistance and the comment was something to the effect "Don't call me, I'll call you" although maybe a little more courteous. ;)
I guess watching Tom build his projects is like watching your grandkids learn to walk. You want to reach out and help but you just have to watch them stumble and fall and pick themselves back up. :D
Tom,
Good looking bench. If anyone complains about the weight tell them that is part of the Federally mandated Wellness and Fitness program and that you are doing your part to keep Americans in shape. ::)
OK, 'nuff said. I'm gonna pack up my frozen Ga Hoppers and head back for WV and hope my wife does not get them mixed up with the trail mix as I am driving. steve_smiley
You said you had some time to make this bench OGH, then next thing I know it's done. I was, if I stop by your place in a few weeks, going to offer to bring some osage logs for you. I don't know if they hold bugs but I've got some decent sized logs out there that would likely have some 1x6s in them at least. I'm not sure I'm strong enough to move a 5' long log though and I'd hate to cut it myself, with the chainsaw mill as I don't imagine I'd do it right.
Happy 45th anniversary!
@WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) You hit a nerve with me with bonsai, got any pictures?
Aigheadish, are you saying you would stick a log in your camper with your family and live with that log in there for 10 days before dropping it here?! That's really thoughtful but in the interest of your families vacation enjoyment, I think maybe you should reconsider that. ;D I would love to have the log but not at that cost. Also, that could be a fair amount of extra weight you don't need on board. But thank you for even considering that!
Second, that bench was no where near finished in the photos you've seen so far. But I gave it another 12 good hours today with none of those mis-cuts that Howard enjoys so much.
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Now Howard. Really, I never said anything about not wanting your advice, just that not all suggestions are applicable given my client requirements. I realize you take some level of offence at that, but the client pays the bill after all.
As far as watching me make mistakes you think you can predict, might I suggest you go back and re-read some of your build projects. Where do you think I learned those tricks in the first place? Not everybody nails it right the first time and many give up. I keep at it until it's as right as I can make it. If others find entertainment in that, so much the better. Just another free service I provide.
As for the weight on that bench, it is actually a security feature. Anyone attempting to steal that bench will likely require medical attention before they get it on a trailer. In fact, I am not yet certain how I am going to deliver it off my trailer. :D
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Back to the current subject. I gave it a good solid 12 hours today. I cut all the siding boards and was running a bit short on 1x material so I scrounged a few pieces I had around the shop. It will all look the same when it's painted. I made the doors and ran out and got hinges, a hasp and bolt, plus some more screws, and the dreaded paint. Hanging doors in not my forte' but I got them in and swinging fine. I installed the rest of the hardware, hung all the siding boards and most of the battens. I need a half dozen more to finish the construction part off tomorrow.
The (is it's OK with the committee), I plan to sand the top smooth, nothing fancy, just the top and edges. then poly the top with exterior oil based so the wax they spill should clean up easy. everything else will get painted, this time on a nice day with a spray gun, after it sits in the sun for a while to dry out some more. I don't think I need to delver it before June, but it takes a lot of room in the shop.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220502_200350464.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651541430)
The client is very happy with the prelim photos.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220502_200420572.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651541431)
I hope he is as happy with the invoice. ;D :D
Today was a long one and tomorrow is another one.
Looks great Tom!
Yeah, man, I figured the RV has got one of those trunks I could stuff a log into so it wouldn't just be rolling around inside... We don't have that much stuff to pack. We'll see. My bigger concern is moving bugs but I don't know if that's an issue with osage.
If the bench sits out in the weather, varnish will turn black and peel . It may take a few years to do that. Tung oil, liberally applied, will not peel and will be easier to maintain by simply adding a new coat every year or so to keep the water beading up.
I'm sure you are right Danny. But I have had good experience with oil based exterior polyurethane in outdoor applications on hardwood. Of course there can be no voids or air pockets under the finish or it will blister. I have one sitting out in the weather 3 years now and except for darkening, it looks just fine. I haven't used varnish in a very long time. I think the owner is going to put a tent cover over this anyway like we did with the inoculation benches.
There is only one way to find out. :D
I am making no further comments on the very nicely done bench until it is painted. The final color used will tell us all we need to know. :D
Well there will be a change in color, slightly. I had to get another gallon of this pricey stuff, so I made the change to one of the accepted colors off the chart. I don't know if you will be able to see the difference, given your Mason-Dixon filters, but it will be different.
Remember camouflage is always in style and allows you to use up those small remaining amounts of odd colored paint.
Well, I will tell you the color I bought is called "Padre Brown" whatever that is. It has a little less red than the other color. I dunno, maybe to your eyes, this will look like pink or green. I can't predict that. I will keep you in suspense for a week or two until I get around to it.
This morning I got out, finished up the battens, fitted one more bolt to hold the doors flat when closed. I did some sanding on the top and hand chiseled in a pocket to hold one of those wooden business cards, glued it in and used some brass brads to hold it down. I will go back out after dinner and mix up some epoxy to fill in some knots and cover the card pocket. I found that if I fill any divets and knots it eliminates any air coming up later which will fracture the poly finish. Everything is an experiment on some level, lets see how this works on pine. It's been flawless on hardwood. Rain day again tomorrow, so maybe I will sand the epoxy and lay on the first coat of Poly. The client still likes it and can't wait to come by and see it, but he tested positive for COVID yesterday, so we may just wait a bit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220503_121052324.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651613649)
This morning I got a couple of boards added onto an order I just finished at the mill, so I headed down and grabbed a log and milled up the rest of that order and made some 1x12's and 1x10's with the rest of the log. Got home around 5 and I'm tired. Taking a break until after dinner.
Tomorrow is another day. Rain is coming back tomorrow. The shop is a mess and could use some cleaning. I made a lot of sawdust in the past week.
Looks good Tom.
I have an epoxy project to mess with... Encasing the putter head I'm working on. My buddy gave me some epoxy he's had sitting around for a while but it says it needs sustained temps of 75-90 degrees to cure. Is that normal? Do you have something that cures at lower temperatures? Is it rock hard when cured? Granted putters don't take huge abuse but I'd like something that doesn't chip up as it bangs against other clubs and I've never messed with epoxies at all...
Every epoxy is different and you need to follow that manufacturers instructions to the letter. The stuff I just opened last night for instance calls for 3-5 minutes of mixing. All the others I used called for 15 minutes (I think). Temp ranges vary too, but when it is cooler it just takes longer. It's a reactive hardening process, not air drying, so keep that in mind. That 75-90° seems a bit higher than I have seen before. Frankly I never thought about the temp last night, I was focused on moving on. I'll see in a few minutes how it turned out. It's a new epoxy brand I am using, so it's like starting over.
Now on your putter, I am not a golf geek but I have seen a lot of funky designs and shapes on those. Depending on what you've got, you may have to work on one side at a time to keep the flow level even. You can't put the stuff on like paint, at least not very well, and given the cost, you don't want much of it on the floor. So you do each face in turn, then sand to blend any curves and get yourself a polishing kit along with a range of sandpapers to the finest you can get, like 3000. Rough sand with 220 or so to make all your blends, then just wet sand down through the grits and eventually use the polishing kit (per the instructions) to work down through to a high gloss sheen.
It's a lot of work, but on a small project should go fast after the epoxy pours are hardened. That table I did a while back took all the patience I had to get it right and something over 20 separate pours. But then, I am not a woodworker. ;D
Good Luck!
I think room temp (70°) is ok. it generates its own heat as well.
I am also not much of a wood worker but used a number of different epoxies and adhesives at work. As a generality epoxies with longer cure times are stronger than quick cure epoxies, I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule but back then, over 10 years ago, that held pretty much true.
Most epoxy/hardener sets a made to be a 1:1 ratio. If you add a bit more hardener to the mix, it will generate more heat, set faster and hopefully have more hardness.
Very interesting experiences, thanks y'all! I assume that I will, indeed, have to do multiple pours and sand down. The shape is not terribly condusive to sanding... Maybe next time.
This is where I'm at after all the sanding I had patience for, and buffing balls. A couple spots that I'll have to figure out how to get into.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/63516/20220504_162341.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651695642)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/63516/20220504_162353.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651695652)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/63516/20220504_162417.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651695663)
How and where are you attaching the shaft?
Quote from: aigheadish on May 02, 2022, 02:04:10 PM
@WDH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=4370) You hit a nerve with me with bonsai, got any pictures?
aigheadish,
This is an old thread but you might find it interesting.
Bonsai Trees in General Board (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=24637.0)
I have had the little juniper now for 39 going on 40 years. It still lives on that cypress table. The table has held the little tree for 15 years and is still going strong, although much grayed and weathered, just like me. Here is the latest pic of the little juniper that I have which was taken 4 years ago. It is posing on a plant stand that I built for sale, but in the end decided to keep. It is in my lumber room where I keep stuff on it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/14370/IMG_2287~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1651706078)
That's a pretty little tree you have there WDH, but I don't think there is much hope to get much lumber out of it. ;D
I love that stand and sure would like to make one. I can't tell, but it looks like you didn't get much cracking in those cookies. How did you do that? Curious how you fastened it together also. Neat, simple, and elegant idea there.
AIG, you are going to have some challenges there with epoxy filling in those corners. If you are doing an epoxy finish, you don't need a real high polish on the wood because that is all 'hidden' by the epoxy. Even rough sawcut wood will look pretty under epoxy once it's polished, you just won't see the grain as well.
My epoxy fills from last night were hard enough to sand today, so I did that and sanded off just about all of what I covered the knots with. Where the pocket was over the business card, it smoothed off nicely. I then put on a layer of oil based polyurethane, but it's dry very slow. I think I have too much moisture in the wood yet. We will see how that turns out. I'm not in a rush. I need to let it all dry some more before I can paint the base...outside...in the sun.....WITH a sprayer this time.
I got a call today for some sawing, A non-resident with property she just had cleared was given my name by the logger. She is not sure what she wants the wood for or how much she would get out of her logs. Maple, RO, Locust and who knows. So tomorrow I may take a ride out and see what see has and maybe scale he logs to come up with an idea of costing. I may kick the job to another sawyer, truck her logs to our mill, do it as a portable job, or just take a pass. I'll just have to figure it out.
It's always something new.
Thanks Tom, we'll see how it goes especially for my first attempt. The shaft will get sunk into the right stick-outy part on the first picture, hopefully. I buried some weights in the bottom under the brass but wasn't smart enough to mark where they were. I think I was smart enough to leave some space but I'm not positive and I don't think I took any pictures of adding the weights, so I may run into trouble. Congrats on the potential work coming up!
Thanks WDH for the picture and the link, I'll check it out. I got very into learning about bonsai a few years back but didn't really have the yard or space for it so it's still intriguing. Now I have the yard and space but I've not done well to start growing anything. I really need to get on it, preferably 20 years ago.
Those pine cookies did not crack bad. Some do and some don't. As for attaching the top and bottom to the red cedar trunk, I used a 7/8" Forsner bit to drill a countersink into the cookie and lag bolted the cookie to the trunk. Used the 7/8" bit so that I could add a washer to the head of the lag bolt. Three lag bolts for the top and three for the bottom. I then used a 7/8" plug cutter to make some walnut plugs that plugged the forsner bit holes and sanded the plugs smooth to the top. The walnut plugs add a nice visual feature to the top.
Quote from: WDH on May 05, 2022, 06:44:56 PM
.... I then used a 7/8" plug cutter to make some walnut plugs that plugged the forsner bit holes and sanded the plugs smooth to the top. The walnut plugs add a nice visual feature to the top.
Very elegant solution and I expected nothing less from you, that's why I asked. The cookies looked like they were cedar also to me. surprised they are pine. Yeah, sometimes you can get lucky with pine. The only pine cookies I have cut are for ax targets and they leave here so fast I never get to see them crack. :D
Today was an odd break. The weather was pretty so I took a 25 minute ride out to look at those logs I mentioned in yesterday's post. It was a heartbreaker.
There were some nice logs in there, but none of them were cut for grade. A LOT of wasted value. A LOT. The logger was told that all the trees would become firewood. He has a feller-buncher and is new with it, so not as proficient as one might hope yet. Those things are tricky I have been told ;D. SO the logs were cut every which way and what was bucked had sweeps in the wrong place, rot or scar defects that could have been trimmed out, but were not and every log was a different size with little or no trim. I called most of it firewood.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220505_100453122.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651797503)
Some of those look good on the end, then you look around the side and see a big rot hole halfway down the log.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220505_095856649.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651797480)
That nice RO had a falling crack that went at least 4' up the log, the other crack I could not assess. There is a nice straight Cherry log on the upper left there though at about 12'.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220505_095839598.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651797482)
I did scale about 7 logs out of the group in the above photo which came in at just over 500 BF given the oddball lengths. All over the map.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220505_100507407.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651797505)
But there were 4 piles of this type stuff. Maybe one good log in the bunch. The piles were 100 yards apart.
I just didn't see enough to justify a mobile job and I sure didn't see anything worth sending a tri-axle out to pick up most of the logs. Really I didn't want the job at all. I saw it as a lose-lose proposition except one possible scenario. I thought about this on the drive home and ran into the logger and berated him in a friendly kind of way for how he cut those trees. I think I called it a 'butcher job'. ;D That's when I found out they were supposed to be firewood and the client didn't decide to get lumber until a few days ago. At least that's what he said.
SO I thought about what to tell the client all afternoon and HOW to tell her. I sent her and email after dinner explaining the issues with the logs, the costs involved and 4 possible optionsi saw for her. The only option I would recommend was for us to go out with a picker trailer and cherry pick out the good millable logs and make lumber out of those. It would likely be between 750 and 1200 bf, but good clean nice stuff. She would avoid paying us to mess around with poor logs. Since she has no idea what she is going to do with it yet, I think just taking off what cream we can find would be the best value for her. Lets see what she says.
While I was thinking on how to handle all that I came home and did a little sanding on the bench and layed down another coat of urethane. I know I am pushing my luck and putting finish on wood that isn't ready for it. It isn't getting hard and sanding is not pretty. It is a workbench. I am not looking for a furniture finish, I just need to seal it well, but I know even as I do it, I am moving faster than the wood is ready for it. I need to let it set up for a few days at least.
So I turned to a diversion. I have this log laying in the driveway. It's a small cedar I assumed to be White Cedar. My son had a cleanup job he asked me to look at last year. All dead standing stuff, nothing very big, I did drop a few for him. I saw this one cedar tree and told him when he cuts it, don't hack it up, I want the whole stem. He dropped off that wood for firewood last fall and the cedar log I put to the side. Well now that I am caught up at the mill I thought I might sneak that log in one afternoon and get some 4/4 boards out of it, not much for sure, but something. I just can't get cedar. So I had a couple of minutes today and thought I would trim that log for milling. Imagine my surprise when I cut it and found this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220505_151537099.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651797512)
My first. Yeah, it's small and I will only get a few 8' 4/4 boards out of it, but woo hoo! I'm excited.
Rain day tomorrow again, but I can't wait to throw this up on the mill!
QuoteThe logger was told that all the trees would become firewood. He has a feller-buncher and is new with it, so not as proficient as one might hope yet.
New or not, prolly did it fast and no-harm-no-foul if expected to be firewood.
There will be more than a few 4/4 boards in that log. There are several hundred dollars worth of boards in that log.
Would sell well for some raised garden beds.
Quote from: WDH on May 06, 2022, 08:34:00 AM
There will be more than a few 4/4 boards in that log. There are several hundred dollars worth of boards in that log.
Would sell well for some raised garden beds.
Well, how would you handle that log Danny? Since I can't KD the lumber I can't expect top dollar. I believe since it is a small amount I will bring it right into the shop to air dry. Beyond that I have no idea. I guess I will have plenty of time to think about it though. :D
One 4x4 from the middle for corners for the raised garden bed, the rest 4/4 for the sides. Or just all 4/4 and make the legs from 4/4 like Bruno does. ERC has low shrinkage. For garden beds, it does not need to dry much at all. Even a week or two is enough since a garden bed will be outside and exposed to moisture both inside and out. You can be a loving husband by making a couple of nice raised garden beds for your wife. Or, make a couple and sell them. In NY with planting season just starting, I bet you will be able to move them quickly. There should be enough for a few garden beds. Just a quick way to turn an opportunity into a reality.
Another thought would be to mill it out to make another work bench using it for the frame and sides and such with a more durable wood for the top. That would certainly reduce the weight of the work bench, and it would be visually appealing. The drawback to that is that the market opportunity is not as broad. Not as many people need/want an outside work bench as want a raised garden bed to grow tomatoes on the back patio.
Geez, I dunno. You think somebody would pay a few hundred bucks for a 2x4 raised bed? I was thinking something nice in an interior piece or just ask for $3.50/BF for the lumber. I am gonna have to ponder this for a while.
I remember Bruno quoting a price of $150 for raised beds, but they were not made of the more rot resistant eastern red cedar I don't believe. You might be better off just selling the lumber at $3.50/bf. The rot resistance of the ERC is certainly a raised bed selling point that should command a higher price than just building them out of pine.
one coat of oil finish (cheap) and they screech their tires to stop in the middle of the road to buy one. put one out and offer custom made sizes. I get 100 bucks for my charcuterie boards, that are enzyme stained 18 x 24-inch boards, with an initial engraved on them, coated with mineral oil... and that is the family price. :)
ERC planter of similar design advertised in the latest big box store add for $149.00 after the 11% rebate.... probably a you put it together model.
Thanks guys! All great ideas to get the mind going. I am thinking mostly smalls, like boards or small planter pots, given that there is not a lot of wood there and I'd really like to make something for ME for a change. :D
Funny thing how life goes. Around 11am my son was at a new client's doing spring cleanup and they have a tree that needs removal. He called and asked if I would go in on it with him. He sent this photo:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_9357.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651872799)
Yup, another ERC, but about 18" on the butt. I figure 4 good 8' logs plus trim. There is a bit more to get it down that meets the eye in this photo. There is a structure just out of frame to the right and the small maple this is leaning on will have to come out first or it will push the cedar to the house. Tricky, but not scary or risky. We have to contact the property and get the price approved, they are in England. Probably do the job next month.
So I did a light sanding on the bench and layed another coat on and it is coming along. I'm just waiting for a couple of sunny warm days to paint the base out in the driveway.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220506_115304068.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651872804)
That little adornment is coming up too:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220506_115249531.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1651872802)
Raining right through to Sunday, so I'll have to redirect my efforts for now.
Well, not mush got done over the weekend. Morning fires in the shop to keep it dry and sanding and adding coats to the bench top. I made another pair of sawhorses somewhere in there for and upcoming project, and another pair of staging bunks for down at the mill. I ran the bunks and that cedar log down to the mill on Sunday and brought a bunk back for repair. Apparently when you hit one with the forks when it has a load of lumber on it, the screws can shear right off. ;D Easy fix and something to do.
I had to bring the wife's van in for inspection today and as I am standing in the bay with the computer plugged into it I see a puddle of coolant accumulating at my feet. I apologize to my friend, the shop owner and unhook the cable as soon as his 'inspection' is complete and back it out to minimize the mess in his 'not exactly clean' but serviceable shop. ;D
We checked it out on the ramp, not very low on coolant, not overheating, I decided to drive it home, but it looked like the radiator is leaking. I got home, no leaking. ARRGH. I went and did other stuff to let it cool.
I pulled the bench out of the shop onto a tarp and put the top on some horses upside down, Painted the bottom of the cabinet, the bottom of the top, flipped the cabinet and used the rest of the gallon to finish the cabinet. I sprayed it all and went through the whole gallon. DANG! I barely made it and just left a little in the can for touch ups. I broke for lunch.
Got back out there and looked all over the van as best as I could for the leak. No joy. So I took it for a drive to get it up to temp and under some pressure. When I got home I has a few drops, nothing I could really nail down. Those front wheel drives are pretty tight up front. I decided it wasn't gonna blow anytime soon and we will let it go for a bit and just keep an eye on it.
SO I moved the cabinet back in the shop. No small feat, it's gotta be over 200# and I put the top back on it, probably over 100#. As expected, I had scuffed up the finish on the top when I flipped it. No big deal, I had to sand and do another coat anyway. It was planned. So I sanded and did that 'last coat'.
It doesn't look too bad at all.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220509_151927415.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1652141044)
I believe I will call these the final photos. It's just gonna sit for a week or two to let the finish harden up. The moisture in the wood is slowing this considerably. The client probably won't be ready for delivery before the 22nd anyway, he's traveling to a conference right now.
For the record, this is a BROWN paint, says so on the label "Padre Brown". It's a semi transparent preservative and sealer.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220509_152008644.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1652141047)
SO you get some light sections here and there. I think this will mellow out over time and sunshine. I also think the client will be happy. Ain't nobody gonna steal this without a crane. In fact, I am still trying to figure out how to deliver and install it. I am not sure 2 guys can lift it. I have trouble lifting one end.
Tomorrow is yet another day.
Looks good Tom! And I see brown on this one!
You could push delivery back a few years til those grandsons get bigger. :)
Tool Cat forks and some car dollys??
That color is much browner than the other. the little bit of purple hue I see is prob. just reflection off the Catskill mountains. you know purple mountains majesty. :o the top is beautiful, and the stain uptake is prob. the wood itself, and looks good next to the top. :) smiley_thumbsup
Doc, that little bit of purple you 'see' is a reflection off the West Virginia hills which is about halfway between us and originates in Howards mind.
Nebraska I am not so much worried about loading it. I will flag somebody down who is driving by and let them give me a hand. But I have to unload it into a spot in the woods and can only get the trailer within about 40' at best. I am not going to bring a machine out there. But maybe they can rustle up a tractor with forks. They have an orchard there and I believe I saw something orange or red in one of the garages. ;D
:D :D :D :D
how about temp 8-inch pneumatic tire/wheel/castors, or a two wheeled cart laid flat. I know how you like to play with dollies. :)
Been a while since I've been on the FF so I am catching up slowly. I have a question about the top and how it was attached. It appears to be two layers of ship lap and each layer shifted about half a board width. How did you account for the movement in the wood between the two layers and fasten it to the base?
It turned out very nice and it looks heavy as your post moving it in and out of the garage validated.
Well green wood is always a crapshoot. ;D The wo layers are screwed together from the bottom with 1-1/2 screws. The grain all runs the same way so shrinkage between layers should all run about the same. I have some straps across the bottom and some alignment blocks so that when you set the top it drops right in square. The top is not fastened at this point and frankly with the weight, it doesn't really need it. When I install is I will likely just run some screws toed in from inside the cabinet to discourage tampering.
Doc, I don't think I am going to go crazy making something to move it. I have two heavy duty hand trucks and one on each end should do it. I have moved machines that way frequently in the past. It's a balancing act, but goes quick. The ground is fairly rough where this is going.
I have been nice now you done gone and dragged me into the mix again. >:( If you painted your property line trees with that "Padre Brown" I assure it would hold up in court for any trespassers caught on your place. Brown? Yeah I see brown -it is on top of that purple base. I guess you are going to call that blonde or something else. :D
Gee Howard, it seems like, no matter how inadvertently, a nerve has been struck. I assure you I had no intention of 'dragging you' anywhere. I simply was using your well defined sense of texture, hue, and color as a point of reference.
If however, you see any purple in that brown paint, I think we need to start a go-fund-me campaign to buy you a new monitor. It can be the only explanation.
Do you need a hug?
Tom, see if you can get your hands on a coolant pressure tester. It attaches to the rad cap area and you then apply pressure to the system. It can really help with diag of leaks
Go ahead with the Go-Fund-Me and just donate the proceeds to the FF for the good work they do.
Thanks for the offer of a hug but I will take a rain check.
Quote from: GRANITEstateMP on May 10, 2022, 06:26:45 PM
Tom, see if you can get your hands on a coolant pressure tester. It attaches to the rad cap area and you then apply pressure to the system. It can really help with diag of leaks
Funny you mention that. She came home today from a short drive and it was dripping so I searched some more. The only thing I can put my fingers on and come away wet is that red cap which I assume is the plastic version that passes as a drain cock in the age of plastics. I am loaded the next few days, but as soon as I can pull it over to the shop and get a jack under it maybe I can get my eyes on it well enough to figure it out. It may be a big nothing. I know I can neither loosen or tighten it with the poor grip I can get on it right now.
The top tank on my old rav4 started to leak, I think it was the seal between the tank and the core which was available from toyota but I just changed the whole rad.
All I had to do to find the leak was top it off replace the cap squeeze the top rad hose.
they make a pump with adaptors. i would be surprised if Bill did not have one you could borrow.
edit: I see that was mentioned.
if it is the plastic drain cock, some have a little bugger oring on them, keep an eye on that
Well the routine continues and I remain busy but everything is routine and not worth mentioning. I mentioned in another thread I made a raised bed last week on a rainy day and finished it Friday night.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220513_123113150.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1652487700)
I stuck some landscaping cloth in the bottom and called it good. This one is 18x36x12" deep. I figured a smaller one to use up some lumber and if I get interest I will 'build to suit'.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220514_124827113.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1652706555)
On Saturday morning I put it out on the front lawn and stuck a pair of sawhorses there also.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220514_124817834.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1652706558)
The sawhorses sold to a neighbor by early afternoon.
As it happens, my wife had a craft show this weekend and she can no longer do these without help to load in & out and setup the basic tables, shelving, etc. I keep trying to persuade her to taper off because it takes a lot out of her and doesn't bring in much cash, but she enjoys it and has tapered off the number of shows she does, so we continue on. It falls to me most times to help with the loading the van at home, unloading and hauling into the show, setting up the 'frame work' and then reversing the process. This show was one day with partial setup Friday evening and spring indoor shows rarely do well for her. I did some rough tallying and figured she had about 5-6 hours of her labor outside of show hours for all the above 'in and out' stuff. Much of that time I was working also. Then she had 8 hours of 'show time'. All that carrying and hauling and packing messed up my back again and today I am very stiff and sore.
As expected, it was a poor show and she made $70. in sales. During that same period, I sold a pair of saw horses for $75. that took me 20 minutes to make. She ain't happy. I ain't too happy either given the way my back feels.
Yesterday I did very little but mow the lawn and finished it 15 minutes before a gulley washer T-storm came through. :) We went to a 'first time' flea market at the Ashokan Center that I had considered bringing some stuff to. Good to see old friends and yeah, I might should have thrown some stuff in the truck and made a day of it sitting in the sun and listening to great music. But that's why I went to check it out. Probably next time they do it.
I need to go to the chiro, but that costs money and I will wait until our next appt. in 2 weeks.
---------------------------------------
So I note that the date is coming up here when I usually shut down this current thread and move onto a new one. I will continue the tradition, but I will not be starting a new thread. The stuff I am working on these days is very much routine and boring as I transition from being newly retired and having fun, into a fixed income person trying to make ends meet and doing more for the cash than the fun because I have to. I don't see anything interesting in that and no purpose for a thread to discuss it. Of course if/when I get something of interest I will post it in the appropriate thread or make a new one. But for the day to day, it's time to move on. These have been a lot of fun and generated a bunch of valuable learning for me at least, as well as provide a good chronicle so I can go look back. As several have mentioned here and in the previous series, I have progressed a long way and I am always surprised when I go look back at what I was doing 12 months ago and it feels like it was 3 years ago. Sometimes I have to check the dates.
So I'm not going anywhere, but on Tuesday I will make the last post, unless somebody has follow up.
Bummer to hear it ending, Tom, as I always look forward to reading your adventures, but I understand. Sometimes it's time to hang up the spurs on something like this and you are a prolific writer, so the time saved will likely be substantial.
Some would say (and have) that I am too prolific with a tendency toward verbosity. :D But there is no point in writing boring stuff.
Over the years I started writing the same book 3 times with different perspectives each time. I never finished it or got close because I bored myself. I did write some articles based on some of the concepts that were picked up by trade magazines, but that was in another life. ;D
I'm not going anywhere, just moving into a different phase. These last couple of months I am really starting to feel old. It's not the age, it's the state of mind. Put another way: It ain't the years, it's the miles.
:D
but what about helping you pick out different shades of purple brown paint? ;)
I am certain we will all find satisfaction through other forms of amusement. :D
Congrats on the sale of the sawhorses and planters. Stay safe and healthy. Keep them fungus/fungi/mushroom logs coming.
Please understand and remember the design committee is only a short post away. We have recently recruited a fashion consultant who specializes in subtle shades to help but that is another issue. (We coaxed him out of retirement to work with us on your projects. His biggest featured accomplishment was working with Prince on Purple Rain but I digress...)
Well @Old Green Horn I am a new member here and if it's of any interest to you I went back and started reading your thread from page a few weeks or so ago. I found it extremely interesting with your mushroom logging, saw milling (learning curve) as well as the other episodes. You also have some great friends here on FF as well as neighbors. You and the other posters to your thread kept me in stitches with y'all's back and forth!
Going to miss it but look forward to still reading your posts and that of your Buddies!
Best Wishes, Ed
OH, this thread will go away, but I don't see that things will change much. I will still post if I think I have anything interesting, it will just be spread through other threads is all. If I get into a good project, I might start a short thread for that so the color police can have their days of glory. :D
I'm glad you enjoyed some of my drivel.
Wait! Tom, if you end the thread, where will the design committee meet? I felt as if they were going to take me under there wing in the next project or two...
Through my works which caused the committee to come together in the first place, and my providing of projects for them to espouse their collective knowledge upon I feel that A) I have done my part, and 2) The committee has earned the right to create it's own space somewhere within the forum environment confines. Perhaps it's very own section?
I have found the committee to provide very illuminating if not useful information which provided countless time to contemplate the collective wisdom of the self-appointed, vacillating back and forth as to what I should do with that wisdom. Sometimes I would spend entire actual minutes in this debate.
I have no doubt the committee shall carry on in some form on some unsuspecting, yet well deserving victim candidate. ;D
The reality is, we are all members of the committee, we just don't realize it, and advice transpires on these forums pages about every hour of every day about 7 days a weeks, holidays included.
In this case of this thread, maybe it got a little too formal with a name and everything.
Why stop posting?
It's like a dairy.
I wished I would have taken pictures of some of the rock clearing and claiming back the pasture.
Your kids and grandkids will enjoy this thread in years to come.
I do plan on doing some videos.
I have a few to do. Like a before and after.
I too really enjoy reading your threads.Being I am just one year behind you in age I'm always curious to find out what you are doing.This gives me and I am sure others a little drive to keep on keeping on.I find it all interesting and enjoy your style of writing,
Happy Birthday Tom! It was a pleasure talking to you yesterday!
Well thank you. I enjoyed our chat yesterday too. Birthday's aren't a big thing for me, it's just another work day. Frankly with the economy the way it is and the cost of even the simplest things, I have been pretty down trying to figure out how we will get through this.
It's hard for me to get "up" about anything. We made it through this year with our health, but I am concerned about the years coming and how we all will manage.
Yeah, I know it will all work out somehow even if we have to sell the house and move someplace cheaper and smaller, but I'd rather avoid that if we can.
My thanks also to those who sent PM's. These things do cheer me up and remind me I have some good friends out there.
I can't say I have read the whole thread, but pop in from time to time to read what's going on. It was always good stuff. Thanks for sharing Tom. I'll see you on the forum and of course a text here or there.
Tom must have made it through another year, I see cake! ;D
Happy birthday OG! smiley_thumbsup
Happy birthday Tom and Happy Constitution to the rest of the Noggies who may be reading.
well happy belated birthday now. cause I woke at 3 am and typed one but it did not make it here.
Well, that's it. I was too depressed yesterday to close things out. I had gotten up at 4:30 because the dreams I was having kept me awake, so I was tired all day and the weather turned back to cool damp and windy. Knocked around doing little chores and took a nap midday with nothing of note accomplished. Went to bed at a reasonable hour and somehow pulled an all-nighter (I slept all night with no disruptions, rare for me).
Feeling a little better today and we have to do the monthly food shopping. The weather is still cool and breezy, but I feel a lot more like doing something.
It's time to start the next year and see what happens. So, moving on, today is another day.....
🙂 well sir I sure hope it's an excellent one.
you cannot have a "best" without having a "worst". glad you got rest. you close it out, or transition when ever and how you want. cheers. Doc.
Well I tried to go straight, I really did. Just sticking my posts in other threads or starting a new one if it was a worthwhile subject. But after 3 weeks I am finding that there are things I think might be interesting or humorous for others but surely not worth a new thread. So I am going to stick those things here and see how it goes. This allows folks to ignore or enjoy them as they wish.
Monday(holiday) we were down at Bill's for a last minute get together of a few friends and kids and some food. Just hanging out on a hot summer day watching the kids playing in the pool and enjoying some conversation and laughs. AT some point, Bill hops up from his chair, runs halfway to the shop and scrambles down the cliff like a chimp going after a bunch of bananas before anyone else saw them. Turns out somebody was sneaking along his road down past the sawmill. He heard the car, I didn't. It was a stealthy electric Pruis. Well Bill gave the guy an earful about not reading any of the 5 signs he passed and the guy tried to explain he was looking for property for sale around #240 (we were at #500 a mile further down). Bill wouldn't hear it and turned him around.
He came back in the usual gruff and I told him he needs a better sign(s). He already has 5 or 6 up that don't seem to work. :D
But I thought about it and came home and bought him a different sign. Yesterday it came and I went down to nail it up, he pulled up behind me as I was picking a spot for it, so I let him choose.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220603_161010954.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654346314)
(The new sign is the bottom one.)
Maybe it's a little too busy with all the other signs, but we will see if it helps. You can't read them in this photo, but the ones on the left read "POSTED [with standard text]", NO TRESPASSING PRIVATE ROAD VIOLATERS WILL BE PROSECUTED", and "BEWARE OF DOG". The ones on the right read "NOT A PUBLIC ROAD LANDOWNERS ONLY", "POSTED [with standard text]", and "YOUR GPS IS WRONG TURN AROUND" (the newest addition). Maybe this is too subtle?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220603_161030238.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654346315)
Anyway, if they don't work, we might get him a sign that says "CAUTION, LIVE FIRE RANGE AHEAD" ,which is not entirely untrue. ;D
So I finished that tiny task, and we had a chuckle. I had brought down 2 growlers to fill because we have yet to empty those kegs in spite of my best efforts and then I said it was time to head home and asked Bill what he was up to next.. Bill says "well, it's only 4, plenty of time left in the day so I am running over to the next road to finish a storm cleanup so the guys can mow., wanna come?" I told him if I could be home by 5:30 I would help and he assured me it wouldn't take more then 10 minutes, the wife had dinner planned and she is a time keeper. I went home and put the beer in the fridge and grabbed a pair of gloves, he picked me up as he drove by and with the 12" chipper in tow we headed over. Yeah, it was more than 10 minutes, and the saw he grabbed was duller than a stone so we used the battery saw and fed the chipper and threw the bigger chunks and rounds in the dump bed. Soon his lawn crew showed up, so one guy helped us chip and the other mowed. He dropped me off at 5:35 but the wife wasn't home yet, so I was good. I guess that's the price you pay for free beer. :D
Tom,
Have you thought about adding a few "Forget the dog, beware the owner sign", "Due to the high cost of ammo do not expect a warning shot", also a few bullet punctuated bullseye signs with yard markers under them.
Maybe something like "I try to be a nice guy but I keep having flashbacks and the meds aren't working".
Wow, that "cost of ammo" thing broke me up. VERY good!
I've been on that road of course; and by invitation. And Billy knows that if he shoots at me I won't work on his saws anymore. But the kind of people that he found cruising that day think those signs don't apply to them. And the last thing you want is NYC people buying property back there. Would NOT be a good fit.
You guys still haven't finished the beer, huh?
Bob, I am working on it as best as I can. I'll probably get two more growlers today. ;D
I looked at a lot of signs. The one I liked the best reads:
WARNING
NO TRESPASSING
You quite possibly could
get shot or hurt and
then try to sue resulting
in a long drawn out
court battle.
YOU WILL LOSE
Because this sign will be:
"EXHIBIT A"
I also like the one that says "WARNING: You are now in range". ;D
Seems to me you said the road goes through to another road but if you put a sign that says "DEAD END" it would discourage a lot of people.
For extra effect if the word dead was written in red with drips running down.
Just curious, why not a single pipe gate on a pivot
Glad to see this thread keep going. :)
There is a pipe gate, but with all the legitimate traffic in and out, it is always open. Still that should be another clear clue. Anytime I drive through a gate, open or not, it changes my attitude. I guess other folks don't think that way.
The truth is, if somebody drives through and follows the 10MPH speed signs and IF they begin the encounter in an apologetic manner, bill is calm and polite to them, often even helpful, as am I. But when the first words out of their mouth is argumentative and if they were driving 30MPH all bets are off, as well as the gloves. I actually had one Amazon Driver yell at me "You don't understand! This is the only way I can get to where I am going!" 'OK, where are you going? This I gotta hear.' "Well back to New Jersey, of course." (cue the hysterical laughter trailing off into an insidious cackle.) When we insisted she turn around and get out, she said "I can't turn this big truck around!" She was driving a minivan. So we left the skid steer that she nearly ran into head-on in the middle of the road (after dropping the grapple full of slabs for effect), took out the key, told her to 'figger it out' and walked away. You can see that after more than a few of these your patience runs a bit thin. They make you crazy.
Sometimes I wonder if he should just put in a toll gate.
I like the toll road idea. Put up a booth with a crossarm and a sign in the booth saying "Wait here - toll booth operator will be right back." Then never man the booth.
Either that or put up a "Wrong Turn" sign and the poster from the old WV movie with all the ax murderers and such. (Actually it was filmed somewhere else but said it was Bluefild WV.)
Well Howard, I liked your idea and shared it with Bill. Both he and his wife thought it would be a neat idea. Now we just need to time material to make it. There's the rub. :D And where can I find all the wood? :D
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So yesterday was a very pretty day and I decided I needed to get started on firewood. These days it's just a heavy labor, boring time suck for me, but it has to be done, especially this year. Mostly I need to clear out and clean up the firewood working area. I have a friend coming with his family in a few weeks and they will parking parking their RV right in this spot for a few days.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220605_165550352.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654513787)
In the foreground you can see piles of rotten, pithy stuff, bark, and all the other junk that gets cast aside. The pile is about 18" deep now and about 12'x12'. I got this down from a 3' deep pile that was bigger by burning for a few days a couple of weeks ago. Then in the mid-ground of the photo is a pile of rounds I knocked in half yesterday, and in the background are two piles of firewood sized logs I have yet to start on. I need to get this all processed and stacked, then I think I will bring a machine down from Bill's and just scrape up all the trash and dump it in the swamp to burn in a pile rather than feeding a pit, which is slow. With the machine I can also level out all the gravel that has been pushed up over several years of snow plowing and it should look nicer than it's been in a decade. I have wanted to do this for several years now, so this is a good excuse to make it happen.
Doing firewood is boring and time consuming but especially with this winter coming, I think we are really gonna need it and I gotta get it done. I have 3 trees, at least I need to take down here too, but I won't start those until next month or so.
Today is another day.
I'm not afraid to take her offroading a bit Tom! You should save some of that work for my son to do too. Really looking forward to it!
Nah, this little area has been bothering me for a couple of years now. Each winter we push up a little more gravel and now there are some spots that are 18" taller than the driveway. If I clean it up and regrade it, that will look good for a few years and give me more work or storage/parking space.
Your visit is an excuse to make me get it done.
I have an ugly stack of firewood logs hollering at me as well. I tried to price propane the other day my supplier hadn't got his fall pricing figured out yet.... ::)... I think you need an old Yugo carcass with
a skeleton in it, parked in front of the toll booth. :)
I like that idea! We have several candidate vehicles we could use, or make a line of them. :D
Yeah, I am beginning to feel like I spend half the year making firewood and the other half burning it. I am barely a cord into it and I am already tired of it. Given my hast to get this all cleaned up in less than 2 weeks, I may break down and borrow Bill's 4 way splitter. My real bottleneck is stacking, especially at the house stacks because I have several steps between the trailer and the stack. The shop is quicker because I can slide the trailer right up next to the stack.
You really can use my kid for some of this stuff. He likes the workout and I'll tell him he's paying our way to stay! He'll move and stack a cord for you.
I just saw your new sign and there is a problem with it. It's only written in English! You need 6 languages like all the tool instructions these days.
Well I suppose a bean counting college boy would tell me that this would " reduce my target demographic" and I suppose they might be right. But then again, I am fine with that. :D :)
On second thought, maybe I should put the business name in Norwegian underneath the English. ;D
Tell them Violators go to the sykhus. ;)
I just realized 21 was talking about the GPS sign, I thought he was reading back and saw my business sign. Same response still applies. ;D
However, I am thinking the next time I get my business sign reprinted I may get the business name repeated in Norsk and Deutsch. Some folks may get a kick out of it the and others will be befuddled, either way, I get a smile. :)
Yeah sorry I was talking about the road signs. Many in this country can't read English. Like the story that was going around a while back.
A homeowner put up signs around his property trespassers will be shot. One day he sees a tresspasser and fires a warning shot. The guy runs off. A couple months later the homeowner is in court being sued. Turns out the shot grazed the trespassers shoulder. He got a lawyer and won the case because he couldn't read English and the homeowner premeditated the shooting according to his signs. Not sure if it's true but saw it on the internet so it must be.
Glad I left Dutchess County 17 years ago when the city started moving up.
Probably not true but if it grazed a shoulder it wasn't a warning shot.
Quote from: 21incher on June 07, 2022, 07:41:14 PM....
Glad I left Dutchess County 17 years ago when the city started moving up.
The city started moving to Dutchess County (and Ulster and Orange) about 100 years ago, they haven't stopped since. :D
Well yesterday I did a third loop and 'split/move/stack' and finished off the pile of rounds I had cut from the late winter storms and other collections.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220607_103328972.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654691280)
So I have one pile out of the way and nothing left but junk to scrape out and clean in the RV parking spot.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220607_103331969.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654691275)
Next I have to get on the pile of logs remaining.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220607_103344920.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654691284)
It's a fair amount but I hope it goes a little better because I will have less of the shorts and crooks that was in all the storm damaged cut-ups. Still, it's a bunch to get done in two weeks. I gave a healf hearted attempt at starting the bucking in the afternoon, but frankly my back was hurting fairly well and I didn't want to 'do something dumb' and push it too far. So I switched to a little weed whacking to finish off the day before the rain came in.
Last night I got an inquiry for a small order of mushroom logs through my web age, a first. EVERY single email that has come through my web page has been spam, for 2 years, except this one. I should be able to knock that off between other work. Just ten logs.
Just before bed Bill texted that he was curious when I would get back to milling. :D Apparently we have 2 more orders. Hemlock and EWP I think, 2x4's I think. Details would be helpful. ;D
Back at it (whatever 'it' is) today. Things are piling up and I have to keep moving forward.
Great progress I have a firewood pile that looks very similar beckoning me to get started.
These days I can tell if I gave it my all on a particular day by one of two indicators. Either the bottoms of my feet are dog tired and a bit sore, or that first beer at 5 o'clock puts me nearly right to sleep. Today I had both symptoms. The worst part is, I didn't do much.
This morning I finally got up on the shop roof and cleaned out the gutter downspout clog so the rain tank could fill. While I was up there I put some better caulking around the chimney skirt because I had a little drip coming through this winter. It was hot up on that roof! I also am not as comfortable as I used to be on rooves even just 2 years ago. Those days may be waning for me. I will note that I observed FF rules and no ladders were used. I don't have one that tall anyway, it two stories up. I just climbed the antenna tower on the back of the shop, which is challenging enough but rock steady. It just doesn't have the easy incline of a ladder and goes straight up which is tougher on the legs for us old guys.
Next I gassed up the saw and started bucking more logs. It took the better part of the day with rest breaks but I managed to get one pile of logs fully bucked, with one more to go.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220608_161231317.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654725811)
It's a pretty good pile of rounds and you can see the other log pile in the background. It gave me a good chance to finally run in the new 562 that I got back in the winter. I have been using it to cut mill slabs and mushroom logs but most of that is sporadic. Today I gave it a decent run on solid wood and ran a couple of tanks through it. Near the end of the day I had problems keeping it running, or rather getting it to start and stay running, it would dog right down and stop. I may have to check in with my dealer (who many here know and love, or at least like ;D). It's probably me, but I do want to get along with my saw. Eventually it came around and ran fine until I quit for the day.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220608_161258672.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1654725812)
It's a pretty saw and I like it, not too heavy and cuts like a bandit with that x-cut chain. I also used a LogRite peavey for the first time on firewood. I have several log handling tools from them, but I picked up a 4' peavey on a whim at their open house in May because the other 'log rollers' I have are all cant hooks. This is my first peavey and I am loving this thing. Not really sure why, but it is just so much handier to bucking work. Plus that stand up feature is a real back saver. I used it last week to move logs in the trailer more like a pike pole and that worked much better than a cant hook ever did. For something I bought on a whim, I am really glad I got it now. I think my next LogRite impulse purchase is going to be something shorter and see how that works. Maybe I have been missing out by not using a mil special? Besides, those things are so cute. :)
My wife came home mid-afternoon and for some reason, which we have yet to discuss, she backed right into the front of the garage wall and pushed the corner wall in about 4". Popped most of the siding off there too. I admit that I kind of lost it for a few minutes. After I calmed down I went out and whacked the wall back close to where it should be (I could only get the door open 4") and then got the door full opened and whacked it back to about where it was supposed to be and straightened out the door track. Then I re-attached the siding and got the door working smoothly again. We will talk about that later, maybe never, I don't know. ;DSometimes the way we get along is to just not mention certain things.
I got a couple of mill orders today and am working on that table quote some more. I also have to make time to cut some mushroom logs. With all that going on I guess the garage thing overloaded me a bit, I didn't need something else to fix.
Tomorrow is another day.
Don't be too hard on yourself. I've done the same thing and after a trying day or project my DW has either broken something or other. I come unglued for a bit and then realize that it's just a "thing" or object and if some sweat equity and a little cash can fix it it's all good. I do have to do some apologies though which are sometimes difficult for this hard head 😳
Actually JD I am slightly proud of myself in this respect. I heard the crash and ran out to see what happened. I saw all the splinters and displaced wall and uttered some words I don't think she heard and then just came back in the house to get a handle on myself, sat here and said nothing. I wasn't happy that I lost it for a moment. She came in, saw that I was really [upset] and just walked on by without any attempt at chit-chat. After a few minutes I went out and started working on it. At dinner she apologized and I just said that I wished as we BOTH get older, she would slow her driving to a speed she could make decisions within. I have been having similar aging issues with backing trailers and such and have taught myself to just take it at a speed I can handle. If I can't see, I stop and re-align. She agreed she had to work on that. So no screaming and I didn't have to apologize to her when she wrecked the garage because I went off the deep end. I am getting better. In fact, since I retired and lost the work stress, it is pretty much gone, before that I was like a matchstick looking for a flame. That's why I was upset with myself for flipping out even a little bit. First time in two years. Now I gotta start over.
You've been busy Tom! Goodness!
I don't think you need to start over. It's hard being with the same people for long periods of time and it sounds like you handled it beautifully. Especially after the work you're getting done. Take it easy!
The last argument my wife and I had was she decided to go into my shop and throw a destroyed chair, I was saving for a template, into the fire pile. Our discussion of it was pretty mellow and just told her to ask me. I wouldn't dare go into her sewing room and decide she doesn't need something.
I want to check out the saw when we get there, I wouldn't mind something a bit beefier.
Yeah, that dealer you mention can be quite creative with the sarcasm on the hot start problems. Particularly as retirement approaches, the desire for laughs at the possible expense of long term customer relationships is ever changing. The regulars know I'm joking, but the 917's don't get it. (917 is code for NYC people as that is the area code for most of their cell phones) Pulling in at the last minute is now also taboo ecept for the regulars. Last night guy pulls in right at 5:00. "Who the blank is this?". One of the guys I hadn't seen in a while in a different truck. Hung around BS'ing til 5:30. Gonna miss my regulars.
Had that exact hot start scenario 2 weeks ago when cutting on a warm day. If the saw sat for just the right, make that wrong time, it would start but didn't want to rev at all. Set down and let it idle for 30-45 seconds and then it cleaned up fine. And it was a 359, so there was no mysterious auto-tune to lay the blame on. Can happen with any saw. Tree company came in and told a similar story. Four saws on the job, 2 Huskys, 2 Stihls. All 4 of them were having hot start issues. One of the guys thought it might be better to set them in the shade, and the problem went away on all of them. Couple degees either way makes a big difference. And the key is often how long the saw sits before it acts up. Instant restarts or sitting long enough to actually start to cool is rarely a problem. But if you happen to pick it up right when the heat soak is peaking it can be a pain. That's what the deal was with my 359. Bring it up and we'll plug it in and if ya want and do the reset deal.
Well I am not panicking. ;D I am just trying to learn the saw and find what it likes. The dogging and dying this is new and got my attention. You are correct, I was likely sitting the saw for just the wrong period of time for it to 'begin' cooling. I always lay it in the shade, because I hate to grab a blistering hot handle. I was cutting a lot of rounds one after the other, then shutting it off while I tossed and cleared rounds so I could buck some more. If I took a little sit down for a minute or two before starting in again it would get balky. I don't know if I should trip that high idle switch, or just tough it out with a lot of pulling. I also noticed the primer bulb sure did have hardly any gas in it and was soft. Maybe there is a little intermittent filter issue? Factory junk in the tank? That would be weird. I will try the 'letting it sit at idle' for a bit. I was concerned that might confuse the AT. Let's not hit the reset button until we know if it is the saw or the nut that holds the handle. :D
As you know from that 450 you sold me (5 years ago?) I am not one of those guys that runs in to have my saw checked every time something different happens. In fact, I still need to bring that in for it's first checkup after 'running a few tanks through it'. ;D
Well it appears the rain is done (we got an inch) and I think the sun is popping out. No idea what I am doing today. I don't like cutting sloppy wet logs but it would be super if I can get them all done and ready for splitting. I will see how muddy it is around the pile. I do have some orders to mill. It's just another day.
Use the high idle for sure. Primer is also a good idea as the fuel in the tank is cooler than up in the carb.
OK, I will give that a shot today. Thanks!
Yesterday I managed to finish bucking all the logs I had. It was a little less than what I did on the first day, but I had to push myself a bit because my back was still aching from the day before.
Bob, your advice, as usual, was spot on. I had no troubles starting it using your tips, and letting it idle just for a little bit made the dogging issue disappear. In fact, I only had to let it idle for the amount of time it took to pull my gloves and muffs on. I got no complaints. Just a matter of educating the operator. Now if I could just figure out a way to keep it from running out of fuel. :D I don't get the warning on this saw like I do on the 450. It seems to go from screaming in a cut to 'stop' in a blink. ;D I continue to be impressed with that chain. This stuff was abut as dirty as it gets with loose bark and all kinds of junk. Yeah, the chain dulled quick but it hung in there and kept spitting out fully formed chips longer that I ever thought it would. Sharpening the X-cut is much faster too. I gave up using the guide and just freehand with excellent results since there is zero top angle on the file. I am pretty dang happy with this setup.
I also got a request for 'just a few mushroom logs' and worked out some more details with the client for that dining table. I have finally 'hit his button' and found out what floats his boat. We have changed to a full width live edge slab and he is really happy with the plan now. I just have to work out some more details and work up the quote before we start.
Today I head off to the mill to try to catch back up a little. I think I have more than a days work (at my slow pace) in hemlock and ewp. I have to keep pushing so I can get going on the picnic tables orders I have.
Today is another day.
Now I want to look at the saw and the chain!
It's nothing magical. I notice the corner wears off pretty quick but the main cutting edge holds pretty well. the saw doesn't pull myself in, but with little pressure I can peel nice chips and the saw doesn't labor. I attribute a lot of that to the 65cc engine. my 450 would complain. ;D
I run a Stihl yellow chain on both my huskys.
Really woke up that 450.
Catching y'all up a bit on my boring life. ;D Yesterday I needed to finish another small mill order. SO I found the toolcat parked out in the mulch yard and when I grabbed it I saw this little girl making a nest to drop some eggs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220611_092406548.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655071677)
She has a 50/50 shot. We planted a traffic cone there so it will remain undisturbed. It happens all the time. Gotta love these gals.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220611_092415310.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655071674)
I am beginning to hate Hemlock. All the stress in it means flip, flip, and flip again and still I wind up with some twisted crooked wood. But the client for this is a journeyman carpenter and I checked with him and he said "it's all good, this is a simple job, the wood can have defects, no issues." I had hoped to dig out a big log, but couldn't find one, so I had to mill up 3 smaller ones to make his order. I was full of sweat when I was done, but I hacked up the slabs and grabbed them with the forks and ran them up to the OWB, filled that, and unloaded my tools.
Then I took my truck back down to the mill area and changed over to a pintle hitch and grabbed one of Bill's Tmberwolf splitters he was lending me to get my wood split quicker. My hitch was too low, so I just crept along getting it out so as not to drag and catch the front jack, which does not fold up. I puttered on home and got it in the driveway without issue and parked it by the pile. I was already pooped and it was only 1pm. So I had lunch, rested, and went back out and set the splitter as close as I could by hand. I diddled around for a while, not having a good flow plan for how I would work with this splitter. I backed my small trailer in and ran some wood.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220612_113634634.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655071687)
I had the splitter pushing wood 'pretty much' onto the trailer with a little help. But I was still pooped.
We had invited some neighbors and friends over just to sit around the fire in the evening. Noting special and last minute. Everyone wanted to come, but they have lives too and the only ones that showed up were Bill and his wife. We lost track of time and sat around the fire until after midnight discussing the usual weird stuff as well as the mundane town politics. A very late night for me, but quite relaxing, for sure. The other neighbors won't know what they missed. We laughed a lot and solved some of the world's problems in between. :)
Today, I wrestled with what to do with this wood operation. I have company coming in a week and need that area cleaned up, mostly because I promised myself. I realized my bottleneck is stacking. So I had that one trailer full in short order and I moved it over next to the shop pile and dropped it for stacking later.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220612_113634634.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655071687)
Then I went back to the pile of rounds and situated the splitter so that I can just split and let it land on the ground (with a little hand piling) and make a pile of split wood to be dealt with later. That will be out of the way for the other work I need to do. This splitter is a beast with a 6 way wedge and no shortage of power. (It really likes gas too!) Moving it by hand is not a lot of fun, but I found if I drive my LogRite peavey into the ground I can use it as a lever to creep the machine along. So that's the plan. Split wood until I am backed up on the output side and move the machine up a little to catch up with the receding pile of rounds working my way along until it's all split. It's a heck of a machine, I will say that.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220612_113644185.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655071685)
When I had finally shot my load and could go no longer, I came in and looked and looked at the calendar. I have 8 days until company arrives. I have all that wood to split, the ground to scrape and clean, two orders of mushroom logs to get done before Friday and I need to start work on slabs for picnic tables. I guess it's time I stopped feeling old and worn out and just get it done. This is gonna be a long week. I have not yet looked at the weather, but at this point, I will just have to work through it unless we get freezing rain.
Tomorrow is another day, right?
Snapper are laying eggs down by the brook. It's all gravel so they seem to like that.
Yeah Ray, I think they look for workable ground (like we all do). Around here it's almost all hardpan and rock ( you know rocks, right?) This gal came up from the pond about 30' away and found herself what she thought was a good spot. Normally that chip pile gets turned and moved every couple of weeks. SO we put the cone and will leave that section alone for a while. The Snappers are moving all over the place here right now.
Old Greenhorn that turtle looks like a wood turtle. I found one crossing the road by my woods two or three years ago. I picked it up and put it in my pond. Have not seen it since. First one that I have ever seen. Quite a bit bigger than the normal painted turtles that are common. Supposed to be kind of rare in Allegany County, NY.
Bitternut, I believe you are right. Snappers are so common around here that I never really looked. Now I go back and look at my photos and see that, as far as I can tell, you nailed it. Even more reason to leave that nest undisturbed. We don't have a lot of them that I know of, so we could use some more. Glad you caught that, thanks.
Tom,
I'm with you on the hemlock. I will saw it for my customers but I don't enjoy it. The hard knots mean you have to keep a good sharp blade or you will jump over a knot and leave an ugly ripple in the cant which will then show up in every board. I use 4 degree blades but am slowly standardizing on that. As I turn in 7 or 10 degree blades I tell my sharpener to cut them to 4 degree so eventually I will phase them out.
Neat turtle picture. I'll be waiting to see the babies on a future post.
We are running turbo 7's and they seem to cut well until dull. The big HP helps, but nothing can stop those boards from bowing and crooking from stress.
I don't think I will see the babies, assuming the coons don't get 'em. They take 47-69 days to hatch. I am not gonna sit there and wait, but somebody else is welcome to do that. :D ;D
I thought today would wipe me out, and it did. My butt is dragging. Got out as early as I could to cut trees and the humidity was close to 90%. By 11am I was soaked through and through and had little breath left. I got more than half the orders cut, so I will hit it again tomorrow.
I came home and stacked the logs and got some lunch. Had to rest my eyes for about an hour and put on a dry shirt. Then I headed out and started splitting more firewood. Still the sweat ran like a faucet. Gave up on the shirt completely, which I rarely do. I managed to hit about the halfway point in the pile. It's hot and unpleasant and I'd rather be working in the shop (with the doors open), but I have to get this done. I have orders to get out and company on the way. I figure one more day on the log orders, and two days splitting work. Then I need to get a machine down here to do some grading and dressing up. I should be fine, but I have so much work, I need to keep pushing. I am sure I'm not alone. ;D
Somebody else is a coon or a fox. :D
I mentioned the snapper laying eggs. They won't last much more than a week. All there will be is empty shells.
The turtle is very cool! We've got probably 5 or so that live in the pond and I love to see them!
I really wish you could wait for my boy to help with logs, he really would love it!
It was hot today, not sure in your neck of the woods but we were in the low 90s when I left Dayton, expected heat index in the 105s tomorrow, not sad we aren't there. I'm lakeside in the Detroit area right now, with lightning and a minimal drizzle, with a bourbon, it's lovely.
I also hope to get a sitting around the fire night like you guys had, that sounds cool and I'd love to meet the legend that is Bill but I won't get my hopes up, I know folks are busy.
I'm included in the stacking/bottleneck group. But with these nice cool mornings, (mid 50's), I like to go out and stack for a 1/2 hour or so. Somewhere between 6:30 to 7:30 there abouts? Relaxing and peaceful at that time and I'm not running equipment at that hour of course. Couple 3 mornings of that and the area is clear for the next round of splitting. 56° right now, so I'll move it along a little more this morning.
56° wow that sounds nice..already 81 here...
Well Bob wrote that at 6:15, now at 8am it's already 62° with humidity of 76%. I am not exactly sure where Bob's house is located, but his general area is a couple hundred feet higher than mine and he is more into the hills. It is generally a few degrees cooler there year round. In the summer it can be 15 degrees cooler than down in town on those ugly nasty hot humid days. There are some dark hollows where the heat really has a hard time making it's way in (I am thinking of Peakamoose, Devil's Tombstone, et al).
We are headed for 80 today. Funny, yesterday when I cut the last tree and loaded up, I got in the truck and that thermometer said it was 70° but there I sat, soaked through with sweat. The humidity was over 90% yesterday morning.
Well first off: Happy Birthday Nebraska! Hope you are having a great day!
...
I like Bob's idea of stacking in the morning and I may just try that, but this go 'round I am not doing any stacking. I am making a big ugly pile of split wood I will have to handle an extra time (yeah, I know) just so I can get the pile from where the rounds are now, further over. At the same time I need to return that splitter, then borrow a machine and regrade/cleanup the area before Monday. I have been pushing me hard to work with this heat.
SO this morning I went down and cut the remainder of the hardwood (WO) logs I needed for orders. Came home, unloaded had lunch, then went out and split wood until I ran out of sweat and breath (about the same time). Then I headed back down to Bill's and we spent about an hours sorting through slabs and making a plan for the picnic tables I have to build. By that time it was well after 5 and I had to get home for dinner. That's about the best I can get out of one of my workdays. I just keep pluggin' along and I am making headway. Yesterday you couldn't see the splitter for the wood:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220612_161810068.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655071689)
Hint: It's that red thing right in the center.
Today, from the same angle, you can indeed see the splitter:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220614_144220381.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655246684)
I should be able to finish the splitting tomorrow, even with loosing a half day to the monthly food shopping. Then I have a log client coming for a pickup in the afternoon. If all goes really well, I may return that splitter tomorrow night but I doubt it. While I have it here I will be putting a new hitch on it and greasing it all up before I return it. I also have to cut some EWP for mushroom logs (that's a first too), but I will take one of my own trees for that. It's coming down anyway.
So yeah, I moan about not getting things done fast enough, but it looks like I may have everything I wanted done well before my self imposed deadline unless we get heavy rain or snow. I just have to keep plugging along. Folks say 'slow and steady wins the race' but lately I have been saying 'old and slow can work too.' ;D
I gave it a shot, but I couldn't finish the splitting on Wednesday, it was just too hot, but I did take that pine tree for the log order and got those stacked. Yesterday morning I went out and knocked off the last of the splits. I figure I wound up with better than 2 cord from this go round.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220616_145339365.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655462855)
I went and got fuel to return the machine with a full tank, brought that down and parked it. Then came home and stacked the trailer load I had waiting and put that trailer out of the way to open the work area. I also parked my splitter out of the way. It was cool and very good working weather so I got a lot done.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220616_145601849.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655462857)
It's looking better. I have a bunch of junk to scrape up and move to the swamp and a little grading to do yet.
That all pooped me out but I still had an hour or two left in the day, so back to Bill's I went and got in the toolcat and went down to the mill and shuffled slabs around and put a log away, getting it all ready to straight line two slabs for a big picnic table top. I am going to need help with setting those up for cutting, but at least I have it ready to go. I fueled up the toolcat and located a bucket for today's work.
Today I have a step grandson coming over to help me and earn a little vacation money. I will go fetch the toolcat and bring it back here to do some cleaning up and leveling and getting rid of all the splitting chips and bark. Then I have some chores that require 2 pairs of hands to lift and move stuff and put things away. Hopefully by the end of the day I will be in good shape. I am also hoping the rain that is hanging around will hold off.
I thought I posted a thank you for the birthday wishes a couple days ago, but I suppose I sent it to whatever computer troll eats them... I bet he's a chubby little sucker. Anyway thank you. :) I've been on full on hay mode this week and very busy at work. I finished mowing it late yesterday afternoon. The first I cut should be ready to go tomorrow afternoon. Then I need to get serious about firewood. Looks like you've been busy and your RV park development is coming along.
Yeah, I saw your mowing photos and that is a lot of grass! Mowing should start around here in a week or two I would guess.
Yesterday was a long one. I had the GS coming to help, so I got out early and drove down to Bill's and traded in my truck for a toolcat and drove that home with a small bucket and set to dragging out the junk that's collected and condensed for 20 years. I tried putting it on a small trailer and pulling that into the swamp and shoveling it off, but that was slow, too slow. So I just started shuttling with the toolcat. The problem arose regarding the weight of that machine. At nearly 8,000# it sunk in pretty well and I made quite a mess and nearly didn't get it back out. So I had to dump further out than I wanted to. I guess I moved about 4 yards of material which isn't much, but a lot to have on top of the driveway in the form of 'junk' like bark, wood chunks, chainsaw chips, etc. That toolcat is handy.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220617_093351674.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655549940)
My help didn't arrive until after 10am and by that time I had a bunch of it done. But the GS turns out to be a pretty skilled raker and he dressed it up real nicely, better than I could have done for sure. After we finished the RV plaza, he went out to the swamp and did his magic spreading out the loads I dumped and did a great job on that too. I can't drive the toolcat in there, but I can drive the Mule over it. Everything is looking pretty good and this photo should compare to the one in my previous post.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220617_131242038.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1655549939)
I am very pleased. It hasn't looked this good in a very long time. I will need to do a similar treatment on other sections along that driveway in the future like where that firewood pile is now, but this is a great start.
As long as I had the toolcat here I used it to fill one trailer with firewood pretty quick and easy and we staged that by the woodpile. We returned the Toolcat just after noon and the GS did some weed whacking and more raking. The he started on the stacking while I realized I had some high branches to trim so they didn't rub on the RV (they are also a pain in the winter holding snow), so I cut a bunch with the pole trimmer and made a new mess. He stacked the one trailer load, then we re-filled it and staged it again. That pile is still pretty big though. :D
The GS had to leave at 3 and I cleaned up that last mess I made, then cut more and cleaned that up. I called it a day at 4:30 or so. The pressure is off with the major work done 3 days early. Now it's just routine stuff, more weed whacking, mowing, and other odds and ends. Today is supposed to only be a high of 62° with cloud cover, surely a great work day, but I am pretty pooped. AT this point it's all gravy. But tomorrow is father's day and all the grandson's come and want to 'help' which translates to me trying to scramble to find things they can do, then cleaning up and finishing those tasks after they've gone. ;D
One day at a time.
Here is a man in "need" of a small tractor.
Forks on the back & bucket on the front. It will take a lot of the pain out of firewood and many other chores.
I pick up the logs with the rear forks, usually 4 to 6 at a time, to cut them at a comfortable height then push them into a pile to make way for more cutting, then I split (first time picking up the wood) and put into the front bucket to dump into a row on pallets to dry, I don't like stacking and the dumped out wood has more air flow for drying, the next time I pick up a block of wood is to put into the boiler. I do stack 3 pallets of wood to put at the end of the row to keep it from falling towards the house when dumping it out but this is no more work than putting it in the bucket.
Yeah Hilltop, I sure could use something like that but I can't justify the expense at this stage in my life. But if I hit the lottery... :D I have been considering figuring out a dump/stack system but have not figured out how to keep it covered and be able to get wood out of it when the snow is heavy. something to ponder.
Saturday was cold and nasty for June. I had to wear a sweatshirt while mowing. Geez. Never did work up a sweat all day and the wind was pretty much a steady 20MPH. Got a bunch of odds and ends done.
Sunday was a little better with less wind and a little warmer, made it up to mid 60's with mostly sunshine. We went over to a neighbors for barbeque. I did some work on the mule and finally figured out why the LED light bar is flaky (bad ground). I am waiting for something in the mail before I get it all back together and ready for Grey Fox. Hosed off the truck too, all the junk from the gypsy moths was getting to me.
Today was really nice, much less wind, blue skies, and just hit 78° at 5pm. I did more piddling here and there. I got a call this morning from the fella that runs all the GOL classes in our state. I haven't talked to him in 2 years. Seems they have a big lumberjack event coming up in July in Deposit, NY and he was calling to invite me to compete in the GOL competition, he has a couple of open spots. At first I was surprised he asked me and took it as a compliment, but then I got nervous about competing in public. Fortunately the dates did not work out and I will be at Grey Fox that weekend. Dodged a bullet on that one. I would have to do a lot of practicing for that. A lot of it is easy, but some of those events, like matching plunge cuts and blind cutting take a while to get decent at and I don't do it too much 'on the job'. I am just not comfortable performing in public but I think I could hold my own. I guess we will never know. They do have $7k in the prize kitty, so that was interesting. ;D
Well I am hoping that our guests for the next couple of days have an easy time finding our place and the drive was uneventful if long. Looking forward to a pleasant visit.
Tomorrow is another day.
Well we had a nice couple of relaxing days around here, didn't do much besides visit and drive around a bit. I enjoyed the visit to the Maritime Museum with Aigheadish and his family. I had not been since the early 90's and it has been completely re-done since then. Mush better, but I didn't notice a couple of things I will be discussing with my friend on the Board there about accuracy and completeness. They seem to no longer have anything in the museum regarding our connection to the whaling industry in the 18th and 19th centuries. I find that curious. Few people know that Hudson, NY was one of the busiest whaling home ports in that time period. They also had some bucking saws mixed in with their display on the ice harvesting industry. This confuses folks.
Anyway, after the museum and a small driving tour of the boatworks along the creek I brought them back to their RV at a commuter lot and they were safely on the road and as long I was in town, I got a haircut and did some errands. It was nice relaxing for a couple of days and visiting with good folks. I should do that more often.
When I got home the only thing I did was mess with some repair work I was doing on the Mule that needed finishing up. I am trying to get it ready for the festivals. I had removed the rear window for cleaning which means I have to remove the fence and frame over it and that turns into a job. The only way to clean the outside is to remove it. So I cleaned it and replaced the broken "FARM USE" sign I had on it. (That's another story.) It took me two tries yesterday to get it back in. On the first try I had to remember the 'wrong way' it fit in, then re-do it the 'right way' so the bolts would match and fit correctly. Much easier and faster the second time, not sure why. ;D None the less, is was a day full of frustration in just and hour or so. With 2 people it would have taken 5 minutes, doing it alone was a challenge. It was rainy and cool all day, so I didn't feel like doing much else.
Today is rainier and cooler still. I spent the morning replying to emails, approving applications for my crew at a fest in August and working on the final touches of the dining table quote. I sure hope I left enough skin on the bone for this one. It's the most expensive single job I've quoted and was wondering if the client will even go for it. 5 minutes after I sent him the quote I got a reply asking where to mail the deposit. :) SO as soon as that check comes I'll place to materials order. I gave myself until Thanksgiving to get it done. I hope that's enough time.
More piddling around today, but I have to get going on those picnic benches. I am waiting for Bill to be back at the shop so we can set the slabmizer up together, then I'll be working on my own.
Just another day, right?
On the tractor/fire wood thing I got to thinking that anything with forks (fork lift, old 2wd tractor....) on it would be a big help for getting the wood up to a height that saves the back when cutting.
Without raising the logs I can only block about 1 or 1½ tanks of fuel with a ms361 before I have to quit because of lower back pain (I really start getting pain before the first tank is done) but using the forks I can cut 3 tanks and still feel ok. If you have pallets to stack the wood on or bins then you can move the wood around with the forks and not have to re-handling or re-stack it saving lots of labour.
Who knows maybe you would save enough on chiropractor bills to pay for something. :D
Tom,
Your comments about visitors reminded me that if it were not for out of town guests many of us would never go visit some of our most interesting local points of interest. I bet folks living around New York City would never see the Empire State building if they never had family or friends from out of town come visit. At least that has been my experience. We'd see something and think "One of these days I'm gonna go check that out" but never get around to it till guests come visit and we are trying to entertain them and go by and say "Wow, this is neat stuff. I should have come sooner."
Hilltop, I got around that backache thing largely by alternating tasks. I will buck for a while, maybe a tankful, until the area s cluttered with round, then switch to splitting until those rounds are cleared up, then move to stacking and repeat. It works well for me, but stacking seems to be a place where I can save time. Baskets might work for the shop, but not for the house. In any event. I just don't have the cash for a machine, but it is on my mind. I never stop thinking about a better way to do this. If the cash issue ever changes, certainly a machine that can pick and move would be my first thought. Any machine.
Howard, you are spot on. I never go to these places without visitors. Unfortunately for Austin's family, just about every one of those that I checked on was closed for the weekdays they were here. I do know a lot of neat places, but none were open on Tuesdays. Best we came up with, which was pretty good was the maritime museum, and they had just changed to summer schedule last week. Schools are still is session here until the end of the week.
--------------------
Well back to work today as mentioned earlier. I headed down to Bill's at noon. We threw the two slabs up on the mill and edged them, but they were so cupped that I had to settle for an 'average squareness'. We took the slabs up to the slabmizer and leveled them out doing both on one setup. Flattened the bottom sides, then flipped them and did the other side, they came out pretty nice. White Oak. So I threw them in the truck and brought them home. All I had to do was figure out how to get a flat, straight, and square glue up edge on each slab to join them as a bookmatch.
We ran through all the tool options we had. Running 2" WO slabs on my little joiner just didn't seem feasible. A lot of other things were suggested, but I had an idea and it struck even me as a whacked out thought, but what the heck.
The first thing I needed was to get the slabs up on edge and secure so I could lean on them without movement. So I made some brackets and screwed them onto our trusty sawhorses. With just two small clamps, they were rock solid.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220623_180204551.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656034200)
Then I had to modify my power planer slightly. I screwed a piece of planed ERC onto the planer fence, which is cheap and poorly made, it is not intended as a squaring edge. So I 'adjusted' it to be square by bending the fence until it was square to the planer bed. It took some doing and excessive force, but I got it pretty dang close.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220623_181524283.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656034197)
It took me a few tries to get the feel of it, keeping the pressure on the fence while applying no load on the handle, but I still needed to hold the trigger to make it go. I finally figure it out to a repeatable level. I don't think anybody is more surprised than me when it actually worked and gave me a nice square, clean, flat edge.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220623_181609290.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656034203)
So I took apart my uprights and laid it all flat to check fit and see if I had a good straight glue line. BINGO! it looked super with a test dry clamping. I screwed some different uprights on the saw horses that I can lean the slabs on while I apply glue. So it sits like this now, ready to glue.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220623_195603917.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656034205)
I started at noon, but I got a solid 9 hours work in today anyway. The first guy that comes in my shop tomorrow is gonna be my 'glue buddy' and help me get this thing together. Then I'll head back down and flatten the bench seats.
I am just getting to know this slabmizer and I have mixed reviews at this point. Certainly it works and makes things flat, but I have to learn the machine better. Seems a shame to have those drive motors when the most efficient way is to push it by hand. I am still working that out and need more time to try things. But flat is flat, right?
Tomorrow is another day, I'm bushed.
I hear you on the cash, I guess I "seen the light" when I got some rear forks a few years ago, now I'm going around shining it in others eyes. :D
The forks I have are on a long term loan, they were not being used so I tried to buy them but was told that they were not for sale. He said take them home and use them I'll let you know when I want them back. I've had them for 3 or 4 years so far.
Well if it were just the cost of the forks, it would be a no brainer, but first I need a machine and I figure for something cheap but running, with careful shopping, that will run me 6-8 grand. I don't turn enough cash to have that as extra. The other consideration is that I am considering selling my mill (don't tell anybody) because I am not using it much anymore now that I am running the LT50 all the time. Without a mill, my need for log handling is reduced to just my 8-10 cord of firewood each year.
I am very lucky in that I can borrow stuff from Bill once in a while. He is using it in his business, but if I am quick and get it back in short order, he doesn't mind. I bet borrowing his splitter last week for just a couple of days saved me a week of work time. With that machine, a short conveyor would be real handy to dump into my trailer or a box/cage and save me a lot more time. But all the conveyors are way too long and high. I just want a 5 foot lift or so.
I just keep looking for smarter ways to do things, that is where you get the best bang for your buck.
"Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."
Yesterday was the monthly Chiro visit and it landed in the late morning which kind of killed the day. On the way home I took my wife to lunch and ran into one of Bill's guys getting lunch and running errands. I arranged to have him stop at my place on his way back to the shop and help me do that glueup. It went well with two guys and the fit up was good. He left and I stayed for a while refilling one or two small spots where it wasn't perfect.
After an hour I went down to Bill's and got the same fella to help me load the two bench slabs up on the slabmizer for today's work. Then I came back home and mixed up some epoxy to fill in the knot and bug defects in the table top side that was up. Looking pretty good (but heavy).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220624_180716385.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656159128)
Today I will do some sanding on this side then find a sucker Generous volunteer helper to help me flip it. It has to weigh fair amount over 150# at this point. Everybody seems to be out of town, Bill, my son, and other usual suspects. It's 10/4 x 32 x 96 at this point before trimming and WO is not light (I read that somewhere). We're going to need a fork lift to deliver this thing. My guess is 500# when it is done.
Just another day.
Sounds like you need a good refrigerator/appliance dolly with balloon tires and such to move heavy pieces around the shop when "volunteers" are not available. (Hey - I did not say a powered one. I am trying to help keep those costs down and be fiscally responsible of other people's money for a change.) ;)
Well, I have a 'lifty roller thingy' that would do the job, but it would still be hazardous for one guy just because of the size. As it turns out I have a happy competent volunteer that is available on 5 minutes notice. :)
I have done my top sanding and will head down now and flatten the benches. Hopefully get that done and get them home so I have something to keep me out of trouble tomorrow. Probably do the flip later. I have touch up epoxy curing on it now after the first sanding. So I will delay as much as I can. Just gotta keep moving on productive stuff. It will all get done.
Well, my definition of a great day is one in which I can get in at least 8 hours of work undisturbed by the world. Today was one of those. I think I got in 9 or 10 hours, but who cares? All I know is it felt good. I didn't even have lunch and didn't miss it. I didn't miss a nap either, which I do on most days I don't get one.
I got my sanding done this morning as mentioned, then I headed down and with some minor distractions and a fight with the stupidest dust collector I have ever met (I will never buy a Jet dust collector). I got to work on the Slabmizer getting the benches flat. I tried Bill's method of hand feeding, light depth of cut with a high federate. This means manually pushing the head. I tried to get a little video but holding the phone, pushing the head, and working the joystick made it pretty messy. None the less, here's what you get.
Flattening slabs on the woodmizer slabmizer - YouTube (https://youtu.be/ZaVlrvbgj-E)
Anyway, got them done pretty quick, but Bill is away with the family so I did my part to check on the dogs and chickens and I had a run in with a red fox, but no appropriate tool close enough to hand to deal with him. so throwing stones and yelling had to do for today. (tomorrow is another one though!)
Any way got the bench slabs home, unloaded into the second bay and started mixing epoxy. Of course just as I hit critical temp, my helper showed up, so we quick flipped the top and I started pouring on the benches. It was a tad rude, but the epoxy waits for no one when it's hot. ;D Anyway. those benches took a lot of epoxy and I didn't get everything filled. Though I would have enough for both benches and the top, but no.
Had to stop for dinner anyway. Went back out, mixed more epoxy, poured more and just had enough to cover all the cracks I had on all the tops and I think they are filled, so I can sand and flip tomorrow. One of the bench slabs was a center pith cut and has some severe drying cracks, I think going all through. I suspect some issues all though the process.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220625_193311546.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656205472)
Yeah, there is some work here. I still have to flip these and work on the other side tomorrow after sanding. The other side is just as bad, maybe worse, I forget. I also have a lot of edge reshaping to do. There is some punky stuff and I need to figure how to remove it and keep it 'natural'.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220625_193320582.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656205474)
They go deep, nearly clean through. Lots of sand but this is gonna be one epic picnic table. :D
Tomorrow is another day.
Well I am whooped. :) Another 9-10 hour day today and it was pretty hot which added to the joy. ;D
I am moving fast ont ehi table and want to finish it as fast as I can and the drying times will allow. I am not going to get too hung up on perfect finishes because it is, after all, a picnic table that will live outside, not a dining room table (that's coming up). But I am holding the line on not taking shortcuts. I am filling all cracks, knots, and void with epoxy to stabilize it and keep air pockets from living under the finish and wreck havoc when season change.
Since I have the top and two bench slabs in the shop now I jump from one to the next doing the fills, sanding, edge work, flipping, repeating. Consequently I spend little time waiting for things to set up, I just work on a different piece. I am doing things at a faster rate and jumping around more than usual. Flipping that top requires two peoples, so I work around that as much as I can. Now I just put a first coat on the top when I have yet to even final sand the bottom and get the last epoxy fills leveled off. I also did the edges on all parts because some of the areas are a bit 'soft' and I wanted to start getting coats on the edges to firm them up. I couldn't resist and did a coat on the top because the wood has a few soft spots right in the middle. Hopefully that will seal it and subsequent coats will build up to that shine I want.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220626_191408241.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656291757)
It's WO and it came up with that creamy soft brown look I really like. I've got a bit of herringbone bookmatching going on at one end, but it doesn't carry through the whole top.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220626_191405087.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656291758)
The glueline is not perfect, but it's a picnic table. Any gaps were filled with epoxy. Those weird lines in the above photo are from the overhead lights.
The edges on this are challenging and it remains to be seen if I can pull this off.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220626_194316142.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656291762)
For me this is an exercise is calling it when it's 'good enough'. I am making this for Bill's client and he is already having fits that I am being too picky. I have my standards. I have seen the table he made for himself on the same legs in his own yard. The first year it looked super, but now, well, not so much. Certainly it could be re-finished and be slick again. Geez they are 3" slabs, there is plenty to work with. I get it, he is concerned about what he will charge the client because this will not be the type of picnic table you get at HD or a roadside seller of such things. But it should last for decades with a little bit of care every few years. Still, how much can you charge for a 500# picnic table? :D
I took a shower after quitting at 8pm and am falling asleep as I type this. Tomorrow is another day. I am anxious to get back to work.
Looks nice, for a future experiment wondering if running a circular saw with guide board in between the two slabs to kerf both sides at the same time would give you a tight glue line with little work.
I considered asking if you wanted to sell your mill when we were there... I'd imagine you'd have plenty of local offers but let me know if not, I may be interested. Or I'll trade you a motorcycle?
Hilltop, I had thought about kerfing it, but the planer worked out really well. The photos don't really show the joint well and there are some issues with the wood integrity along that glue line that I could not avoid. Gluing and clamping 70# slabs is a bit beyond what I am set up for so I am pushing it on clamps, flat glueup table, etc. The defining thing for me is that my saw won't go clean through a 2.75" slab, I can only clear a tad over 2" so I still would have had a compromise edge. I have wanted to try that, and I will when I get something thinner, sounds like a slick way to pull it off. I am using a 1960's skill saw that still works like a champ, but maybe an upgrade is in order, but it needs a bigger blade before I will consider it. I have started looking in the past week. I am also thinking about a biscuit jointer.
Austin, we should have talked about it. I am still on the fence with the issue. If I do put it up for sale I would list it for a silly price hoping to find somebody in a hurry, like $4k which is high in my opinion, but retired guys need the money, at least I do.. But I think it's not unreasonable. However I would not be comfortable taking that from a friend and frankly, you add just a little more and you have an LT15 which is a MUCH better machine, by a long shot. Better to wait, spend a few more bucks and have a real machine. But that's my opinion. Besides, 14 hours (x2) is a long way to go to pick up a second rate mill. ;D
As far as the current build goes: I am pushing way too much to get this done this week. It IS just a picnic table. I have filled all the voids so the finish should hold nicely, but I am slapping on urethane as fast as each coat is nearly dry, and I am not happy with that. I am figuring the bottoms don't matter as long as they are sealed up well. (3 coats?). The tops I have been slathering it on too, then plan a full 24 hour break for it to harden up, do a light sand, and a thinned out finish coat or two. For the table piece I know which side is the top, so today, with the bottom up, I laid out the leg hole locations and drilled all the screw holes. (I also finally located screws.) I've got 3 coats on the bottom side now, last coat was 20 minutes ago. One of Bill's guys will stop in the morning on his way in at either 6:30 or 7:30 and help me flip it. I can then screw the legs on from the bottom and get it on the floor myself. One bench I know which side is 'up', the other is still undecided. I should be able to make more headway tomorrow. Then Wednesday I have to go do a tree job (nice ERC) with my son, so that day is shot, but the last coats should harden up and I can do a light sanding on all the top sides and final coats on Thursday. No photos today, they all look the same. Of note today for me was that I realized I like the way RiteLeg predrills the hole pattern in their picnic legs. For the top they are laid out with pairs of holes so you could make a table top out of 2x6's, or use less holes for a slab top. It's a tad radicicolous, but I am using all the holes, just because of the weight and a couple of soft spots in the wood, and we will likely be lifting the whole thing by the top with a forklift.
It will be a pretty nice table, but I am not happy about rushing it like this. An extra week would be great, but I am 'on the road' for a couple of weeks and have to have all the current jobs cleaned up in just a week. Rushing it is probably a good exercise for me because I usually take way too long and think and re-do stuff too much, this will be the other side of the coin for a change. It still beats sitting in a conference room discussing chart colors. :D ;D
Still anxious to get back at it tomorrow and keep moving.
Tom,
I am not a woodworker so forgive the silly question. Will the epoxy and fill you mention using to fill the voids hold up outside? Since you say it is a picnic table I'm assuming it is outside but as pretty as it is I do hope they have it under a cover of some sort.
Well Howard, I am not a woodworker either but I have studied a lot of 'stuff' made by others that is left outside as it ages, including my own stuff. I have found that anything which has an opportunity for air to get trapped under the finish will check, bubble, or crack over our seasonal changes with extreme temp cycles. My theory on this is that the air/moisture underneath the finish expands and contracts and cause the finish to fail. If caught early and re-finished it will last a long time. But I fill all those voids and sand smooth before finishing and find this last a long time without much care beyond cleaning. I have a test table that has lived outside side I need to retrieve just like this which has been enjoying the weather for 4 years now. Last I saw it, all it needed was a washing to get the dried pollen stains off. I will give them some care tips when it is delivered.
I don't think I would want to cover it in plastic because that might promote other growth, but it should be set so that water will not pool on it after the rain stops. Perhaps a winter cover? I dunno, what do other folks think? Bill thinks they might bring this in the house because it looks so nice, but I haven't seen the place or the client. Best I know is that I think the client lives somewhere on my road. We may just drive the toolcat here, pick it up and deliver it with the Toolcat directly. Gonna need at least 3 guys if we have to carry it more than 6'. If it is that local, they could call me once a year or so for finish touchups.
Everything is a learning experience.
could adapt some wheels/casters for temp movement. the customer may want them. the other issue is UV. epoxy will move differently than wood, and degrade in uv, but a finish over it that is UV protected should help a lot. I think it looks great. thanks for sharing the design.
What's the protection technique for when you flip it, Tom? Just a moving blanket or something under it?
Re: your mill- I can't justify the expense as, for me, the mill would seldom get used, while being lovely to have. I'd considered going the Woodland Mills route for a less expensive mill but that money went elsewhere quickly. For now I'll have to stick with the chainsaw mill which also doesn't get much use. Maybe this weekend. I currently only have at least 4 projects going on and feel like I need something else to take up space...
Well I try not to flip it while it's still wet. :D But I put some planed stickers under it that are clean. I do a sealing cost on the top, maybe two, then flip, finish off the bottom. Then flip back and finish the top last so there is little chance of messing it up and further.
Yes, woodland would be a better way to go I am sure.
Quote from: doc henderson on June 28, 2022, 06:02:16 AM
could adapt some wheels/casters for temp movement. the customer may want them. the other issue is UV. epoxy will move differently than wood, and degrade in uv, but a finish over it that is UV protected should help a lot. I think it looks great. thanks for sharing the design.
I'd need some bigger pneumatic tires with the ground around here Doc, it would have to be substantial.
As for the epoxy, there is little exposed epoxy are on this one, mostly crack fills so I'm not sure that will be an issue. On my test table I have some bigger surface areas and that has shown an issue yet. But I haven't seen that in 8 months, so maybe by now?
We try, we learn, we move on. :)
I am sure you will be fine. I did house number on a mailbox post with a router, then painted, then filled with epoxy. some have separated a bit, but after 7 years in locust. but that is like pouring in mold.
That table almost looks like you know what you are doing. ;)
Doc thinks it looks good, I know it looks good. :D :D
Yup, it's getting there and it will do. I'm sure it will hold up ok.
Ray, I think I am getting there.
Well ending another day wiped out. Cool today, beautiful in fact, weather wise. I didn't sleep well last night and had the wife wake me before 5 when she was headed out. My 'flipper' helper was coming by at either 6:30 or 7:30 and I didn't know which. Turned out to be 7:30 but I was out in the shop before 7 and he came by at 7:30 and we flipped the top. I put the legs on and it is looking better.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220628_114841121.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656463868)
I had hoped today was finish coats so it would have a few days to harden up. So I light sanded everything and wanted to put a thin coat on. I used the can I had from the last project that was thinned out. It worked OK, but after it sat for 10 minutes, this happened:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220628_171826930.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656463872)
It went right down the centerline where the wood density is softer. Just a bunch of alligator skin.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220628_171830362.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656463875)
I also had one odd spot on one of the benches, same thing. No idea why. Must have been the other epoxy. If I had my normal timeline (whenever) I would have let it dried and sanded it off. But I am still pushing and hoping to get it done quick. (bad plan, I know) So I took a scraper and peeled the bad spots so at least it would dry quicker.
I just came in after going out and putting some fresh urethane on both the table and the bench in the bad spots. I had scraped it to clean wood and will need to build it up again. I am hoping it is hard in the morning and I can sand it and maybe get another clean coat on. But I am pressed for time. I have to do a tree job tomorrow starting at 8am, so getting this done before I leave will be tight. I know I am pushing too hard against the physics, but I gotta try. The bench I can work on and fix it, the table top might take a lot of sanding and new coats to make it right. I might have blown my deadline.
Tomorrow is another day, I guess I will hit it hard and do my best.
Just like in sawmilling, the easy part is the cutting and the challenging part is all the handling, stacking, drying, and planing, whereas in woodworking, the sanding and finishing is the challenging part. It is much easier to build the project than it is to get that perfect finish.
Yeah Danny, finishing continues to be a challenge. It's the 80/20 rule. 80% of the work is in the last 20% of the job. I think I am back on track now, but lost a couple of days.
Today was a full day. Out in the shop around 6:30 and I sanded the one bench and I tried to work on the table top, but its still soft. I sanded, pealed and scraped as much as I could and left it to dry up some more. I put a coat of finish on the bench and that is coming along OK.
Then I hitched up the trailer and headed off to the tree job. Had an 18-20" ERC that was blown over in the ice storm, It was leaning on a 6" maple and the maple, when I cut it, would tend into the screened porch on the house. So I roped it to ensure a safe swing, but when I cut it, it turned out it was hung in the cedar top. So I threw another rope higher up and we managed to pull it and let it roll away from the house. Easy peasey. No pictures of that, just simple work. None of the cedar before cutting either, more plain work. But you can see for this photo that the tree was aimed at the far corner of the house and the concern is that it's a screened porch and the branches would make a mess of the screens.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220629_130747204.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656542528)
I actually cut two trees off that uproot, the ERC was in the yard pointing east, and the maple pointing west which went out into the rough, which I cut into 18" long rounds for removal 'whenever' just to clean it up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220629_130727138.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656542521)
I got some fair logs out of it to mill up in the coming weeks. So not a bad job. Nobody got hurt and it's all cleaned up. The landowner lives it London or some such place right now.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220629_130646194.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656542520)
I will say it was a bear to get those logs 60' or so to the trailer and loaded by hand. All we had was a peavey, a couple of hookeroons, and two guys. My arms are on fire from the pine sap of a couple of branches I had to trim off an EWP and maybe from the cedar too, I dunno. Part of the job these days.
After dinner I will go check the table again. Tomorrow: more sanding and finishing and unload the trailer down at the mill. Unloading will be easier than loading, I am sure. ;D
Looks like some nice cedar, you will get some pretty stuff out of it. Hope you enjoy sawing it.
Is there some kind of a deadline with the table? Never a good thing when working against the clock "inspires" you to do things ahead of when they are ready to be done. If you get stuck there for "table turner" during the day, call the store and if it's not busy, it ain't a big deal to run down and help you give it a flip. I need some practice not being there with the upcoming retirement/closing at the end of the year. :)
Well the deadline is mostly in my head Bob, driven by external forces. This is for one of Bill's clients up to Traver Hallow way. He has told me they are grumbling about getting it and he is making polite hints that we need to get it moving for several weeks (albeit I have been trying to get him to decide on which slabs we were using and how long the thing would be. We didn't get the slabs pulled until 6 days ago. So I think I have been rocking along here. The other issue is this thing fills both bays of my shop and I had to leave the Mule parked outside. Lastly, I have two sets of legs I have been tripping over since May I would like to use and move out. I have a second table to build after this one for Bill also and we are playing the 'which slabs' game again.
Time wise, I am leaving for VT next Wednesday until the 10th, then leave again for GF on the 12th and return on the 18th. So Half of July is shot already. I will have to hit the ground running when I get back.
Thanks for the offer to run out, you are welcome here anytime, but that's a long run for a 2 minute task. I have Bailey stopping in as he passes to and from the yard. Right now I am past that stage, as the top is mounted and I am just trying to get the finish right on the top. Lets see how today goes.
Nebraska, yeah I should get some good project wood. This one is green and I am not sure how long it will take to dry. I am trying to think of something to make that would be best use of the wood. That butt log has a lot of issues between the rot hole and all the cracks from the growth fissures. I get what I get and I'll be happy. Got paid to drop the tree(s) and still keep the logs.
ERC lobulations! :D :D :D
Maybe my mind is in a weird place at the moment Doc, but that's just weird, even for you. :D :)
Did you have something particular in mind, or is my definition of 'Lobule' in error? ;D
My experience with it is seems to dry the fastest of any wood I've sawn. Although no scientific comparison has been made and it is pure conjecture on my part. It's more fun to saw with a manual mill than most other woods, at least it's easier on my body. :) Hope that finish starts behaving.
That's been my limited experience too Nebraska. I am hoping for some fall/winter build projects.
I just came in from sanding and lying down another coat. It seems to be behaving properly so far. If it turns out well, it might be my last coat. :) Then I have to figure out how to put the benches on. That is, which way they will face, which side is 'up' and how far in to set them. I may need an onsite consult for this last step.
One man's lobulations are another man's fluting (not the musical kind but the lobulatory kind) :D.
Well catching up here, a lot of odd stuff going on today. Started in the shop early as noted before and did some sanding/finishing, then I took the trailer down to Bill's and unloaded the ERC logs I collected yesterday. Came back, had lunch, and watched the finish dry. ;D Decided I had just put on the 'last coat'. 8) Ran into Bill on the road earlier and asked him to stop in and see if it was 'good enough' for his client. He came by around 3 and was pretty happy (maybe a little more). I have no photos of the full table yet (tomorrow) but here it is with one bench in place.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220630_160736150.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656639967)
The other bench was still drying and didn't get set until an hour ago. Tomorrow I will drill and screw them in. With Festivals coming up quick I was on the phone with several calls making arrangements and plans for most of the late afternoon and after dinner. I thought I was done at 9pm, then Bill showed up at the door, then his little girl, then his wife. :D He had driven his gator 2 miles down the road (in the dark) to show his 'gals' the table. I could tell at that point that he kind of liked it. ;D He pointed out all the details in the wood to his wife like the medullary rays etc., but she didn't need it. She liked it a lot. That's my joy and made the project all worth while for me. Bill wants me to help deliver it on Sunday so I can explain to the client what went into it.
The big side benefit for me is that Bill now 'gets it' when I say "we need to do it this way" or whatever else I try to tell him, whereas just a week or so he was trying to tell me how I could cut corners and I respectfully refused. :D Now we are talking about getting that steel building set up into a shop before he gets the concrete poured whereas as of last week we weren't going to put anything into that building until the floor was in and I found that annoying because I am working in very constrained conditions with a lot of extra handling work. So we are moving ahead. I knew he would come around when he was staring at the results. He jus t never saw my work in quite this light before. I ain't great at this stuff, but I will do for the quality that's needed. His main comment tonight was "yeah, we are gonna make a LOT more of these tables." I pretty much got that table done in 8 days (with a hiccup) and I really don't want to do that again if I can help it. I'd rather have it sit for a week to cure up, but we will deliver, as promised, on Sunday.
Tormorrow is another day. I have to go pickup a TeePee and get it set up among other things, but that's another story.
popcorn_smiley that sounds quite different......
If Danny can throw around epicormic growth centers, why can I not talk about undulating lobulations? Might be a medical term like a lobe or lobes pleural. :) We spoke of adding it to the dictionary at one point.
There will come a day you will have to admit to being a woodworker.
That looks great Tom! Well done.
On the glued together table top tip- The monthly ad from Woodcraft came around and had an ad for this (https://www.woodcraft.com/products/woodriver-clamping-system) "clamping system" and it looks, at first glance, pretty simple and slick. Anyone used something like this or is it just overkill? 34 bucks seems pretty cheap for it and that's not a common comment for anything from Woodcraft.
That clamp looks neat, but I read the reviews on that catalog page and I think I will stick with my big beam clamps. If I had a glueup able bigger than the work, they could work well, but working on sawhorses it would be tricky.
However, it is true, you NEVER have enough clamps and clamp varieties.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220630_172835450.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656673675)
I had to do that yesterday t repair the roof edge that broke off my sign when a 50MPH wind knocked it over. I was too lazy to take it apart, replace the broken piece, and re-finish. First time I used those cheap HF clamps that come in a can full for a couple of bucks.
Quote from: doc henderson on July 01, 2022, 05:38:53 AM
If Danny can throw around epicormic growth centers, why can I not talk about undulating lobulations? .......
There will come a day you will have to admit to being a woodworker.
Well you are right Doc. My bad. I had a poor perception in my head. When I read Danny's stuff I am used to using google to figure out what he is talking about. But I thought I knew what lobulations were and didn't look it up. My understanding it was mostly related to serious diseases. But I did some homework and now I know differently. Mea Culpa.
As for you last sentence, yeah, that day may come, but it is not that day yet. Not as long as I keep making mistakes.
My saying is,
My wood working skills stop, when the trees hits the ground!!! ;D
Well, if you don't like long posts, don't read this one, move on. :D That is, assuming I can keep my eyes open long enough to finish it.
Out in the shop early because I am getting into Gray Fox mode and it's been 2 years. For reasons I'll explain further down I had to repair an Army style cot (probably made in china) that got busted when I loaned it out about 5 years ago. Somebody flopped on it and broke a leg. So I cut the leg off, drilled out the rivets and removed the bad leg then put the tube sections over a piece of square stock and took out the wrinkles. Then I found a piece of red oak and ripped it down to a square that was a light driving fit into the tubing. I chamfered all the corners, drove one end in, then drove the other piece over the wood until the break met up. I drilled some new holes and put brass screws in to replace the rivets. Now I have a cot for my buddy that he can put his gear under and save tent space.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220701_091717669.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656718194)
Not the neatest repair I have ever done, but fully functional and secure.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220701_091729225.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656718195)
After that I made a call to arrange for the TeePee pickup. Nebraska, you made the mistake of showing interest in the teepee, so the following is you fault. :D
Bill Keith was a dear and treasured friend of mine (you can google or check him out on youtube). He is known widely around the world in 5 string banjo circles as an innovator and for promoting and teaching the "Keith Style" (Melodic) all over the globe. Bill also charted all the music in the Earl Scruggs banjo book that millions have learned from and is still in print. I met Bill too late in both our lives than I would have liked but I listened to his playing since I was about 18. He style is very different and influenced such players as Tony Thrischka, Ryan Cavanuagh, Bela Fleck, Noam Pickelny, and many others. There was a guy named Jerry Garcia that followed him on tour for a while to learn his technique. (Yes, Jerry started out as a banjo player). Bill played with a lot, if not all the greats of the 60's and 70's and beyond. He was a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys. Many master musicians would seek counsel with him to work out new stuff or techniques. Bill was brilliant and a master teacher, he had a grasp of musical theory that few posses and I never could grasp, even after sitting through dozens of his classes over the years.
Bill was a fixture at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, missing only a few years out of 30 when there were conflicts with his own tours. Bill was very accessible to the public through it all (unless it overwhelmed him and got crazy). At the festival all musicians were welcome at his campsite whether they were rank beginners or pros. He would spend time, sometimes hours with all who wanted to learn or ask questions. Many of the pros preforming at the festival would stop by for a bit to ask Bill's advice on something they were working on.
You could always find Bill's campsite in a field of 6,000 people because he always brought his teepee. A teepee is very distinctive in a field of thousands of nylon dome tents. The teepee became a fixture. I don't know when he got the first one, but it was a long time ago. That got destroyed in a horrible storm, but he special ordered a new one with some engineering refinements which lasted him the duration. Bill would always set the teepee up alone because there was a geometric method to erecting it. You could watch, but he would only accept help to raise the poles.
That's how I started my relationship with Bill, one extremely hot opening day at Grey Fox. We had met before (he played at my daughter's wedding and played with my son-in-law many many times) but I was still suffering from awe whenever I saw him and couldn't string together good sentences very well. You had to be in my head to understand. Anyway, it was terrible hot and I came across Bill setting up his teepee and asked if I could help. Well he was getting older and just said if I could follow instructions I could help. So we worked through it pretty quick and up it went. It was clear why he had his method and while we worked there was a side conversation about geometry, triangles and the Pythagorean theorem. Bill was trained as an engineer and had a mechanical and mathematical mind. We hit it off pretty quick and became good friends. Every year, I was the only guy that Bill would let help him set that teepee up. Between festivals, he gave me banjo (and mandolin) lessons and I was over his house almost every week. We hung out at his regular Thursday night gigs. In the years of his cancer I served as Bill's traveling companion around the states. The industry had found out he was dying and wanted to present him with awards for his contributions over a lifetime. IBMA Hall of Fame, IBMA Lifetime Achievement Award, and many others started sending him invitations to these events and I would help him get there and act as a low key foil when things got to be too much for him. I loved and still treasure those times. I met everybody and was at every high end party to be had at those events. Big players like Sam Bush and Bela Fleck knew me by name. Some would contact me rather than bother Bill in case he was having a bad day. I became his corresponding secretary for a short time, but I really don't think Bill ever knew that.
At any rate Bill and I were close. When he passed, a lot of folks contacted me and asked if we could still get his teepee up to Grey Fox, as if it were up to me. It was not, but as it turned out, his son had picked up the flag of Bill's side business Keith Tuners (some still call these Scruggs tuners, but that's another long story) and he decided to do a tour of the major events to let folks know that the business was still in operation. So his son came to Grey Fox and I helped him set up the Teepee. We shared a campsite, just as I did with Bill. His son Martin (as well as his wife Claire) and I are still close friends and talk often. Since then (2016) the teepee has not been at Grey Fox.
I told you all that so I could tell you this:
Well 2 days ago I got a text from Martin. They had a family meeting and are still cleaning up Bill's stuff and came across the teepee. Over dinner they were trying to figure out what to do with it. It shouldn't go to rot, somebody should have it. They made a list of all the folks who would want it and know how to care for it, and use it, and my name was on the top of the list. In fact, my name was the only one of the list. There were a lot of folks who wanted it, but none who met their other criteria. So today I went up and met Martin at Claire's house and we dug it out of the garage and found everything but the stakes, but we did find others to make it work. After a couple of hours visiting and catching up, I headed home and worked in shifts through the 90°+ temps just as I did with Bill the first time I helped put it up. I had to make a tiny adjustment to the string we use for laying out the circle, but after that and a few other minor blunders (these things can be more complicated that one might think for such a very simple structure and it has been a while) I got it up. It looks pretty good, I think Bill would smile. Kind of amazing in that only 2 poles hold that thing up. The other 2 poles are just for the top vent.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220701_135741825.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1656718202)
I set up that cot to help me figure out if we have room for the 3 of us that need to stay in it, and I think it will work out ok. I texted a photo of it to one of the festival directors and asked if it was OK if we brought this. She texted me back that I had made her day and she had tears in her eyes. Her only thought was that it should go in the same spot it was always in, and that was my plan all along. I expect that she never thought she would see it again and many others are probably in the same boat. I guess some other folks will notice also. This will be a sweet little detail for the festival that most won't understand, but many will really appreciate. In fact I expect I will spend a fair amount of time explaining how it came to be there.
After I got the canvas up I was shot from the heat, but I laid on my back in the shop and drilled holes the secure the benches on that table. I didn't get them all, but only have a few to finish it up tomorrow. I was just totally wiped out. This heat is a killer.
Tomorrow we have rain scheduled, so I can check how tight the teepee is but I am sure it is fine. Good heavy canvas that. I will finish off the bench screws and then get in prep work for Grey fox. I also have to do prep work for the family reunion which is next weekend. Between the two I have a lot to do. I'll worry about all that tomorrow. ;D
Now Nebraska, aren't you glad you asked?
I'm glad he asked.
Congrats on the TeePee and helping keep your friend's memory alive. I hope you get many years of enjoyment from it.
Remember the old joke - What happened to the Indian who drank too much tea? He died in his TeaPee. (Sorry - the devil made me do it.)
Yes Tom I am quite pleased with myself.. :) I enjoyed that story and many others will too.
Though its not nearly and as storied and special as yours we have one as well. Thank you for sharing that story btw....
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/ELK12TIPI.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1656778043)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/ELK12GOATSTRAIL.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1656778043)
Well that post was a bit long, but at least 3 folks liked it. Maybe even read most of it. :D I put that photo up on my FB page with the simple comment "If you know, you know". It's already gotten almost 30 reactions from a dozen states and a few countries in Europe where Bill was extremely popular and toured often.
This is bound to bring a lot of smiles at the Festival and I have already had a few asking if it will be there, but I'm not telling them....yet.
Nebraska I like that one you have, looks a lot bigger!
Nebraska
Packing in with pack goats?
Neighbor has a small goat herd that he trains all year long for elk hunting Quite the site to see them trotting around the trails. Keeping up, but at the same time wandering and meandering and eating along the way.
Easier to keep when packing in than horses or mules, I understand.
Yes a long time ago a friend of mine and a former veterinary school surgery resident and myself went Walleye fishing. The three of us didn't catch much but had a meandering conversation regarding Archery elk hunting etc. Then somebody drank too much beer and shortly afterwards, did too much reading on the internet.. The epilogue is... I ended up as a pervayor of packgoats... If one searches them you eventually will find us. Website isnt up to date, and we havent done much with them for a couple years as my buddy bought himself another job and our kids have grown up, but they are there still, its long story maybe for another thread sometime.
The tiipii is rated a 16 man if I remember correctly. Fits four of us with gear, sleeping pads, and a little stainless steel stove. Makes a lightweight pack in camp much more comfy. :)
Have watched a few, and such beautiful country. Maybe yours?
GOATS GO HIKING! Pack Of Farm Animals Hike Through Idaho Woods - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwehFonBFIg)
No not mine. Those are horny goats :), mine are disbudded when they are a couple weeks old... so no horns to get caught in the fence....
After hearing the teepee story, in person, I never thought I'd see it. Too cool! I'm glad you get to carry on the tradition but you may need a sign to explain what's up with it. That sign could be as simple as "If you know, you know"
Good stuff, Tom, thanks for sharing.
OGH,
Great story on the teepee and Bill. I know you are thrilled to have it and those at the festival will enjoy seeing it back.
Nebraska,
Pack goats, I have never heard of such. Thanks for sharing that and your teepee story.
There really is no need for a sign. That has been a landmark at the festival for most of 30 years. Nobody has seen it there for 4 years now. My FB photo got shared on the festival page and has generated an awful lot of interest and excitement even from performers who are coming. I expect a little t of folks taking photos of themselves in front of it. Always happens. Not sure how many years I will continue with this but I will start looking for a successor to train.
@Nebraska (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=45256) : and a pack of horny pack goats to boot! :snowball: :)
Doc...Those goats are on my list
......yesterday morning about 6:15 my wife calls on her way into work, and says "the goats are on the road"..... arg-smiley
So my day started off with fence repair.... It rained and the fencer was shorting out. One of their fence testing spies found a weakness in my defensive perimeter and those stinging nettles in the road ditch were oh so tasty. Eventhough I sprayed them Forth of July evening anticipating such a maneuver by the goat fiends.....The dying wilt must've made them more attractive.... ::)
Sorry to hi jack, back to our regularly scheduled thread.....
Quote from: Nebraska on July 09, 2022, 07:33:02 AM
Doc...Those goats are on my list
......yesterday morning about 6:15 my wife calls on her way into work, and says "the goats are on the road"..... arg-smiley
So my day started off with fence repair.... It rained and the fencer was shorting out. One of their fence testing spies found a weakness in my defensive perimeter and those stinging nettles in the road ditch were oh so tasty. Eventhough I sprayed them Forth of July evening anticipating such a maneuver by the goat fiends.....The dying wilt must've made them more attractive.... ::)
Sorry to hi jack, back to our regularly scheduled thread.....
Have found that "dying wilt" also makes black walnut leaves attractive to deer. They don't seem to bother live black walnut leaves but chow down on them after a day or two. Act like they are eating candy.
We pulled the electric fence around our yard and now the deer eat the rose blossoms as they come on. This time of year they come to a nearby pond and eat everything they run onto. Apples, pears, flowers, etc..
Goats, I can do without honestly said.
Well, I am truly sorry for all the goat issues, but I don't 'do' goats so in the words of our fearless leader BWAHAHAHAHA! :D ;D
I (we) have been out of touch since Wednesday when we left for VT. We had very limited connectivity, but I could read the forum through a wifi link when I had a few minutes, but couldn't watch any videos or anything as my cousin's pay for their internet by the usage and I wasn't going to run them up. We went over to help setup for the family reunion on Saturday, so I spent my days working on my tan, as we say. That means weed whacking around 6 acres, mowing, setting canopies, picking up food, ice, whatever, and generally doing whatever needed to be done. My cousin kept trying to get me interested in hooking up the brush hog to the tractor and knocking down another 3 acres that he had not hit yet this season, but I just couldn't find time. ;D Working with family is great fun and we were usually full into it by 7am each day.
We had family from Maine, Texas, CT, MA, northern NY, MI, and other states (VT too). It was a great time, I didn't think to take any photos except these. As we were doing chores I saw this pulley:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220707_084717770.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1657495458)
I had never seen one with such a large v-belt design and that small pinion had me curious, really curious. So I asked my cousin Bill, what the story was and he told me. It makes sense, but I wondered if anybody here could figure it out. I'll wait and see if you folks can come up with what this pulley was used on. The pulley is about 3' diameter and the pinion is about 3-1/2". Here is the v-groove:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220707_084709797.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1657495458)
That groove is about 1-1/8" wide at the top. I am betting somebody is going to guess this without any further hints.
Doing errands we had to go to the JD dealer down in MA to get a belt for Bill's lawn tractor we blew up and while there I found a NOS plastic scabbard for a top handle Stihl sissy saw that my buddy Bill would love to hang inside the bucket on his truck for trimming work so I bought it for 4 bucks and got a 24" for my saw for another 5 bucks. (big spender).
We had a lot of fun and the reunion was great. We stuck around today until everything was cleaned up and just the Texas cousins were left (they leave tomorrow). We headed home and got back here around 5:30pm. I unloaded MOST of the stuff, a lot is just getting repacked tomorrow for Grey Fox, which is tomorrow's main task. Food shopping, load the truck, hook up the trailer, load the Mule, find all the odds and ends on my long list, and then head out early on Tuesday.
This afternoon, when I went by the wifi spot to check in on my pretty ill daughter back home, I got a bunch of other messages. One was from the director of the festival asking me to please call her regarding the teepee. I got a sinking feeling that there as now some 'issue'. She is way too busy to deal with low level folks like me, although we are good friends, she is working like a one armed paper hanger at this point, so I am concerned about why she needs to talk to me.
I called her. She knew the teepee was coming up and she, as much as anyone appreciates what it means, on a long term professional level over 30 years, she was quite close with Bill, so I was really concerned about this call. Turns out, they were so pleased it was 'coming back' that they are arranging for a videographer to do a time lapse video of the teepee raising and they have another magazine photographer who wants to include it in the magazine article he is doing on the festival. She wanted to arrange times, make me aware, and make sure I coordinated with them when I get on site. Normally I go up in ratty work clothes early and try to get camp set up before the sun gets too high in the sky. I guess I need to rethink for this one. ;D It used to be work, now, apparently, it's a performance. :D I hope I get it right the first time.
Tomorrow is another day and it feels like it is going to be a long one just getting ready for the longer day that follows.
Seems like your becoming famous, or is it infamous? Either way don't forget us peons!
Forget the peons? Hah, not likely, I are one. :D :D
But it is funny, you've touched on something that I have been uneasy with and still struggle to handle. I loved Bill and we were dear friends, but what we had in a friendship was never a public thing. Yet, folks in the business knew that we were quite close and when he became ill, they would talk to me and ask if he was having a good enough day that they could visit with him. I somehow got to be known as they guy to talk to and I never asked for that and never knew how to handle it. I shared those concerns with Bill and he kind of came to enjoy it, we would play games with it. A fella would come up to me at and event, point at Bill and ask "Is that really Bill Keith?!" I would lean over to Bill, and in a stage whisper ask "Are you Bill Keith today?". Bill would loo thoughtfully up at the ceiling or sky for a few seconds and then say "Yeah, I suppose I am". Wherein the autograph frenzy would begin as I handed Bill a pen and word spread through the crowd.
Bill never ever could accept the recognition as fame. He always felt he was just a pretty good banjo player. Someday I may tell the story of the day I called him a 'flipping' idiot (not the word I used) and berated him for a little bit before I got hold of myself. Not my best moment and certainly did not turn out the way I expected. As I type this I am embarrassed for myself for that whole episode and what followed, which was totally unpredictable. But that would be for another time if it ever comes up again.
I had thought about writing a small book, and it would be small because I did not have nearly enough time with him, but just for his close friends and family, because every trip and adventure with him was just that, an adventure for me. I was once driving home from a concert and had Bill and Eric Weissberg (look HIM up) in Bill's car on the NYS Thruway and I literally leaned over the back seat and hollered "IF YOU TWO DON'T STOP BICKERING I AM GOING TO PULL THIS CAR OVER RIGHT HERE AND HELP YOU WORK THIS OUT!" They both shut up and played nice. I giggled to myself for 3 days over that. ;D You can't make this stuff up. Few people would understand and even fewer would get it. But for me, it's gold that will glitter for a very long time.
Pulley, used for water?
Nope.
Pulley used for grinding grain?
Nope.
Hopefully the teepee building video is shareable! Good luck with GF Tom, I wish you nice cool weather and great music!
I have no idea what the wheel could be, though I'm a wheel fan! I have several that I've bought at flea markets or have traded backhoe work for. My guess, as it's one of the things I've harvested a wheel from, is an old hay baler? Or, I saw on the TV show Mountain Men, this huge crazy wood planer that had more gears and levers and wheels and stuff than I could imagine.
the size makes it nearly a fly wheel, and quit the gear reduction, and yet such a thin looking bracket/bushing. It may have been on farm equipment that was pulled and took power from rolling on the ground.
You sure do know some people.
Have fun with the teepee.
ran the live deck on a horse/tractor drawn manure spreader?
OK, I'll end the suffering because this is a tough one. The family business there was sugaring, full time, year round pretty much. They had the factory building across the road where they made and sold maple candy of all sorts, both wholesale and retail, and they also had the big warehouse on this side of the road for storing sap and syrup and running the packaging operation and shipping.
This pulley was the top pulley for a mechanical elevator to move heavy product between floors. At some point one of the supporting beams failed and the elevator lost altitude quickly. None of the employees would trust it after that, so they replaced it with a more modern one that had safety brakes, etc. The V-Groove was for the cable to run in.
Cfarm, yes, I have been blessed, even more so because a lot of those folks I mention remember me as years go by and a small number I count as good friends.
I gotta get back to packing.
I took another break and was looking for something else, but found this video shot by Two Tall Pines back in '12 using Bill's tee pee as a backdrop.
THREE TALL PINES: Tire Chains - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJQcYg9SHx0)
Well, after 6 days away, I am back (sorry). I tried to keep up with what everyone was doing, but once the patrons flooded into Grey Fox, it was impossible to hold a connection for more than 30 seconds. So this morning I did my best to see what everyone was doing and after 2 hours reading I am partly caught up.
I did arrive home to a package which contained a book called "The Indian Tipi" with no note or anything in it indicating who sent it. It looks to be an interesting read when I get unpacked. I hope the guilty party will fess up so that I know whom to thank. I assume it was one of the sneaky folks here?
----
Starting at the beginning: I headed up to the fahm and arrived about 9am, met my videographer and I set up the tipi while he filmed the time lapse. Setup took 15 minutes and the video is 15 seconds long. It is not anywhere I can find on YouTube but they posted it on the GF FB page a couple hours later. Not sure how this link will work, but give it a try: https://www.facebook.com/greyfoxbluegrass/videos/1081659085795498 (https://www.facebook.com/greyfoxbluegrass/videos/1081659085795498) And here is the official photo I took as proof.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220712_123451086.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1658157875)
The tipi was a big hit with the festival staff, patrons, and artists that came by. I found myself the recipient of a great many tipi stories of other folks experiences at that tipi with Bill going back several decades, a few even got me teared up a bit. There were also parents who would bring their kids, take family photos, and tell their kids stories about Bill and the tipi and when they met him. It was a bit more than I expected and went on all week. Most often asked opening question: "Is that REALLY Bill's tipi?!" or some variation on that.
One last minute addition to the week was getting a call from Bill's wife on Monday that the family had gone through Bill's t-shirt collection and she was going to donate what was left, about 300 t-shirts, almost all brand new, to goodwill. Then she thought maybe the festival could put them to use somehow and get $1-3.00 per shirt for a fund raiser. When I was done chuckling I told her she would NOT bring them to Goodwill, we would bring them to the festival and suggested the Bluegrass Academy for kids could sell them for a more 'appropriate' price. They exist largely on donations and bring in top notch instructors to teach kids to play during the 4 days of the Festival ending with a performance on the main stage Sunday. Bill was a supporter and it seemed 'right'. So she laundered all of them in a marathon session, folded, sorted and labeled them by decade and continent or region. Mostly NA, Nothern Europe, Chech (sp?) Republic, and Japan. We sold them for 10 bucks a pop or whatever folks wanted to pay over that. A lot went for 20 bucks. I bought 7 and have already given 2 away to folks who had a particular connection to Bill and that particular shirt. Of course, a friend bought and gave me a special one he knew I didn't see when I went through them. We raised over $1,500 for the kids, plus a check that Bill's wife gave them because she didn't think the shirts were worth that much and she had given them more work to do in selling them. Big smiles all around, definitely a huge 'feel good'. I also got some very nice shirts with stories attached that Bill had told me over the years. Also some with mysteries yet to be solved, such as a the shirt from 'The Third Annual Occasional Bill Keith Banjo Workshop' held in Arkansas with no year on it.
The rest of the week was as routine as any year could be with some bumps in the road after being off for 2 years. Our new radio vendor supplied digital radios that worked through the internet. It was a non-starter and caused major problems all weekend, not the least of which was public safety. I handled the usual variety of things, was involved in 2 ambulance transports and we only had 6 all week. Normally it's higher than that. I did catch my first fire in the ten years I have been doing the fest and it was neat to pull off a quick stop, given the exposures. It could have been a news worthy event had I not read the smoke right. I had just gotten off shift, was overheated, got back to my site and just took off my soaked t-shirt when I saw the smoke column at the far end of the field. I watched for a few seconds and when the smoke changed from white to deep grey, I grabbed my phone and took off in the Mule as fast as I could get through the crowd. I was greeted by a lot of people waving me in. I started to grab a PW extinguisher I carry, but was told it was a grease fire in a smoker. I could not tell, the thing was engulfed in 4' flames and was about a foot and a half from a trailer. So I switched to dry chem. A few light taps and it went out, then re-flared and we did it again. Eventually all was good and I told the owner that he was allowed to clean that drip pan out every year or so. ;D :D Too bad he lost about 30 pounds of pork in the disaster. The whole event was quick enough that word of it never got back to the festival management. I was back drinking my 'getting off shift beer' in about 15 minutes.
I didn't catch much music this year, just too busy with other stuff. But I did get in a little bit of Rhonda Vincent's set on one stage, missed her on the main stage. Boy that gal can sing and they put on a fun show. I got to chat with her a little when I ran into her between sets. Best dressed lady on the fahm if you ask me. :)
I also got a little time backstage to catch up with Jerry Douglas, man he is looking good. He's lost a lot of weight...on purpose, and I couldn't help but comment on it. In his typical style he said "Well I spent a lot of years as a fat ash and I just decided to try a new look". He looks good. I had a blast listening to his comments about the guys on stage we were watching as we talked. It sounds like he is being critical, but it's all respectful sarcasm and he loves all those guys. This was during Bela's set and Jerry always has little peanut gallery comments that crack me up. An hour or so later I got to catch up with Bela for just a few minutes, he had a plane to catch. I had some comments on his new stuff, which I will spend months studying now. Good stuff and one new tune he wrote using D-tuners I think set a new high bar for banjo players. I call it "The New Nola" and he really liked that. It's probably only something a 5 string player in the melodic style will understand, but I was watching from backstage so I could see his hand working the tuners and it was the most complicated thing I have ever seen. I also ran into several other artists I know and caught up with a few of them. All in all, a very good week.
I remained onsite Sunday and do the safety sweeps around the 80 acres to make sure everyone is moving and healthy. In years past we've had some incidents where folks were found alone in a tent and nobody noticed until it was almost too late. Now we try to avoid that and most years I am doing sweeps until 7pm or so. I do it because I live closest and others on our crew drive as much as 8 hours to get home. It only takes me an hour. This year I was done early and left at 5pm. I arrived home just totally beat. Sunday was HOT and I got a little sunburn on my pasty white legs. I took a shower, had 2 beers, and was in bed by 9pm.
Today I am waiting for the rain to stop before I unload. I have the mule off the trailer and the truck backed into the shop to keep it dry for now.
I was too busy to take a lot of photos and I have never been one of those folks that asks the artists for a photo with them. I think I have two in the last 15 years. It just breaks the conversation which is more important for me. So Here are some random photos.
This is taken from near the top of the hill. If you look close you will be able to see lots of open grass out there.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220712_185437031.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1658157875)
This is taken from the same spot a couple of hours later.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220714_131817253.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1658157878)
Not much grass left.:D
This is a poor backstage shot (the only kind I take) of Bela and his band at the main (evening) stage.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220715_202753723.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1658157881)
And this is an even poorer shot of Jerry on the main (daytime) stage.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220716_142718511.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1658157882)
One of these years I will get better at this 'photo thing'.
Sorry for the long post, but now I feel almost caught up after I do some more reading.
Neat. Like a family reunion.
Great recap Tom, thanks! This is not an event I'd likely ever go to but it's neat to hear your passion about it. It's super cool that you got to talk to people and share memories with the tipi!
The t-shirt story is great! Good to hear they'll live on and they raised money for a good cause.
Excellent shot of the before and after of the field, that's a lot of people!
Talk about packing them in!!!
Glad all went well.
Yeah, they sell 4,999 weekend camping passes usually, but this year I am told we came up just short of a sellout, so we had a little room left. ;D We also sell several thousand a day in day tickets. So yeah, it becomes the largest town in the county for that weekend. Believe it or not, it's a pretty friendly community. We get a minimum number of nutcases per capita. I think we only had 2 or 3 this weekend. The medical tent do get a fair number of folks coming in thinking we set up a full clinic at their disposal for consultations. People come in and ask to see the pediatrician, oncologist, or a dermatologist. This year they wanted covid screening too. Sorry. Our security team are all pro's and very low key, but very effective. They work hand in hand with our EMS crew. We sometimes have issues when zealous LEO's from 'outside' come in to help and don't get the situation right away. Our guys are all LEO's too, but they get the vibe and work more gently because they have the time. Most years the local agencies don't come on the grounds until they are called, this year they just showed up when they wanted which was odd. We did send out one guy with 2 felony offenses, but the hospital needed to do a bunch of work on him first. ;D
As large festivals go, this is mostly rainbows and unicorn farts. Good folks and lots of families with little kids having a great time. If it wasn't, I wouldn't be there.
Personally, I am at a crossroad with this event. By next year my EMT cert will be expired. I can either try to find a new certification that will get me on the crew, or find a different job at the festival. Used to be they needed EMT's for the state regs. This year that changed and my crew chief will take me back with almost any training cert that is current. Problem is, I am getting older and this isn't easy work in an easy environment. Working on a patient in the middle of a hayfield on a 95° day with the sun beating down on you is not as easy as it sounds. You can do it once, but the second, third, or forth time takes quite a toll on an old guy or gal. I've got to figure out where to go next with it.
Sounds to me like you should be a Grey Fox ambassador and artist chauffeur (man, I don't know if I spelled either that "a" or "c" word properly). A walkie-talkie in hand, riding in the mule making sure things are ok and making calls and being comforting when folks need help. You could be the first line of defense without getting into the emt stuff. Or just get in that tipi and hang out, sweat lodge style!
I looked up the Grey Fox and some of the artists. My eye caught The Wildman's from Floyd Va. as their picture was in front of a store in the downtown area. Now mind you downtown has 1 stop light, the only one in the county to my knowledge, so it was easy to recognize. There is an upcoming festival near here called Floyd Fest that started in 2002. It is actually a mix of music some blue grass, southern rock, country .... all kinds. There is also another Blue Grass festival not too far away in NC, Merle Fest near Wilkesboro NC that has a large draw also. I enjoy many different music genres but I recon not enough to venture to one of the festivals.
I wish you well in your determining what you want to do about next year and your certification. I hope you can continue to go and enjoy what you get such pleasure from.
Floyd Fest and Merle Fest are two very well known festivals and many of the folks I know at GF attend those also. I just don't have the time or $ to be traveling all over the country living it up. There are some folks who spend their entire summer going from fest to fest in a good RV.
This was my 10th year doing this one and over that time I have met and worked with most of the senior staff and crew chiefs. I could likely have my pick of a bunch of positions, but I am trying to decide what would be a good fit for me. The Medical group was the perfect fit because my job was to wander with a radio, look for problems and help people have a good safe time. The occasional icky stuff was just part of the job and still better than street medicine.
I have some contacts around the state and am considering dropping my certification to a CFR but finding a recert class is very difficult. In my stupid state there is no challenging the exam to pass and get it done in a session or two. They make you sit through almost an entire course before you can take the test again. The cost is pretty steep too and would be out of pocket because I no longer run with an agency. My last 2 recerts I did strictly for Grey Fox and I am not going to go through that again. 5 months of weekly classes and some Saturday's plus the test sessions is more driving and time than I can afford. I did send an email off to a connected guy I know who is now way upstate to ask his advice. Maybe he can find me something. Truthfully, if I pre-study, I should be able to do the full CFR class in a weekend with the cognitive and psychomotor exams, but no such program exists.
I will think on it some more and when I send my follow up note to the director of the festival I will mention my predicament and ask for her suggestions. I suspect she may have a list of options, given my contributions over the years. Artist transport would love to have me as I have been helping them on the side when they are overloaded for several years now. But I am not sure ho I feel about that job with the shifts they work.
I have time yet, and the ball is in my court. The only rush is if I decide to recert, most classes start in August or September and run into January.
it would be tough to be doing a transport, and see a medical issue and be told that is not your department. :)
I am not following your drift Doc.
if you are there, and not certified, and see a collapse, you can stop as a good Samaritan, but a crew may come along and take over. you would no longer be legal in NY (I assume) to attend a patient like you did before. that's all.
Oh yes, of course you are correct. In NYS, CFR's cannot provide pt care during a transport only assist, only EMT or higher can do the transport. For BLS care, CFR's can do almost everything an EMT-B can do except splinting and a couple of other things. Now I have talked to some higher ups at the state level and they say that if there is a driving medical issue that best serves the pt by doing the transport as a CFR, it would only warrant a warning from the state. But it is 'frowned upon'. I had to ask that question when I was EMS Captain because we had a close call once and I wanted to know how to guide my people.
For us at the fest, it's a bit different. We do NO transports at all. That is TOT the local agency with a paramedic on board. We used to 'stay and play' with a lot of pts we could assist and get beck to good health (sometimes for hours), but now, with COVID, if they are on the 'line' they need to go in a bus. If we give them O2, they also go to a higher level for care and eval.
We all wear the same shirts, nobody asks anyway, they take our turnover reports at face value and like any other providor, they evaluate what we have done. We have a wide range of skill sets on our crew, from ski patrollers (OEC) to a pediatric surgeon, RN's, LPN's, and some weird stuff, plus one EMT who is a year from graduating medical school. Our rep with the local EMS agencies is very high and we draw hem in from 3 districts when it gets busy. I have no ego when it comes to pt care, if you've 'got it' I am happy to turn it over and give you a hand.
Now the good news is that I heard back from my buddy with the connections, he ran my number (I don't have access to the system) and he sent me back a printed form from the state showing I am certified until June 2024. 8) This gives me one more year. I guess the state extended everyone 2 years, instead of just one. (Of course I can find that policy no where whatsoever in writing, but that is how our state runs.) I need to find a Health Care provider level CPR class to make the whole thing official.
That just puts the decision off another year. So next year I will begin the new job search hunt during the festival and start interviewing crew chiefs. :D ;D I have 2 or 3 in mind. If I can find an easy (meaning cheap and short) CFR class, I might do that in the meantime.
if the festival is the main/only reason you do this, maybe they can help out with coin. I know they run on a shoestring probably as it is for the love of the music, and you prob. would not ask anyway, but throwing it out there.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on July 20, 2022, 06:32:01 PMOf course I can find that policy no where whatsoever in writing, but that is how our state runs.
Kind of off topic but I'm surprised anyone can find anything in writing in New York, if for no other reason than the overwhelming amount of info or regulations. When I was reserving campground sites in some of the state parks up there it was amazing how convoluted the info was. Rules/regulations on top of rules/regulations, made it very hard to navigate with any confidence. I can't imagine what the medical stuff looks like!
I'm happy to hear you get another year!
Yeah, that new policy has been mentioned here are there for a couple of years now but never could we find it in writing. I just checked again this morning and after 3 different searches I found it. The document is dated 8-19-22 (tuesday), which lays out how a non-affiliated EMT can do a re-cert but it still contains it's own set of hoops. The only way I could make it work is if I could find a sympathetic CIC (course sponsor) to certify and sign off that I did the work and passed the skills tests. 4 years ago, that would be easy for me, now, not so much. But I will keep my ear to the ground.
Today is another day and food shopping is the main goal.
I have to confess, I haven't done SQUAT since GF. It's just too hot and I needed recovery time then maybe I got into a funk because of the heat. I read a lot of FF caught up on some email, put away most of the stuff from GF until next year but little else. I searched around for an HCP CPR class which I need to make my EMT cert fully valid. I think I found a place. Yesterday I was going to mow but could not get the lawn tractor started. I think it's the fuel filter needs replacing again.
Bill finally called me to see if I was mad at him because he hadn't seen me. Seems he has a lumber order festering for a fence job that he's got to get done ASAP (overdue I guess). So when I gave up on the tractor, I drove down there where I saw all the damage he took on form the storm while I was away. Straight-line winds are not merciful. He had some big ones come down and most found a target. One of his chippers, a shed roof, a Willies Jeep he was gonna restore, and it was/is a general mess. He got the stuff cut and cleared, but it still needs to find it's way the the respective wood/log piles. All hardwood, mostly red oak. He's also got yet another leak in his OWB and is about past the point of suing the builder. Nothing but problems since the install.
On the upside, he scored a bunch of circle saw parts: carriage drive, blade, shanks and teeth. I am going to see if I can find a new owner for these after I figure out what we have. The blades looks to be at least 3'+ in diameter, but they were buried in the truck bed. I have to clean them to find markings. I now nothing of these things....yet.
We jumped in the gator and drove down to the log yard to find logs to use for the fence job. I don't know if we picked out enough, but it's a good start and I am beginning to get a better handle on how he picks logs to use, or ones to save for bigger wood. No 'right or wrong' just the way he wants it. It's his show, I might as well do it his way, but it's a continuing task to figure that piece out. I think my eye is getting better, but he is also starting to realize that he needs to cut me some slack when I have to make a choice and he isn't around. So far so good, pretty much. He also has some Black Walnut we may slab up and a shed he pulled off a job that were are planning on rebuilding into a slab drying shed, something I have been pushing for quite a bit lately. Time is money and slabs need years to dry, let's get it started. We will make a new floor and base farming from hemlock and set it on that. We are still arguing over discussing ventilation.
So, no work done, just rough planning and after 2 hours of that and a couple of beers I headed home for dinner, updated my order sheet and tried to get my head back in the game.
We got some hefty rain last night with some wicked wind when the front hit us. Today we are expecting more and it is cooler (now). I don't think I have much time before it hits, but I am headed to the mill in a bit and will try to make it work for me. I can handle 'working wet' when it's warm out, for a while anyway. He needs the order to get done. That storm set him back a week or more between his work and all the emergency jobs he picked up from it. One was about $18k worth of road clearing on a single property. Most of those jobs get opened first, then he goes back to cleanup, pull logs, and dress up the work later. He still has some from the March Ice storm to complete. Work, is everywhere.
Time to get at it.
Can't blame you for not wanting to hang out in the heat. I've been the same, only mowing, not much else. This week is supposed to be much cooler, so that should be nice, but we're also calling for rain most of the week, so I won't be able to get out to work on the barn some more.
I'm hard pressed to imagine trees falling at Bill's and not hitting something, there's a lot of machinery around up there and not much clear space for a tree to fall. Sounds like it was no people involved so that's good.
Yeah it seemed weird Austin that there were some good hardwoods that decided to break, rather than the weak, dead, rotten ones. As I move around I see a lot more junk to clean up. Too bad I have no mushroom log orders because there is a good supply for the taking. I have yet to get up on the 60 acre side and see what went down over there.
Well yesterday I finally got back on the horse. The heat was a tad lower but the humidity was way up there. We had some rain in the mid-morning and again in late afternoon, both times while I was milling. We had no power from 1pm yesterday until 7pm as a residual of the Sunday night storm that took out the power to about 11,000 homes. I guess they took us all offline while they fixed other stuff.
Because of that front that came through the night before (Bill was caught off guard) he didn't get around to staging the logs we picked out. So I started with getting those lined up on the deck and trimmed the way I wanted them.
I managed to get out about 42 1x8x8-10' boards and cued up the 4th log before the heat was getting to me. I bucked all the slabs and brought them up just before 1pm. Bill was just pulling in and 'now' he tells me the guys are working on that job right now and he needs the 2x6's first, to keep them going. So I headed home, had lunch, rested my eyes for a bit, then headed back around 4pm and kicked out about a dozen 2x6x10's. He queued up a few more logs for today. I don't know if I can finish the order, but I should get close.
Last night Bill calls with a new order, really oddball. 1-3/4 x 3-3/4 x 8'. I don't ask why. ;D OH, but he needs those first, for another job...TODAY. Not too happy with that. I'll see what I can do. This rush stuff is gonna have to taper off and soon or we are going to have a chat. ;D
Time to get back at it.
Good to hear you are keeping busy and staying out of trouble. All that "priority" stuff reminds me of the many times I'd have to tell my boss "When everything is the priority, nothing is a priority. What do you want me to do first?" Then the monkey is back on their back and I'd do the work in the order he directed.
Of course sometimes they'd just get excited and say "They all are" then I'd tell them "Then you are leaving it up to me and it doesn't matter what I do first."
A good boss could tell you the order he needed it done. A poor one was just treading water and running around like a chicken with his head cut off.
I like the concept of being able to salvage the fallen trees for mushroom logs and such. Even firewood use is better than just seeing it go to waste. Good luck. Stay safe, stay cool.
I guess you could put up the mushroom logs, and then send out an alert to your customers that you have some in stock. Or send out feeler and harvest what people want now. I assume they will perish in a month or so.
At my work we have "stat" and "super stat" (short turn around time).
Well I took full advantage of the Ice storm this past winter and got a lot of logs out of it and too clients. Winter cut lasts 8 weeks or so. Summer cut is a couple of weeks. Frankly I am not looking for new work right now and the small clients that pop up often come in with a lot of 'overhead' and hand holding. I don't really have the leisure time for that now. But if somebody called me, I could whip up 40 logs for them in a morning just from what is laying over already and more given the time.
I have lumber to get out and I rushed through the 'gotta have' stuff this morning and wound up delivering it to the job site, but I still have more to mill. So on the way back I stopped at home and had lunch and sat for a little bit, then headed back to the mill and hacked up a couple more logs. Since I started yesterday I think I only got about 800BF done and have a pile of slabs to deal with besides what is already in the boiler. We are trying to get rid of the ugly crappy logs on this small stuff and I am working with some very poor logs, most of which don't roll well, if at all. Crooked, bent, twisted, whatever, I got it, and they take more time than they are worth. I get paid by the BF, not the hour, so I blow through them as fast as I can and sometimes the slabs get a bit thick the get the sweep off. Hopefully I get these logs gone in another year or three.
I got an email from LogRite today that my order is ready, so I will likely pick a day next week and drive over. Kevin wants to do the slab trimming while I am there so I can pick the lines. I'll have to pick a day and get on the road early to miss some of the traffic.
One day at a time, first I gotta finish this lumber order, then get my mower running, then mill my cedar up, then...
It never ends, does it?
Tom,
Do you do all of the sawing or are you just "batting clean-up" and sawing the near reject logs the other sawyer(s) reject? :D
My last weekend job was one that started real slow with the customer having to finish clearing the site and setting up to stack and move logs around and generally learning the process. They were nice folks but not real fast combined with the hottest weekend of the year and we were dragging. The wife was really worried looking at the size of the log pile but the next day things went much faster and she told me her confidence level was now good. The helpers (Hubby and BIL) moved faster, scrap slabs went directly into a trailer reducing handling, etc.
Interesting info on the time line for summer vs winter mushroom logs. If the logs just lay where they fall, and I assume many are uprooted and not actually on the ground, how long do you have to harvest/salvage them?
Do you just inoculate them one time and they keep bearing or do you need to or can you inoculate them again?
Howard, I am the only sawyer, unless Bill needs to knock something out, but he rarely has time. I posted a video of the log yard months back and lets just say we have 'lots of inventory' but there are always junk logs. Bill cuts trees nearly every day and they come to the yard. Some are firewood, some are boiler food directly, and some get put up for sawing later and some are yarded until there is a saleable load of a particular species going for a decent price. He sold a triaxle load of white birch a few months ago, hard maple is always in demand, as is white oak. But for the other stuff we have many tons of inventory up to 35' long. I have yet to see any new wood coming in from last weeks storm. They get cut and cleared, then he goes back in following weeks after dinner and picks them up with the log truck or picker trailer.
But the old stuff we are trying to use up, burn up, or cycle out. I can't seem to get ahead. We have a load of twisty pine that came in late fall over winter I am still trying to clear out. It just clutters up the cutting yard. We have a stock of 5' logs up by the OWB that is 6' high and 30' long. They don't get touched with all the junk that gets stuffed in everyday, not to mention the slabs I produce. The slabs I make in 4 hours gives him a days wood supply sometimes more. Even though he runs his OWB 24/7/365, there is more wood than he can possibly burn. I try to get wood out of whatever I can and cut thick slabs off to save time/blades/energy.
Mushroom logs get inoculated once. If the laid over trees are holding the water flow and the leaves don't wilt they are good until I cut them. I still haven't driven up back to see how the woods look, we may have a lot down. The trees I did see, that weren't cut yet, seem OK in the horizontal position seem OK so far. If Bill cleans them out, oh well. If not I can take the branches when I get an order. As I said, not looking for ways to fill my day right now. ;D
Pretty pooped tonight in any event.
Oaky so you get abused all the time and not just when there are too many dodgy logs. That seems fair. :D
Thanks for the additional info on the salvage of mushroom logs. So if they are just uprooted you have a longer life expectancy than those that snap off or such.
I responded to a call from a man 20 miles away last Friday who had 4-5 beautiful, straight RO and a decent WO tree get uprooted that he wanted to give away just to get them out of the way. Several were 30'+ to the first limb and 26" or so at the base and very little flare. I scrambled for a source to load and transport them here but before I could find an affordable source the man called back a family member had a friend who wanted them so that fell through. The distance and transport costs were making them real iffy anyway. Like they say - Free logs are never free. At least they seldom are for me.
The only free logs I have found are those red cedar ones I got paid to take down and then had help getting them loaded. That worked out OK. I have also gotten a bunch from a client I like working with a great deal. He pays me for my time and we cut together. Then when that's done he gives me logs for firewood and sometimes a saw log or three.
All these relationships are rare though and take luck to establish.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on July 26, 2022, 08:10:34 PM
Oaky so you get abused all the time and not just when there are too many dodgy logs. That seems fair. :D
"Abused" might be too strong a term (but probably accurate) I would say it's more I am persuaded to make roses out of lemons more often than I might prefer. But, it's a process and I am getting more and more to the point that I look at logs and say 'no'. As my eye and wits get better and faster I will grow away from the guy that says 'yeah, I guess I can get that wood out of those logs' to being the guy that says 'NOPE, I ain't wasting my time on that junk.' I will just start cutting those logs into 5' lengths, which is our universal signal for OWB wood. I have had some logs I work into a cant and get a good number of the target lumber out of, then when I pull it off the mill to stack it is junk with bug holes, falling cracks, ant nest, or whatever hidden inside. None of it is saleable and I throw it on the slab pile and get another log, but I lost all that time/fuel/blade wear and I don't get paid for making slab wood, so I just lost an hour or so of my time.
We are getting better at working this out, but keep in mind, the goal here was NEVER for me to make a living as the sawyer. The goal was for me to help him out to get lumber cut between me doing my own stuff. Geez, at $.30/BF I ain't making out really well but he is getting things done and I have some extra change to work with, I think. We do a lot of bartering. I can't put in those longs days cutting lumber like MM can, I have other stuff that needs doing, every day. I take one job/order at a time. Then I move on.
I forgot to ask earlier but do you only saw for special orders or do you saw anything for stock? You mentioned repeatedly sawing specific sizes and quantities.
Currently I saw nothing for stock. It's an ongoing discussion. I refuse to make piles of lumber that will not be stored undercover. We need a drying shed. Bill has about 10,000 BF of lumber out in the open rotting away. I won't add to it.
I do 'oversaw' all the time to make sure we have enough to meet an order and that lumber is stickered and stacked, but if we don't have an order, it will wind up being B&B on the shop this fall. I don't go to the mill just to cut lumber, ever. If I go and run it up, there is a goal/target/order, or it's my own stuff (rarely).
I don't think it is abuse if you are getting.30/bf and not paying for consumables, repairs, equipment etc. Sounds like an ok deal to me but maybe others will chime in ??? Pine logs here are pushing $450/mbf before delivery so you add the sawing cost and.....................
One client said "boy you sure won't get rich doing that" @ .45/bf (their trees they paid me to cut down) before prices on everything went sky high and several said it was too much. All is in what it is worth to them. The hourly rate at the circle mill was the best but last day was Friday because I had to go and switch day jobs (again).
I still don't think Cornell ever added me to the mushroom log map since last year, maybe you can put a word in :D
"I got 4 orders here and they all gotta be done first. BTW, I'm going to look at another job today and that one will have to be done first as well. Just do them all at the same time, it's easy."
I can laugh, cause I know Billy and his energy level, and I'm not on the receiving end of these daily changes in direction. But he's seen me turn away stuff in the store and he tells me I'm nuts for turning away work. I just tell him that the day will come when he realizes his band width isn't what it used to be and he'll have to do the same. Going to be a long way off for him, but it will happen.
Spike, Bill ain't all that bad and he is pushing work out or not taking it if the client is a poor one. But for good clients, just like you do, he tries to make it happen. All I ask for is a bit more notice. He needs to tell me about the lumber as soon as he knows and give me the details. Direction changes do make me a little nuts when they happen after the fact. We will get there..... maybe.
It is still nowhere near as bad as with my corporate job. Those folks have no soul or brain and would make impossible demands without any understanding of what they were asking. They never understood why I had no respect for them or ignored their demands as if they were children throwing a fit. They are wallowing in their incompetence now as I hear it through the grapevine.
Mudfarmer, they are weak on doing those updates. You need to send a note off to Steve Gabriel with your details. They were supposed to update that map last fall so you could update your own information, but that never seemed to happen. I had to send 3 emails to get them to correct my website address. Steve is hard to get a response from unless he needs something from you. Academics...go figger.
I deduced long ago this is not a typical employer/employee set up and while it is nice to be compensated you'd likely be down there helping in your spare time anyway. There is great value in the social aspects involved here. I can just envision you and Bill duking it out on priorities or lack of prior notice then when done you grab your "growler" and you two go spend a couple hours with an adult beverage or two. ;)
I'm pretty sure if you weren't enjoying it you would be occupying your time elsewhere. :D So let the beatings continue until morale improves. ;D
Well you very nearly made me spit milk through my nose with that 'employer/employee' comment. No, not hardly, not in any way, shape, manner, or form. It is a symbiotic relationship. We never really get to arguing beyond strong discussion. If at any time it goes beyond that, either of us can choose to bow out on that particular issue or job.
Yesterday he texted me not to go back to the mill in the afternoon because it was too hot and getting hotter. I ignored him and got a couple more logs done. Last night he said I have time and there is no rush to finish the fence order. This morning I finished it off because I need to move onto other stuff. Of course today they stopped work on the fence to do another rush job so..... But I don't care, they get it done when they get it done, not my problem or concern. :D
It's done. I came home, took a shower, made lunch, and now I am off to do some of my errands.
As Spike mentioned above, working with Bill is a 'known entity'. Like everyone else, there are things he is very good at, and some things that could improve. Communications is one that would help if it were better. Planning for him is tough because of the client base he has and emergencies that pop up, pushing other work out. I don't envy him for that workload. ;D
Life is a learning process and we are both learning.
This reminds me a lot of the relationship with my father in law. I would be Bill in this arrangement but not the same scale. If I send him a text and say I've got some wood to split when your ready does not mean please come in morning when the forecast is for 90 degree weather but he interprets it that way. I'm busy with 3000 things and he's retired. Its his choice and I appreciate that. He did his time. I'm just saying I've got some work for you if you want it. His strong work ethic, like yours I'm guessing, causes some stress.
Any stress is minor...so far. ;D
Today's main task was to get the lawn tractor running and get the grass cut. I tried Sunday, but no go. It was pulling fuel into the fuel filter. So I got a new filter from down at Bill's and changed it out last evening. Still no joy, then it just wouldn't crank with a full chrage on the battery. I thought it was the solenoid from all the cranking I was doing. Happened before, a few years ago. I quit for the night when I started getting ticked off.
This morning I fiddled with the ignition switch which was very loose and after a bit it cranked. I also recalled a problem I had in the past where the fuel pump diaphragm dried out and would not suck gas until I ran the engine at full rev. SO I fed gas into the carb and got it started for a few seconds at a time and it started pulling gas. Eventually it started and ran fine. I shut it down and it restarted no problem, so I mowed everything and out it away feeling victorious. I had lunch and answered a email for a property consult job, which turned into an appointment later in the day after a phone call.
My wife has been on a tear lately about all these companies who will not let her discuss billing issues because the account is in my name, credit card companies, cable, phone, celss, etc. So she gave me a list of companies to call and get her name on the account. Some are easy, others are over an hour on hold. Not a lot of fun. I still have one left. Cable companies SUCK!
During dinner we had a line of rain come through, nothing really heavy, just good rain for 15 minutes, then done. I am sitting at my desk and hear this CRASH. I go out and look. We took a 4" dead branch come through the garage roof, an ugly hole near the peak. Looks like a leftover from the ice storm. We took two trees on that roof with no damage back in March, now this one pops through. We have a chiro appt tomorrow, but besides that I guess it's ladders and roof work. After I finished assessing the damage I get an order from Bill for 50 1x8's and 7 2x6's. I have already scheduled a consult job Monday and planned a trip to Logrite on Tuesday, plus the roof work tomorrow and Saturday. I am not sure how I am going to piece in the shingles and I have to find some shingles to do it with. At my age, I hate roof work.
Tomorrow is another day I guess.
After my last post I was texting Bill to 'polity inquire' as to how that lumber order came up so short. He just texted back he would stop in on the way home. A bit later i heard a back up beeper and assumed he was backing the 550 in my driveway. I walked out with a beer in hand for him and found this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220728_202052539.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659055579)
I gave him the international arm signal for "What the hell is this?!" and he just laughed and said the "price was right."
Now he is trying to figure out what to do with it. Toy hauler, maybe?
I sure don't have to go far for entertainment around here.
Mobile bar.
He can call it "The blue bird of happiness"
Employer/Employee Customer/Contractor
(There, I fixed it. :D)
be sure and keep the beer out of sight while driving around in the school bus. :snowball: move_it smiley_beertoast
Bummer about the roof OGH! Be careful up there!
Nice bus!
Well yesterday went so-so. Did the chiro around mid-day which kills the rest of the day. Then after lunch I started on the roof. It's a mess up there which a lot of debris left over from the ice storm. I had to cut off the branch to get it out and then clear a hanging branch that was still sweeping the roof from the ice storm. Really need the bucket truck to get that whole tree down. The offending branch was flat dead and fell from about 60' up like a spear. I used a push broom and leaf blower to clean the roof so I could walk on it. Meantime, my son dropped off the boys and spotted me for a bit while I cleaned and cleared. My balance ain't what it used to be. It was 'somewhat warm' up there. My son said he would do the repair on Sunday if I would wait. So I made a plastic cover for the hole and shoved it up under the shingles and screwed the lower edge down just to get a few days out of it. It rained pretty good a few hours later and the patch held. I did find the leftover shingles from the last re-roofing job, so we're good on that score.
I came in during the high heat of the day and before the evening rain came and worked on research for the consult I have to do on Monday. Interesting property. Sold for just under a million less than 2 years ago. 25% wooded, has a lake about 5 acres, soil quality varies from so-so to prime farmland. The location is interesting too. Just a couple of miles from this lot is where the anti-rent wars came to a head in about 1840 as an undersheriff was shot to death, being the only fatality during the years long protests and leading to some major changes in the 'Manor system' used in those days. It also resulted in 5 life sentences for those judged accountable. Both the undersheriff and the protestors being fueled by strong drink, tempers and testosterone flared into what should have been a preventable incident in which the undersheriff fired the first shot. It all made for interesting research. I was familiar with the history, but it had been a while. While I cannot locate the exact farm where the shooting took place, I can figure it within about a mile or so based on geographic descriptions. Many of the reference place names have remained the same such as 'Dingle Hill' and the 'Tremper Kill'. The series of incidents are well documented as they required the intervention of the Governor, state courts, and legislature to resolve.
It's too bad that county does not have good online documentation so I can research the ownership history of the property better. They barely update their online parcel viewer every 2-3 years. I would have enjoyed finding more. Still the land use remains largely the same in that area since the early 1800's although there is a lot more development of mini-estates such as the one I am looking at now. While much of the Catskills is abandoned farmland that has grown back over with pioneer species, this section has remained as mostly working farms with woodlots. There is a lot of hay production in the area. As I usually do, I will get out there early and drive around the area to see what is growing and being cultivated successfully in nearby parcels. Grapes (wine) and apples seem to be very popular in the last decade or so as cash crops. Apples we've always had, but lately they are seeing a lot of new planting. This landowner has an interest in maintaining a sugarbush.
Well today I will head down to the mill and see if I can't get a head start on that lumber order. The work is piling up and it would be nice if I could buy myself some time.
I don't think I ever heard of an Under Sheriff. Is that a northern thing? What is the difference between an under sheriff and a deputy? I have heard folks jokingly refer to the High Sheriff but I thought that came over from England or such.
Good luck on the roof patching. Be careful up there. May be time to break out the "Flex Seal".
An Undersheriff? Is that like yankee brown? Acting like a sheriff but is really not? Like purple posing as brown?
Sorry, could not help it. I hope you are not offended Tom. Howard is a bad influence on me. Probably because of the after effects that Iranian prison had on him.
Undersheriff is a common term to my knowledge, but I am not sure of the origin. I suppose google may be your friend here. I just know what the written histories tell me. I didn't make it up. Perhaps it's like a deputy sheriff? No time to look it up now.
Take the seats out and you can fit A LOT of lumber in a bus, long length material too. At one time my farmer neighbor had four of them full. The seats are made from industrial grade materials (almost indestructible) and can be sold and reused.
OK, you made me look it up. No, this is not a 'yankee word plot' launched by me. From Wikipedia:
In American law enforcement (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policing_in_the_United_States), the undersheriff is the person second in charge of a sheriff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriffs_in_the_United_States)'s office. In some departments, the title of undersheriff is official, while in others, a different official title is used for the second person in charge. For example, in many small departments, the title of chief deputy sheriff (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_deputy) is often used for the second in command; however, in some large departments, the undersheriff is second in command and in turn oversees several chief deputies. Vice versa, sometimes undersheriff ranks below chief deputy depending on the sheriff's department. The undersheriff and chief deputy titles are in some cases used to describe the same individual. In some places, the undersheriff is the prison warden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_warden) of the county jail (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County_jail).
The New York City Sheriff's Office (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_Sheriff%27s_Office) has five undersheriffs serving each borough of New York City (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borough_(New_York_City)), overseen by the Sheriff of the City of New York. In this case, the First Deputy Sheriff, equivalent to Chief Deputy, is the second in charge of the Sheriff's Office.
And from Merriam-Webster:
Definition of undersheriff
: a sheriff's deputyspecifically : one on whom the sheriff's powers devolve by the sheriff's direction or in case of the sheriff's incapacity or a vacancy in the office---------
In the above mentioned incident, both the sheriff and undersheriff were on scene. The Sheriff had awaited the arrival of the undersheriff who was supposed to arrive with a large posse. Instead he could only get two other men and all 3 stopped at a tavern to relieve their thirst on the long ride over from the county seat. What he lacked in manpower he tried to make up in bravado by discharging his horse pistol at a protestor's horse, killing it. Immediately fire was returned and the undersheriff died hour later of a belly wound. This made his the only line of duty death ever recorded in the Delaware County Sheriff's Department and the 8th recorded in the state on August 7, 1845.
If I'd been on the jury I'd have turned him/them loose.
You can't go around shooting a man's horse and expect to survive the encounter. Sounds like a case of justifiable homicide if I ever heard of one.
Thanks for the definition.
Well, depending on the account you read, I don't think the horse was the intended target but there was alcohol involved. The whole 'rent-wars' went on for years and this was the incident that busted it open...to a point. It shaped our region for a century and kept it fairly depressed in the early years. That land patent dates back to the 1600's and included many thousands of acres, mostly owned by 1 person as a gift from Queen Anne. Most properties here can be traced back to that patent and when they were finally purchased from the patentee. I live on land that was part of that land patent.
I did a random check for 'Undersheriffs in WV' and can find none only "Chief Deputies". I don't think this is a northern thing, I think it speaks to department size. I note many SO's in WV have only 2-5 deputies with total staffs of less then 10 people. Our SO here has more Officers than I can count, several divisions, and about 6 folks at the senior staff level. Dive team, SWAT, corrections, road patrol, criminal investigations, permit division are just a few. We have an undersheriff.
get an inverter to run a Nyle, and you have a mobile log transport and kiln. load it with logs to transport mushroom logs to NYC. could pull it on a ferry. "I think you are going to need a bigger boat". :)
Have you been drinking with Bill? :D
He mentioned today maybe getting it registered before Boonville and driving that up. I asked what about the nice 27' camping trailer you usually take. he said "Oh, I'd pull that behind." Backing that trailer in might be an issue.
Bill stopped by with the bucket truck today because he had to take it out for a run to get the diagnostics checker thingy to lock up on an alarm he's been getting. In 10 minutes here he knocked all those branches off the top of that maple over the garage, and whilst he was up, he topped off an EWP that will come to no good anyway. I will drop the two sticks another day, but I did some rough cleanup so my son can get to the ladder on the garage. I have a lot of brush to drag and burn. Not good burning time right now. too dry. It looked funny seeing him climb out of the bucket wearing flip flops, but he stopped by on a whim. He did have a hard hat on though. ;D :D
Hey, anybody know what chain is on those Milwaukee M18 chainsaws? He got one and has been giving it a workout for slabs, trimming, and carrying around in the gator. He needs to get a file for it by now. I am thinking 5/32? He likes the saw, but would prefer a better chain, as I would for my battery setup.
my Stihl is a 1/4 pica. the electric and my pole saw.
I did some research. Those electric saws are all over the map. The Milwaukee is .043 gauge, .375 pitch and naoorw kerf. It takes a 4.5mm file, which is .1772", just between 5/32 (.1562") and 3/16 (.1875"). I find that weird.
Rats me too..... ::)
The stihl Pmm3 is .043 3/8 pitch. Oregon makes one also. There's a Woodland pro version that'll fit that doesn't have the anti-kickback if you want to get away from safety chain.
Busy, Busy, Busy.
Today I had a property consult job (mentioned earlier above) which was just about an hour west of me. That took about 4-5 hours to walk and talk the 60 acres or so. A very nice piece of property, but very 'parklike'. Mowed trails, etc. My job is to present options and educate and I believe I did that. Very pretty area.
After I left there I was already in the area of a fella I have listened to on the radio quite a bit named Gary Mead. He intrigues me quite a bit, he makes interesting furniture and art, writes some poetry and children's books. He is a sawyer and has a nice kiln. I couldn't get a cell signal to call him, so I just went to his place hoping I would get lucky. Sure enough he was there and he was very gracious and gave me a tour of his studio full of amazing work. I learned a lot in that hour, for sure. I couldn't even break the surface here. @aigheadish (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=53516) , we should have gone out there when you were here, sorry. Next time.
I have a good feeling we will be doing business in the future, just on the kiln business. He'd be happy to take my wood. :D
I didn't take many pictures, you can see some of his stuff on his webpage, but the photos don't do it justice. https://gary-mead.com/ (https://gary-mead.com/)
This piece is outside the back door:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220801_145017275.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659402054)
It stands every bit of 11' tall, the log is about 8' and around 30" diameter. All the cravings are separate pieces done by him and another local I have known for decades, Hoppy Quick. They did all the carvings in 2 days. They do the carvings, then Gary hollows out the unseen under or back side and kiln dries them. The painting was done by his book illustrator. It is covered with carvings all around.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220801_145025572.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659402058)
There is a momma bear popping out of the top with a full sized cub behind her. I was taken by the facial expression, that back turned ear, extended claws and small roll of belly fat resting on top of the log.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220801_145042028.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659402060)
She is very clearly 'on alert'. Gary is looking for the right home for this, possibly a big Cabellas or some other major outfitter like LL Bean or something. That shed roof above the whole thing was built just to keep the weather off of it. I think it clears that momma bear's ear by just an inch.
He also had a table inside which had 2 post legs made from hickory bark. Not wood, just bark for the posts. I have never seen such a thing. Solid as a rock. He works bark just like wood, even uses it for exterior siding shingles, all flattened and kiln dried. Cut it on a table saw, just like a board. Amazing stuff.
By the way, he pointed out something he learned and I never knew until today and that is that bark also have growth rings. You can see it clear as day, if you look. I learned a lot today for sure.
Tomorrow I head over to LogRite to pick up my 'stuff', slabs, legs, etc. The truck is all cleaned out and hopefully I fit it all in with don't scratch anything. ;D If I can get up early, I'll have an early start, but I'm not going to set an alarm. Headed to bed now and we'll see how it goes. I would like to be back on my way home before noon if I can. 5 hours in the truck makes for a long day, especially through the Hartford traffic. @Jeff (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1) can tell you what a big fan he is of the traffic in the Constipation State. ;D :D :D
Tomorrow is another (long) day. :)
It totally sucks and pretty much is responsible for my hiding in the wilds of da u.p. since the ordeal.
Sounds interesting! Glad your busy and having fun! Heard two things about bark today. From You and Howard on his prized back pack
Quote from: Jeff on August 01, 2022, 10:15:01 PM
It totally sucks and pretty much is responsible for my hiding in the wilds of da u.p. since the ordeal.
Well, if I were in your shoes I wouldn't need much of an excuse at all to hide out in the U.P.. In fact I probably would just do that instead of anything else. CT traffic has caused many a grown man to cry, it is just an extension of the NYC Metropolitan traffic system, northeast division. :D I should be getting on the road in a few minutes here (5:30am) and that should give me a fair jump. I won't beat Kevin to the shop, but I should miss some of the morning commute traffic.
Your friends log sculpture is amazing.
I wrote something several posts back about how we (I) find my entertainment in strange forms around here. Today was another one of those days.
I worked at the mill until noon and I ran out of sweat. Came home, had lunch and dabbled in mundane stuff I've already forgotten, it was hot and humid. Thought the day was done when we were just sitting down for dinner when my phone rings. It's Bill.
"Hey, whatcha doin'?"
"Sitting down to dinner."
"Oh OK, never mind then. go and eat."
"Well what's going on?"
"Well I think I am looking at some kind of drum sander thing and I was thinking we could throw it on your trailer and you could mess with it in your shop where you have your stuff handy."
"how wide is it"
"measuring with my boots, it looks like 3 feet."
"Hmm that's pretty wide, where is it?"
[lots of detailed local backroad info, I finally figure out it's 10 minutes away at a place I never knew about.]
"Well can you give me ten minutes to eat and 5 to hitch and turn the trailer, and I'll be over."
"sure, sounds good, go eat."
So I hitch up and find the driveway which is just a break in the trees and weeds I have passed a thousnad times and never saw, drive over the RR tracks that have been out of service for 110 years, but never covered and walk around for 5 minutes on what looks like semi-abandoned property looking for somebody, anybody. I find skidders, bucket trucks, firewood processors, chippers, etc. but few humans. I finally find them in a barn, Bill and the woman who owns the place, a lovely gal I would guess to be about 75 or so. I haven't yet got the details on what or why 'we are cleaning things up'. but there sits this double drum sander. 36" wide. Missing the cover and the adjuster handle, but largely in decent shape. Covered in bird crap and dust, but that doesn't mean much. It's a simple machine after all.
We spent more time chatting than working and we loaded it up easy with the tracked skidsteer.
I got it home and backed it up to the shop, then looked it over a bit. Has 2 motors, a belt drive motor (small) and the drum drive motor (large, 220). Two drums, spiral wrapped. Only one has paper on it now. Here she sits:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220803_201330872.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659575402)
I am starting to think we happened onto something pretty dang nice. If the motors work, the bearings and other stuff should be pretty easy to refurb.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220803_201337342.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659575402)
I found another thread here (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=51456.0) from 2011 from a fella who got a 24" single drum version and was very pleased with it. This is 36" two drums. I think it's worth putting some effort into. Then we need to make a place to put it. I have no room in my shop, beyond working on it and I have a large table build starting up now. When it rains, it pours. But it's all good because I really needed something to do. ;D :D :D :D :) ;D
Just more entertainment. When I was looking at it I saw a piece of paper and asked if that was with it, they said "no, that goes to that thing over there. any idea what THAT is?" Um yeah, I have an idea. Holy cow, yeah. It was a big 3 phase power feed for table saws, shapers, or what ever, and a nice heavy duty one with serrated feed rollers. I got a little excited until I saw it was 3 phase. Still a very nice piece worth a fair price to the right guy. I noted on the paperwork that it cost $1800.00 back in the early 60's. It was missing the column, but everything else seemed to be there and besides the dust, it was clean and in good shape. German make, but I forget the name. Its always something around here.
Look forward to seeing it and hearing how it works
looks like my grizzly 24 inch, it can work lie a planer and flattener. you need to find a spot in your or a shop. if you get a number, you can get a manual and parts.
Any little tractors in the weeds? Just as well go for a trifecta!! 8) nice score
I should have looked closer. ;D
Yeah, it'd been nice to go check out Gary's place Tom, I'm glad you finally got out to see it. All in all my whole trip ended up being too crowded with stuff to do several of the things I was itching to do. It looks like Gary does a lot of neat stuff. Maybe next time is right, I need to take a trip without the family sometime, up there.
Weird day. Probably the hotest day of the summer so far from my perspective. I had to get lumber cut and started around 8:30 pulling logs. I got a couple done, but by 11:30 it was pretty hard to work in that heat. I drove myself to pull and buck one more log and get it on the deck, but that was at my limit. When I closed everything up and climbed in the truck that thermometer read 104°. I was just a tad short of finishing the order but I had had it.
I came home and took a midday shower to get the body temp in control and had a nice simple lunch. I was done for the day. Going out in the sun was 'somewhat unappealing'. But, I did need beer, so I went to town and noted on the drive home that the truck thermometer was reading 100° at 3pm. So I did what I am good at, I sat in the shop, drank beer, and took a few minutes here and there to move that trailer with the drum sander off to the side, after I decided what to do with it.
NYBHH and I had made an agreement months ago that I would buy his table saw when his Sawstop came in. Well, that is now happening so I will need to fetch his saw and get it home and get it upstairs, then (or first) get my clunker saw down. I also have this drum sander which I have looked at enough to know it is a complete tear down and rebuild because everything is frozen up. Obviously I need a machine for some of this, so I figured why do it twice. I will stage the trailer with the sander on the side, wait until I have the new saw here, then get a machine down from Bill's to do it all in one session. I have another trailer to go fetch the saw with, I just have to clean off all the bark and debris first. So yeah, my heavy work this afternoon was in thinking this all through and figuring out a plan. That, of course, required beer and shade in such hostile weather conditions.
When it became too hot in the shop, I came in the house and watched a netflix movie, but at some point I needed to go back to the shop for a couple more beers. I told you all that, so I could tell you this:
So I walk out into the backyard (aigheadish can picture this best I think) and I see a turkey hen and about 7 pullets that have (apparently) just come in through a slightly opened side gate. Momma sees me and goes into a controlled panic. Two of the pullets see me as they are just coming through the gate and retreated seeking refuge...in my shop because the garage door was open. Bad idea. Now they are in the shop trying to figure it all out and I come in thorough the side door, they are flying into the closed garage door with zeal. Finally they find the open door and get out. I go get my beers from the shop fridge. I come back out and momma is trying to figure out what to do. The two who got out are now in a safe spot and putting away for momma, but momma has 4 more in the yard with her, she is trying to figure out how to bring it all together. So I started slowly walking around the fence line to push her to the gate which I have now fully opened. The 4 pullets found a big gap in the fence (ice storm damage) and wanted to get out that way and were peeping at Momma, but she wanted the other two also, so I continued to push the whole brood around the yard. Finally she gets to the gate and goes PAST it. The 4 pullets behind her, shot right through the gate opening, momma turned around and went through the gate also and all was good. She found the other two and they all went back to browsing. I closed the gate. Probably should go out and close the garage door on the shop too. ;D
Just call me the turkey herder. Dang they can be stupid.
Hopefully I can get that last log done in the morning and finish the order, then I have to start getting the shop in order for all this re-arranging and I also have those slabs to get flattened. I guess being busy is a lot better than not, but with this heat, I would rather drink beer. :D
Hmmm Tom the Turkey Herder...... :)
Yeah, that heat was awful yesterday. Figured it must have hit 100° in some places around here. About the time of your afternoon beer run, the shop temp was 97°. Had the big 3 1/2 FT fan blowing air into the shop, but that air was coming off the parking lot which was kinda like a huge griddle by that time. Not motivated to do much, but doing nothing just makes time stand still. Kept busy puttering, then solved the cold beverage problem precisely at 5:00.
Nice herding Tom! I can picture it perfectly!
It's amazing how dumb a bird can be sometimes. When I'm in the shop I typically have the garage door open on that side of the house and at least a 7' or so wide opening in the shop to get a decent cross breeze going. If both shop doors are open it's probably a 14' wide x 7' high opening. I'm amazed at how many birds get stuck in there. Luckily, I've had nothing as big as turkeys in there, though we do have a good family of them roaming around.
@Old Greenhorn (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=42103) Well, it sure is better than herding cats! 8)
Once in a great while during the summer a starling will go down my chimney and end up in the wood boiler, it took me a few minutes to figure it out while trying to coax it out the door that the lights were more attractive to it so I shut off the lights and it went out the door.
Over my time as a homeowner I've had a lot of birds in the house and one squirrel that I had to chase around for quite a while as it crashed all over the place. I don't suggest releasing a squirrel in the house.
Especially a blackened bird or squirrel all soot-covered from being in the wood stove.
A few times I've had the birds down the stove pipe (usually can hear them fluttering) I wait a day after the fluttering stops. Safe then to carry them out lifeless.
A couple weeks back, I have my son's Prius up at the cabin site (along with my truck) for 9 or 10 days. I used it once mid-stay to run back down the hill to restock (MUCH better MPG than my truck).
Anyhow, a week goes by and a message comes on the dash that it's time for an oil change. Being his first car and responsible, he takes it in for an oil change. He said they found a bird's nest in the air filter box. What? He said it was shredded bark. I said, nope, stupid chipmunks! Didn't take them long.
Better than acorns or even worse, dogfood. :D (Don't ask)
Well yesterday I finished that pending order with an ugly log and am glad to have it out of the way. Ugly log day:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220805_094335683.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659751032)
Got sweep?
Was headed home by 10:30am as the heat was coming up. I ran out to get milk and on the way back, I was feeling like a bird magnet again. Up the road a bit there are two family's of geese that have taken up residence again this year. They waited until I was close then just walked out into the road. One of the females will stand in the middle of the road while the little ones cross. This time she just stood in front of the truck but the kids were afraid to cross. I got impatient and started creeping forward, so she would move up just a little bit. I would stop when I lost sight of her head, then she would take a few more steps and I would move up some more. We continued this for about 25' and it must have appeared as if she were escorting me down the road. Finally she went off to the side and when I accounted for all the heads, I continued on my way. I must have a sign on my back that says 'mess with me'. ;D
Anyway, it was hot and humid and the radar was showing activity right over our heads, but little if any hit the ground. The temp took a dump at around 4pm.
I have a new to me table saw coming in any day now, so I need to get my old one down from upstairs, figure out a way to get the new one up and also unload that drum sander from the trailer to the shop. The plan is to do it all in one session with some machine help and a little luck. I started cleaning up and making room, but I was soaked in sweat. So I would work a bit, rest a bit, drink a bottle of water, then work some more. I still have a ways to go, but progress is being made. I have let the shop slide too far into disarray and I have a lot of work to get it back. In fact everything here is neglected. I am way behind on firewood, I have trees that need cleaning up, others to still take down, and a lot more work. I've been too busy, or lazy, or both.
I'll try to do more on the cleanup today, but the goal for today is to see if I can get the table and bench slabs flattened. Not sure where I can put them in the shop right now. Might have to wait a few days until the machines are swapped out, but getting the flattening work done will be a nice step and another thing off my mind.
We could declare Fridays "ugly log day" and around the globe ugly logs are sawn everywhere. It reminded me of buying hardwood for projects in a big lumberyard/hardware store up in Glens Fall, NY. There was a lady there and she ran the dept. She was strong and had man hands. we would chat some about the wood. she told me her family had a sawmill, and that is where she got her experience. We were talking about splinters, and she said that Friday night was splinter night. they would as a family, pop some popcorn and get drinks, pop in a VHS movie and set around and take out the splinters from the week. now if a kid gets a splinter, the parents bring them to the ER and do not want it to hurt.
Speaking of splinters between the wood splinters from firewood and building stuff and the metal splinters from being in machine shops I would rather get splinters big enough to bleed or at least see than them durn little buggers that you can feel when you brush against them but can't quite see them. My older brother did a few years as a barber and said "hair" splinters were worse than wood or metal.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on August 06, 2022, 06:52:33 AMI am way behind on firewood, I have trees that need cleaning up, others to still take down, and a lot more work. I've been too busy, or lazy, or both.
No, just retired! :D There is always way more stuff to do when retired then when working. Actually, you need to stop "cheating" on your sawmill playing with the fancy hydraulic one down the street. ;)
Aw man, I am busted! John, are you sitting in one of Howard's deer blind/outhouse/bus stops in the woods across the road watching me. That's a little spooky dude. Nailed it. ;D :D
Truth be told, I have been thinking a lot lately about how different this year is from last year and holy cow it's a different year for sure. I am trying to figure that out and get a handle on it, whether it's better or not, and how. But this year is a turn around from last year, I just don't know how... yet. I do know that I really have no time to play, unless it is paying work.
By the way, if you re hiding in the woods across the road, why didn't you just hand me that saw instead of shipping it across the country? :D
As far as the splinter discussion goes. These days I get VERY few, if any. Mostly from feeding firewood into the stove, little from woodworking or milling. However in my career prior to the chosen one I have now I have had all manner of splinters. I DO hear that human hair is the worst, I never had the pleasure. Stainless steel always seemed to go in easy and come out hard with barbs. For years I did all brass work and those would actually work up through the soles in my boots and destroy them in 6 months. They were tough to get out of your hands, for sure. Steel, cast iron, hastalloy, waspalloy, maraging, Stellite, kovar, and all those were like stainless. Hay splinters always festered in me and took weeks to get rid until I could pop the blister. Not a big fan of any of them. Never got a splinter from a beer can or bottle. ;D
Man do those geese get on my nerves (not yours specifically but Canada geese in general). It's weird that they just hang out at that house down the road from you. I have no patience for them I sit on the horn and scream at them, though maybe I wouldn't where yours are in the neighborhood.
I picked up a cracked sand trap rake at golf a couple weeks ago and got a handful of fiberglass splinters. Not fun. I eventually attempted to find something sticky to hopefully grab onto any of the fibers and get rid of them. I also recently had some mystery metal that worked its way into my finger. There was a little bump there where the chunk of metal was hiding and (it's gross) I chewed its way out.
I forgot to give yesterday's update. It got hot...again... into the mid 90's. I went down to Bill's around 10 am and found him in shorts and flip-flops sitting up on the crane unloading the log truck while his daughter happily played in a sand pile about 50' away. :)
When they were finished we went up to the house and started working on the slab flattening. I did the bottom of the table top first and that went fairly quick, we are getting pretty good at leveling the warped slab for a pretty even cleanup across the face. He came back down in time to help me flip it and I found a suspect little black stain in the center about 18" from one end. We investigated and found a small nail.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220806_115827321.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659876470)
Bummer. But we managed to get most of it out, at least down 1/2" from the top before it broke off.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220806_120009165.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659876473)
Not a real big deal as I have a few small cracks to epoxy fill anyway and will just add the to the list. I might even put the nail back in the hole for preservation's sake. ;D I am jut glad we didn't hit it with the cutter head and mess that up. I figure it was driven in the tree when it was under 6" diameter and near as I can figure the tree is about 70 years old. It grew really fast the first 25 years, then slowed quite a bit. The slab is about 32" wide.
The rest was just grunt work, flatten and flip and do it again. I think we did all three slabs in about 1.5 hours or less. Then I cleaned up the mess and we loaded the slabs in my truck. The mission, to get these slabs off Bill's machine ASAP, was accomplished. I gave Bill a hand driving his 550 around the place while he threw a lot of log ends and chunks in the dump with the skid steer grapple. Two guys make it go quick and I delivered them to the OWB for consumption. SO another mess cleaned up.
I brought the slabs home and after a bottle of water I unloaded into the shop, just about 15 minutes before a surprise thunderstorm developed right over our heads and dumped a frog choker for over a half hour. Very local stuff.
I started dabbling on the table slab and left the bench slabs in the corner. Pretty wood, for red oak. The MC in these is between 7 and 11% so that is nice. I started cleaning off the bark and cambium taking care not to mess up the actual wood underneath. I use a 1" chisel to get the thick bark, peel with I can with my fingers, hit with the ROS and 80 grit to see what is soft and just keep working my way down. I have tried a wire wheel, but that is just too aggressive and can do damage if you slip. It's tedious, but worth the end result.
Here is the table slab as it came in the shop:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220806_151656156.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659876476)
You can see the head traces but can't feel them by hand. It's just how the light catches them. From the other direction, they disappear:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220806_151704846.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1659876477)
In both of those photos, you can see the metal stain and of course, the hole is on what will be the top side of the table.
I had planned more rough prep work on it today, but the wife just 'hinted' that she would like to go 'for a drive', perhaps to a specific flea market, so I guess I will lose at least part of the day.
Oh well, it's just another day.
Tom,
This brings up a good question as we all hit metal and have wood with metal stain. "Is there a way to bleach out the stain somehow?"
I'd be afraid to try it on something like this because I could wind up with a big blotchy mess.
I have sometimes wondered what muriatic acid would do on something like this.
oxalic acid is wood bleach. Cl bleach diluted with water is good for bact./mold stain. not sure about muriatic. not sure about iron stain. ironic isn't it? :D :D :D
Well we went to the flea market yesterday but there weren't many vendors because of high heat and the change of t-storms in the afternoon. I managed to score two neat LP's. One Called John B. Sebastian by the John Sebastian most folks know (Loving Spoonful, Even Dozen Jug Band, Woodstock '69, etc) released in 1970. The other was a real find called "Profile John Sebastian" by a different John Sebastian. This one is a concert Harmonicaist of great and rare skill and very hard to find. It was released in 1960, exactly ten years before the fist LP I found. Now the interesting part is that the latter Sebastian is the father of the former Sebastian. I had known about this for a long time but I never looked into the senior's work, until last night. Pretty amazing what this fella could do with a chromatic harmonica:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mqW8RYQ2Fk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mqW8RYQ2Fk)
I also picked up an odd pit saw type of thing. Didn't get a photo yet. I wasn't going to buy it but the seller worked his way down to 5 bucks just because I looked at it twice. ;D
I got out to the shop around 12:30 and started peeling bark, working on the live slab edges, and sanding. I got in about 7 hours of that and made some good progress. I also managed to get the rough sanding nearly done on the top. Nearly done with the edge work too on all slabs. By 7:30 or so I was getting tired and losing focus. I was covered in sweat and sawdust. It was so hot and humid I was only wearing shorts and sandals. That shower sure felt good.
Today more sanding, then research on a different finish for this thing. Anybody ever with with a product called 'Osmo'? It was recommended to me by somebody I respect. I also have to make arrangements to get some 16' slabs over to a kiln for drying, and have a couple other chores, like getting more ready for the saw coming in. Time to get at it.
We went yard sale-ing on Saturday and I came very close to getting talked into one of those very ornate, cast iron, coal burning stoves (similar, in style to some of these (https://www.pinterest.com/harleybaby123/old-coal-stoves/)). It was in rough shape and the guy only wanted 65 bucks for it until I started walking away, when he said 50 bucks. It was really neat, but big and heavy and we were out of space in the car. I wouldn't have had much to do with it either other than maybe stick it on the porch to look at. It looked like one of those stoves that if you were willing to spend 100 hours fixing and removing rust, plus many more sourcing parts to make it complete, it would sell for a lot of money. I didn't get a picture of it but he said if it doesn't sell he'd take it to another flea market we like to go to, so I may see it again. I stood and looked at it for probably 10 minutes. Very neat but I know I wouldn't spend the time to do anything with it.
I went yesterday and only got some no bake chocolate cookies, from the chocolate lady and an old pencil sharpener like all the kids had growing up. I visited for a couple hours with other vendors, friends and neighbors. On the way back I stopped at a small gift shop recently opened and got an invite for September to an event next door at Chili cookout for a historical log cabin there from the first settlers in this area. We've been in when open and there are firing holes where they shot at Indians and probably yankees later on. They may need a bench and I'd be glad to donate to the place. The man turned out to be a cousin to my neighbor 1 mile away who is one of my son's best friends, my hay provider and such. Another friend made. I stopped at a garage sale and bought a real nice smoker grill for $30 and talked about an old singer sewing machine in the back. People like to take the cast iron frames and put a live edge slab on top for a table but I did not have the heart to throw the old sewing machine away. I asked the lady if she ever got the frames and she said sometimes. I started to give her a card but she said "Oh, I have your card. We're getting our logs ready to come have you saw them." I guess she had met me at an earlier flea market.
aig, if you run across that stove again and have $50 in your pocket, AND stroll over and start a conversation with that guy, that stove is going home with you. LOL
Well just a little aside here, I am too tired for a full post, but since Aigheadish and Spike are involved in the conversation, I thought I would ask if either of you guys caught Hoppy Quick's inaugural show on WIOX tonight. I am sure it is only available live at this point (I asked him to think abut recording and making it available on demand), but I thought it was a good show. I ran into Hoppy driving his 4 wheeler down Samsonville road on Tuesday and we had a roadside chat for a few minutes where I found out about the show. It's called 'Catskill People' (I think) and focuses on folks that live or play here. It should be a fun show and will follow "In the Forest" on Wednesday's. I suspect Hoppy has a long lists of guests he has in mind. It's an interesting concept and I think he will do well with it.
Anyway, I enjoyed it. Tonight was an intro show. Next week I imagine he will adopt his planned format going forward.
Hoppy has his own show? He'll be great at that. He was in just a couple days ago and he didn't say anything about it, but there were some other people waiting. I will absolutely have to catch one soon. Do a double header with that and From The Forest. I'll get hold of him and see what he has planned. I'd hope he has Racine on that list of his to talk about her Dad's sawmill. LOT of history there and she remembers all of it. Family sawmill goes back to water power in the 20's and before. Latest version is a diesel powered circle mill and it's up and running. Expect it to be one of my hangouts when I retire. Lot easier to work with her than with Bill. LOL
OK, well you will have to put me in the queue for a visit. I'd like to see that and ask questions. Yeah, Hoppy should have a long list of folks to have on, he knows a lot and I am a little jealous of his upbringing and the folks he came to know. Come to think of it, I have no way to contact you after you retire, besides here. We should fix that. Oh and Bill's party is this Saturday. No excuses, I expect to see you there, and grab Warren too. We can toast your retirement...... repeatedly. :D
It's this week? My usual "I'll be over in Sheffield, MA" excuse is next week. Must'a got it mixed up. But Billy hasn't been in lately so I don't know about the party. Until now. Supposed to be a perfect day too.
I'm an early in early out type. We can make sure the beer trailer is in full working order before the bulk of the guests arrive. Yeah, we can toast retirement several times. :)
He's been pretty busy these 2 weeks. These young guys need someday to take care of business for them sometimes. :D I guess that's me. Next week is Boonville. 8) The wife and I generally come down around 3-4pm, but I will see how this year goes. The crowd is getting older and more mellow. Nowadays the guys from the sheriffs department that show up are off duty and come for a few beers. Fire Dept. too. Used to be somewhat different 20 years ago. :D
The weather finally broke yesterday with lower humidity and temps. Good working weather. Took most of the day to get my shirt soaked through. ;D That allowed me to get in a good solid 9 hours of actual work and I was tired when I quit at 7pm.
I sand my prior epoxy pours, cut the table top square with the 'new saw', laid out the benches on the slabs and cut those out. Rounded all the corners on everything and brought the sanding back up to 'pretty good'. Then I laid out the hole patterns to put the legs on the table and benches, and drilled and installed the inserts. I use the RiteLeg inserts. They do a nicer job and allow for wood movement. The also allow the end user to remove and re-install the legs without much fuss and don't come loose over time like woodscrews can.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220810_170202788.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660218103)
They make for a nice clean look.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220810_170729051.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660218107)
I do have to find/get some nice washers for those screws though. I forgot that the other day. I did set up the benches for a test run and they look fine in the white state.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220810_164759585.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660218105)
It is a little tedious doing all of those and just drilling and running in screws would be faster, but this strikes me as the right way to do it. I used 40 inserts all in.
Then I took all the legs off and put them back in clean storage. I took the top off the horses and set it on edge to do the edge pour. There are some bug holes in the live edge I want to smooth over. Just a bunch of little stuff.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220810_182914341.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660218110)
It looks ugly now, but that will clean up quick. I also did one end crack in a bench that showed up after final cutting. More sanding today going to the next level, then the sanding sealer goes on and the fine work begins.
It's another day, let's see what happens.
The benches look great Tom! The inserts you speak of- Are those what I think I'm seeing in the holes? Are they tapped in with threads or with a hammer? That should give a nice tight fit and it's something I hadn't thought of, though I do very little functional furniture yet...
I'm way behind on WIOX content but I'll keep an eye out for Hoppy's show, it seems like it should be interesting. I haven't had the time to listen to any From the Forest episodes in months now, I haven't even caught your last episode. I have a few more shows that I listen to that are topical, so I try to keep up with them, but they are also long, like 3 hours each, which doesn't leave much time for other stuff. As the temps drop and I'm not as miserable in the shop I'll spend more time out there and start catching up.
Spike- If I've got room in the car there is an excellent chance you are right about that stove. I typically only yard sale for decoration anyway. Even though it was big and heavy it is too cool to pass up again, probably. The bigger problem is that the other flea market my car will end up a half mile away from where the booths are.
Do you use winding sticks to make sure that if the slab is not perfectly flat you know how to shim the legs so that they sit perfectly flat on the floor? I use the cardboard back of a 8x11 writing tablet as shim material.
To check for flatness, lay the slap upside down on a flat surface like a floor or flat workbench like in the pic where you are showing the inserts. Position the legs in their proper position and lay a 1" x 1" stick across the feet of each leg. Back off and sight down the sticks. They should be perfectly parallel to each other. If not, you can shim one leg to make the sticks perfectly parallel. Now when you screw the legs onto the bottom of your slab, you have assured that your bench will sit perfectly flat on the floor.
Danny, I did not use winding sticks for the benches because they are so short and simple. The tiny bit of rock they do have goes away when you sit on them. I am thinking it's about 1/32". I will likely do that when I set the legs on the table. to see if they are far enough of to justify and adjustment. Usually not though.. I did have one table I built where I left some of the original sawmill cut that did not clean up on the planer. I used a piece of Cheery to make a fitted shim shingle and slotted it around the screw holes. It was more elegant. I don't like using compressive material that will hold moisture. It just seems 'wrong' to me. ;D
Austin, Hoppy's show will not be available for rebroadcast, on demand listening, at least not until he figures out what that is, then finds a way to do it. So the only way for you to catch it is listen live to WIOX at 7pm Wednesdays (EST or EDT or whatever they call it this year) over the internet. I first met Hoppy when he was about 14, over 40? years ago. I hadn't seen him in several decades but I followed his career as a chainsaw carver, woodsman, and artist. We re-hooked up, by chance, a year or so ago. Still not sure if he remembers me. He's one of the few remaining "old family" folks from these parts that embraced the old folks as a kid and listened to all their stores and checked things out for himself. He's a rare one and I enjoy talking with and listening to him. He has some mad skills with wood carving. But, for the forseeable future, you will have to catch his show when it's on.
----------------------
As for my day today, well not so hot, but nothing bad. I did more sanding to clean up last nights' epoxy fills and found a new bug hole that I opened up on the bottom of the table top, so I cleaned that out, mixed more epoxy and filled it, I found a few more tiny cracks while sanding so I did those too. I hate doing epoxy in the morning because I can't do much else until it cures.
The other day I noticed my cell phone was getting thick and when I took the case off, realized the battery was expanding at an alarming rate and splitting the case open. Saturday I ordered a new one and it came today. So I blew a couple of hours getting the new one working and things moved over. Some stuff goes easy, but those passwords never made the changeover and nightery did some other stuff. In the process I got myself completely locked out of my online banking. Right now, as I type this I was trying to get my photos backed up off the SD card so I can reformat it in the new phone which won't read it. The I can copy the files back onto it in the new phone. Oh, SO much fun am I having! >:( ;D
After a few hours the epoxy was stiff enough that I could remove any tape and sand around the wet spots. I managed to get everything sanded down to 220 grit and when I finished, it was cured enough that I could do the wet spots. That was about the same time I realized I am totally out of mineral spirits. >:( I thought I could get the sanding sealer on the bottoms of all the parts today, but apparently not. Still I got in a good 4 to 5 more hours on it and moving forward all the time. I had to go back and look at earlier posts, but I think I only started on this Saturday, which means I have only 6 days on it so far? I am getting ready to start my first attempt at the finish, and that seems pretty fast.....for me. I am NOT in any rush, things just seem to be moving along.
Tomorrow is another one.
Well I have pretty much been 'blowin' & goin' ' all week on this table. Two steps forward and 1/2 step back which is much better than normal...so far. I got another 8 hours in yesterday, maybe more.
I had a mis-step because I thought I was out of mineral spirits, so wasted time to go the HD and grab that and a few other things. Got home and started wiping the material down, turned around and there was my jug of mineral spirits. Right where I left it (incorrectly) after the last job. >:(
So on this build I am trying something new, finish wise. It was recommended to me that I try using sanding dealer. So I got some, read the instructions, and sanded everything down to 220 girt. Pretty smooth. I applied the sealer and holy cow! It raised the grain on the wood like crazy as if it had been sanded with 60 grit in a hurry. I thought 'oh man, now I gotta start all over, but I followed the directions (light hand sanding only with 220) (Except I used 320) and what do you know? The smooth finish came right back. It worked pretty well (so far). This is the stuff I used:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220812_142305943_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660395467)
Here is the top right after application (still wet):
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220812_120325869_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660395429)
And one of the benches after it dried:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220812_120301693.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660395428)
The hand sanding goes quicker than you might think, although that table top is large so...
I have a test piece I am using, one of the bench cut-offs. This is what it looks like after the sealer, sanding, then one coat of urethane.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220812_142439963.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660395757)
It's hard to see in a photo, but my hand (feel) tells me it is coming out quite nice and I am pleased so far. I hit a couple of small setbacks in that as I was doing the final sanding and wash down on all parts, I discovered a missed crack in one bench that had been filled with sawdust so I never saw it and I also found a bug hole on the bottom of the table top that opened up with sanding, so I had to do some more epoxy and wait for curing, but I sanded around them and kept working anyway, so now a lot of time lost. Last night I put the first coat of poly on one side of all parts. I'll find out in a few minutes how they turned out. ;D
Today is Bill's big annual party so I'll only get 4 or 5 hours in and we'll head down around 3pm or so.
It's just another day.
Well, the last few days have been more of the same, sanding and finishing and filling in between with 'other stuff' which I have already forgotten. I think that sanding sealer cut my finishing time considerably. That last picnic table I used nearly a gallon of finish (about 3 qts.). On this one I am still on the first quart, but the benches are much shorter. But still... huge difference. I switched yesterday to cutting the urethane with about 20% mineral spirits to have thinner finish coats with better smoothing and no brush marks. I am nearly done. In fact I think the table top is done. I am going to let it harden up for a bit then flip and make sure I have no drip marks around the edges. then flip back and check again. The benches are also nearly there, more detailed checking tomorrow, they are still curing up now.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220815_093958486.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614653)
Benches:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220812_195241850.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614700)
We are making some bar slabs for a 32' bar and we needed to get then to the kiln for drying and they are loading now, so this afternoon I went down to Bill's and we 'loaded' them. I thought we were going to use a trailer, but the smallest trailer on the property was a 10 ton and Bill didn't want to burn the fuel going over the mountain, so we stuck them in the 250. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220815_170154202_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614941)
Yeah, that's what you are seeing, maybe this is a better angle:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220815_170205108_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614594)
That truck has a lot more going on than the body would tell you. No problem hauling at any speed, but the load was a tad long, I thought. ;D
So we did the hour run out to Gary's. They had never met so after intro's and unloading, Gary gave Bill the tour and there were lots of questions. We may be swapping out some white oak and walnut for drying in the future. I had seen Gary's gallery and work 2 weeks ago for the first time. This time what was new for me was his kiln. I have never seen such a large one outside of a commercial production operation.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220815_191222285.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614598)
No I didn't measure it, it is HUGE. Here's a peek inside. Human (Gary) used for scale.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220815_190908728.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614600)
At this point the kiln is about 1/3 full. What looks like the ceiling at the top of the photo is actually the plenum to control airflow and there are several 36" fans on top of that. You could probably park 8 full sized pickups in this thing. It runs on a very large Nyle system. Electric heat, hence the $1.00/bf charge.
Just as we were leaving, Gary signed 3 of the children's books he writes for Bill's little Girl Inga (age 5), and gave them to him, just because he liked him and enjoyed the visit. :)
On the way home we stopped and checked out a crushed stone job Bill needed to look at and figure material for. Turned out it was for a young fella I knew and his family. That kid was 15 the last time I saw him, now he is in his 50's. We didn't get to see him, he is down hard with COVID and could not get off the couch. But Bill figured the job and we chatted with his wife for a while.
We got home after 9pm. Long day for an old man, but wat the heck, it was fun. I am focused on getting ready for Boonville now. Hopefully we go up Thursday after work. If not, we leave at O-Dark-Thirty on Friday morning. 8)
Wow, Gary's kiln is huge!
I would be most worried about the tailgate in newer truck. not made like they used to be.
We were a tad worried about that too. You will note the 3" bunk at the rear edge of the tailgate, that was sized to put the wood at the same level as the bed. That tail gate is pretty beat and bent so we had to make up the gap. We did hit a couple of bridge joints on the way out that made us both pucker up. Bill is not known as a slow driver, loaded or not. ;D :D We will pick them up with a trailer when they are done. This was done because we just were so short on time and daylight. Also the small trailer (5 ton) was tied up on a job.
Reminded me of the time I sent my wife to get new bridge timbers from a local sawmill. They loaded 27 - 2X8X12 white oak boards on her half ton Ford. She got in to leave and said "It drives funny". The loader looked and said "Yep, they do that with the front end off the ground". Then they unloaded half and she made 2 trips crawling down the long way home.
they will be lighter after kiln dried. :)
Warning, this is another long one!
Well, let me try to catch up here since the middle of last week. I am still in a slight fog after Boonville.
Last week I finished off the table and benches with a day of compounding and waxing on Wednesday. They look good, all I have to de is clean out the threaded mounting holes of any residual goo and dust and it's ready to deliver. I contacted the client and it looks like an early September delivery.
Then I turned my attention to packing and prep for Boonville. As expected on Thursday Bill had a lot of work to get organized to keep the crew working Friday and I had household chores and other stuff to get done. I think I headed to his place around 5pm and threw my stuff in the camping trailer. Then we rotated the tires on the truck, cleaned out the bed just bringing basic roadside tools and other odd and ends. Hooked up the trailer and rigged it for the road, pulled it down and did the light check. It failed. no running lights. We messed with it for a bit, talked about switching to a 5am departure on Friday, then decided to get the probe out and start checking. Sure enough, in 5 minutes we found the blown fuse, replaced it, and were good to go.
We stopped at my place and grabbed some extra camp chairs in case we had company, (we did). We were rolling by 6:45 which was not bad at all. We drove straight thru in dry weather and arrived at 9:45. Setup took about 15 minutes, we relaxed a bit and went to bed. We were camped less than 1/2 mile from gate, easy walk. We hit the show around 8:30 Friday morning, I saw the LogRite booth already busy, so I passed that to stop back later, and just gave Kevin a wave. We had a nice breakfast on site, then commenced to walking. Bill had his list and I was just trying to learn the show and the site (that last part took all weekend). Getting a feel for the show and who is who is also important for me. It didn't take long before we landed on this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220819_104144932.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1661178655)
It was on the list, so Bill was talking turkey with the guy and I was not getting a warm fuzzy that this fella was intimately familiar with this piece. There was a lot of details he was fuzzy on. After while we moved on but Bill kept mumbling that he should just go back and buy it. At $22k my thought was to check around a bit more first and do some research. The more we walked the more he was saying he was gonna buy it, but I kept raising the unanswered questions. Finally I said 'Look, I have this buddy in Alabama that just spent a long time doing a lot of research and test drives. I know he shop is open today and he is real busy but maybe he can spare a minute to share some lessons.' So I call Yellowhammer and he asked some basic questions and gave us a bunch of stuff to look at and ask about. Very helpful indeed. So we went back, asked more questions, I took more pictures and sent them off to Robert and we talked about it some more. We took a break back at the trailer in the afternoon and I was showing Bill YH's video on the machine and my phone rings. It's Robert. This time we talked for about 45 minutes. Robert went online and did some research on that unit and had other comments and questions. All of those were extremely helpful and gave Bill some pause to ponder all this stuff because all the points Robert raised made a LOT of sense. It was a HUGE help. Bill kept pondering this stuff all weekend. Just another service you can find here on the forum if you cultivate your friendships. :)
Anyway, all this running around is the reason I missed the meetup at LogRite at 2pm Friday. I got there, but was too late. My apologies again. So Bill and I split up, I needed to walked the whole place and get it straight in my head, they had no maps this year. I did also catch some of the game of logging competition, which is a regional event here, you have to qualify at a smaller event and I missed my chance at that, so I just watched.
The main thing on my 'list' was a good pair of boots. There was not one single seller on the whole place. I was really bummed, almost ticked. I really bought very little. All the commodity items (saws, chains, bars, etc) were selling at standard pricing or in some cases, what I figured to be 'List plus 5%' and I would rather give my dealer my money in that case. No matter though, there was a 20 minute line at cashiers to pay for all that stuff like they were giving it away. I finally came to realize that the 'theme' here was not getting show specials, the theme was for a lot of folks being able to actually get stuff that was not available in their local areas. I did find a decent Carrhart coat in one booth for 50 bucks in my size, so I bought it just because it was so cheap. I also grabbed a mill special from LogRite on one of my trips back to the trailer.
The lack of boot sellers got worse because at some point Friday afternoon, the sole on my Keen's started flapping and tripping me up. The only other shoes I brought were sandals and I wound up wearing those the rest of the weekend, which I did not enjoy. I tried a duct tape repair, but then the other one fell apart and I gave up. I was fine until the rains came Sunday.
So it was a good show and I ran into some folks I knew here and there. Spike was clear he wasn't coming, but he never mentioned his business partner was, and I ran into Warren on the grounds. For the record, I did not note any of the whining Spike predicted. Surely, it is a different atmosphere but everybody just seemed real happy just to be there.
Friday afternoon we had local friends with a few small kids come and stay with us for the night. Before dinner they all went back to watch the Grease Pole Climb event. I stayed back to chill. After an hour of listening to all the noise and cheering I got a text from Bill "Hey are you coming? , we are climbing next.' Well, this was news. Turns out he was having fun so he walked the crowd trying to put together a team and he managed to get enough to enter. I couldn't hobble down there fast enough to see them climb, but I did get to see the last group. It was a hoot and Bill's team took second. Frankly, that was pretty amazing. He had a blast and is planning on next year. They had a gal on the anchor position and near as any of the officials could remember, this was the first ever female to take part. She was rock solid holding 4 other people above her on her shoulders. The team donated their $300 in winnings back into the children's fund. This is what happens when Bill is unsupervised for any period of time. :D
Saturday was the Lumberjill competition and I watched a good deal of that. Those women are impressive. I took a series of short videos of several events but missed getting a decent spot for the stock saw competition. Maybe I will post one or two, but they are all short. More walking around, more meetups, etc. I missed Moosehunter at the LogRite both but this time I was early, he had just had enough of the heat and they decided to get back on the road. It was pretty warm and I got a little sunburn working by evening too.
Sunday morning before breakfast I went looking for Bill and found him looking this over:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220820_103541485.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1661178654)
I think I saved him from that one. Around midday the rain started and although we wanted to catch the men's competition, Bill had to close out the deals he had working. So he inked a deal on the forestry mower, put in a deposit on a new OWB, bought 4 boxes of blades from WM, and got a cant hook and a peavy as sawmilll warming gifts for a friend. We also picked up a few bottles of that new environmental fuel (I forget the name at the moment) to test out. We stopped by the Husky corral where they have all there saws available for testing and while Bill went out throwing money down I stayed under the tent and talked chains and sharpening and they were asking me a lot of questions about how I was finding the Xcut chain. By the time Bill was done and came back, they had given me a sharpening kit, 2 different chains, a weedwhacker head and a new hat. :D
It was pouring rain at that point, but since Bill got the 4 boxes of blades, the WM guys gave us a ride back to the camper with the blades, which was perfect. We had anticipated this earlier and had everything hooked up to go. SO we jumped in the truck and hit the road.
About 45 minutes down the road we stopped at a deli/gas station and got some lunch. Across the road was a shoe store having a 'Buy one, get one half off' sale. SO we went in and I found replacements for my shoes and Bill brought a pair of light boots too. We got home around 6pm and I was tired.
It was a long fun weekend and I am ready to go again. There is a LOT I left out, such as the mint saw that Bill picked up for just a $50. donation. I'll get pictures of that later, but it turned into fun little side experience where we made some new friends.
Sorry for the long post, just trying to catch up.
When I was a kid they came out with the movie Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure... pretty sure we can just change the name to Bill and Tom's and make it wood themed ;D
You're closer than you might think. :D
He is a little more gregarious than I (OK, a whole lot more) but we do have fun with our Mutt and Jeff routine. We'd walk into a booth and he would start asking questions about their products, then someone would turn to me and ask me if I was with him. I'd say 'Yeah, but just to post bail when the time comes'. He'd sometimes introduce me as his Grandfather. We have a lot of fun with it, it entertains folks.
If you love the inserts, you might invest in some "same thread" Allen screws to plug the holes during finish. fist class.
I did some light firewood work on Tuesday and really had to push myself to keep working, just felt really tired and I was sweating more than I thought I should be for the work I was doing. Yesterday morning, after a poor night's sleep, I still felt lousy so I took a test and sure enough. I got COVID. yay. >:(
No big deal really, just feel lousy and tired all the time, but I have a music fest this weekend and I run the EMS group for that one. This is going to mess them up. So I made some phone calls and tried to find coverage and fill the gaps. I supply all the infrastructure for the setup too. This morning I will run over with my stuff and the group gear and drop it off and meet the new staff nurse that will be covering for me. I am just not up to setting it all up as I usually do.
Bad timing, and it sucks, but it was bound to happen eventually.
feel better soon!
It doesn't get much press coverage anymore, but the &$@! virus is still making the rounds.
Get well and don't push things too hard for a while.
Take care Tom!
Sorry to hear it.
Eat plenty of grits and drink lots of fresh OJ and you should be running on all 8 cylinders in no time.
Hope you get to feeling better soon.
OGH, Plenty of rest and get well soon! Wife and I have both had it, not fun but you should come back fine😁
How ya feeling Tom? 'Bout time for an update here.
Still feel like crap and going a bit crazy. Not sleeping well at night and coughing all the time. Other than that, things are great! :) :D
Now this evening my wife is feeling poorly and thinks she has it, but tested negative. She's pretty mad at me, it's all my fault.
This too shall pass.
Thinking of you.
I hated to cough a few months back. :(
I don't know how good the tests work.I have been feeling bad for a couple weeks and have tested myself twice.Both have been negative.Figured it must be allergy's and told myself to quit being a baby and get back to work but something is wearing on me.I haven't had it yet but a lot of people around me have.
I was sick 10 days ago I tested my self but wasn't positive, took 5 or six days to shake whatever it was. My wife only got a sore throat out of the deal. Hang in there hope you are much better soon.
Quote from: Wlmedley on August 28, 2022, 08:56:38 PMI don't know how good the tests work.
My sister's youngest flew in from Texas for the 4th of July BBQ. She was coughing when she came off the plane. My sister was feeling bad by the end of the next day. Took a test and it was negative. Then read that the newest variant is more in the throat then in the nose and to use the swab in the back of your throat. That showed positive.
And don't forget the normal Flu, RSV, Common Cold and the other regular random viruses are still circulating, and making up for lost time (cases were down when no one was travelling). Although we are still seeing some Covid cases, more older folks are currently ending up in hospital with Flu, and younger kids with RSV.
yes even the seasonal prevalence of viruses is off due to the changes around mitigation for covid. so yes masks, social distancing and hand washing have reduced the winter outbreaks of influenzae, rsv, and parainfluenza (croup).
Hey OGH, How are you and your wife getting along with Covid recovery? Missing you here😁.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Any rumors of my demise have been somewhat exaggerated. It's ben 12 days for me and I tested negative a couple of days ago. However this cough is relentless and making me miserable. The energy levels are still very low and I am not getting anything done.
My wife on eh other hand had symptoms come on quick one evening and tested positive. She was pretty mad at me. But the next morning she felt just fine and no sign of it since. She still tests positive, but it seems to have not hit here the way it hit me.
Yesterday I did a walk around looking for some task to get started on and I found so many things I have to get done, that I didn't/couldn't choose one. So I came in and took a nap. >:(
I always have gotten over these things slowly in the past, but fall is upon us and I am in rough shape for winter prep.
I'll live, but I gotta get back to work pretty soon or it will be a rough winter.
Yeah, I know your frustration 😬. Some folks the Covid is like a bad cold and in a week or so they feel fine. Others it hangs on for a while. Get well soon, miss your daily happenings and quick wit 😁
Well my friend Bill checks in on me about every day with a text message to see if we need anything and wants to know how I am doing. Besides you guys, he seems to be the only one who cares. ;D
I have been meaning to cut the back lawn every day now for the last 3 days but just didn't have the energy. Today I got that done, including the messing around to get the lawn tractor started. Rain coming for the next couple of days, so at least I got something done.
The cough seems to have died down overnight and I slept all night for a change. Now I just have the plugged up left ear which will probably take over a month to clear, I don't know why.
As I haven't done a dang thing but watch bad movies and read the forum, I have nothing to report. I have that table delivery coming up in a couple of weeks, a log order due in mid-October when we will finally try out all that stuff I built in the spring and not much else on the calendar but firewood and some milling for me ( I have those ERC logs I am dying to get drying).
Tomorrow's another day 😁. Just do what you can, but don't over do it.
Glad you are feeling some better. Hope your ear looseness up soon.
Tom,
Glad to hear you are feeling better. Sorry to hear I will not be inheriting your mule and purple sawhorses after all. :D
Take care and don't over-do it. We don't want to hear of any relapses. ;)
I started a response, then lost it when the phone rang. Trying again...
Nearly 2 weeks with nothing done and I am frustrated. The shop is a pig-pen, stuff everywhere. No room to do anything and no surface left I can work on. It's as cluttered as it can get.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220904_142746916.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662333516)
I focused on getting the machines moved so I decided to take out the upstairs rail and move the finishing bench to make for an easier direct lift. Lots of moving around of stuff.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220904_142758549.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662333519)
But this allows me to come straight in with the machine and take one saw down and put the other up. Of course I have a lot of finagling to jockey things around upstairs, but it's just a move, so no big deal. From down below:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220904_142529243.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662333515)
It's a little frustrating having a lot of work to do and not much energy. After 2 hours of moving stuff around my legs were getting shaky. I still have to build a riser for the forks because they won't reach as high as I need, but that's for another day. One step at a time.
At least I am moving forward.
The whole shop condition depresses me a bit. I need to deliver that table and close that out, then swap the machines and sell the old TS. I could spend a whole day just putting tools away at this point. Rain for the next couple of days, so maybe I will try to get going on that.
One day at a time, or so they say.
Well, I keep trying to push myself back to whatever normal is, but energy is slow to return.
Yesterday I hooked up a little 4x6 trailer and loaded on the branches from those trees we trimmed off a month ago, hauled them out to the swamp and piled them for burning. I was shot and needed a nap after that. Pitiful.
Today I did another load in the morning getting most of it moved out. I still have a 30'EWP remaining after topping and a 15' red maple to drop. I took a long lunch break and went out and dropped the EWP leaving the RM for last as a buffer in case the ewp went wrong. It was weighted toward the driveway a little and I had a hole picked out for it to fall in. I had a slight concern it would pull from the weighting. Decided not to take a chance and have a little fun at the same time to keep my skills up. Besides, as I said, I am still shaky with the heavy work so wanted to be a little more careful. SO I used a tenon cut.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220908_151137179.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662669735)
I made a long tenon just to be sure. It dropped right on the money.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220908_151542170.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662669850)
Yes, it's frivolous, but it made me smile. The tenon dropped right into the mortise on the way down, but I was walking away and didn't see it happen. I do note that the weight of the tree did take it to the left but the tenon held it from getting very far, so my guess was right on how the tree would behave.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220908_154015438.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662669704)
Everybody says this is a waste of time, but frankly with that 562 this sure didn't take much more time than a standard notch. In fact I worked harder getting that RM to fall over with nothing on top. :D That RM should be firewood, but it has a lightening strike from 30 years back, so I want to open it up on the mill and see what I can see first. There is also a rot hole up from the bottom about 18" or so.
Simple work that didn't take much time but I was soaked in sweat by the time I got the limbing work done. Now I have more branches to clean up. ;D
Bill has some cut lists for me and my table client scheduled delivery from me for Monday so I have to get back in the swing one way or the other.
Seeing that tenon cut was very beneficial for me as I've never even heard of that procedure 😁. Thanks so much for sharing your work. At 71 years (young?) I still have the urge to learn and grow however don't know that I would attempt the cut unless it was a smaller tree and out in a field by itself 🤣🤣.
Glad that you're getting your strength and stamina back even if it's slow going!
I have been looking forward to using my chainsaw since May.
I wait until about now to use it. Much cooler.
I did use it for the first time at high noon. That took the looking forward part out pretty quick. ;D
Could use it first thing in the morning, but the pile of wood is about 50 feet from the bedroom window.
Wife gets upset when I start the chainsaw at 6 in the morning.
I want to get that sawed up before I start to fall any trees.
I have been laid up since May. Took and taking a while for things to come back. :(
Yeah Ray, in your case, you need to let that heal up. Me, I was just sick for a bit but this COVID stuff has some weird boomerang effects sometimes. I thought it was cool when I started working (75ish) today, but man was I soaked in no time. I blame that on my poor condition right now.
JD that's a simple cut and it feels silly to use it, but it does work. That is about as small a tree as I would want to use it on though. You need enough meat to hold it all together. Sometimes a guy just has to play around a little. :D
Never hear of a tenon cut. Looks neat. Looks like you cut a tenon through the tree then cut a short cut from both sides then cut down to the tenon hole. Is that the sequence or do you cu the vertical cuts then the upper horizontals?
Do you notch the front the direction you want it to go before cutting the tenon?
Howard, the sequence I use is as follows: I bore out the square plug at the bottom, then run the two side cuts straight up keeping the top of the cuts even. I put a conventional face notch in the front, then I cut in the back cut from each side forming the hinge thickness. I drive a wedge in the back cuts and just a few taps pushes it over.
The risk on this is you only get a couple inches of hinge on each side of the tenon, so you have to take care to think that through and get the most you can. I cut one hinge a little think on this one, but it held long enough and the tenon kept the stem on track.
Pics are not showing the face notch, nor the hinge left in place. Maybe the next one you cut that way, you will show them. tks
Well I rarely have need for this cut so it might be 5 years. There are lots of videos out there you cna look at. Everyone adds their own variations and some insist it's 'the right way'. ;D I figure if the tree lays down where you need it, no damage was done, nobody got hurt, and you don't have extra cleanup work, then you did it 'the right way'.
Here's a fella that pretty much does it the way I did, but his hinge is thicker. He says in the video notes 'I have no idea why anyone would use this cut'. I thought that was a telling remark. I also note he is wearing no gear and for a guy with 5,000+ followers, you would think he'd know better.
Tongue and Groove Tree Felling Technique - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0-D_HlPcJY)
Here is another guy who seems to make his living at it and his cut 'fails' but the tree goes where it should. He puts in a long bottom cut on the front of his weird notch. His intent is to get the tenon to drop into the mortise. In order for that to happen, the hinge has to break clear first and I for one cannot figure out why having the tenon drop in is so important to some folks. By the time that happens the tree is pretty much on the ground. Perhaps it is to keep it from rolling after it lays down?
Trees That Don't Like Hinge Cutting - Tongue & Groove Tree Felling - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX95CBc93MQ)
Lastly, I note, all these videos I have found show folks dropping trees in the direction of lean which should be cut and dried with a standard cut. The tree I took had side lean and maybe a little back lean. It was the side lean I was concerned about, that was in an unsafe ($$) direction. So the tenon was just insurance and in fact the tree did swing to the left a bit, but the tenon held it where it was safe. I missed the exact target spot by 1' to the left, but I was still right in the pocket which was 3' wide. Yes, it's a silly thing, but the whole cut only took about 2-3 minutes at the long side and some of that time was tapping wedges to drive it over against the lean weight.
That is cool, my first thought when I saw the pic was that you were cutting a jacking pocket. I could see it on maybe a steep sidehill drop. My biggest concern with anything leaning is a barber chair. That looks like it is necking down and concentrating the stress?
A very interesting cut.
Thanks I learned a little there. :)
Quote from: Don P on September 09, 2022, 06:58:04 AM.... That looks like it is necking down and concentrating the stress?
Sorry Don, not following you there. What is necking down?
I think I've seen you discuss this kind of cut before, Tom, and it's pretty cool. I'm not very experienced with plunge cuts yet but I thought of going out to the 20 foot tall Ash stump I've got out in the yard to mess around with some plunges, just to cut some holes in the stump to make it look interesting.
I'll have to keep this cut in mind sometime. Do the wings of the stump ever break apart?
Not that I have ever seen. However, I do notice a lot of cutters make that tenon too thin and that fails (see the previous videos). I like to keep that tenon at least 3" wide (a bar width). On a tree like the one I cut, it's basically thirds. One third on each side and one third for the tenon.
Be careful learning plunge cutting. Start your entry with the bottom half of the bar nose and feed it in until the tip is fully covered, then rotate the saw head to get you on the angle you want and push through. Many folks try to stab straight in and that is frustrating and dangerous. Wear your gear too. ;D
Yes sir! Thank you for the tips.
I was bucking the tree I knocked over so we could move it to the fire pile a few days ago and due to the way the tree was laying on the ground I plunged a couple spots and pretty quickly experienced the problem with starting with the top side of the bar. It wasn't terrifyingly close to hitting me in the face when it kicked back but it was close to terrifyingly close...
I should have mentioned, not all chain styles like bore cutting. Safety chains are terrible for it and skip tooth can be a challenge. I used an XCut on this one and boring was the easiest I have ever had. I love that chain. 8)
Well I never thought a silly little play time cut like that would generate so much interest. As I said, won't likely need it again for a long while and I had left the stick as it fell so I went out and did an autopsy Dendrotopsy to document it if it comes up again. First I took some more photos of the stump as it lays but I began to see all the mistakes I made, and there were several. Sloppy work and I blame it on COVID.
This is the top of the stump as it fell:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220909_131302024.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662747167)
Then I cut the stick off and put the thing back together best I could. This is the back of the stump with the clearance plug re-inserted.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220909_132411320.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662747204)
And the front of the stump with plug and notch put back.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220909_132451738.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662747324)
This is a re-enactment of just before the hinge broke (as planned):
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220909_132650233.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662747360)
I cut the stump off flush so I can push snow over it later. I kept the whole thig, I have no idea why and set it up by the log pile as a corner post of sorts. This time it went back together a little better.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220909_134957238_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1662747455)
It's EWP so not even good for my stove. It was interesting taking the photos because it revealed to me a long list of errors I will have to try to remember if I ever do this again. In fact, I am tempted to try another one just to see if I can get it right. I'm glad you guys found my play time amusing, I had no idea. :)
You keep saying a long list of errors. Can you elaborate? All I see is you snipped the hinge on one side (bottom of the top picture). Nothing got broken and no one killed or injured so looks good to me!
Yeah, I was afraid somebody would call me on that. ;D
Well I am always looking to make things right and avoid errors that could bite me next time around. So here is my list:
1) I overcut the bottom cut on the notch (bypass) so it didn't match the dropping face cut. This made the hinge break earlier than it should.
2) My tenon cuts were not straight, they had a wave. I don't know why, but both cuts seemed to have matching waves. I should have relived them a bit because as the tenon swung up, it bound in the mortise on those wave areas.
3) I clipped the hinge on the side you mentioned. There was some left that held OK, but...
The nice thing about this cut is that it gives a lot of security for the extra work/time. If you miss a small detail, and I missed a few you are likely still covered. The only thing I have seen fail on these, as I mentioned before is having a tenon too thin that fails. On this one, I was watching how long it actually took to get the tree on the ground because 'everybody says' it's a waste of time... blah.. blah.... blah. This cut did take about 3 minutes with wedging, but as noted, I was a little sloppy in my haste.
Posting things like this on the internet, one has to hold some responsibility to represent it clearly, lest some yahoo homeowner in suburbia with his brand new electric chainsaw he bought from Lowes last weekend decides he can do this with a tree 2' from his picture window. Try this out in the woods on a tree that doesn't matter so you learn what is important first. For me , it was a frivolous thing done in complete safety given the exposures. The hazard was to the left rear of the tree as it fell, and the rest were just keeper trees I could live without. YMMV
Thank You for the follow up explanations. Much clearer to me now, however I don't know if I would have the occasion to use this cut. I'm happy to know about it nonetheless!
I've got a white oak that is starting to die. I plan to try that cutting method on it.It won't hurt anything if it doesn't work but if it does I can show these guys around here how smart I am :laugh:
Don't see this technique as better or quicker than a simple notch, bore cut to establish a good hinge, and then the back cut while using wedges (if needed).
The tongue and groove do establish a fall line, but with a weak hinge, which way along that fall line may be a question that eventually gets sorted out. ::)
It's just another arrow in the quiver, and a weird one at that. ;D But you have the right idea, do it someplace it doesn't matter. Watch the normal stuff, look up, etc. Keep the tenon 3" wide if you can given the tree size. Fun cuts for amusement. I have simple needs. :D
I have another one called a 'wheel cut' used for bucking large logs when working with equipment. I really have been dying to try that one out, but I can't find an excuse yet. But I will keep looking.
Beenthere, It worked for me. I don't chose a 'weak hinge' but for this tree, which had already been topped out for clearance, I needed a lighter hinge. There was back and side lean in a direction of hazard. Also I needed something to occupy my mind for a few minutes, so I decided to use this method. One wedge on each side and it just took a few hits to get the weight over the top and she fell easy. I always worry about hinges failing on EWP when I really need them most. I wanted a little extra security is all. I don't think there is a 'right or wrong' with this stuff, just experience and feel. That's my take anyway. I'm only 67 and still have a lot of learning in front of me yet.
I've cut a lot of EWP. Most 3 feet across and up. But small ones too. I never had a hinge issue.
Unless it was my fault.
Yeah Ray, good point. I never have any issues with a tree over 18" or so, it's always the smaller ones that can give me headaches when I need to put them where they didn't plan on going. In fact I think I just realized that maybe I have taken it on as a personal challenge to send these trees against their lean and find new ways to do it for no particular reason whatsoever except to get better at it. The mushroom trees started me on this, some aren't even heavy enough to fall over unless they have a clear path. I have a cut I use where I do a standard notch, then bore through the center of the stem at the middle of the notch and out the back, then I can drive a wedge in from the back to hold it there until I made the two back cuts on each side then lift and drive it over. A lot of work for a small tree, but doing these trees means dropping them where I can just hack up all the top branches into mulch sized and leave them in the woods. So if it falls on a road, path, or open area, I have to drag the brush into the woods and hack it up. If I drop it in the woods, I save a lot of time.
Full size trees with full width face cuts are rarely a problem especially hardwoods. I don't cut a lot of EWP, I hate the sap. :D Except, of course, dead Ash which can't be trusted in any way.
Well, still slow going doing doing a bit each day. Saturday my former employer had an open house and invited the retirees. This was their feeble attempt to make up for no retirement parties for 2.5 years, introducing the newest Site Manager to the public and employees and the HR manger could show the new site manager how great she was. I went out of curiosity and to see or or two old friends. Only one other retiree showed up. A friend I still call every couple of weeks anyway. They gave me a $100 amazon gift card, I don't know why. I hate amazon and never buy from them. Now I have no choice, I guess. Might get some X-cut chains or something. I only knew about 30% of the folks there, turnover has been high. They claim they can't hire enough folks. The issues run deep. The new site manager did not attend because she has covid.
While I was there I got a text from my son who was at Olive day with the boys, 40 minutes away. Sounded like a better party, so I headed that way. When I finally got there the boys were at the BB gun range having fun. I ran into my daughter and a lot more old friends and neighbors than I did at the previous party. I headed home after another hour or so. Just as I was leaving, the wife called. Car broke down where she was doing a show. SO i drove back another 40 minutes, drove her car home and she followed me in the truck. Broken belt, bad tensioner. Not too bad to fix. I left it for tomorrow. Sunday I got that table wrapped up for transport and delivery and messed around the house a bit. I took the wife out to my daughters and they toured the farm stand circuit. It drizzled and spittled all day.
Today I have to get the top in the back of the truck, deliver and install it. I loaded the benches and legs in the back seat yesterday. I hope the client is happy with it. it's an hour and a half each way, but through nice country.
It's grey and overcast today, but no rain on the radar for the first half of the day anyway. That's a big help.
Time to really get back in the groove. Delivery today, wife's car tomorrow, milling on Wednesday.
Well the last couple of days have not been a lot of fun. I have mentioned at least once in this thread that painting is my least favorite thing to do. I would like to rescind that thought at this point and say that auto repair is very certainly my least favorite thing to do, BY FAR.
I mentioned that my wife's van had an issue that took it down. After I delivered the table I got home in the late afternoon, pulled the front of it in the shop and got it up on jack stands and pulled the tire off and got started. Well it turned out, it was not the idler pullet or tensioner as I had guessed, it was the water pump. Well let me explain for those not cursed with the side-ass engines in vans and say that there is ZERO clearance for any work to be done. Although I hate it, i have done everything from transmission repairs to pistons, bearings and the whole nine yards. I can do it, I just hate it. I am also not really 'gifted' with the skills to be quick and proper. Through everything I have done over 4 or 5 decades I have NEVER had a job as miserable as this. When I finally did get to the water pump, the only tool I could fit to take off the bolts was a box wrench, no way to get a ratchet or anything else in there. OH, and the swing on that wrench was 1/4 turn OR LESS. It took me hours to get the bolts out, literally. The muscles in my neck and arms were screaming from the contortions I had to execute. When I finally had all (5) bolts out I learned that you need to lower the engine to get the water pump to slide out. Really? I mean who designs crap like this?! A water pump?! Geez. I want to kill these guys if I ever meet than at a party.
Anyway, I don't buy parts until I have it all taken apart to get the whole picture, so it was late by the time I went for parts and could not get the belt, but I got the pump. By the time I got home and had dinner I was too pooped to keep working. It wasn't the work, it was the frustration, I think.
This morning, I hit it again in zen mode, and got the new pump in, 1/8 turn at a time on each screw, but it took a while for sure. Anyway, I got it in and celebrated by going to pick up the belt. Getting the belt IN was another adventure but I got it done. I buttoned everything else up, tested it and al is good, no leaks. But now that the godawful noise from the bad water pump is gone, we have another more subtle noise from either the idler, tensioner, or alternator. I am going to wait until it fails (and my neck muscles heal). Dang but I am a bit sore tonight, but it's done.
I took it on a test ride down to Bill's to return his impact driver and the 10mm ratcheting box wrench I borrowed (and filled up 2 growlers while I was there). The wife took it to the farm to pick us our CSA stuff and she was happy enough to grab me a 30 pack while she was in town. I spent the rest of the afternoon putting away tools and cleaning up the shop getting ready for FINALLY moving machines up and down. Maybe that will happen this weekend.
Tomorrow I think I will head to the mill. Bill needs 2x8's to build the gable wall on the shop and get it closed in before the weather comes. I also have some cedar down there I want to get milled and stickered in my garage this fall to dry for a project I have in mind. Bill also dropped off some firewood logs yesterday, so I need to buck all that up. Lots to do that will help me put this COVID fog I still have in the rearview mirror.
During a rest break yesterday I made a call to a company about and hour and a half away that makes wood furnaces, stoves, and boilers. I talked to a a knowledgeable fella and after a bit of knowledge sharing, we settled on them building a woodstove for me without an order or deposit and they would call me when it's done. I can come up and either decide to buy it or not. They will have no issue finding another buyer, they go as soon as they are built apparently. It's 2,500 bucks I don't really want to spend, but I need a better stove in the shop than what I have and I do have the cash, but it will drive me down further than I wanted to go. I'll have to build and sell a bunch of stuff to catch up I guess.
Tomorrow is another day.
Car work does indeed often suck.
We had a Town & Country minivan that liked to throw a belt every time it hit a big puddle, thusly shutting the whole van down. The first time this happened the (ex)wife was going somewhere in the rain and called me. I went out to find it was the serpentine belt and I had to figure out, in the rain, how to put it back on. For whatever reason it ended up taking me hours to figure out the clearance, tensioner, and all that junk. I was cold, soaked, and mad, but the belt was back on and the van worked. We didn't realize this was a rain/puddle problem for maybe another time or two, so I got some more practice at replacing it several times over the next few months. At some point we connected the dots and tried avoiding puddles, but I'll be dogged if I didn't get pretty good at replacing the belt. I think by the end of it I could do it in about 15 minutes. Part of the deal, if I recall, was finding the exact right tool.
I also had a car with electric windows and the drivers side window would jump the track pretty frequently. I couldn't stop risking it since I like my windows down, but it took popping the door panel off, reaching into the door frame to move around the window frame tack, and rolling the window up while holding the track just right. I didn't have the 300 bucks they wanted to replace the whole works, but I did have the money to buy a screwdriver to leave in the door pocket for when the window jumped the track again. At the end of that one I could almost pull the door panel, roll the window back up, and put everything back together at a stop light.
But it all was a pain in the butt. Bolts and clearances are always too tight or stuck and nothing makes as much simple sense as it should.
Glad to hear you got it working again, and got some beers in the process!
Don't forget on the new stove price your old stove will bring a decent figure especially with that catalytic burner. Fuel is going to be tough on folks this winter, it has some value as well...
Glad that fog is lifting.....
Good call on selling the old stove Nebraska. Tom, I'da tossed your current stove in the back of the RV at the right price, that thing'd be perfect for my little shop.
Selling used wood stoves around here can be rough, there are lots of them. I have been searching the used ones for a couple of years looking for a better stove. Anything that's good is high priced, a little too high for a used stove if you ask me.
I lost the catalytic combustor at the end of last season and I just don't feel like replacing it again just to sell the stove. I'll list it cheap enough and hopefully find a buyer, but finding somebody who wants to do the repair will be tough. Most folks want plug and play these days.
We'll see what happens there, one thing at a time. I have too much stuff backed up right now to worry that far ahead. The money I might make off that stove will barely cover the sales tax on the new one anyway.
Yesterday evening I was bucking up some of the firewood logs with the 562, man can that saw throw chips. I am wondering how much of it is the X-Cut chain and how much is the saw. I am going to get a X-cut on my 450 so I can see what it is. I think it's the tooth from more than anything. At any rate that 562 is a fun saw to run.
Right now I am trying to talk myself into heading to the mill but I'm still a little sore from yesterday's tasks.
Well, trying to get back on the horse and get my butt in gear. Feeling better all around and someday my left ear may even let sound in again. ;D Still a little on the tired side, but gonna keep pushing.
SO I went down to Bill's a bit later than normal and found a new surprise.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220915_111725546.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663286246)
No idea what this is gonna be, maybe a kiln or wood storage. I didn't get to ask him yet. SO iwnert down to the mill with the toolcat and pulled this log. I need to make 'a bunch' of 2x8x8' for the shop gable wall. This log is only 8' plus and since we don't mill stuff so short and it's a junk log anyway I figured I would use it up and free up the space. It had a bunch of rot on one side.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220915_115004877_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663286353)
It was also a bear to turn. In that photo, you can see the clamp is at it's full height, so I used the chain turner to help hold it. It didn't look too pretty from the end either.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220915_115534218_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663286344)
Bill came by about the time I had taken the first slab off and asked why I picked that one. :D He watched me struggle to roll it for a bit and saw that I was getting it, just slow and easy so he went back to work too. He thought I would start with smaller logs, I just wanted that big dog out of the way. I got 14 decent boards out of it and it's gone now. Took me over an hour, that one did, because of it's size and bad shape I needed to waste a few cuts.
I bucked a couple more logs for tomorrow, then headed home with some junk 2x4x12's and started building a raised skid to lift the machine up and down from the loft. Maybe this weekend. Got the frames cut and screwed up. Should finish that up tomorrow.
Fairly tired, should rack out early tonight then do it again tomorrow.
Well I didn't rack out when I should have last night. I found two Bogart movies on TCM back to back and couldn't resist. One I had never seen before. Good stuff. ;D
But still feeling a bit better, the left ear is nearly clear now and I got to the mill around 10am. When I got down there I saw that his semi box trailer count had doubled this morning. (Actually I saw that trailer go past my house at 7am and thought it a little weird to see a beat up trailer behind another friends show quality semi truck. :D then I put it together in my head, no coffee yet at that point.)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220916_162138670_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663373341)
(Cooler in the mornings now, needed a sweatshirt). I milled a couple more smaller logs for Bill's needs and decided I needed to mil up my ERC logs to get them drying now. The first one up was the smallest and if I was looking at any other species, this would have been firewood, but I treasure every piece of ERC, so I mill whatever I can.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220916_113751022_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663373458)
That one had a rot groove up the side where I lost some yield , but I got what I could. The second log was kind of middle sized, maybe 10-12" with less damage. The third log was the largest of this group and had pretty nice wood with lots of red heart.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220916_124531703.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663373335)
I got pretty good wood out of that and took some 6/4 boards with all the remaining being 4/4. I brought it all home and sticker stacked it in the garage for better safer drying.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220916_154409973.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663373792)
Yeah, that top layer and a half is off and will be redone as I add more. I still have the butt log left to mill. I also have some stuff I milled back in the spring I will stack on top of this, that stuff is pretty much all air dried. This stuff, in my mind, is like gold to me because it is so hard to come by (with my methods). I am very pleased to have it. In fact, when I get this stuff air dried, I may take it to the kiln for proper finishing now that I have access to one. I have a build in mind, for my own home for a change, and I want to, for once, start with prefect wood. I milled everything in random widths, trying to get the most out and knowing I would be planeing, ripping, and jointing all the wood to size anyway. I think I already have enough for the cabinet type thing I want to build, but I will get that butt log done and finish the stack off.
After I cleared all that stuff up I wanted to fix the tank valve on the lubemiser system on the mill. That dang plastic valve on the tank has a rubber bushing inside that either froze and broke or just failed at some point and messed up the flow. I figured that out a month ago and took the bushing out, but there was no way to close the valve. We talked to the WM guys at Boonville and they said "just buy one locally, it's cheaper". So it waited until I got annoyed again. Today was that day. I was going to go to town and look for a valve and then thought "Hey, this is a stupid plastic valve. Why not put in a proper valve instead of this plastic crap?" So I looked in my parts drawers and sure enough I had a nice brass valve, NOS, so I grabbed it and some tools and went back to the mill. Well apparently my old eyes can't tell the difference between a 1/2" and a 3/4" NPT by eye anymore and I needed a bushing. Bill showed up to grab slabs for the OWB and said all he had in the shop would be black pipe and neither of us wanted that. SO I threw the stuff in the truck to finish in my shop. But I needed to catch up with him on other stuff and finally he said "can we have this conversation over a beer while I fill and re-fire the OWB?" SUre...so up we went and did that while I asked questions. We got the OWB filled up and re-started and I learned that he actually had 5 of those trailers he got at a commercial cleanout job. He got paid to remove them and empty them as well as the building they were in. They will wind up in the back 40 for storage or if anybody needs one, he can make a deal. ;D We caught up on a bunch of stuff, those 16'slabs we have at the kiln are ready, but we will likely got out and plane them at the site, for an added fee, then trailer them back home, it will save time. We need to arrange a day to do that. I am pushing to get the slab poured in the steel building so we can move forward on making a woodshop at temporary slab storage area. But he needs to get the gable wall done on the second story of the shop expansion before the weather comes in. He has the lumber to get that on a good start.
I got back home after a couple of beers and grabbing some eggs from his chickens and I looked around and had one galvanized bushing for the valve. So I put it all together and it's ready to go back on. By that time it was past dinner time, I called it a day. Pat was over at my son's getting the boys off the bus, so she was late getting back. We had a later dinner and I broke the news on this build I have in mind, She is not only on board, she has input. SO that's good. I want to put a little extra effort into this and see if I can actually do some woodworking stuff like the real guys do. This will be one of those "I get it done when I get it done" type things where I learn as I go and have a lot of stops and re-starts. At least that's what I think it will be. Patience has never been one of my virtues, but in this case, it's the only way because my 'in my mind' construction plans include a lot of things I have never done, just seen and wanted to try.
Whatever.
Tomorrow is another day for all of us.
Yesterday I didn't do much, mostly got a bit more ready for moving the machines up and down. I got the old table saw cued up at the lift point after I made a path to move it there. I shuffled things around down stair to make room for the toolcat and finished the skid riser platform to get up high enough for an easy move on and off the deck.
I went down to Bill's later and replaced the valve on the lube tank and that works well now. I forgot he was out for the day at an auction. (No joy there.) As I was leaving he was coming in and we chatted a bit. He was having a small party that evening to set off the burn pile that he couldn't burn during his party because of unsafe conditions. It needs to be burned down to make room for more of the storm damage stuff coming in all the time. The pile stands at nearly 20' high and 35' or so in diameter.
SO after dinner the wife and I went down, enjoyed some light snacks, met a few new people and some old friends, had a couple of beers, and a heck of a fire.
I slept in a little this morning as my back is starting to bother me and that hip pain is back. I missed my chiro appt this month because I has the crud. Eventually I got the shop final prepped for the move. Bill came down with the toolcat and his 5 year old helper, Little Inga. Got the old saw down, and the new saw up, Then we got the double drum sander in the shop on the floor. That thing is dang heavy and is going to need a complete rebuild. Everything has to come apart, it's all rusted and frozen up. I just have to make sure the two motors work before I get too far into it. It takes a lot of my floor space so I will have to get on it.
BUT Bill has 3 woodsheds he has to build and I need to cut lumber for. He has no cut list. ;D I have to get my last ERC log done and out of there, then I can start on the hemlock 6x6's and 2x6's for the bases and pine for everything else. Guess I should make up a drawing or something.
Anyway I spent some of the afternoon reading an old 4 page thread here on the FF that I got sucked into and then went out in the shop and started putting things back together. I put the rail back up on the loft, replaced the sanding bench, moved the RAS back where it was, and the new table saw where it will go. I moved the stuff around on the ground floor so I could get the Mule back in it's bay. Next on the list is to re-do my dust collector duct work to correct my newbie errors on the first try, and run the ducting for the new saw. I have to also add on overhead 2" pickup for that saw. SO some cutting and fitting will be required. That all may have to sit for a while. Looks like the milling needs to get done soon.
There's always plenty to do around here, especially at the rate I work.
Full day today. I went down and milled up that last ERC log. I saved to butt log for last and was very disappointed. It had lots of rot cracks, and ant nest, and was generally poor, I barely got 3 clear boards out of it, the rest is all compromise. I milled it all and brought it home and stacked it, then I moved the stuff I milled in June over and put it on top of the stack. A quick calc tells me I have over 300BF, but a lot of that will be lost when it dries and I rip out all the crud sections. I just left it full length for an even stack.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220919_120447081.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663637783)
Anyway, it sits there drying. I had lunch, then went back to the mill and loaded all the slabs from these logs into the truck and I shoveled off the deck making all ready for the next orders. I brought the slabs home and threw them on a trailer. I am thinking of making smoker wood/kindling bundles to put up for sale at the Egg stand. I don't know if anyone uses ERC for smoking, but it makes great kindling. I like small cutoffs for air fresheners. I left one on the dash of the truck and one in the toolcat. I also stuck one in the bathroom by my desk. ;D
I had to run a neighbor down to town to catch a bus, so I did some errands there, then back in the shop. Dinner, and then back out in the shop after to start hooking up and fixing my dust collection system with the new saw. I also took photos of the old saw and posted it on marketplace. I finally plugged in the saw and tried it. It's like night and day over my old one. Yes, this was a fine upgrade. I am looking forward to running that cedar through it and trying my hand at making a cabinet we need.
I'm tired, but at least I can now work a full day without being exhausted and pooping out by 3pm.
Now I have to start getting things figured out for that shed order.
I'd share some Red Cedar for some White Pine.... :) Red Cedar is probably even more lowly here than Mulberry it's a weed to most. .
DEAL! I am sick of EWP, just about all the 2x stuff I will at Bill's is that stuff. You saw the video a few months back of the log piles. He does have a bunch of cedar he's collected, but it still sits in logs. I love the smell myself. But mostly, it has character. Most of the other wood we have is boring. SM, HM, RO, Ash is all ho-hum wood for me.
Heck, we run his OWB on EWP 365 days a year. We throw in 5' logs of it all the time.
I hope out of that 300 BF I have enough to make a few things after I've cut out all the punky cracked stuff. I will say that I have learned from that potting bench I made out of the stuff that it really doesn't hold the color if you treat it with Lindseed oil. But that was for an outdoor application. I will try poly, maybe spray, to see if I can get some color to hold.
I use the spar urethane and it turns brown instead of grey. the big logs often have ant colonies and or pith rot. Wish you were closer. I have used the best of the first 200 logs given to me by a guy clearing a farm for wildlife, and he has another 400 waiting for me to pick up... sorry to bring up "brown" again. :)
Well, we have them around here, but I generally don't get them myself. I just enjoy something different. Yeah that butt log had all the usual issues, including cracks, rot pockets, ant nest, etc.. I think a lot of that will wind up being short 1x4's for trim and such. I sure am not going to waste any of it. I've got my eye on 3 nice walnut logs Bill has, two look to be veneer quality. But he is waffling between selling them and milling them.
That urethane you use, is it oil based? The wood I made the bench from was pretty old, laying around for 15 years and I think that had a lot to do with the color. I didn't want to plane fresh surfaces since it was already planed out.
Yeah, I wish you were closer too.
it is a surface finish by minwax. uv protection added spar urethane. it will peel over time. some of the oils for exterior may work well like waterlox. I will get a pic of the little library instaleed a few years back I think. it still looks great, from the street.
The last couple of days I have been bouncing around on small and different things, bucking some firewood, messing with that drum sander to see what I need to do and how I am going to do it, getting the old TS ready to go out the door and trying to find a buyer. I also continue to try and straighten up the shop and reassemble everything, the duct collector ducts, and all the stuff I moved to switch out machines. It's all coming along slowly. I went down to Bill's last evening to work out a BOM for these woodsheds but I missed him, he was out on an emergency call or something.
This morning I got a text an hour or so before word hit the forum about Danny (WDH) and I have been thinking about him all day. For a guy I never met, he sure taught me a lot but what set him apart was that he taught me (us) how to figure it out or where we could look it up. Knowledge is power and he had a lot of that. I've been reading the comments in that thread all day off and on and the thing that stands out is how much he shared with everyone he interacted with. It's a universal comment, it would seem. He really was that special. I feel so badly for his family. This family we have here is gonna be hurting for a while too, he was a big part of it and I know many here were quite close with him, not the least of which were Jeff and Tammy. SO not only have I been thinking of him but I have been thinking about those good friends he had here on the forum. I know I am not the only one feeling down all day today. I still don't know what else can be said. I will surely miss him. We have all lost a good man in him, but as was already said, we are richer for having known him.
So I stumbled through today. I had a guy come look at the saw, but he is a tire kicker and said he has one other one to look at before he decides. Great, a waste of my morning. After he left I went down to Bill's again, and again I missed him. Feel like I am spinning my wheels. I did get some photos of that last table build from the client, so I got those up on my FB page and they are now shared on the RiteLeg page also. Not great photos, but beggars can't be choosers.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/Table1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663879311)
You can see the custom paint Deb legs on the table and benches.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/table2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663879312)
In the above photo you can see the mineral stain I fought with. The client accepted it as a 'feature'. They say they 'love the table'. Good enough for me. I got the slabs from Bantle's Boards and the legs from RiteLeg, obviously. It's a 3 hour round trip for me, but one stop shopping. The nails I found in the slab were a surprise but I worked with it and didn't ruin any cutting tools. I put this tree at about 80 years old. If I recall correctly @Tam-i-am (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1461) told me this slab came out of the same log as the LogRite conference room table slab.
Beautiful table Tom.
Thank you. I was semi-happy with that one. The nails threw me off a bit, but I left the stain as a 'feature' and epoxy filled the holes. Not much epoxy on this one at all maybe 9 oz. by weight on the whole thing and most of that was sanded off. But I did try coloring the epoxy to match the legs on a whim. I got the color match pretty spot on, but there is so little epoxy you almost need a loupe to see it. The lie edges on this one looked very nice and were a selling point.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220815_093958486.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1660614653)
I would die to have wood like that here lol. That is craftsmanship right there!
Oh my! Thank you. Red Oak is very common here, we use it for firewood. The client specifically requested this because he has a progressive farm where they grow trees, fruits, and vegetables. They are in a very different micro-climate from my area and at 2,200' elevation and he can count all the red oaks he has on his property without running out of fingers. He seems to like that wood. As I said it's common here, but to get the width I would have to do a glue up. As it turned out Bantle's Boards over in CT just restarted their operation within the LogRite/RiteLeg Facility. They have a large stock of kiln dried slabs stored inside. So I could pick up the legs and the slabs in one shot and even pick the slabs I wanted. I worry about shipping damage on custom painted legs. The only downside is driving through CT and SE NY traffic. I just add 4 hours of my time to the bill plus some gas. On a table this expensive it's a small amount. Starting with good materials is a key to getting a good output. Having access to a slabmizer on my road is also handy. I think it took less than 2 hours to get all three slabs flattened and back to my shop.
I know finding hardwood in EU is tough. I spent some time with a Journeyman floor restoration fella from Germany at a wedding a few years back and we were leaning on a Red Oak bar I had made for the couple as a wedding present. He marveled at the wood we have available and he asked me how hard it was to get that wood here, how far did I have to go? I pointed down across the road and through the trees and said I 'had to go all the way across the road, wanna see the stump?' He just shook his head and said, we can't do that, and even if we could these trees are not there.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on September 22, 2022, 05:01:37 PM
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/table2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663879312)
In the above photo you can see the mineral stain I fought with. The client accepted it as a 'feature'. They say they 'love the table'. Good enough for me. I got the slabs from Bantle's Boards and the legs from RiteLeg, obviously. It's a 3 hour round trip for me, but one stop shopping. The nails I found in the slab were a surprise but I worked with it and didn't ruin any cutting tools. I put this tree at about 80 years old. If I recall correctly @Tam-i-am (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1461) told me this slab came out of the same log as the LogRite conference room table slab.
Here is the table from the same tree. We left all the staining as character.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11461/IMG_7560.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1663942182)
Yeah, here in Spain in the mountains, you have to get PERMITS to cut down ANY tree (even on private property). As an American living here, I find that just annoying lol. It's actually easier to get a permit to cut down live trees than dead trees, as they say that the dead trees are the "habitat" of the things that associate with dead things lol. Well, yes, that is true. However, there are so many dead trees, that it will soon become an overpopulation of these critters. Yes, large hardwood is hard to find here, however we do have a local oak that is REALLY knotty but very solid wood. We also have American oaks. You can occasionally find a 36" base oak around. Pine is the major source of wood income around here. We have a local sawmill that also sells some oak, but not in large boards at all.
I've been pretty melancholy since last Wednesday's news. It's been pretty hard to take on a number of levels and I also feel bad for the guys here who really got to know and enjoy Danny, a hell of a man, who was their good friend. Life goes on, but those first steps have always been hard for me. I've never been very fast at anything to tell the truth.
.................
Anyway, Friday the temps dropped around here pretty good. I went down to Bill's in the afternoon and we hooked up his small 16' trailer and drove an hour west and up about 1,500 more feet in elevation. We landed at Gary Mead's shop around 5:30. I should have brought a jacket. ;D The wind was a-whippin out there as dark fell. We were going to plane them in Gary's shop after the kiln, but they were just a bit over the 24" he could fit, some phones calls with the client and it was decided to do them on the slabmizer at Bill's place, still tricky to do the 16.5', but what the heck. So we loaded the trailer and tied it down. Bill found out Gary likes dark beers, so we brought out a growler and went back in the shop for some 'samples', Gary, his guy, Bill, Bill's little 5y/o girl Inga, and me. Gary gave Inga a special tour of the shop and answered all her questions. He loves kids and has school groups visit often. He had already given copies of his books to Bill for her on our last visits. She also found some 'interesting' cutoffs from various glue-ups that were destined for the wood stove which Gary happily gifted her with. It was after 9pm by the time I dropped the trailer at Bill's place. Dang but it felt pretty cold for mid 40's and no jacket.
Saturday I had forgotten I promised to take my wife out to the cauliflower festival in Margaretville. She reminded me. ;D SO.... out we went, right back on the hour drive west I had done the night before. The festival was OK (this time I had a jacket) and I ran into the boys from the CFA I know and a few other folks. But we didn't find anything special. Since we were only 5 minutes away from Gary's gallery, I talked the wife into a visit. Gary wasn't there, but he doesn't lock the gallery and invites guests in as long as they sign the book, which we did. She really enjoyed his work and all the details. I am getting pretty good at explaining his work and the neat details. After about 40 minutes or so, we left and as I was approaching the op of his driveway, he was coming in. He said "Hey I saw you across the field over at the festival, but by the time I crossed, I couldn't find you, now here you are!" We laughed and I explained I wanted my wife to see his work even though it makes mine look a lot worse. :D We are looking forward to getting Gary to come here for a visit to Bill's place and maybe mine too since he has to drive past it anyway.
Not much on Sunday, I did some firewood work but when the rain came and I decided I was wet enough I piddled in the shop a bit and then came in the house and figured out how to burn up that stupid Amazon gift card. I ordered 2 X-cut chains for my 450 and a new weather station thingy. Just temp and humidity indoor and outdoor. It's a silly little thing. I had a cheapy that has worked fine for more than 5 years, but the remote isn't working anymore and I have found that it is the first thing I look at every morning and the last thing I check every night, and I miss it more than I thought. So I blew almost 60 bucks on a better one. Hey, it was a gift, right? It arrived this evening and is working just fine, I'm happy, but really looking forward to trying the new chain on the 450 more. ;D
Today we had the monthly chiro appointment, which we missed last month due to my COVID. I needed it. Got home, did lunch, and I headed to the mill. We have 3 sheds to build and I spent an hour or so on Sunday making sense of Bill's sketches. I broke the sizes into a spreadsheet, then tried to derive the log requirements out of that. It's still a confusing mess. So I went down and started picking, bucking, and stacking logs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220926_134623625_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664242610)
Bill came by on the forwarder and he moved a couple of logs for me. In the process of chatting, apparently he gave me the wrong floor sizes and the 6x14' shed is actually an 8x10' shed. So some of the logs I cut might be wasted. Anyway, I did get some logs ready to mill, this stack and a couple on the mill deck.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220926_145129509_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664242613)
I also tagged a couple of hemlocks but they are way up on the pile and I need Bill to grab them off with the picker. I am not doing something dumb, not here anyway.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220926_134701033_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664242815)
The hemlock pile is all 20-24 footers, except a couple of 16's. Because of the shed size change, some of the logs I cut may be wasted, but we'll see. It's all good. Extra 2x4's never last very long around here. :D
Anyway, black clouds came over and the sky dumped...HARD. So I threw the saws in the 'cat and headed up, right behind Bill. I headed home soaking wet and re-did my spreadsheet based on the 'revised' shed sizes. One thing that I felt really good about is all the pine logs came from directly across from the mill deck. This just helps to reduce that pile and open up the area so that it's MUCH easier to get logs in and out. It's one of those things that bothers me EVERY time I move in logs. Taking steps to save steps. It's also the area that gets flooded, mudded, and frozen during all seasons. Bill told me he has all the materials to run the drain through he's wanted to do for years, so clearing that out will make it easier to get in with the excavator and hammer and open up a drainage trench in the rock, lay the pipe, and grade it all over. That will be a real improvement. The mud can be 10" deep sometimes and hang in for weeks in the cooler weather. The ice is even worse. We never seem to have time to fix this stuff, but we have time to fight with it everyday. Hope we can get that drain in before the ground freezes.
Tomorrow is another day and I guess I'll try milling some stuff up.
Good job making me sad to have not visited Gary when we were up there! Sounds like you guys are becoming quick buds, that's neat. Some day I'll have to make a trek up there to visit you again, maybe for a few days so I can bumble around some and you can show me some more sights, without that pesky family in tow. (I'm obviously kidding, my family is cool, but they aren't as into the wood stuffs as I am) I'd love to help out on the mill with you and see how that whole process goes. I'd find a hotel room though, my car is a bit tiny for sleeping in (but would be lots of fun around your roads up there).
Well, I am sorry about that, but we had to make choices and the walking tour of Woodstock was kind of the substitute for the 3 hour loop out to Gary's plus visit time. Surely you would have enjoyed it, but your family would have been anxious to move on, I think. At the time I didn't know we could have access to the gallery whether he was there or not. Now I know better.
Gary does have a lifetime of knowledge and acquired skills he is willing to share for the asking and yeah, I guess we are hitting it off with shared experiences and he has taken a liking to Bill and wants to visit his place soon. (He made one little comment a few weeks ago that saved me hours of finishing work on that last table.)
But you can't do everything at once. You are welcome back anytime and we have a guest room you can use, but it only fits one person. Or maybe we could put you up in one of Bill's campers out in the woods. No power and pretty dark, but comfy in the right weather and VERY private. :D
Maybe on one of my visits I can shoot a walking tour video of his studio if it's OK with him. Maybe that will make up for it a little. I missed his show last week so will be waiting for the podcast this week. I did run into the show hosts at the festival Saturday.\
Next time I will try to do better. ;D
Hahaha, I wasn't really saying that to guilt trip you, I understood the constraints and we still had a lovely time! A video would be neat!
Well, I didn't post here yesterday and instead I posted over in the 'Watcha Sawin?' thread because most of my concerns had to do with that. ICYMI, here's a hint:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220928_122051910_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664488176)
I also think I mentioned that Bill had a SXS dropped off for a little test run. A 3cyl. Diesel. We ran it around in the swamp and had water halfway up to the dashboard, then a bit in the woods. I think he likes it, but this one is not for sale, just a tester outer.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220928_112647397_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664488177)
Good ground clearance and very peppy with a 40 MPH top end.
Last night Bill called me and asked me to stop by the place he was eating dinner with other friends for a beer. He told me to look in the back of his truck for some 'prizes' he picked up for us. He would not give me a hint. So I went down and found this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20220928_185716437.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664488457)
Lots of roller tables, which we have been looking for for nearly a year. Always too expensive or too far away. Well now he got paid to clear out a warehouse and he found these. Looks like we have plenty to make life at the mill a lot easier. I already have ideas and can't wait to get the current mill order done so I can start messing around with them. When I grow up I wanna be like Yellowhammer. ;D
Today I milled some, with great caution. I am watching everything since the crash. Only a couple hundred BF done, but I had no new incidents, so that was good. Those green hemlock 6x6x10's are pretty dang heavy! I have 4 more of those to go plus a bunch of 1x and 2x, I just want to get the hemlock done first.
I ran errands in the later afternoon and found Bill at that warehouse cleanout. What a mess, now I know why they have had to spend so much time there. They are also tearing the roof and trusses off half the building for safety reasons. A lot of work.
My wife has her biggest show of the year this weekend and I have to go help up set up 'the bones' tomorrow (canopies, tables, shelving, etc. It's not fun for me, but she needs the help doing a 10x 20 booth with all that 'stuff'. Hopefully I can get some milling in too., but that is iffy.
Tomorrow is another day.
Yes, on the hemlock.
I am great for sawing the tree and then sawing lumber, all within an hour of the tree hitting the ground. I had a friend help me on some hour old full 2x8x12. We worked putting them things up.
Well, I had some that dried about a month. He was dumb enough to help me again.
He liked it much better this time. He was shocked on how much lighter they were.
Now that's a friend!!!
I just about wore him out one day and then he comes back to help again.
Pretty gutsy running that loaner through the swamp, I love it! For anyone reading I've seen the swamp and it's legit, the only thing I can think to compare it to is the swamp where Yoda lives. I'd be worried about getting out in it and getting stuck, sounds like fun though!
Sweet rollers! How much reconfiguration of the orientation of the mill will it take to make good use of them? Or will it just take rearranging log piles?
Good luck to your wife with the show, I hope it goes well. I've helped my wife set up for some shows and it's no joke! Usually involves taking fair amounts of heavy stuff long distances, on foot.
Cfarm, this is the only stuff so far I have used the forks to get off the mill and stacked, just too heavy. The EWP ones I did with little issue.
Aighead, if it didn't get through the water, he didn't want it. He only has a few days to demo it, so might as well get that over first. It did well. ;D
We don't plan on doing anything to the mill. These rollers will be outboard for handling lumber and slabs with less lifting and faster speeds. We (I) have yet to decide on a startup configuration. Work in progress.
Nice score on the rollers..
Yeah, pretty excited about getting some of those rollers working for me, but I gotta finish the orders I've got before messing around.
Well today was wierd. Actually it was yesterday because it's after 1 am tomorrow, which is today now. Friday (which is now yesterday) I went to the mill and got a little more work done on the orders, but I had to be home by noon, shove down lunch and take the wife and her gear over to set up the bones for this big weekend outdoor show. We did all that and got home around 3:30. Then I had to repair the garage wall that the coon keeps ripping off to get in. So I screwed the lap siding back on the studs and grabbed a piece of 1x6x12' for good measure and screwed that on top. I just checked a half hour ago and can tell the coon is pithed based on all the stuff he moved as he tried ripping it out to get in. I think I have him stymied. :D ;D
Anyway I finished that up and before I could decide the next thing to do, I got a text from one of my Crew for a music festival we've worked together for years. She said she is working as a set medic for a music video shoot and they needed background guys. They wanted men over 50 years old and it was being shot in a bar locally. @Spike60 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=13669) will get a kick out of this, maybe @nybhh (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=38169) too, it was Snyder's Tavern. I have driven past this bar for 40 years, always wanted to stop in, but never seemed to have the time. Levon Helm shot a video there several years ago. When you drive past it looks like it's been closed for 20 years. Anyway, that intrigued me and I half thought it might by Amy helm doing the shoot, and as I know her, I thought it might be fun. I got cleance from the boss, and followed up. Yes, they wanted me and gave me the details. SO I took a shower, put on my best double front loggers jeans and a plain brown shirt as requested and got there just before the call time.
I've done a lot of weird stuff just to see what it was like and this was one of those. I have done it now, and probably don't need to do it again. I learned some things like when they say "5 minutes until we need the backgronders" (that what I was, a Bakckgrounder) actually means "you have 45 more minutes standing in a cold parking lot until we call you inside to stand around for another 20 minutes until we figure out where you will stand". The gig was supposed to be 6-10pm, but they didn't finish with us backgrounders until 11:30. I had lots of time to visit with my friend the set medic, and we did some catching up between her explaining who did what and who was who.
I had thought I would just be another 'old guy sitting at the bar', but no. They had jobs for all 7 of us and a couple of us had to do close-ups.....over and over and over. I thought the most stressful 'personal space' stress I ever suffered was when I sung some back-up on a studio recording and had to listen to my voice on the playback over and over and they did realtime mixing, filtering, and blending. Now I know having a steady-cam camera inches from your face and trying to hold the same expression you had on a half hour before is more stressful. Over and over until somebody out in the darkness finally said "cut, perfect, let's move on". There were no musicians involved. There was a professional actress made up as some kind of she-wolf person from the swamps in pursuit of something I have yet to discover. We did 4 variation shoots of the same scene which will porbably comprise 15 seconds of the entire video. I thinkk this is a 4 day shoot. They just needed us guys tonight. Tomorrow is a different location, actually closer to my house. There was probably 35 people on the crew, I could only find 3 local people. The other 'backgrounders' were all guys that actually travel around doing this stuff for side money and hoping for a big break, whatever that is. They though I was weird doing it on a fluke and concerned about getting back to the sawmill in the morning. :D I asked them "do you making a living at this stuff?" "oh no, but it's fun and extra cash". To each his own. I was there for 5 and a half hours, actual 'working time' was about 15 minutes. Strange business that. ;D
Oh and the band (who, as I said, was not there) is the "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's' out of the nyc area. It's an Indy rock band. So I finally got to visit this bar and could not even buy a drink. I think it's more fun to run the mill. Funny thing was, that was the last thing I pictured myself doing today.
Here's that Levon Helm video I mentioned. The farm shots were done at a farm in my town, now sold off and the Jack Gill in the video is a real life local guy who was the second largest corn producer in NYS. That stuff is all real, no actors. Jack was on the town board for years and is now gone too.
Levon Helm "Poor Old Dirt Farmer" Official Music Video - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBuJB218UvU)
Boy, I sure lead a boring life! :-\
Yeah, but I keep working on it. I'll figure something out someday.
EDIT:
Sorry, I thought you said that I lead a boring life, which I do. I think yours is pretty exciting with that build you've got going on and all the running back and forth and dealing with the extreme weather. I guess "one man's ceiling is another man's floor". ;D
Yeah, I get a kick out of it. But it better be over for Sunday football, or that crew will be what's getting kicked. :)
Actually have a movie story of my own from there. Stumbled on another movie shoot of some sort there once. Weekday afternoon. Stopped there after leaving my store. Just walked right in past everyone. Me and a couple other locals that were already there sat at the end of the bar by the pool table. They were filming a scene where a couple is having an argument and the chick storms out the door. Finally got a good take with the actress getting angry enough for the director, which I attribute to her getting fed up with having to do 6-7 takes. Then they started packing up and someone from the crew bought a round of drinks for us regulars. One of which thanks him and says, "ya know, it's not too late for me to be "discovered" and be a big movie star, but I'm probably too old for love scenes." LOL
A mushroom logging legend turns music video star. Hilarious!
Excellent explanation of the process Tom, sounds more like a drag than I expected. Also the Yeah, yeah yeahs, I think, are pretty popular. You'll have to let us know when the video comes out. And tell us the first time you get recognized for that video.
You know Spike, it's funny that Synder's got listed a few years back in one of those 'top ten' lists and it has, I'm sure, been a great source of bemusement for Chet and the regulars. Go on yelp sometime and look at the comments. Everything from "What ever you do, DON'T bring up politics in this joint!" to "OH, It's a quaint and lovely place with caring and friendly local working folks" and lot in between. Hysterical reading for me anyway. I guess it (The tavern) got on some kind of listing for location scouts for movie and video shoots. I just hope Chet makes a good buck from it.
....................
Speaking of that shoot. Doc mentioned "city guys in flannel shirts" in another thread and I didn't want to hi-jack that one, so I put this here.
When I arrived at the location, it was clear from all the New Jersey plates on the cars and equipment trucks that these folks weren't from around here. Yet when I walked in they were all dressed like urban outdoorsmen, or in some cases homeless folks. More than a few had artic parkas on. At the time it was about 55°. One guy was walking around asking if anybody had an "AP" on their phone to identify poison ivy. There was great entertainment in watching these folks work in what was apparently a hostile environment to them.
The kicker for me was when the 'Wardrobe person' came to check out my appearance for suitability. Now you have to understand, that this Asian gal of about 30 something is wearing a tight leather-like top that leaves a line of her belly showing, nice stylish black leather pants, and new looking loggers boots, but with a flat heel. This is in contrast to all the afore mentioned folks in parkas and holey pants. The first time she came by she looked at me smiled and said "You look just perfect! Love that hat". This after making a couple of the others find different clothes a few times. Kind of made me feel good. Well 30 minutes later she comes by to give me a second look and stands in front of me and asks me to remove my jacket to see the 'overall look I present'. Her face goes blank an she folds her arms and looks very concerned, even confused. After a long pause she points and says "What are THOSE?" She is pointing at my black braces. I said "These are braces, but you probably call them suspenders. Is there a problem? I could take them off if you like." She appears very confused and starts to talk and says "Well, um..... I don't know.... you could.... let me....." and never finishes any of those sentences. She says nothing more, then looks at the Set Medic standing next to me with an expression that says "Have YOU ever seen such a thing?" but she says nothing, just keeps staring. Finally she moves on and points out the small bright yellow tape measure on my belt (I forgot about it) and says "can we lose that, and the phone too?" Sure I said, no problem and I put them in my jacket pocket along with my pen and cigarette pack. Then she sees my black sheathed folding knife and "that 'thing' goes too". I mumbled under my breath "I wonder what you would think if I had a sidearm on? :D" and she said "What's that?", I just said 'oh never mind.' ;D (The Set Medic got a good chuckle out of that.) She comes back to the braces and resumes 'the stare' and folded arms. I remain confused. Finally she says she needs another photo so she can show the director and see what she thinks. She is not too happy with this bump in her road. She did say she 'loved' my hat, It was just a green woodsman's crusher. Lastly she had me button up my shirt all the way to the neck, something I never do and didn't even know if the collar would fit. But it did, but I thought that was weird. She left and I was still processing the prior minutes when the Set Medic says to me "What THE HECK was THAT? Did you see the way she looked at me? What was her issue? That was Weird!" Now realize this isn't the set medic's first rodeo and it is mine. She has worked with dozens of different crews in the 5 years she has been doing this work but this is a new crew for her too. She knows what is 'normal" for these folks. I thought the whole thing peculiar and funny because I really didn't care. ;D :D
Well, apparently the braces were 'OK' and were never mentioned again. I never saw the wardrobe gal again either. In fact it would appear that whatever I looked like made them single me out and put me by the juke box rather than with all the other guys at the bar or pool table. I think I leaned on that juke box for 2 hours. They did SEVERAL close up panning shots of my face and one other guy (over and over). I now know that 'close up' means a lens 6" from your face as you try to maintain an expression in reaction to something totally different that happened 30-60 minutes ago. I found it was not a warm fuzzy experience.
All in all, fun to do.... once. If I ever do it again, it will be for friends or something that gives me a better reason to take the time out. I am supposed to get a hundred bucks for it but they seemed kind of lax about getting detailed info for payment, so I don't know if I will ever really see it. Anything for a laugh, right?
Austin, recognized? Really? I seriously doubt that could or would ever happen. I have no idea when it will come out. These things sometimes get rushed for an album release and sometimes held for the same reason. I've never heard of this band, but what do I know? Yes, as I commented to the guy whose job it was to simply turn the fog machine off and on as they were shooting or waiting: "you guys are professional stand-arounder's, aren't you?" And he replied "Yup, if you aren't good at that, you don't belong in this business." I just said "Well I can say, it ain't easy."
Back to real work, today is another day.
Your wife can start selling autographed 8x10 glossies at her craft shows. Bill may have to get you a driver. you can start wearing shirts that show your middle with your black suspender brace thingies as she prob. referred to them as.
oops almost forgot the smiley. :)
Yeah, funny Doc but not bloody likely. :D It appears Austin is right and these guys have been around a while and doing some big gigs. Not exactly my music, but it takes all kinds, right. I just went and looked at a few things on you tube. Looks like they spend a bunch of money on video's and the lead singer is apparently very fashion conscious. I can see what my braces were such a concern now. ;D
They seem to have a thing for werewolves and dirty faces. Must be their 'thing'. Whatever.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Gold Lion - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMkP_ofpXg)
Nope....I guess I will wait til you tell us the video is out before I click on another.
Not really a style of music I appreciate.
Yup! I mentioned it to the wife and her first comment was along the lines of "whoa! They're pretty big!" and she actually knows what she's talking about.
I totally think you'll get recognized and I'll laugh and laugh when you come back to report as much! Especially with your close-ups. Only 5 million views on the video you posted, Tom, no big whoops...
This is one of the best things I've ever read! City girl comes to look at legit logger and tells him how to dress more like a logger! The tape measure belt should have stayed, with a slow close-up shot from boots to hat, that belt would have sold to a bunch of hipsters, I guarantee it. You're going to start a whole new Brooklyn fashion trend Tom! I can't wait!
Well I have already nearly put it out of my mind and if they actually pay me, that will let me put it all the way out of my mind. These things can take 3-52 weeks to be released and sometimes they never even get released or get entirely red-done. SO I won't hold my breath. The changes that my face shows up in this is about 5% or less and who knows when it will be out, if ever.
I might go look in a few weeks or months and see if it showed up. Something to do on a snow day. ;D
Aighead, it is tough enough t find good quality leather logging boots anymore with the manufacturers switching over to cheaper designs to sell in the city. I will not be part of that trend. I wasn't supposed to look like a logger, nor did I, just jeans and a brown checked shirt. It's a 'whatever thing'. Maybe your wife can tell us all when the video comes out.
I will bet you a 30 pack of Bush against whatever it is you like to drink that nobody ever tells me they recognized me in that video without a clue from me or somebody else.
Does it count if I recognize you?
I think it's all great and I'm proud of you for participating in the weird things you have. I'm not sure I'da been comfortable enough to do so.
No it does not count. You have inside information therefore all your family members are exempt. ;D :D
Yeah, well I'll do anything for a laugh...... once.
Never imagined you as a hipster.... :D :D
Talked to Chet on Sunday. He said that shoot went way over the predicted time and didn't get over with until 1:00 AM in the morning. Were you there that long?
I have read most of those reviews, and get quite the kick out of them. Like all things Yelp, it mostly reflects a NYC viewpoint/judgement on what a place is or ought to be in their minds. Things like "not enough craft beers" or "no table service" aren't going to change anytime soon. There's no room for more beer variety in the cooler anyway.
It's funny to watch some of these people pull in, get out of their cars, and then peer in the window before coming in, and sometimes get back in their cars and high tail it out of there. Truth is, friendly people are friendly people regardless of where they come from, and that's how it is 99% of the time. You do occasionally see the "I'm from the city!" blowhard and we'll ask "Which city?" or "Ya mean from Kingston?". LOL
And you would be correct Nebraska. A hipster is the opposite of what I am or ever was. ;D (Think 'sarcastic old man' and you will be pretty close.)
Spike, Chet was a trooper, gosh they had him standing behind that bar in one spot for hours on end and he couldn't move because he had bank lights on the floor leaning against the back bar for effect. We were 'hired' for 6-10pm and were released at 11:30. I was tired so I took 28 home rather than 28A, easier but longer drive.
Yeah, those reviews are funny. Where I grew up we had a lot of neighborhood bars and taverns. We called them 'Old Man Bars' and I actually preferred them over the fancy club places. 25 cent beers, 5 for a dollar. Pretty much the same folks were in there anytime you stopped in on your way home from work. I enjoyed a good conversation over loud music and I learned a lot in those places as a youngster. I learned a lot about 40's music too and came to love it. I even worked at one for a while making pizzas and such. Synder's is just like the one I liked the best from my early years called "Jack's Town Tavern" which was just a few blocks from the first apartment we lived in when we were married. I worked nights and would get off around 2:30am with barely enough time to get there. At the legal closing time, Jack would turn off the front lights and lock the door but the regulars would sit at the bar for another hour or so, with a few drinks lined up, while Jack cleaned up. Sometimes I'd work late and they would let me in anyway. The inside of that place looked exactly like Synder's, and the outside, not so much, but nothing looks like Synder's really. ;D I heard Jack passed about 25 years ago. Jack's place was a good mix of nationalities. There was another place a mile down the road called "Teddy's" and I would stop there once in a while, but if you weren't Italian, you were never really trusted and would not fit in. I also am pretty sure there was a book making operation running there because I lot of guys would stop in, get a short beer at the bar, and leave a wad of cash with a little slip of paper, then leave. ;D But I was 18, what did I know. :)
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Well it is truly a drizzly, snotty, not-so-nice, day today. I think I will be out in the shop and maybe take a run down to T&T with some saws. Kind of glad I did that small fire in the shop stove last evening, the temp is 57 out there and should be easy to kick it up a tad and dry out the air. But first I think I'll cook me up some eggs.
Well as expected, it stayed real drizzly all day and we got some real rain in the late afternoon, and evening. I started another smudge fire in the shop and it took a couple of hours to get it up to 60° with a small fire but it was dry and comfy all day in there. 65° out there as I write this. I worked on the drum sander getting it apart. This is a somewhat unique rebuild in my experience because I haven't broken anything or had to cut anything off yet. 8) Even though everything is rusty, it still comes apart, some nuts and screws even come out with fingers after breaking loose. This will probably go easier than I thought and Bill stopped by when I was halfway through the day and started suggesting I didn't need to replace the main board drive belt, it might be saved ($$) but I will wait and see. Changing that belt again later means taking the whole machine apart again. I want this to be 'one and done' with a nice machine as the final result. I notice a lot of the current twin drum machines use an abrasive belt for the board drive and they are a lot cheaper than a custom rubber belt. I will look into both and decide. So far I know to motors run smooth and all the bronze and roller bearings run nice and free. I have a lot of surface rust to polish off, but frankly I am shocked to see that all the parts I assumed I would replace or make new are in perfect shape, they just need cleaning up. At this point:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221004_122220526.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664929681)
I have the sanding rollers off and the main belt rollers removed and the platen is ready to lift off. This is one of the big questions: do I need to make a new platen (pretty certain I do), and if so, what do I make it from? The original is a high density flake board, sorta like MDF, but it had gotten wet at some point. To replace it I will need to find some 1" MDF that is about 36x36 or so. That might not be easy. But ideally, that is what I think I want to do. Could be 1" marine ply also, but that's gonna be hard to find also. But that's down the line a bit. Before I go further I have to test the motors again and see if I am still popping the breaker in my panel. It popped every time I tested it, but those drive belts are so dried and stiff and they were banjo string tight, that I believe they were overloading it. I want to see if my breaker handles the two motors with no load. Once i do that I can unwire the motors and finish the teardown. Looks like more rain for tomorrow so I guess I will carry on with it. I want to get it to the point that I can at least do a quick and dirty paint job on it with some quick sanding. Clean paint will make the sawdust cleanup easier. I can see this machine will work well and is in great shape despite it's appearance. I started rebuilding machines like this since I was about 12 after watching my Pop bring home rusty rotting machines with a broad smile. 6-12 months later he had a museum quality machine humming in his shop. It's how he got ALL his machines. I will never be as good as him, and the time you put into this stuff is something you can't think about, but making something work again and be productive is a feeling that's hard to describe until you've enjoyed it. I know a lot of guys here understand what that means.
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Mid-afternoon I changed direction and headed out the my Husky dealer. I didn't want to mess up his day my my PITA visit, but time is growing short and it was a snotty day, so I thought it might be slow in the afternoon. 1st saw I brought in was my 450. He did tell me to bring it back for a checkup after I ran 4 or 5 tanks through it, somehow my brain transposed that to 40 or 50 tanks so after I hit the mark (some time back), I figured I would get him to just give it a check and make sure any adjustments I made over time didn't screw it up too much. It didn't, but he gave it just a little tweak to get the WOT RPM's where they should be. Sounded good. Then we looked at a dead 350 I am trying to get life into and he gave me a few suggestions where to go next. Lastly I brought the new 562 in to get my last chance to see what the computer said abut how it was doing. Surprisingly I had about 7 hours run time on it and everything looked normal. I really thought I had less actual run time on it because I don't have a habit of setting a saw down to let it idle while I do 'stuff'. After that we just hung out and chatted for a while and helped out one fella who came in with a minor user induced issue on an older saw, I think it was a 55, but Bob can set me straight. It was a nice conversation as the rain came down and I enjoyed that a lot. Part of the pleasures of retirement is being able to spend time just enjoying other folks in the middle of the afternoon. Bob will figure that out by about this time next year. :D ;D
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After I left there I headed to town for a beer run but mostly because I broke the 25' tape I use at the sawmill and my 16' tape is driving me nuts. Could not get the one I wanted, they have moved on to other styles now, but I got one that will work. Of course it was more than I wanted to spend on a tape I know will last maybe 4 months. They all break, get mislaid, run over, lost, left behind, buried under a dark truck seat never to be found again until you sell the truck, or wind up in somebody else's tool bag. ;D It's the same with socks in the dryer. Since it was still raining I wandered a bit to see if I could find any of those 'high quality, make a statement' slabs but my store has none. What I did find was some shiplap that looked like this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221004_170601143.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664932432)
That is an "all the way through" crack. How this got past all the hands that board has been through is beyond me. If you like cracks and character like that, there were plenty to be found. They are plenty proud of them.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221004_170604785.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664932593)
Anyway, a knock around day. A little of this and a little of that. We'll see what tomorrow brings.
I wish I had the patience/knowledge to work on old tools. I have a bunch of old rusty hand tools, which I've never used or needed really, that have been passed down to me over the course of time. Some stuff is likely wall art at this point but some could probably be handy. I can't talk myself into sitting down with stuff like that and messing with it. Maybe when I'm really done with the barn I can build a bench out there that I can dedicate to tearing some stuff down on, so I don't make a wreck of the shop.
I'm envious of your abilities there Tom. Can't wait to see it cleaned up.
Was glad you stopped by and had time to hang. Plus that late in the afternoon I was out of gas as far as banging out any more shop work. The guy with the 55 just had a couple of simple issues to solve while we were there BS'ing. And it's easy to stick that mount in a 55, not to forget that we don't want to miss an opportunity to run down the parts inventory. :)
That cracked board might be there a long time. Had a similar experience at that very same store several years ago. Picking up some plywood and the top sheet was just junk. And you could tell it had been there a while as the color was changing and it was different from the rest of the stack. Set it aside, and while I was getting some nice sheets, two HD employees walked by and the one said, (partly for my ears), "I guess we'll have to pick up that sheet again." Couldn't resist that one and replied, "Hey guys, NOBODY is going to buy that sheet. Look at it; would you buy it? If you don't want to keep picking it up, then get rid of it."
Was still there a week later. :)
the decision to remove that sheet is prob. made at the cooperate level out of state. :)
Tom, that looks just like my Grizzly. I replaced the drive belt with a nice rubber one, no looking back. It was better than the origional. I have seen smaller versions like the 10/20 type open side with a sanding belt to drive. the old one was hard and had the shape worn into it. they stretch over time and more on the edges so tracking is hard to adjust. get the manual from grizzly and it spells all that out. my MDF was split on the edges but flat. a little glue and clamping and it holds the brackets for the drive roller fine.
you could sandwich two sheets of 1/2 inch, even put a sheet of steel in the middle.
Quotethe decision to remove that sheet is prob. made at the cooperate level out of state.
Maybe two reasons to leave that ugly sheet on top.. or three. 1. Might be perfect for a customer who doesn't need better quality.. (could then offer less money to buy it).2. Leaving it there protects the sheets below it. 3. Leaving it there to be moved aside, makes the sheets below look so much better. I once went to the lumber yard and needed less than a full 4x8 sheet of drywall. While at the stack, there was one piece that had two corners broken off. I started to pick it off and an "employee" came by and offered to help, but apologized for the broken corners. I said that it would work for me, as I just needed a 3' x 7' size and would trim off the broken corners. This guy offered to cut it to size for me and he did. As I was walking away with the trimmed piece, he said "no charge". I thought "no charge" for the trimming he did, but he sent me home at no charge at all. Turned out he was the owner of the lumber yard and was glad to help, and glad to get rid of a sheet of drywall that had broken corners.
well you clearly still have a warm fuzzy glow in your heart for the yard and owner, and what else was he going to do. if he delivers it to a big construction site maybe ok, but may pith off that customer. I called for special O rings at my hydraulic place. three were to be laid out on the counter so my wife could pick them. guy at the counter said not here, so my wife called me at work, got the guy on the phone, and I told him, "josh was to lay 3 of the proper O rings on the counter labeled Henderson". the guy fumbled a bit and said well there is a pack here that says Henderson with 3 O rings in it. ... so my wife said he did not charge her either. :)
Doc, had to laugh at that. Reminds me of Woody on Cheers (watched a re-run of Cheers last night), and that counter response is just what Woody would say. :D :D
Doc, where did you get your belt? The platten on this one is 36.5 wide and 30.35 long and 1-1/4 think. So the distance between roller must be about 37" overall or 35" O/C. Is yours a double drum? I forget.
mine is a 24-inch grizzly, but to look at yours it is too or the exact design. I would see if they made that size. it was about 160 bucks I think, but it never worked right before.
(https://forestryforum.com/board/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn0.grizzly.com%2Fpics%2Fjpeg288%2Fg%2Fg1066r-24d45a210fcb8c98e6e57e2aaacf64ea.jpg&hash=a72eae44c8ecc9ddb0f8ef91f978b0ca3ec5ac5e)
this represents mine. they have some that are called 37 inch as well, and would prob fit yours
g0450_pl.pdf (grizzly.com) (https://cdn0.grizzly.com/partslists/g0450_pl.pdf)
this is for the 37 inch. not sure of the size or price. you may have to call.
405 P0449405 CONVEYOR BELT 930 X 2290MM
that is 36.61 inches wide, about 90 inches long (circumference) so can compare to the other.
ooops looks like $651
The one we have looks very much like the photo you offered up, even the handle and some of the sheet metal covers are spot on. But that is a single drum and we have a double drum. However, out belt is 36 x 72 long.
I think I am going to switch to an abrasive belt for the drive. I will call industrial abrasive tomorrow about getting a custom belt made and also order some rolls for the drums. I was thinking 80 and 120, what do you think?
If it wasn't such a job the change the drive belt I would try the one we have. It's a bit stiff and needs cleaning, but it might still work. The thing is, it's about 4 hours work to change that belt if it doesn't work. I have to take the whole top of the machine apart and then after changing, everything has to be realigned.
.................
Well today I got a pretty full day in on it. Everything is now taken apart down to the last bolt. I have bare frames and sheet metal that need cleaning sanding and painting. I am delivering all that to Bill's shop for the guys to play with. They have a big sandblaster down there. I will work on rejuvenating all the working parts. Then I have to make a new platten and get everything re-assembled on that. I am going to go hunting for some uhmw sheet, but I don't have much hope on that.
Back at the mill tomorrow.
While you're on the sawmill tomorrow, think about your list of folks who manage hockey rinks or contract to replace/refurbish hockey rinks.
The Ultra High Molecular Weight (UHMW) plastic rolls that make up the "boards" are usually up for grabs during a re-fit.
I looked up your profile, which placed you in N.Y. so I'm gonna guess that you know what I'm talkin' about here.
😋
That's a GREAT idea Andries! I never would have thought of that, and yes I do know what you are talking about, when I lived in a metro area I used to go to a LOT of NHL games, but that was a lifetime ago.
Anyway, I don't think it's something I will have time to pursue for this project. Something I will look for going forward though. The closet rink is 15 miles away and I don't know anybody there. It would take a long time to build a relationship. However I do have a surplus/salvage place in town the often has sheet off-cuts and scraps. I might get lucky there. If not, I have two other ideas I can do with the materials I have on hand. I thought the UHMW would be an elegant solution, but if not, other stuff would work. It's tough stuff, so my first choice. I just need 1/4" sheet stock, but I priced it at $120 bucks. Higher than I want to go for a 'nice to have'.
both are dual drum. the farm stores carry various sizes of slick plastic sheeting up to 4 x 8 sheets. if you wax the MDF it should be ok. do not over think. get a good conveyor. it may be cheaper to get a custom-made sanding belt but check out the rubber. what is the maker of your sander?
Well Doc, I am not overthinking, just planning the best option. I only want to do this once, changing the belt or platten means a full tear down.
For the platten I remembered that I have a fresh clean office desktop that was never installed and it still in the cardboard. I have been moving that thing around with me for 40 years. It is Formica laminated on the top and has plastic trimmed edges I can remove. It is the exact width I need and I can cut it to length easy. But it's just 1-1/8 thick. I need 1-1/4 in order for the roller supports to line up properly with the top surface. There are several way to accomplish, but I thought it would be neat to add a 1/8" layer of UHMW to the top. Plus, that would be easy to replace without a full teardown.
But if I can't find the material cheap, I will go with another solution. It's not a problem, I was just trying to do a nice job while it's all apart. I figure it will take nearly a day to cut the platten and re-attach the frame, then get the drive roller adjusting slides installed accurately. You have to do this right or there will be heck to pay trying to get it all to run true at setup time. BTDT, now 'do it right the first time' is my rule of thumb.
But, I am milling today and scouting mushroom logs for next weeks order I nearly forgot about. ;D
Seasonally cool this morning. I loaded up the truck with all the framing and sheet metal from that drum sander and took it down to Bill's shop for those guys to do the clean, prime, paint thing while I work on the mechanicals. I unloaded that and stuck it in the back of his shop. I had to move the loaner UTV out of the way so I took it for a little spin. ;D I like the diesel, it's pretty perky.
I switched my tools into the toolcat and milled for a pretty good session. It's getting confusing with similar lumber sizes on two different shed kits and I think I may have them messed up. Tomorrow I am going to have to spend and hour or so re-stacking by kit. I am very close to finishing them both, then I start on the third, a different size of course and I am told there is a 4th coming, but he doesn't know what size yet. It's making me crazy trying to deal with the constantly chnaging orders and sizes, but that's the job, right?
This is the stack for the 4x10 shed:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221006_150625313_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665101800)
I think I have too much lumber in there and some of it should be with the 8x10 kit, which looks like this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221006_150524916_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665101867)
I only need one 3x8x12' to finish the 4x10 kit, and a little more than that for the 8x10, so looking at the piles I think I have some of it in the wrong stacks. :D
I'll just throw down another set of bunks and start recounting and stacking by kit. I still have a 6x10 kit to start so any extra will go to that. The only differences in these kits is the depth of the side walls and the rafters and floor decking. But I am sawing for time too. So I might mill deck boards that will be 4' but make them from a 12' log (with plenty of trim) so I get 3 deck boards out of each one I mill. This is how it gets confusing.
One good little extra to brighten my day. We keep a cheap 110v HF blower down by the mill. There is a likewise cheap extension cord dropped over the cliff from above to supply the little power it needs. But somebody was tossing masonry scrap off a truck and cut the cord up top and did NOT fix it, thus cutting off the little power I needed. I used that blower every day to clean the mill and have been trying to do it by hand for too long long since I lost my power source. I have no broom there. SO today I thought to throw my little leaf blower in the truck and I cleaned the mill pretty well. I also took the opportunity to blow the deck clear and that looked nice, for a little while anyway. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221006_150503390_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665101794)
It hasn't been that clean since the slab was poured. :D I just get tired of having those bark chunks under my feet to roll my ankle or trip me up when I am moving something heavy. I did another cleaning when I finished the day. Looking at it makes me smile. It's the small things, right?
Back to the mill tomorrow and I'll try to sort all this mess out.
I wouldn't have guessed there was concrete under there after seeing it. Looks great!
Tom,
I hope they find "somebody" who broke the cable and chastise him most severe for his wanton negligence. ;) :D
Yeah, we know who it was an I believe he was spoken to (a family member), but it remains un fixed. I don't think of it until I am down at the mill and the break is 40' up the cliff. Maybe today I will bring some stuff and fix it.
I've got a lot to do trying to finish off one complete kit today and re-stack it. We are away for the weekend so I need to get a move on.
Ideally I should have Bill buy one of these small gas blowers to keep down there. No cords and more power make it work good and fast, and I can do areas I can't reach now. ;D
I have two stihl gas blowers and a milwaukee m18 fuel blower, I almost never use the stihls anymore.
Well I have a self contained Homelite homeowner job that is perfect for down there. Bill has all M18 stuff and a ton of it, even a chainsaw, but I don't want to have to mess with batteries and a charger down there, it will get damp and ruined prematurely. I will be chasing a battery forever that was needed in another tool "just borrowed for a few minutes". But it is a thought. In this case given the options, I prefer the gas. In most other cases I would prefer a battery unit. But I need good blowing power to clean off that slab.
Now if the electrician that has been promising to show up for a year ever does come and we get the 100 amp service down there, the situation changes. And if we get the slab poured in that steel building it changes again and I will have a full shop just across the road from the mill. But it all takes time.
the electric ones start every time with pull of a trigger.
That's true, unless your battery is dead or somebody cut your power cord. ;D But that little Homelite I have starts on the second pull real easy has moves a lot more air than those battery jobs. Each type has it's sweet spot. But for me, it's not just dry sawdust, it's big pine bark chunks and lots of other stuff that is heavier than sawdust.
------------------------------
At any rate, after all this discussion, I finally remembered to throw some tools in my pocket this morning and I fixed the wire before I loaded the TC and headed to the mill. I spent 2-1/2 hours sorting and restacking lumber because it was getting really confusing with the changes on the fly and I lost confidence in my counts. Turns out I had the 4x10 kit complete except for one 3x8x10 header. The 8x 10 kit is a little more short. No surprises on either one. Moving all the wood, even with the forks, wore me out. I bucked and put up an ugly knarly 24" x 12' pine log. Another one I want to see gone. I got three 3x8's and two 2x8's out of it. One 3x8 finished the 4x10 kit off and the other two went into the 8x10 kit. The two 2x8's were supposed to be 2x6's (my bad), so I have to throw them back up and re-cut them for the 8x10 kit. I cleaned up, blew off the mill (with my now working electric blower) and recorded my tallies, still wasn't sure where I stood on the 8x10 kit. After I got home and had lunch at 3pm, I put all the numbers into my spread sheet and came to realize I am very close to finishing that one up too. I only need to re-cut those 2x6's and cut 2 more 6/4 x 10 x 8' hemlock for the deck and it's done. The rest of that hemlock log will go to the third (6x10) shed. Now I am told there is a 4th shed coming. :D dangle_smiley I did pull a calf muscle today stacking those 6x6x10 hemlock beams, hope it doesn't keep me up tonight. Anyway, I got 3 days off coming. :)
Tomorrow we head to VT for our annual visit with cousins and we kill the weekend by sitting around and talking and cooking and not doing much else but visiting or walking in the woods or checking to see if their 100 year old apple trees have any donations for us. Of course there is the flea market too. 8) And the wimmen folk usually find a place they have to go shop (without the menfolk, which we appreciate).
We'll get home some time Monday, but I have no plans to go to the mill. ;D
Enjoy the weekend.
Well, we are back from Vermont. A simple weekend just 2.5 hours away visiting family and I think it is always the closest thing to a true vacation I can ever get. No running around, just hanging out, doing whatever pops in our heads, and enjoying an area I have visited since I was a baby. Family all around. Aunts and Uncles are long dead but lots of cousins if we want to drive around.
We didn't.
We drove over on Saturday morning and noted as we passed through Troy, NY that they have a brand new Harbor freight store. Wrote a note and put it on the dash to stop on the way back. I need locking wheels for that sander rebuild. Got to Wilmington and didn't hit as much of the tourist traffic as we have in the past. Years ago we would stop, but the quilt shop my wife liked has closed this year (probably since we stopped going there 2 years ago and they couldn't get by without her patronage). I don't miss hanging around while she went in the shops being the only oddball in town not dressed like and affluent tourist. (One year I sat on a bench by myself and practiced my mandolin, but a crowd started to gather and expected a show, so I packed up and left, but not before some guy in golf pants and a pink shirt threw a dollar in my case.)
We headed right through town and into the flea market at the far end. Good stuff and nice conversations with the vendors. Bought some odds and ends from a guy that has lots of cheap 'stuff' that is handy, like 8" funnels, tarps, paint brushes, scissors, bungee cords, all cheap and new. (Scissors this time were $1.50 a pair or 4 for 5 bucks). I also found 2 nice saw sets. One for hand saws (4 bucks) and one for large cross cuts (7 bucks) from 2 different vendors.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221010_141115998.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665430172)
Truthfully, I bought them because it's the end of the season, I admired them, and the guys selling wanted to move some stuff out. I also got a little frame that make make a nice table stand for cookie tables (7 bucks again) and very nearly bought a very old porcelain bathroom sink that also had a marble top AND the two marble backsplash pieces for, I think 50 bucks. It was all immaculate, but filthy, but no chips or damage. I could have made a really nice cabinet for it pretty easy and it would work well in my half bath by my desk, but I don't need another project. I enjoy that flea market a lot and maybe some day I will get a spot there.
Then we headed to my cousins place which has been in my cousin's husband's family for over a hundred years where they had a sugaring business for most of that time until the last 20 years. It's a pretty place.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221010_083801741_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665431158)
In the photo above is the house but off to the left of the house is what they now call the warehouse but was the 'factory' where they made maple sugar candies and specialty items for decades in the off season and shipped them all over. The real warehouse was built later and is across the road, but now is an artists (very) large studio owned by a really neat older gal from New Jersey.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221009_172542141_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665431150)
I had to do a lot of weed whacking around all the gardens when we had the reunion there back in July.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221009_172527628_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665431148)
The trees are pretty much at peak.
In the center of that photo WAAAY in the back at the field edge are some apple trees that have to be dang close to 100 years old. They were big trees when my cousin's husband (his name is Bill) was a boy (he is 75). 4 years ago we filled 5 or 6 five gallon pails with apples in about 15 minutes and my wife made pies, apple sauce, apple muffins, apple cake, and apple breads that carried us for long time. 3 years ago, slim pickin's and poor apples. Last year no apples and the trees looked dead. Back in July they had some top leaves so I thought they might be coming back, and this weekend not one piece of fruit could be found but still a little green on top.
At any rate, right after we settled in, I headed out back to check the trees with great disappointment. While there I saw that a very large leader had broken off a 100+ year old hard maple and dropped on his field and he had been brush hogging around it. I didn't notice that back in July. I found my weekend project and asked Bill about it. He said he's been meaning to cut it up, but his bout with COVID a couple of months ago has left him without the energy to take it on. As it happens, I never took my saws out of the truck box before the trip, plus I had gas, oil and my tool bag. ;D Bill said 'ah. let it go, I will get to it and if not, it's not hurting anything'. But I know they like to keep their place nice and trimmed up and I also know Bill has a small battery saw. That leader was 24" diameter and 40' long, the tree was over 40" DBH.
Bill had to run to work for a few hours (he's 'retired' like me, so works 7 days a week) so when he left, I headed for the tree figuring it was 20 minutes work and I would just cut it up and he could shove it all up on the stone wall as was his plan with his tractor. He had no interest or outlet for any of the wood and joked before he left "If you find any stuff you can use for mushrooms, take 'em!" As it happens, I have an order due in 5 days. ;D
So the 20 minute job actually took me 3 hours :D. I wound up carrying all the branches over to the stone fence to give me working room as I cut and had to walk back to the truck, re-fuel, and sharpen the saw (found some barbed wire in the tree). Just as I finished my last cut I turned around and there was Bill on his tractor. :) So he pushed up all the chunks I didn't wanna lift and the we just fit the 8 mushroom logs I got out of the tree into the bucket. I also took two cookies that appealed to me.
That tree had rot going up the branches and at one point as I was cutting I noticed this rooster tail coming off the chain. At first I thought my oiler went crazy, then I realized it was rot water and it was coming off the bottom of the chain and sending a stream of brown water and chips right onto my right leg and filling my right boot. I reacted too late. Soaking wet. I took off the boot, cleaned my sock and went back to work.
Bill I think, was pretty happy that it was cleaned up, and frankly, that spot looked great, so I felt good. But it was fairly nasty and overcast. It never got out of the 40's all weekend and the wind blew on the hilltop even at night. Down in the 30's overnight. The rest of the weekend was filled with talking about family, aging parents, kids that don't seem to become adults fast enough, cooking meals, watching multiple football games and Nascar at once and other useless but very enjoyable things. I fell like I squeezed in a weeks vacation in a couple of days.
On the way home we stopped at that HF store, got the wheels I wanted and didn't fill the cart with more than a couple of things I really didn't need. Got home and unloaded by noon and just continued to relax. It hit 60 here today but still fairly cloudy.
Tomorrow is another day and I will get back to work, it's going to be a busy week.
And there's a Harbor Freight coming to Kingston. :)
REALLY!? I'm doomed.
When and where, any idea?
Not sure on the location. People are guessing based on what's empty over in Ulster where most of the stores are, but nobody really knows yet.
Harbor Freight is putting one in Augusta, about a ½ hour away.
Then there's another about 45 minutes in 2 different directions.
Old Greenhorn, Linens and Things closed up after I got done buying Brenda's cooking items. :D
Well there are an awful lot of empty large retail buildings in town, but they keep building new ones and HF seems to be a 'new building' kind of company, like the fast food outfits.
I guess we will just wait and see.
I am not a big fan of cheap stuff, but in 40 years HF has come a long way and there are certain things they really fill a niche on. SHop towels, cheap brushes, rarely used tools.
I just went to HF today. Kept trying to win a chain fall on BidRL but the idiots kept bidding over list price! And on CL, they want way to much for 1/2 and 3/4T units. I was looking at the 1T and 2T models (they have a LOT of different ones. They look the same so I think it's just the gearing. The top/bottom hooks are 1/8" bigger on the 2T. I bought the 2T since it was $84 vs. $64. I'm only going to be lifting a 500 pound bent so should be good. We'll see how it goes later this week on my cabin build.
The one in Auburn is not new and the one in Augusta is going in the old Sears. I have no idea about the one in Waterville.
So, there is hope.
John, I have a 2 ton here, old school. But if you think the shipping on that 10" saw you gave me was pricey, this thing would send us both into the stratosphere. I think it weighs 90# or more. If you were closer I would be happy to give it to you and a very long term load with the only provision being that I could borrow it back IF I ever needed it for a quick lift. But what you paid seems pretty dang cheap. I am quite certain the one I have, when new back in 1960 or so, went for several hundred bucks.
Cfarm I guess both our wives have put shops out of business. I also guess that within 2 years you will have all the HF choices you need. :D
This chain fall is pretty heavy - I think it's 60#? Surprisingly heavy little box. My tennis elbow is complaining again so carrying that out was fun. They had a 5T unit that was around $200, IIRC, in a pretty big box. Didn't even want to see what that box weighed! How can it be cost effective to ship these things from China? :-\
OG, On HF subject look for a dying mall with a Chinese buffet restaurant. Thats where my two closest one are. Mabee it is trend. What is next to your HF?
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on October 10, 2022, 08:32:13 PM
Well there are an awful lot of empty large retail buildings in town, but they keep building new ones and HF seems to be a 'new building' kind of company, like the fast food outfits.
I guess we will just wait and see.
I am not a big fan of cheap stuff, but in 40 years HF has come a long way and there are certain things they really fill a niche on. SHop towels, cheap brushes, rarely used tools.
I've got one HF with a Barber College on one side, I think it was a pre-exisiting building.
The other local HF is in a run down strip mall, car parts, I think, on one side, and weed selling operation in the same parking lot.
My HF is next to a Big Lots store in a nice shopping center. I was working on a car one time and had a bolt that I couldn't get to without removing the fuel injector rail. Then I remembered seeing the swivel head extensions at HF that would solve the problem. I was in and out of the store in all of 10 minutes and back to work on the car.
One thing I really like about HF is that they have the assortment packs of nuts, bolts, c-clips, springs, etc. for $5-$10. I keep a list of the ones I have on my phone so I don't buy one I already have. I have a most of them now and I rarely have to make the special trip "in search of" a needed item. They have decent work gloves and multiple thicknesses of latex gloves. I bought both of their manual tire changers and am glad I did.
OK, collectively you guys got me going. I looked yesterday and only found they were hiring for the top 2 store positions in their job listings. I just went looking and after following a trail a bread crumbs I found they plan to start construction this month. I found a public hearing listing for county zoning where they asked for a variance for the sign size, that had to list the address. 25 Boices Lane. The location will be in the old Office Depot building, next to a liquor store and right on my path to HD, so for me it's pretty perfect. Their is a Chinese Buffet 3/8 mile away, closer to HD, but it is no where near our mall, which is going to pot as a mall and converting to health care, last I heard.
Anyway, I think this is good news for us.
Well, getting off the HF thing for a bit, because I am just gonna have to wait a few months anyway....
I got to the mill but was kind of tired from not sleeping well. I managed to finish off two of the shed kits and start the third, but I switched to scouting mushroom logs, which I will start tomorrow.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221011_113124133_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665528919)
That's 2 of the 3 skids done so far. After I got home had lunch, and an involuntary nap I went out to the shop and started working on cleaning up some of the parts for the sander rebuild. I know it's going to be a tedious task to clean all those rusted parts, so I figured if I do a few a day it will go quicker.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221011_161251849.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665529157)
I started on the lead screws for the table elevation. The one on the left is cleaned up. I did all the lead screws and nuts, and some other small parts then dumped the chains in a bucket of WD40 to soak. A little every day and I'll get it done.
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Now backing up the truck a bit, I left out some stuff on the weekend trip. I had completely forgotten about this purchase I made at the 'new junk guy' at the flea market. I saw this and had to get it (3 bucks) I was laughing as I went up to pay for it. I said to the guy "This has to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen, so I gotta buy one."
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221011_094538458_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665529504)
It has a metal spring clip inside to lock the hammer into it. But I had a different idea for it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221011_094657204_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665529763)
It would be a way to get that hook secured, but I need to find a place to hang it properly. It's all plastic, it ain't gonna last, but it's fun to play with. I still think it's the stupidest thing I have ever seen. :D
Saturday we went down the road to take a look at the progress on a timber frame house going up. Now I confess that I am really confused looking at this. I don't know nuttin' bout no timberframe design, so maybe @Jim_Rogers (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=95) or @Don P (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=17) will chime in here and splain it to me.
Looks like a nice place and the joinery appears to be top notch. Some of the braces are curved live edge, some are straight plain wood. I assume this will have to do with the finishing as to which goes where. That's a nit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221008_155123087_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665528880)
There was a nicely done scarf joint right in the front of the main ground floor bent. Seen in the above photo in the lower right corner. Here is the joint.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221008_155938124_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665528886)
But here is the puzzle for me. In the above photo if you look just above the column you can see that the floor joists do not sit on the beam, they are on a block. Here is a better shot of a different post on the same bent.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221008_155420887_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665528881)
This perplexes the heck out of me. Why make that beautiful bent, then support a gang of 2x12's with a block over each post? It's almost as if they figured the bent short and stuck blocks in to make up the difference? The other work is too nice to expect and error like this, so I assume I am missing something. Can somebody tell me what's going on here?
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on October 11, 2022, 07:26:10 PMCan somebody tell me what's going on here?
Very strange. Maybe they are going to slip some sheet rock in there? Is the floor system attached anywhere else besides those blocks? A floating floor...
From what I've read the top jobs in a Harbor Freight are pretty good. Decently paid and I hear they treat their employees well.
That timber framing looks cool!
Maybe they are going to install something like t&g paneling and then set the whole thing down on top of the beam.
Austin, I think the listing I saw said $55-70k, but you know being a manager of of a retail outlet can be an 18 hr/day job, especially when employees don't show up. It looks like they hire a stocking manager for each store as the #2 person, so at least that doesn't fall on the store manager also. Not for me, I retired. ;D
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SO John, it's not just me (this time)?
There are a lot of things on this construction I didn't understand. Some I figured out, several I did not. If you look at the wide shot (first photo in that group) it's hard to see but the floor deck is about 18" or more bigger than the framing all the way around. This is apparently for prefab thick insulated wall units to go around the structure. Those have been in storage for a year waiting for this place to get built (which is kind of how I know about it). That means all the bents will be exposed inside as far as I can tell. The floor framing on the bottom floor is quite a strange pattern unlike any I have seen and they rotate the direction of the joist in the middle back was for a reason I can't figure. I should have got a photo. There are also no floor joist patterns that allow for stairs down to ground level.
But getting back to that original question, if you go back and follow that run of 2x12's back to the poured wall (basement?) you will see it all rests on the wall as one would expect. Those stacked 2x12's line up right under the timber frame wall above it, so that makes sense. I just don't understand the blocks. If that is a 10x10 beam with an 8" block on top, why not call for a 10x18" beam and have it look pretty? Yeah, maybe they have a plan for some kind of fancy fascia covering or lights, but it still just seems structurally weird to me. If it wasn't 2.5 hours away, I would go back when they are working and ask. ;D
Bill, there is no moving anything there, it is all done and in place and loaded with weight. Covering with paneling just seems so hokey with all the nice joinery they did. If it was a mistake, they could have raised the piers under the posts, or replaced with longer posts, or cut another full length beam to put on top. Also, that beam runs directly under the end post in each bent along the front of the structure. The blocks are right under each post, but the interim joist have nothing under them. Curiouser and curiouser the more I ponder this.
Then their secret plan worked :D
I haven't a clue, but more will be revealed :)
Well Don, if you don't have a clue then at least I don't feel stupid. I don't know the builder and will likely never see the place again, so I guess it will remain a mystery. My next scheduled visit is a year out and by then there should be a family living there.
Good, sounds like I'm safe making it up then.
It sounds like they are wrapping the frame in SIPs panels, which is "continuous insulation" rather than "cavity insulation" as in stud , or floor joist bays. That part of the floor is outdoors and if they are wrapping everything else, it is a weak link. I'd guess it is blocked for sips under there.
Perfect! That makes sense and even if it is wrong, I can sleep at night with that explanation. :D But I think you are right that section of floor is exposed but still under the heated area. What the heck does SIPS stand for anyway? Yes, that's how we came to find this place. The contractor had ordered all the SIPS over a year ago, then was delayed. He made a deal with the place where my cousin caretakes to store it just over winter until the spring. That was last winter. It made the place unusable by the owner and she has not been back since Sept. '21 because there is no place to sleep or cook. SO we went to check it out because he said he would have that stuff out by next week. It appears doubtful. ;D
So, mystery solved. Now if I could just figure out what is going on with this joist pattern. ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221008_155310359.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665579528)
SIPs - Structural Insulated Panel.
On of those sideways floor joist bays could be a future stairway? Maybe that is a hallway up stairs and wanted the floor boards running the short direction?
Thanks for the definition.
I looked for a possible future stair opening, but nothing was cleanly defined for that, every logical spot would require hacking out joists and patching. That cross ways section I think might be for a heavier dead load in that area. It could be that area would be the front entryway on the 2nd floor and maybe they have a slate or stone floor planned. It's a slightly weird site layout. You approach the house from what I think will be the back (where 'that beam' with the scarf joint is), which is a walkout basement and there is a drive that goes around the east side up to the other side of the house on the second floor level and I think that will be the main entrance, but it's still weird. If there is a nice walkout at the front, why no interior stairs up the the first floor. The only thought is that it is a Mother-in-laws apartment. ;D :D
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Well I am a happy camper today. I needed about 37 logs for my Saturday order. Depending on where I find them it could take 2 half days. Tomorrow is a rain out so I wanted to get most of them today. I had some storm damaged trees from a microburst that Bill had held off cleaning up so I could take them. Sometimes these are easy and produce a lot, sometimes they take forever because of how and where they fall and I can lose a lot because of bark skinning and limb splitting. Today I got one of each. The one by the mill gave me 20 logs and pretty easy because Bill was driving by with the forwarder last night and 'gently' picked it up off the top of the log pile it fell on (20' up) and laid it where I could get at it. The other was up in the main compound and was the opposite. I worked on it for a while and only got 8-10 logs. But I got the tree to where Bill can pick it up with the forwarder, if I had cut more it would have fallen further and crushed a jeep it is hanging just over. It was a tangled mess when I started and picking it was not feasible. I finished the order off with some hard maple cut last week that were laying in the back of the bucket truck. So roughly 47 logs in the truck and it can rain when it wants. ;D
My wife's car is also ready at the mechanic, so that frees up my day tomorrow. I can drop her off, then run my town errands this afternoon. I could go get the new woodstove tomorrow, but I don't want to unload the truck to do it, then reload it. I'll get the stove next week.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Nice bit of detective work on the HF location Tom. :)
Drove by there last night going to AutoZone. Real good spot to get in and out without having to travel past all the stores and traffic lights on Ulster Ave.
Manager jobs in those types of stores are indeed as you described them. Lack of realiable help, or sometimes any help at all, lands on you. All the time. 24/7. And you are given a very tight, barely enough, payroll to work with. One no show and the wheels start coming off, and it's a frequent "Honey, I'm gonna be home late again."
I've got to give it to the HF management around me, they are always, seemingly, in good moods. Very helpful and friendly! Now, I don't live in NY, so that may be part of it too... And that money in NY doesn't go nearly as far as it does here, where that salary is pretty decent.
The days are pretty routine lately, milling in the morning if there's no rain, cleaning parts for the drum sander in the afternoon and some other odds and ends.
Yesterday around mi-day I headed out to deliver a load of mushroom logs, which I haven't done in a while. This was for my many times repeat customer who does workshops. If some will recall, last winter I started working on a design for a full log inoculation system, which my client contributed to after I did a rough mockup. The final design looked good and he ordered two units, plus a waxing bench. We installed it all in his outdoor classroom in the woods back in April. Well as small sole proprietor businesses go, he did not get to hire someone to run monthly workshops as planned and had no time to do it himself because other parts of his business kept him on the road and very busy. Good for him, I say. Anyway, yesterday he had the first workshop where we could test it all out and see if we 'called it right' with our design.
He was doing a mushroom walk at another location, so I arrived before he got there and found everything looked just as we left it back in April except there were lot of spider webs. ;D I unloaded the logs, then started taking the covers off all the benches and stuff. I put the few pieces together and was pleased to see the waxing table finish has held up quite well and the other stuff looked great too. John showed up when I was halfway through and was pretty happy with how it all looked and was ready to go. He setup the rest of his stuff, then we waited for students, class got underway, he did the lecture section, then explained all the safety rules and operating procedures and we got the actual work going.
It starts with the drilling.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221015_154349635.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665955293)
Then the logs get rolled down the rails. The next station is the actual inoculation.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221015_154342009_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665955289)
Then the holes get waxed over as well as any bark defects to keep things moist and bug free.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221015_155938687_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665955378)
It was interesting to watch the students use the system and look for places they had issues or difficulty.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221015_162322936_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665955420)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221015_155950072_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1665955449)
Through this whole project I fell back into what I had done for decades in the manufacturing world. We looked at ergonomic issues, place where the students might have a difficult time preforming the tasks, etc. When we had our discussions about these issues in the past year, we had many things we wanted to solve. So yesterday, we had our eyes on those issues to see if they came up again. Not a single one did. What we DID see was that the improvements on the system made it very easy for these novice students process the logs pretty dang quickly. This exposed other issues we had not seen before, such as having more tools available, rotating out hot wax quicker and things of that sort. As the saying goes, these are good problems to have.
After the students left and we packed up and covered the gear, the customer was just tickled pink that he now had on site storage under that cabinet. The last class took 3 car trips of stuff to bring in and take out all the materials. Now it is down to one load, and if/when we build him a shed, it will be nearly none.
The owner has christened this setup as "Camp Loginoc" and is pretty much as happy as a guy can be. I drove home, much later than planned, with a big smile on my face. I like happy clients. Oh, and he mentioned he needs a new coffee table to go with his new couch. Might I have something that would work? "Well yeah, come on by the shop...." ;D :D :)
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Today's efforts are chronicled in the 'did something dumb' thread for your reading enjoyment, or not.
Glad things worked out well. Looked like a lively event 👍
Cool Tom, thanks for the pictures. :)
Looks like a lot of people having a lot of fun. I noticed a lot had purple on to match the benches. ;)
well, the log bench matches the big guy's shirt in the first two pics, and the lady with gray hairs vest, and the lady's hat in the last pick, but i am not going to say it is purple out of respect for my friend Tom!
There ain't much left of that bone, but some of you guys won't let it go. Geez.
Yes, he always gets a good crowd and unlike the season in '21, this was the only inoculation workshop I have heard of in the area this summer. I heard one lady say she'd been signed up since the spring and waiting. I only noted one NJ plate and one CT plate in the parking area, but it seemed a lot were second homeowners or area visitors. That's pretty normal.
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Now that we got that behind us, I am onto the next bunch of stuff. I still have lumber to mill although I am ahead of the build crew now by 2 sheds. I have to arrange to pickup the new woodstove which will likely kill a day between driving and loading/unloading. Lastly the Luthier's showcase is this coming weekend, which starts for me on Thursday with setup and runs long days until Sunday night. I need to get a haircut sometime before that and find nice clothes. It's been a while. Looking forward to doing the show in a newly restored venue. Since the last one the property has changed hands and the new owner has sunk close to 3 million into repairs and improvements. They have me running the clinics in a different building this year, so I have to go figure that all out before hand. The kick-off show is Thursday night, another big show in a theater Saturday night (I usually do backstage security there) then the wrap party Sunday night, with the shows going on all day long in between. It's time to change gears.
So yesterday morning I listed my tasks for the week and it seems like more items re popping up on the list to fill in any time cracks I might have.
Yesterday it was raining and cool in the morning and not real pleasant. I looked at that list and realized I had better get some kind of plan together. SO I made call to the stove builder and made arrangements and the wife was up for a 'country ride'. The shop is located in Howe Cavern, NY (Cobleskill) and the fastest route is actually on secondary roads, not the Thruway. SO I plotted course and off we went after stopping at the bank for a little more cash. ;D
It rained off and on all the way, we hit some paving work, but all in all a very easy drive with no tourists. The hills looked nice but I didn't stop for photos, so I shot one as we drove up through the central Catskills toward the northern end.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221017_105227833_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666095376)
I could have spent a lot of time taking photos, but that would make me 'one of them' and I can't have that. ;D
Anyway, we arrived on time at a place right near the entrance to Howe Caverns and the owner Tim spent a bunch of time with us going over the design of the stove, talking burning techniques, maintenance, and how I could add options later if I wanted. We also talked about woodlot management and building live edge stuff. He had questions. We had a nice time with him and loaded up and settled the bill.
With the load secured and the weather still not great I climbed in the truck and mentioned to my wife that we had some lunch choices to make. We could go back the way we came and stop at the Milk Run in Oak Hill, which I know well has good food. Or we go go a little west before heading south and pass thru downtown Conesville and eat at the Conesville Country Store. We opted for the latter and again enjoyed a nice drive arriving at the store. I texted Barge after trying to call him a couple of times, but I'm sure he was in the woods and out of cell range, it was a long shot anyway. I just wanted the wife to see the area I was hanging out in for June and July in '21. We had the usual great lunch there and headed another hour and change on home through more pretty, but very familiar country.
We had no rain all the way back, so the stove stayed dry (I forgot to bring a tarp, duh). I unloaded as soon as we got home and fiddled around for a bit looking it over and deciding if I wanted to adjust the location a bit. Then came in the house close to dinner prep time and after conferencing with the wife we decided neither of us were hungry and would skip dinner. So I went back out and disassembled the chimney for cleaning and stove swap. That's when I learned my son had never returned my chimney brush and rods. >:( I sent him a text and did what I could to work around it. Here is the old stove, verses the new one (old on left).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221017_172756941.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666095339)
The new one is wider and has a MUCH better sized door, the old one was a pain for loading. The old one was a few inches deeper, but there is more volume in the new one overall. From the top they are also pretty similar, but the new one has shorter legs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221017_172808074_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666095345)
SO I got the chimney down and pulled the old stove out. Messed around with the new stove location and settled pretty much on the same spot and leveled it up. Had to do some work to install that lower tee section (no holes drill on the stove outlet). got that secured and my son showed up with the brush and rods, so I cleaned the chimney sections and find them in very good shape. I quit at about 9pm last night.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221017_204746110.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666096308)
The nice thing about this stove is that it is designed as a wood furnace and they build them to the configuration ordered. I got the plain woodstove, but it has all the openings in the back for adding hot water coils for heat or domestic water, I can add the jacket around the outside of the stove for a hot air system. Everything not used is plugged securely, but adding on coils, fans, etc. later is very do-able. Nice options to have.
Today I have to wrestle with the chimney making adjustments for the height difference, seal up that first joint on the stove with refractory cement and see if I can test it out. The chimney alignment will be the tricky part, always is for me.
Today's another day.
And here I was going to say the the Loginators finally have settled into their brown paint, that looks brown! Anyway, pretty cool you got to see them in action and they were working well. Stove looks great too!
True, they are the same color brown they've always been. :D
Got the stove finished this morning. I'm a happy camper. Burns different than the previous one and for some strange reason it seems to burn hotter. Gonna take a while to get used to a thermostatic damper again. It's like dating a new gal, just takes time to figure her out. :D ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221018_110332995_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666107262)
Now onto the next thing. I'm just gonna watch this a bit longer and make sure it settles in ok.
and the new gal is "hotter". we will refer to it as brown...are you ok with us doing "air quotes" when we do so? :)
what are the two chunks on top of the new stove, and seen on the old one before?
Late to the party.
I would have taken the opportunity to raise the stove up to a more comfortable height for loading, but see you are already hooked up and running.
The loading door at belt height saves a lot of stooping over to watch and maintain a wood fire.
Looks like a nice stove.
Doc, you can do whatever pleases you, bless your heart. ;D
Those two little chunks are scraps from the ceramic board I cut and fit to go under the firebrick floor in the old stove. I use them to put my coffee cup on to keep it warm. If I put it directly on the stove, it's way too hot. A little space and it stays hot, but usually not too hot to drink. Today I burned my lips on the cup. More adjustments to make I guess. Wimmin, stoves, and chainsaws, who can figure any of them out? :D
Beenthere, that's a valid point and I did consider it last evening. In fact I found blocks I could use. But what you don't see in the photos is that I have a rolling chair I keep right in front of the stove which is not very tall and I sit in that whilst I load. So the door really is at a pretty good height. That chair rarely moves except to adjust for proper body temp on cold days, but it is on wheels. It's where I sit and contemplate world issues, design stuff, take short (sometimes longer) breaks, and figure out problems.
SO far, it's a nice stove and burns well. I have pretty much burned in the paint and the shop still has a thin cloudiness to it after some airing out. It started moving the shop temp up quicker than the other one, but that damper will take a while to get used to. Not really looking to heat the shop much today anyway, just do a burn in. Right now it's 50° outside, 58° in the shop, and 68° in the house. The shop was about 54 when I started work this morning. Outside low was 37° at 7am this morning. I just like keeping the shop air a bit dry, which is hard in the Hudson valley. 57% outside, 51% in the house, and 63% in the shop. Outdoor humidity high was 98% through the night which is normal.
Well I managed to get all my chores done last week, just in time for the weekend. Thursday afternoon I headed up to Woodstock to help set up for the Luthier's show (http://www.woodstockinvitational.com/), get my credentials, check out the lay of the land, because the whole complex has been rebuilt since we had the last one 3 years ago. This year I ran the guitar clinics in a different building, so we had to figure that out, etc. I skipped the opening show across town, knowing this was going to be a long weekend.
Friday started fairly early (for musician time) and after a lot of running around we settled into the routine. We ended the day at my end with a clinic by Kinloch Nelson who was teaching (among very many other things) concepts about playing across the fret board to conserve motion which allows more versatility. I always enjoy his workshops even if I don't understand much of what is being said. Kinloch built a simple single string guitar to demonstrate the concept of the 'infinite fretboard' which he played to close out the class.
The 'infinite' fret board - YouTube (https://youtu.be/7qRr6qfNmBw)
While I was running the workshops, the show floor was packed in both buildings and music was happening in the bar area where these high end instruments are put through their paces by some of the best pro's to demonstrate how they sound and play. I don't get to see much of that though as I am 'stuck' in the clinics forced to listen to brilliant and gifted players teaching about things that they've spent decades developing. It's not a bad gig for me. ;D The clinics run from about 11am to 4:30 or so. The show closes at 6pm each day. So Friday I got home in time for dinner after closing up.
Saturday was more of the same and the first clinic of the day was Larry Campbell (http://larrycampbellmusic.net/) which is always packed. I always get a kick when I see him and he remembers my name and who I am. We had a good time catching up and it was good just to see him after COVID nearly killed him back in the beginning. He had the first confirmed case in the county and it was ugly. But he looks great now!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221022_121301529_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666629750)
Saturday night we had the String Sampler concert at the Playhouse on the other side of town. 3 acts and the headliner was Hot Club of Cowtown (https://hotclubofcowtown.com/) with a great show. I do backstage security and help with load-in's, food, and whatever. Over the years I have seen quite a few shows where the artist's children will either wander onto the stage or sit there for the whole show. These days a lot of musicians bring their kids on tour and home school them. But this was a first for me.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221022_220335307.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666630010)
That is Luna and she was a doll. Just wandered out during the first tune and checked things out. Later on she found a comfy spot.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221022_220353167.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666630117)
She later moved to just behind the amps and snoozed through the rest of the show. I guess she has seen it before. :D As and extra treat, Larry Campbell and Cindy Cashdollar sat in for several numbers. I didn't get to catch up with her, but I did get a minute or two with her husband, also a luthier, musician, and local friend.
After loading out and cleaning up, I got home around 1am. Sunday morning was a bit rough to 'get to work on time'. More good clinics, then I had to clean up the room return all the gear, finalize the money stuff before I could get lunch at around 4pm. Then I bought a beer for the gal that always helps me out on and off through the weekend and we both went outside for a smoke and a beer break. While we were minding our own business the gal who owns the whole complex walked by, stopped, looked at us and in her English accent said "You guys are a super looking couple! You are just what I need for a commercial we are shooting for the Bear Cafe'. Can you help us out?" We both cracked up and nearly spit beer through our noses. 'Couple?' She promised it was a 'walk-on' and would only take 15 minutes, which is just what we had before the next round of work started. Now you should realize that I am a tall old man and this gal I work with is a cute, perky blonde who is a year or two younger than my daughter. Good friends?, yeah, but a 'couple' we are not. Anyway, they primped us a tad, we did the walk on, then went back to work. How does this stuff find me? :D Pretty soon I am going to need a SAG card if it keeps up. ;D
A little while later I ran into this guy.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221023_175458359.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666630944)
He had been hanging around the show all weekend but I kept missing him. The last time we talked was 3 years ago in this same spot. I rarely ask for photos, but I took this for my neighbor who writes all the licensing contracts for John's music and yet has never met him. Next year we will get her to the show, but John gave me his card with his home number to pass on to her. Anyway, it was great to see him and so many others this weekend.
Then the packing up frenzy started getting everybody moved out. Some went to an informal closeout party, but by the time we were done, I was pooped. So I had one last beer at the bar, ran into another local musician I have not seen in years and we caught up. I got home around 9pm and just crashed. Fortunately, the rain held off until this morning. I can tell you I am dragging today. ;D
Tom, you clean up good! ;) I don't think I've seen you without chaps or a baseball cap. If I had been there and walked by you, I wouldn't have recognized you. :D Well, maybe your 'smile' would have given me a clue...
Funny, but I had to scramble a little to find 'nice clothes' well, shirts at least. I rarely wear a dress shirt since I retired. This event is one of the few I do wearing a jacket and/or vest. In fact the jacket I did wear was last worn at this event 3 years ago. The vest too, I think.
Since I am 'up front' I have to try to look decent and that's not really do-able. ;D
Well raining here again today and I am supposedly 'recovered' from the long weekend. Since I milled the lumber for those woodsheds, we decided it would be best if I was part of the build crew for the first one. So we (3 of us) worked in Bill's shop while Bill was off doing other stuff.
As I expected, there was a lot of 'engineering revisions' especially in the first half of the day. This made some of the lumber I milled useless unless I wanted to run it down to the mill and re-saw it. I did not. We only really came up short on 2x4's, which we 'borrowed' from the shop build wood.
But there was a lot of time spent figuring things out and changing 'the plan'. So the 3x8 rear header and 2 rear 6x6 posts are surplus as well as a bunch of other material. We got it about 90% done but I still have some inside wall boards to cut and nail, then the steel roofing. I am also sure Bill will add new changes to put some trim here and there or other aesthetic concerns.
I was too pooped to take any photos. If it rains tomorrow, the guys and I will finish it up. If not, they will be out on a real job and I will finish everything but the roof. Then I have to document everything we did and fix the BOM for the next shed, which is already completely cut. So what I call rework, which means wasted time, all of it. Oh well. When we are done getting this straight I will be able to mill shed kits and KNOW we have what is needed.
What I learned today was interesting. I knew we would make changes and some might be a bit painful. That was fine, we all knew it would happen. But what surprised me was that working in Bill's shop was hard, time consuming, messy and very inefficient. Had we done that same work in my shop we probably would have cut 3 hours off the build. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with his shop at all. He has a heavy equipment shop, not a wood shop. The tools he has available are not for wood. So there was no chop saw or miter, just one pair of cheap sawhorses when 3 pairs would have been better by far, no RAS or TS. I ran home to get my 10" saw (Thanks John!), I should have grabbed the power planer too and a few other things. We need to power wash this thing before we deliver it from all the footprints. The dirt on the shop floor transfers really well to the shed deck. ;D In my shop, it's just sawdust, no dirt, water, or oil.
This drives home the idea that we HAVE to build that woodshop down below, across from the mill. Pouring the slab is the big show stopper right now, we need to get 'er done.
It's a learning experience and we knew that going in. Building sheds could be a regular thing for a while, (good Lord, it seems like everybody wants one!) but we need to be more efficient at it for sure. Today was 9 hours of solid labor with no breaks and I know it does not need to be that hard. Maybe someday we will knock this stuff out like @Bruno of NH (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=26349) does, but we have a ways to go.
I'll get some pics tomorrow. Right now, I want a beer and a bed. Tomorrow is another one.
What they say.. no pics, didn't happen. 8) :snowball: ;D
OK then it didn't happen. :D :D
But my lower lumbar would tell you otherwise. I am off to bed. ;D
I'm anxious to see pictures also.Sounds like something that would sell well around here although I don't know how I would move one once I got it built.All I have is a single axle trailer but could probably borrow a bigger one.
About 25 years ago my neighbor wanted to go in with me to build sheds. He had timber that had to come out and I had a sawmill plus all the tools. The Amish were building quality sheds and the price seemed good so I suggested we go for a ride to check out the operation. They used every scrap. Short stuff went into doghouses. Bunch of workers with some that looked to be only 9 or 10 years old. We decided we could complete on quality but couldn't even come close on price.....at least with what we thought was a good return on our work.
Maybe things are different today or in your area.
I'm interested in the pictures and specs too. I have built a few composting toilets and a few similar sized sheds. Mine are approximately 4'X4' and slope from 6.6' to 6' and have metal roof approximately 6'X6'. I prefab the 6 sections (Floor, 4 walls and roof) and lag screw them together. The roof is held on with deck screws to matching ripped 2X6's. I usually disassemble them in front of the customer so they see and understand how it is done. That leaves the holes pre-drilled and the screws in place ready to be tightened on re-assembly. I cover mine in Board and batten, mostly 3/4" thick spruce.
The reason I don't build bigger sheds/deer blinds and such is the weight. The current sizes are about the limit of what I am comfortable handling and I don't have the MHE for much bigger. Around here Amish built sheds seem to have cornered the market.
I hope this works out well for you.
Well I am trying to be a little more hesitant about the photos I do put up. They seem to start a conversation on fun-poking and suggestions I wasn't really asking for. ;D That's' fine, but they seem to drag on for quite a while.
I never said I was good at this woodworking stuff but I do know what 'brown' looks like. ;D
I will get photos today, but some things may not appear to be to 'standard code' for some folks here. I will say that this thing is quite solid and isn't going anywhere, so no regrets on that score. I do wish I had nicer logs to pull the wood out of. We cut out almost all of the 'rough spots' anyway.
Yes, we have a large shed/barn outlet place here that has their sheds built by the Amish and others. In fact I bought one from them years ago I am most happy with (a fully enclosed shed). But they can get pricy and delivery takes time too for special orders. They get $2,400 for a 4x10 woodshed and they add on for paint, stain, or a metal roof. Installation is separate costing. They get $4,100. for an 8x10.
Their stuff is nice, but not to my liking. I believe woodsheds need lots of air flow. For speed, they build theirs with a conventional stud frame wall and 1x10 horizontal siding with 1-2" gaps between the boards. We build ours in a manner more traditional around here. We use 1x6 siding and alternate 1 board on the outside and the next board on the inside but no gap, so it looks more like a pallet. This gets a lot more air through and keeps blowing moisture out. The photos will make this clear. We leave the gable open, but that may change. Ours is a shed roof, theirs is a saltbox type. We have 6x6 posts on the front supporting a 3x8" header, the back corners are boxed 2x4's because that wall is short anyway. The deck is 3 runs of hemlock 6x6's with 2xrandom width deck boards, also hemlock. The hole thing will be set on flat concrete pad blocks.
It is not light. :D Delivering this will be a small challenge. I would like to leave the (pre-cut) steel roofing off and install that on site. Saves any damage and bent corners. We can pick it up with a toolcat or any skid steer, will set it on a flatbed trailer and off we go. Probably on the bigger ones, we will build on site. 8x10 is too big to pick with 5' forks, and the 6x10 is going in a spot where we really can't drive anything in bigger than one of those stand-on machines.
I gotta get to work..... later.
One board on the outside, one on the inside. Got it!! That's a good idea.
OK, break between jobs. I got the inside walls finished then made a bunch of notes and photos on the 'as built' version. You guys wanted a picture, so here you are:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_104345851.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666797927)
Not quite what you wanted? OK, maybe this is a little better:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_101608293.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666797912)
OK, I just didn't want to include enough detail to draw fire, but here are some other views on case somebody is interested.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_101618963.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666797915)
I think I want to do something with that open gable, but not sure what yet. Rear view:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_101650124_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666797920)
It actually doesn't look real dirty in these photos, but it still needs a bit of cleaning up.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_101632768.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666798160)
Well maybe a little more than a 'bit' of cleaning up. By now, you should get a good idea of how we do the walls.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_101802820.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666798238)
Lastly, a bit of the roof detail. We will leave the metal off until after delivery.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_104606776.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666797927)
Hopefully that satisfies the hue and cry. ;D :D It's just a shed for wood, not a big deal. This one has a 4'x10' deck size. The next one is an 8x10, then a 6x10, then another 4x10 I think.
Are woodsheds the only kind of sheds you are building right now?
Good looking design and I agree on putting the metal on at the site. Are you putting drip edge on the roof? I built a deer blind and did not and regret not doing so. I will have to go back and re-cover it. It is 8'X8' over a 6'X6' building and I think I will just cover the existing roof with 3 sheets of 3' X 8.5' metal. Everything I take has to be hand carried up some steep hills so it is a chore and a real workout. I'll do that after deer season is over and use as is right now.
Is the front on your woodshed left open or do you plan on adding folding doors or a curtain or such to help keep the rain and snow from blowing in?
Do you use treated lumber where it is contact with the ground?
Thanks
A picture beats a thousand words. 8)
That's a beast!
I'm not sure it's quite wood colored enough for how you were describing it... :)
Howard, no drip edge. we did allow for facia on the front and back, but no decision yet on that. The front is 'as is' unless the user wants to do something about it. As stated earlier, everything near the ground is hemlock which will sit on concrete blocks.
Wood colored?! Really?
Looks good,I like the wall design. I'm going to have to build one.I think open gables would be fine.Maybe a little extra overhang on ends of roof would keep weather out.Should get good air circulation.How much do you think it weighs?
Thanks Wlmedly, at least there is one guy in WV is breaking my chops. :D
I have no idea what this thing weighs to be honest, I do know that green Hemlock is heavy. If I were building it for myself, I would have 12" overhang on the sides, this one is only 6" and I would at least put a couple of boards across the gable for visual effect. I might put a roll down tarp for bad weather but leave it up most of the time for air movement.
"I" don't build sheds, this is Bill's job and several of his customers have asked, so we bunched them up. We never intended to build these in-house then move them, but we did this for two reasons. 1) we had two days of rain predicted so needed to do some productive shop work, and B) We thought it would be good if I were involved in the build so I could streamline the BOM and make it more accurate and be involved in design changes so I understood them. I have yet to do a walk around with Bill to confirm some things. The goal is that in the future, when we get an order, we know exactly what to mill up for it and how it gets built. But this is what we had left over:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221026_103644538.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1666820909)
That one in the back row is a 3x8x12'. All that will get used on the 3rd (or 4th :D) build. There are a couple of tools that would cut a LOT of time off the build and I plan to encourage Bill to consider some investment. What I have in mind is a 16" timber saw and a sliding miter saw with a long table (or a RAS with long table, which is my favorite). Plus some small stuff like a jig saw and a hand power planer.
The rest of these will be built on site, but depending on site conditions, I am wondering about building the deck in the shop, cutting the front posts with the lap joints and the header. It would save time on site. All the lumber could be piled on the skid and moved as a unit. We could also build the back wall.
I think I'll try building one maybe as a model so I could show it to people.If anyone was interested I could cut materials to size,such as you are doing and sell it as a kit with some parts preassembled.Have to keep track of lumber used and cost of hardware.Hope your don't mind me using your design.I'm wouldn't be expecting to make a big profit.I enjoy building things like this and if I could make enough to buy blades and supplies I would be happy.If no one is interested I can always use more wood storage space :laugh:This would give me an excuse to saw more lumber. Thanks for sharing.
Unfortunately after several decades of doing design work, I no longer have access to a CAD system otherwise I would have no issue just sending you drawings because that would be the fastest way for me to get a handle on it all and a BOM on this build and scale it. This isn't MY design or even OUR design, it is a traditional design used in these parts with, of course, execution differences of course to suit various tastes. For instance my neighbor behind me has one about 8x12' which has a sliding door on it with a lock (I don't know why). The wall design is the main feature to allow the best airflow.
After I talk with Bill I will be re-doing the BOM for the purposes of a cut list. I am not sure how I will lay this out but I use 'sheets' on google (it's free and works fine) and if you can work with that format (or anybody else reading with an interest) I can share the sheet(s) to you. I have already gone through 3 versions as things changed. There is nothing special here.
We currently have orders for 3 sizes: 4x10, 6x10, and 8x10. We are calling theses 1 cord, 2 cord, and 3 cord sheds respectively. If you do the math and figure filling the shed to the height of the back wall (60-14/4") only you will come up a heavy as the 1 cord shed will hold abut 1.5 cords. These are rough numbers just for sizing and in the case of the '1 cord shed' you could probably heap in a lot more, nearing 2 cords, especially if we close in the gables.
If you have an interest I am happy to share. It's just a simple woodshed.
Funny, I am making these for others and I wish I had one or two. :D
And give each member a part # so the buyer can come back for replacement boards that rot or get broken. Send it with the manual. ::)
This is way outside my wheel house, but I know there are free cad programs floating about. I used one several years ago piddling with a cabin design, my teenage son showed me how it worked as he was using something similar at school. There many are brighter much more computer adept folks around here who might have an opinion on a free easy to use application that you could use. This is pure selfishness on my end because I am curious as to what you would come up with in your shed designing.
Beenthere, you are sounding a tad bit facetious and I'm not sure why. I was just trying to share info if there was an interest.
Nebraska, during my working life I learned and forgot more CAD systems than I can recall. IBMCAD, CATIA, ProE, AutoCAD, Solidworks, UniGraphics, ME10, and the few others I can't recall. (the last two sucked and I hated working in them.)
Learning a new CAD system, free or not, takes a bunch of time even if you are good at it and I really have no plan on doing that again unless we have a 10 day blizzard and it occurs to me at the time as something to break the boredom. I wish those CAD vendors had a retirement edition for long time users and I would pick Solidworks. :D
No, if I had my druthers and the room, I would set up my 3x6' drafting table with one of the universal drafting machines I have and do line prints like I did back in the 60's. :D They don't get lost in the cloud, or deleted, or expire because there is a 'new version an we can't read your old drawings'. I am full into crotchety old man mode these days. ;D
Funny thing, when I bought that shed it was because my Pop had passed and there were a lot of tools and things of his I wanted to bring home so they stayed in the family for a while longer and I was trying to figure out how to fit it all in that shed in a clean and useable way. I did a CAD layout at work and over a week of lunchtimes I figured out the best layout going through a half dozen designs. Then I did a floor plan and hung all the drawings on the wall in the shed. My son saw it and was blown away at the pages of D sized drawings I went through before I found what fit and only had to move the stuff in once. I managed to recreate the workbench setup exactly as it was in my Dad's shop when I was a little kid and would sit there watching him make stuff on the lathe or other machines, bore sight rifles, bed actions, and a hundred other things in his shop and I'd ask questions, lots of questions. Same bench, cabinets, stools, floormats, etc. Nobody understood it but me. I don't go to the cemetery to 'spend time with my Dad'. I go out to the shed and I sit on that same stool I sat on when I was 5 and I put my feet up on the bench he worked at for decades and we chat. Weird, ain't it?
God Bless!
Not wierd at all I use some my father's veterinary equipment every day. I am blessed to still have him.
Not weird at all.
I walk the land and I hope I am taking care of it the way my Dad would.
I might go to the cemetery once a year.
I was there when my parents were alive. I saw them at least 2-3 times a week.
I don't need a grave to make me feel good.
Well yesterday was kind of a lost day. I had my monthly Chiro tune-up and he (apparently) found a lot that needed fixing. Between the shed build, milling, the load-in/load-out stuff over the weekend, and that little trailer tongue faux paus I had, he worked hard. After that I went and picked up some spray paint in town and came home for lunch.
I have a ladder rack that came off my SIL's old truck before he scrapped it that I have been cleaning up to put on my truck. It will help a lot with lumber moving. I had wire brushed the rust spots last week, so I primed and hit it with a coat yesterday. Mounting it will be a task I could use a hand for sometime later. I need to make a side box to keep my saws in because I will not have room for the standard truck toolbox anymore. I can't find one on CL or other sources that is close enough or reasonable in price, and new cost is nuts.
Lastly I got a call from an old friend. His FIL is nearing his end of life and they are putting his house on the market. The old gent (FIL) is a ham I have known for over 35 years and the family knew I was a ham. They had many boxes of his build components and a few tools and gizmos they needed to get rid of. They felt it a shame to take it to the dump and asked me if I could give it a home or find a home for it. SO I went over and picked it all up. It was all neat and clean and very well organized. Back in my early ham days I would call this a treasure trove of build parts. These days most new hams don't build much of their own gear, they just buy it. Too much work to build things. ;D The stuff filled the back of my pickup.
So yesterday I called my other old buddy who is still active in a club I am a charter member of and asked about giving this stuff to somebody in the club still building. He suggested I take some photos an write up a general description then send it out to their mailing list which I am still a part of. So I got all that done, had some trouble with the email address for the group, and finally got the email off this morning when I figured out the issue. Hopefully I find a home for it all in one shot. If not, there is a fella I might sell it to for a few bucks and just give the money back to the family. Right now it is just taking up space on my shop floor.
Still trying to decide what to do today, but I will likely end up at the mill. I am having some trouble with the new stove. It seems the draft bypass plate is jammed and I can't open it, but it is also not fully closed. SO I may call those guys up for advice. I will have to pull the chimney off to get access to it and fix it and that is a real pain. Likely though I will wind up back at the mill straightening the cut list and making more lumber.
I see blue skies and bright sunshine out there today, so I don't want to spend a lot of time in the shop even though it is cool at 37°.
Did that draft control need to be open to get the EPA numbers? ;) :(
No Ray, it is just a bypass for starting the stove and getting it warm enough to run a good draft. Once you hit that stage, you close it and leave it closed, then the smoke has to go trough the re-burner path which is like a semi-gasification system to burn the particulates out of the smoke. Since it is jammed sideways, there are some leaks which may cause it to not burn right.
It's brand new, I want it working right.
Just an idea on mounting your ladder rack. If you put angle iron under the bed rails and bolt down through it sandwiching the bed rail it strengthens it a lot. I've always had ladder racks on my trucks and learned the hard way the top of the bed rails turn into a jagged mess of stress cracks if bolted direct.
I'm sure you'll enjoy having it on there , wouldn't be without one personally.
Catching up here a bit. Friday morning I called the stove builder and left a message, then went out to the shop and tried every which way I could to get that plate to drop loose. Short of beating on it, I had no joy. So I wound up pulling the chimney but still could not get real good access to it. About that time the stove builder called back and when I explained my issue he chuckled and confessed that yeah, they have seen this problem over the years, but it's rare. Usually happens during shipping when the plate gets bounced into an odd position. Sometimes with an over zealous user who rams that control rod back and forth, but he was very quick to add that he was not suggesting I might be such a user. ;D I confessed that in this case, I might be 'that guy', but how do I fix this? He chuckled again and just said 'beat on it'. :D BUT he did explain exactly where to hit it and how to hit it. Sure enough, two taps and it dropped free and all was good. Now it works just fine and the operator has some training under his belt. I put the chimney back on and fired it up. Still just doing smudge fires to keep things dry, but also watching how the stove behaves. I am burning 'junk chunks' from the splitting process and some overlong pieces that would fit in the old stove but have to be placed at an angle in the new one. It's working fine now.
In the afternoon Friday I went down to the mill and just milled one log to make a kick plate we added to the shed design and was needed to finish it. I milled enough for all 4 sheds on order. Still not sure when we are delivering the first shed.
Saturday was a hodge podge. My son was supposed to bring over the 3 grandsons 'to help' with fall chores. They all gravitate to the easy stuff like blowing leaves, but if I have help, I ain't wasting it on that stuff I can do myself. They didn't get here until 2pm, so I spent the morning loading a trailer with split wood and roped a tree in the swamp that needs to come down before it wipes out one of my sheds. While I waited I also bucked off two more logs from that ice storm damaged RO and got them to the firewood area, then bucked those logs into rounds. That won't be ready to burn for another year or more.
When they showed up I moved the trailer over by the house woodpile and the wife helped them stack it. I put my son in the Mule attached to the pull line on that tree, through a snatch for a re-direct and I cut it. It had lean where it could not go (the shed) and there was very little wood left in the trunk, so I had him pull it over rather than take any chances and it dropped exactly on the target. Of course, that's when you learn what was really inside. It was a small stick, about 14" DBH and around 45' tall.
This is the stump remains when I cleaned it off at ground level after the drop. The full spread is about 2' or a bit more. Not much holding it up. Actually in the left of this photo, you can see a piece of the felling notch section that shattered off the stick. The actual direction of fall was towards the top of this photo.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221029_160653952.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1667126690)
Here is the piece I cut off above the stump below where the felling cut was, you can barely make out the hinge(s).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221029_160704981.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1667126691)
I cut high so I had some wood to work with, but I still didn't have much. When I get the logs all moved to the splitting yard I will see how high that rot hole goes, but I suspect this one goes way up even though it hit the ground pretty heavy.
So we winched the logs out of the swamp to where I can get the arch on them and skidded just one back. It was getting late. I took one more fully dead, dry, and ready to burn RO that I hadn't noticed before. Only 8" diameter, but 50' tall and all solid wood. Looking at it upright, I thought it would turn to dust when it hit the ground, but no.
I found a few small things for the boys to help me with and then they left. My yard/shop boots are no longer keeping out incidental water and beginning to approach their 'end of life', so my socks were soaked through with swamp water.
We got cleaned up and went across the road for dinner with the neighbors. We have talked, but haven't seen them in a couple of months. He had a gig last night and they were supposed to open for another band, but they weren't starting until 9:30pm which is too late for us old folk, so we took a pass on the gig and got home around 8pm.
I sat in my chair and realized I was pooped out. So I headed to bed at 8:45. Today is another day and I am ready to go.
Quote from: aigheadish on October 02, 2022, 09:36:19 AM........ You'll have to let us know when the video comes out. And tell us the first time you get recognized for that video.
OK, the video was released today (and my spidey sense was correct, as I and others have yet to be paid as promised). So Austin you asked for it. I am quite certain NOBODY will recognize me from this video. In fact I challenge you to even find me in it without reading further.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Wolf (Official Video) - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlUyyQSIIs)
My face is on screen for precisely 1.5 seconds. Most of the details they fussed over never evn showed in the final edit. Now if you gave up looking or don't want to see it twice I can tell you I 'appear' at 2:18 and 2:19 and that's it. So I am done with that nonsense. I do feel bad for my friend the set medic as she is out a fair amount of money for 3 days on set and I know she depends on this for her income, rent, and food money. I think she gets about $400/day. That ain't right. But all these shoots work through the local county film commission and she tells me that they likely will not get any cooperation or support for future shoots in this area once the commission is made aware of their track record which I believe they received at about 9am today. ;D SO that's that.
Today after exchanging a bunch of emails regarding the former subject I got some more winter prep cleanup done out back, cutting slabs and other little odds and ends. Got a new tarp hung over the shop woodpile, weedwhacked the swamp, handled some other 'stuff', buried the air line from the shed so I don't cut it (again) with the plow, and messed more with the stove. I'm still trying to get a handle on that thermostatic damper. I also got the chain sharpened on the 450 after all the bucking I did over the weekend and the slabs today. I managed to find a nail in the sawbuck but the chain came through it 'pretty good'. It's good to go again. I do love that X-cut chain! I intended to get some mill time in, but it never happened due to other schedules and folks coming and going.
Tomorrow is another one.
The video star!!!! ;D
You done and know what it's like.
I know a celebrity! 8) 8) 8)
Wish more of your watering hole was visible in that video. Not my speed on the music. Still was an interesting experience for you.
Interesting video... I hope y'all get paid and it makes me wonder if the Yeah, yeah, yeahs have anything to do with that part or if it's some production company.
I recognized you pretty easily and the snarl you got (I assume she wasn't even there for that part?) was funny.
Thanks for sharing. I don't have a clue what it takes to make a video like that but I would have guessed a longer time frame from your part to release, also interesting.
Quote from: doc henderson on November 01, 2022, 01:13:16 AM
I know a celebrity! 8) 8) 8)
Yeah? WHO? :D
Much of what was shot was not used in the final cut. For instance, the bar's owner (Chet) was behind the bar the entire time but you never see him. Much was lost in the darkness. You sure don't see much of the bar either despite all the dressing up and changes they made, especially to the lighting. The scenes of her (Brit Lower) crawling through the swamp and such were done in the wooded area outside the bar during the day. The shot of her approaching the bar was done just after dusk. Then it all moved inside, so they had a full day long shoot for 20 seconds of video. The walk through in the bar was done in real time (yes, she was there) and the first time Brit walked past me and shot that snarl it startled me a bit. I didn't know it was coming and she had to repeat it right on the same spot every time through, maybe 10 times for different camera angles. The bar scene started with her coming through the door and ended when she just about touched the curtain. The rest was done elsewhere.
The actress was a real pro, she repeated the exact same footsteps and movements on every take without much ado. That snarl was exactly the same every time. I seem to have that effect on women. ;D
Not my preferred music either for sure, but it was an interesting experience for a one time deal.
Another drizzly rainy day here today. Shop work I guess.
Short update, boring day doing small but necessary things in the shop, for instance, I can see the top of my workbench again (3 hours) and more tools got put away. I make a real mess during the summer and I still have a lot more cleaning up to do.
Also I finally got paid for that video. After no response at all to my email yesterday or the one sent by the casting manager I sent on off this morning just asking that if they were going to 'walk away' from their debts, would they at least tell me that so we can move on? I also complained that the money they owed me was minor, but the set medic stood to lose her rent money for the month from the time she put in. A few hours later, the electronic payment showed up. They also told me they put in an edit request to have me added to the credits. It would be poor form, but my next move was to leave a comment on the YOUTUBE video comments saying that I thought the video came out great, but it would be even better if the production company paid the folks who put their time into it as promised. Glad I didn't have to do that. The set medic told me today they had put a check in the mail for her today.
I think tomorrow I am back at the mill.
Yay to getting paid!
I mentioned getting paid because I was thinking along the same lines of making noise about it online if they didn't pay up.
Getting paid is a sore spot for me and I can tend to over react when I get shorted. Back in the mid 80's with my first house and a baby my employed at the time got shut down by his investors and the Sheriff put a pad lock on the door after allowing me to remove my personal tools from the building. The boss 'walked away' from his debts (turned out most of the business was a scam which I was just beginning to suspect). He owed me a weeks pay, so while I was packing out my tools (most of a pickup load) the brand new shop abrasive cutoff saw wound up in my truck as 'security' and it was worth a few bucks more than my week of pay. Turned out to be a good move, because he finally paid me....... with a bad check. >:( I was there a year and a half.
The next job I had was as a Shop foreman with 20 employees and the owners would only move enough money into the payroll account each week to barely cover it. The clerks at the local bank would have one person checking the running balance as they cashed the crews checks and often would call a halt to anymore when the funds ran out and the last few guys in line sometimes did not get paid that day. This really did wonders for my credibility with my crew and had a predictable effect on morale and cooperation. >:( I was there just under a year.
At my NEXT job, during the interview I asked when was the last time they had a paycheck bounce? The two owners looked at me horrified and stammered. They said "You can't bounce a paycheck, it's illegal and just plain WRONG. That has never happened here." I just chuckled, they could not believe somebody would do that. I assured them, that yes, they would. I stayed at that job 18 years. There was never a payroll issue. Other issues? Yeah, plenty, but you always got paid on time.
So yeah, when I see that nonsense now I tend to get a little 'miffed'. It's not the money, it's the message it sends that gets me riled.
Well it's been a week since my last deposit here (your welcome) and most stuff here is on autopilot for the fall schedule, messed up a bit by the warm weather, and of course, behind schedule. My brain has been tied up lately with dealing with life. Things are getting tight and finances seem to be crushing in a bit more each month. When I first retired, we would run out of money around the 3rd week and either I or my wife would fill in with some petty cash from our respective side business. It wasn't much, maybe a tank of gas or other incidentals. The last 6 months it seems like we run out of money in two weeks after paying bills and I am hitting the business up pretty regular for a lot of stuff as is she. We have not changed what we are consuming, but the money to cover it just isn't there anymore. I depend on the business income to cover the taxes and insurance on my folks house (long story, not going there) and a few carefully planned small capitol things for the business, tools, and supplies. Now I find myself having to make more money just to cover the important stuff with little left for the business. I don't enjoy this situation as you might guess, so I am re-thinking my approach on everything. The milling work is heavy and takes a physical toll, so I can't make that closer to full time, I have to mix things up. So I am trying to figure out how to generate more in places where the margin is better. Simple things, like having my daily shop boots blow out yesterday requiring replacement give me a lot of stress. A year ago, I just would have got a new (better) pair and not thought twice. Now I have to 'figure it out' and wait until I find some money.
Add to all that the stress and inherent depression that comes with the mid-term elections and I am a bit depressed in general. Dang but I am disappointed in the election results, but it seems I have always been, every year, since I can't remember (maybe the early 70's?). Let's just say it seems like I can't vote for anybody that wins, and my state is in bad shape and will get much worse after this go round.
My Sister-in-law is back east on her bi-annual visit, so the wife took my truck up to Albany last week to spend time with her and her brother, they came back Saturday. Her and her sister, then Monday they left for LI with my daughter to visit their other brother and his kids and grandkids. They return tomorrow sometime, the the SIL gets picked up on Friday by my BIL and brought back to Albany for her flight home to Oregon on Saturday (I think). This has all been very confusing to me to keep track of as I try to get stuff done and not make the wife mad because I forgot some detail. I have been 'batching it' off and on, which is fine. Easy or skipped meals and lots of time in the shop.
So in consideration of the need to generate some funds, I decided I need to make stuff even if I don't have orders, then I need to generate outlets for that stuff. I looked around the shop and found stuff I had started and not continued on. I also need to make a tool box for the truck. So I alternated working on the stuff for the toolbox, making another cherry bench like the one I did a year or so ago (blind spline joints), and finishing off a coat rack I had started a year or more ago. I'd work on one until I had something drying (like epoxy) and move to the next one, then the third, then either it was the end of the day, or I could rotate back to the first project. It's been working OK so far and I am hoping to keep this going and knock out a lot of stuff I had material cut for and never had time for the next stage. Mostly they are 'smalls' like $50 items or less, but that Cherry bench should bring a nice price if I get it right. Then I gotta work on marketing it, that's the tough part. I am no Bruno. :D
While doing the shop work I have been messing with the new stove trying to figure it out. Mostly it's been smudge fires because the afternoons warm up to hotter than I want the shop temp (62-65 or so). But last night it was cool through the night and bottomed out at 30 before dawn. I threw in some semi-decent wood but was way short of filling it last night, for the overnight I wanted to see how it would do. It did well and the shop was at around 60 when I got up this morning after staying up past 1am watching the returns come in. The morning results sucked, but the shop was warm and an easy stove restart. Still having issues with that bypass plate, but I really don't need it. It is jammed closed again though. I'll give it another whack in the morning when the stove is cooled off and I can reach in there.
We got another lumber order last night for fence boards (1x10x12') so tomorrow I will go and get started on that and see if I can knock it out. I'd prefer one milling session, but it might take me two. Friday is supposed to be a rain out and the boys are planning to build, either fully or partially, an 8x10' woodshed. The issue is moving something that big down the road. It has to go just a mile, but the logistics can still be a bit hairy on a single lane dirt road. My choice would be to build the deck, then prebuild the walls and flat pack them on the deck and assemble on site and do the rafters and roof. I bet this one goes faster. I will bring my miter saw over and I have a full cut list of every stud, stringer, sill, cap, etc. So I am hoping we blow this one out. That is, assuming, they have moved out the previously built 4x10 shed from the shop. :D ;D Last I saw, it was still there. That one has to travel about 20 miles on public highways. Could be interesting. ;D ;D No guts, no glory, right? :D What could go wrong? (Note to self, check bridge clearances. :) )
Sorry for the long ramble, I didn't mean it, but maybe I needed the therapy.
Inflation is hard on retirement income for sure.What I have been running into is having to be very careful about getting beat out of money ether accidentally or intentionally.Went to the store yesterday and bought two cans of spray paint.Clearly marked $4 a can.Bought some other stuff.Thought total was a little off.Got charged $8 a can.Accident? Who knows.Happens a lot especially at convenience stores and when you call them on it they get mad.Got a doctor bill a couple days ago for my wife for $250 for a visit which she had and bill said I got a discount because I didn't have any insurance.I have insurance and pay dearly for it.I called and gave her name and invoice number and when I told them about the bill they knew what kind of insurance she had before I could tell them.They said disregard bill.Why did they send it?Seems like a person is constantly tested to see what others can get away with. I don't mind paying what I owe but that's enough.Your right OGH this is good therapy.I feel a little bit better already.
OH man, you've got that right! I am now working on the habit of running up my tab in my head before I get my turn at the cashier. 2 weeks ago I was in a convenience store and the total she gave me was "Wait WHAT?!" no I said, that ain't right and as you said, she got really mad, then realized she messed up, but never apologized and gave me the corrected total which was about $85 dollars less. Convenience store clerks are the worst, and I get it, they are entry level mostly so I try to be light, pleasant, and understanding, but when they get snotty because I asked for something 3 times and they have not LISTENED to what I asked for and keep bringing me the wrong thing from behind the counter, I go from 'pleasant old fella' into 'grumpy pithed off old fart' in just a few seconds.
Caveat emptor (or something like that, my Latin is rusty).
Tom your work is beautiful, I think you are in an area where the pieces will sell.
That will help the financial funk. If you were a young man I'd tell you to go West. ;) It's better out here. Just short on trees. :)
It sounds like you are on the right path Tom, just remember to look for big margins for your projects. You're certainly smart enough to know that but a reminder never hurts and I understand that figuring out big margins on projects that will actually sell is tough too...
Have you considered advertising for refurbishment? I'd imagine there are a decent amount of people who'd love to have their old stuff brought back to functional but don't have the abilities like you do... I'm not sure where that ad is placed? Maybe local bulletin boards or Craig's list?
Also, I was watching your election returns as well with a hopeful heart, after some of the conversations we had when I was there. I continue to be sad for you and your state that one guy wasn't hired. That being said I was listening to the radio and someone was mentioning the pretty huge incremental steps that NY has taken in Congress this go 'round, so maybe things are looking up, just not as quickly as we'd hope.
Take care buddy!
yes this economy works both ways. i keep thinking things are expensive, but when you compare lately they all are. all the sudden paying 38 k for a complete kiln is not much as the truck i need is over 100K. rates for labor at the cat dealer, diesel mechanic ect are over 200 bucks an hour. hospitals are suffering cause the amount that is paid is set by CMS (think of government combined with big insurance). A 3 hour ED visit with a consult and several CTs and or MRIs comes to over 20K. that is all the hospital and doctor charges. major money loss across the country. many hospitals in small towns may close in the next few years. We get reimburse 28 cents on a dollar. that is part of why the charges are jacked up, so he hospital gets what they need. If you are uninsured, they will take 40% off the top of the bill and you are still paying more than the insurance companies. Called contractual write offs.
Quote from: doc henderson on November 10, 2022, 10:59:59 AM
A 3 hour ED visit with a consult and several CTs and or MRIs comes to over 20K. that is all the hospital and doctor charges. major money loss across the country.
I hope I'm a long ways away from that but I was under the impression it was usually just a 30 minute visit and prescription for Viagra that got things back into working shape? At any rate if $20K is the going rate, I'm sure folks will be willing to pay it!
sadly it is an inflated price so in the end, we can keep the doors open. hospital losses across the country are huge.
ED = emergency department not the other ED ;) :D
Hahahahahaha! Good catch Hilltop and bigblock. I didn't really understand the Viagara reference until Hilltop pointed it out. So funny!
OMG! just to be clear that stands for "oh my God!" :snowball: wait_smiley fiddle-smiley wheeliechair super-smiley smiley_gorgeous smiley_male_sign coocoo_clock no_no
Doc,I'm not complaining about what hospitals charge.I know it costs a lot to keep them operating and my wife wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the ER a few years ago when she had a major stroke.After I retired I got on Cobra for awhile at $1800 a month for both of us. I'm now on Medicare but my wife isn't old enough so I got her insurance through the marketplace and its not cheap.I paid my copay at the doctors office after giving my insurance card and that should have been it.I can't afford to pay large insurance premiums and doctor bills too.Sometimes it just seems like they test you to see what they can get by with.I spent more time on the telephone on hold than my wife did at the appointment. :-\
no offense taken, and my comments were just to let you know, that we are astounded as well. we get young people that show up for very minor stuff, and it is 400 bucks just to walk in the door and bee seen. I try to explain that but they either do not care, or think we do not want to take care of them, or do not plan to pay the bill anyway.
Boy, turn my back for a few hours and that took off in a couple of directions I didn't expect. ;D
All I know is that everything is so expensive right now that I can't even afford to pay attention.
Happy birthday Eric. Semper Fi.
Correction - that was meant for Old Jarhead, not Old Greenhorn.
No problem, that's can happen to folks of advanced age from time to time. But I will take it as a fine reminder of the day, had I realized that this morning I would have enjoyed the day more and as tomorrow is Veteran's day it serves as a timely reminder to give thanks and appreciation for the millions of citizens who have served this country, make it free, and keep it that way so that we all might enjoy our way of life. Their sacrifices can not be over stated and the debt of our general population to these folks can never be fully paid.
usflag
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on November 10, 2022, 06:58:25 PM
No problem, that's can happen to folks of advanced age from time to time. But I will take it as a fine reminder of the day, had I realized that this morning I would have enjoyed the day more and as tomorrow is Veteran's day it serves as a timely reminder to give thanks and appreciation for the millions of citizens who have served this country, make it free, and keep it that way so that we all might enjoy our way of life. Their sacrifices can not be over stated and the debt of our general population to these folks can never be fully paid.
usflag
So well said that the only thing I can add is AMEN!
Well, I seem to be making inroads toward working out of my funk. Having decided I have to 'make stuff' means I have to use to for production of 'something' and figure out how to sell it when it's done. Room for storing stuff has always meant I can't keep much on hand, but I do have a few of those odds and ends things I made as part of my learning process that are certainly saleable. I made some small items to to use up odd wood pieces, probably $30-50 dollar items and I have stock to make more. I figure I will make as much as I can store and work on different outlet ideas as I build the inventory. If nothing else, I will have enough to do a show next year.
So this week I had this cherry slab which was always slated for a blind spline waterfall bench. I had planed the whole slab a year ago, but doing all the detail work was something I never got to. This week I pulled it out, picked my cut lines and got started. These benches have a lot of steps. First I cut the lines, then set up to do the miter cuts and they have to be dang close to prefect. Then I have to put in the routed pockets for the splines and they have to match exactly. If all that goes well, I next need to set up the epoxy joining. Here is my 'dry fit' setup with perfectly square 4x4's to maintain that 90° joint.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221112_142018437.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668295754)
The benches are a bunch of work, but it the joints come out right, the grain matches carry through the joint and the overall look and finish look good, they are pretty appealing. But the joints take time.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221112_142747276.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668295755)
The thing is, you can take your best shot at guessing how the legs are going to look when you do 'the fold' because you can't adjust after you make those first two cuts, it is what it is.
This bench has the first epoxy pour done and is curing now. With the legs up and looking at the alignment this is gonna look pretty funky. I am thinking it's either art or it's a bust. I know it's stable, but from the diverging directions the legs are taking I am a bit apprehensive that I might have blown about 8 hours of my time on a discount bench instead of a high dollar one.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221112_150613756.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668297853)
The legs are currently 19-1/4" long and that is probably too high for a 36" bench. I cut this one at 36" because I am thinking folks will be able to fit it in more places and the curve in this slab was a bit much for a 48" bench, it would not be as stable.
I just have to do some supplemental epoxy pours to fill in the small gaps and improve the joint appearance. Then onto the finishing work and we will see how it comes out.
So I have been working on that since around Wednesday along with parts for a truck tool box and trying to finish off a coat/hat rack thing I started a year ago. I just keep rotating through, and as one gets done, I will add another and try to keep turning stuff out.
But I still have to keep up at the mill. ;D So Thursday I went to knock out an order for 1x10's, but the toolcat was gone. No way to get logs over on the deck without my forklift. The guys took it along with that 4x8 shed to deliver and finish it. I turned home and back in the shop. Friday I went back before the rains came and everything I touched turned to poo-poo. Just one of those days. The 3 logs I had picked out in my head inventory turned out to be spruce, not ewp. I didn't even really look at the bark until I had the first log dragged out. So I put it back on the pile and went searching for stuff I could drag out with a chain and pick with the forks. Not much could I find, but I did grab two. By that time I was really frustrated and thinking even less. I put them on the deck and got ready to fire the mill up which means checking fuel and filling the lube. Somebody had dumped my 3 gallons of water for the blade lube and I saw there was antifreeze added to the jug on the mill but only about 1.5 gallons. I will just say I was a bit 'miffed'. I did have a gallon jug of water I had hidden away and I dumped that in. It would be fine for 2 logs. SO I out the first log up and opened it up and for some reason I was thinking "1x6" was the target and I got a nice 6x8" cant out of it before I realized I was making 1x10's. DUH! SO I made a stack of 1x6's which will get used someday, likely soonish. I put the second log up, now painfully aware of what was needed and I realized this thing had so many bends and defects I couldn't get a 10" dimension not matter how I cut it over the 12' length. I had some 2x8's and called the whole session a loss. I took two of the 2x6's up to the shop and set them on sawhorses to make a long bed for the miter saw so the next shed build will go a lot faster as we can knock out the repetitive cuts faster.
I was home by noon and worked in the shop working on that bench layout and the other stuff.
This morning I went out and started back in on the work at hand, Bill called around 10:30 or so and I went down there and we pulled a bunch of old EWP logs with the forwarder and put them where I can get at them, a bunch went right on the forwarder to head up to the OWB and I will be taking a lot of thick ugly slabs off the logs I will mill for the OWB. It's old stuff that needs to go. Good for fence boards or dunnage, not much else. If I open 'em and they are junk, they will head right for the OWB. We need to clean that old junk out and dress up these piles as we go, so we made some good headway today. I did notice the pile closest to the mill deck has gotten a lot smaller since I started running the mill which gives more working area with every log I use up. This is a good thing. Bill is also kind of 'letting go' on some of the milling decisions and today I warned him that I may start randomly making timbers and lumber for a drying shed whether he likes it or not. He had no objections. Now if I could get him to stop dumping my blade lube because he thinks it old grungy junk we will get things moving better. He's like to use some of the steel 40' trusses he has to make a roof over whatever drying shed we build. I'm not sure how to do that or figure the snow load and column sizes let alone the header sizes or how long the spans can be. :D ???
Anyway, today was better than yesterday and I can't ask for more than that. Tomorrow will likely be a home/shop day my Daughter and SIL will likely come and look at my older woodstove and see if it will work in their house. Maybe I should get some help outta them for firewood?
Anyway, tomorrow is another day.
On bench height I always use 17" as my standard height. Storage space is a big problem for me too and I've gone vertical as much as possible. I assume that is true for all of us. Looks good. Keep on punching.
Yeah, when I use regular 2" square legs I figure 19" because I think I read that is a standard somewhere. On this one, I cut the legs at 19.25" leaving a 1/4" for squaring if required. I have a way of adjusting the length on these that seems to work well (which does not involver the sawmill ;D) and it worked on the first one perfectly. Just based on the proportions (length vs. height) I may shorten this as I go along. I just came back in from the shop and flipped it. It sits flat, so that isn't an issue but this will take a lot of follow up work on the joints and while I am doing all that I will get a feel for what this thing wants to look like.
Not much new here. It is now what I would call "November" weather. 20's to 30's at night and not much over 40 during the day. If it were sunny I would enjoy it, but since it has been overcast and damp, well not so much. Had about 2" of snow yesterday that went away by 4pm, today more flurries not even in the forecast, just from the most pregnant clouds I guess. Not cheery weather and Bill is wondering why I am not at the mill. ;D I told him I have anal glaucoma, that is, I just can't see my butt going down there until I get used to the weather...again. Plus it's been pretty windy too.
SO I have been plugging along on that Cherry Bench, which is going slow with these little epoxy pours to fill small cracks and joints. I am pretty picky on this part, and if it ain't right I sand it and do it again. I had to re-do one pour last night, then flip and do one tiny spot over again today. The epoxy will settle and not stay flush with the surface sometimes and it can take hours to 'drop in' sometimes even though I encourage it as much as possible by lifting out air bubbles with a toothpick, etc.. Tomorrow I expect to be full into final sanding and hitting it with sanding sealer, then getting down to it.
In the meantime I have been using the extra mixed epoxy on that bar trying to figure out how I want it to look and messing around with colors in layers. I should do some preliminary sanding on that tomorrow too. Right now it's still at the butt ugly stage.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221114_120606280.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668559039)
The third piece I was working on was finished a few days ago.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221113_132114835.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668558971)
I have also been doing small quick maintenance things, like wintering the water pump, fixing odd stuff that has been waiting around, and today I fixed a flat tire on one of my log carts of all things. Who'd think that would happen? :D Well it turns out the chineese tire is splitting in the thin spots. I threw some patches on the inside of the tire, and one on the tube at the actual leak and it seems to be holding. I'll get a new tire, tube, rim and bearings for about 9 bucks next time I am at harbor freight, hopefully the one that will open here in January. :) (I see they have a banner up and contractors are working inside the building.)
This afternoon I looked around for another job and found some RO pieces I was going to make a tall corner curio shelf out of but abandoned it. I pulled them out and the wood has moved since I stopped 2 years ago and now I think it's settled but no longer flat and one has a long bark inclusion. So I chiseled most of that out but I really don't know where I am going with this one yet. Might make a side table type of thing if I can get the top pieces flat.
In other news, the stove seems to be working out great. I note the temp is at 58-60 degrees each morning (which is my first smile of the day) when I get up and it really doesn't take long to get the shop up to around 62. So far I am happy. Still having problems with that bypass plate, but I just avoid using it for now, don't really need it. Overall, I think it's a big improvement and properly sized for the top, plus I can throw in bigger chunks for day burns that would never fit through the door of the other stove. Saves me some work. Curious to see how it works when it's 5 outside, but not too curious. ;D
A couple of days ago my shop TV up and quit. The only reason I have it is because it came out of a cleanout my son did that included like 5 TV's and he was getting rid of them. I tried everything to get it going but finally decided it was done. It's on the dump pile now. Once I had it in the shop I found it was nice for company and noise. I don't have an antenna or cable out there, but I can stream stuff with it like netflix or youtube stuff off my phone with a watchamacallit thingy. I found it keeps me company working alone and I listen 60's & 70's TV shows while I work and the occasional movie, I like TCM, they get some good ones. I have gotten so used to it, that now I miss it. Last night the wife said I should go buy a cheap one to replace it, so I found a 'smart TV' from Wally world for about $100 bucks. I guess I will finally find out what a smart TV is. I think I have to get an ethernet cable to it, so more fiddling around to do I guess. With winter coming (I heard) I figure it will get lonely in the shop, so what the heck?
I should try to get to the mill tomorrow, but if the wind is blowing and it's cloudy, I think not. I feel a early winter depression coming on. :D
If it's a smart TV it should work with wifi, if you've got that out there. Once you've got it set up check out Pluto.tv if you haven't yet. It's free (commercial'd) streaming TV with a ton of content. Lots of old shows and you can do on demand with a lot of stuff too.
Well just routine here going from project to project and trying to keep moving. Not moving fast enough. The cold snap has really discouraged me from working outside at least for this past week. I have a lumber order pending and firewood to split and stack. It's just not pleasant out with the cold and that wind blowing pretty insistently. We did the monthly food shopping on Wednesday and then back to work in the shop.
Friday the replacement TV showed up and I lost some time trying to figure that out. It didn't have an RJ-45 for the network connection as advertised, but it did have WiFi so I worked with that. I found a good John Wayne war movie and let it rip. I ordered a smallish one because I really don't watch it much (17"?), just sorta listen to it. Shoulda got something a little bigger so I can read the menus from down on the floor, the TV hangs off the loft about 15' up. I have some binoculars I can use though. :D
Those RO pieces I had figured for a corner cabinet, then puled again for a side table are looking like a lost cause because the wood quality just isn't there. For all the work I will put in, they will only look 'interesting'. SO I will either make something quick and easy to sell cheap, or cut them up and throw in the stove what I can't use. Too bad, they have an interesting shape.
The bench is about done, just adding coats of Danish oil. I had put on the first coat and didn't like the top. So this morning I sanded back to bare wood, plus a little more and started over with the sanding sealer, etc. Got the first top coat on and it's better than before.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221119_140819430.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1668988050)
Been working on that bar too and had the client stop in tonight for a consult. He'd like it in February but added some 'features', so when we get closer I will have to call RiteLeg and see if I can order up some customization of their bar legs to accommodate a shelf and some rolling casters. I have been messing with the color dyes in epoxy and after 4 or 5 attempts to get the blend style I wanted I have finally figured it out and the coloring is beginning to appeal to me, and apparently the client too. Small victories, right?
The new stove is doing well. Even with the overnights in the 20's the shop is in good shape in the morning most days. This morning it was at it coldest, around 52° but it only took about 45 minutes to get it back up near 60°. Watching the shop temp from my desk in the house allows me to see the trend and know if it's holding or the stove is burning down. The other night I watched the temp start to go up so I went out and adjusted the stove to hold at idle. In a few more weeks I will have this figured out, but so far so good. Today we only got to 33 for a high so I am starting to get a better feel for it. For instance I see the temp has dropped 1 degree per hour for the last 3 hours and is now down to 59. I know it's trending down, so the fire is dying down. In a little bit I'll go back and load the stove for the night, but probably leave the damper where it's set because it's steady.
I was up late last night watching the police activity in the road in front of my house. 2 Troopers and a deputy having a 'conversation' with one of my neighbors. Sad to see. He's in his late 70's and has some things going on. I had heard the call for a domestic on the radio a little earlier. He was having a rough day and I just watched in case I could help him out in some way, but the LEOS were doing their job and I let them be and although he wound up in custody for some period, they treated him well and gently. I believe there is some dementia entering into the picture, probably for a couple of years now, his son believes the same. I saw him drive by today and talked to his son briefly and all is as well as can be expected. He's a good man and I judge no one until I can walk a mile in their shoes. I may be there myself someday, who knows?
Tomorrow I think will be another shop day and i have to get another project started. Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest I will get to the mill and get that order knocked out. The I'll see what the rest of the week brings. One day at a time, right?
Well today had some nice surprises that made it a more fun day than the usual work in the shop alone all day and listen to lousy movies, although I did that too.
It started out with a surprise phone call from an old friend Steve Martin, I hadn't spoken with in several months and I thought it odd, but welcome that he would call me before 9 in the morning. He has a syndicated Bluegrass radio show that plays on many stations weekly, had served on the board of directors for the IBMA for a term or two and of course knows a lot of folks in the music business. He is a past IBMA Broadcaster of the year winner. Some of those folks he knows are people I introduced him to which opened some doors to other folks. Steve's radio show is based largely on the interviews he does and they are all available on his website for listening. I can't say he has done 'everyone' but he is getting close. In the early years of our friendship I would 'suggest' folks he should interview. I hooked him up with Bill Keith, Eric Weisberg, and a few others. One guy I knew Steve should talk to is Marc Horowitz. Steve kept demurring because he had never heard of Marc. I kept explaining Marc's pedigree and after several of these conversations, he finally 'humored me' and gave Marc a call. Long story short, that was over 5 years ago and these guys are fast friends and talk on the phone 3-5 times every week. Marc has been on Steve's show several times. Now Marc is a career musician having done studio work for years, toured with Joni Mitchell, John Denver, done orchestra pit jobs for plays and stage shows, TV shows, and any number of there things. He even played a couple of tracks on one of the Monty Python albums. But you never heard of Marc, because he was a sideman. His main ax is a banjo, but he can play most other stringed instruments if needed. He is also a teacher and Bela Fleck was one of his many students.
So Steve called me to let me know that he had been invited to write a biography type article for Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine. He is in the data collection/research phase and getting quotes and comments for a myriad of these well known folks to include in the article. At some point he started to reflect on how he came to be friends with Marc and remembered that I had worked pretty hard at getting them to hook up. He thought he would give me a call and tell me about the project. I (we) are tickled that Marc will finally get a little public recognition. Steve wants to write this as a cover feature article and I hope he pulls it off. Glad it's not me, that's a lot of work covering a 50 year career. ;D
So back to reality. The shop was 51 this morning, not what I had hoped for, but the stove kicked back up without a re-light, so that was good. It was down in the low 20's overnight and never got much over 30 today, so I got to play with maintaining shop heat during the day and nearly had the stove runaway on me in my haste to get the temp up. Lesson learned there.
I had another cherry slab I pulled last evening and today I planed it. I also learned that if I slow the planer feed I get a lot less chipping in the face, making for less epoxy repair work. I can take a little deeper cut too. It planed up nice and I laid out the cut lines after some thought. This time I want to focus on getting that 'knife edge' joint that Tule Peak talks about. SO I spent time trying to get my table saw at EXACTLY 45° and had some difficulty. So I learned about the limiting stops on the angle swing on the saw and tweaked the stops. The limit was about 1/2 degree or so off. Then figured out how to set up a fence. First try wasn't too good, 2nd try was a better and safer choice. It may be that my fence is not quite square to the blade by a very tiny amount. Anyway, when I was done cutting, I was pretty pleased with the resulting meetups giving me 90°.
So I started to mix up some epoxy to fill minor cracks etc. I don't like to let and overnight go to waste when I can have that stuff curing. Once I pour it really needs 24 hours before I can sand and move on. Just as I began mixing the epoxy I heard some kind of heavy equipment out on the road. It was pretty late in the day for the town guys to be out working and it sure didn't sound like a large truck, it was definatley a machine of some sort and it was in ear shot for longer than a drive by. I was upstairs and couldn't see out the front windows, so with mixing cup in hand I came downstairs and sure enought it was 'something' but I could only see half of it, right at the end of my shop driveway, stopped in the road but running. The Op was climbing out, so I kept mixing and went out and down the driveway. Sure enough it was a friend, a fella I have known since he was about 6 years old, and our Fire Chief. He has a trucking outfit. As I got closer he climbed back in the machine and backed it into my driveway and off to the side. It was smoking. He had the machine down at Bill's place and was driving it back to his shop about 4 miles away. He thinks he just blew up the rear axle. So now I have this parked in my driveway.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221121_165622000.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669075781)
A very nice little Telehandler. I told him he can leave it there as long as he needs, no problem. Wish I could use it but it's in rough shape. It moves now, so we need to move it as little as possible until we can get it on a trailer and back to his shop. That rear axle housing was hot enough to turn water into steam, so there's your sign. Pretty machine with a 16' reach, 3 4 wheel steering, etc. I never knew he had it. Good to know now in case I am in a bind.
In between all the other stuff I was putting on added coats of danish oil on the first cherry bench and dumping some more epoxy in the bar. Just trying to keep things moving.
A little shop time tomorrow morning than I have to get to the mill. Apparently I now have 2 orders to work on.
3 wheel steering ? Is that because he blew the rear axle ? 😂
:D My bad, good catch. I fixed it. It DID have 4 wheel steering when he parked it. Tomorrow, who knows? :D
4 miles of roading something like that seems kind of miserable. Not as miserable as a couple hundred bucks for transport but... I bet that thing would be quite handy!
Actually not bad at all. A lot less hassle than trailering it. The trick is when he brings it home because he has to cross the 4 lane state road and travel along it for 1/2 mile or so.
He was rolling along pretty good .... until he wasn't. ;D
On my road it is not unusual to see all manner of things going by, but it's not everyday. If I need to Toolcat, I just go to Bill's and drive i back here. We used to see horses on the road too, but it's been a long time, as those folks moved out.
I've driven the backhoe maybe a bit over 3 miles on 45 mph roads and did not like it one bit. The weight differences on front and back cause the whole thing to rock after going over the slightest bump and at speed (presumably 15-18 mph) it gets scary very quickly. Things are probably a bit more even on the telehandler. Driving the tractor about 14 miles wasn't too bad.
Well I've been busy trying to push it and crank out some work that might crank in some cash. Working in the shop in the mornings for a few hours then head to the mile for a few hours, then a few more hours back at the shop. Most mornings I have been at it early (well, earlier than I used to). The cost of everything has got me concerned and the balance in my account is not encouraging with the tax bills looming. SO I am currently running 4 or 5 projects at the same time in different stages. The second half of the week I ran into major problems with the mill and got no production out. That's being chronicled in another thread.
I was supposed to head down there today and dig a little deeper. But as I was headed out the door at noon, I got a text informing me my cousin David in VT had passed away this morning at 10am. That about brought me to my knees. David is 3 years younger than me and raised in the VT woods. He was a hunter, a trucker, a heavy equipment mechanic and operator, the supervisor for his town highway department and served as his FD's Chief for a number of years and through a very difficult LODD. He built roads, bridges, houses, and just about anything he put his mind to. He was just finishing up his dream home with a 100 mile view on the old family farm that his grandfather bought in the 30's. I felt very close to David. In fact, when were both in our 30's we even looked the same, so much so that one time my 3 y/o daughter latched onto his leg at a family reunion thinking he was me. Boy was she surprised when she heard his voice and accent and realized she had the wrong leg. Funniest thing was, I was ten feet away, but she picked his leg.
David did have cancer, but it was in remission. Last week he had a stroke but they got him home from the hospital Wednesday but he couldn't walk without help and wasn't moving much. I never thought I would outlive David and this is messing me up quite a bit. He was always stronger and healthier than me, better looking too. So I guess sometime this week we are headed to VT. This is going to be tough, really tough. I am still in shock. Sorry, don't know why I shared that.
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ANyway, been pushing it in the shop as I said. I finished off that first cherry bench and am just now starting to apply some wax on top of the Danish oil finish. The second one I started early in the week is cut and jointed up, and epoxied together. I just took the clamps off this morning.
This is the bench before glue-up just the splines holding it together.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221124_112921238.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669595104)
This one is about 12" high, because that's the wood I had.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221124_113015361.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669595104)
The edge meetup showed promise.
After gluing (epoxy actually) and sanding the joints came out pretty nice. I don't know if they meet the standard for the 'Tule Peak knife edge (tm)" but it's as close as I'll ever get.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221127_090916728.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669595109)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221127_090903279.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669595108)
Right now I have that upside down and waiting for the fillet pour to cure on one inner corner and tomorrow I will do the other one.
While I was messing with that off and on and waiting for epoxy to cure, I started a 3rd bench. This one will have more standard square legs inboard from the end, but again with splines to support them. It's something different. I started with the draw knife again.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221125_101746417.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669595713)
I'm using 2 short slabs for this one, one for the seat and one for the leg material. I am still waiting for epoxy to cure on this one and there were some fairly good cracks in them. I lost track, but I think I did one side yesterday and poured the other this morning.
Today I started a thin slab and planed that out to about 1" but it is a neat looker, cut off the hump of a bent logs and giving an elliptical shape. I had no idea what to do with it, but I thought it would make a neat backing plaque for a wall hanger rifle. So I draw knifed all the bark off and shaped the ends a bit and need to fill some holes in the next pour session. I figure it might sell as a blank or I can finish it to the client's needs.
Work continues on the bar as well with each pouring session. I added some rocks into the 'pond'.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221126_165256507.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669596488)
It's hard to get a photo that shows how deep the 'pond' is, but roughly 1-3/4".
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221126_165311462.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669596467)
It's a lot of epoxy to fill in with, so I am doing it in layers, evaluating, and adding texture or color as I go.
I have been sanding and draw knifing so much this past week or two that my arms ache. I guess that's good. My pile of available slabs in the shop is dwindling, which was part of the goal. I have to start thinking of some new stuff to make. My wife is pushing me to make lamps. I dunno.
Oh well, tomorrow is another day.
Sorry to hear about your cousin.
I'm also sorry to hear about your cousin.
Thanks fellas. I am sorry too. He was a good man, worked hard, had 2 kids who also work hard, and a few grandchildren. He had a good run, but it should have been a lot longer. I had hoped we would would be two of the old timers sitting together in the shade tree at many reunions down the road teaching bad habits to the little ones around us. Ironically, we are (were) of separate generations. His dad is my first cousin. 93 and still kicking and driving.
Some of these things just hurt a lot more than we thought they would. This one caught me. I did find a bottle of moonshine on the shelf with some left in it so I can sleep tonight.
Yeah, David was a great guy that I wanted to emulate as a kid, even though he was younger, I thought he had the life, living on a farm, driving tractors, and doing 'stuff' that made a difference at the age of 14 or so while I was stuck in the suburbs, which I hated. I longed for those weekends and vacations in VT. Still do, even though we have been 'rural' for a long time. You don't see a lot of guys like David anymore, but his son Dan is one of those too.
Looking good with all your projects 👍
sorry to hear Tom. I also just found out that Rosie of "Kenny and Rosie" just passed this am. He is my mentor and taught me to build houses. His wife was a nurse and inspired my mom to be a nurse. she died in her sleep. Kenny is failing with Parkinson's and dementia and may not be able to live alone in the house he built for his parents 40 years ago. they are/were in the mid 80s. Doc.
Sorry to hear it, Tom. Losing anyone sucks, losing them before their time is always harder. Take care man!
Sorry to hear about your cousin, Tom.
Tom, so sorry about your cousin. You are fortunate to have been close.
Thanks guys, we will head over early Thursday morning to arrive in time for the private service and then head home shortly after. It will be a long tough day, but that's what we have to do.
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Well I try to get to the mill every day the weather allows. I finished one order today and am about 1/4 through the next one. All framing stuff now.
I can tell tonight that I am dog tired because I can't seem to get warm enough. Always happens when I put in too long day. Today I was in the shop before 6:30 anxious to get things done before heading to the mill. Next thing I knew it was nearly noon. I rotated through the projects. I have spent so much time with that ROS in my hands that I can barely feel them. I alternate with the drawknife work and belt sander, which isn't much better.
The first cherry bench has 2 full coats of wax on it now and is looking really nice. The second one has the fillets done and I started working on finish sanding. I found 2 or 3 tiny spots of surface imperfections that I really needed to fill, so I did that, plus two spots on that display board. Lots of drawknife work and sanding on the 3rd bench to get the cambium off, but this one is holding on for dear life. I am low on discs. Tomorrow is predicted as a rain out, so I will head to town, tank up for the Thursday trip and get some supplies at HD. Their website says they have 60 grit discs in stock which they have never had before, I will try a box and get more 80's. I have been alternating between the regular grit discs and those new diablo's that are a mesh design. I am finding the finer grit mesh give a lot of life and sanding, but the coarse (80 grit) ones don't last worth a dang. Live and learn, right, just sharing. I am low on general supplies, but also low on cash, so just what I need until the next influx.
I'll try to get some newer photos up tomorrow when it's more relaxed. Just 10 hours today, but I'm pooped even my feet are tired.
Tomorrow is another day.
Another long one today, but different. Up early and on the road as the sun was just coming up. Drove over to VT and arrived about 20 minutes before the funeral. I wound up being a pall bearer which was an honor and pleased me to take part. Very simple old time funeral. Very nicely made pine box in a simple hole dug by a neighbor. In new york they have too many stupid laws laws requiring cement vaults, family may not be present when the coffin is lowered, etc. In VT, the family did the service with a minister friend, and we lowered him the grave and covered it ourselves. Plain and simple. I am kind of sorry we couldn't make his coffin, there wasn't enough time. We visited at a local restaurant for a bit to warm up, which opened up just for us (family connection). It was about 28° at the cemetery with a steady 30MPH wind, and it was COLD. Plus that cemetery location was apparently picked because the ground is so steep that nobody could grow and cut hay on it. Many of my family are buried there since the 60's and David's Grandfather's side goes back a far piece longer as they were in the area since the 1800's. A total of 5 or so hours in the driver's seat and we were home by 2:30. Tough day, none the less. It'll be a while before I don't have him in my mind every hour.
Got home, changed clothes and got out to the shop. I needed to do something. ;D SO I put a coat of finish on that wall plaque or whatever it is.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221130_152809135.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669938085)
It's got some nice figure coming out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221201_163541223.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669938090)
So I will just get a finish on it and maybe somebody will bite and want something made out of it.
That first cherry becnh is starting to look better with every layer of wax I lay down.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221121_151153729.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669938446)
The second one sanded up pretty nice and you can barely see the joint lines.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221130_083744781.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669938524)
So I put the first cost of finish on it this afternoon. This time I am using Tung oil finish because I think it brings out the colors better and more natural. I tested it on that plaque, before I did it on the bench. Looks promising for a guy that's not a woodworker.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221201_163450545.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1669938597)
After I buffed these off, I went back downstairs and sanded off the rest of the cambium on the 3rd slab I draw knifed last night for the 3rd bench. This one is different and I am having to think everything through anew. It took me a couple of days to decide my first thoughts weren't working, so I went with a 3rd slab to get what 'I think' I need. I have no idea how this is gonna go. No photos yet, y'all know what raw wood looks like. Tomorrow I plane that 3rd slab and then start cutting out the parts.
I also have to get to the mill and try to get that belt tension figured out, then try to mill out a rush order of some 2x6's. I haven't even looked at the weather yet, I am tired.
I'll think about that tomorrow, which is, as we all know, another day.
I think the idea of burying your loved one yourself sounds very sweet. I've been pall bearer more times than I can remember but I've not shoveled dirt after, something touching about that.
The plaque looks great Tom. I can't tell how long it is (that box leads me to believe it's about 49-50" by 8-10" or so?) but I could see it being a coat rack (with low hooks, maybe dowels?, so you can still see the wood) or maybe a shotgun rack for over the mantle? I could also see it as a centerpiece on a big dining room table where you'd set flowers or your salt/pepper shaker, etc? Or maybe a name plate over a doorway with a nice laser engraving?
The board is 60" long and I think about 12" wide at the center area. You have some good ideas there. A clock was also suggested. There are a lot of possibilities, so I just decided to finish it and see what a client would want. I can re-do the finish, add pegs, put flush hangers on the back or whatever they want.
I recently saw a coat rack using a piece of driftwood and recycled boat cleats. Some type of novelty type hooks might make a coat rack very desirable ($$$)
Your projects are looking great BTW
Another interesting idea Ted. Those hooks aren't cheap new and they really don't look great. I had a drawer with a bunch of old ones from the 50's but mix and match. The last coat/hat board I made (a few pages back) I used the few I could match. Something re-purposed is a great idea. Now I just have to find or think of something. I don't suppose I could use recycled nails, could I? ;D
If I were in the market I wouldn't mind unmatching sets of hooks... There are weirdos out there like me that that sort of thing doesn't bother.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 02, 2022, 07:46:51 AMI don't suppose I could use recycled nails, could I?
Rail road spikes? Or...
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/30640/20200929_d.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1601480856)
One our area girl scout leaders has asked for help with various projects for her troop on occasion. One the last one she needed a "rustic piece of wood with hooks" to display some sort of awards. Then she wanted cookies to attach the awards to so she could hang them on hooks.
I didn't have any "hooks" but I had plenty of cut nails. She loved them.
So nails might not be wrong. :o
I like the contrast from iron to wood but a lot of places a iron hook would rust and stain the clothes unless coated.
Another interesting hook I have seen is to take a branch with a fork and cut the part that you are going to fasten to the board in half leaving a flat surface to mate with the board, cut the mount side off at a angle top and bottom to smooth out the look. Rounding the hook side will be more clothes handy if that is the end use.
I will add that cutting the mount side of the branch long will give you better/safer control when cutting on a powered saw and a place to clamp that will get cut off so no worry about damage.
Super ideas guys, thank you. I will file those away for now and see if I can find a client that has a particular desire. If not, I will pick something to do with it.
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Well when it rains, it pours. Today it did both. I began my day by learning I lost another friend earlier this morning, and it was another lick in the chest. Michael was a musical friend, he played with man of my other friends, including Bill and my SIL, Evan. Sweetest guy you could ever meet and generous to a fault. A good musician and a good friend. He was suddenly diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor just 2 and a half weeks ago. There was noting they could do. Today he left us. I never really knew how old he was, but a good decade younger than me, likely more. His day job was as an electrician and gaffer for movies and TV shows. He traveled all over the world doing that. I only just learned today he also acted in 3 episodes of Law & Order in bit parts. A sweet guy who will leave a big hole in our community. I thought about him and the fun we had all day today.
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Yesterday was cool, but clear. I worked in the shop in the morning then headed to the mill to fiddle with some more adjustments and milled out the 'rush' order of 2x6's that I bet will sit for a week before use. ;D Got some more work done in the shop later in the afternoon.
Today, after dealing with the above news, I pushed myself out to the shop, prepped the 3rd bench for glue-up, mixed epoxy and got that done and used the excess epoxy on some of the 'bar pond' features, adding another layer.
Got clamps?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221203_170542483.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670112360)
Then I poked around for some other ideas and found some 2x2 RO stock and decided to make a batch of rustic legs up so I can make stools out of the offcuts from the bench slabs. So I cut 'em up, planed one side, joined one side square, then planes the other sides. I also found about 8 that I had made before I had a planer and jointer, so I brought those in to square up tomorrow. I think I will set up the table router to put a nice heavy 45° bevel on all the corners tomorrow too. I think also, I may try some alternate mounting method than the simple trough tenon on some of these if I can.
Around quitting time I was coming down the stairs and saw what I thought was a long stringy cobweb handing down from the stair wall, so I pulled it down and realized it wasn't a cobweb.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221203_172519552.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670113234)
I don't have the whole thing, but what I have is about 18" long. Not sure what to do with it, maybe I'll memorialize a piece of it in the bar. :D
I'm tired and I don't think I am going back out to work tonite, just fill the stove. Tomorrow is another day and I'll likely spend a good part of it thinking about Mike and his family. Here is a tune from his band band, he played in many different groups, but this one he put together. It's Michael, my SIL, Evan and two other fellas. Michael is the one with the ball cap and Evan is on fiddle.
The Chestnut Hill Gang - LIVE at the Hudson Valley Harvest Festival 2013 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqTFQiqHjMc)
Tom, sorry to hear about your friend.
More deaths. :( And young too.
Hang in there, it will get better.
:'( Sorry to hear, Tom
Thanks for the thoughts fellas. I got a phone call today from the guy that is the owner/ creator/Director of the Woodstock Luthiers show. He is also a musician who has played with Michael countless times and we are all in that same circle of friends. He was really broken up as he just got the news today. He was in tears, which got me in tears and I think he may have been having a few drinks to soften the blow. It's a hard hit as the news gets out around a 4 town area.
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Today I just buried myself in work. Was at it in the shop by 8:30, skipped breakfast until noon. The glue-up on the bench turned out just fine, but getting it to sit flat is always a challenge. The last two I was able to tweak in with some creative belt sanding. This one has a very slight twist in the top and with everything else being square and true, that twist shows up where the legs meet the floor. It was too much to sand out, about 1/4". So I laid out a line on one leg that should have matched the other leg. The question was, how to cut that line. So I did a little table length mod on my RAS and this is what I came up with.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221204_093102100.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670197092)
That allowed me to run the saw blade over the cut and line it all up, then add 2 more clamps, lower the blade, and cut it.
Worked like a charm, just nailed it. Accidents happen, right? So after that I put in an hour or so doing the final shape sanding for corners, etc, then did a 1st pass finish sand. It doesn't look bad.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221204_081512728.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670197070)
Then I set it up to do the fillet pours on the leg to seat joint. For these I have to get each 90° joint line level and dam the ends, then pour the fillet. I can only do one at a time. As it happened I also had one live edge to seat joints at the right angle, so I could get that one as a bonus on this pour. It's a funky setup.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221204_120710794_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670197513)
I can really only do one edge per day, but as I did this one around mid-morning, after I finish this post I am going to go out and see if I can get one more in tonight and save a day. But that has set there all day curing and I used the leftover epoxy to add to the bar and included part of that snake shed skin, about 4" with the head, in the 'pond' area. It will be 'submerged' when all is done. I don't know if it will even be visible as more than a blurry object.
Then I turned back to stool legs and I used the jointer to square up the old legs I found before I took all the legs upstairs to the table router. I set up a 45° bit and made hexes out of all the legs. SO I wound up with a nice little pile.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221204_154212407.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670197925)
Then another flurry of looking for stuff ensued as I could not find my big 5/8" drill and thought somebody borrowed it without asking. Finally located it, tried it on a test leg and still not happy with the results. So I drilled a test hole in a block and took the leg over to the belt sander and started 'whittling it down' and making it round. Not too hard to get it to fit right and be square in the hole. Then I moved to the bandsander and did the transition radius to look a bit smoother. Since these are for short stools, I want the legs square and solid. I can clamp them square when glued. The test was a self declared success.
I had wanted to get to the mill today, but I just got on a roll and wanted to keep it going. I'll get there tomorrow. Right now I am going to head and get one more joint curing.
Tomorrow is...
A mystery.... yesterday is history....today is the gift we have been given.
Sorry you've had a rough week. The benches look really good.
Well, it's been a week since the last update here. I have had bits and pieces on other threads, and the weather has been more prominent here lately. It's gotten consistently colder, we had snow Sunday into Monday and I didn't bother plowing which was likely a mistake because I thought it would melt off like other early December snows, but no, not this time. It has only broken 32° for a few minutes all week. Last night dropped to around 16 or so and it never broke 31 today. It was between 18 and 21 while I was at the mill this morning and early afternoon. More milling was not in my plans, but, somebody changed my plans. Still I am trying to get shop stuff done in the mornings, then again later in the afternoon, sometimes evening, based on the needs of the work on the bench. Still juggling several benches and stools, as well as the bar as an afterthought.
Some of this might be a slight repeat, but I have 5 projects working and another in the "almost working" sage as I figure out what it is.
The first bench you all saw and it has had it's 3 coats of wax, got a blanket and put in stock. The second bench, also got it's 3 coats of wax and I just blanketed that today.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221201_163500576.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670982760)
That one came out pretty nice.
The third bench, actually more of a stool, is also looking nice, photos never really show it well, but I like it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221211_162514421.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670983133)
I do like the way the edge came out on this.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221211_162519777.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670983199)
It's a very stable little stool, comfy to sit on at 12" high.
The 4th one is probably one of the nicest I have produced when it comes to grain figure and it was certainly not one of the best when I started on it with all the branch grain involved it planed out poorly and I had a lot of work to do the make it smooth and clean. This one got square blind splines and I had to take pieces for other slabs, so when I started it was kind of a 'use stuff up' bench, as I get near completion, it is turning out as one of my nicest pieces (in my small mind) I have made so far.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221213_201008537.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670982956)
The grains on this are interesting and the figure is 'attractive' (to me anyway). It was going to go cheap, but I think this one asks for a better price if I can get it. These last two benches just have the last coat of finish on them, I still have to wait a day or two and then wax (assuming I can keep the shop warm enough through that period).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221213_201044788.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670983068)
Bench/stool #5 is going to be similar to stool #3 but I still have to finish the legs, the seat is ready to drill.
Bench/table #6 is in rough work right now and I don't know yet what it will become yet. I keep looking at the red oak slab which I did all the work on 2 years ago and then it sat. What I do know is that the R/O legs (which I also roughed out 2 years ago) will be a new design. I had a brain fart and decided to try something different (again). I have these 3x3 legs and cutting tenons, as previously mentioned, has not gone well, but I thought of another route. So I set up this rig.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221209_192033171.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670984286)
I have 2 tables on one of my drill presses. The upper one is a standard and the lower one is a 'production table'. I flipped the top one to 90°, set up a stop and set up to bore 1-1/4" holes into the end of the leg.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221213_200916658.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670984407)
I purchased a R/O dowel at HD and cut it into pieces of the right length. The dowel will be glued or epoxied into the leg and the whole thing will be glued or epoxied into the table/bench thingy.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221213_200941315.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1670984689)
I will put nice chamfers on the legs before I go further and also have some epoxy fills on rough spots to do, but I've been holding off on making dust with all the finishing work going on. Maybe this dang storm coming in will give me an excuse to blow off the milling work and have a solid day or two in the shop.
Monthly food shopping tomorrow then I am hoping to get in enough time at the mill to finish off the shed order. I will still have the slab order I got last night, but that will have to wait a bit and Bill will have to find me a big log to make that one. Why does everyone want 12-16' slabs? ;D :D What's the matter with a nice 8' table?
Anyway, in general the work is going well and I seem to be productive (for an old guy) but I can see I have to do something about firewood, and soon. The new shop stove works great, as good as I had hoped for, but I need wood. I was so busy with milling work and building that I couldn't get my time in on the firewood. At some point I have to shift gears and get on the stick and make that wood my priority because the house and shop are both gonna be very short indeed. I screwed up and now it's a real problem. I guess I'll be out splitting green wood in the snow. Major miscalculation or misjudgment on my part, still trying to figure out this 'retirement schedule'.
Tomorrow is another day, all I can do is keep on keeping on. That's all that I think anyone can do.
Looking good 👍
I try, all I can do is what I can do.
Tom,a friend of mine who I used to work with called to check on me today and asked how the sawmill hobby was going.I told him I was still cutting but didn't really have any plans for the lumber.Mentioned that I was thinking about building a woodshed on skids that maybe someone would be interested in buying.He said as soon as I get it built to give him a call as his FIL needs one bad.Don't really know how to price one but I figured I will add up board footage and hardware and go from there. Thanks again for the idea.Might get a few out and have something to keep busy this winter.Benches look good.What is the problem with the tenon cutter? I was thinking about buying one.
It seems like it's just me, but I cant get good clean tenons with it and have to do a lot of fixing on the sander. I get better results on green wood, but still not great. On dry wood it is really rough. Perhaps I am turning it too fast is the issue. I'll see if I can find the thread we we discussed all this a ways back.
Tom, I had that problem early on with a rough tenon but adjusted the depth of the cutter and it evened out. I ended up with sales, and it being the holiday, getting some of their stuff. the log clamp and the sled. I had a Milwaukee hole hog and thought that was the drill in the pic. bought on clearance when Lowes cleared out Milwaukee and start stocking Craftsman (a brand I have sworn off since all the sears mess). It was new in box half price. It will not work with the sled, but the 1660-6 does. the point is in the process, I spoke with one of the new owners who answers the phone and had a great conversation. Ideas about making it work, but the one it is designed for is the 1660. they are working with Bosch for another option. The bigger point is you might call them and see if the understand a remedy. I told him about the forum, so please mention I recommended you call. Very informative and easy to talk too. i think his name was Mark. the person who answered initial was a nice woman and I asked for a technical person, and she transferred me, but "mark" said she could have answered my question too. If you have pics, you can email it to him as well. I have thought for a while, the problem could be adjusted out, but did not want to get in the middle of it as I know you are very capable. If you find your thread on the issue yu might sent it to their email. I mentioned to him, he might consider becoming a spencer on the FF, and he said he would look into it.
Well I am pretty dang certain that I am spinning this tool WAY too fast and it bounces like mad all over the place. I need to find something with the torque but also much slower like 300rpm or so.
After thinking on it for a few years now and trying different things I am pretty sure that until I get the RPM under control, and other adjustments I make won't really show up. I'll check what the speed is on that drill and let everyone know. It's not a huge priority and I like being forced to try other things (a little bit). For certain applications, that dowel could work really well.... I think.
I did go back and look for the thread covering when I got this tool, but it seems my info is spread over over several threads around may/june/july of 2019. Wlmedley, if you do a search here for 'Benches' you should find some good threads that cover Doc, WV, and myself using these tools. Also there is a lumberjack tool thread.
thanks
Confirmed, I just did a test with a dewalt battery drill at slower speeds and it was improved. The battery drill is not a solution, just a test for the speed. I think I will go ahead and setup a rigid setup in the drill press as I think I can get the rpm low enough, then I can start tweaking the tool. When I first got that tool, the drill press was not available, now it is. But I have to head to the mill, more stuff got added again last night. We may get up to a foot of snow tomorrow night. I feel run hard and put up wet.
My drill press is adjustable to and fro. Delta radial drill press. good for a test, but you could build a jig if you like it and do not want a big gear reduced drill. If you were closer I would sell you my hole haug but it is heavy. I made a brace with angle iron to clamp the leg in.
I would think a hole hawg would work as low speed is right at 300rpm while my 1660-6 is 450rpm. Is it the way the drill is fixtured on the sled that won't allow it to work? I've used one free handed before and it cut great but I don't own any of them, I'm hoping to change that soon but I haven't seen anything about using a sled before. Usually I just turn what I need on the lathe which is very handy for sneaking up on the exact diameter.
yes, the hole haug is very torquey due to gear reduction (350 rpm low). there is the handle with the trigger and there needs to be a threaded hole for the pipe handle opposite the trigger handle to keep the drill chuck in the midline, so it lines up with the vise/clamp part. the hole haug has parts of the house forward of the trigger out even with the front of the chuck. the clamp part of the sled secures the pipe. with the hole haug, it puts the chuck about two inches to the side of the centerline of the clamp, and outside the adjustment range side to side. It only had two side holes for the pipe handle, and neither are opposite in line with the chuck. the sled also had a part with a U-shaped grove for the chuck to be stabilized in. I tried to turn it upside down to allow the HH to work, but then it is misaligned. the 1660-6 runs at 450 rpms. clear as mud. I bout it on sale because I figured I would treat myself and not spend time doing R&D, so I do not want to modify this new tool. I am mounting it so it can be easily used, and nor require tons of set up when I want to make a bench or other log furniture.
the HH would be great for free hand and work with the clamp that way, but the sled was 80 dollars off. 80 DOLLARS OFF! :snowball: :snowball: :snowball:. there website has video, and I can post pics if that would be helpful.
Quote from: doc henderson on December 14, 2022, 08:37:11 PM
yes, the hole haug is very torquey due to gear reduction (350 rpm low). there is the handle with the trigger and there needs to be a threaded hole for the pipe handle opposite the trigger handle to keep the drill chuck in the midline, so it lines up with the vise/clamp part. the hole haug has parts of the house forward of the trigger out even with the front of the chuck. the clamp part of the sled secures the pipe. with the hole haug, it puts the chuck about two inches to the side of the centerline of the clamp, and outside the adjustment range side to side. It only had two side holes for the pipe handle, and neither are opposite in line with the chuck. the sled also had a part with a U-shaped grove for the chuck to be stabilized in. I tried to turn it upside down to allow the HH to work, but then it is misaligned. the 1660-6 runs at 450 rpms. clear as mud. I bout it on sale because I figured I would treat myself and not spend time doing R&D, so I do not want to modify this new tool. I am mounting it so it can be easily used, and nor require tons of set up when I want to make a bench or other log furniture.
the HH would be great for free hand and work with the clamp that way, but the sled was 80 dollars off. 80 DOLLARS OFF! :snowball: :snowball: :snowball:. there website has video, and I can post pics if that would be helpful.
Pictures would be helpful for me. I don't mind turning, it just takes longer than needed at times and never does it not make a huge mess. I have two hole hawgs and I think I've got maybe $70 in both, bought broken and fixed them, one was brand new. My 1660-6 I'm only pretty sure it was used at least once before I bought it but not positive, it was $20. I haven't found a good deal I can pass up yet.
Well I don't want to beat this to death. The lumberjack tool is a good tool, I just don't have a lot of time to put into it to make it work better. Yesterday afternoon I did make time to do a rigid setup in the drill press and the whole thing danced so much that it shook the morse taper loose on the chuck... 4 times. I couldn't find a different chuck to try. It appears to me that the tool is not running true to the shank, but I would have to setup an indicator to check that, and again, play time is short.
It could be that I have the red homeowner version and these are not made as well, but I don't know. Yeah, I might give them a call since Doc informed they are available to help, but before I do that I would want to have some solid data in my hands as discussion points.
I am also always looking for better, faster, or more accurate ways to do things lest I get in a rut. ;D
To that end I tried this yesterday morning.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221214_103419713.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671104312)
Again, it was a rigid setup with everything clamped in. I used a hole saw with no pilot and a piece of pine as a sample. Cut like a dream. Trimmed around the tenon with a saw. Sizing it is another matter. I just grabbed a hole saw that was close and it made a tenon that was about 1-1/16" in diameter, which was loose in the forstener bit hole. Still, it worked so next time I have time I will do some searching for a saw that will get closer to the 1-1/4 or 1-1/8 diameter I want, or get a bit that will match. Either way, it is pretty quick and I can come up with a quicker way to clean off the waste on basically round legs. This is just a fill in to keep my brain busy in off moments, not burning issue at all.
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Yesterday I worked in the shop until 11am then grabbed a sammich and headed to the mill. I finished off the 4th shed order while breaking another blade for no apparent reason. This one I think was caused by these half frozen EWP logs. I was cutting at a good clip and the blade broke right at a 5" diameter round knot that was harder than crazy. I had a decent amount of time on that blade but it wasn't dull quite yet. Put in a new one and picked up right where I left off with no changes, no idea.
After that was all done and I delivered the lumber to the shop, I headed back home to my shop, messed with the tenon tools and got another stool seat drilled out. Today I'll do the legs on it and worked on the next legs (with the dowels) for the yet to be determined table/bench.
We also have a storm coming in that has a forecast all over the map between rain and snow. We could get up to a foot....or not. One thing is, this one I will have to plow. So I need to do final snow prep today and get the plow on the Mule. I'm not in the mood, but nobody asked me. :D
I continue to be pleased with the shop stove. 59 out there when I got up this morning and 23 outside.
You Can Make This; Tenonizer's TC 22 Drilling Jig, For Cutting Round Tenons on a Table Saw, - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My-Rm-rByZ0)
Something like this looks like (at the 1:30.15 mark) it does a nice job, easily adjustable and smooth finish and it does't care what shape or how straight the leg is.
I did notice it cuts from the back of the saw which would give it a smoother finish and direct the saw dust away from you.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on December 15, 2022, 07:00:45 AMit worked so next time I have time I will do some searching for a saw that will get closer to the 1-1/4 or 1-1/8 diameter I want, or get a bit that will match.
I have a bit tucked away somewhere ::) It is a spiral bit like a brace & bit but has an adjustable width tip. That's the thing you need. If I find it, I'll post a picture. You can buy them new.
Great Idea John! I think I have one around here somewhere, I'll have to hunt for it when I can bend over again. :D :D
The only concern is the length of the pilot on it. I bore pretty close to the far side and I am afeared the pilot may pop through. But it's worth a shot.
I won't be doing much more today. I was moving some stuff around outside before the snow and I guess I reached a bit too far throwing some firewood rounds up higher on the pile. I tweaked it up right good and hitching up the plow was an adventure in slow movement and pain. I could call the chiro, but it's the end of the month and cash is less than short. Besides, he's a busy guy.
Late to the show but I had a problem with cut quality on my Lumber Jack stake pointer and they sent me a blade shim that fixed it. Apparently mine was a early one that was changed over time. Definitely contact them.
There's 2 of the adjustable bits left of my tape. That's how i've done what you are doing there.
Dad gave me another... Anybody need a brace?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10017/braceNbit.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1671153547)
That screwdriver on the left predates screwguns but in the right circumstances.
Don, I was taught that the drill on the left was called a "Yankee Drill" and it had straight flute drills as well as flat and Philips bits, usually stored in the hollow handle. My Dad used one to great extent doing thousands of holes when I was little and it was an early tool for me in my education. A little tricky to get good with at first, but you could move along pretty quick when you got the hang of it. (AND... the batteries never went dead. ;D )
I bet if I look hard I will find more than 4 of them around my little complex here. Actually, I may find a box full given enough time. Dad put a 'modern' one with plastic handle and 6-8 bits in it in my first tool box kit for Christmas when I was about 8. He didn't buy a kit from the store, he got a tool box and hand picked all the tools. I still have that drill here in the house and the wife is still trying to get the hang of it. :D ;D
Tom,you are too far left.
That is a Yankee Drill, the expansion bits are Just to the left of the tape.
Quote from: 47sawdust on December 16, 2022, 07:27:20 AM
Tom,you are too far left.
...
Was that a political assessment? :D :D ;D Nobody has ever accused me of that until just now. :D
Yes, I saw those bits too, and knew what John and Don were talking about because I am also sure I can lay my hands on several of each of those tools in the photo. I fact, 6 years ago when I first started to clean my shop in the hopes of retirement I began to put tools together thinking I would find them easier, when needed. :D In very short order I wound up with no less than 6 braces and several boxes of augers. I even have a 4' auger extension for running holes through joists and studs for wiring.
The somewhat older tools I am pretty well versed in, it's all the new fangled stuff that I have to work to keep up with. Danged Whipper-snappers!
Quote from: 21incher on December 15, 2022, 07:59:31 PM
Late to the show but I had a problem with cut quality on my Lumber Jack stake pointer and they sent me a blade shim that fixed it. Apparently mine was a early one that was changed over time. Definitely contact them.
21, how long ago did you buy that tool? I bought mine in 2019. I am VERY reluctant to put any blame on the tool. I did tooling trouble shooting my entire career and spent time with a lot of cutting tool engineers and took many 'factory classes' to learn about designs and applications. I even designed cutting tools at a couple of places. In nearly 50 years of that, I have found exactly one instance where the tool was made incorrectly, an actual defect. (That was a box of solid carbide, TiN coated High Helix end mills running in 304 SS when that was cutting edge tech (pardon the pun.) They had negative clearance on the OD primary edge, a definite non-starter, but a
little very hard to see on a 5/32 diameter tool without the right inspection tools.)
I would like to chat with these guys, but I think it would be unprofessional to call them and just say " this thing don't cut right, what should I do?" I received thousands of those calls and hated every one. I need to do a full assessment on the tool and learn whatever I can about the runout, if any, the blade alignment with relation to center and any other info I can glean. I'll likely also need a few photos of the resulting cuts. This will give the person helping me a fighting chance of making a good and faster decision on what would be most helpful. Just knowing there is somebody there willing to get into it is enough for me to do the homework. Many places these days just sell you the tool, then get really aggravated if you call and have issues. Most times you can't even get a knowledgeable person on the phone, just a sales person who likely has never even used the tool in question. I just need the time to do my part properly first.
With my back being messed up, I may be able to get up the stairs and work on this a little, but I have been staying pretty sedentary, because that's the only thing that doesn't hurt. ;D
I have called twice, and mark has been very helpful. a new owner in the past year and the pic on the website looks like a 10-person operation. they either have solutions or want to know if there is an "other problem". I tried to put the clamp together last pm, and the "jam nut" will not thread. I got the heavy duty with I think an acme thread not just a carriage bolt. my steak pointer runs a little rough and we spoke about that. He did not take it too hard that I had a problem and gives you the feeling if the tool had problems, he would tell you that and how to fix it. He would also prob./poss. like your input and again he knows your name and is expecting a call at your leisure. I think it is generally a little of both, meaning the tool and the operator have some quirks and are subject to a learning curve. :). I suggested also that he look at comments here by searching lumberjack tools. I feel like the FF and their company may have things to offer, and suggested he consider being a forum sponsor.
I took that pic just a week or two ago in a cleanup wave that approached one wall. Remembering the handplane thread I took a picture of these but did not make it to the few old handplanes back there. When y'all were talking about those bits I remembered that Maxwell house can. The smooth shanked expanding bit looks like the one I was using, it has been chopped for a 3 jaw chuck, I confess :D.
Just took the trash down and planed some more white oak for a painted porch floor at work. uhh, they ain't getting this white oak to paint!
Tom,
My sense of humor is somewhat skewed.I never miss a chance to exercise it.
Best regards.
I bought mine May 2017. Showed them the issue in a youtube video and they sent out a set of shims to place under the blades and a hat. Perfect cuts after that. If you can catch your issue in a short video it really helps them troubleshoot if it's the tool, wood, or user.
Tom, it seems you did make a video, and that is how I knew your setup was not operating like mine. maybe just attach the video to an email and alert Mark.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/85CC9E45-5887-4F4A-96C1-6032CCDD2EF3.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665862986)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/B5C3A22B-D6AA-4370-9930-6094181EFF3F.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665863090)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/F1EA8135-29F0-4ADB-ADFF-B9376E22EDA7.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665862802)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/DD70E85C-E116-42D0-9936-D177C7334EF7.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1665862827)
I know this is very different than your experience, and when you get the bugs worked out, it will be the fastest and easiest way to make consistent tenons.
Doc, I doubt I will ever get a chip like that from my tool. I have the red version, probably not as good as your model. I did some more investigating this morning and found that the bearings in the drill press I am using are pretty shaky, not very good for this work. I could not find any of my indicators but I improvised and no longer believe the tool is running out, if so, it isn't much. I read the manual again and tired some more stuff, slight improvement, but not a lot. I needed to move on for a while, so I sand on the next 4 legs I need then worked on some gluing jigs (photos later.)
I did look and I have never shot a video of this tool, I can't do that and work the tool at the same time. I did take photos of the tool and the tenons I was making, so I suspect they are here somewhere, but I can't find them.
I'll do more on it later when I have time, but I had to plow 6" of water out to the driveway and move slush along with it. Now it's a sloppy muddy mess. ;D
Tourist: "GEEZ Louise! Do you think it will ever stop raining?!"
Old timer: "It always does."
that was wet off the mill, and the best string of shaving I ever made (singular as it was all in one long piece). I took the pic because it was the exception. but still have good luck usually. Let me know if I can help. as you can see, I use my Dewalt 18 V drill in low gear. does your son have a gear reduced drill to try? I got it, you will spend time on this when you have more of it!
The tool Doc has is the one you want. You could do so many things to make money with it
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/B4B1BC33-12EB-4EE6-97A8-04A902582B58.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671232202)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59695/A505F977-8E02-43E8-B705-EDE4E0FBFF63.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671232199)
Well I am starting to feel like a complete buffoon with this tool. I have never gotten close to the results others are seeing, but I will keep working at it as time permits. Doc, I have and tried the exact same drill as a slow speed test the other day, still all choppy. But I might try it again with a different blade adjustment. I might also see if I can cut some green stuff and try that. But I have to stay on the productive stuff for the main part of my day.
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Hence, given my back problems, I had to force myself out to the chair this morning, knowing that moving around may help. Last night I hurt so bad I was in bed by 8:30. I needed wood in the house this morning, so I carefully loaded the cart and took my time dragging it in, but between the slush and a piece of wood dragging on one wheel I wound up dragging the cart in with a locked wheel, which was probably not smart, BUT it seemed to work. My back felt a little better after that. In fact in a half hour, it felt pretty good as I worked in the shop. It only bothered me badly after I got up from sitting for a few minutes. So I kept moving as much as I could.
I sanded the tenons on 4 more legs for my last bench/stool in work, it was less than 15 minutes. Then I have been wanting to make something to help with gluing these legs in and keeping them square. SO I spent and hour or so making 4 angle blocks. These allow me to dry fit the leg in the hole and set them square in 2 planes and clamp them to the block.
Thusly:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221216_134740921.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671233920)<br
You may note at the bottom corner there is some setback clearance. This allows me to see that I have good flow all around, blow in there with a torch to get the bubbles out, and keep the glue or epoxy from bleeding under the angle block. Or so I hoped. The setup allows me to dry fit and get everything square, then remove the leg and block together, goop it all up, then reset the leg to make sure I get just enough epoxy coming up to make a nice fillet in the corner, it there is too much goop, I pull the leg, remove some, and try it again. If not enough, I add a little more. I want a nice fillet in the corner so I don't have to go back for another session and fill that in.
It worked well.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221216_160118835_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671233905)
I did have a drop in one leg joint I may have to touch up later. 3 out of 4 ain't bad on the first try. Also on one leg, some epoxy did reach the angle block, so I may have to beat that off in the morning. All epoxied up and clamped, it looked like this.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221216_160332110.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671233906)
My original thought was to clamp the base of the block to the seat, but it turned out I really did not need that, the weight did the job just fine.
This bench will look something like this dry fit photo before epoxy work.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221216_121533663.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671233898)
It stands about 12" high or so, and is Cherry like the previous 4 and has RO legs. The next project up is the oak slab you see as a table in the above photo. That will get the dowel tenon legs, but I'm not sure about anything else yet. :D
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At some point today around 2pm in the middle of the above work I had to run the plow around. I believe I plowed more water than slush, but I knew if I let it sit, it would freeze at some point. We've had over an inch of rain recorded so far today, still raining. I should have had a 'NO WAKE' sign in the driveway as a reminder because I had quite the wave coming off the plow. Ugly weather. Hopefully it ends tonight.
Tomorrow is another day.
I have the same Lumberjack tool - 1.5". It cuts a 3" long tenon with a 60 degree shoulder. I confess - I do not get the same smooth finish doc shows on his but it works well for my bench legs. I find another advantage of making Octagon legs on my table saw by cutting the corners off at a 45 degree angle works better in my tenon cutter. It is almost as if I were cutting round stock. As long as I can keep my hand out of the table saw everything is golden! ::)
Howard, I like your octagon idea so much that I stole it. ;D ;D BUT, I do not have any confidence to cut those chamfers on a TS, so I run them through my table router easy as you please. Maybe you could look into that method?
BTW, My tool does not have the 60° taper, it has a radiused corner, I wonder if the taper type would cut better?
Tom,
I have no enclosed shop and a limited tool supply accordingly so I have to make do with what and how I can. It is also part of the reason I can't do the high end kind of work guys like you and Doc do - also because I lack the skill and experience. I don't have a temperature controlled clean room kind of environment to work in to do stuff like the epoxy and other finishes. It is also hard on the tools I do have so I limit them to the minimum.
Howard, please don't insult Doc by putting me in a class with him. ;D 4 years ago my experience with this stuff was about zero. Experience is earned through effort and I know you put the effort in. 'Clean room environment'? :D :D :D Have you looked in the background of my photos? You should see the floor some days. I used to work in clean rooms, even built a few, this ain't that and my temperature control keeps it somewhere between 38° and 85° without fail. ;D (seasonally dependent.)
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
You could add in a walled section on that nice shed you built a few years back, it wouldn't need much if anything for heat, just keep stuff dry. I made my first benches and legs out in my shed with no heat because my son had my shop all loaded up. That's why I built the lofts, to get up and away from that. It's only just this season that I have a stove in there that works pretty good and holds the temp overnight well. It was 60 when I went to bed last night and it is 60 now.
You could also add a side table on your TS and pop a router up through there. I had that on my first TS and removed the side table, put legs on it, dressed it up and made it a stand alone. Or you could run those 45° edges by making a simple bench jig and using a router conventionally. Routers are cheap on CL et al.
Just making some helpful suggestions because you have always been generous enough to do that for me many times in the past. ;D :D
Doc save those shavings. They are great fire starters. I place them in old mesh onion bags and hang them in the shop to dry for a couple months. A hand full will start fires for free. bon_fire
Well I was at it early this morning and had a good days work done before lunch. Some days are like that. I put a first coatof tung oil on this stool.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221218_134516433.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671406633)
It is looking pretty good. Then I did the final wax coat on this bench and got some photos.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221218_134635336_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671406635)
That one came out very nice and will make it's appearance on my FB page tomorrow.
I am not sure what all else I did out there this morning, but I was busy and didn't sit down. With all the woodsheds getting built, Bill had the idea that he wanted my wife to make up some of her log carrier slings that he could give to each shed buyer. We gave him one years ago, and a few other neighbors and friends. He is still using his for the rare times he uses the house stove. They all seem to still be using them. Mine is well over 30 years old and although I use a log cart now, I still grab it once in a while for a load. Very simple with a couple of 1" dowels for handles. I used it exclusively for a lot of years, still looks new. I used thin wall steel tubes for the handles on mine.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221218_152317856_HDR_28229.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671406792)
She makes them out of heavy denim. Anyway, in the conversation with Bill one thing led to another and we talked about supplying one with each shed, then the idea came up to put some in his egg stand for local folks. The wife kept pestering asking me to to do a little hand bill or something for the egg stand, so today I worked on that in the afternoon and it occurred to me that maybe I could generate some sales through my FB business page. So I posted it there. We'll see what happens, if anything. We put a price of $30. on them. The denim comes to about $15 at today's rate and the dowels are about 6 bucks. I don't think it will happen but if we get a bunch of orders, we can whittle those expenses down. But for just a few it's fine as is. I'll be curious to see how it goes. Odd things like this have a way of taking off sometimes. It's just another project for now.
Tomorrow is another day, right? Just keep moving along.
Tom. could she make them from old jeans, and leave the zipper and pockets on? that would be all crafty and etsyish, and Pinterest like! my grandma made stuff like that, and old jeans at a good will might work out cheaper.
Well it's kind of like working with live edge verses straight saw cut edges. There is so much more work involved in patching and fixing before you even have a piece of usable material to cut what you need. She could do it, but the labor is and awful lot for what you can charge. They really wouldn't look that slick anyway. By the time my old jeans hit the rag bin, there is nothing left to work with except the patches they have on them. :D ;D
gottcha. course who would of thunk people would pay more for old worn out holy and ripped jeans, than new. :)
She can zip these off fairly quick. If the demand is there and she makes a mess of them, then she might try some jeans. But she is not looking for new projects either. :D
I already sold one off my FB page a little while ago, so we are nearly out of stock. She made 4 to start. 2 were committed, one for the egg stand, and he 4th just sold.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/442CD63E-DF15-4B7D-BAB6-DBB51779BF4B.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1671420293)
made by my grandmother circa 1980. hangs on my honor wall.
trying to save you money and make you money. 8)
You don't have to get old, tattered jeans, just go to the Goodwill or Habitat store and get some that will fit someone shaped like Jabba for usually less than $10. You'll have denim for a while and broom handles should make for cheaper dowels, moreso if bought at a yard sale. I'd think you could get three from a normal length handle.
I know that using old jeans sounds like the way to go, but when you pencil it out, it isn't. You need a piece of material 20" wide and about 70" long to make these. To make them from jeans you would have to get the jeans and rip all the seams to open them out. I don't know if you've ever ripped denim seams, but it gets old really quick. then you have to sew the stuff in some way to give you that long rectangular piece, then cut the pattern, hem all the edges and finish it off. It would probably take 2 pairs to make one of these rigs, so at your $10 price, you are already much higher on raw material cost and the labor is about 5 times as much. The way we make them, you roll out the material and cut the pattern, hem, sew and done. The dowels are 18" long, I buy 3' dowels, cut in half, one wipe with Danish oil and done. We are just making a simple sturdy, long lasting gizmo. Some folks use and appreciate them and are not looking for something fancy. Besides, all those sections where used jeans get sewn together are weak points as well as the thin material in worn areas. One of the selling points on these is that you bring in a load of wood, lay it flat in front of the stove, use the wood and most of the junk, bark, dirt, chips, stay on the sling. You roll it up and shake it outside before you fill it again. Keeps your place cleaner.
Doc, I like that idea with the dried flowers. I'm glad they let Prince Albert out before they put the flowers in. I'll show that one to Pat. I might have a board or two around that I could use. :D
Yes I like the old phone prank. "do you have prince albert in a can" yes! "well you better let him out."
I got a note at work in Lawrence, Ks to call Robert Katt, and the number it turns out was to the KC zoo. "I have a note to call Robert Katt! do you mean... Bob Cat? :D :D :D :snowball: :) :) :)
just trying to save you/make you money rather than spend your money.
Yeah, I'm not used to that on the forum, everybody wants to spend it. :D :D
I was searching for a cheaper source of dowels than HD and found a company in Wiscasset, ME. I have some cousins right in that area. They make all sorts of dowels, pins, wood cutouts, balls, turnings, etc. A good source for some odd stuff, so I may give them a try and get a variety of things into an order besides dowels. I can get birch 1" dowels from them for about $4.50/ea, not sure on the shipping. I like doing business with small companies like that.
In case anyone is interested: https://www.caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen-cart/ (https://www.caseyswood.com/shoppingcart/zen-cart/)
Doc
QuoteYes I like the old phone prank. "do you have prince albert in a can" yes! "well you better let him out."
That pic reminded me of that prince albert joke I first heard back in the middle 50's while in jr. high school.
Heard tell the tobacco stores new it well and would answer "no, we let him out". :D
I made nearly round dowels with a 1 inch square board and a 1/2 inch round over bit on a router.
If she does embroidery (machine) you could add a logo and phone number. what weight of denim? check in an Amish store. may have to buy by the bolt if it takes off. or have Bill buy it if he wants to give them away.
I think I've seen dowel making jigs for the table saw too, if I recall it's like a cross-cut sled which a 1x1 or whatever sits on a spindle of sorts and rotates around using the table saw as a lathe of sorts. It looks both terrifying and effective.
Well, there's always a handful of ways to do most anything. I will forgo the TS and RAS jigs for now because my face and fingers are more valuable to me than clean tenons. I still have some things I am working on. Waiting for a tool I ordered to arrive to try the next 'thing'. Stay tuned.
BTW Doc, no embroidery here. The wife is getting grumpy so I dare not even mention 'enhancing' any projects. Just doing the sewing is pushing my luck. She says she is a quilter, not a seamstress. ;D
Did a second tung oil coat on bench (stool) #6 this morning. I was staring some more at that RO slab and had definitely decided I would hack it up into two 17" square tables and two short stools about 6-8" tall. SO I laid it out and cut it up. I carried the parts upstairs and while I was looking at those two 17" squares, I had a brain fart. I still wasn't happy making tables out of them. They are not flat and although it's very clear wood I am just not seeing them look very good when done, to my eye anyway. Staring at them I realized I could make a chair out of them! One for the bottom and one for the back. Those stocky legs I have would look neat on it. I could make a blind spline joint but open the angle a little over 90° to let the back lay a tad further back. The cupping in the wood would actually suit a chair just fine. So that's what it's gonna be. I got a little time into this afternoon cutting the joint edges and thinking the rest of it through. I never made a chair before, it might be fun! What could go wrong? ;D
I put a 5° angle for the base and 10° for the back for a outdoor sofa I made, it seems to sit pretty good, a search for "chair standards" will tell you lots of info.
If/When I start one from scratch I will make it more to common standards. But this one has 'evolved' from several other planned uses and in my head been everything from a coffee table to a lamp table, side table, bench, and more. The legs were cut and drill a week ago. The only thing I could do was put about a 5° angle on the back. It will be more of an art piece than practical. Maybe wind up with a flower pot on it. :D ;D
I never bought or tried using one but I know they used to make dowel maker which was basically an inverted funnel shaped circle IIRC the size of the dowel with sharp edge. You'd cut the blank into a square stick just slightly bigger than the dowel you wanted to make and drive it through the cutter with a mallet and it would cut off the corners and put the round dowel on through. Obviously the longer the dowel you tried to make and the smaller the diameter the more you would break but I could see making lots of 6" dowels pretty successfully. I guess you'd push the final section through with the next dowel or a slightly smaller pin of some type. I never needed enough to justify the time and expense.
Why does it have to be dowel? Rip a strip, ease the edges, sight round over in handle area.
Well, as I said earlier, there are a dozen ways to do everything. Btulloh, that is a pretty good idea. I'll have to look around and see what stock I can dig up for the next round.
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Speaking of different ways. I started messing with this a week or so ago. I ordered a 1-3/16 Forstner bit and it came yesterday, so I did a test on RO. I ran a hole saw down the approx. center of a leg as far as it would go, just over 1-1/2" in a rigid setup.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221220_173950784.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671629954)
The above shows the leg after trimming, here is before:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221220_173922216.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671630019)
Then right after trim removal with a hand saw (took about a minute).
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221220_173929146.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671630065)
I had to sand just a light layer off, I used my 1" bandsander. I got a nice snug fit. Fits in the hole like a hand in a glove. So another way to do things.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221220_174640060.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671630205)
I did some more work on the new chair design. It's simple and blocky, but some folks like that kind of stuff. ;D This is just the dry fit up photo.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221220_112735676_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671630314)
Taking my time with this as I think it through. This uses the dowel tenon design. I had trouble getting the legs to stay square on the glue up, so I only did two. I am a bit short on long clamps that don't weigh 10 pounds or more. :D Today I will do the other two legs after the monthly food shopping. Don't think I will get to doing the back until tomorrow. Temps holding in the shop around 60°, so the epoxy is setting hard a bit slower than normal.
Headed out shopping now, anxious to get back on this and keep it moving. No idea how I am going to finish it yet.
I have a 1.5" Forstner bit that I think came with my Lumberjack tenon cutter. I don't get much use out of it because I drill the mortises in my benches at an angle and the Forstner bit seems to need to be in a perfect straight up and down position to use. I guess I could start a pilot hole then use it. I bought a 1.5" auger bit that I am real happy with for that.
A Forstner bit can be "made" to work. the most acute angle I have done successfully is a 45° as a guide for an eagle project to direct a drill up on the timber frame for an outside pavilion at the Dillon nature center. I told the scoutmaster and father of the now eagle scout that if it started going to s*** to just let it go. turned out ok. son is now an architect, dad is a jet blue pilot, former navy. I use a drill press and hit it a few time to give a flat area in the orientation of the angle I am drilling. hand drill you can start flat and angle slowly, but may have a slightly oggled out opening. I like the idea of an auger bit. esp. in a hand drill.
not sure how the chair feels for balance, but for a sitter with a solid back, you may want to angle the back legs out a bit.
Howard, Howard, Howard. We went over this. I even made a video just for you, have you forgotten?
Drilling angled holes through a log slab with a short tip Forestener bit to get the angle you want. - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_c4e6Mtowk)
Geez man! :D ;D :) :)
Quote from: doc henderson on December 21, 2022, 10:12:30 AM.......
not sure how the chair feels for balance, but for a sitter with a solid back, you may want to angle the back legs out a bit.
Forgot to reply to this earlier. Yeah, I should have but as I mentioned the design wandered and by the time I decided what I was making I already had the legs made, drilled, and cut to length, so it was too late. I'll see how this one feels and adjust if I make another one. It seems I have a few cupped slabs for material. ;D
I did sit on it with the dry fit and because the back is not sloped enough to get one's tookus far enough back it felt remarkable stable. I did the other two legs today. Tomorrow I glue the back on and we'll see on Saturday morning. It did feel pretty comfortable, but maybe that was wishful thinking. We'll see, and this is how one learns. ;D
I am sure it is great. I find myself trying to remember angles and lengths of stuff. You may have one, but I have started making notes to myself, so a year from now after all that R&D, it is not lost. publish here as well so we can copy/collaborate. :)
I've been using the forum as my notebook. ;D It's part of the reason I may give too much detail sometimes.
I had some difficulty getting the Stove or firewood to get the shop up in working temps yesterday and it dropped to 52 overnight. Hopefully today is better. Headed out there now to stoke the stove.
Some numbers I think I remember.
~16" top of seat, a few degrees back and a few "open", The chair test machine at state put 200 lbs on the front of the seat and rocked it back on 2 legs and started counting reps and angle of seat to leg deflection. I've forgotten the magic numbers to get a state contract but we were doing full on M&T classic chair design, press fits with glue and only passed by retrofitting with those angled stamped corner brackets. Don't turn your nose up at hardware.
Hmm, do your tenon on the tree part of a leg with bracing provided by a branch flattened and screwed to the bottom of the seat?
~28" dining table top
Quote from: Don P on December 22, 2022, 10:33:55 AM
Hmm, do your tenon on the tree part of a leg with bracing provided by a branch flattened and screwed to the bottom of the seat?
Don, for a Southerner you type too fast. I'd be flat lying if I claimed I understood one word in the sentence I quoted. :D ;D
Can you say that another way, perhaps a little slower. Maybe it's the cold but after reading it 5 times, I still can't parse it out. :P
I think he may be referring to more a true rough log leg, that has the two inch "say" main branch with a limb going off that at an angle that can be fitted to the bottom to provide bracing.
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/46/32/1d/46321d38cec3a6f691fe9807236bb8c6.jpg)
these may be mortice and tenon, but if found live, can work as is. you can start looking for these when hunting mushroom logs.
Well I reread it a few more times and I believe you are probably right. But I would have to spend another lifetime in the woods to find 4 similar branch specimens to the ones in your photo. :D I would have to work pretty hard to get those angle holes drilled and lined up if I fabbed them. I don't like using branches for legs anyway, because you never really know the integrity under the bark. I think Don's point was that he thinks I need braces. I don't think so, but we will see. I did epoxy the back on today and will give it a test tomorrow.
I also epoxied up a small stool and have one more to do, but ran out of mixed epoxy and I didn't want to mix more for just 4 small legs. Tomorrow.
At lunch time today we got a phone call and sold the last firewood sling. I never even got to put one at the Egg Stand. So Pat checked her material and has enough to make 5 more. I went out to the shop and used Doc's suggestion and rounded off about 20 pieces of white cedar for handles. Worked like a charm on the table router! :)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221222_164356364.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1671758783)
I had some odd scraps of short boards, just a few, and I burned them all up. There are some defects from knots, splits, or shake, and I'll use those for something else. I have plenty for know. I don't think the whole thing took 40 minutes, so faster than I could drive to home despot and back and a lot cheaper! Thanks for that tip. Tomorrow I will clean them up and put a finish on them. Pat cut her patterns and will sew tomorrow, I think. For something I made on a whim, that table router gets a lot of use. ;D
Tom,
Aren't the dowels being used for handles on the firewood carriers and being covered with denim?
Not meaning to be snide but if they aren't exposed why do more to them?
Not at all Howard. Go back to reply 1712 and look at the photo. There are handle holes so you can get a grip. The handles are removable for those fussy folks who want to wash the thing once in a while. They should look nice and be smooth.
that worked well and hopefully took the cost to build down and is money in your pocket. what does that come to in saving per board feet? ;) :) :D. that was my goal with the jean thing, I have a few pair I could send, but there goes the profit.
My engraver does a neat job on denim, so if you start making them by the hundreds, let me know. 8)
Yeah, um, not likely Doc. :D :D
Today was more of the same. Dealing with very weird weather. Nearly 50 when I got up this morning and it's 9° now. In the shop all day sanding, waxing, gluing, or whatever applied to each project. I have about 4 working right now.
I did have to run down to Bill's and drop off a mess of egg cartons and one of the firewood slings that started that whole thig with a special request. In the process I encountered some heavier water than I expected. SO on the way out, I shot a video. I did not expect to run into Bill and we had a chat. I have no way to edit these videos. I am not a whiz as apparently everyone else is. I should have shut it off, but then I would have two videos. It's all very confusing but basically: here you go, this is what I got. At 17 minutes, it's a lot more than I wanted, but there you go. It's just a drive form Bill's place almost to mine. Aigheadish has been down that road, but now it looks a bit different than it did in July. :D ;D
Just another day in paradise - YouTube (https://youtu.be/ioMxEL2bBLM)
Whoa! That's a lot of water! I wouldn't have thunk the swamp turns into a river but I guess that makes sense. I thought I had a picture of that waterfall but I can't seem to find it (maybe it's just in my mind!), when I was there it was but a trickle!
Yeah I went down to the mill yesterday to try and chip out a few 2x4's for a fixit project (no soap) and everything in that video, beside the deep water in the swamp is frozen, then the water dropped, so under the ice is a big air gap. When I went through that section where I had the full wake going, the truck dropped through the ice about 8" ( which was 'stimulating') and I was kinda stuck. :D ;D So I flicked the switch to 4WD and off I went. But the mill area outside of the deck is washed over with 2-3" of solid thick ice and I didn't put my cleats on for the few minutes I was there. It was dicey at best. Today we are hoping to get over freezing, which hasn't really happened in about a week now. I don't know if any of this ice will melt. That section of town road in the video is no longer underwater per se, but there is plenty of ice there. Such is life in a vacation paradise. ;D I have burned through a lot of firewood. I need your son to come stack some more. :)
I'm sure he'd be up for it!
We're expecting 60 degrees in the next few days, so I'm sure everything will turn into soup.
I'm hoping the mud in the barn dries out, once the temperature is up, so I can flatten that junk out and start getting the gravel in there. Waiting on the weather is for the birds.
Whoop, sorry to be slow to respond. Yup, Doc understood what I was trying to say, and you understood what I was thinking.
I'm watching one tree that has the perfect pair of branches for a house corner, just need to find 3 more ;D
Yup, just 3 more is all you need. And um, how old are you? Think you have time to find them yet? :D :D
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Well today I am pooped out.... again. Yesterday I went to my chiro for a scheduled appt. and he fixed the major problem I caused 2 weeks ago. I thought he was gonna cry when I told him I was headed home to do firewood. :D But that's what I did and managed 3 trailer loads, 2 of which I unloaded into piles in covered areas. I have no time to mess with stacking, I am in panic mode to just get some wood in where it can get some air, dry a 'little' and then nurse some heat out of it. I'm in bad shape and it's my own fault. Today, we had the boys (3 Grandsons) they are little help but they try and we have some laughs. My son also sent his guy over for a few hours and he stayed home for a bit doing billing and paying bills, then joined us. We got another 4 loads done and I made 2 unsuccessful trips down to Bill's to get the 6 way splitter, but it's blocked in with trailers and grapples in the way and try as I might, I could not get access to it. I did put some scratches in the tool cat as I slid around on the ice and bumped against a loaded trailer, I got jammed up pretty good, but managed to get it out...3 times. Not good and I quit before I broke anything, but wasted a bunch of time. If I had that splitter, we would have spit everything I had bucked. I still have 3/4 cord left in rounds. I am running out of covered space to pile this stuff in. It's almost all green stuff. I am in bad shape here. I really blew it this year. First time I messed up this big in decades. I made accommodations to bring more wood in the shop near the stove some it could sit for a few days before it hits the stove. This will take a lot of the wet out of it, but it will still mean a lot more work to keep the heat up and overnight burns. It's going to be a long winter.
Last night I was pretty depressed about this whole situation and went through what I did this year. It didn't take me long to realize that I just spent too much time at the mill and then doing the custom build jobs that came along. This next year I will have to go back to getting my wood done by June 1st as I did for all the years before. I only once beat that date, but usually came in close and I was in good shape for the winter. Now I will spend the rest of the winter dealing with it everyday and that sucks, but it's my fault. I should fire me on the spot, but then who would I have? ;D
I have undone most of what my chiro man did yesterday, but I am not in a lot of pain, just a bit sore and very tired.
Now I have to go out and fill the shop stove and hope it heats and holds overnight. Then do the house stove.
Tomorrow is another day and I'll hit it again.
If the boss wants you to run the mill all the time he is going to have to send a crew and some gear over to do up the firewood for you in the spring. ;)
It's been discussed. :D ;D ;D
surely there are some too cracked and split logs to be culled for the fire as well at the mill. I have some elm sitting in the log for over 5 years and will make great firewood. but it is also beautiful wood.
The first year that I had my OWB and still had a job I was in the woods Saturday dropping trees to burn the upcoming week, mostly standing dead but I thought of the green stuff Black Birch burnt OK.
There is always next year. :D
Check with me in the morning. :D
Well, the last 4 or 5 days I have been mildly depressed on several fronts. The firewood thing has been discussed. Yes, in years past as gspren noted I too did some extra ordinary work to make it happen and it wasn't fun, but that was when I was working 50-60 hour weeks then trying to also keep the woodpile stocked. Still, I was much younger than I feel now and that's part of the problem with me. Doing firewood for 12 hours is not very smart. Still we got a decent bunch done at the end of the week and that will be some help but it is not as dry as I would like, of course. I didn't waste any time with stacking, trying to focus on using the time to get it split and under cover. So the house pile looks like this, just tossed in.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230101_102026529.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1672698779)
It ain't pretty, but it's a start. I have a similar pile by the shop. I am trying to use the dry wood I have to get the fire going hot, then put the newer stuff on top. I am also trying to get that new stuff in the house or shop to be near the stove for at least 24 hours before it goes in the stove, this allows a lot more drying than you might think to take place. In the shop I have a rotation setup.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20221231_164512163.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1672698736)
The cart on the right at the rear of the stove is all the green stuff. It comes in and sets for a full 24 or more hours. The cart in the middle is stuff that is dried 1-2 years. There is also the hoop on the far side of the woodstove that is green but came off the right hand cart for the day before. I use the stuff from the hoop as much as possible, just using from the dried wood as needed. when the hoops gets to halfway down, I move the stuff from the right hand cart to fill the hoop back up and get in another load of green to get some drying by the stove. I do something similar in the house on a smaller scale because of space and I am out of carts. I have to be much more attentive, burn the fires a little hotter, and keep a bit more wood in the stoves to keep them from burning out. Last night we got home late and the house stove was pretty much out, so I just left it and started over again today. In short, it takes a lot more of my time and I am already noticing that in the shop I am not getting as much heat as I'd like (well, DUH!). Anyway, I will just do what I can do and make it through however I have to. Fortunately it's been mild this last week.
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I have been working on that chair some more and put my thirds coat of tung oil finish on today. I think I will use exterior poly on this one as a cover coat.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230101_152747481.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1672698998)
I'd like to get that done while I can keep the shop warm enough for finishing.
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I took some time last week and did a lot of research trying to find a local and/or not so local outlet for my work. I found a place I have long known about 15 minutes away and I checked out the stuff they sell and saw my stuff as a great fit. I called them, the fella called me back on Friday and I explained what I had in mind and asked how they do business and would they be interested. The guy seemed borderline rude and gave me a long speech about only doing business with people who would do custom work and deliver on time, but I figured it might just be me. He said he would be happy to look at photos and I offered to throw some stuff in the truck for him to look at. He was dead against that "just send me photos'. He refused to go look at my FB page, and didn't even acknowledge my request to look at my website. OK, so I spent and hour picking photos and reducing the file sizes for emailing.
The next day he emails me back and says tells me that I make 'modern rustic live edge benches" and they don't fit in the the products he sells. I did a double take because at least half or more of the stuff on his web page (https://www.rustic-cabin.com/image-gallery) is live edge rustic. You tell me if I'm wrong. So I just replied with a note thanking him for his time and noting that he must be very busy to not look at my webpage. Basically I ended the conversation. Let's move on, I thought, but to where? I am still thinking on this.
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So yesterday we went to Bill's in the afternoon for a combination New Years day open house and birthday party for his 6 y/o princess. He always tells me "NO GIFTS!" because he doesn't want her growing up with a bunch of plastic toys that last 3 days. I get it, but when I was in the shop yesterday I was looking at some small stools I just made and I thought, little girls and boys need a stool to reach the sink, help mom or dad and all kinds of things. I sent Bill a text and warned him I was gonna break his rule, then I put 3 coats of wax on the stool to finish it up and brought it in the house to show the wife. I didn't know but she was also breaking his rule. She had made a nice little apron/smock for her that was her size and she could wear when she was doing her drawings and paintings, which she does a lot of. The apron and stool were big hits and Bill may yet forgive me. At least it's durable and will last a very long time, her Mom loved it and said she really needed a small one she could handle and move around on her own. The other adults had lots of questions about the stool and how it was made. Somehow we wound up talking about selling stuff and they guy at the rustic furniture store came up. Turns out there were no less than 4 people at the party that had done, or tried to do business with that guy and they all said he was a jerk and they never figured out what his issue was, but they never went back. SO maybe it wasn't just me? ;D
As usual it was a great party with a huge bonfire (the wood pile was 20'x20' x 15' high, all 100 year old lumber from a storage warehouse disassembly job). We got home around midnight. :D
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Today I was a bum. I tended the fires, not that they needed mush with the outside temps in the 40's. I put a third coat of tung oil on that chair then pulled out a table I built 3 years ago that needs to have a warped leg replaced. I'll start on that one soon. I also read a complete book that my daughter handed me at the party yesterday, a forgotten Christmas gift about the recent history of the Tinker Street Cafe, which had everybody from Bob Dylan (who lived upstairs for a while) and down through a who's who of Musicians playing there from the 80's though the 90's. The list is very long indeed and I found a number of personal friends on that list, which makes me smile. I read it in one sitting. Very rare for me, I never have time. And Yes, Aigheadish, that was the club I pointed out when we walked Woodstock with your family, the one that was below sidewalk level.
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Tomorrow is another day and I will continue to think of how to work on the marketing.
Tom,
Good luck with the market place. I am confident it will come. Sorry about the jerk but they are out there.
I like the 2 wheel carts and have one here I use to move my wood from the utility room to the heater. They work great.
Tom,
Both you and your wife breaking the No Gifts rule with awesome, thoughtful, handmade gifts just made my night! Those are the most appreciated kinda gifts
X2 on that one granite
Looking at that guys stuff my guess is that yours is too nice, Tom, yours looks more fine art and the stuff there looks more backwoods. It sucks you had that experience (and spent the time on it) but a relief to hear you weren't the only one.
Seems to me there is a local chainsaw shop vacancy. ;)
Well, I'm not looking to take on new liabilities such as rent and heat etc. when I can barely afford what I have now. You had no way of knowing, but Bob's building complex is just about several hundred feet from the place discussed above. Besides, I know Bob is a great guy, but I don't know what kind of landlord he might be. :D ;D
I appreciate the boundless encouragement from the folks here, it does help me keep going when I think I may have made a wrong turn. The ideas that pop up often lead me to eventual solutions, even the odd or humorous ones sometimes open that thought tunnel to the light. Last night I paid a large annual bill and I have another due by the end of the month, between the two it will just about clean out my bank account again. We are simple folks with simple needs, we don't party much and when we do it is generally sitting around a campfire with friends, we go out to dinner at a diner maybe once a month. Our travel is generally within a 3 hour drive and we stay with family or friends. But only maybe twice a year. It shouldn't be this hard to survive, but we are better off than a lot of folks and do what needs to be done.
This year I would truly like to make it to the project, but that is a pricey trip for me and I have to figure it out. If I do that, and there is a pig roast, I don't think we can do both. Right now, I'd be happy to do one because that will take a lot of work. These are the things that are on my mind all the time and get me down.
We are supposed to have a day or two of rain here now, so maybe I will hunker down and work on the website some more, which it needs, and add a page just with the stuff available for sale. The I have to figure out a way to drive the traffic there. What's holding me back is putting hard prices on stuff because that can turn a lot of folks away before they even get a good look at what they are buying. This problem of pricing continues to haunt me.
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Funny thing about those birthday gifts. We weren't the only ones who broke 'the rule', there are always several folks that don't understand and won't go to a little girl's birthday without a gift. So there were a few of those 'toys' that last a week or a month (the kind that make Bill cringe and why he has 'the rule') and the birthday girl opened each one then went over and thanked the giver with a hug, put it back neatly in the box, then went onto the next gift. She did this for everything except the stool and the apron. The apron she put on right away and showed everybody how 'cool it looked' and the stool she sat on while opening gifts. At the end of the night when she went to bed, she left all the gifts in the living room in a neat pile, but the stool she carried off to her room and when she walked past me, she smiled and explained that she needed it to brush her teeth when she got up in the morning. :D So I figure we gave her some small things that are useful in her life and that was the goal.
Tom you know that little stool will be with that girl a long time. That's a great thing. :) I wonder if you put "all prices of the pieces I have listed on this page are negotiable, if a piece interests you please ask me and I will promptly reply."
Just a thought about the building I doubt you'd want to tie into that completely. I bet you can find a place or two to display your wares.
Just tossed in?? That don't sound right.
Ok just kidding. I don't stack very much of my firewood for 2 reasons (1) I don't particularly like stacking firewood or the extra labour. (2) I find it gets more air flow and dries better tossed in a pile than stacked. My brother stacks his and will get some sort of mold on it if we have a extra wet summer (often happens) I don't have any issues with that.
I did stack some to keep the tossed pile from going towards the house.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/18975/20220924_182457.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1664055515)
Well yeah, tossed, bit I figured the stuff on top would at least evaporate off the surface water in a week or so. Truthfully, this stuff could be worse. Most of it was cut from sick and dying trees and has been cut a while ago. Some is down in the ice storm last February and bucked last March. Time is everything for me right now, I just don't have enough. I have to spend less time on the forum learning stuff and more time doing stuff. ;D It is what it is.
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Rained all day today.
Still a little disgusted with life this morning, so I just laced up my boots and went to work. I decided the other day that I would repair or refinish stuff I made very early on when I was trying stuff and getting in my initial learning, aka bad mistakes.
First up was a lamp table I made in June of 2020 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=110766.msg1735560#msg1735560) and one leg had a knot in it that I didn't know would be a problem. The knot dried weird and the leg took another 5° bend in an ugly way. Maybe your discerning eye will see the bend in this photo.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230103_101308137.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1672785516)
Hint: It's the leg on the left. :D
Fortunately, when I built the table, I made a 5th leg as I had no confidence in not screwing it up and I found that leg which already had the taper cuts on it. I finished it up and put the mounting bolt hole in, then took the other 3 legs off and added a little accent miter to all of them. I was interested to see what I thought was good finishing work a year and a half ago. It was not great. So I sanded all the legs again and put the same urethane back on them for a first cost. Not dry enough in the shop to get a second coat on today. I have more patience now, so tomorrow is fine. They are hanging and drying and I hit some spots I missed on the under side of the table all the time cussing at myself for sloppy work. This table will sell for cheap as it will never be perfect looking, but very serviceable.
Then I pulled out the corner shelf I made before the table and never finished after getting frustrated. This had drying issues also, I worked the wood before it was ready. So I fixed some stuff on that, redid some blending and sanding issues, but the goal was not to make it perfect, it will also go for a knockdown price. It is an odd shape and takes too much room in my very limited storage area. I got a coat of urethane on one side of it, more tomorrow.
I also got a good look at the chair I am working on, nearly done and I kind of like it. The finish is pretty nice. I am on the fence about putting poly on it. I'd like to find a buyer and then do whatever they want.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230103_164419834.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1672786316)
For now, I will call the chair 'done'. Tomorrow I will do some more work on the two pieces mentioned above, probably grab Bill's splitter and hopefully get some more wood split if the rain holds off. When I get the current 'repairs' done I have one more piece, a coffee table I will pull and go over to see what it needs. I noticed the legs rock, so it might be a simple thing or it might be junk. Education ain't cheap, but this is how I learn.... the hard way.
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Nebraska, I like that idea about the pricing statement. I will think on that and play with the wording a little. I am concerned that it could open a door I can't easily close, so I need to think on it. It's not that I mind dropping a price, which I usually do for local folks and old friends anyway, but there is a limit. Heck sometimes a friend comes in and just 'falls in love' with something and I give it to them.
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Bill called today about stealing lumber from one order I nearly have done for another order that just came in. Makes me crazy, but oh well. While I had him on the phone we made peace over our breaking of his rule. Actually he was fine with it and he readily admits that stool was a big hit and very useful to her. But on the other hand, he is already plotting to buy drum kits and loud fire engines with batteries that never die for the kids whose parents brought more 'plastic crap'. :D ;D
Years ago, my mom gave my son Peter a little fire engine, it was cute, only about 3" long but it had a siren that wouldn't quit and after a while the thing would go off by itself for no reason. It went off one night at 3am and woke me from a sound sleep at the other end of the house. I was not amused. I found it in the dark living room, walked out on the back porch and flung it about 100' out into the the swamp and went back to bed. As I lay there, in the dark, with the windows closed, I could still hear that dang siren out there in the swamp until it finally quit.... about an hour later. ;D
Tom,
I hope you engraved the stool with the appropriate saying for a little girl:
This little Stool is Mine.
I use it all the time.
To reach the things I couldn't
(And lots of things I shouldn't)
:D
Cute, I wish you had shared that last week! :D
I remember a birthday gift I got as a young boy in the early 70's, a plastic AR-15 replica... When you pulled the trigger it would repeatedly rat tat tat...mimicking automatic fire. :) I thought it was cool. Some how it broke, ??? it was a gift from an uncle. Seems to me there was some payback later as his kids were younger than I was. ;)
I would have if you had told me you were going to give her the stool ahead of time. :D
You can always get Bill to return it while she is in school or such and add it later. ;) ;)
:D :D :D
QuoteSome how it broke
Wonder which parent saw to it that "Some how it broke" and now doesn't make that rat! tat! tat! tat! noise any more. 8) 8)
Tom, I love your posts because they inspire me to get off my butt and do something. It's not working quite as well as I'd like. I'm inherently lazy and between stuff like what you post and watching my wife get amazing amounts of stuff done it's slowly seeping in.
We had a stuffed moose Christmas decoration once, when I was a teenager, that was motion sensing. If you'd walk by it'd start singing or something. It really creeped us out when it started going off when none of us were on that side of the house.
Have you got any farmstands or farmstores in your area?May be worth checking with them if you do. We often take in locally made crafts and wares. Depending on the individual we deal in different ways. Some stuff is bought outright then resold other stuff is displayed and then the vendor pays us a commission.
There's a few that have become friends and we just sell it for them or should say just make the sale. These products are usually always something that requires little to no effort on our part.
Your style imo leans heavily towards the feel a lot of farm stand owners are striving for. This is said with nothing but respect for your projects. Maybe offer them as a way to display products they already sell with the understanding that your item is for sale the whole time?
As someone that's built a lot of custom things that I personally never knew how to market properly and fairly to myself I understand your frustration.
Josh, that's a good idea and of course I will add that to my list of things to search for.. Unfortunately, most of the bigger farm stands are seasonal around here and really only carry foodstuffs because of that, but I will keep my eyes open. BUT, there are some other (very few) family owned stores that are deli/restaurant/food/local stuff and whatever else sells. They are more flexible on what and how they carry hardgoods. There is one near Spike that I have been meaning to call on, it's off the beaten path, but gets a lot of daily traffic and they like having things made by local folks, it keeps that local family feeling alive and there are lots of weekend homeowners in there all the time. I just don't know if they will have room for any of my items yet. At some point soon I will throw some stuff in the backseat of the truck and make a drive around visiting these places and having conversations. I am working up my courage. :-\
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I have been piddling between lots of little things, trying to get stuff done and moving along while I am still in a funk and out of working cash for the moment. Thursday I felt like I could not win, even in the loosing department. I was having trouble with the new woodstove, the bypass plate jammed again. I wiggled and rattled it so much that I got it completely out of it's seat and had it hanging by the control rod out in the open chimney, so full bypass all the time. No way to work on it with a fully raging stove, so I choked the stove shut to try to put it out so I could work on it more. But with an EPA stove design there is no way to choke them shut, there is always air coming in even with the damper closed, so it is very slow to die down.
Had to find something else to keep me busy while I waited. SO I went out, offloaded the firewood trailer onto the pile and re-set to split more. I borrowed Bill's timberwolf 6-way splitter early that morning and figured to make quick work of it. It wouldn't start. Flat dead battery. I don't have one of those fancy roll around battery conditioners, so I put a charger on it until It looked charged, tried it, ran the battery down trying to suck up fuel, then put it back on the charger. It took 4 cycles of this. I went back in the shop, checked the stove, and piddled with other stuff while I waited. Saw a good docu-series on lawmen of the west while I waited, tried again, re-charged again. Did this loop several times until it finally started and I was good to go. Got everything lined up and was cooking along until..... The handle for the split function on the machine broke clean off. I barely had 20 pieces of split wood in the trailer.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230106_093301190.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673137933)
There was no way to operate it without that handle. So I took i out and noticed that one side of the hole where it broke had been cracked through for a while:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230106_093333617.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673137935)
I also noticed that the other two handles had weld beads on the side where this one broke. Here's your sign. :D
So I found a bigger piece of stock (1/2") and hacked out a new handle leaving a lot more wall thickness. I did not put a ball on it and didn't bend it either, not seeing the need for the bend frankly. I did cut it a little longer for an easier grab with gloves on. I got tired of grinding the flats to fit the valve stem and quit that before I finished. The stove had cooled down and I decided to give it another try without letting the whole shop cool overnight and taking the stove apart the next day. I put on the welding gloves and got in there, fiddled, fussed, looked, tried, thought, and wangled and finally figured out a way to get that plate back into it's cradle and working as new. I really didn't think that was even possible, but the alternative was not good, so I wanted to give it every effort I could. Sometimes I am so good I scare myself, sometimes I am just lucky. This was the latter, not the former. By then it was dinner time and I decided to quit on the highest note of the day.
The next morning (Friday) I finished the handle and got it fitted right after a few trips back and forth. Looked pretty OK and worked great.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230106_095350340.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673138141)
Once I had it fit and tested I needed to come clean with Bill, so I let him know I broke it and I let him know it was fixed with a text and photo proof. He texted me back I should have told him right away when I broke it...... because he breaks those handles all the time and has a bunch in his shop for replacements. :D ;D I just explained that when you borrow an expensive machine and break it, you need to fix it first, not tell the owner first. It was my problem, not his. He doesn't need other stuff to worry or waste time about. I HATE it when somebody borrows from me and then it becomes my job to teach them how to use it or repair damage they caused and I will never do that to somebody else. Almost as bad is when I have to go and get my stuff back because they were too busy to return it when they promised. SO, no harm, we both got a laugh out of it, but I don't think this handle will break again soon, it's better than original.
Later in the afternoon Bill needed a ride to town to pick up his log truck from a job and I had to do errands in town, so I took him down and dropped him off in the pouring rain, waited to make sure the rig started and left while he was waiting to the air to build up. On my way home I had to pass the new Harbor Freight store which I have been watching progress on for 2 months now. It is supposed to open next week. So I was happy to see they finished painting the outside of the store and the sign is about 20% installed.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230106_164837855.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673138759)
Yes, I am anxious for them to open and have been building a list of supplies I need. Ironic that I will have to wait until I can sell something before I have any cash, but oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.
Last night the wife and I resumed our monthly get together dinner with Bill and his wife Suzanne. We were on a holiday break and last week we decided to start up again. They cook half and we bring the other half of the meal and just talk and laugh, play games with Inga (the little Princess) until her bedtime, and talk some more. Time got away from us last night and we got home after midnight, which explains why I was falling asleep while we were talking. I slept until 7:30 this morning which is unusual for sure. I was very pleased to see the shop was still at 62° after my hasty stove handling last night. This warm weather has really cut me some slack and I am taking advantage of it, doing all the finishing work I can while it easy to do this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230107_124530716.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673139999)
43 outside, 70 in the shop, actually a little warmer than I want but I'll take it, my finishes are drying nicely and I don't have any cold spots in the building. It's 63 out there now, which is just about perfect. Harder to regulate temps mixing in this semi-dry wood that I have now. I have to keep a close eye on both stoves constantly.
I did manage to fix two of the older tables I had made which moved. That one I showed you the other day is done and just drying now and a coffee table, which I had to re-level a leg on and touch up. All will be dry tomorrow and go back into the inventory. I did a little more more toward the bar that has been over a year and a half in work. I found the materials I need for the little bartenders shelf on the back edge for glasses, towels, or whatever. I got that planed to the sizes I needed and Jointed on one edge. Tomorrow I'll rip it to size (didn't want to create dust today) and start laying out the 1" deep half lap for that shelf joint. Not at all sure how this will go, but if I pull it off OK, it should look nice. I also did a repair on my table saw ductwork that had fallen apart. Much better now.
Tomorrow is another day and the clouds are supposed to have lifted by then. I am so depressed by so many days of solid cloud cover and wet air or rain. It will only reach the mid-30's tomorrow, but if there sunshine I will enjoy splitting some wood and probably smile a little bit. :)
Tom,
What is up with the mushroom log projects? Is that too seasonal or can you stockpile them at home or in the woods somewhere? How about the loginators?
Well Howard it does have 'seasons' and this ain't it. I've spent 2 years learning and studying to understand what makes a good or better log for my clients. The best logs are cut when it's been cold for a while with no sap movement and tight bark. The recent warm weather and resulting early sap flows tell me it's a bad time to cut any logs except for the very casual grower who is just learning. When I hear the sugaring guys say they are taking sap, it's bad for me. ;D It needs to stay cold. When the logs are right, I can cut and hold them for 8 weeks or so. No competing natural fungi will begin to grow in that situation. The desired species must have first crack at the log and sugars it holds in order to get established before anything else can. This is what makes the best log. So I have to wait a few more weeks. Bill is anxious for me to cut some as he has a bunch in mind to go.
I do have a tentative order from a repeat client that contacted me a month or two ago to make sure he could get them when he is ready in very early spring/late winter. He wants, I think, around 200 logs, but we will put a finer point on that soon. As for loginators, I have one ready to go out the door now, and another I just have to assemble, but nobody inoculates between fall and early spring, so they will sit also. Things will pick up eventually and I will not be able to keep up again, as usual, through the spring/summer/fall. So I am trying to spend the time I have getting ready for that. Maybe this year I will get it all in better balance. It's a learning process, right? I just wish I had the energy that MM has and I could probably do a better job of it. (Boy am I glad his procedure went ok today. :))
By the way, did you know that the black lines in a spalted log are caused by the mycelium? When one species of mushroom begins to propagate into a log it will spread in every direction UNTIL it meets a different species, at that point, it creates those black line barriers as a border that it does cross and keeps the other species out of the area it has propagated already. Pretty neat, don't you think?
Tom,
Between some of the stuff you've said and newoodguy78 it got me thinking. You said there are a few Mom n Pop type deli / stores near you. We've got one store here in town, and it's just like that. There is an old bench inside that folks sit on while waiting on there sammich,or pizza, or drinking there morning coffee. Maybe, if your place has an area like that you could "display" a working bench? They'd get a nice piece and you'd have your foot in the door, put a price tag/item description on it? They also usually have a small shelf unit on the counter (both the lunch counter, make your own coffee counter, and cash out counter) another item you could maybe make and display? I know I've just spent a bunch of your time, stock, and money, but isn't that how we roll here on the forum? ;D. I really hope you can find an outlet that works for both you and the outlet.
Matt
Interesting idea! I had never thought of making something the store could use to display other items. Many of these shops sell jams, Syrup, and mushroom products made by other local vendors. They typically some in small jars and bottles. So maybe something like this?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210311_110757557.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1615810710)
I have two of these 'on the shelf' (so to speak). They are made from RO Maple, and have Cherry trim. I throw one in on my tour. Thanks, great idea!
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20210227_164634050.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1614478446)
take cards and offer custom solutions as well. they may have a product line and you can base dimensions on the size and volume of items to display.
prob. seen this already.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/975770B9-4DFD-4382-90F9-A610EB5DB3D2.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1672325212)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/270A59E0-098A-4164-AB13-0A0336BB2E4C.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1673078385)
pics of a display from another store (in France) and reproduction for my boss's wife. she is medical but also owns and runs a high end boutique. candles are custom scented in her "studio". people lift the glass cloche and get a good whiff of the scent. her best seller is a whiskey and pipe smoke scent. Where the pic came from the candles range in price from 125 to $1000.00
Tom,
Other ideas may be a little morbid but I have a customer who makes crematorium boxes for our local funeral home. He uses walnut and cedar and little brass fittings. I once made a small casket for a little dog. You might check with your local vet for burial boxes for cats and small dogs. This one was walnut and cherry and made well in advance.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/IMG_1687~0.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1673191517)
Here is a display case I made for my wife's photos that she leaves in local galleries and I take to flea markets and such.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/IMG_1979~1.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1673191468)
I make and sell a few small crates sized to fit a dozen quart or a dozen pint fruit jars but you may have local businesses who need a special size for their products. They aren't high profit items but they are easy to make and a good use for wood that might go to waste.
Even kids blocks or yard dice might sell at local toy stores. I took all my cut-off pieces and made a crate full of blocks for my toddler grandson to play with. Basically just square or cube or make triangles out of your scraps, hit them on a belt sander and they are ready to play with.
Just ask your local businesses what wooden items they might need and see if it is something you could or would be interested in making. Good luck.
Well some good ideas in there Howard and I am thinking on them. I don't really want to get into making every little thing folks think would be a good idea though. I have to try to avoid being viewed as the retired guy making birdhouses to keep his hands busy. Not that there is a single thing wrong with that, but it's not me, and I can't sell my time for pennies on the dollar. I just want to try to get close to a fair price for my time. But we all know markets vary by region and even valley. I'll keep pondering on it.
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This morning when I got up, our female cat jumped up on the bed to greet me and I gave her a little rub. In doing so, I realized her fur felt 'cool', but I wasn't even barely awake. As I made my way down the hallway for coffee I started to wake up and realized why her fur must have felt cool. I grabbed my coffee and headed downstairs to my desk and sure enough, the side door was open and the den was 62°. I had not locked the side door before bed last night. First time I forgot in several months. Our male cat, a manx, grabbed the opportunity to open it and go for a walk about. He has not learned how to close it, nor does he seem to be concerned about it. It was, I assume, cold enough out (25°) that he decided to come back in and appeared from within the house when I called for him in a mild panic, so at least I didn't have to go search, like the last time he did this and was gone for over a day and returned home exhausted, sleeping for 2 days. We are far from security conscious, but I have to lock the door every night to keep the cats in. Never locked the door before the cat figured out how to work the latch. I figure if there is something in our house that somebody is willing to die for, they can take their best shot at getting it. ;D Took me a good part of the morning to get the temp back up to 74 in the den and the rest of the ground floor. Dang Cat.
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Been just plugging along doing shop work then splitting wood when the sun is high. I nearly have everything split that is on hand, just some cleanup for tomorrow and some service on the borrowed splitter to do before I return it. Bill wants to sell it, he has two, so I want it working right and to take some photos to list it for him. He doesn't 'do' the internet. :D I replaced a missing lock pin yesterday and now it needs some hydraulic fluid, it's running slow and I can hear some air in the pump. He'll get it back better than when I borrowed it, which is my preferred way to do things.
Yesterday when I was rolling up some big rounds I had bucked, I found this one:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230108_112804002_BURST000_COVER.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673305015)
Now I have found barbed wire, nails, spikes, screw eyes, rope, and all sorts of other things in firewood trees, but never a plastic bag. In addition I found lots of fibers from a blue plastic tarp and it was packed solid in all the rotten decomposed dirt and heartwood. I found it in 3 rounds and all packed in solid. I had to call Bill last night and ask what he knew about the tree. He said there was a big squirrel's nest up in the hollow about 60' off the ground. Amazing stuff. As I said, just a little more to finish up tomorrow. Then I can search for more wood. :D
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I worked in the shop in the morning. I have this bar job that seems to never end. Been on it 2 years now, just a little at a time as I decide what's next. ;D 2 weeks ago I decided it should have one of those cute little shelves on the bartender's side for shot glasses and other 'stuff'. Couple of days ago I found a nice piece of Ash, same as the bar species, so I planed that out along with the trim pieces to keep the glasses on the shelf.
Today I set up fences on the bar to route out the step to set that shelf in, 2" set back from the edge and 1" deep . I used a hand router in 1/4" steps and it took a while, but came out OK. These photos are with the bar upside down.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230109_160720631_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673305926)
Pretty happy with the flush fit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230109_160720631_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673305926)
Next session I'll get the screw holes in which will fix the location, then start working on the end trims and such. This bar isn't square so there is some 'artistic license' involved in making the fits look right and matching the trim. The client doesn't want it until February (doesn't have the funds yet) and I have to order Ritelegs for it which will be a custom order, they want a shelf on the legs. I haven't even called them yet to see if they can/will do what I need, but pretty confident they will. The legs will take longer making from scratch and I have to pay up front of course, so I am hanging back until I can get some cash to cover what the client wants and work out the design with Kevin. My only concern is that I want to get the screw holes in inserts place before I do the finishing work, so I kind of need the legs to do that.
Tomorrow we get to do it all again! Maybe I will finally get it right? :D
Oh Great! Now I am the old retired guy sitting around making birdhouses to keep busy! :( :D :D
On the cold cats - my daughter had a big long-haired black and white cat and when she would come home she'd find she had forgotten and left her electric blanket turned on while she was at work till one day she turned off her blanket then saw Oreo walk over and step on the switch then curl up in the middle of the bed. After that she'd have to unplug it every morning before she went to work.
Birdman, I mean Howard, it's always cats named Oreo that are a cause for concern! We had one too.
And for the record - check the post. I never mentioned making bird houses. :)
Don't knock birdhouses!
I know a fellow who makes bluebird house kits. He makes $1,200 to $1,500 per month in profit selling birdhouses! He makes kits 6 or 8 months a year.
Howard, sorry, I forgot about your bluebird boxes. You (and guys here like you) were not on on my mind when I formulated that sentence. I was thinking of the older gents and gals I see at the craft fairs I help my wife set up and break down for. There is ALWAYS at least one, if not 3 or 4 guys that have a scroll saw at home and make lots of little wood crafty things and enjoy it. They sell some stuff and I have even bought a piece or two, but that's just not me. There is a local guy that makes birdhouses and posts them on FB. He gets over 100 bucks for some of his stuff and it is worth more than that from what I see in the photos. Lots of details and ornamentation that has to take a lot of hours on each one. I couldn't make them and really don't want to. But it's lovely work, it's just not me is all I am saying.
I meant to offend absolutely no one with that comment, and I am sorry if I did, I really am. I have made a few birdhouses myself, and intend to make more for our feathered friends as well as the joy and education of my grandson's. Nothing wrong with that at all as far as I can tell.
OGH
You said
QuoteI just want to try to get close to a fair price for my time.
Can you disclose what that goal is ??
Tom,
I figured that. :D
The crematorium boxes and pet caskets are the items I think that could be high end items. I cannot do them justice but you could and hopefully be compensated accordingly. Yeah, some of the other items are just wages.
Howard, you have a higher opinion of my skills than I do, that's for sure. I would have to figure out how to make these things in a proper manner with the hardware that makes them look and work well. I have no way to do engraving so that is a major weak spot. Having lost more than a few pets over the years, and frankly having unusual sensitivity to family animals (it was my weak spot in the fire service and remains so, I could handle dead humans better than I could handle animals in trouble, I still don't know why. Animals rescues always took me out for a day or so.) There is a lot involved in marketing etc. I am thinking on it.
Beenthere, you always seem to have a habit of asking very pointed questions. ;D In my case, I would think that averaging 20 bucks an hour would be adequate. Many jobs run way over and I am OK with that and I am OK with making a lot less if I enjoyed the work and it came out looking nice and making the client happy. But on stuff where I probably don't even meet the client, I think I am looking for a fair price.
Interesting, this birdhouse conversation... Tom, you mention seeing the guys at the shows with a collection of birdhouses. We go to a fair amount of flea markets and craft shows and I've never seen that guy.
My wife recently thought of a birdhouse project and a couple years ago started buying them, when she found them cheap, these are typically a bit more ornate than basic, and they are always used hard (as far as birdhouses can be), and just a week or two ago she finally told me that she plans to put them all up in a line over the gate that we just put up for the dog. Should look neat.
I never think to build birdhouses but I'm an old at heart kind of fella and I like the sound of it. Great, another project I don't get to!
SawyerTed- If you have any pictures or a website or something I'd love to see what the kits look like.
aig,
The birdhouses I see at Flea Markets and such are usually works of art. I tell people they are for city birds and draw invasives like English sparrows and starlings instead of native birds. They also draw telemarketers and other scum. My rough built bird houses look more like what rural bluebirds looking for an old woodpecker den in a fence post are hunting. When placed in the right location they are very effective. I had a customer buy 4 of them one time and the next time I saw him he said 3 of them had bluebirds within a week. They aren't high profit but they don't take long to build using what would be scrap and they work.
I love my bluebirds.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/Bluebird_Nest_Box_-_Front_view~1.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1673360713)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/38064/Bluebird_Nest_box_-_side_view~1.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1673360712)
Quote from: aigheadish on January 10, 2023, 06:31:09 AM
SawyerTed- If you have any pictures or a website or something I'd love to see what the kits look like.
I'll see if I can find one and ask his approval to share photos.
He's a retired guy and has been piddling with bluebird house kits for scouts, schools and others for many years. What he does isn't different than what you find if you search the web for bluebird house kits. John is a flip phone kind of fellow so no website, Etsy or Marketplace. All his boxes sell through word of mouth. He sells several hundred a year and has many repeat customers.
He bought some bags online and fills them with the parts, fasteners and assembly instructions. He staples three staples through a little printed label on the top of the bag.
He has made some fixtures for his wood working machines and cuts batches of 50 or so parts at a time.
Now he's got his grandkids helping to fill the bags with parts. It's a once a month or so time with Grandpa John in his shop "helping".
Howard, I like the bluebirds as well. I knew what we had around here at one time but now I forget, other than they are pretty.
I wouldn't have thought of the elaborate boxes bringing in undesirable birds, that's interesting. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of what I think are starlings that migrate over a few different times of the year, they are interesting for that but pretty irritating otherwise.
Thanks Ted, no big whoops if you can't get a picture, I love to see things and learn from them. Sounds like he's a great grandpa for having the kids help!
Aig,
I am glad you bought my sales pitch on the undesirable birds preferring the high tech, fancy bird houses with perches, a porch, a hot tub and a TV antenna to my simple low tech rough lumber. :D
When people see the air gaps between the boards or at the bottom of my birdhouses I also tell them that is for increased air flow because the biggest health hazard to young birds is mold and mildew and I make sure all my homes have plenty of air flow. (Actually tightly sealed birdhouses are not as healthy as well ventilated ones. I cut the corners off the bottoms/floor boards of my birdhouses so they cannot hold water.)
Ha! I assumed you had empirical proof that fancy houses brought fancy non-native birds! I should have known to get an second opinion!
We've currently got a fairly standard birdhouse on the back deck that is a double decker. I don't think anything lives in it but it's pretty close to the house and the dog would probably go nuts it something was in there.
QuoteThis morning when I got up, our female cat jumped up on the bed to greet me and I gave her a little rub. In doing so, I realized her fur felt 'cool', but I wasn't even barely awake. As I made my way down the hallway for coffee I started to wake up and realized why her fur must have felt cool.
Sounds like you've got a cat like mine. He helps me tell what the weather is when he goes outside.
If the cats fur is cool...it's cold outside.
If the cats fur is wet...it's raining.
If the cats fur is white...it's snowing.
If the cats fur is fluffed up...it's windy.
If all I see are two green shiny eyes...I must have got up real early before sunrise, 'cause it's still dark out. smiley_thumbsup
If our cat wont go outside, it is .............cold, wet, snowing, or windy.
Well, the issue is, both our cats are housecats. So any white, wet, cold, or other stuff, means something is amiss. ;D
Quote from: Resonator on January 11, 2023, 02:51:21 PM
QuoteThis morning when I got up, our female cat jumped up on the bed to greet me and I gave her a little rub. In doing so, I realized her fur felt 'cool', but I wasn't even barely awake. As I made my way down the hallway for coffee I started to wake up and realized why her fur must have felt cool.
Sounds like you've got a cat like mine. He helps me tell what the weather is when he goes outside.
If the cats fur is cool...it's cold outside.
If the cats fur is wet...it's raining.
If the cats fur is white...it's snowing.
If the cats fur is fluffed up...it's windy.
If all I see are two green shiny eyes...I must have got up real early before sunrise, 'cause it's still dark out. smiley_thumbsup
Should you add;
If the cat has a mask on and a ringed tail...it's a raccoon that snuck in.
If the cat is black with a white stripe down it's back... it's worse than a raccoon!
Well, as interesting as I find cats and bird houses, I'll interject some wood shop stuff if I can here. ;D
Yesterday moved a little firewood but spent most of the day on the bar. I got the shelf screwed on and spent a LOT of time cutting the trim and fitting it. I am not real good at the cute stuff. Finally got it as close as I could and glued and tacked it on. Seems all pretty solid and not too bad looking. It's always tougher when you don't have square corners and edges and try to make something 'appealing'.
So here's what I wound up with.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230110_170339798_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673491258)
From the other end, it looks like this.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230110_164822913.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673491239)
This one corner, with the acute angle was somewhat troubling, so I did the best I could. Took 3 pieces to make the wrap around. Hoping it will all look better when the finish is on.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230110_170454631.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673491244)
From the drinkers side of the bar you can't see much of it anyway. I'm sure after 3 drinks it will look great.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230110_164811535.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673491089)
It's just a shot glass/bar rag shelf, but I wanted it to look right. The ash used in the shelf all came from a tree on the client's property, so that helps with 'the story'. That tree nearly took me out when I took it down, so I have my own story on that little part of it. ;D (Dead ash x 15 years on a 45° slope, do the math :D).
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Today I had to drive my wife downriver to collect all her stuff from a consignment craft shop that is closing for retirement. Not a fun thing, I never liked the shop for several reasons, but we got it done. I let her buy me lunch on the way home. She was OK with the closeout, I was actually relieved because the effort my wife out into the work she had in there far exceeded any return she got on it. When we went through the shop, we saw that a couple of her pieces were mixed in with other folks work with their labels on it. Meaning that if it sold, they would get the money from the sale. This confirmed for me a lot of the things that I suspected about this shop. On the drive home, my wife talked about having a retirement sale and backing off. This pleases me. She is 72 now and doing these shows takes a lot out of her for a return I am not seeing a lot of value in for the big picture. I'd like to see her relax more and read more books or something.
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So I got out to the shop in the afternoon moved about 3 days of wood in to pre-dry. It might rain tomorrow and I am expecting a visitor to come by in the afternoon. I am 'exploring' a new idea that was presented and needed some material. I got some Cherry off the drying rack out back MC showed 10% and I grabbed a couple of ERC boards from the garage and the MC showed 7-10%. Good enough for me. I learned that next time I get depressed, all I need to do is run some ERC through the planer. Holy cow, going in with that blah brown look and coming out a bright pink/red just makes me want to do a happy dance. I was also happy about some other things. That cherry I milled 2 years ago on my manual mill and the boards were running through the planer with no adjustments between boards, meaning my thickness was pretty consistent. Also, they cleaned up in one pass, which means I was flat and parallel. The ERC was cut on the LT50, so yeah, that stuff was consistent also, but all the wood I had dried pretty much dead flat and straight, cleaning up almost entirely in one light pass.
Still with all that, there is no good way to describe how neat that Cedar looks when it goes through. I smiled so hard, I thought my face would crack. :D It's sad to think about but there are a lot of people in the world who think they are happy and have never experienced that joy. I feel bad for those folks. ;D
Tomorrow's another day. Hoping for a visitor to break up the afternoon as I mentioned. I will waste a lot of time pondering on this new project, but that's how it all starts, isn't it? ;D I think that's the fun part, figuring it out, after that, it's just work.
Our cat has a white stripe down its neck and underneath, and some of it is leaking out on his paws.
The bar looks great Tom, can't wait to see it finished up!
Sorry to hear about Pat's stuff mixed in with other's stuff, that's not cool. My wife had her bags (https://www.etsy.com/shop/TiarellasClutch) (shameless plug, go check them out, they are good!) in some shops and she'd be furious if others were getting credit/money for her stuff.
We don't have any cats but there are some strays that will hang out on occasion. I wake up at about 430a and head out to the front porch for my morning cup of coffee and cigarette. I don't like a lot of lights on, if I can help it until I'm up for a bit so I keep things dark and the lights off on the porch. I fear that one day one of the strays that like sleeping on the glider on the porch get's spooked when I open the door and runs into the house. It seems unlikely but I have no desire to chase some wild cat around. I've had to do that with a squirrel, in my previous house, and it was miserable.
"Well, as interesting as I find cats and bird houses"......Well, OGH at least it didn't come out as .......birds and cat houses thumbs-up
The bar looks great BTW!!
Well I got to try out that bar today and it works just fine. And I didn't spill any beer on it either. Had a nice visit by the woodstove on a cold rainy day. Thanks Tom. :)
We can just call that 'pre-production testing' (Can I bill for that?). That bar still has about 100 hours work before it is done, but it's getting there.
In any event, I really enjoyed the visit a great deal. Us retired working guys don't get a lot of socialization, so it's nice when it does happen. I hope I didn't bore you with my long stories. Now that you know where (both) the doors are on my shop, you are welcome anytime, even if I'm not here and you need a warm up spot.
I had a great time, thanks for coming by. Next time we can do a run down to Bill's and ramble through his shop when he's not there. :D ;D
We should have got a photo, because nobody will believe it happened. :)
No picture, it didn't happen...
That bar looks great Tom. Will it have resin poured on it?
Quote from: Nebraska on January 13, 2023, 07:13:10 AM
No picture, it didn't happen...
Sure it did. :)
Only 15-20 minutes from Tom's shop to mine. Too bad more of you guys aren't that close.
Sorry, I was distracted with a top secret project. Yes Bill, the bar will be a full epoxy pour because the original order was for an outdoor bar. Now they are thinking they want it inside. Too late, the die is cast, as they say. ;D
Yeah Nebraska, after Bob left I got back to work on that top secret project I (we) are not ready to reveal quite yet. Still waiting for the tooling to arrive. I'll try to remember to get a photo at the next meetup. Bob is actually closer to me than my daughter (in driving distance), she is over in Krumville. We also have a member over on Palentown road, maybe 4 miles from Bob. There's another in Kingston too, 15 minutes east of me. Not exactly a hotbed, but there are a few of us.
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Well I went out for an obligatory music event last evening (Rock Academy Performance) and got home late-ish. I went out to the shop to tend the stove, had a fair bed of coals, loaded it and though it would be fine. :D
Got up this morning and saw it was 51 out there, not totally unusual, but it seemed low. When I went out to stoke it I found a stove full of nicely charred wood. It failed to fire over and I had no heat out there all night. The building was pretty cold. So I emptied most of it, restarted and loaded some stuff in. I came in and had breakfast, came downstairs and checked the temp, already up over 60! Took a while to hit 67, but it got there within and hour of the restart. The old stove would never do that, it would take most of the day. Very pleased at how this is working out. The stove seems to be a perfect size.
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As I said, not ready to discuss the current project, but I did have a dining room chair which all the joints had dried out on and was falling apart, literally. I took the pieces out to the shop and it took me two and a half hours to disassemble and re-glue all the joints and dowels. I am guessing these chairs we have were made in the 40's or earlier. In the last 2 or 3 years I have re-glued most of them, taking one at a time out to the shop, guess I missed this one. I had put a new seat on this one 2 years ago, as indicated by my notes on the bottom. ;D The nice thing about buying used wood furniture for cheap from others moving on is that it can be repaired and last a very long time with care. If we bought something new we could afford at the time, it would wind up on the burn pile when it had issues. A little glue, replace a dowel and a screw or two and we are good for another decade or so.
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I have been told the new Harbor Freight opened up in town with zero advertisement, just word of mouth. I found out from my son it opened Tuesday. That kind of ticked me off, but what the heck. I have to wait for cash to come in anyway before I can replenish supplies. No big deal. Maybe I'll go take a peak tomorrow and use one of their silly coupons.
Okay on the Top Secret project but be sure to secure all the documents properly. ::)
Not to worry Howard. I am just holding my cards until I have a prototype I think is workable. The first mockup got nice reviews but I don't like it at all because of manufacturing issues. It will take about a week for tooling to arrive and maybe I can try and work them out. If I don't work them out I can blame it on you. :D
Tom,
I've got a project or two like that and even had some prototype work by local welders and machine shops but have not done more to get the patents processing which is what is stopping me. Maybe one of these days I'll reactivate my interest in seeing them through.
Who are the other 2 Ulster County members?
My experience with HF is that they will open with no fanfare and then after they've been open for a few weeks they will have a grand opening that they will adverstise.
Yeah Bill, this is what I am learning. I am resisting going in there for now anyway for a little bit.
Bob NYBHH is over by you and there is another fella in Kingston area that comes and goes, there was also a fella up near Saugerites a couple of years ago, but I haven't seen him much lately. Those handles escape me for now, sorry..
Tom.
Congrats on the new HF. We have one about 25 miles away and I love to check them out. I routinely buy things like moving blankets, zip ties, gloves, etc. I have invested in their 20V Braun cordless drills, leafblower, circular saw (great for cutting stickers and salvaging short boards on portable jobs), angle grinder, etc. I have several other corded tools from them and have been getting comparable service to the name brands at a much lower price. I join their membership club every year.
The HF is lovely but can be trouble, financially.
I've got their big battery op leaf blower and I like it a lot! I've got a lot of their other stuff too and if you know what to buy it's not bad stuff.
Just a little warning on that new HF. Awful lot of people checking it out, so plan on spending 3x as much time you figured running into and visiting with people. I spent about 45 minutes BS'ing with friends this morning. :laugh:
I like their 12" F clamps a lot. I buy rubber gloves for various uses, including finishing. Their wand metal detector is useful around the sawmill. I just bought a second one, because I left my original out in the rain for days. $39 well spent.
Oh yeah, their bar clamps too. You'll have to supply the bar but the clamps you put on the bar are nice and inexpensive. You have to keep your eyes peeled because it's pretty well known that they are good.
I have a couple of bars clamps and don't really like them much. Bill is talking about the F type beam clamps. HF's are cheap and they work fine for most clamping. I always add one or two to the collection on a shopping trip and still run short ALL the time it seems. They aren't great when you need to load them up, then I try to use a Bessy or other good quality clamp. But for most stuff, they work just fine to hold things in place. I could double what I have and still be short. SO I get those and a magnetic tool strip or two about every other visit. I buy the cheap brushes 1,2,&3" by the box and replace when the box gets low. Paper shop towels, rags, heavy duty gloves by the dozen and other odds and ends where the quality is acceptable.
Maybe I will run up tomorrow. The rest of my day is filled with a funeral and memorial service for my dear friend that passed in December. At least it's warming up and the wind is holding off. Bright sunshine and a good day to say 'goodbye' and have a drink in his honor.
HF has coupons on line most of the time, if I have one on my computer screen I just take a pic of it on my I-Phone making sure the bar code is clear, they can scan it right off the pic. We are at the Delaware house this week so yesterday we went to HF and I got a hoist that was on sale for $144.95 plus I got another 10% off for my coupon and DE has no sales tax. I'm going to build a crude dumb-waiter in my pole building to get boxes of "stuff" up on top of the room I built so the hoist will be the muscle.
I have their 5000 lb winch on my trailer and it does pretty well, but it hasn't endured the weather very well, which isnt a surprise. I need to replace it soon. I will either get another of the same from HF or somehting higher quality. I'm sure if I would just cover it up with something most of the time it would live a lot longer than the first one.
Glad to know the winch from them has worked out okay minum the weather. I have a new Superwinch to mount on my trailer but it's only 4000lb and I might want something bigger. I'm torn if I want to deal with the shortcomings of a smaller winch, though probably a bit better put together and made in the USA, or get a 9000lb HF special and hope it's put together well and will last.
I have 4 of the HF winches and no problems with any of them. A 5k pound one on my side by side, 2k on my log arch and 2 of the 2k winches I am using as powerful gear motors. Just remove the spool and make a coupling to have a low cost gear motor with controls. The brakes on them are mostly friction though. I have spent almost 20k at harbor freight over the years and have not really had problems with much other then the $10 liquid transfer pumps and woodworking f clamps that the threads strip out if tightened too much. I have one of their trenchers I have abused with 3 ft diameter stumps that took 20 hours to remove, a pallet jack that I have used for 16 years, spray guns, tubing roller, bead roller, metal brakes, tool carts, air tools, a hvlp setup, 20 ton shop press, Dayton auto jack, outfield rollers, f welding clamps, dozens of vice grip style welding clamps, along with hundreds of other things bought for a one time use like a ball joint press, vacuum pump, and pulley removers. Perfect place to shop for shade tree mechanics. Just like the old craftsman tools that I grew up on. I actually see more professional shops using Harbor Freight tools that no longer hide them in theback room.
@gspren (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=17800) I'd be interested in more details for your dumb waiter if you have any. I plan to build a mezzanine style deck in the barn and would like something that sounds like it'd be similar.
Well, just by way of catching up a little here. First, I did finally stop at HF last evening and walked the whole store, nice layout and better than the one 45 minutes away I think. I did not spend a penny. I resisted. It helped that I only had 6 bucks in my pocket, but still, there were some things. Yeah coupons, I hate them. They are so confusing and have a lot of rules. If there is a good one for a big ticket item, yeah, but otherwise, they don't work on me very much. It's a bit of a scam in my opinion, but it works for some who have the persistence and time. It's just not a big draw for me. I still read them all though. ;D Anyway, I need to get cash coming in before I do my 'supply run' there. I have a long list, probably a couple hundred bucks, but nothing I really 'need', just stuff to fill the shelves back up. I like having things on hand, saves a lot of gas.
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I worked some more on that new project but was held up for a few days waiting for tools to be delivered. I got a 1/2" collet and nut for my table router (shoulda done THAT a long time ago) and the router bit finally showed up today. I am messing around with these locking miter joints.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230118_172322133_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674085311)
I'm doing them on 1/2" ERC and the setup on the router has to be very precise. I got through a few today but not happy with the results. I need a repeatable system so I can do these in production with minimal loss. I will take another run at it tomorrow when I am not so tired. At least I learned today what to watch and what doesn't work so well. In the meantime, I have had a lot of pleasure planeing out ERC for the job. That stuff is so pretty!
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Monday I went to the Cemetery Service for my Friend Michael that passed in Early December. It was followed by a Life celebration across the road from the Artist's Cemetery. There were well over 250 people there and they stayed for pretty much the entire 4 hours. Speakers, Music, more speakers, and lots more music. All his friends wanted to play. Michael had a wider effect in the film community than I ever expected and a large part of the group had come up from the City, Jersey, and other places to be there. In addition, there were several of our local touring pro-musicians who were close to Michael and they came to take part. It was a pretty special occasion for all of us. Closure was something I needed on this one, and I got it in so far as was possible.
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Tomorrow's another day and I'll just keep plugging along. Got a call for mushroom logs from a regular, so I need to start working on that soon, it's a big order, but it's been warm. Was really hoping for a good solid freeze instead of this lousy excuse for winter we have now. It's mid-January, just around the time we used to get the solid week of below zero temps and today it was over 40. Good for the heating bill/firewood pile, not so good for winter work.
If you were able to get in and out of HF without spending any money, your a better man than I am!
I usually go in just intending to stock up on cut off disks and tips for my mig, and end up leaving with a bunch of other "necessary" things l may, or may not ever use.
Just making an observation with a comment. Why is northern tool
Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company a dirty word on this forum, and HF is not?
NT has a habit of taking American designed products and having their version made overseas for cheap and trying to confuse the buying public about what they are getting. There stuff, in these cases is far inferior, yet they even sometimes copy the paint color. In addition, at least one of our sponsors has suffered considerably from this abuse and theft of IP.
HF is upfront about what they sell and where it comes from as far as I can see. They sell cheap stuff and we all know it, but they don't try to make it sound like 1st quality USA made tools. Also, I have noticed their quality is coming up quite a bit and much of their stuff holds up much better than you would think.
NT even used a picture from one of the sponsors items in an add, for there copied cheap remake. HF used to be crazy good at returns and warranty, and sales. I have tools you cannot find anywhere else and certainly not as cheap. I have an electric over hydraulic rebar cutter. works great.
Tom,
Be sure to read the fine print on the coupons too. Last time I had a 30% coupon and found a nice Braun cordless 1/2" impact wrench that would work with my current 20V battery system but when I got to check out it gave me the discount on a pack of work gloves. When I asked why we finally found a magnifying glass big enough to read the discount was not applicable to Braun and some other items. On principle I put it back but I'll likely buy it in the future as it looks like a good and handy tool. I have a corded model right now.
They have started lifetime warranty on their hand tools and I get very good service on all the items I have gotten there. I can tear up an expensive tool as easily as a cheaper one. :D
Nice looking fit up there on that box.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 18, 2023, 09:26:50 PM
Was really hoping for a good solid freeze instead of this lousy excuse for winter we have now. It's mid-January, just around the time we used to get the solid week of below zero temps and today it was over 40. Good for the heating bill/firewood pile, not so good for winter work.
Not so good for guys who rely on plowing and sanding income either. Nobody I know has begun to make a dent in any salt/sand they've stocked up on. Any new plow still looks new.
Flip side of that is it's easier on all of those plowing customers. (Of which we are one on the rental property) But the multipliers work against the guy who does 100 properties more than those 100 property owners.
Either way, winter just isn't happening. Yet. ;)
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 11, 2023, 10:23:48 PMYesterday moved a little firewood but spent most of the day on the bar.
Well you need to stay away from those bars if you are going to get up on them!
Since I retired I can't afford to go to bars anymore. let alone drink enough to get up on them. :D Yes, I was working on the bar, not laying or dancing on it. Someday I might actually finish this thing and the client will have to find space for it. ;D ;D
How are the firewood carriers working out?
I have two that I've had for a while. One was made similar to your design but smaller. The dowels extended beyond the cloth sling and there were wooden balls glued to the ends. It also had a metal rack/stand it hung in, the sides would be vertical when in this rack. It was from my wife's family home. I need to replace one of the balls that has gone MIA during several moves. I thought about your line to the manufacturer that made the wooden doodads as a source. This one resides near the basement stove. The design and stand are nice however it will not carry the quantity of wood yours does.
I currently use one the main floor that is leather. The handles are loops sewn to the sides. I don't recall the measurements, but it is not as large as the one you guys make. The leather sling is reinforced with leather straps running parallel to the long sides and either butt up to the handle straps or form the handle straps. I like this one better than the other only because if feels heavier and stronger. We've had this since the 80's or 90's. Mind you there were long periods of time in there we did not have fires.
Well Sam the initial response was hot and mostly from long time woodburners that wanted something that would carry a decent load and not be made like a bag. They either had smaller ones they didn't like, or had a longer one that was shot and they couldn't find a replacement. We just use straight dowels in ours with a little retainer sewn in so they don't slide out the ends. This allows the dowels to be removed easily so the thing can be washed. We have never washed ours.
Anyway, I have 3 in stock, but the fad seems to have died out. :D
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I finally spent money at HF today. The secret project I am working on required a 10" parallel clamp and I have none of those. So down I went and got their 10 buck wooden parallel clamp. I also got one of those pointed ROS's for some detail corner work. I don't need it often, but when you need one, you need one. For 15 bucks, it was a good deal for the little I will use it. Got home and learned that their 10" parallel clamp only opens up to 8". Apparently they were giving the length of the jaws, not the opening. Who does that? Geez, I was torqued. I looked at their web page and none of the openings on those clamps are listed, just the jaw length.
So the jig I had made up for holding the delicate parts was pretty much useless and I wasn't going to put more gas and money to go and see if they had the clamp I wanted. So I made my own as a new jig which integrated the kit. A couple of blocks and a couple of threaded rods and it worked better than my first design would have.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230120_145615165.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674260410)
The nice thing about this design is that it holds 2 pieces at a time, so I lock them in, cut one side, then just flip to cut the other piece.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230120_153820522.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674260554)
Here it is after I run the cuts.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230120_145442299.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674260410)
The above photos show the joint as cut parallel to the face. On the mating parts I have to run the cuts perpendicular to the face. As it turns out I can use it flipped up for those parts. I could not have done that with my first design.
The reason for all the fixturing is that these locking miters on thin stock take material from both edges, so the guide edge against the face fades away as you run it down. In order to get straight cuts with no fade something else has to run along and keep the piece square. I will say it's loud, and I think I am already wearing out that new bit, but the parts are coming out straight and even. So I think I have that figured out and can use it in production, which was the goal. I have to run 8 of these joint slots for each 'unit' I am making.
This is the first project I've done where I am trying to set it up for production of more than 1 unit at a time. I roughed out a prototype over a week ago and have been working out bugs since then. There have been many. The ERC I am using has tons of knots and included bark lines. A lot has gone to waste (woodstove) and even with that I am opening up defects with the machining work. After I make this post I am back in the shop to fill a bunch of small pockets and holes with epoxy to try and save them. Hopefully I will have something I can show and explain in a few more days.
Tomorrow I think I will be scouting mushroom logs. I have gotten two calls in the last few days looking for around 300+ logs total. These are repeat commercial clients who know what they are doing and are sharp enough to call in time for winter cut logs which will hold bark and last longer in production. My problem is, it hasn't really gotten cold enough for me to be sure these trees are hardened up. They probably are but I wish I knew. I may cut a couple and see how the bark holds. 300+ logs is a lot of work, so I'd like to get a head start. I surely could use the cash influx to build some working capitol, which is nil at this point.
Time to get back at it.
Edited by admin 300+ logs is a lot! I hope it gets good and cold for you Tom! I don't see it here in the forecast but if you are lucky you are 10 degrees colder (I don't think you are but we can hope).
I'm excited to see what the super secret project is.
Looking forward to the secret project too.
Well, the 300 logs is for 2 orders and as these things go, it seems it is being pared down a little. That's normal and it will probably wind up being 200-250 or so. Bill, little Inga, and I did some cruising today and I think we found plenty. Inga is turning into our 'tree tagger' and she likes tying the marker ribbon flags on. I may have an issue finding them later because they are only 2.5-3' off the ground though. :D That's pretty much as far as she can reach. Some will require a machine to lift them out of holes or up the banks, but Bill might lend a hand here and there. ;D Some are near the shop and there are felling hazards so we will use some 'mechanical safeties' to send them the right way. Anyway, it will take a little time, but the clients know that, which is why they order ahead of time. It'll get done.
As for the 'top secret project': it's not that secret it just that I have little confidence in my ability to make it properly and have had a lot of bumps in the road, as expected. I just didn't want to let the 'cat out of the bag' (that will be a funny quote later) until I had something that looked half decent (and saleable). I am working out the issues and have a short run coming together. Depending on weather tomorrow I may finally get some put together. I've been using ERC I cut and milled and there are a lot of defects so fixing those with epoxy has slowed me by two days waiting for it to cure, then doing more. If I didn't have the epoxy work I would have had them done by today.
As I type this I am reminded of a couple of years ago when a few guys here told me I was being too picky and critical of my own work. I'm doing it again I guess.
So don't get excited about this, it's just another project I'm trying to figure out and come up with a decent result. The fact that the original idea was an off-hand suggestion by one member, and another member expressed an interest has a little to do with it also. I don't want to disappoint either.
I think the real reason is Tom just doesn't want the Design Committee's "helpful suggestions." :D :D
Well I am not saying that it couldn't be an unconscious part of the choice, or that sometimes the design committee can be a tad top heavy with obfuscatory suggestions which distract from the goal or loose sight of said goal entirely. But it certainly was not a conscious choice. I will say that the idea was floated originally by a member of the committee and I happily acknowledge full and due credit for that.
It was just that I was challenged enough to have to focus carefully and not be distracted. It's one of those jobs where, if you did it right, it looks very simple to make, but to make it in production takes quite a bit more effort. The prototype was done in a day, but moving it to repeatable production has taken 2 weeks and I ain't done yet. The end product also does not look like the prototype in a few key ways.
Further, suggestions for spending money and building up equipment for the task would not be feasible at this time. I know the is standard fare for the committee, so yeah, maybe I wanted to avoid that part of it. But mostly I just needed the quiet to think and work it through. Nothing about this stumped me, but the precision required gave me pause, lest I wind up with a bunch of very high class firewood with nice joints that don't quite meet evenly. ;D
Okay but just remember we are here to help. :D
I get the "That looks simple to build" all the time when trying to sell benches and such. My design really is not hard to build if you have a sawmill and a few thousand dollars worth of equipment to build them.
I wish you every success in your new enterprise and am sure it will be a beautiful sight.;)
What colour are you going to paint it? ;D
Suspense is killing me.
Paint?! There's no paint involved in this. See now I am not saying, but things like that there may be part of the reason I am holding back on this one. ;D ;D
Don't get all tweaked on this one, it's actually a small project, just more of a production than normal for me. I had thought I might be gluing up parts today, but it wasn't snowing or raining yet, so I sand in the morning then after lunch I headed to Bill's and began the first trees of this years mushroom harvest. I did a small lonely one I missed last winter/spring then we moved over near the shop and took out a 70' red oak than came down in the micro burst or twister thing we had back in July. It held the stump and stayed healthy all summer and fall, just that it was horizontal. This was more than I could manage by hand and too far from the truck, so Bill fired up the JD450E and made a road to it. I bucked as he yanked and we both fought chokers. The winch quit pulling under load halfway through the job, but we took off the top leaving about a 30' trunk with a 20" SED to get another day and drag to the mill. He pulled that out to where I could work on it and only had to really drag it through the mulch field to where I could have good access with the truck. He went off to change some truck tires and I bucked and loaded what I could fit. I left about 4 or 5 logs to pick up another day. I cut roughly 40 logs.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230122_172130536.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674438821)
(sorry, took the photo in the dark.)
Not much, but a start. I did a milk run, came home, had lunch, unloaded the logs plus a little firewood (cutoffs) and then tended the shop stove. By then it was after 4pm and I fell asleep in front of the woodstove. :D No way did I have any energy left and I woke up around 5. It sucks to get old. So all that to say I got nuthin' done in the shop this afternoon.
The snow has finally arrived so maybe I am in the shop all day tomorrow, I should make some progress on the project. This whole thing reminds me of that Dad joke:
DAD: Hey, do you know how to keep somebody in suspense?!
KID: No, How?
DAD: I'll tell you tomorrow.
And tomorrow is another day, right?
Tom,
Looks like a productive day. The joke when I heard it and we used to ask various teachers was"
How do you keep a sex addict in suspense for 24 hours? :D
popcorn_smiley ;)
Really Pat? Really?! :D :D
Well I tried guys, I really did. Was in the shop at 7:30 this morning and ignored the snow on the driveways. But this ERC I selected for the project has been giving me fits with little defects showing up and I do final sanding and I have to go back and do repairs or call it scrap. Working through a short production run also means re-thinking a lot of stuff, so I back up sometimes and re-do things to try to get it right. I also am (apparently) subject to mistakes and I back up on those too. I am not really totally happy with what I wound up with and how I got there (as usual), but I am getting closer. This afternoon I felt like I was 14 years old in my Pops shop trying to make something I thought was easy and I could knock right out, only to create firewood.
I finally came in from the shop around 9:30pm. If nothing else goes wrong tomorrow I may have some photos. I just want to make them decent looking first. I spent 3 hours re-doing something 3 or 4 times today on one part because I got moving too fast initially and messed it up.
I will be asking the collective for advice. I chose a locking miter corner joint for this project as I thought it would be the best for repetitive production. I am wondering now if there is a better corner joint for thin stock, but that will be hard for folks to weigh in on until they see what I am doing. So just hang on, hopefully, tomorrow I will come clean on the whole thing.
Story of my life Tom! The amount of projects, in my head, that feel like they'll be easy and look great is quickly hampered by the reality of my skill and patience. You are much better about trying again, when I often say "Eh, that's good enough" and that's why I'll likely never make any money doing wood working.
Well, I'm not making any money at it either right now. :D :D
The lock miter once set up correctly can make a good joint. Your material has to be very flat and straight and held down tight to the router table or the joint will wander across the face of your piece. If you're making some sort of boxes with the lock miter, I will offer a method that worked well for me. Route each piece the same on each edge instead of routing one edge laying flat and the other edge standing up against the fence. So to make a box you will have 2 sides that had their edges routed standing up and 2 sides whose edges were routed while laying flat. This makes it easier to clamp and glue the box together, because you will be squeezing the tongues down into the grooves better.
I concur. Everything you've said is important to these joints and I have been doing them exactly as you suggest. I stumbled on those items either through dumb luck, shear skill, or looking at the ones you did. ;D
Material quality is absolutely critical, flat, straight and square and that's why I made the jig (which works perfectly for good clean joints lines).
BUT I am having a couple of issues.
1) the material I selected is ERC and it is planed to 1/2" thick, which is pretty thin for this wood and not really rigid at that thickness. It seems to bow out when I assemble the parts and clamp (from glue pressure?).
B) I am cutting the joints across the grain and this leads to chipping out at the end of the slot. Not all the time, but often enough to be dang annoying. I chose this way because the grain then runs horizontal around the box and looks more appealing, I think. I may have to rethink.
3) that material I have is showing up defects at the worst possible time, when I am doing finish sanding. I am gluing some cracks to repair and filling chips with clear epoxy, but that adds a lot of time and re-finishing. I don't want to waste the material and time I have into it.
I think I will do he next group out of all cherry and see how that goes. Possibly change the direction of the grain too. The issue I have with both materials is that I have a LOT of it in just under 5" wide or less and I need 5-6" finished size for this project for this job by design, not choice. They have to end up a certain size inside.
I am doing finish sanding and hopefully starting the fishing today, but man this is tedious.
QuoteI am doing finish sanding and hopefully starting the fishing today, but man this is tedious.
Hope the fish are biting, and will be more enjoyable than finish sanding. :D :D
I'd rather be fishing.
You may be better off with just mitering the joints at the tablesaw. I have good luck that way. Miter the joints and tape and glue them. Then you won't have the chip out issue.
Back up the workpiece with a sacrificial piece the same thickness. The backup piece keeps the workpiece from tearing out.
The other way is to make the workpiece wider than the finished width and then rip off the blowout side after machining.
:D yep.
btulloh, I do have it backed up, but the profile on this is pretty tiny and I sometimes get tear out along the midsections of the joint line. Can't fight that. Cutting across the grain doesn't help and I am re-thinking that too. By accident, early on I did some in the 'wrong' direction (with the grain) and they don't look bad really.
Bill that's a good idea and it would allow me to go back to 1/4" stock which was my original desire and fits better for this product size, also reduces shipping weight a little. I had watched a video on miter joint cut/tape/ glue/fold methods a little bit ago and as soon as the TS top is cleared off I may try a few to see how it goes. That may be a winner too.
I'd rather be fishing too, but that was a typo. The ice isn't thick enough and they just postponed the local kids ice fishing derby until the end of Feb. hoping for some kind of ice showing up.
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OK, so you fellas have all been very good boys waiting as patiently as you have. (I'm actually impressed.) I ran into more small issues today requiring backing up a bit and I made a few small mistakes and I was not really ready for photos and a full reveal, but I figured it's time to let the cat out of the bag. Or in this case, put the dead cat in a box. Intrigued?
Well a few weeks ago among other things in Howard's list of suggestions for things I could make and sell (remember my faux paus with he birdhouse comment?), he mentioned making crematory urn boxes or animal caskets. Frankly I kind of blew it off, not because I thought it was a bad idea, or because it didn't suit me, but because I didn't see how I could possibly market these things. It's always connecting with the market that is the issue with these things and we all, I think, know that.
SO the next day or so, another member sent me a PM and expressed an interest in selling them possibly on an ongoing basis. I won't name the member here because I didn't ask him about disclosing this private conversation, but he is welcome to declare himself if he chooses. Y'all will forgive me if I dance around those details regarding all that but stick with the job itself.
So I was given dimensions of the two most common sizes to work with and I did a little research on what's out there. A LOT of these little boxes come with laser work, either standard or custom ordered. I don't have a laser, so that's out. They also sometimes have little surface mount photo holders to slide in a personal photo of the animal. I have searched and searched and can't find a source for a good type of frame I could mount on the front. I am not going to get into doing fancy router and second panel work on this stuff. I just don't have the right gear for that. Routing out windows is a PITA with what I have.
I decided to just do a simple box with the specified inside dimensions I was given. I also needed a way to seal it, that is, keep it closed. My thought is that once the 'contents' are placed in the box, there is little need to open and close it as one would with a jewelry box. So I searched and found some simple brass screws with knurled ball heads on them, sold brass, not plated. I hate that plated crap, cheap.
SO here you go. This is the prototype I whipped up in a day or so.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230117_111856556.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1673993961)
That's made with 1/4" stock for the sides and measures 3x7x4.5 (inside). It has ERC sides and Cherry top and bottom. But gluing it up was a pain and I wanted a simple square glueup, so I ordered a locking miter router bit and made stock 1/2" thick for it. I also (FINALLY!) got a 1/2 collet for my router.
So I planed out and cut up a bunch of stock while I waited for the router tools to arrive. It's hard to get good clean stock out of all that ERC I milled with small pieces.
Cutting to the chase, here we are:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230124_172732352.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674605707)
On the right is the larger of the two sizes, the other two are the smaller (more common?) size. The one in the back is the prototype. I have no idea why the one on the left looks out of square, it is not, but it looks messed up in the photo.
Same 4, different view.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230124_172755047.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674605711)
Here below, the one on top has the grain going the wrong way. I'm not sure I don't like it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230124_172945585.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674605973)
This shows the brass screws that hold the top in place. I have those holes tapped through the sides and into the top.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230124_173142441.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674605716)
Detail of the screw into the top only, just in case I didn't explain it well.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230124_173438244.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674606150)
I have 3 more of the smaller ones I am still doing touch-ups on. So I have 6 of the smaller ones and just one of the larger ones. I kind of rushed these through to get one coat on tung oil finish on them so I could get you guys some photos. You've waited long enough, and this is not that big a deal.
I think I will try some cherry on the next group to see how that behaves in small parts.
----------------
Funny thing, I was working on these last weekend and my son and his boys came by. When he saw what I was doing, he texted a photo to his EX who manages a Vet practice. She said they need these all the time and use a catalog order system. She said they would like to talk about stocking some to see how they go. Funny how that works out, ain't it?
Ah, whatever, tomorrow is another day.
Reading this brought back memories of my earliest days in the sawmill business. Back in the early/mid 2000's most of our grade lumber went to casket makers (wholesale markets). The slogan around there was people are dying for our lumber. ::)
Those look really good Tom. 👍 I wonder who would put you up to such a project. :)
Duty calls they found my patient.
:D :D ;D Well, there goes your evening. I hope he is OK and doesn't have a head injury. I saw that happen with a huge Lab once and I thought he would die, but after some care, he was just fine. Go figger, cars and dogs. ???
Looks good. I did not know there were standards on them and would have thought they were more horizontal than vertical so I guess my request for a commission is not going to be met with much success. :D
I really do think there should be a market for them. I don't know if the customers are going to want any kind of lining or how complicated that would be to do. I think you said your wife quilts and sews so she might be able to help with that question if it comes up.
Good luck and I hope it works out well for you.
Now the question will be - "Do you make them for Hamsters and Goldfish?" ::)
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on January 24, 2023, 08:31:25 PM....
Now the question will be - "Do you make them for Hamsters and Goldfish?" ::)
Yes. If you are paying for the cremation and ash recovery you can and should afford one of my designer urns. :D
Belay my last on the lining. That would only be for pet caskets and I gather these are urns.
Now you've got me thinking about cremating a goldfish and I am now craving fried catfish for lunch tomorrow. (I apologize to those of you who feel that was an insensitive comment.)
Funny how these threads get back to food. :D
Magicman specializes in chicken... :snowball:
Looks great Tom and I like the cedar. I made urns for our 2 pups that have been cremated. These are about 7"x7"x7" and made with a mix of walnut, cherry and maple. A detail that would be easy to add and is appropriate is the little paw prints I inlaid. All you have to do is use plug cutters to make the inlay pieces and forstner bits to make the holes.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36921/received_707214214344304.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674612520)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36921/received_3278568309027693.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674612538)
That came out really nice Bill! I also like the simple 45° cut around the top it strikes me as elegant. If I did the paw print naturally the price would have to go up. So as I am struggling with that issue let me ask you, if you were selling that box, what would you charge? This is driving me a little crazy because I can't figure what my time is quite yet.
I guess if I were to sell ones like this I would ask around $150.
Obviously these are prototypes but any idea how many man-hours will be involved once you standardize the process? I think this is a great way to add value to a raw material. ;)
Another option for customizing the outside might be a branding iron/wood burning stamp. Would be pretty quick to do a bunch.
Keep up the good work.
There are places that sell them wholesale.
https://wholesalecedarurns.com/shop/1-case-small-standard-cedar-urns
Not personalized, but guess they could be and command a higher price than less than $14 each.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20230124_195404.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674615028)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20230124_195409.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674615877)
Well my patient will be very sore tomorrow and has a little road rash she will be fine and was very lucky.
After I was done checking her over, I reached under the front desk and got Rudy's box out. He was the clinic mascot and my partner in my vet truck. This was where my inspiration came from after reading Howard's post.
I hadn't gotten him out from his spot for several years. I hadn't shown this to Tom as i wondered what he wouldcome up with.
I still miss that dog.
Thanks Bill, for what you've made I would think about the same thing, it's really nice and your work is more precise than mine. If I were selling mine to a private buyer I think I would ask 100 bucks or so. But selling through a Vet or other outlet, I have to leave some markup for them, yet I need to make it worth my time also. Then there are shipping costs to recover. This is what I am pondering. Folks can find these on the internet easy (and some of the prices would surprise you, they did for me). Many Vets have a catalog available for clients to look through and chose, then an order is placed. If Vet is going to do business with me, I would think they need a little meat on the bone to make it worth their while. So I am just thinking on all this and trying to figure it out. It's not about 'how much can I get?' it's more about "can I get enough to make it worth the time I put in?".
Howard, to answer your question: I can't answer your question :D ;D ;D... yet. I have spent most of my time looking at each step and trying to make it repeatable for production. Right now the process is more important than the time. The last 40 years of my career was designing production systems and designing products for manufacturability, so much of this is second nature to me and maybe I get into it too much by habit. It's also an iterative process, so it never ends and there is always another improvement that can be done. This is very early and basic in the process. So no, I have not got a flippin' clue how long one will take. Because I only have one RAS, one TS, and one table router and I have to keep changing setups and stops constantly. Also, there is a lot of finishing work and since I know these are important to the folks that buy them, I can't let something go that has a mark or chip or doesn't look right, so I do a bunch of touch up or rework to make it right. If I get good clean stock with no defects, that should go down quite a bit. The ERC is 'challenging'. On the other hand, I did get paid to take this tree down and remove the logs. I milled it for nothing and frankly am not even considering the material cost in the final tally, maybe I should? :D
Nice job. I like the cedar with the natural purple hue. When dealing with problem grain I usually just start with 20% extra parts and burn the parts with defects to save time. You definitely should look into at least a small diode laser to burn your logo and website info on the bottom of items you make and it doesn't take long. Gives items a professional finished look and spreads your name. Some run on cellphones now.
Wow, Tom, good stuff! Great to hear a potential source of work has asprung!
A few notes from a know nothing:
You should absolutely include wood processing to your time, that material isn't free.
I really like the vertical grain on the one box. The corners you are cutting look intense!
I'd be surprised if someone in your area couldn't help with engraving. I'd offer but shipping would be prohibitive. It would greatly increase the value, even if you aren't going with "how much can you get?" I think it's worth looking into. I don't know if a veneer for engraving could be attempted? That could make shipping costs come way down, or maybe even a little wooden contrasting plaque that was engraved? If you want I'd be willing to try something like that out with you. There are much better lasers than mine out there but it's definitely good enough to engrave a name or paw print or things like that (I don't have any experience with pictures other than it seems like the picture has to be just right for it to work).
I think customization adds big value without adding huge costs.
Also, for the vets that you know that may offer something like this, having a real life sample of the urn the customer would get with a simple note of you being a friend of the vet and pet community draws folks in much better than a catalog.
FFOTS- That box is beautiful!
beenthere- While I haven't bought any cedar boxes like that I did buy a handful of similar boxes, seemingly mass produced in China, for a similar price. They were junk, comparatively, to what Tom's got, not that the idea was to compare and 13 bucks a piece is about right. OGH should be able to sell his a good premium.
I would think that the vertical grain would work well for production efficiency, it would allow you to make the corner joint in longer boards instead of handling many short pieces and then cut around the defects. The down side would be that the longer pieces need to be straight but that is also a plus in a way because it makes you pickier with your materials and keeps you from spending a half hour saving a 30 piece of cent board.
Oh.. and they look lovely, I agree no need to paint them. :)
Nebraska, that is a beautiful box. I can't match that. I don't have a way to make the dovetails and the workmanship looks perfect. The photo holder is exactly what I was looking for, but cannot find. Anybody have a lead on those? Sweet looking pup BTW. I had a black lab that was my truck dog/buddy for years and I still miss that gal dearly.
21inch, I know that if I keep going I will have to get a laser, but it's like starting over. I did programming for nearly 50 years on big CNC's and I thought I was done with that for good. Now I need to find some kind of machine, buy another computer to drive it and go through all the learning pains of getting it to work right. Plus I am cash strapped right now. Since you have a lot of time with these smaller machines, do you have any specific suggestions as to how to get started?
Austin, I may try some vertical grain, but the issue is stock width. I would need around 8" wide stock for those bigger boxes, Those boxes that beenthere showed seem to be made in Washington. He does have a habit of peeing on folks campfires sometimes. They are only sold in bulk cases of 32 units. I have no inattention of competing with that, nor buying theirs and doing a cheap markup job. I'm not sure what his point was but yeah, there are those guys out there.
It would be nice if I could find a local hobby guy with a laser and skills. I don't think anybody in it full time will waste their time helping me and it would be more up front outlay anyway.
"Oh.. and they look lovely, I agree no need to paint them."
Well that's good to know Hilltop. Thanks! :D :D ;D
Snow just started here and this time they say about 6" so I have to change gears and go collect the rest of the logs I cut Sunday before they disappear then run some other errands.
Time to get at it.
alright let me catch up. worked yesterday and stayed over 2 hours so just getting caught up today. I think the cedar is more for the rustic folks so the knots and stuff will always crack and all that. I think a casket should be more flat, but and urn can be more upright and tall. so the grain going top to bottom for that is fine, and the locking miter is along the grain, and not across it. you can contact the laser sellers in your area, and they may provide contact for people with a laser in your area. I have several friends/acquaintances that I engrave for on a regular basis, and we barter. My duck/turkey call guy, makes stuff for me that I give as gifts. I have milled for him, and also have his logo on file. Sawdust Jimmy like to number and sign his bowls and it is a good chance for us to chat and have a beer when he is not in Arizona. It would really take me about 2 minutes to custom engrave a name. you logo could go on the bottom or back. the picture could be glued on and covered with epoxy, but I like the idea of the frame. I doubt they will change the pic, so it could be more of a screw over the picture piece and that could be made from wood. I have the Rockler state park font for plunge routing and that would work also. for the ones you want to be perfect, I would use cherry or walnut or maple as it machines well. the rustic ones for the bird dog owner ect. can be cedar, but the defects add to the style. My laser is an epilog and see who the distributor is and see if you can fine an owner in your area. I have tried to turn ERC on a lathe and it does not work well, and tends to chip out. A hard wood should do better with the locking miter bit. for the cedar boxes, you may do better to make the front and back form half inch and the sides 1/4 inch and just uses a dado for the joint that is seen only on the sides. then you could plane 8 foot long stock and make parts for 30 at a time, as mass production on a small scale seems to be the goal. Parts can be stored and assembles as needed. remember the color will turn brown if exposed to air and light, so dead stacking will prevent that and the taking up space. I am not a psychiatrist, but I find it interesting that you always migrate back to a wood that looks purple but eventually turn brown. :)
Really nice looking urns, great job! If I had attempted to tap the wood for screws in that location the results would have been very ugly!
Industrial Laser Supply
Contact: Ryan Sprole
10 Applegate Lane
Woodbury, CT 06798
(203) 249-2783 office
how far is this for you? If you call they will come to you and do a demo. They may also share folks in your area with a laser.
Sure didn't mean to pee on OGH, as I only took the time to see what pet urn's were selling for. Surprised me to see the wholesale market out there.. and there are many, it appears from my brief search.
But was involved years back with a similar start-up business of making walnut bowls, desk lamps, table lamps, and even floor lamps out of turned, solid black walnut. Green walnut chucked in a lathe with a back cut single knife turned a blank, the blanks were treated with PEG, oven dried, and then finish turned. They didn't crack due to the PEG treatment. The pieces were sanded on a lathe using 80, 220, 400, and finally steel wool to remove any turning marks. Finally three coats of Danish oil and polished with lambs cloth. They were beautiful, but the customers were just as happy buying similar plastic or glass products as the beautiful walnut figured grain (no two alike) didn't mean a reason to pay more than the run-of-the-mill bowl, lamp, vase found at Target or Walmart. The additional cost of finishing these solid walnut products put them out of reach of the customer willing to buy. The real world.
Hoping OGH cracks the market with his beautiful product. Looks like he has a good start at it. Wish him the best.
I recommend the last option. learning curve of course, and my 18 x 24 inch 60 watt helix was 21K. expensive hobby or business. we now have an engraving company in hutch, a town of 45 K.
We have at least one engraving company as well, granted Dayton is a bit bigger, but this is a small joint, I assume they've got good money in lasers but I also assume with that comes decent overhead and potential for higher prices to recoup the laser cost.
I was thinking, if I were to help, something like this (https://a.co/d/9fAnn8q), engraved, then attached to the urn with nice brass tacks (ideally on better wood, locally sourced). I'd be glad to mock some up and send them your way OGH. I'd hope your customer could find a lot of pets named Fido, or Spot, or whatever a good cat name would be. As doc said these would take very minimal time to make, only a few minutes, and on a production level, where a decent fixture could be made, it would go quickly. I could turn them around to you in very little time and at very small cost. I sit out next to laser in the shop pretty much every day for my after work beer as it is already.
I think the button (round style) like FFOS did to make the paw would work. my engraver can cut a circle around each one, and it can be inset with a forstner bit. and cut shipping of small discs instead of the whole board. check locally and see if you can barter wood for engraving. could even do the paw and use the coin engraved buisiness card as the round big part of the paw.
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on October 02, 2022, 10:33:39 AMAustin, recognized? Really? I seriously doubt that could or would ever happen. I have no idea when it will come out. These things sometimes get rushed for an album release and sometimes held for the same reason. I've never heard of this band, but what do I know? Yes, as I commented to the guy whose job it was to simply turn the fog machine off and on as they were shooting or waiting: "you guys are professional stand-arounder's, aren't you?" And he replied "Yup, if you aren't good at that, you don't belong in this business." I just said "Well I can say, it ain't easy.
I don't often look into this thread, today I did and was on page 76 where you talk about being a "backgrounder" for video -well I look and it is out and I recognized you -your famous !!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Wolf (Official Video) - YouTube (https://youtu.be/otlUyyQSIIs)
Didn't look ahead to see if you had already posted.. Did you get paid $$?
-JJ
JJ I had nearly forgotten about that video. I did come across it a couple of months ago and it was up to around 750k views. Yes, I did get paid even with a little extra for the overage of time.
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Now guys, I know your job is to help me spend money but lets dial it back a bit here, shall we? ;D First, I really don't want to make these things more complicated than they already are. folks can get things engraved locally if they want. Second, there is a difference between spending money and spending money I don't have. I barely have enough for operating odds and ends right now and there is nothing for equipment. I am not trying to build an empire here. I ran one of those Epilog's like you have Doc, maybe even the same model. It did a nice job and very versitle. That's just not in my future in any event. I really don't want to be sitting at a machine all day just so I can pay for it. I did that for too many years.
To get back on track here, I just want to make simple boxes that look nice and can be made in small lots to satisfy a reasonable need. If, and that is a big IF, they sell in a somewhat steady stream and generate some income I will of course look to expanding the line or capabilities, but first I have to see what is there, if anything and how the demand may hold. Take care of the basics first. I would like to have a better joint that is easier to make with less scrap that glues easier and faster. I need to reduce the amount of sanding and finishing time. These are the important things right now.
Yes, I did express an interest, BUT it will have to be a small fiber job that is VERY cheap and I will have to get a computer for the shop, my desk job is getting too old and I don't want to move it out there. I figure I only need to engrave about a 3x5 area, so if anything, I was hoping somebody might offer suggestions on a really cheap unit they have used that works, very simple. When I say really cheap, I mean under $200 . Even that will have to wait until after I sell a mess of mushroom logs in the next 2 months. Mostly I could use it to do logos on the bottom of my furniture.
But for these boxes I want to keep it simple until we see what transpires. Yes, maybe local barter will be a possibility I may look into, but I have to nail this design down firm and get a good short run done that I'm happy with.
I know you guys are all trying to help me and the ideas do help, but sometimes it's overwhelming how you guys get carried away. It doesn't help that some of these ideas are things I'd like to try but there is no cash to work with and I don't spend money I don't have, especially now. It's beyond frustrating for me.
And if they don't sell you can always use them to store your rice and grits in. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/48503/98212C4F-2B07-42DB-9A79-46616266EEAB.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1668616624)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/48503/37D54C0E-A11D-4936-A5BC-42E1412A6A1C.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1668616623)
Tom, the urns are very nice. You do very nice work.
I made these for my parents' ashes. Mom's was engraved. Dad doesn't need his yet.
I'm sharing this because the laser engraving was $15 for Mom's. Turn around was just one day. The engraving was done by a local guy, the artwork was my own.
We have two local guys who do laser engraving, one does it exclusively, one is a gunsmith and custom firearms builder.
I'll bet there's someone not too far from you operating out of a garage or basement who does great work. Another source might be trophy shops or sign shops.
BTW, these are made from cherry that I milled. I used a planer, table saw, router and drill press.
Beautiful work there Ted!
Your design just gave me a new idea for the corner joints, not sure how yours went together or look on the inside, but I can guess close enough to try something. I'll have to do some sketching and thinking tonight. Thanks.
BTW, I had the exact same table saw until I traded up a couple of months back. I got a lot of wood through that saw before it moved on to another guy getting started. Good machines.
Edit to add: Ted, how did you secure the top?
Quote
I know you guys are all trying to help me and the ideas do help, but sometimes it's overwhelming how you guys get carried away.
Thinking what OGH is trying to say, is he is not looking for help, but wants us to know about what he is doing and planning to do. Good look on the boxes so far, and hope to hear more about accomplishing your next discoveries. Keep up the good work and let us know.
Not exactly. What I thought I was saying is that I appreciate all the help but I am just trying to get down the road to the next driveway while the group is heading down the road at 100MPH headed for the interstate.
you forgot the fact that it is in a one ton dually pulling a 40 foot camping fifth wheel!! smiley_furious3 smiley_policeman move_it smiley_beertoast
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on January 25, 2023, 06:18:33 PM
I would like to have a better joint that is easier to make with less scrap that glues easier and faster. I need to reduce the amount of sanding and finishing time.
I make a wack of boxes every year. Most use a finger joint (aka box joint) or miter joints with splines. I make the finger joints with a shop made jig using an old dedicated Craftsman router. Ready to go at all times. Mitered corners made on a shop made sled with setup blocks for production speed. Shop made clamping jig for the glue up. I always pre-sand and sometimes pre-finish the insides. Box sides are normally 5/16" - 3/8" resawn stock so I get four corner grain matches. I have lots of other tricks to speed production and increase efficiency.
A lot of what I do was taught to me by Doug Stowe. Doug is a teacher, author, an a great box maker. I see lots of his box making books on eBay.
I have another friend that does my laser work. He has a substantial investment in equipment and knowledge. Does a wonderful job in a timely manner with a reasonable price. I'm happy to keep it this way.
I wish I could say the corners were a fancy joint but they were simple miters. I glued a corner block inside on the front and back. I joined the sides to the front and back. They are simple glue joints with an exterior grade glue.
The top is similar to yours. Just a two layer top. The smaller layer fits inside the top of the box and secured with screws on either side of the box. The bottom was made similar to the top but it was glued and fastened with brads.
The corner molding was milled out of square stock, the corners were done with the router.
The woodworking was necessarily simple because the boxes weren't build until Mom passed and the subsequent schedule required something be built quickly.
If I remember correctly the thickness of the stock was 3/8".
That is a slightly modified Delta 10" Contractor's Saw. Before I ever used it, I changed the motor to a 220 volt 2 hp. It has been adequate for most of what I do. I couldn't afford more saw 34 years ago when I bought that one.
I'm looking at the Saw Stop saws now. Seems like the Delta and Powermatic cabinet saws/Unisaws are selling cheap now because so many are going to Saw Stop saws.
I got spoiled when I was teaching. We had a 12" Powermatic table saw in the shop, an 18" Powermatic Planer, Delta 3/4" spindle shaper and so on.
Well Ted, your corner joint design intrigued me. I can't do those fancy finger joints like Larry does and I'll have to do some research on that for the future. SO I spent some time today on the 'Ted Corner joint'. Not knowing exactly how it looked on the inside, I came up with what I thought was simple. Gluing will require a jig if I go forward, but for now I got one out.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230126_171251160.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674781429)
The joint looks like this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230126_161600597.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674781580)
That allowed me to use 1/4" stock. I am running out of tops and bottoms and have none left for the larger size. I still want to try the fold up miter style and I cut some stock for that but came up short for the last side, so decided to quit at 5:30 for the day. I will plane some more stuff tomorrow and give that a shot. I need to make a filler block for gluing, but it shows promise. I think I have about 9 of these boxes now. Our friend Doc was busy all day today making some laser engraved discs for me as a surprise. (And yeah, I was surprised!)Not sure how I can thank him for that. I ordered a forstner bit to make a pockets for these on the bottoms of the box. Lousy weather today, good shop day.
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Speaking of good marketing, I was reminded yesterday that product placement can be a very important decision in good marketing.
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:D :D ;D ;D
Looking better all the time! Have you talked to your local vets yet or are you waiting to take them finished urns? Are you considering a consignment arrangement or straight sales? I have offered reluctant businesses a consignment option to see if items sell and when they do they sometimes just go ahead and buy. You could offer consignment on a limited number and sell them after that once you have proved they sell. Good luck.
OG It's been awhile but I've done finger joints on a table saw with a dado blade and shop built sled that held the pieces on edge while running them through. Not suggesting what you're doing isn't coming out well. Just throwing out an option to possibly use tools you've already got to do different things.
I like that brown color of the ERC. :) ;) :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/3DDC242C-8668-4A13-8003-4534C35C1516.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674791946)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/80BC4654-7742-4165-A5E1-0A93C28BB299.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674791995)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/C2335ECF-ED1F-4610-8469-1DCA5E618541.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674792004)
fits just inside a recess made by a 2" forstner bit
Those are classy. Nice work Doc
I can't thank enough for that work Doc, I really can't.
Newwoodguy, yeah, I do need to make a sled, hardly a shop day goes by and I don't say that out loud. But how do you index those finger joints from one to the next? Then they have to be lined up from part to part. These are really thin walls on these small boxes and I am thinking a finger joint is not going to work well, especially in ERC.
That last box had cherry 'posts' on it with 1/4" thick sides. When I start the next round, if there is one, I my try all Cherry. It's a more rigid wood
Here's a photo of a box joint jig for a table saw. You can see the index tab sticking out just left of the blade.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/48503/B5B2ABA5-C74D-495F-B60A-D07232C4832C.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674820504)
Those "Ted Corners" look great!
Also, for what it's worth, Tom, I'm offering my personalized (petsonalized?) plaque engraving, for free, if you'd like to try it out. If you end up selling a bunch maybe I'd ask to recoup some funds, but consider it a big thank you for treating me so well when we came to visit.
This could be a lovely community effort to help you make something neat and cherished by pet owners.
Also, you asked above about inexpensive lasers and I understand that it's low on your priorities but I also didn't see an answer. I have an Ortur Laser Master 1 (I think 1 is the version number) and I think they are up to version 3 now. The earlier versions should be perfectly functional and pretty inexpensive at this point. You can also buy new laser modules for them, so maybe you could find a cheap used one and buy a new laser for it and go that route. I've liked mine a lot so far, learning curve was pretty shallow, and I didn't need to spend a ton to get started, should you ever be inclined. 21incher introduced me to them and he's got a bunch of videos of them in action on his YouTube...
Ted, is that a dado blade setup? I've never used one but man do they seem handy (oh and expensive!).
Yes a dado makes each finger with a single pass. With a dado it's easiest if the index tab is the same width as the pocket.
A standard blade can be used but it takes multiple passes and a bit of fiddling to get the first finger made. Once the first pocket is made, the joint will index to the width of the first pocket for subsequent pockets.
Doc to the rescue again. Great job. How do you keep those blanks flat?
Infinity tools does sell 1/4 thick blades for quick box joints.
This is my favorite box making video. Fast finger joints that are accurate and they purchase the thin stock to speed things up. They are making salt boxes but size doesn't matter and once sanded the joints are beautiful without any tearout. The gluing fixture really speeds things up. Something to shoot for when you get big orders.
0,000 Lazer Project / How to Make 1000 Boxes - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zaikwj5R78&t=3s)
the blanks were sawn at 1/4 inch, dried in my shop then flat stacked with weight. ran through the drum sander at 18 x 24 inches per blank. then engraved. It is from the spalted soft maple I have shown. I did a thread on drying thin stock.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=116232.msg1844155#msg1844155
remember if you have a 10 inch table saw, you can use an 8 or 6 inch dado set, if the max. depth can be achieved. usually only part through a board, and those are prob. most commonly 3/4 inch, so a 3/8th or 1/2 inch dado. I found a skill 8 inch on clearance at Lowes (skil brand) for 20 bucks. I bought a 10 inch years ago that I hardly use. remember on a wide dado you are cutting more wood, and the smaller dado radius proves more torque.
SawyerTed thanks for posting that picture and explaining how it works that is exactly the method I was referring to.
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here is the one I got on clearance and it looks to be a 6 inch. it works well on my 10 inch delta table saw.
That was a neat video 21, but the finger joints are just not something I think fits for this one. Plus a 10k laser is out of the question for me, as I said, I am not looking to chase money, just make a retirement living. Having done production all my life, I am over it, and doing even 5 pieces of the same thing is hard for me these days. ;D
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Well it was another day and I did another joint style box. We can call this one the "Bill Joint" because he mentioned it, and actually, it was my first choice, but I discounted it because of glueing issues. Today I tried the 'tape and fold' method for the first time and using a squaring block inside to keep it all right, it came out pretty good. It's very simple (looking) and allows me to use 1/4" stock which was a desire all along. Gets me away from the troublesome locking miter on thin stock (1/2" minimum). I can see that if I cut all my pieces in single setups so they are dead identical, things will go well. Gluing is always the slow part, but this may be the best method yet for the run sizes I have in mind.
Here you go, the box of the day.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230127_133459185_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674871584)
It's hard to see the glue line in the joint, which is good.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230127_133448753.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674871893)
The key with this choice is everything has to be cut VERY precisely and all parts have to match exactly. Not my forte, but I am getting there. ;D
I am starting to feel like a box maker, or at least a box prototyper.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230127_154540674.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674871687)
SO I have 10 of them now. I am waiting until my shipment arrives from KS to put labels on the bottom and I have a second order of brass screws coimng in for the top, and I need to make a little sheet to go inside each box for the end user. But I am getting close to putting some of these out there to see if there is any interest at all. Then just wait and see.
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In other news, I forgot to mention, on Wednesday I was headed down to Bill's to grab those logs I couldn't fit on Sunday before the (predicted) snow covered them up. As I was about 1/2 mile from Bill's driveway I went through the S-bend and found his F550 in the swamp with the blade pointed at me and up in the air. Not good. The cab window was wide open, he was not in there. He had a full cord of wood in the dump. He was stuck in the swamp good. The passenger side rear dually was sort of hanging in the air and water. Folks drive off his road every year and he has a great time laughing at them before he yanks them out and then gets good mileage out of razzing them for a few years after. Austin has been on this road in July, but it's different when it's a sheet of ice in January.
SO I drove on up to Bill's house and found him on the road. He smiled, I smiled, we laughed. He asked "can you give it a try with your truck, I think you can do it." No I thought, no way, the road is like greased glass. but he thought I could and said it was either my truck of we get the dozer. What the heck, so I tried, and we pulled it out on the first pop! Now I get to razz him for a decade or so. ;D THAT is priceless. :D
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We've been having issues with someone stealing the money from the egg stand. We thought it was the guy with the drug problem, but he is in jail right now and the money is still disappearing. Now one of the neighbors said there is a kid on a bike that stops there once in a while. In any event, Bill is reluctant to put any eggs out or put the firewood in there until he secures it. Well I started making a lock box for it months ago, so tonight I went out to the shop after dinner, re-made the top and put a hasp on it. Tomorrow I will install it and we can move on once Bill sticks a lock on it. I need to make a little sign explaining why we now have a locked box. Maybe the kid will get the hint.
Tomorrow is another day.
Tom,
You know if/when you show those urns to your future customers they are going to like the one you hate the most and that is the most trouble to build! Mark my words - I'll bet you a bowl of hot grits that is what happens. :D
EDIT - ADD-ON:
BTW - you can put a note on the sign that the hidden video results of the egg money box has been turned over to the local police for appropriate action. ::)
Well if all else fails you can get out the drill and have a lot of nice bird houses.
could get a game camera for the egg area. it would be nice to catch them, even if it is a kid, might turn them around now. the engraved coins are speculated to get there Tuesday. I bet some old timers would enjoy getting them as a business card. the boxes look great, 1 purple and 9 brown. ... :snowball: 8) :) :) :)
New joints look great Tom!
I'd hate to be in that swamp, it looks like it'd eat a truck, no problem, Dego-bah style (ya know, that place in star wars where Yoda lives? I don't know if that's what it's called or how it's spelled).
OK. Now I feel bad I do not have one... so lets call this the ol doc Henderson joint. set up a 1/4 inch dado blade. make a dado leaving a 1/4 inch edge of wood (so not a rabbit). do this on each end of two opposite panels 1/4 inch thick. the ones with the dados could be thicker. now the two sides fit into the dados in the front and back. this give that corner trim look, and can be mass produced. and should make a strong and tight joint. We can call it the ODH joint if you prefer.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/484547DE-7AE8-4DB2-BBA0-1CEA99222002.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1674938818)
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ODH joint © :snowball: 8) :D :D :D
easily mass produced if it comes to that, and you do not have to hold you mouth just right, like with the locking finger miter style bit. The prototypes look great.
The "Bill and Ted's" joints sound like an "excellent adventure"! :D
BILL & TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1988) | Official Trailer | MGM - YouTube (https://youtu.be/oUDIBzecP1I)
Well mixed bag today with not much accomplished. I managed to sleep really late (winter blues?) so a slow start. I grabbed some more Cherry off the drying rack getting ready to try another box or two from all cherry. I had some stuff I milled at 1/2" but it cupped when drying (no weight on top, DUH) and I grabbed a few 1x6 boards. I planed the 1/2 down to 1/4" and planed the 1" down to 3/4 for the base and tops. Planeing out the 1/2" stuff I found bugs (larve), that ain't good, so it is piled up in short pieces by the woodstove now. The 1" stuff looks OK (I see no holes at all), but I will give it a closer look tomorrow. Then I have to check the whole stack outside. I am bummed.
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I finished up the cash box for the egg stand last night it is as ugly as could be, a real redneck wood butcher job. I took no measurements and planned nothing out, just did it all by eye and it shows. :D ;D But it's functional.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230128_113356089.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674963298)
This morning I made up a sign explaining why we had to put a locked box (which should also, by default explain why there have been no eggs there for a month), then I took it all over and installed it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230128_113349026_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1674963364)
I thought a little gentle shaming might work, assuming our thief can read. ANyway, Bill liked it and he put a couple dozen eggs out today and stocked it with firewood and kindling. We'll see what happens. He said I should make another sign asking the person who takes 1 egg out of each dozen box to please stop. I didn't know about that part. Who would do that? :D At any rate, we are about out of room for signs in there.
Call it a social experiment, we'll see what happens. I also dug out my trail cam and think I have it working again, just in case.
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Had dinner tonight, then headed to Bill's for a little Slabmizing party. His best buddy CJ had a butcher block bench he had made years ago and uses for butchering deer and meat for his dogs. He did have a lot to work with when he made it and it is worse for the wear, so he wanted to re-flatten and refinish it. It is made from scrap maple he had from a job. 32" x8' so we did that and had a few beers while at it. 4 guys was overkill and running it back and forth for repeated passes gets boring pretty quick (unless it is you bench :)).
SO when we finished that I 'just happened to have' a new cookie holding jig in my truck and a couple of cookies (actually I had a stack, but didn't tell them that) to flatten. SO we put that up and figure it out and flattened two of them I think I will make mirrors out of. Sorry, no photos, we were having a good time. We never did get to do the (4) 8' table slabs he has had queued up for weeks now, which should have come first. Maybe when the cold weather comes I'll go down and do those for him.
Tomorrow is another day and I have no idea what I am doing. The weather today was so nice and tonight coming home around 10pm and doing the shop stove I was outside and thought to myself this would be a prefect weekend to be camping. Mild temps with some snow on the ground and a pretty blanket of stars. It's a pleasant 31 out there now. Supposed to be below zero this time next week. Figures, I'll be spending half my time outdoors all next weekend at a music fest. Finally winter may be coming.
Tomorrow is another day, as I think I said already.
The one egg missing reminded me of the story a guy up the road (Sandy) told me about my grandfather who had a roadside stand where he sold apples, vegetables and eggs at.
The story goes that he stopped at the stand on the way home to get a dozen eggs but was 10¢ short on money so he asked my grandfather if he could take the eggs and would pay the missing 10¢ later, my grand father said sure and took the money he had and slid the eggs across the counter with a smile on his face. Sandy says to me "I don't know how he did it but when I got home there were only 11 eggs"
Yeah, Bill had a few folks complain about being 1 short and he knows that every time he puts eggs in he checks each carton to make sure they are clean enough, none are broken and the carton is full. So, somebody is taking one from each carton. It's just weird.
_I completely whiffed on commenting on the ODH joint. Sorry Doc. I like that and wanted to try it with the Cherry I was planeing out today, but you already read how that was going. I can never guess how that will look and feel until I do it, so I will try one or two, but I have to make up more stock. It definitely will be a different look. I think I would try a 1/4 router bit first instead of a dado blade, just because of setup time. But if I have tear out problems, I'll go to the dado blade. For sure, making up a bunch, the dado will be a LOT faster. But for doing one or two, I'll try the router. I will need stock a 1/2" wider than I had been cutting, not sure I have that. Maybe that's the first task for tomorrow.
Thanks Doc. I saw that link but thought that you were using thinner stock for these. I have been trying to resaw 1/8 material for business cards and small plaques under an ounce that can be mailed using a standard USPS forever stamp but just can't keep it flat.
OGH I just posted that video for ideas should you need to expand your capacity. Could probably squeeze a cat or gerbil remains in smaller boxes and once the first one is worked out different sizes only take 5 minutes to mod the templates and make new boxes with no tooling. The way most businesses look at purchases these days is not the $11k but $149 a month with a laser easily able to add $1k a month to the profits without much time invested if the service is marketed and implemented. I guess you have your hands into so many things that these boxes are just a fun challenge and not a way to provide a constant income so your not always coming up short as is constantly noted. Sounds like you are a lot like me and always want a new challenge to keep from getting bored and when its over find something new to move on to.
Sorry 21, I didn't realize I was 'constantly' mentioning financial constraints. I had been doing well for a couple of years, but things changed and now it's a fight. I just don't like that feeling and it depresses me. I guess it comes out too often.
But yeah, I don't want to get underwater on anything. I want to be able to decide (for the most part) what I am going to do each day when I get up. Yes, I need the variety. I very much have the "It's my time for once" attitude with no apologies. SO I have, for better or worse lined myself up with a lot of different 'stuff' with the goal of keeping it interesting and varied while also learning new things, so I try a lot of stuff, just for the sake of learning (often what doesn't work, at first). Hopefully I can sell it.
I had thought you did a lot of messing around with those low cost lasers and could offer some suggestions on those. Everything in my past was high dollar production stuff for specific purposes with USA based builds and support. I really don't look forward to getting into programming again, but I suppose some of these menu based things they have now are a lot easier than the dedicated and specific coding systems I started on 40 something years ago. By the time I was 35 I think I had worked in 5 different languages and it wears the brain out. I prefer to save my money up front and buy outright so I am not in debt with any of this stuff. I believe also that if I put some effort in I can find a local person I can build a relationship with until I see if it generates enough income to make it worth the expense to me.
Baby steps.
Wow...I have a woodworking joint named after me now. I feel so important. Well, I can't really take credit for that one. Something that can be helpful with mitered joints like that is burnishing the corner to close up any small gap that may arise. It will make it look like a perfect joint and ease the edge a bit.
We only really sell eggs to my parents. We get about 5 eggs per day. A neighbor had posted on FB that he joked with his grandchildren that "egg sandwiches were for rich people". I had no idea how much a dozen eggs cost at the store. We buy about a dozen eggs per year in the short time that our chickens don't lay any. I put 18 eggs in a carton and delivered them to him. He laughed.
I do another joint for drawers similar to the ODH joint that is called lock rabbet. It's easy to set up at the saw or the router. I feel like I might have mentioned this last week, but I can't remember.
I have a cheap laser. I think Cindy got it on Amazon about 4 years ago for around $200. It works pretty well once you figure out how to use it and assemble it. It comes all in pieces and no instructions for assembly. It is good for small engraving projects, but to do something like Doc did with those coins would probably take 3 days of burning. It's not fast.
Last night was our FD awards banquet. I received a brass engraved fireman's axe for my 30th anniversary with the FD. It's very cool. It was not a surprise though, since I'm the guy who orders all that kind of stuff.
would love to see pics of the axe and you receiving it. you are probably to humble to otherwise toot your own horn with pics. congratulations for a job well done.
The pic is not great, but it is my Dad(my first chief) presenting the axe. Then of course me and Cindy.
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I do have 1/2 dozen small lasers and as ffots said they basically come with minimal instructions, slow support, and are slower. The one thing all cheap lasers have in common is they can run on lightburn that is a good control package that is slowly implementing drawing and editing of artworks. They also need enclosures with exhaust to remove hazardous fumes. So unless you have lots of time to fiddle with them and build libraries they may not be the best for a business environment. Most of the better co2 lasers are faster and come with better software packages and a phone number to get fast response support that can make a big difference when running a $100 an hour machine with limited overhead. It all depends on your business plan. I recently received an email from one of my viewers that has taken a hobby diode laser to a business with 4 xtool D1 pro diode lasers that he runs on the side. He sells online and buys blanks for cutting boards, cheese boards, and signs then custom engraves them making $1000 a monthly profit on average for a couple hours of spare time. But has spent a year playing with them to get to that point. His wife handles the shipping. So yes the cheap lasers can make money but it not an instant asset figuring them out. I have made many gifts with mine and can cut up to 3/4 slowly but it has been a long learning period. For wood, leather, rubber stamps, and anodized business cards they are fun if you have the time to learn to use them. I just think better software, speed, and support a ready to run machine makes it worth spending a little more up front. Some nick nacks I have laying around.
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If you find someone local with good turn around it's a good way to find out the value add it would to your business.
21 what is the story behind the bench. looks like great quality laser work.
Bill, thanks and congrats again. better put the axe away or your up and coming son may go do some logging with that. ;) :)
Doc I got tired of working on my tablesaw for a flat surface and also looking for misplaced tools so I built it using 2 purchased dog hole 25 x 54 tops. They also work as a downdraft table that's better for fumes then sawdust. Don't have pics but the last 5 minutes of this final build video shows it. Best addition ever for my tiny shop. Those dog holes are my favorite part.
Ultimate Workbench Build Part4 Finally Finished - YouTube (https://youtu.be/RdUHf97Pr_4)
Very nice. I forwarded the video to a doc buddy getting into making guitars, and musical instruments. He and his dad came to get material for building a bench in a small area. how did you make the labels? stencils? I use tool box drawer liner on my surface so it holds still while sanding and to protect from finished. several styles. solid and some is woven with beads so stuff like dust can get through. also what does the Asterix on the square stand for. I imagined it meant it had been tested for square. thanks again.
I think dog holes in a bench would be handy for guitar making. Mine is over 500 pounds so it's solid but impossible to make mobile.
I use a Cameo 3 vinyl cutter for labels, auto graphics, heat transfer vinyl for shirts and hats along with print and cut labels for things like canned goods. Orcal has all different vinyls for different applications. There's a newer model available now that can cut 3mm wood and things like leather.
I have a sanding station with a big sheet of the gripper material and filtered box fans To catch the dust. The poor tops have many nicks and drill holes in them now but still have stayed almost perfectly flat.
Your right. That square is the oneI keep Calibrated using a prick punch and certified machinist square. The 3 behind it are for non critical work after being dropped a couple times. I better stop side tracking this thread.
Bill, huge congratulations on your milestone. I have a little idea what's involved in that achievement and I want to thank you, and your family for your service. That axe is a beaut! Glad you got one with a hickory handle rather than the yellow plastic one that everyone runs on the job now. ;D
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Thanks for all the info in the previous posts, it help a good deal with my perspective and thinking, going forward.
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As promised, today was indeed another day. So after chores I got another late start and began work on the ODH joint prototype. I had normal math error that made the box 1/4" short in one dimension, but I made it up in another dimension so the box actually has a little more volume than it should have by a tad. This is just a prototype anyway. Cutting to the chase, here's the joint:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230129_171239094.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675043326)
And here is the box before finishing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230129_171147367.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675043330)
It glued up pretty easy and square but I still needed blocks inside to keep it fairly square. No big deal, I think they will all need that. I am considering putting a bullnose on those tag ends sticking out, but I need to get a bit for that. This was just to look at and think about like the others before it. This particular one will sell as a 'second' or get used for something else because it has some flaws.
So I have tried 5 different corner joints: The square butt joint, the locking miter joint, the column corner butt joint aka the 'Ted Joint', the miter fold up tape and glue joint aka the 'Bill Joint', and the full dado joint aka the 'ODH Joint'. Just goes to show the effect the contributions here to make a difference.
I am not sure which joint I think is 'the winner' if there is one but I am partial to the Bill joint for it's simplicity and easy fast cutting of parts. I'd have top do a short run of them to try it out fully.
We haven't heard from Nebraska lately to see what he thinks. Tomorrow is another day, I'm tired and need to do the evening chores.
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I went out this afternoon to get milk and saw that a dozen eggs was gone from the stand, so just for giggles I stopped and checked the money box. No cash, so I got concerned. I called Bill and yeah, he ran out on a quick job this morning saw a dozen had sold and he got the cash. For a minute I thought somebody was now stealing eggs. Glad to see that is not the case and everything is fine. :)
I like the simple Dado type joinery but don't understand how you connect the box to the base. ???
Do you think there will be any issues with seasonal wood movement? I'm mostly thinking about how the bottom attaches to the sides.
a bead or a round over will help finish the corner. the ODH will also be strong. :)
I guess I never explained the bottom. It is much like the top, it has a raised island I form with a bottom cleaning router to create the shelf. So I glue the sides of the box, let that dry, then drop it over the island with more glue which centers it nicely. I do leave some clearance so it slides on, but is not driven on. Same for the top. Even with seasonal movement, I think it will be ok. It's not the type of box that would be opened and closed daily, so there is that. The contents would be in a plastic bag anyway.
Yes, that ODH is strong and the parts fit tight, I had to tap them in, I should maybe make them a tad looser for glue space. I just don't know how I like the little edge sticking out. I have to ponder it. And it doesn't matter really what I like anyway. I am not the end user.
you can experiment with some routing. but it should be easy to mass produce. you could orient the grain so the bottom and sides expand and contract together. lots to ponder, but tomorrow is another day.
QuoteI am not the end user.
We hope not. Might have to make it larger if that be the case. :snowball:
I've been at a continuing education conference over the weekend. Low and behold there was a fellow who called himself a "pet funeral director" set up in the exhibit hall. Just a couple pictures of his wares.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20230126_163713.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675081417)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/55256/20230126_163506.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675082405)
The little box on the top left of the second shelf is the one in the first picture. Had a tight fitting slider lid but no latch. It was "hand carved" in India, probably by some semi slave labor....
I took the picture to show here and grabbed a little information chatted a bit, figured I had done enough espionage and went on. :)
I think you need a trail camera on that egg stand.
Congratulations on your 30 years Bill
that axe is awesome.
Crongrats Bill on your achievement! smiley_thumbsup
Suggestions for inscriptions...
"I support random Axe of kindness."
"A long career is no Axe-ident.
"How long have I been a fire fighter?...glad you Axe." ;D
OK res, do not be a pain in the Axe! :snowball: :D :D :D
:D :D :D
don't axe, don't tell? :) did I axe-ually just say that? :) your axe-illa is your arm pit. :)
Tom it helps us to understand why you do not just go buy something.
21 to get to 1/8th inch, I run it through the 24 inch wide drum sander. have to be careful as the heat from the sanding can cause some warping, it is best to alternate sides while sanding. the 24 x 18 inch sheets can have a little curve, and it is not perceived when cut into 4 x 4 coasters.
You guys are behaving axe-actly as I axe-pected you to as soon as Resonator kicked the rock over the edge of the hill :D.
Bill tell your son when he can hold that ax by the butt end out straight from his outstretched arm for 60 seconds he can use it. ;D
Doc, I have this very old world habit, if I don't have the money, I don't buy it. ;D I know a lot of folks today buy stuff they don't have the money for, but I just can't seem to pick up that habit. ;D Maybe it's a character flaw, one of many I guess. :D
Thanks Doc. I haven't had much luck with my thin stuff being stabile. I found a company that specializes in thin wood and am going to order a sample pack
Sample Pack | Ocooch Hardwoods (https://ocoochhardwoods.com/detail/?i=18samples)
They have domestic and imports and I want to try some laser marquetry also so that will give me some to try even if it is in narrow widths. Looks like a small family operation.
Tom I go by the Henry Ford quote. 'If you need a machine and don't buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don't have it.'
Oh my you guys are punny. Thanks for the congrats. The axe is hung up with the rest of my fire service awards. I was out in the shop looking for some sort of hooks to use for hanging the axe but couldn't find anything. Googled it and saw where someone had used leather straps. An old belt of mine got the axe, literally. Tom, I will tell him what you said, but hes got a long way to go have arms to do that. He has what we call soccer arms. His legs are like tree trunks though.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/36921/received_1131395210868006.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1675125248)
Quote from: 21incher on January 30, 2023, 07:21:49 PM
........
Tom I go by the Henry Ford quote. 'If you need a machine and don't buy it, then you will ultimately find that you have paid for it and don't have it.'
Yeah, but Henry had plenty of money so I guess it was easy for him to say that. By the time people were writing down what he said, he was not choosing between buying tools or buying food that week.
Quote from: Nebraska on January 30, 2023, 07:53:06 AM
....
I took the picture to show here and grabbed a little information chatted a bit, figured I had done enough espionage and went on. :)
.....
I have a bunch of boxes from the 40's-60's that precision tool used to come in and most of them are really tight seasonally. I am not so sure that design is what folks would want, but I suppose I don't know. I do know it's not one I would choose. What do others think?
Thanks for the espionage on short notice. ;D I wonder how that stuff was perceived by the other attendees? BTW, nice thumb ring. You have softer looking hands than I expected. :D
I am seeing a lot of variety in those cremains boxes. My son just stopped by to plow and he had some photos of a(full)box that has been waiting to be picked up for over a year now at a local Vet. That box looks similar to my small ones however, the top is glued on and they run 4 screws up through the bottom into the sides to seal the cremains inside. You have to remove the screws to open it.
Now the way this operation works here is that there is only one location licensed to do the cremation in the county that I know of and some vets actually send the animals out of the area for cremation. The family selects a container from a catalog and the crematorium performs the service and puts the ashes in the container that was selected. Then it is returned to originating Vet for delivery back to the family.
Apparently there is a lot more to this than I first thought. ;D
Well, first off, Doc, your care package arrived today. Thank you very much! Lots of stuff to work and play with there for sure. I am just waiting to come for the right sized bit to show up. Might not be until Monday now.
In the meantime I found another distraction. I got to thinking about that oven you have Doc. I don't have anything like that, but then I thought "do what you can, with what you have, where you are".
So I do have this little stove top oven used for baking biscuits and such. I have used it in the shop for toasting a roll now and then or heating a sandwich. Anyway, yesterday I took a piece of that thin cherry with the bug holes and stuck it in there, trying not to get it on fire.;D I left it in there overnight. Now regulating temps is really tough with that thing unless you sit there and watch it, but I kept it around 140-180 for several hours and left it in overnight running at around 120-140 or so. It did hit over 200° a time or two, I'm sure.
This morning it was fine, I could not get a moisture reading on it at all but I did notice a bunch of tiny tiny holes open up that were not there before. Most likely PPB? The larva I found in some pieces previously were about 3/8-1/2" long and about 1/8" diameter. Anyway, it seemed to work in thin stock. So today after I got my ears lowered and set up a better experiment.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230131_150533385.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675212478)
That odd piece laying on top is the scrap I used for yesterdays test. I just threw it back in. This is a very small oven, you've all probably seen one.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230131_150523721.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675212600)
SO the test 'load' is 1/4" cherry with 1/4" ERC for stickers. All of this will wind up in the stove after I disect it to see the effects. I could make up a clamping system so I could fit a small load in there better. I figure I can do this for precut parts on small projects. If it works out, I could make a bigger stove top oven with some venting to help with temp control. I am just experimenting and thinking with my hands at this point.
Anything for a laugh, right? :D
Tom,
Now you have triggered some really wild questions like "What happens to wood when you put it on a smoker and heat and smoke it similar to what you did in your little oven with these pieces above?" :P
that is neat. would be great to do biscuits in over the woodstove our troop uses. great work.. carry on!
Thanks Doc, I'll let you (and everyone else) know how it goes. I'm just messing around and thinking. I hope I don't overcook the stack tonight. I did get the first sample over 250 or so and I noticed it is a deeper brown color.
Howard, once again, you ask questions beyond my knowledge. I'm not (hopefully) bringing this wood to smoking level. I am trying to keep is below 200° (best I can do with this rig). Most wood will not combust until you hit around 450°. I am not smoking wood unless something goes wrong. All this wood will wind up becoming BTU's anyway. Just trying to learn something.
Tom,
I was not incinerating ( :D) you were making smoker wood out of your stock. I assume you are just KD and sterilizing it and I got to wondering if a combination of heat and smoke would have any affect on the color and possibly help preserve the wood.
That's a really nice little oven. Great experiment. I wonder if a microwave would do the same thing in seconds. Seems like the moisture in the wood and bugs would heat up quickly and boil the bugs in seconds doing little damage to the wood for small pieces.
Fascinating idea 21! I should ponder on that for a bit. I wonder if there is any data out there on sterilizing wood with microwaves?
I can personally attest that using a microwave oven to soften a bar of Ivory soap you plan to cut into cubes to use on catfish lines is not a good idea. ::) I assume it will be less traumatic for small pieces of wood.
I think I still have an old microwave in the barn, I'll look for it. I have some walnut that has a lot of sap wood with bug holes to try.
I've dried lots of green wood turned bowls in the microwave. Maple and cherry are the best behaving. I usually weigh the bowl and use the auto defrost cycle. I've dried thick chair stretchers and other items. Too long and it will burn starting on the inside. I've oven dried kiln samples in the microwave. 20 minutes at 30 percent power but expect defects.
Also dried using the oven and sand pot. Over 180 degrees expect a color change. Some folks will go up to 350 degrees but this is part of the finishing and called roasted wood. Nice pleasing colors but it only takes a few minutes and better be watching closely.
Interesting Larry. I have been watching some you tubes since this came up. Yeah it will burn from the inside out, like a piece of meat. I am mostly interested in killing the bugs beyond doubt. I see there are commercial unit s that do this as a feed through design. Wondering now, how long would it have to cook to kill the bugs. I am thinking not very long. The wood I am working with is already at 8-12% MC so it doesn't have a long way to go.
As I sit here in the house and see the shop temp is back up to 62° I know the stove took off out there and likely the wood is getting too hot already. >:( No risk of fire beyond the wood burning on top of the woodstove and leaving a mess. I have a steel stove on a concrete floor surrounded by concrete wall. Not a lot to worry about..... I hope. ;D
@GeneWengert-WoodDoc (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=20498) has talked about the microwave for dry weight calculations. He says if it starts to smoke, you are just past done. :D every microwave is different, and I assume each species and starting MC will make a difference. It is faster but prob. best to remain attentive. the oven at 200 is relatively safe and can be check every few hours till the end. the end is when there is no further drop in weight. We had a toaster oven that my wife no longer used, so I used it occasionally for this. one day it was gone. she gave it away cause "WE no longer were using it!". :snowball: :)
Quote from: doc henderson on February 01, 2023, 07:13:16 AM...... she gave it away cause "WE no longer were using it!". :snowball: :)
Well THAT was helpful!
well if you can find a few bugs in some wood, you can put them on the side and run till they explode or something. :o :o :o
It's hard to tell if it works because nothing crawls out into the microwave like when you use heat that gives them time to evacuate. One thing I found is wood behaves like electronic components. When it gets too hot smoke escapes making it useless. I think it probably would do a fast kill with a lower power microwave but with no way to tell if you got any or all of them it's probably better to just use heat and look for a pile of bugs. I have a old electric stove for powder coat curing in the oven and probably just adding a better temp controller will be best for my needs. One other thing I have been thinking about is my big 12 tray caballas dehydrator. It tops out at about 155 degrees and has super airflow.
I went and spoke to the foreman at the HVAC place we have used for 20 + years. I gave them the dimensions for a hot box, sterilizing container. 2 x 4 x 10 to power with the dryer heat element, and some fans. it will be on a pallet and insulated with an outdoor covering so it can be used outside of my shop. more room and less fire risk in the shop. I should hear the price in the am. Just galvanized sheet metal to seal it up and make the ducting for the heat and fans. covered in insulation and supported by a wood frame. It may be cheaper cause we are long time good customers, or more because I work at the hospital with initials in front of or behind my name. we will see. :snowball: :)
Well Doc, that will be a great thing to have for sure! Kick things up a notch, it will. Hope it comes in cheaper than you think.
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21, yeah that's kind of why I did the experiment. I will be splitting up all the pieces and checking the insides. My first sample was clean and I haven't had a chance to go through the next stack yet. I don't think a bug will survive long even on low power MW and I don't think there is a need to let the smoke out of the wood. I did cook my mini stack a bit much and discolored it, which goes all the way through and won't sand out. But the cup that was in the wood did go away under clamping and drying. I also learned I cannot do this without watching it, lest the temp get too high. I might buy a used MW and play with it. I will just have to search out some infected samples. ;D
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Well I ran out of patience today and went and bought a 2" bit at Lowes when I found out they actually had them in stock. I bored a pocket in the bottoms of all the boxes and glued one in each.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230201_162044862.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675298763)
I think it's looks pretty good. I have to do another coat of tung oil finish on all of them anyway. A few I had to touch sand because they stood a little bit proud and once they are in, they won't come out. The are not a loose fit.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230201_162100506.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675298763)
I'm happy with those. Thanks again Doc!
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I had a repeat log client come up and pick up about 15 logs for his order of 200 or so, it was all he could fit in his car. He also dropped off his Loginator for an upgrade/repair. He broke the top when he dropped a 200# log on it. ;D I'll replace that (under warranty) with an 8/4 top.
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I started two more boxes (with the Bill joint) to try a production method out and also make two more of the larger ones. I got all the sides cut and the squaring blocks made up, but got no further because I ran of of time. I bounced between too many things today and had some other distractions. Hopefully tomorrow is a head-down day and I get a lot done. Friday I have to get ready for the weekend Hoot which will take my time from midday friday until Sunday night. SO no work will get done. Not looking forward to this as much as I used to. I have too much to do and not enough time and they are making my job tougher over there. I am thinking it's time to turn over the reigns to someone else. I think this is my 20th Hoot.
So just another boring day, but a few things got done or at least they moved along.
they look great. who says you cannot collaborate from a thousand or so miles away. glad you are happy. let me know when you run low, as I saved the print, and can easily make another batch in very little time.
I just came back in from another short shop session trying to get a little more done and put a coat of tung oil on those bottoms and they look really good. Very pleased. Yes, collaboration even over extended distances can be a wonderful thig when it comes together. :D
I worked a project that was forced on me in a previous life wherein I had to bring together the work of a machine builder in Japan, and installation engineer in Houston, a site Engineer in Chicago, and design an installation template which included fittings from France, Germany, Japan, and the USA and make it all fit seamlessly into a location in Fishkill, NY. At best it was a nightmare getting samples and matching up all the different threads, metric pip[e couplings, double contained acid pipe fittings, Gas, sewage, drainage, air, etc. But in my case, I was given the project, with a 4 week deadline (impossible) and no fittings to work with. I had to have them shipped in from all over the globe. Just another project with an impossible deadline, which are the ones that had my name on them. What I won't forget was the date I was handed the project. September 10th, 2001.
A coworker friend of mine just had her dog pass away a couple days ago. I tried to sell her one of your boxes but she'd already bought something...
Well, a full day today and it's not over yet. It occurred to me today that I spend close to 2 hours a day tending the two stoves and hauling wood in. Nothing special about that, it just occurred to me. :D That's a lot of time.
I spent the day in the shop after getting the temp back up (it was chilly last night, around 15°). Still loving the new stove and almost have it figured out. I made two more boxes up (mostly) and glued the sides, which is the slow part. On these I was working out the production steps to make it more repeatable and that part of it went well and I am pleased with it. I am still not much of a wood worker so I am trying to improve my technique on the little stuff like glue squeeze, getting square clean corners on the first try, etc. Progress is slow, but it is progress.
I put another coat of tung oil on the finished boxes which was very tedious indeed and took about an hour and a half. I don't enjoy repetitive work much at all. As I was looking them over, once again, I am still trying to decide which joint I like the best. I have no idea yet.
I'm done with work until Monday now. Tomorrow I head over the The Hoot for the weekend running the first aid crew. I have to get myself packed tonight and get myself in presentable condition (shave, trim the beard, etc.) so I don't look like some old coot that just crawled out of the woods. A lot of my patients over the weekend are small children with boo-boo's and apparently I scare them if I am not trimmed up. (Well, even if I am trimmed up, the city kids are sensitive I guess. :D So are their parents.)
I got an email from one of my log clients and they asked if they could up their order from 125 to 190 logs. ;D Sure, not problem! (Now I gotta find the trees ;D) So I guess I change gears again on Monday and start putting my nose into it. I am outstanding on about 300 logs at this point. If nothing else, it's a great way to increase the cash flow and think of all that fresh cold, clean air I'll be getting. :D Headed for below zero on Saturday which should put the trees in better shape.
So tomorrow I will load the truck with a lot of stuff I won't need, load up the house and shop stoves, haul in all the wood I can for the house so the wife doesn't have to do it and probably load up another cart for her. The shop stove will burn out it's load by evening and then it will go out. There is a small chance I MAY come home Saturday morning to re-fire the shop stove just because of the severe temp drop, but not likely because it's a hassle to leave and drive back and forth. Maybe I'm getting too old for this stuff. Staying up till 3am for a final safety sweep, then getting up at 7am to check things out wears a body out.
Well I'm trying to get back into the groove and get the shop back to a decent saturated temperature. I was gone for the weekend as mentioned above and it got down to more than 10 below on Saturday overnight with very high winds gusting up to near 50MPH. By 8am Saturday the shop was down to about 28° which is very unusual even if I am not heating it, but the wind sucked the life out of it. That was concerning, so as soon as I could get reliable coverage on 'my job' I ran home, fired up the stove and packed it, then went back. Not sure how much good it did, but Saturday the temp did warm during the day and the wind faded out, so maybe it helped a bit. I booked out as quick as I could Sunday after cleanup and got home and fired the stove up again, this time it was about 38 outside and 37 in the shop. The air temp came up pretty quick, but the working shop temp and comfort level was a lot lower than that. I got it up to barely 60° in 4 or 5 hours because the walls and floor was so cold and just sucking the heat out of the air. Packed a good load in last night and it was 55 when I went to reload this morning. I got it up to 62 or a bit more today while working but it still 'felt' cool. It is recovering and should be more normal tomorrow. (It's 74 out there now, I gotta fix that.)
I worked on a couple of boxes today... a little bit, but spent most of my time making a display card for selling them and an instruction type brochure to go inside each one that sells. That stuff takes a lot more time than it should. ;D I ran out to Staples and got a shipping box and some other stuff. I have a lot of boxes, but not one the right size. I should have gone to cut logs today, but when it got solid overcast it changed my mood and I went to the paperwork which I had been avoiding. Tomorrow I will try to finish off those other two boxes and start packaging up the ones I am shipping.
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As far as the Hoot, it was uneventful for me, which is great! When your job is running the medical crew, that's exactly how you want it. :) Great music and good people. I met a lot of great new folks, saw a lot of old friends, listened to a lot of music, played a little (in a quiet corner so nobody got hurt ;D) and had a nice relaxing time even though I got maybe 5 hours sleep over the 2 nights.
Doc, you will get a kick out of this. I ran into a nice young fella serving on the paid staff at the center on a 1 year contract as an environmental educator on a career track. We started chatting and somehow stumbled on Philmont. Turns out he worked on staff at the Garcia Cow program camp one year. He also worked at Sea base for a season as well as the New Hampshire Hut system. He's an Eagle Scout. We had a great time talking about kids, teaching, working on camp staffs, and lots of other stuff. We talked through the whole weekend off and on. He is leaving in May and going to CO to work at another outdoor education facility while he works on his master's degree. He is hoping to come back to Ashokan after that because he enjoys it so. Interesting story about how he wound up at Ashokan in the first place, and it started at Philmont... with a song. I had a Philmont story for him about the very same song. It was a little spooky, but the stories are too long to include here, at least not tonight.
As usual, I didn't take hardly any photos because I am working 'in the moment'. But I did document our Ice Carver's work. He did an amazing job as usual in 10° weather. He made this in about 4-5 hours working non stop from 3 ice cakes.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230205_113836285_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675737204)
For scale, the round that the piece is sitting on is about 20" diameter and the top of the piece is about 6.5' tall.
I also watched him showing a little boy how his tools worked and he grabbed a small block and made this rose in about 45 seconds.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230204_164757759.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675737382)
It's cut into the back of the block and penetrates about 3" deep. You can't see the detail in the photo, but it's pretty amazing.
One of my crew members sent me a photo she took that I was unaware of. I am watching the ice carver through the window and talking with another crew member about what each of us thought the carver was doing.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/Marc_and_me.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1675737206)
@newoodguy78 (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=30841) might recognize the hat I have on. It's from the world famous Blossoming Acres Farm. It's my new favorite cold weather hat because it also makes a perfect hard hat liner. (Thanks again man!) The other fella in the photo, as I said was on my crew, but he is also my Chiropractor, Dr. Marc. Great guy and a huge help this weekend, as always.
Oh and Doc, the gal who did my logo design does all the artwork for this event (that's where I met her years ago) and I gave her one of your coins. She thought that was "THE COOLEST THING EVER!" I think this was my 20th Hoot and I also think it's time to start training up a replacement. I thought I had one ready to go, but I guess she has moved on to other things.
Ah well, tomorrow is another day, right?
Philmont is quite the experience and brings lots of folks together. glad she liked the coin, and feels her art is helping you and representing your co. made me smile.
Well look at that. Glad you're putting the hat to good use and enjoy it. You wear it well. The world famous part ehh I don't know, infamous around here oh yeah :D :D
All kidding aside I really like that hat. It's shorter than anything I have so does not need to be folded up when worn, except when you come inside ;D, which was how I had it in the photo I think. But under a hardhat it works just super and I don't need the hardhat liner installed (which was never comfortable anyway). So yeah I meant what I said, it's my favorite winter hat now. My wife hasn't tried hers yet and she may not get a chance. :D
Well the last couple of days I don't seem to be burning things up. The little stuff consumes a lot of time it would seem. Yesterday I packed up my first approval shipment of those cremains boxes and got them off to UPS. Boy those folks are mighty proud of their service! 40 bucks for an 8 pound box and a sassy kid at the counter I wanted to smack in the mouth. ;D I usually charge for folks that give me sass. But they are on their way.
It's been warm, but moist, but really warm the last 3 days. I should have been working outside yesterday, but that dampness, well. I spent the afternoon rebuilding that loginator my client broke. He won't break this one. ;D two layers of 6/4 boards, glued and screwed. It's a bit heavier, but he should be happy with it. So that's done, did some cleanup and re-arranging in the shop.
Today it was really warm in the morning so I texted Bill to see what he was up to. He was just finishing a big special tree removal and was headed back to the shop, I went down and met them hoping to do some mushroom logs, but these trees he wants out require mechanical backup for the safety of surrounding equipment and facilities. But he got a call that the Prentice loader he had bought at auction 14 months ago finally made it to town. He had to go to the yard up the road and pick it from the TT onto one of his smaller trailers to get it to his yard.. Apparently, this was a social event as he sent one of his guys to get donuts and coffee for a bunch of folks and invited me along. I opted for other chores I needed to do, but did take a load of eggs down and restock the stand on my way to town. I saw them all in the yard looking over the loader and planning the pick and drinking coffee, I waved as I went on by. and got milk, beer, and gas, I already had my eggs. ;D
Came home, had lunch, piddled in the shop and tended the stoves. Eventually I saw Bill drive by with the loader on his trailer, so I finished up my little stuff and headed back down. We messed around with a bunch of stuff, never did get the loader off the trailer, just parked it for now. It will replace the loader on his log trailer, log truck, or forwarder, I don't recall which and it might change anyway. :D So we piddled on other stuff, I took two trees right next to his OWB and needed a push on one, which we did with that new bobcat stand on tracked machine. Pretty neat little gizmo, that one. While I was measuring and cutting he was throwing the logs in the grapple and loaded them in my truck while I was throwing the brush in the OWB. Then I took another RO that has been bothering all of us, because it's in a bad spot (Bill's wife put her first dent in her new truck with it and has scorned that tree ever since :D.) It finally got the top broke in a storm a month ago, so I knocked that down. Only got 3 logs out of it, all small ones. We mounted some tires after that, and did a few other things and it was quitting time, so I headed home. I checked the shop stove and once again, it made me smile.
I documented on another thread how I have figured out the issue with my stove and have been trying an adjustment which is working out extremely well. Well it's working great to hold a consistent overnight burn with ease, but now I also notice that during the day I no longer have to keep adjusting the air inlet. One setting pretty much regulates the temp all day now. Noramlly I would have expected just a few coals when I got back late this afternoon, but no, I had a nice bed and the shop was at 65°. Since it's working so good, I decided to push my luck tonight and I set the overnight load at 8pm, rather that 9-10:30 pm when I usually do it. It's a decent load of wood, but not as stuffed as I usually do it. The temp was 67 when I filled it and put the setting down. It's 65 now and I am hoping it will be 55-59 or better by morning. Let's see how we do. I am easily amused.
Tomorrow I am hoping we can it into a good pile of mushroom logs if Bill can cut me some time to run the equipment. Maybe I will get some play time on that stand up machine, it's kind of cool with it's cute little grapple. :) I just need some 'seat time' to get used to it rocking back on those tracks every once in a while. Being in a seat is one thing, standing up is somewhat different. :D
Tom, my buddy uses a Toro Dingo for tree work. That is also a walk behind and that machine gets USED! Grapple, bucket, forks, and he has a fancy broom that he puts on to clean up at the end of jobs. Manual broom, not power, works on pavement and lawns. More time on it, and you'll be walking it home to help with all sorts of chores
Well he bought that thing in the early summer and since then, this is the first time I have seen it back in the yard. It just goes from job to job. His guys love it because it is gentle on yards and greatly reduces the amount of prep and cleanup on small jobs. I had moved it around a little when the salesman first brought it in for a demo (of course, it never left) but yesterday was the first time I got on it again. Very simple, nimble, and quick. What's not to like? The grapple will lift most logs and more than one might think although it is a bit smaller than the one on the toolcat, so lifting bundles of mushroom logs takes a bit more trips. The added visibility makes it easier to do more delicate things with it also. So many toys! Late in the season, the salesman brought by a used Bobcat SXS and that is still there too. ;D The guys just put on the hard cab doors, windshield and heaters this week. That is filling a nice niche between the JD Gator which needs tires and the toolcat for running around.
Tom,
Congrats on the sale of your boxes. I am glad you did not smack the kid but be assured if you had we'd still write to you in prison. Besides, don't most prisons have a pretty complete workshop? ;) You may finally catch up on your projects. :D Did you sell to a vet or direct to a pet owner?
Keep us informed how this works out.
Well I didn't sell anything yet. I SHIPPED them (to a full service Vet practice). I will wait and see what the reception is on the other end. If they are not happy, I am not happy. I think I'd prefer they just kept a few to have on hand and pay me when they sell and I can replace them. But we will work all that out after we make sure they are satisfied, that comes first.
I have mixed feelings about these because I really don't want to see anybody need one and not sure how I feel about making money off of someone's loss and grief, but on the other hand it is a necessary service that may help bring someone peace. So there is that.
Also, it's your fault, so at least I have somebody to blame. :D ;D
Tom,
I have been married for coming up on 46 years so get in line as I am used to be being blamed. :D
You are not taking advantage of someone's grief. You are helping them through a very trying time so consider it an act of kindness. I promise you they will thank you for your help.
So you just shipped them to the vet so they can look at them. Maybe leave them a few months on consignment if the Vet is uncertain as to whether they will sell and if they sell the vet may want to buy replacements or you can choose to provide more on consignment if both of you agree to the arrangement. Good luck.
I am sure, whatever we come up with will be equitable. "The Vet' knows what he is looking at and what he wants so I will let him decide. And if it doesn't work out we can Both blame it on you, because you gave "The Vet" the idea in the first place. :D I don't think you have been following along in your reading here too carefully. :D But I'll leave it at that for now.
Well, my biggest concern would be not to pith off the "vet". :D He might pass along your home address as a shelter for everyone's homeless and unwanted cats. ;)
Well Howard, now I think you just gave the Vet another idea. I hope he doesn't follow up on that one. ;D Gee golly, you are just FULL of ideas, aren't you? :D
By the way, we have been married 46 years and I know that having someone to blame is not really important but it can be handy.
:)
Well, first the overnight stove load went great. It was 61° in the shop when I woke and it was still the same when I went out there at 9am, amazing stuff that. It's 62 out there now I haven't worked out there all day, just put in some junk wood (not much compared to prior to the change) and it held all day. I went down to Bill's around 10, he wasn't there, off doing a road survey up a mountain in the next town. Walked the woods a bit with his dogs, then came home, had lunch, checked the stove (nothing to do there :)) and made contact, so I headed back down, we BS'ed for a bit and got to it. He had some bigger trees that needed to come down for other reasons (shading his solar array) so I got to drop a few 22" DBH RO's which was fun, they were about 70' tall or so. We got some decent saw logs out of them as well as my logs. We also knocked down an 80' EWP for the same reason. We cleared a lot of dead junk in the process. Bill doesn't like that I only left a 1" hinge, thinned in the center on a big red Oak he had to push over (lean), thought it was to thin and before I cut it he half joked "save the little EWP there" which was 3 inch diameter. I dropped one fork on each side of that stem with my 'puny' hinge. Of course, the top of that tree took out 3 others on the way down. ;D
We cut a new 'road" (path) into this section for the SXS to pull out my logs and that was fun. Opened it up a bit too clearing and cutting out the dead rotten stuff. All in all, property improvement. I know little Inga likes to play in that area so now it's just easier for her to run around in safely without all those dead saplings and hemlock branches sticking out everywhere.
I didn't count anything, but we loaded about 20 something in the truck to fill it and probably have another 15 or more I will pick up tomorrow. I came home soaked through from the waist up with sweat, so a pretty good day in my book. But I am a little tired. The skid steer and SXS as well as a second man sure did make that go a lot easier. ;D :D I couldn't do those trees wiothout a pusher, because if it went wrong I would be doing a LOT of damage. (Crushed equipment trailers are really embarrassing, especially when they are full.)
Tomorrow I will do the rest of the pickup and maybe can get Bill to help me actually put flags on the other trees I can take myself. He always points and say "that one, and that one, and yeah, get that one too." Five minutes later I don't know which trees he was pointing at. I need flags, then we BOTH know.
I'm tired and it's time to feed the shop stove, then the house stove, then bed. Tomorrow is another day.
Nebraska, you are, um, well, I don't know a word for it. But that's what you are. :D You are just gonna let it ride? OK, I can go with that and we'll see how it plays out.
I'm mostly tired Calving/lambing/ kidding season is up on me. Was lucky...(blessed) last night on call all four worked out pretty well.
Quote from: Nebraska on February 11, 2023, 09:51:24 PM
I'm mostly tired Calving/lambing/ kidding season is up on me. Was lucky...(blessed) last night on call all four worked out pretty well.
I was at the Biltmore a couple weeks ago and they had a pair of very pregant goats. I asked if anyone was on call or if there were live feed cameras so someone could give assistance when needed. The attendant told me they just pretty much take care of themselves. I was a bit surprised by this as the budget for pretty much any and everything around there seems substantial.
'Mostly tired' is how I feel tonight, but not as much as I expected although my legs might be a tad wobbly from climbing over rocks and logs all afternoon. I can imagine how this 'season' goes for you and it just take it as it comes, shift to shift and hope for the best, then get some sleep and do it again. Am I close?
BBY, I don't see your location, so I have no idea which 'Biltmore' you are talking about. Is it a semi-tourist place? Sounds like they are more concerned with what the patrons see than what is going on. The livestock is just window dressing?
Ah well, another day another dull chain. :D As mentioned before, working on mushroom logs trying to catch up to the existing orders. Also as mentioned, we got a bunch Saturday. I went back yesterday and Bill's Pop was there while Bill worked on his truck to fix a broken headlight. I cut up some more and threw them up on the 'landing' and had to carry them about 40' to the truck, which is when I really feel those 10" logs. I think I got about 40 logs over the two days. Bill said he was going to 'work on the house' so I cleared out so as not to distract him, came home and did other stuff, but I mentioned that Pat and I were going out to diner at a local watering hole (The Hickory Pit).
On the way out to dinner I got a call from my regular client that does mushroom workshops, he is working out his schedule for the year and already has a few on the calendar. Wanted to make sure I could supply his logs. More work. ;D SO we had dinner and just as we were paying up, Bill walked in, so we stayed and had another round with him and watched some kind of big football game going on. Bill mentioned that after I left his place, he decided to drop another 7 big stems or so. About half were EWP, no use to me, but some nice straight saw logs. He bucked and pulled all the saw logs up on the landing and left the hardwood (RO) tops for me to cut through for my logs.
So this morning I went back and grabbed his SXS and found the path in (with inches of clearance around truck bodies and stacks of septic tanks :D). I was marking and cutting for a while and 'felt' something behind me.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230213_100535338_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1676336588)
Apparently the dogs have pretty much given up barking at me when I come in. They will still bark like mad to announce that I am walking up to the house, but I guess I am just another part of the furniture in the yard now. ;D This one is Hercules and he is just a puppy, still at the dumb/clumsy stage. I think they got him last spring and he is sweet, dumb, and very loveable and affectionate. He drives the other dog, Sadie, on old gal, some kind of sheepdog and very smart, crazy with his antics and playful behavior. He is twice her size already, but she sets him straight when it's needed. For a while we didn't know if Herc would last on this place because he was fascinated with the chickens and killed several, but we seem to have him broke of that, thankfully, because he's a sweet dog in all other respects and I like him.
Anyway, Herc came by to keep me company and try to help. He was up my butt for a bit, but when I started the saw back up he moved about 30' away and just hung out, (he's learning) when I started picking and moving logs, he was trying to help. So I worked with him on getting sticks and he would get them, but take them somewhere else and put them in a pile. Never got to the log stage. :D He's a good boy and nice company anyway.
Bill's guys came by to grab a truck, trailer, and skid steer. They visited and few minutes and went off to the job. Then Bill came by for some other gear, dump truck and chipper, they were all headed to the same tree job. He visited for a bit, then got back to work too and headed out. I got my second load in the truck and headed out too, it was full.
As careful as I am, I still find dirt in the logs and when I hit it, the chain goes out quick. So after my first load, I just grabbed another saw and finished up the last dozen logs with that. Not worth the time to sharpen there. I haven't run the 450 in a few weeks anyway, so it needed to run. Got home, returned several calls, had lunch, unloaded the truck, sharpened the 562 and did a beer run (it's important to lubricate the machine). I should have shuttled firewood into the shop and house, but I just ran out of time before diner.
Thus ends another day in paradise.
I was supposed to have a client coming for a pickup at 2pm and had other phone calls to return. The client canceled and we made a better plan for Thurs. or Friday. I can finish his order by then.
Tomorrow I will whack another tree, collect those logs and then go from there. That will be 4 days straight working on logs and my old back is starting to get tweaky again. Cutting and bucking is easy light work, carrying to the truck, then unloading and carrying to the pile is what I think wears me a bit. But, I am hanging in there and not popping advil yet more than normal. Tomorrow is another day....
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Guess what came from little Brown Santa Claus.. :)
Well hey, look at that! (Maybe Howard will put it all together now?).
I hope they work out for you and fill a void.
How do I get a shirt!?
Nice display Nebraska.
Here Kitty, Kitty. Do you and all your homeless friends want to go to New York? :D
Howard, once again, you lost me. :D Have you figured out where these boxes went?
Austin, gee I dunno. I don't have much of a shirt budget, actually right now I don't have much of a budget at all. :D :D These shirts aren't as cheap as they used to be. I needed that shirt for packing to keep the box tight. Apparently it was not enough, but that's another story. If I sell the mill (more in a bot), then maybe I will order some more, but really I just got them for the business to wear when I was out in public and needed something clean to wear. ;D
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Well yesterday I took two nice trees but only got 20 (bigger) logs it they wore me out because those dang things are so heavy. They filled the truck bed. I'll be glad when this client picks up his load tomorrow and I can go back to 4-6" logs. I messed around in the shop the rest of the day after unloading, I was pooped.
Bill called in the morning yesterday and asked if I would consider selling the mill finally. He has been gently harping on me for almost a year now. He sees no point in me keeping that mill since I have little support equipment, it beats the heck out of me, and he has two mills I can run anytime and do any of my work I choose. He also thinks the cash would allow me to get some equipment upgrades in the shop or whatever I need to move forward, wherever that is. Anyway, it seems he found a guy that might be interested. SO I thought about it a bunch and today I went out to look the mill over and get it running. It hasn't been fired up in more than a year and a half, since I started running his mill. It took a little bit, but it fired right up. I had to oil and grease some stuff and free things up, but in about a half hour it was humming and I left the old blade on it, rolled up a 5' long 26" ash log, took a opening slab off, then a 3" slab. All good to go. It could use a little more of a wipe down, but it's in good shape. I sent a text off to the potential buyer. If he changes his mind, I think I will start whacking up some of this stuff I have laying around. The old gal isn't looking too bad.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230215_134509836_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1676501565)
It did feel good to make a little sawdust of my own. Selling the mill would give me some working capitol, which would help, and frankly I have not been using it. If it does sell, I will have to come up with a plan to get my logs down to Bills and get them milled up and upgrade my air drying racks with hard rooves (roofs?). We'll just see how it goes. I am pretty sure I can sell it for more than I paid for it. Of course it's in better shape than when I bought it.
We will see what tomorrow brings.
funny, but I was just thinking that you really no longer need a mill at your place assuming you and Bill cont. your symbiotic relationship. any way, put me down for a shirt as well!!! 8) 8) 8) :) :) :) You would be one of the few that can sell in the bubble and not need to buy in the bubble. In a few years and the bubble bursts, you can buy a bigger better newer mill for less than new cost from someone who thought they needed it but never really got the hang of it.
Tom,
As I mentioned in the past if the insults continue you should not be surprised if your name and address get posted prominently in key locations suggesting you are looking for any and all stray cats and dogs to adopt. Just feel free to drop them off day or night. ;)
Unless you think you and Bill are likely to have a knock down, drag out break up where you would no longer have access to his mill then selling your mill now may be a real good idea to realign some cash into areas where it might be more useful. I would look at the possibility of what happens if you lose access to Bill's mill and consider what that that would do to your operation. Would it shut you down or just be an inconvenience?
Good luck.
Howard, sorry but I missed the insults. None were intended for sure, after all who's your buddy? We don't need no more stray cats, although the coyotes need to eat too. :D I just didn't think you had figured out what was going on here, but I guess you are up to speed now.
Yeas, as far as the relationship with Bill goes, I expect it will continue until I become senile, forget who my friends are and lash out at everyone. I often think that Bill is more concerned with my welfare than I am. I just hate these 'fork in the road' choices. But honestly I think selling it is the right and best thing to do. But we don't even know if this guy wants it yet.
Doc, sorry, you've been on my list for a long time, I just never seem to get around to it. I guess I have to order some more shirts. Last time I ordered shirts (first 5 months of the COVID thing) it took 4 months to get them and it cost me a lot more than I thought or expected.
I don't want one for free, Tom, tell me what you want for one. I'm happy to pay a few bucks (or 30whatever) to support a buddy!
Also, did we talk about selling that mill to me? I feel like we did but my memory is poor. Let me know if your potential buyer backs out and if you are serious give me a price to make me consider a bit more. It's another thing that I don't really need, and the wife may beat me until I make some neat stuff for her (she's wanted a tv stand for a while), but I'd be interested. Especially buying used from someone I know that takes care of their stuff...
I had wondered about your mill too. Since you have access to a resource like that. I haven't touched my mill for six weeks, too much winter right now...
I didn't tell anyone at the office about the little project.
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Dr A, was pretty fired up. I kind of caught her enthusiasm when I quick took the picture as I let them un pack the box. I had snagged the " Official Distributor " T shirt already. It's going to go up to the cabin where I have a handful of special t-shirts, unless I travel to a forum event Pig Roast/pot luck etc.
I know the boxes will sell.
You don't want to mill today 😂😂
Nope
Well the weather doesn't look very appealing in NE today, for sure. Pat, I had shipped that box to you, so technically and legally, everything in the box is yours to use as you see fit. I never stopped to think somebody else would be opening it up. You folks will figure it out.
Austin, I don't know if I would feel right selling a shirt to a friend. I am not exactly Nike or Coke and people wouldn't want to buy 'yet another t-shirt' just to wear my logo around. Although I am kind of proud of that logo which I had a pro artist do the work based on my layout and that tooth pattern on the saw was specifically selected and detailed. I insisted on her initials being in there but they don't always make it through the reproduction stage. Anyway, selling them never occurred to me, I just felt nobody would be interested. It was just advertising.
As for the mill, I really had no thought of selling it up until recently, in spite of Bill's prodding for a long time. I'll be honest, I think you can do much better and much closer to home. As I am selling it to generate some capitol I would like to drag out the best price I can and I wouldn't feel right doing that to a friend. The trip to pick it up would cost you around a grand by itself, I think. From your side of the coin I can see little reason it would make good sense for you.
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In other news, the shop temp was 67° when I got up this morning. Of course it hit 62° OUTSIDE at 3am, so there is that, but I will take it. Really hard to draw a bead on this stove with the temps going completely nuts outside.
I have to go prep for a client pickup this morning. More news as it develops.
Tom, I did not mean to suggest I needed a shirt. they are cool and I will wear it with pride, if and when it is the right time for you to have more made. It is a neat logo. talk about global warming, I think your new stove is not only warming the shop, but the micro climate outside as well. one heck of a stove! :)
On your next shirt run just let me know the cost, that way you aren't selling me one, and you aren't out any money. I wouldn't even think of it as advertising as much as remind me of the coupla days I spent in NY with a stranger-friend.
Quote from: aigheadish on February 16, 2023, 03:36:15 PM....... as much as remind me of the coupla days I spent in NY with a stranger-friend.
Well when it comes to friends, I doubt you will find any that are stranger than me. ;D
SO OK, good point, we'll figure something out when I order some more.
On the mill front, the fella referred to me kind of decided he wasn't quite there yet, so he didn't want to waste my time with a visit. It will be another big step if I list it someplace. I'll have to ponder it some more.
Doc, that stove is not quite the miracle you would make it out to be BUT it sure has improved things for me. It's nice when I make a big buck (for me) decision and it works out. I am glad I stuck to my plan and got a new stove that I could look at and kick the tires on before I bought it. I was very close to just buying a used but larger stove and that would have been a mistake. If we had 'normal temps' of around 18 last night, the shop would have probably been about 52-55 this morning, which is fine, but the main thing is getting 12 hour burns out of it. That is something I could never hope to get with my prior stove.
A client came today and needed 65 logs to finish his order but wound up taking 85. So I just have to cut more for the next order to make it up. I have about 150 logs to go. Rain coming tomorrow from the SW, so I don't think I'll be cutting. I do have some errands and will probably bang around in the shop figuring out what's next. I should really get on that bar. I should be getting the deposit money to cover the material costs shortly and can order the legs from RiteLeg. These will be somewhat custom legs with modifications. But I gotta get the logs out first.
I've been tired today and I think cutting and loading for 5 days straight took a bit out of me. Tomorrow's rain should give me a bit more rest. But that's another day..
Truly I am bushed tonight, but I earned it. ;D Bill was available for a little time today so I went down and we did some two-man trees that have been long marked to come down. This was the big one and pretty much was the job for the day.
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It the center tree with the perfect "Y" fork. The weight and the lean are toward the camera in this shot. You will note that falling it toward the camera would involve lots of things we would not like hit, like that hot tub, even though it is not in use. Also the shop is right behind the camera. That spot you see with a few logs left and sawdust is what we are calling the landing for today.
SO as we approach the tree, we can see there are other hazards, oh and the stump is on ground 5' lower than the landing.
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A little closer and maybe you can detect the drop-off. Also, just out of frame to the left is a full 40' trailer with equipment we would prefer not to crush. We also did not want to hit the white truck carcass either, there lots of good parts there yet. ;D
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The direction of fall had to be away into the woods. If you can see the cleaned off stump from a few days ago, just about in the center of the above photo, that it what we want to lay the tree on. So it was agreed, we needed to use a power wedge. And yonder it comes, clack clack clackin' up the road. ;D
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So from up on the landing level Bill laid the bucket up high and I cut down low, but there was both the lean and the center of gravity on the wrong side of the tree which was about 70' tall. Thickish hinge and when I completed that back cut and it popped it still took a lot to get it over center and it seemed like a long time going over. BUT, over it went, right on target, which we didn't doubt anyway.
We have come up with a technique which allows us to use conventional machines to harvest mushroom logs with very little damage. SO on this tree, for instance, we dropped it and right where it lay I trimmed all the brush off of it until we cut it back to 3" diameter. smaller than 3" goes on the ground, larger then 3" stays on the stem.
This is the tree prepped just before the first pull.
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If you follow the stem back, you can see the excavator is already chokered to the log. I am just looking around for the operator. ;D
Bill then grabs the butt and lifts it up onto the landing and drags it backward as far as he can until he runs out of room or the branches get hung up. We then buck off the best saw logs and kick them to the side, then grab it with another choker at a crotch, lift and pull up more onto the landing and at this point we are getting into my size wood. If we have to, we cut it up more to fit it up on the landing with all the branches now spreading out getting smaller. I mark and cut my logs as Bill takes the saw logs to a staging pile to be grabbed by the forwarder on its next trip through. I back the truck up and direct load logs at the landing, then pull it out of the way. In between all these other things I go back down to where I cut all the branches off and dice them up so they lay flat on the ground and rot faster. Leaving the 3" wood on the top acts like skids and that some of the heat of dragging. I only cut logs down to 4" and the rest is firewood. But with the method we loose very little wood due to scabbing and scaring the bark. I put what I think is near 30 logs in the truck which is over full and stacked 18 more or so to pick up tomorrow. I also have one RO still out in the woods we knocked down with this tree which should give me 5-6 logs but I'll take the UTV back there during the week sometime to fetch that out. Too far to carry for me when there is the right machine available. ;D I am getting spoiled.
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Last night the temps went 'normal' again, so the low was 16-18 here and the shop was 57 this morning after a 12+ hour burn, so yeah, I am pretty sure I have it figured out now. :) I only had to throw wood in this morning to get the temp up to 64 in less than 30 minutes. Could not be happier.
I'll unload in the morning, then go get the rest and unload those, but that's for another day.
Thick hinge is a good idea with a machine pushing it, less likely to snap and push right off the stump. Like the excavator (guessing older Komatsu with that zig-zag boom). smiley_thumbsup
You know Bill has soo many pieces of equipment I can't keep them straight. You may be right, but I'll try to check tomorrow. It does have the boom mounted next to the operator rather than up front and that makes it mighty handy.
You have one of the best neighbors you could ever hope for there... :)
Yeah I guess I do. :)
It makes me glad I didn't strangle him when I wanted to ;D. Bill moved in with his dad across the road when he was about 15 and bought his first dump truck when he was 16. After school he would take the truck and do a job somewhere, then after dark he would be working on that truck until about midnight fixing what broke. The next day he would do it all over again. Soon he had a trailer he fixed up, then a skid steer, then a mini-ex, a skidder, and it kept growing. But he would be out banging on equipment until the wee hours while I and others were trying to get to sleep because we left for work by 6:30am. I could have killed that kid. He was a bit wild, ran demo derbies on his dad's two acre place running cars until they blew up late on Saturday nights. I recall a keg party or three where the cops were there for a while sorting things out and trying to find kids hidden in the woods. But he was also like a big brother to my daughter all through school and if she ever needed help or anything, he was there for her and still is.
Then he bought 12 acres down the end of our road about 2 miles. It had an old mobile home on it. He lived in that for 6 years or so as he built his log cabin. 2 years ago he bought an adjacent 12 acres, then last year he bought the 60 across the road. Some time else he picked up a rental property or two and I think his partner owns a trailer park in the next town also.. The early years on those property there was a lot of shooting, loud trucks screaming through the woods in the middle of the night, and oh, the parties and huge bon fires, often topped off with whatever vehicle reached it's end of life on that day. I kind of avoided the place except for his big annual party when the wife and I would go down during the (safe/calm) daylight hours and leave around sunset. ;D After that we would be home watching to see when the FD or SP would be headed on by down to his place. ;D
One day he met 'the gal' and then they had a little girl. Things changed quick. There are still exciting things happening on a regular basis but with more adult supervision and kid friendly and a lot less beer. All his young friends are married now and/or have kids. SO it's pool parties and slow trail rides with the kids, but still huge bonfires. Some habits are hard to break. ;D
At his annual parties now I still see the county Sherriff, some Troopers, a few deputies, a judge or two, lawyers, etc, but they come as guests and sit around drinking beer and eating steaks with the rest of us and having a good time. They sure know where his place is, and have met most of the other local guests 'professionally'. :D A lot of his clients come and many of them are city folk or new transplants that work in fancy jobs. One lady comes every year in heels a nice dress and very fancy hat, and still finds it tough to walk on our ground between the rocks, dirt, mud, and mulch fill but she won't give up those shoes no matter how much she gets razzed. Last year she tried to taunt Bill and razz him like he does her. He threatened to throw her in the pool. She made the mistake of challenging him to try it, so he did. Hat, shoes, and all. ;D :D :D Then he went in the house and got her some 'decent' clothes to wear. She laughed it off as did everyone else. Such is life with Bill and now she knows what the rest of us always knew. Never, ever, call his bluff. :D
Spike will confirm for me because he knows him too, you don't meet many guys like Bill in today's world. He's hard to describe and can be even harder to understand, but he has a heart of gold, no doubt. I guess I really do love the guy.
Old Bill sounds like quite the character. I've run into a few that have similar personalities.
While on occasion they've gotten me into positions I really didn't care to be in, when the chips are down and the wheels are coming off they're there without asking. A trait that's tough to come by and personally I admire.
Bill just has some giddy up, is all.
Peter, that's true but there's more to Bill than just giddy-up. Newoodguy pretty much hit it on the head. There are very few I have met in my entire life like him, but there were perhaps two others. One I may have mentioned in passing here as a chainsaw carver who I've known since he was about 14, then lost touch with for 3 decades and recently reacquainted with in the past 2 years or so. The other is Bargemonkey. The guy barely knows me but jumped in to help me several times and there is very little I can do in return. Generous to a fault. Neither of these guys do I know nearly as well as Bill, of course. I never mentioned but it might be of interest to some, but Bill isn't 40 yet and when you look at the pile of equipment, real estate, and other assets it's hard to believe he never had any help at all. His family had enough money to live. Bill earned every penny of that and the funny thing is, if you ever watch him bill out a client's job it sure seems like he is cutting everyone a big break. A lot of his clients have a hard time tracking him down to pay him. I have even run into some who ask me if I would take their money and give it to Bill because he hasn't had time to stop by and pick up the check or the cash. He did a full septic system for us 20 odd years ago and it took me over a month just to get the final price after the job was done and it was a lot less than we budgeted for, but he had to do a lot more work than we and he expected, drilling out 10' deep in shale to fit the tank in. 2 excavators and a skid steer for a week just for one little household system. So yeah, he's a good guy, for sure.
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SO enough on the skinny short kid down the road, let me catch y'all up. It's been a busy week and I have already forgot what I did in the first part of the week. I know I cut logs Monday and I think Tuesday to and wound up about 60 logs short of finishing the current order. Tuesday evening I gave Bill a lift to town to pick up the family (electric) car getting new batteries (under warranty) from the dealer. During the drive he invited me to come take a look at the storm cleanup job they were working the next day, he thought I might get some logs from it but was concerned about what to tell the landowner if he saw me filling my truck. We worked out a plan. I got there at about 8 am and his guys were already into it well, Bill got there around 9 or so. I cut some logs and helped with other chores as I was working. Bill got on the grapple and pulled me up some trees, the truck filled up pretty quick and I helped with the regular work here and there. Finally the truck was overloaded by about 11:30 and I had only a vague idea how many logs I had. SO I ran it home and unloaded and counted. I had hit my order size, but I headed back, they had a hot lunch waiting for me and it was GOOD! (Deep fried chicken cutlets on a roll with bacon and cheddar cheese. ;D) The landowner showed up and chatted for a bit while we were eating. Turned out I had been the first due Engine driver on the day his house burned into the foundation. I again offered him my condolences, it was a terrible fire and one of the most dangerous I worked because of the 3 story chimney that remained standing with nothing supporting it while we worked the fire. It was 'not the best' masonry work I have ever seen, built some time after the 1860's. He was out of town when it happened, so was interested to hear how it went and find out how we saved his barn with his brand new tractor in it. I was able to tell him what I found when I was the first in, which was a house collapsed completely into the foundation and fully involve and the radiant heat from that was heating the windows on his barn to the point they was just breaking into pieces and falling out and the siding was smoking. SO we worked on that first, cooling it down. We also used his pond for a water source, but it took two guys 15 minutes to chop a big enough hole in the ice. Then our conversation changed to his land and a lake he has way back on his property which he told me was no longer a lake after the last hurricane took out the dam. That sparked a conversation on wetlands and I shared some info about bog studies I knew of and a book I thought he would be interested to read. He asked me for my full name a couple of times, trying to remember it. then he finally asked if I had a card. I think he and I were buddies by the time he left. I'm just sorry I didn't ask if he would mind if I came up the road to take a look at his new house. I'd like to see that. It's nice to have closure, that was a really bad fire. I had never seen radiant heat lite off and entire cord of wood to the point we had to break up the stack and dump 500 gallons of water on it to get it out.
SO I took one more white oak that I couldn't see going to firewood ad spent a few hours just helping the crew with their working, separating blow downs from stumps, bucking up saw logs and limbing out the whole mess, and it is a huge 5 acre mess of blow downs and break offs from a microburst. They had a couple more days work to do after I left. I came home and unloaded those last logs, then drove up into Bill's woods and fetched back my trailer with 30+ logs on it to finish the order and let the client know they were done. I quit for the day at about 6:00. The client got excited and wanted to pick up the logs today, that worked for me because it would beat the snow coming in on Tuesday, they had originally scheduled to come up next Wednesday which would mean (if the forecast is anywhere close) that the pile of logs would be snow covered and frozen.
Thursday was a recovery day and I spent it doing chores, running to town, and working in the shop. Felt like I accomplished nothing all day, but somehow it was a 10 hour day and I never sat down, so I must have done something. Today I got the truck inspected and the client showed up to get their logs. That part killed 2-3 hours, but they left happy after a shop tour, some fresh woodstove coffee and a little BS'ing. I had lunch at 3pm. I made another run to town for family errands and stopped at HF just because it was there and got some 'stuff' just because it was there.
I had intended to go start work on the mill repair today, the part(debarker swing arm)came in yesterday, but when I was done, it was already 4:30 and too late to start something new in the waning light. I am indeed tired again tonight, but it's been a pretty good week all around. I have worked pretty hard but have no aches and pains to show for it other than the dermatitis which is making me nuts. I think the ERC I was working started it and it just keeps getting worse, but I think it may be getting better if I could just minimize my exposure to wood dust and freshly cut wood for several days in a row. But I gotta get it done, so I do what I have to and deal with the rash. The eyelids are the thing that is driving me out of my mind at times. It's like sand in my eyes all the time. Apparently wood smoke contribute to the problem also, which is just great running two woodstoves. ;D :D I am 4 days into the drug course which was about when it started to help last time, so I am hopeful.
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It's getting cold now, today was nasty cold. Temps were in the 30's but with the wind, it felt more like low teens. 70° at my desk now and I am still cold. It's 20 outside and 58 in the shop. Low tonight should be around 10 by dawn. Not gonna get very warm tomorrow but I hope to head down and at least start replacing that swing arm. No bad weather, just bad clothes, right? :D
Tomorrow is another day, I'll figure it out then. I have plenty to do in any direction.
It's nice to have good friends!!
I have one that shows up and the next thing I know he is beside me helping. He does not show up in his $40 jeans and his manly flip flops and stands there and then ask, Can I help?
But if he did show up in the above attire, he would not ask if he could help, he would just help.
He always hunts me done, no matter where I am. He will walk a mile up in the woods for me.
I will confirm that the amount of stuff Bill has is insane for someone not 40 yet. Looks like a fair amount gets used too.
Good work getting your log order done!
Austin, when you were here, I know that a bunch of Bill's stuff was out on various job sites, just from memory, 4 excavators, 2 skid steers, 1 skidder, his log trailer, and probably the bucket truck plus various sundry equipment and dump trailers. Truth is I have no idea how much stuff he has. Some of it never comes home. There is a dozer being rebuilt in one shop (but he has a spare) and a case backhoe in the other one (but he has a spare). I think he got the (5) 40' trailers after your visit, so they are stuffed in strategic places in the woods now too. ;D It's always interesting, I'll say that much.
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So, been busy which is why I haven't posted since Friday. Got the logs picked up then and only had 14 left over. The clients just got tired of loading logs and they filled that dump truck. :D ;D They were very happy though and were here for 3 hours getting a shop tour (10 minutes) and asking questions. The weather wasn't really great through the weekend. We got some snow, just an inch and I didn't really even bother with it. Sunday I took the 14 logs I had and loaded them in the truck and delivered them a mile away to a musician family I am friends with. We did a barter. I am a patron of theirs and just told them to credit my patron account for the cost of the logs. I need to get them a few more too. The logs I gave them last year are doing quite well. I wanted to move those logs before they got buried in snow, so that was a quick option that was a winner for us both. Then I came home and started final snow storm prep. moving and parking trailers to allow for plowing. That's when I did something dumb and tweaked my back big time trying to swing the trailer coupling onto a ball rather than re-position the Mule. STUPID, and I knew it the second I did it. This was a 'good one', and it took me down. The rest of the work went VERY slowly. Monday I mostly rested the back and got in decent loads of firewood to the house and shop ahead of the storm. The snow started after dark and came down as heavy as I have seen in over a year. We only got 7-8 inches, but this I had to deal with. So today I plowed it all up and the back is feeling better since yesterday's rest. The snow finally stopped around 3pm. More coming Friday. Winter sure waited a long time to show up.
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On that dermatitis, I think I've had an epiphany! (And it didn't even hurt. :D) I had been assuming for 2 years now it was from the sawdust and wood. When I was away from the shop for a weekend at the beginning of the month I got good relief but then it seemed being in the shop, not even running saws or sanding, it would come right back full force. Last week when I cut with Bill's crew I was only in the shop for minutes all day, just to feed the stove, then back in the woods for the whole day. But that night and the next day I was just miserable and could not get any relief for my eyes itching and the inflamed irritation, especially on my forehead. It finally dawned on me. Wood smoke. The day I worked with the crew we had at least 3 brush pile burns going all the time we were rotating around. Smoke was everywhere. When I am at Bills Place and the air isn't moving much, the smoke from the OWB lays there and I cough constantly beyond what I think is normal. So I am thinking my problem is more the smoke than anything else. To test it, I have been much more careful loading the stove, minimizing the times I even open it, making sure the bypass in open before I open the stove and avoid getting my face in there and I have noticed a great reduction in my discomfort. Of course I am getting near the end of my medication rotation and that stuff does work, so It's hard to say. I write all this here mostly so I can read it in the future. Looking bad to my last bad attack as noted on the FF gave me some insight that helped me figure this out. Very coincidental that it occurred at almost the exact same time in Feb. 2021, so I started thinking about it and looking further. I think I may have it figured out. Now as to how that helps, I have no idea, but at least I can be more careful with where I stick my face. I probably need an allergist, but they take 6 months to get an appointment with after you spend a couple hundred bucks with your GP for a referral. So, for now, no thanks.
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This post is long enough, so I'll cut it here, but I had another interesting experience (well, to me anyway) that I'll cover in the next one if I can remember it by then. ;D
I love the bartering stuff. With the backhoe I try to help neighbors as I can. I don't expect anything and I rarely request anything for the backhoe services but when someone offers to pay I often suggest a trade of sorts. A nice rock, maybe some scrap metal, anything I can trade for something I want or appreciate is usually much better than money. Fuel is always a good trade too.
I've definitely traded for rocks found while doing other stuff, big logs I can potentially use in the future, etc. Nowy neighbors mostly know what I like and I have some offers of that stuff, just come get it. This is the way it's supposed to work.
Well I am still taking it easy on my back and it's getting better, but I have the regulars chiro tune-up tomorrow, so he will have some work to do.
I have a few minutes to share the other silly story I mentioned.
So a few months back my shop TV died hard and I got a chap (too small) smart TV. The first in our household. It took me a while to get used to it and find my way around but I came to enjoy some of the shows and movies I have not seen in many years. It makes noise and breaks up the silence of working alone.
Parallel to this, my wife and I have been getting increasingly fed up with our cable bill for a couple of years now. Last year I called and spent an entire day on the phone with them reducing our services and costs. They promised a lot of reductions, most of which never came through or expired in a couple of months. Even with less services, we are now just about back to the prior billing rate because of price increases. We actually only watch about 3 channels, and those very lightly anyway. The majority of the content offered, including the major networks, is crap. But we can't go cold turkey. We are getting older.
SO enter the smart tv and I can see an option. The only issue I see is that my wife isn't very good with 'devices' and 'navigating'. (OK, she HATES them.) She has a short fuse with that stuff and does a lot of yelling and not a lot of listening or learning. It's frustrating to try and teach her, she had ZERO patience for that stuff. It's just not her thing. Turn it on, and use the up/down channel buttons is all she wants to know. This was a problem. So I took my time and just in passing over dinner would mention something I had watched that day, after a while she would ask what else there was, and we started to make progress. Sunday night over dinner I finally made the pitch. Our living room TV which she watches is having issues anyway. I had gotten a clearance sale email from Walmart and they had a 32" like hers for about 130 bucks. I explained there would be a learning curve but I would work through it with her as long as she didn't yell at me. :D She bit. The plan is to wean off the cable and then cut them loose over a few months or so. It all depends or her comfort level because I just want her happy, but us to be able to buy food regularly.
Monday morning I ordered the TV and the web page said it was scheduled for delivery that day. Yeah right. :D After lunch I checked to see if they had a real expected delivery and it still said 'Today'. Well dip my butt in molasses and set me on an ant hill, but sure enough it showed up by 4:30. Who'd have thought?! Never happened to me before. We are rural, I don't know how they did it, but it came in a private car. They must have delivered it from the store, 12 miles away I guess.
SO we 'got into it' and set the thing up and she kept an open mind. Yes she got a little frustrated at times, but we worked through it. We found a show series she likes and she has figured out how to pause it, stop it, and come back to where she left off. For the moment she is happy. Slowly we will add other features and free providers for her. She's gonna get this.
But I am still blown away by this 'same day delivery'. That's a first for us. No wonder so many in the next generation expect to get everything right away. Funny thing was, shipping was free. I never asked for same day, took the cheapest route, which is my style. I just can't figger it.
"So a few months back my shop TV died hard and I got a chap (too small) smart TV." Quote Old Greenhorn
Tom is that a European brand? :D :D :D.. Maybe the old one is an "ol' chap"
congrats on the new technology. :)
TV in the shop, I don't even have one in the house.
Just a radio in the shop, Rock out. ;D 8)
I have the net to watch old moves on youtube, Talk to you all and lookup HOT ROD parts. :D
We had one of the satellite TV services. It was ok but the cost kept going up. It finally got stupid expensive.
Back in September I cut them off. You should have heard the deals they offered! When they offered my same package for $29/month it just made me mad! Why did it take leaving to get that deal? I was a customer for 20 plus years! I guess I was one of their suckers.
We went with Netflix, we already had Amazon Prime. Those are the only ones with a fee. We have LG streaming channels, Tubi and Freevee. A digital TV antenna brings in the local channels. Our monthly cost is far less than the satellite TV.
We were paying close to $300 per month for satellite TV and internet service. We cut that by more than two thirds.
I'm saving enough to more than pay for my new grid tied photovoltaic system. So we cut off satellite TV and are paying less than $20 to be tied to the power grid.
tv on 24/7 in my shop. a little light that changes. maybe a burglar will think there is someone out here at night, and there might be. I listen to the background when not running the planer. occ look to see who is saying what. I know the voice of most of the Fox regulars.
Well, first Doc, it was a CHEAP tv, although my wife is watching British TV shows, which she enjoys.
Ted, yeah, I get it, they just keep soaking you. When we called they started offering us deals too, like they were pushing drugs. Made me kind of mad too. I can't wait to make the cutoff call. But we will have to keep them for internet. Glad we didn't fall into their trap for phone service or cell service. What they charge for a basic single line is what we pay we both our phones and mid-range data, which is more than we need. Besides, what they advertise is always a lie anyway.
Pete, you don't even have a printer man! :D We all work with what we are used to. My Friend Bill just left after a quick stop-in. He has no TV in his house, doesn't want his daughter glued to it like so many other kids. But when he stops in, he watches whatever I have on and sometimes gets into it and the next thing I know, I need more beer. ;D You know Pete a smart TV needs nothing but an internet connection and gets a ton of free stuff to watch. Ted mentioned a few. I bounce around between Tubi, Crackle, Pluto and some other one for now. Depending on my mood. Like Doc, I mostly listen but might stop and watch a good fight or something. I enjoy shows I haven't seen since I was a little kid like the Real McCoys, wanted, dead or alive, and wagontrain, Bat Masterson, and such. It's just a diversion.
Funny yesterday I installed the AP on my phone to control the TV and it can use voice commands. So just for giggles I said "watch Hobby Hardwoods on you tube" and the next thing I know, there is @YellowHammer (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=11488) talking about using diesel for blade lube. Pretty neat, but I am easily amused.
Cheerio!
The only thing I watch is TV news over the air. Have a big antenna in the house attic and another one at the shop. My relatives have herds of small kids that visit. But none of my 57 over the air channels seem to interest them so I found Pluto TV. Its an totally free app and I can get several hundred channels over the internet. That seems to keep them occupied when its dark or raining outside.
If nothing else, if you watch some of my videos, you won't have any trouble going to sleep! Better than NyQuil.
I watch 'em all Robert, but with coffee when I can focus.
I have a printer ;) and a pc. No microwave for food ;D
OK, sorry, my bad, it's Cfarm that doesn't have the printer and now I know you don't have a microwave. Got it now. Sorry, but you guys type very much alike and I got confused. ;D
I still have the flip phone too.
I had a flat one. I picked up a rock and I had the phone in my front pocket. :o One phone down. :(
As I say, the only reason I have a phone is to call the wife when a tree lands on me and I am dead. ;)
It's a northeast thing. :D
I'm always happy to see people switching to "free" tv, cable bills are nuts, even when it's just the internet, mine is at about 70 bucks now and I don't like it but it's fast and allows all 4 of us to watch something at the same time, should we want to.
Tom, the smart TVs are pretty capable nowadays and it sounds like the apps available through the tv (that you are using [yay Pluto Larry!]) are all what you would find on Roku as well. Roku is smart tv before smart tv was a thing, it comes with it's own remote, just needs a hdmi port and wifi, and is pretty intuitive or easy to use, there are also TONS of crazy channels you can get for it. There is a bit of a learning curve but it may be another option should your wife struggle. I think you can get a Roku stick for about 40 bucks but it's likely simpler to just stick with the smart tv. It's incredible how inexpensive tvs are now. And same day shipping is nuts, huh? The future is now!
Roku and Firestick basically make a "not smart" TV into a smart TV.
Interested and following this TV internet stuff as our Direct TV bill I feel is a total waste as we watch a limited number of programs and don't subscribe to any of the movie channels (Cinemax, HBO, etc.)
Mostly news and some of the outdoor programs which are becoming mostly reality TV anyway :-(
Our challenge is no internet service available here. Do have a wireless device that runs from cell tower but not sure if that will be fast enough for TV watching. Anyway I'd really like to say goodbye to Direct TV :D
That's what I got rid of. We use Viasat satellite internet and are waiting on Starlink to be available.
We sometimes do use our cellphone hotspot to stream certain things.
Well TV's aren't a real priority in my life, but I do like having some company and I like even more when the wife is happy. For now it works. I have been mulling on this thing for 2 years and it's come up here on the forum in a few threads. Those conversations helped me try some of this stuff to good effect. But moving on.....
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I had my monthly chiro tune-up this morning which was sorely needed (pun intended). Was home by 10:30, did chores, fed stoves, and it was such a beautiful spring day, warm and sunny, that I decided to get to the mill and to the repair work. Now I intended to put this as a step by step with photos on the repair thread but as you will see, it didn't get too far.
To back up, Bill had a crash on the mill where the head forgot where it was again and dropped into the log on the gig back and broke the arm that holds the debarker clean off the machine. He got a new one coming and it showed up the end of last week. Well there were mushroom logs, snow, and other stuff, but today was the perfect day. So I went down and found the arm in the shop, got to the mill and set out some boards and a piece of plywood for a workbench on the bed and started disassembling.
Got the new arm:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230302_115005720_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1677803239)
Got a mess to take apart:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230302_114947110_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1677803232)
So first step after pulling the swing motor cover is to get the nylock nut off the shaft, that was easy:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230302_114955627_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1677803231)
Pull the nut and drive the shaft down. The remember to loosen the pulley set screw first. ;D Remove the pulley, then drive the shaft down. Then drive the shaft back up after remembering to remove the shaft key. ;D Remove the shaft key, then drive the shaft out. When the shaft comes clear it happens at about the same moment that you realize nothing is holding the swing motor in place and if you are not VERY fast, the whole thing will fall and rip the wires. I was very, very fast. ;D Mind the spring steel washer, it sticks to one component or other, so find it and put it in a safe place.
At this point I felt it was time to install the new arm to put that half of the assembly back together before doing the other half. That's where the proverbial wheels fell off. They sent us the wrong arm.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230302_115855290_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1677803949)
The shaft on the right is the original (broken) one and the shaft on the left is the 'new' one. Since it is welded to the arm, there is little we can do to turn it down to match. Well, that was a short day. I packed up my tools and put things in order, then headed home, sent Bill the news along with that photo.
He called WM and they confirmed we had the wrong part. They sent us an LT70 arm. They said we could make a planter out of it and would get another on the way as soon as they can. So we missed a beautiful window and we will be down another week or two. He's not happy, neither am I for the wasted time, but what are you gonna do? Stuff happens.
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So while I was having all that fun I got an email from somebody who found my web page and decided they would like to see if I could do a property consult with them on 50 acres they bought in Conesville, NY last year. Now some of you may know where that is because of a certain FF member we have there, when he isn't at sea. So I used it as an excuse to catch up with Barge. No idea where he is, we just texted for a while. Turns out, he knows the property (big surprise there, not) and gave me a little background. I had an actual conversation with the client later in the day and will likely go up in early April when we have some leaves and can see the ground. Not quite sure what they have in mind for use, but they do want to grow mushrooms going forward. It's just another job.
I also picked up a 40 log order last night for logs due in 2 weeks. Easy peasey.
More snow coming in tomorrow evening. I have some firewood to get cut up before it gets covered, maybe I'll do that in the morning before the rain starts. Man, it was a beautiful day today, but the ground is soaking wet and thawing again. Sloppy mess and standing water. Hoping it starts drying soon, gave up hoping for really frozen ground, it ain't happening, it just ain't.
That new stove continues to please me. Today I heated the shop to about 65 or more on just bark and splitter chips and scrap. A pain to handle, but a free days heat I would throw in a burn pit in the spring anyway so...
Tomorrow is another day, right?
Is the design of the LT 50 such you are dead in the water without the debater components attached, or is it just the reduced blade life/ contamination issues that keep you from sawing? I have no idea on the set up.
Certainly Pat we could remove the de-barker and saw if we HAD to. Bill actually finished up the order he was on when it crashed by throwing the whole head up on top of the mill head and tying it down. (which is where it still sets as you can see in the second photo above.) But we had weather and a big property cleanup job to do before that so we just let it sit waiting for the part.
Now I have half of it in pieces and would rather not button things up only to take them apart again. Also, I would prefer to unwire that motor and remove it rather than having it ride around as I milled. That head has to weigh about 60 pounds or more. It's a faster fix if I can just hang the new arm and transfer the parts from the old to the new as I go through it. I can leave all the wiring intact. I have so much other work to do that I just move to another task and there is more snow coming tonight. But I (we) do want that machine 100% when the weather improves. Cripes I just started a quick mental list of al the stuff we have apart waiting for parts to arrive and it's scary. Everything from dozers to chainsaws. Meanwhile, the side job of the week (month?) in his shop is fabricating all new bunks and cradles from scratch for the forwarder. The first one is looking really good! I should have got a photo.
I told Bill he should have asked for a new debarker blade from WM also, as it got bent in the crash, but he didn't. I'll try to straighten it. Maybe we can sell the LT70 arm and buy a new blade. :D ;D
I didn't realize the debarker heads were that heavy.
It's a substantial motor, which is most of the weight.
I suppose it has to be to take the stress of chewing up that bark and surface crud. Someday maybe I will have a saw with a debarker..... :)
No more than I have done with the mill the last three months it's not an issue, but it's coming.... 6:20 , still light out and over 40° outside. 8)
Come to think of it, I have no idea what the HP rating is on that motor, I'll have to check it when I do the work. It's a heavy DC motor though for sure.
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Well not much is new here. I took the wife over to my daughter's place yesterday to help with emptying and culling out the kitchen cabinets in prep for the remodel. Now that they finally own the log cabin they have rented and lived in for almost 10 years, they are anxious to start doing the work they always wanted to. The kitchen is the first thing. I, on the other hand, had better things to do than pick out pans to discard. ;D As long as I was in that area, I decided to take another shot at Stopping by Hoppy's place. (This is also very close to where Spike lives, but I haven't been to his place yet and have no idea where it is, just in the area.) Likewise I have never been to Hoppy's new/old place (long story) but he sort of gave me directions last summer. I tried to find the road then, but could not. I asked my SIL on my way over yesterday and he gave me similar directions but said he had only been there in the dark. "Just look for his Tipi, you CAN'T miss it... but if you do the road loops around a couple of miles and you come out the other end." So, I followed my nose and took my time, all of 5 minutes from my daughters place across the holler. Sure enough, you can't miss that Tipi, it's about 25' tall, But Hop wasn't there. I hollered a howdy to the house, but no joy. I may have mentioned Hoppy before. I knew him a bit as a kid, then didn't see him again for over 40 years. In that time he has become a renowned chainsaw carver, artist, philosopher, and even wrote a book (with words and everything). His carvings sell all over. I'll get back there soon.
So I came home intending to split some wood. But it's laying covered in snow and my back is still complaining. I thought about it for a bit and decided to rest my back and finally get to updating my website, which is 6 months or more overdue. SO I went in the shop and pulled out all the finished pieces I have and took photos in a corner I had setup. Over 200 photos. Then I came in the house, downloaded them to the PC and started 'the fight'. Working on the website is a real fight for me, remembering all the weird junk and stupid rules and navigating, etc. and just getting things to look the way I want. Let's just say it's extremely frustrating. I picked it back up faster than I expected, but I had to create close to 25 new pages, one with each item and a bunch of photos for each. Except for a 10 minute dinner break I worked on it 11 hours straight. Got back at it by 7am this morning and gave it another 10 hours and am pretty much done and it is published. I have some trimming up and editing to do, but man, that was a lot of work. I added 20 something products plus an index page and a blog post, plus added all the links on the header menus, etc. with lots of note taking to keep track of all the new links. So the results of all those mind numbing hours are:
Direct Link to my Available for Sale Page (https://woodsmanforestproducts.com/sales_index/) and just for Nebraska: Link to my Pet Cremation Urns page (https://woodsmanforestproducts.com/cu1/) They ain't pretty, but they should do.
It was 5pm by the time I quit because I was cross eyed and brain fried. I had to fetch wood into the house, then the shop, so I got that done. It's gonna be hard to log back in and do the editing I have remaining on 25 pages. ANNND I just realized Doc pointed out a mistake many months ago I have to find and fix also. Now I know why it felt so good to retire from desk work, or so I thought.
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Speaking of the shop, I tried something new with the stove today. At 6am the shop was 61° so I let it go and got to work at my desk. I had filled it last at 9pm last night. At 8am it was still over 60, so I thought, 'well if I'm not working out there today, why not just leave it until it hits about 57 or so?' Well it hit 56.5 at 2:30pm which meant a 17 hour burn! I went out and still had a bed of coals that was enough to just rake it, throw wood on top and it restarted. I threw some junk wood in and returned to working. in 15 minutes it was back to 61. At 5 pm I put a bit more on for the evening and it's holding around 59. So I guess, using this approach, I can stretch my wood a bit further. Learning everyday. Fortunately, I heard spring is coming, and I hope it arrives early this year.
I'm tired, my eyes are blurry, and I missed a bunch of stuff on the forum while I was in the zone doing the web stuff. I think I am just going to zone out tonight and do some light reading.
Tomorrow is another day and I hope to get some time outside, but I gotta get those edits done at some point.
Thank you :)
That's a lot of website work, Tom, and it's easy to go bonkers from that!
Yeah I was pretty cross-eyed last night when I posted and just could not bring myself to log back in and do the editing which is simple but I have to do it on 23 pages or so which just means a lot of repetition and waiting for pages to open, save, close, etc. It's just tedious is all. This morning I have a clear(er) head and will start in a few minutes.
OTOH, it is nice to get more things organized. From this work I can next generate a price list and keep track of what I have made better. Of course it will likely be for naught, but it's and experiment to see how I can reach the buyers. I announced it on my FB page and my personal page last night and it got a lot of hits and a few shares, as well as picking up a celebrity type follower I know but not very well. Still, it can't hurt, can it? We'll just see how it rides out.
So today get that done and split some wood if the air dries out, it's been very damp here and I am hoping for some sun. I also have some shop work.
Time to get at it.
I did get that editing done yesterday. I was hard at it by7am and it really only took just over an hour with a fresh mind. But then I found a consistent issue with all of my blog posts so I had to open every page and edit, preview, adjust, then save. As I use two different template/editor systems it was a tad confusing at first, but by noon it was all done. Last thing is to go through all the pages and make sure I don't need to update or correct anything, but I'll wait a bit on that and start with a clear head again. Geez, it's like having another kid sometimes. :D ;D
Weather was snotty yesterday so I whiffed on wood splitting and did some other stuff. I have 50 logs due around the middle of next week, so I need to get started on that, clean up the firewood and plow access to the RV outlet for guests coming next week.
At some point my bar client is going to actually come up with the deposit, so I need to work on sketches for the modifications I need on the RiteLegs and have a conversation with Kevin before placing the order. Then wait several weeks while I do some of the edge work with epoxy. This time I won't finish the top until I have the screw inserts installed for the legs. Goes faster that way.
Time to get at it.
I feel better, I got back to more 'normal' today. Piddled around in the shop in the morning, hung a new light in a dark corner. It's hokey, but I can see now, which is good. I made a run for some no corn gas for the equipment, I was just about out. I got to splitting and noticed one tire had gone flat, it was off the bead. Makes it hard to push it around by hand. ;D SO got a bunch split up but its all piddly stuff.
My son make the mistake of stopping by and I got him to help me move the splitter. ;D I ran most of the wood right into the shop and filled up. Then I got in the Mule to do the next step and the battery was flat dead. I have left the master switch on and the radio drained the battery. SO I put it on the charger and did other stuff. Finally got it started, and pulled up a trailer for the remainder of the split wood, it ain't much but I needed to get it out of the way and get that section cleaned up a bit. I stowed the trailer by the back door of the shop then took the plow and started picking at the frozen solid plow backs. Like whacking at concrete. But in little bits I finally got it pushed out of the way. I have to park a camper for my visitors there on Tuesday. I should have remembered that when I plowed it on Sunday in the first place. Anyway, everything is fairly cleaned up, but there's not time to grow new grass before Tuesday. :D
SO it's a tad muddy in all it's post winter glory, but it's a spot to park. It's flat and will be snow free by Tuesday, unless it snows again and stays. The RV outlet is cleared and accessible and I think that's what really matters. ;D Tomorrow I'll plug something in just to make sure it works.
As for that splitter tire, that was frustrating. That was the good tire. The other one was the one that kept going flat and I finally replaced the whole wheel and tire and it's been fine. SO I can either replace this one, or just re-inflate it and see if it holds. Problem is, I had thought I got the replacement from Harbor Freight. But they don't seem to sell those, so it must have been my little toy trailer tires I got from them and I got the splitter tire from .... Those who will not be named... and I don't want to buy from them, plus, they are out of stock anyway. SO either I'll just pull the tire and re-inflate it as I always did, or stick a tube in it. Probably the former, first anyway. Got lots to do, so quick is better.
Tomorrow is another day. I was just glad to get back outside today even though the weather was still kind of snotty. Tired tonight and I'm just gonna read here and watch some TV.
Too bad you don't have Fleet Farm or a Tractor supply close by. I have been replacing my small pneumatic tires with the solid ones where I can. Usually find them at TSC or Bomgaar's ( a regional farm store). They cost a little more but the reduction in irritation is worth it.
I think the last one I got was between 30 and 40 bucks and it was tire and rim and I think it even came with the bearings because I still have the old bearing inside the old wheel. We do have a TSC, I find them overpriced, but I will check and see if they have it. It comes down to time. If I can just swap out with new and move on I'll spend a few extra bucks for that over fixing something I know will likely fail again. Right now, time is something I don't have a lot of. Also, this is a road towable splitter, so the tires have to hold up to normal local road speeds of 40 to 40 mph. Not sure if those flat free ones are rated for that, are they?
For regular trailer tire/wheel combos I like Eastern Marine in Delaware, they were once mostly boat stuff but now specialize in trailer parts of all sorts. I am able to stop there and get Delawares tax free shopping, have no idea how they are for shipping.
Road towable and bearings is a game changer. I was thinking maybe a d 8 to 10 in wheel barrow type of around the yard stuff. If the tire is good could you just put a tube in it?
Well this turned into a self induced bit of a wasted day on that stupid tire. Chased my tail all day because of poor decisions at every turn. First I thought: "I can get the tire pumped back up like I always did before" so I wasted 45 minutes with straps and suck trying to get the bead to seal even worked my way up to 2 straps. Then I thought, "well the old one is off and in the shop, maybe I can get that pumped up?" Repeated the same process for another 45 minutes. Then I hought "OK, garb a tube at Harbor Freight, they gotta have them". SO I drove to town and did other errands then went to HF and the do NOT have them. Spent 50 bucks on 'other stuff'. Came home and remembered I have a bunch of nice hubs with bearings. I thought "maybe I can switch that over to better tires entirely, more expensive, but better in the long run." Spent 45 minutes looking for the hubs, went through the whole shop, questioned my memory and if I even had them. Checked the shed and storage barn. No joy. Started over again at the beginning prepared to empty all the shelves if I had to. Found them right in the first place I had originally looked, but missed them. Great! But out of the 5 hubs I had, only 2 had 1" bearings and 1 was 4 bolt and the other 5 and I didn't have any wheels to match. But while I was looking for wheels, I found an used tube that was the right size. Back in the shop, cut off the valve on the old tire/wheel, stuff the tube in. Remove much skin on my hands. Get it all set and find the tube leaks. ARRRGGGHHH! SO I sit down and order 2 tubes so that I can take the old wheel/tire and set it up as a spare, bearings and all. Good, done, right?
Well no, apparently not. I got to thinking on it and the condition of the two original tires. The one side has a new tire/rim from just a year or two ago. SO that's good, but the old one I removed and the one still on the splitter are fairly well on their way to cracking up. This doesn't get many highway miles, but it gets some when I bring it to my daughters or other places. I started feeling cheap. SO I went back to my desk, searched again for the tires/wheels and did not want to buy from NT (which was only load range A) and went to the outfit gepren recommended for a load range B tire. Cost a bit more, (112 bucks, all in) but a better tire. No idea when it will be here. I'd like it by Monday night so I can move the splitter Tuesday morning but with my luck on this whole mess, I won't see it until next Thursday. Maybe those tubes I don't need will get here sooner and I can fix up one of the spares.
If I had just listened to gspren first thing this morning and ordered the dang tire I would have had the rest of the day for productive work. Tomorrow's GOT to be a better day.
Well, a dollar late and a day short, or however that goes. When you alluded to the place that shall not be spoken I was thinking Walmart ;) The Walmarts around here carry a wide array of spare tires on rims in the $60-160 range depending on size. If you are looking at mail order, my place to go is eTrailer for the best prices and most selection. I got a pair of little 8 or 10" 4 lug for my trencher trailer in load range D for a pretty decent price, IIRC
John, I didn't think of them, but I just checked and I can't find that combo on their site or anything even close. But it was a good thought.
OGH, did you poke around on that Eastern Marine site, isn't much in the way of trailer parts they don't have.
No I just bought what I needed from them as you suggested, Thank You!
Well as frustrating yesterday was, today was pretty much the opposite. I realized as I was typing my post last night that I let a little thing take hold of the day when I should have just made a decision, placed the order for a wheel and moved on. I created my own demise. Today I just took it as a small thing and in order to clear it from my my mind. I wanted to move the splitter, that was the point, so I took the wheel that I put the leaky tube in and fitted that on the splitter then inflated it after I had the Mule hooked up knowing it would hold air for at least 5 minutes or more. The I just dragged it off the blocks and got it where I wanted it, picked up the back end with the plow lift and slid blocks under the bad side to keep the tire off the ground and make it easy to put the new one on when it comes. All done in less than 1/2 hour. Should have done that yesterday except that I got so frustrated.
I then did a few other things then came in for lunch and a shower. Early afternoon I headed over to Spikes for no reason other than to enjoy some conversation and kill a 6 pack in his non-existent saw shop. A very enjoyable and pleasant afternoon talking about nothing of importance and all things that interested either one of us. I really needed that and enjoyed it greatly. As I was leaving the next storm was starting up, just rain so far, we expect 3-6" of snow overnight, but I am dubious.
No matter, it was a good day and I'm sure tomorrow will be too.
Many people don't like/won't use "fix a flat" or Slime and similar products but if the tire and wheel combos are treated as disposable, then a can of the stuff might have saved a lost day and a few points on the blood pressure.
I avoid the stuff on most tubeless tires but on a log splitter, garden trailer or other generally low pressure non-Highway tire, I do use the stuff for "getting by" until I can do better.
It IS frustrating that a tire and wheel combo can be had easier and less expensive than a tire.
I've tried the slime several times and only had success once. Yeah, you would think small tires would be easier, but they certainly are not. I have changed tires on a lot of these small rims and expect a blood blister, some other blood, and a lot of cussing every time, even with the small tire manual 'machine' to help. I always wish they were split rims. ;D
Just that tire was 70 bucks, but getting a rim, tire and new bearings, plus upping 1 load range for 110 or so and a five minute install seemed worth it to me. My time matters more these days.
I was complaining to my buddy Bill 2 years ago about the lost day I expected when my new tires came for the Mule. He said 'just bring 'em down one night and we'll knock em on, but bring a 6 pack so we have something to do with the rest of the evening'. Given my experience with these tires I thought "yeah, ok, i'll bite, let's see how THIS goes :D" and I brought them down. Sure enough, he has adaptors for his tire machine plus the bead blaster, and we had 4 rims stripped and 4 new tires on in 15 minutes. I should have brought a 12 pack. ;D
Edit to add: Just as I hot "post' on this I got an email telling me the new tire/wheel is into the UPS system and expected delivery is tomorrow, which I am dubious of, but whatever. It's in Delaware now.
Was glad to have you stop by. Nice relaxing afternoon to sip a six pack and enjoy some good conversation with the weather visibly changing ahead of this storm.
Rain changed to snow not long after you left. Snowing hard now and just about 2" coming up on 9:30. Stayed out there til 7:00 and fixed those starter dogs on the old 285CD. Tinkered on a couple other things. Realized I was getting hungry and shut it down. Thanks again Tom. :)
Glad you found some springs to make work. Yeah I had rain on the way back but hit some sleet pockets around the lemon squeeze or whatever they call that tourist walk thing now. ( I still think of it as a road they took away from us.) Anyway, snow didn't start here until just around 7 or so, and we barely have a half inch yet. That's the elevation difference I guess. I only got behind one bozo on the way home, which is good for a Friday.
Thanks for the heads up on the 'Tuesday thing'. The NWS is saying a foot, which gives me pause because they are always conservative, so I am wondering what they really see.
And thank you. I don't get much relaxation time like that, so it goes a long way. Next time I'll bring a project and we can get into it. Today I didn't want to give you 'yet another thing to do'.
Well an easy going day today. I did some plowing this morning but we only got a bit over an inch, I just wanted it to melt off on the blacktop driveway and we have more coming in Monday, so better keep it clean. Did a neighbors also with a steep driveway. Bob, I wonder how much you got with the elevation change?
That splitter tire arrived today, which was a shock. I ordered it around 3pm Thursday, it shipped Friday, and got here at 11 this morning. I had it shipped UPS ground/cheapest too. Go figger. I'll take it, and I did, and put it on the splitter. Now that's done too.
Relaxing this afternoon. The wife and I are going to Bill's for our monthly )pre-planned) pot luck dinner. Pat is working on our half now. I hear the new swing arm came in for the debarker, so maybe tomorrow I'll get that done. We'll see.
Damp dreary and overcast all day. Just another day in paradise, right? ;D
Well a good day today for sure. The sun shone all day and that just puts me in a good mood regardless of the temps.
The part came in for the mill so after tending stoves I headed to the mill to get it swapped in and back up to snuff, finally. 2nd time is the charm, right? ;D SO I head out and 100 yards down the road I find myself behind a large backhoe with a split bucket carrying a 12' log down the road. SO I stay way back and give him plenty of room, I am in no hurry. When I saw the driveway cut he turned into I realized it was Earl, so I followed him in. As it turns out, a musician friend we have in common was asking me for his phone number so she could pick his brain for an upcoming gig. I didn't have it, but said I would get it, so this worked out fine indeed. He was happy to see me and we swapped numbers of course. Earl is THE preeminent Catskill mountain fiddler and know more about the history of the original Catskill mountain music than anyone alive and this is a poorly documented little niche world, so he is an important guy in some very small circles. My son in law has played with him since he was a little kid. Anyway, Earl was going to be running his mill today, it's an Oscar H360 (Full hydraulic Hud-son). He's had it nearly 2 years but I have not been able to catch him running it yet. He invited me to stick around but I explained my mission for the day and said I would be back.
Off I went and grabbed the new arm out of the shop and played with the dogs a little bit. Nobody was home, Bill was running in a 10k race today, but the dogs always come out to greet me. Then down to the mill and in about 2 minutes realized they again sent the wrong arm. This one looks like it is for an LT40 and is pretty close, but missing the welded guard for the blade, has the wrong thread size on the shaft, and does not have the hole to feed the harness through the rube. Also the tubing is smaller. SO another no-go day. I was a tad pithed, but what are you gonna do? SO I took the time to take the motor off the old arm, get the wiring harness out, and get ready for when we get the right one. Then I made a list of what I need for tools and materials to get it back together properly on my NEXT visit. Third time is the charm, right? ;D I headed out, slipping and sliding in the snow (we don't plow the road back to the mill, it discourages the Amazon drivers), but I didn't have to use 4WD so really I was just having a little fun. Next visit I will probably need it.
Of course on my way back I stopped at Earl's again and they were running just fine. I met another young man who is a new neighbor across the road from Earl. Earl likes him and I do too. Fine young carpenter in his late 30's or so. Real nice guy. Earl is making lumber for him so he can build a 12x12 A-frame cabin/shed on his newly cleared property in preparation to build a house. I look forward to getting to know him better, we hit it off and I invited him by anytime. Anyway, I helped them tail some boards and watched Earl run his mill, which impressed me. Good cuts. It's sure not nearly as fast as the LT50 but makes nice clean lumber. All hydraulic, but no setworks and no debarker. I noted the two plane clamp seemed a little closer to the head end than I would have liked. But as I said, it made good lumber in good time and Earl never left the head of the machine.
So by that time it was about 1pm and I had already had a great day. I came home, had lunch, then went to town and did errands. on the way through town I thought I would try to find that bar we made the bar top lumber for and I did this time. It's tucked back behind some industrial buildings next to the RR tracks. Hard to find, even harder to tell if they were open. It's actually a brewery room. The bar looks great, all 32 fee of it. I never thought to take a photo, duh!. Guess I'll have to go back. ;D Might take me a few visits to remember. :D The guy behind the bar today was actually one of the partners and the guy that actually built the bar. He owns a furniture finishing business next door. So we talked about the finish he put on the bar that really impressed me. Next visit I will actually write down the name of the stuff he used. A nice clear smooth but soft looking finish. I like it a lot. He and I hit it off also. The day just got a little better. :)
SO I headed home, put the groceries away and did some odds and ends in the shop, oil in the Mule, fixed an air hose, piddled with the stove and cleared ash out and then it was dinner time.
Tomorrow is another day and it looks like snow duty for 2 days. So I will hang here and work in the shop. Still, today was a great day, and the 2 days before were pretty dang good too. I must be living right.
Tom, elevation made all the difference. Had 5" at my house yesterday morning. Went over to the store property and zilch there. Looks like a HUGE mess could be on the way the next 2 days. Love some of the comments on the NWS discussion page. "Has many of the characteristics of all the historic snow storms" "some areas will need yardsticks to measure snow". Little while ago it was saying 15 to 30 inches up here. Could be a fun one.
So, in getting ready, decided to adjust the skid shoes on my Ariens. With the soft ground, it has been digging in the last 2 storms. Figured I'd raise it up a bit to compensate. 2 of the 4 bolts decided to snap off. Fortunately, the recently retired Ariens dealer, ;), had some hardware over at his shop. Ran over there and grabbed some and got the old girl all set for the upcoming festivities. :)
May be quite the storm. I'll be sure to look on on a few locals that may need some attention. You still have company coming?
Yeah, it COULD be quite the storm and right smack on the anniversary of the Blizzard of '93. The early track is nothing like '93 and there is no way this storm will produce the widespread devastation we saw in '93 (58" in TN! really? Yeah.) but still the impact here could be very similar. now they are saying for us it could be 18" plus, and for you, over 24, and we live what, 10-15 miles apart? I haven't used my snow blower yet this year, but I HAVE torn the dickens out of my lawn for my commuting road. So Maybe I will take your lead and adjust my shoes on that and use that to clear my 'road to work' across the yard.
Yes, forgot to mention. I have been a bit concerned about how our guests would manage to get here and was giving them some weather updates, etc. This afternoon they made the hard decision to cut their trip short and shoot home tomorrow morning without swinging by here. As much as I will miss the visit I was looking forward to, I am relieved they will get home safe and sound. It is the right call I think. I would have had no problem keeping their 'campsite' clear and we'd be fine if they were holed up here for an extra day, but it looks like they would have to drive through heck to get here, at the height of the storm Tuesday, and this really had me concerned. So I am relieved on that score. and I have this beer I bought, which I don't want to go bad, so I'll just have to take care of that, but that's the easy part. :D
now they are saying for us it could be 18" plus, and for you, over 24, and we live what, 10-15 miles apart?
It's all about the elevation. Fifteen miles up at my cabin is over 2,000' of elevation change. So, 1' of snow vs. 3-4'!
Since there are 2 mentions of snowblower skids I'll mention what I used for 1,200 feet of driveway plus areas around the barn and out buildings. I scrounged a piece of short 10" PVC pipe with about a 1/2" wall, cut it 6" long and then cut lengthwise into quarters, I then used carriage bolts to bolt these bigger skids onto the factory skids of my 50" snowblower on my Kubota BX. Nothings perfect on a soft gravel driveway but this was a big improvement. I recently took them off and threw them away, since we sold the farm last year I now have about 150' of blacktop driveway and don't need. On the smaller walk behind blower I used a smaller piece of the same pipe.
Yup, elevation is everything. Down in town it's about 100', at my place is 640 or so and the line they draw on the weather maps for increased snow fall often goes down the center of our road. The house roof across the road from us is about 60' lower than my driveway. One time I was driving home in a storm and it was rain all the way up from town, then, 50' from my road there was literally a line across the road with rain on one side and snow on the other. Spike is at 720', I just checked the map, so only about 100' higher than me, but a big difference.
They updated the forecast and moved thing a tiny bit west. Spike and I are now in eh same zone with about 8-16+" and another 5 miles west of him it is a 20-27" prediction. Started snowing here at 7:15am with some of it sticking and 32°. It is what it is.
gspern, I like that idea, but not enough to spend time on it. ;D I use my blower once or twice every other year or so and usually only on the really deep stuff. But with the soft ground I may use it this time and just raise the skids up. Supposed to hit 50 on Thursday. :D
Tom,
We have a similar situation here with the elevation. We can drive up the county road in front of the house and about 3 miles up the road you can clearly see the freeze line. Below it will be drizzling rain and above it will be frost, ice or snow.
NWS currently has 16 to 28 inches for my zip code through Tues night. Even the bottom of that is a fair amount. Either way, a pretty wide spread. One advantage snowblowers have over plows is that there is not the same need to stay on top of the storm and hit it every 7 inches or so. (That's for a decent snowblower; not the entry level units with 200cc engines.)
I usually wait til it's over and just do it one time. This one I figure I'll hit twice. Once tomorrow morning, and again tomorrow night or Wed morning. Still haven't grown out of playing in the snow. Plus I will get major fidgety and it will be impossible to sit still til this storm ends. Gonna go back in the shop and wrench on some saws today. Fun place to hang in weather like this. 👍
So how did this evenings cleanup go spike? :D :D As of 9:30pm we had zero accumulation for the day and it is snowing lightly with some rain mixed in and nothing sticking. The temp is about 35 and the breeze is picking up. I'm gonna make a call and will be surprised if we get over 5" for the whole dang thing. Whatever.
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My son decided to surprise me and had a cord of split wood delivered this morning. Then this afternoon he came over with his boys and we stacked it in about 30 minutes or so to beat 'the snow'. It stopped raining long enough for us to do that, then resumed when we were done. SO there is that. Takes a little pressure off the rest of the season.
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The rest of the day I was working on the bar. I got a deposit from the client over the weekend, so I got back into it. I needed to start doing thee top epoxy on the edges of the table and I prefer to set it up with the target edge 'up' and level for easy laying of the epoxy. But the front edge of this bar only has a partial square edge that fades into live edge and wraps around non square corners to the sides. SO I winged it, but got it mostly flat and sort of level. ;D This is tricky with a heavy bar, but I added some blocking to my horses and made a beam to support the back edge of the bar so it didn't sit on that thin ash trim piece I have on the glass shelf. Just one clamp holding it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230313_153301125.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1678758605)
It's been a while since I've done any pouring, but it went OK. I got the front edge done and as the epoxy thickened I got brave and did some of the downside edges. Just checked it a few minutes ago and see there was some soaking in on the sides I will have to hit again. But the front edge looks pretty good so far. But at 64° in the shop it seems to be curing slow.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230313_153326746.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1678758976)
With that done and the wood stacked, I got to work on the modification sketch for the legs and sent that off to RiteLeg for a quote tonight. I'll give Shaina a call tomorrow and talk it through with her. I am guessing 4-6 weeks on those, so I have time. I really would like to fit the legs and set the inserts before I do the finish on the top, but we'll see how it goes. but now that the client added a shelf, I have to find suitable wood for that and make it, so there is that too. Probably need a stringer also since RiteLeg includes those holes in the standard design.
So with that work re-started I'll have something to do for at least and hour or two each day on that for a while. ;D
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I do have to get going on some mushroom logs. I am a bit behind with all this weather we've had. Bill was going to call WM again today and have another 'talk' about sending us the wrong part again and trying to get the right one. I told him to tell them he is tired of paying his mechanic to make on-site calls only to be turned around again, not to mention that the mechanic ain't none too happy neither. ;D
Tomorrow we'll see what kind of snow we got and I'll take care of that first if needed. Curious to see what Spike gets from this one.
What I got was just 3" of snow. Temp was locked in at 33 all night. Coming up on 7:00 AM here and nothing more than light flurries happening now. There has been no wind all night long.
The forecast, broken down, was 2 to 4 yesterday, got 1/4", then rain. 7 to 11 last night, got the aforementioned 3". Today was originally 6 to 10, currently 4 to 8. Will struggle to hit even the low end of that unless it really opens up.
Well that was fortunate so far. The weather hype gets tiresome. We were being called for "blizzard like conditions" on Thursday but only 4 inches of snow.
Doesn't really make sense. Hope the rest of this "nor-easter" is as polite.
Yeah, this is a big nothing for us. Of course it's a weird one and some folks are seeing 10" or more around us, but still nothing like any of the real storms on this date. 3/14/93 was an epic 100 year blizzard here on top of a winter full of big snows. 6 years ago on this date, and in fact during this very hour, we had 45 MPH winds and got 25" of snow. West Shokan was over 30", so this thing is a bad joke. Still, our high minded woke governor called in all the playing cards and declared a state of emergency shutting it all down. It's beyond ridiculous. The plows have nothing to plow, but the roads are shut down. :D ;D > Not to worry, it's gonna be 50° on Thursday. :)
Spike, do you have power? I see an outage right by you at 8:30am. We have about 2" on the ground, some buildup on trees, but not a lot, almost no wind, and 33°.
Whatever, I have work to do.
Lights never even blinked over here. Along with the snow, the wind didn't show up either. I suppose this could still end with a bang. But as we get into the mid afternoon hours, the potential duration of that bang will be less and less. And the temp has held at 34/35 all day, so what is coming down melts right away. I think we can pretty much write it off at this point. Perhaps Governor Jokul will declare a state of silliness and reopen the roads.
Well, we got 3" overnight and nothing more stuck all day even though it snowed the whole day. I spent 10-15 minutes in the Mule just to scrape off the house driveway and am leaving the rest to just melt. The ground is too soft to mess with it. I'll just deal with walking through the slop in the yard during my morning commute. ;D
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So I screwed up a bit with my epoxy yesterday and didn't mix it long enough. Most of it cured OK, but the thick spots were still 'not hard' this morning. I wanted all the punky stuff off and it really does not sand very well. For some reason, after seeing something this morning that made me think, I decided to do a little video today. This was not intended for the crew here. You folks are gonna look at this and all my sloppy methods and poor facilities and laugh. But I get a lot of clients and potential clients that ask how I make stuff, and of course the folks that have no idea what's involved and think 'they can do that in a weekend'. So I have this bar I am working on and I figured, what the heck? Now I have no video camera, I used a phone. I have no editing capability, so what you see is what you get. I made a lot of mistakes. The big one was putting it on 'pause' to reset and then recording for another 10 minutes to a dead camera. So all of that got lost as well as the work I did. I had a nice plug in there for the FF crew that got lost. I'll have to re-do that in episode 3. Right now I have two episodes. One is up and the other is still uploading now.
SO, this is going to be boring for you folks. You may wanna skip a lot of it, I get it. It's not made for seasoned pros and I am not trying to teach anyone anything except what it takes me to do a project like this in the final stages. Watch it at your own peril. I am just messing around here and thinking on whether I want to waste spend time and money on doing decent videos. The FF crew sets a high standard and I don't think I could produce on that level. Not sure I'd want to try. I have no intent of entering the video business. This video should show you why. ;D
The bar episode 1 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/An_QS7HimYk)
Well, it does seem we are temporarily having an issue uploading and adding photos to posts. I know Jeff is distraught over it and trying to figure it out and I really feel for him and the team having gone through many similar scenarios myself, it's maddening. I can wait however long it takes I hope everyone else can too, knowing what all is involved in making a complex forum such as this function properly.
I thought I would see if linking videos still works. As this is an opportunity to slide in my non-edited and poorly composed videos. Here is episodes 2 and 3 of the Bar project.
Episode 2:
The bar episode 2 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/QTjkBbBccGk)
And Episode 3:
Tha Bar episode 3 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/G3YoslrjL7Y)
In episode 3 I finally included that shout out to the folks here. Hopefully these go through.
Jeff, I wish you and the crew the best of luck figuring out what the upgrade messed up and know it will get figured out. In the meantime, this will give everyone something to chuckle over.
Nice, and thanks!
Give credit where it's due is my motto. I know these videos are really poor but here is the next episode. This one ran longer than I wanted at 25 minutes and shows today's work.
The Bar episode 4 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/BgCuG6ijfE0)
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Anyway, today was a great day. In off-handedly chatting with Dennis through PM's and him mentioning he was flying down I started to think and the next thing you know, my tickets are ordered and I am going to the Project. I am super psyched about this. It's been on my list for a while but could not find a way to swing it. Never thought of flying, and got lucky with Dennis's offer to share the car and such. That made all the difference. I'll just have to cut some more mushroom logs. ;D
I just wish it were a bit longer because there are so many I have not yet met and want to spend some time getting to know. I suck at high speed networking, but I'll give it my best shot. Lots of thoughts running through my little brain tonight, all good ones. This will be good for me.
Glad you got it worked out.
So am I. It makes for quite the energy boost. Looking forward to meeting the guys I have yet to meet, like you. ;D
Well, yesterday was a good day all around. Today, no so much. Perhaps it was because I remain a little distracted by the upcoming event. But although nothing 'bad' happened today, a lot of things were not quite as 'good' as I would prefer.
First, this morning when I was typing out my flight details to share with Dennis, I realized I goofed and picked a return flight that left about 12 hours after his did. Sitting at the Airport for half a day was not really desirable for me. >:( SO I had to cancel it all out and rebuy tickets on the proper schedule. It took a while, but I got it done. Ah, I needed the stress anyway. ;D
I finally got out in the shop very late morning and did some sanding on the bar and got things set up to do the video at the same time. My plan was to do a short one explaining where we left off and how that part came out, then stop. Mix my epoxy, and start another video for that part of it. Afterwards I would join the two videos as one and that would be it. So ... I did all that and spent a little time fixing drips and such after the video was done. I came in the house to load the 2 videos on the PC and found that the first short one was, for some reason, corrupted and unusable. Great. Now the second half would make no sense without the first. So I went back out in the shop and reshot the first piece explaining my mess up. Came back in the house and this time it was ok. I joined the two videos without issue, but it took time. So while that was saving or processing or whatever it does, I ran to Bill's to drop off a part I ordered for him. Came back, checked the video and started the upload to youtube. That went fine but hung up at 95% done. It sat there forever, so I had to abort it and start over. Next try worked fine. But I have to re-think spending my time on these things. Today's work didn't really turn out well and I will have a lot of follow-up work to fix it.
Anyway, here is today's dump:
The Bar Episiode 5 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFojW2WkXu8&list=PLmWxOcxr6ODOAlDldKEcAK4PS3w-KNQS6&index=5)
I did make a playlist for these and add each one as it goes up.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWxOcxr6ODOAlDldKEcAK4PS3w-KNQS6 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmWxOcxr6ODOAlDldKEcAK4PS3w-KNQS6)
I put a plug in for Logrite and Riteleg in todays cut so I wanted to get that up since I finalized the leg order before and after the video making, it was on my mind.
Anyway, the video stuff is frustrating and distracting, but I started this thing, so I will finish it, but I will re-think just how I do it. Tomorrow I have to change gears and hit the mushroom logging hard as I am about to miss a delivery date for the first time unless I can pull in 45 logs tomorrow. When I get back in the shop I think I will get my act together on that bar without a camera involved, then rethink the approach.
Well at least I got the legs ordered and my flights straightened out today, so that has to count for something. ;D
Well, no video today (you're welcome) and in fact I didn't spend any time in the shop except to tend the stove, do a little sanding, and play with an electrical problem early this morning (still not figured out, but working on it, I have to get out on the extension ladder next so...).
I spent the day on Mushroom logs. Bill had some trees come down in the last couple of storms so we focused on those, which were spread around a bit. We got to break in the new winch he put on his new SxS because we couldn't really snake a machine into one tree and it was hanging over a 20' drop-off. We had some fun and got the place a little more cleaned up. I ended the day around 4:30 with 49 logs on the pile against a 40 log order. So that's done. Tomorrow back in the shop and sanding, it's going to be colder out, so the timing is good. I held the shop temp at 66 through the entire night last night and it's 68 out there now. Hopefully I can hold it when the temps drop tomorrow. I want to keep moving on that bar. It would have been great to get it delivered before The Project, but I won't even have the legs by then, so I'll take it as far as I can and wait.
So not a bad day, I got some work done and am pretty tired, so I should sleep good.
Well catching up here a bit. Sunday was a colder more snotty day, it barely broke 32, so getting those logs done the day before was a good plan and the client was very happy. So I planned a shop day for Sunday and filled the wood supplies near the house and shop stoves. I did another pour on the bar, but did no video work (again, you're welcome ;D). I have been thinking a lot about this video thing. It distracts me from the work I am doing, keeps me moving as fast as possible, which is not always a good thing, the output product is not very good, overall I think it's pretty boring, and last, the quality of my work and skills is not what it could be so what value am I giving anybody? So I had been thinking about all that. Sunday's pour was one I needed to take time on (turned out to be 2 hours) and I didn't want to be messing with a video. I was stressed enough and the pour was actually a test session to see if I could pull it off, which I partly did, but not well enough.
Yesterday (Monday) turned out well. I rotated the slab and did a pour on the end, and got it right this time. Just as I finished that up, the log client showed up to get his logs and we had fun chatting about this and that. He also gave me a tip.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230320_164301168_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1679406962)
He is not a whiskey drinker and got it from one of his clients, he just thought I would enjoy it and he is probably right. :) The funny part of this was I thanked him for it, we finished business and an hour or so later I brought it in the house. My wife picked it up to read the label and noticed what I did not. If you go up and read the label it says "Pure Limestone Mineral Water from the Legendary Rosendale Mines of NY". We both cracked up. So this whiskey is made with water that comes from about 10 miles away from us, traveled to Brooklyn for distilling, then was given to someone in NJ, then traveled back here to be given to me. I found that very amusing. :D (I am a simple man.)
Anyway, my frustration with the video thing deepens. Since I have figured out how to merge short segments I did that with this microsoft video editor and it was painfully slow. Once I got it as good as I could it took over 2 hours and 2 tries to 'process and save' (the first try having failed at 95% done). I went to bed because it was very late and it finished some time overnight. I uploaded it this morning and that took about 45 minutes because the youtube copyright engine churned and churned forever probably because of the indistinct radio murmuring in the background making it crazy. Finally I got it uploaded. So for your watching displeasure, I give you Episode 6 (sorry).
The Bar Episode 6 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/OzjUKhdXUkE)
Today started cool but should hit 60 by this afternoon. I have taken to watching the weather in Rentz GA because it's more palatable to me and I am counting the days to our meetup. :D I found a weather station on the next road over from Jake's place. I have noted that it seems to be holding 10 degrees warmer there already, which cheers me up. It's 42° here and 52° there as I type this. I am going to flip the bar back up on the horses and do some touch up work on edges and such. No video planned today. Mid-afternoon I will start doing some outside work here, I don't know what, but there is a bunch.
The temp in the shop is up to 64° again, so it's time to get at it.
Well a mixed bag today (and no videos 8)) I wanted to flip the bar back up and do touch ups on the rear edges and faces. I went to flip the TV on for company and it could not get a connection. I hate it when something basic doesn't work right and like a dog after a squirrel, I went off tracking the problem. Took almost an hour to prove that my WiFi router went belly up. I had another one (somewhere), and managed to find it but I had set a password on it 3 years ago and forgot it. Took a while to figure that one out because the 'reset to factory settings' button never seems to work for me. Finally found the password and got the TV hooked up. I ordered another Wifi box tonite, just to have a spare. I like the one in the shop to be open for clients and anyone else who visits. They are cheap as used on fleabay.
Anyway, got that working. I flipped the bar back up on the sawhorses and then go it up on edge. I also realized it is too heavy for me to just dead lift. ;D (I tried) So I got my epoxy laid down and it's looking pretty good.
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Next order of business was replacing an air hose that runs from my shed, where the compressor is, to another tank and the system in the shop. The hose is just old and sprouting leaks, so I took that out and put in a new section. Then came the thing I didn't really want to do, but HAD to get done.
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I have not cleaned my chimney all winter. The new stove is working SO well and 80% of the chimney is single wall I can tape on to break the creosote loose and it fall directly into the stove and burns up. But I have 2 sections of metalbestos that will not work on. The last 2 weeks I have noticed a change in the smoke during the morning burn ups, and the last two days were a bit scary with brownish smoke pushing out the top. I knew something was up. Since the weather was fairly warm and the wind was fairly low, I knew I had to get up on the roof and run a brush down the top sections of chimney and clean the cap. Disclaimer: I did NOT use a ladder to get up up the 2 story roof! Instead I climbed the 70' tower which is bolted to the back wall of the building. It's a little tougher than climbing a ladder, but more secure. Anyway, I got up there did an inspection. Here's your sign:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230321_154310739_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1679444555)
OK, so that's not really a condition that is conducive to good draft and airflow and explained my bad smoke issues. ;D The system had a breathing problem, SOB or COPD for woodstoves. :D So I took the hat off and cleaned a bunch of junk out of it and opened up all the vent slots again. That done I shoved a brush down the chimney and cleaned a bunch of stuff down it. The way it's set up, it all just runs right down into the stove, there are two elbows at about 60° angles, so they don't slow it down much. Again, I can tap that pipe inside and it all slides on down.
So I put everything back together in clean condition, headed back down and checked in the stove. I only got enough creosote to fill a 1lb. coffee can about 2/3's. That's not a lot. So the chimney was pretty good, but the cap was terrible. When heating season is well done, I will take all the pipe inside down and clean that, but I already know it's pretty clean. It's more of a safety check and inspection for parts getting thin, rotted, or wearing out. I am anal about my chimney safety (yes, even though I pushed the limit this ONE time). Last year I had to take the chimney apart twice during the winter season and clean it, plus replace a two sections (1 each time) and the stove adaptor. This season, everything is sound and so far I see nothing needing replacement. I got more creosote off the cap than I did out of the chimney. The stove is back to functioning normal. I had been having a bit of trouble getting fires to take off normally and getting the heat up quick. I threw some chinked junk in the this afternoon and right now the shop is reading 71° :laugh: .
So I got a mess done and my stove/chimney can coast through to the end of heating season now without me worrying about it anymore than normal.
Still didn't get parts from WM today, but Bill got his new OWB to run his complex off of today. He ordered that at Booneville, but in August, it was due before the end of November. Arrived today. That will be a weekend project to install for sure. One more nice day tomorrow, then we drop back down in temps with daily highs in the low 30's and maybe snow Friday.
That is some interesting looking whiskey. I'm sure my chimney cap could use a look see as well.
That wet wood is very hard to get to burn. Hope you get caught up and can have some dry wood in the future.
I'm not burning wet wood. I have no trouble getting a fire working well since I got the draft problem fixed.
Yeah, that rye whiskey looks interesting. I am waiting to open it. I might bring it down to Bill's on Friday. At 4:30 on Fridays everybody is in his kitchen doing time sheets. Last Friday it was Jamison's for St. Pat's day. I'd rather bring this down than the mason jar of homebrew I have been saving. ;D
I've learned on my stove pipe it's best to leave the chimney cap off during burning season and put it back on in the spring to keep birds out during the spring and summer.Never had any trouble with rain or snow going down it while burning.
What kind of OWB did Bill buy?
you have a good draft but when you shut down for a 12 hour fire, you are shutting it down. so it is a trade off. good to know. my shop does that more than the house. taller stack in the house. I can tell when the cap is getting clogged, when smoke comes in the shop when the door is open and starting a fire. It is all chemistry and physics.
Well Bill I am going to re-think that, but I think I will leave the cap on and just hit that in the mid-late winter on a good day. I can't see myself having the required discipline to replace it in the spring. I will keep an eye out for a more open cap though.
Ray, it's been so long now I have forgotten. :D We looked at a lot of boilers that weekend and there was a lot of negotiating going on and I lost track of who finally won. ;D I'll check next time I am down that-a-way. Maybe get you a pic. I know we have to made some pipe routing mods and not sure if we have to dig much. I think this will be Bill's 3rd or 4th boiler.
Yeah Doc, I didn't mention, but about 2 weeks ago I noticed the morning 'smoke out the door thing' and realized it indicated issues up the pipe. But once it was good and hot again, it would draft pretty ok. However, I could look at the chimney cap from the house kitchen window and know it wasn't right. Twice in the last 10 days I ran back out to the shop thinking a chimney fire was fixing to take off, but it was fine, just ugly smoke. I don't enjoy climbing that tower but I knew I had to git 'er done, so yesterday was the weather day to do it so I can finish the winter safely. The risk is too high to take a chance. Besides, when I loaded it last night it took off without any prompting at all before I could even finish loading. It was 61 when I woke up this morning.
Addendum to above. I just came back in from the shop to make a late breakfast. The stove, after an 11 hour burn was still about 15% full. I poke it, threw on just 2 pieces and came in to make breakfast. Now it's up to 65° in there. :)
need to make a heat proof, shaker or vibrator or rotary brush that cycles every week or so. the cap in the shop is the only issue I have. I brush the pipe, but I run hot fires and the residue would fit in a shot glass.
I used a wood stove to heat my cabin for years, and got in the habit of replacing the stove pipe every 1 to 2 years. That way I knew I could always stay ahead of flame erosion, and rusting of the steel. I also got away from using a cap like pictured, I found out too it makes a catch area for soot. I ended up making my own rain cap with a U- shaped bar of flat steel, and a cut piece of tin shaped like a horse saddle on top, held by a couple sheet metal screws. I could experiment with how tall the flat bar "legs" were to allow airflow, yet be close enough to keep snow/rain out. It was also easy to remove to clean, or replace with a bucket in summer.
After fighting with a cap that clogged or dripped back down on the stove I took it off and used a bucket in the summer, worked much better.
If it wasn't for the chimney swallows getting in my pipe I would never put anything on top of it.I have been using the same SS pipe I put in 36 years ago. I used to always leave it open and any water that made it into stove quickly evaporated.Tried putting cap on it in the spring but found that pipe sweating caused water in stove.Only reason I put cap with screen in it on is so pipe can get ventilation and keep birds out.First experience with birds is when one spring I heard something in my stove and when I opened door a chimney swallow covered with soot flew out in my living room and started banging against the walls. I like to never got it outside.What a mess :laugh:
I have run my stove with a wide open pipe too. Originally when I built my cabin there was a line of trees behind it, and I didn't want to risk snow falling off the branches into the open pipe (hence the cap). The trees have since disappeared after I bought a sawmill. ;D
I also thought about making a "Caterpillar cut" end stove pipe (Wlmedley probably knows what that is), it works for earthmovers right? ;D
Gonna make a prediction on that whiskey. I don't see any indication of years aged. Most of these new whiskeys are not sufficiently aged, ESPECIALLY the local stuff that has popped up the last couple years. If they don't do an absolute minimum of 3 years, and that's not always enough, you get that bitter ethanol finish that ruins it. Might be better to run it in the log splitter than drink it.
So many of these operations are under capitalized and they can't keep making whiskey without selling something to generate cash flow. So they bottle it before it's ready. The forward taste may be OK, but the finish is horrible. No matter how good the barrels are, and the limestone water down there, it still has to age.
It's just so costly to be patient for these start ups. Let's say you want to age 6 years before bottling. That also means there's no return on that investment for those 6 years. Then you also have to do the same thing every year between now and then.
I like the little guy, entrepreneurial spirit as much as anyone, but l don't like bad whiskey. It's really hard for all these local distilleries to get off the ground and sell good product. What was that old commercial that Orson Wells did, "we will sell no wine before it's time". :)
That is so spot on. During the height of the pandemic, a local distillery made up hand sanitizer. There was little difference in the drinking alcohol and the sanitizer they made.
Well, this sounds like a throw down! OK Spike, next time we cross paths I'll have to bring that bottle and see what you think. I'll have to find some of my own stuff and you can try that too. If you don't like either of those I can have some of the commercial stuff available as a chaser. Maybe we should do this blind folded to really see? ;D
blindfolded? doesn't the homemade stuff make you blind? :D :D :D
Well Tom, I suppose it is. One tradition that has outlasted the business is the whiskey tasting Joel and I had been doing. Experimentation has produced some gems, but there have been some serious duds as well. The worst was some hooch, also made here in Ulster County, over by Gardiner. Art deco bottle, $45-$50 price tag. Awful stuff. I hated it right away. At first Joel liked it, but by the 3rd sip he says, "I'm starting to not like it". Told him he could take it home, or I was gonna throw it in the dumpster. He took it but couldn't finish it. Think he served it to his brothers.
Example 2. Customer raved about this whiskey made up in Columbia County. Buys it buy the case, and it's $100 a bottle booze. Brings me a sample, about 300ml, saved it for a tasting night. Eagerly sitting down to try it, we both cracked up with laughter when we tried it. "This swill is $100 a bottle?". The rest went in the sink.
Last week for St Patty's day, got some Teelings single batch for just $35.99. Great taste from start to finish. Wonderful whiskey. At some point want to try their single grain and single malt.
But we're done with any made in NY booze from any of these young companies. I think I'd enjoy a bottle of Aspen fuel more that some of that crap.
Apologies right up front here as this could go off on a tangent just like the guns in the chainsaw thread a few weeks ago. 😀
Don't always believe the bottle label story, there's controversy about truth in labeling on some of those special "hand crafted" whiskey's. Was reported they actually start mass produced by the bulk barrel in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Doc, the stuff we made may not be up to the quality that a highly refined palette such as Spikes might be accustomed to, but it won't make you blind. I have ben known to use the heads and tails as a cleaning fluid though. ;D
Bob, is it only whiskey that you focus your highly attuned taste buds on, or are you an equal opportunity taster? I have a new bottle of Deadwood Bourbon Whiskey, Distilled in Indiana and barreled for two years then bottled in KY. (Might be the kind of stuff Resonator was talking about.) I am thinking we could do some tasting with that and some 'very local to me' stuff. I just found those two bottles and gave them a quick nose test and find them a little harsh. Anybody should be able to pick them out. Somewhere in between I can throw in that Widow Jane. We could do a blind test (without blind folds) and see who wins out. I have a little JD I can bring to wash it down, or out, as you prefer.
I'm not much of a whiskey drinker. I never buy it for myself, but enjoy a sip once in a while. My tastes aren't nearly as discriminating as many folks (says the guy who is, at this moment, drinking the cheapest beer I can stand).
We should get together for a test.
Resonator is on to something. I have it on good authority that lots of "craft" and big name distilleries get their products in totes(or larger) from a few suppliers; especially new places that are waiting on products to age. A lot of products from vodka to whiskey are mass produced and shipped in totes. Some places have their own formula. Some create a "new" product from stock booze. The bottle and getting a label approved is the expensive part.
I'm a beer drinker so not an expert here. Definitions are probably important, I believe that bourbon has to be aged at least 3 years in a new barrel. Whiskey is more of a loose definition. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Dang it, I tried to give Tom a bottle of New Riff bourbon when I was up there. It'd been a good one to share with Spike and I'd be interested in your opinions. It's one I like a lot and it's about as top shelf as I get, but I'm pretty new to the bourbon game. (I drank it upon my return home, it was good) My go to is a cheapish big bottle of Evan Williams 1783 (I think), for 40 bucks.
Tom, I just remembered I have an letter I'm forgetting to send you! D'oh! Also, you need a tennis ball slingshot to shoot at your chimney cap to knock all that junk off!
Whiskey drinkers tastes tend to take a path similar to wine drinkers.
Most get started on something cheap and commonly available- Tennessee whiskey. They learn there are other flavors/varieties out there from their friends who want a fancy purple bag, a maker's or appear more sophisticated with a Canadian Brand. From there they either go to Scotch or to the better bourbons.
In time most settle on a variety they drink in a mixed drink, a variety for general sipping and a variety for special occasions.
A group of us were at a party 5 or 6 years ago discussing bourbons. We wound up doing a blind taste test with Ancient Age, Jim Beam, Woodford Reserve and Blanton's.
We all identified the Ancient Age, and all identified the Blanton's. We had mixed results with Jim Beam and Woodford.
The point being there are distinct differences based on age and process.
Well I am not invested in the hard stuff, but enjoy a taste from time to time with good folks, so a bottle lasts me a very long time.
Anyway, yesterday was kind of slow. Waiting for the bar to get a little more cured up before I flip again. I took the time to do a slightly shorter video to catch everyone up and be consistent.
The Bar Episode 7 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/8Oht7ZHVuvc)
IF I do enough work on it today, I will do another short video and perhaps work on better lighting, which I need to see what I am doing anyway now that I am working on final surface finishes.
The stove is running better now since cleaning. The shop held at 68 all night, which helps the curing, and I still had a decent fire bed 12 hours after filling, just threw in 2 chunks. Guess I gotta do that more often. ;D It hit 60 here yesterday and hung in the low 40's overnight, so that helped. But cooler weather is coming back with a bunch of rain Saturday.
Off to work..
Tom, my interests include bourbon, rye, scotch, and Irish. I generally like rye over bourbon. Your idea for doing some tasting contains a few too many items to taste. And that doesn't include anything I might bring. Sampling that many can quickly lead to getting kind of looped. 8)
We'll have to be careful there. But there are some interesting items on that list. Thing to do is not try and cover all those bases at one time.
Maybe you need a bracket...a tournament of tastings! 8)
One of your special projects went out the door yesterday. Thankfully that has been quieter for a couple weeks.
Funny Nebraska, I walked past the inventory sitting on a shelf and thought about it yesterday. No local sales here yet that I am aware of. Sorry the need is there, but good to see some movement.
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Last night I ran out of beer (major supply chain snafu on my part) and decided to open that Widow Jane rye. I won't publicly say what I thought so as not to weight any future tastings, but I did form a strong opinion in one particular direction. ;D Then just for giggles, I tried the JD Bourbon, which I am nearly out of now (had that bottle 5 years or so) and noted a distinct difference (besides taste). I must have been in a light mood last night and wound up cutting it with some branch water. As I said, I don't drink that stuff much.
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Did another short video yesterday as long as I was doing some cleanup sand and polish.
The Bar Episode 8 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/UOrseRoCGus)
I may be getting just a little better at this, but can't figure out how to level the audio or speed things up in spots, but at least I can put in title cards and some other simple things.
After that I laid the bar down on it's top and sanded and prepped for todays work. Temp hit 60 outside, but cloudy. I managed to keep the shop over 70 all day and 75 for a while to get that large area warmed up. (I note the temp in Rentz was over 80 yesterday, for free. ;D) Shop temp held in the mid 60's through the night and still chugging.
Today, the plan is to do the sealing coat of epoxy on the bottom. That will all get sanded out when it cures and then to do final bottom coat. I am low on epoxy and ordered a 2 gallon kit last night. Hopefully it gets here early next week. I also need to run to the post office and restock the beer fridge. So it should be a full day. No rain today (in theory) but tomorrow we should get a bunch, so I'll plan for that. Still waiting on parts from WM.
Just another day in paradise!
Not a bad day today at all, I stuck with the plan and nothing went wrong. ;D It was bound to happen eventually.:D
It was warmish today with a high of 51 but I am jealous of the high in Rentz, GA of 87. I know I won't be coveting the temps down there in a couple of months, but for now, I can't wait to fly south and enjoy some warmth.
Anyway, I sure didn't have to do much with the shop stove this morning, it still had 30% of it's load from last night left. I threw 2 chunks in and just opened the air a tad. I kept the shop in the 70's all day long and still now. All I threw in during the day was all the chips and little junk that fall off the splitter, which is more for cleaning the yard than for heat, but this time of the heating season, it is both. win-win. Free BTU's :)
So I did my sealing pour on the bottom of the bar and did another video. I will wind up sanding most of that coat down before I do the leveling pour. It's looking good and here's the video:
The Bar Episode 9 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/0xKlAF3Amt0)
I ran (drove actually) to town and got a new tarp for the mill at HF, the old one is disintegrating badly and rain is coming tomorrow. I also fixed the beer supply chain issue. While in the beer store I ran into an old friend from the fire dept. who was also a commissioner, EMT, and other stuff. He and his wife moved from our area when he retired, first to NC to be near their son who was friend of mine that passed when he was 40 from major health challenges, then to FL. Now she has health issues and they've moved back here to be near their daughter. It was great catching up and very much an upside in my day. Got back home and filled in with other stuff. I hooked up my water collection system to start holding rainwater, but am not ready to put the pump on it yet in case we get more cold stuff. I'm sure the tank will be fine if we get freezing temps because they won't last long and that water will have some thermal mass. Takes a while, or two really heavy rainstorms to fill that tank (if my gutter isn't clogged). I sharpened my 562 and tested it with a half dozen cuts or so on the firewood pile. I did a little more cleaning and thinking about creating more room upstairs for workspace. That thought process never ends. Always need more working space.
Tomorrow should be a rainout and the temp won't even get above the mid 30's so I will be in the shop. Gonna need another day before I start sanding, it will be too soft, so I'll create another project to work on. The bar client texted me today asking if he could borrow a sander to sand down a bass guitar I assume he wants to refinish. He also wants to see the bar progress. I could lend him something, but then there would be an hour discussion about what paper he needed, how to use the sander, which sander is best for his needs and all that. I just suggested he bring it up to my shop. "That would be great!" was his reply. So I guess that will be part of my day also, just hoping it's not all of my day. He has no woodworking skills or experience, so I am more than curious why he is working on a bass. He is a bass player and has at least 6 or 8 instruments, but working on them is a new thing. He uses another Luthier friend of mine I hooked him up with who does very high end work, mostly for touring or studio musicians.
So it is what it is. Moving on....
Well, yesterday I got an early start. I think I am finally getting used to the time change again. Was out in the shop by 7:30 and had a good deal of sanding done on the bottom of the bar and did some other chores, then the client showed up at 11am with a bass body he wanted to sand down and refinish. He killed a bunch of my time and filled the air in my shop with sanded lacquer dust. I have no idea what that bass is gonna look like, but I don't think it will be pretty. ;D He tried to convince me into making some really weird stain/wash with dyes and alcohol, then mineral spirits, then water using tempera paints. I tried to get him back on earth, but he would not be dissuaded. Finally got him to the point that he decided he could do it at home. ;D
I was going to run get some more epoxy and do a final pour but with the dust hanging everywhere I just blew it off and did other stuff. It was the wife's birthday and I had wanted to take her out to dinner, but the weather was really snotty and her choice was to get take out. SO I did that. I'm glad I did, because the local place I got it from was packed with tourists and we would not have enjoyed our evening anyway. I didn't recognize one face in the place beyond the staff. Usually in the winter there is a steady flow of locals coming in and out, so when we eat there, we see our neighbors. Last night would not have been that. Nobody on staff I talked to even had a clue where all these foreigners came from.
Today I was up at 5:30 again and was supposed to drive the wife up to my daughters at 11. So I figured after I dropped her off I would stop in and see my friend Hoppy and his latest set of bear carvings. These are based on a grateful dead theme and look really cool. I wanted my own photos. I texted him and he said I could come by, but he couldn't really have visiting time because he had to get stuff done for client deliveries. SO I planned on a short visit.
Anyway, all that meant I had to boogey if I wanted to do that pour. So I cleaned the bar again, tended the stove and got the heat to come up just a bit to 70 and was at HD by 8am to pick up more epoxy. I did some video clips here and there. I got the pour and the clips done and cleaned up by 10:30 and came in the drive the wife over. She informed me plans changed and I didn't need to drive her, my daughter was picking her up. Sheesh.
So I worked on the video editing, processed it(twice, the first one dumped itself), then uploaded it which took a few hours. Here you go, Episode 10:
The Bar Episode 10 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/2A_bSvficys)
The pour is firmed up now and flattened out pretty good. No dust specs, which is also good. I mostly stayed out of the shop today.
Tomorrow, who knows?
Following along, I have a couple of questions if I may.
My experience with epoxies is limited to a time working in a boat shop that was building a 60' fishing boat and building a wood strip/fibreglass canoe, what I remember is that it was easier to apply/spread the epoxy with a roller instead of a spreader to get a more even and flatter coat.
For work like a canoe we would pour on some epoxy and then spread it out with the roller but for larger jobs at the boat shop they would dip the roller in a 5 gallon bucket (they would get it in 45 gallon drums) and spread it out.
I believe the rollers were regular low nap paint rollers.
For laying fibreglass cloth after the regular roller we would go over everything with a metal roller with groves in it to push the cloth down and let the resin come up through the cloth.
Would a roller work for this type of epoxy used on counter tops and furniture?
Is there any way to thin the epoxy or do they make a thinner type?
I'm thinking that a thinner one would be handy for a first/sealer coat.
yes they do and yes it is! :) i do not know about the roller type, but if it gets tacky, it will prob. leave some fuzz in the coat. i think you can thin with acetone.
Well Hilltop I confess that I have never considered using a roller because of all the waste involved. Also I can't imagine how the finish would come out. This stuff is so shiny that even a piece of dust caught in the finish sticks out like a neon sign. Any fuzz of a roller would make the whole thing a waste that would have to be sanded off. With the cost of this stuff, I use every drop I can. With a roller it just seems like I will be wasting a lot.
As for thinning, yeah, I suppose acetone will work, but I won't have that stuff in my shop. I have a sensitivity to it and one small whiff gives me a headache for 24 hours. Nasty stuff for me. I wonder if mineral spirits would work, or alcohol. Besides, thinning it can make other issues like easy runoff or leakage and incomplete curing and that would be a show stopper for me.
Today I did edge blending and cleanup and rough polishing, then masked and touched up some areas, which are curing now.
Chiro tomorrow, so a short day, but I'll just keep on doing sanding and touch ups until it looks right.
I get the flimsy plastic Etsy Mom type 6 inch wide "sheet rock knife" and plow it around with that for bigger items. I also use the yellow ones from HF. the plastic peels off for a while and they and mixing containers can be reused.
Are you hand sanding this epoxy? I over poured on my putter and have a pretty heavy layer to remove, specifically over the parts I should have taped... I know the sanding marks should go away with the next pour but should I stay away from an high grit orbital or one of those detail sanders?
Yeah, I cringed a little when I read how you did the putter. But that's part of the learning process. ;D
If I make a mistake, or am doing my first sealing pour I will sand with an ROS. For a rough sealing pour I usually flatten it with 120 on a 4" belt sander first. I take of any lumps, bumps, or mistakes with 80 going gently. Then I smooth with 120 and re-apply filling epoxy as needed. If I am just trying to blend sections together or take out single marks, I will use 320 VERY carefully so as not to break through. The epoxy must be cured to a hard state before you can sand or else it will 'mush' and melt. You want to just see white dust sanding off. If there are blemish's I don't want to re-apply epoxy to such as a single drip mark, I will sand as I just mentioned then work my way through by hand with 320, 800, 100, then 2000 paper, west sanding. When it is clean, no scratches, and looks good, I then go to the Novis system for final polishing to match. When all is done, I then move to polishing compounds and waxes. See my Episode 8 for a step by step in this process.
For a project like yours, which is pretty tough to blend all those surfaces. I would do one to two oz. batches and use a 1/2" brush to paint the stuff on a surface at a time. Runs are the big problem.
Not promoting my videos, poor as they are, but this series does deal mostly with epoxy and how I get it on and cleaned up. I spent most of yesterday sanding the edge blends between the bottom and side edge pours, then last night I did a touch up pour of less than an once to cover a couple of spots I missed in the glaring sunlight. Today I will sand out those small sections and get them to where the rest of the blends are and do some/most of the fine final sanding on those, then maybe polish. That should finish the bottom and most of the sides unless I scratch it when I install the legs.
Just take your time and be patient and be prepared to sand and remove, then do it again until you figure it out.
@tule peak timber (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=25190) recommended a series of thin coats even though it may be "table top epoxy". we all remember the chicken house table with paper adds under a 1/4 inch thick pour. not so much. In Hays, Ks there was an "Al's Chicken-ette" and I do not know what they did if they lost a sponser.
Doc, when you did your thin coats, did you thin the epoxy with anything? Acetone? Mineral spirits? I have not tried thinning it yet, but would like to. I am concerned about messing up the cure time or worse, the final cure up hardness. I have recently learned that Mineral spirits can work well for cleaning up still wet epoxy, which is good because I can at least clean scrapers and larger cups for re-use, whereas before I had to discard them. Maybe if you are not on the clock I can give you a call today?
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Yesterday after chiro I spent the day doing all the detailed areas and blending out those touch up pours. It's been two years since I've done a large piece like this and it's taking a while to get the touch back to blend everything nicely and get that uniform shine to come up. So I am using the bottom as my test pallet, and re-experiencing the learning and technique mistakes, then doing it over correctly. It's part of the process. Trying to get something optically clear isn't easy. I did pretty good, but there were some spots I will have to hit with the ROS to bring down a little further. Such a large area makes one loose a little focus. It takes hours. I managed to get everything smooth and shiny to the touch, but getting that optical finish is hard and I tested my compounding skills and some polish, it is ALMOST there, but I may have to go to the power buffer to get it all even. I used to go through this trying to get sub 2 microinch (RMS) finishes on steel and the thought process is the same, although I don't have to hold the dimensional tolerances I used to need. :) My days of working in the .0001-.0002" tolerance range are well over. ;D (I ain't got no time for that kind of stress anymore.)
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Today will be more of the same. The temp in the shop dropped below 60 for the first time in weeks. It hit 59.9 before I re-loaded this morning and came up to 64 in 15 minutes. SO as we near the end of winter, I am pretty sure I have the stove finally dialed in. ;D
Today is another day.
It was the bar top (thick). but not intended to finish all in one pour. I am off today and should be in the shop by 10. The bar top started with low viscosity to stabilize some punky wood. I found the left over slabs 2 x 24 x 120 inches, and I can pick one up with almost one hand. still intact, and for about a thousand dollars of epoxy, could be made into something.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/82A6E266-4645-4429-9E8C-4E3CE0E04CF2.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1607825314)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/9F7DBACA-3029-49DC-AC1D-DCBE7DC29240.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1607823330)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/51041/703B6929-1DC7-485C-BCF8-96532FF34ECE.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1608524034)
It was thin coats that were repeatedly taken back down to "wood", leaving the low spots filled. that was after stabilized and filled. the wood is filled and penetrated with low viscosity epoxy. There is prob. 600 bucks in the epoxy alone in this bar top.
Well I have been all week alternating between working on the bar bottom finish, thinking, and doing other chores. Doc and I had a nice phone chat early in the week about these finishes and I am planning on posting in the epoxy thread as soon as I get my most recent hurdle figured out. Epoxy is tough when you consider you are looking for nearly perfect optical finishes and the techniques to get there take some practice and figuring out. It's not like riding a bike. My current issue is getting some very lightly hazed areas to match the clean flat untouched 'as poured' finish. That's a tall order, but education is not cheap and it really can take some time to learn or self teach what works. Yesterday I finally did what was supposed to be a short video of what the week was for me, but it turned into 20 minutes, sorry. It explains the steps I went through and what I finally found that works best for me.
The Bar Episode 11 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/JU06OSxoFgE)
My biggest log client and I finally hooked up yesterday. He's been busy traveling and teaching all winter as well and running his business. He brought back one of the Loginators that got clobbered over the winter. We are still trying to figure out what happened, but something flipped one of the long inoculation table assemblies over and it broke the Loginator top in half. It also broke the ridge pole on the table which supports the weather cover (tarp). Hard to believe it was wind, the thing weighs about 100 pounds. Maybe a bear attracted to the odor of the wax or spores or something? We will never know, but some repair work is in order. I have to make another top, but first I need to get the mill fixed. Speaking of that, WM has yet to give us a date when they expect to MAKE the part we need, let alone when it will ship. This is beginning to get us both pretty ticked off. I don't wanna go back and look at when this thing went down and how long we have been playing this game, but it's WAY too long now.
45° and steady rain here now. I think my rain barrel may fill today but I will wait to put that pump on for a couple more weeks yet. I'm still watching the weather in GA and getting more excited to feel some warmth and sunshine and walk around in a t-shirt. They say it will hit near 60 today, but with 35mph winds and rain.
So more shop work today, I will try to get that bottom finished off with one more run around with compound, then some wax before I flip it. Time to get on it....
looking great Tom!
Any way you can fabricate the parts you need yourself? That's a long time to have that machine sitting idle.
I did not buy the debarker. can you run it without the debarker? just to get some work done.
Yeah, we can run without it. But I have it all apart now and I would have to pack up the parts and store them, then tie up the harnesses and secure it. We will lose about 40% blade life too. But we could. I went down the afternoon and broke the rest of the parts off the bad arm and grabbed that and the pin to bring home and look at with machinist eyes. We have a sympathetic local machine shop, I just don't know if they have open time. They are closed on weekends, but I drove there anyway and the door was open, but the shop was dark and nobody was there. The owner lives on the same property. I hollered for him a time or two, but no joy. So I will try again Monday because I know Sunday's are a big church day for their family. I think we can machine off the collar from the tube, make a new collar, turn a straight section on the shaft, fit the new collar to that diameter, press them together and weld them on the head side, then flip it and re-weld the whole thing back on the tube. It has to be done with some precision or else the debarker will not swing in a flat plane and that could be a semi-functional nightmare. There are several reasons why it is not a simple 'whack it back together and weld it' thing. If we are going to do it, we need to do it right, because I am seriously doubting we will ever see a workable proper solution from WM. If it happens, great, but you can't blame me for doubting after 8 weeks of playing games. Orders are backing up and that drives stress. I'm retired and no longer do 'stress', at least not unless it's for a price.
Well another day shot to heck. ;D
I woke this morning with back pain that I can't explain, but through the day it waned away a bit, but it did take some of the giddy up out of my step.
My bar client texted last night and asked if he could bring his bass body over again so "we" could sand the rest of it down. (Last time we only sanded the back and front the he thought leaving the edges as is with the lacquer would look cool. Now he wants it all off. SO back he came today, but remembering what a mess it made last time, I set up a suction line off my dust collector and that did a fairly good job keeping the dust in the shop down. But the sanding was a bear, doing the edges (picture a telecaster body with al the deep curves around the neck you can't get and ROS into). That lacquer was thick too. I used 120 grit and it took about 46 minutes of sanding. When I had been working on the area around the neck with paper by hand, he volunteered to do some. It took him about 2 minutes before he was complaining about hand cramps and being out of shape. :D ;D (He's almost 20 years younger than me and in pretty good shape, but he doesn't do any 'work'.) Anyway, we got it done to his satisfaction and I had made it clear my goal for today was another pour on his bar, so he didn't linger long.
I had lunch then returned a call to a land consulting client and set up a visit for next Saturday in Conesviille, last time I was here was in September, so it will be a nice drive and I'll have a good breakfast at the Conesville store before we meet.
After that I got back out to the shop. The dust control had worked well enough. I decided to set up a video shoot which I had not planned to do. I have gotten a 'new' camera, donated by @Dakota (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=1185) (Thank you again, very much!) and wanted to try using it in a video. It's a Hero3 and has sort of a wide fisheye lens that will lend itself nicely to outdoor shots, but for indoors detail stuff, I'm not so sure. I got ambitious and thought I would try using two cameras, what the heck, right? I also wanted to show that this epoxy stuff can be quite boring work. So anyway, here's Episode 12:
The Bar Episode 12 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/YP1DQVyBumM)
After that I restocked the shop and house firewood, did a little light sanding on a couple of small projects, secured a tarp on my drying rack #3 that came loose in the high winds we've had, and then I did the video editing and upload, which still takes a long time.
Tomorrow I'll head over to the machine shop and see what we can do about fixing that swing arm.
Geez, it's Wednesday already! Well I did go over to the machine shop and we worked out several workable plans for a solution. I trust those guys and will leave it to them to pick the best one. I think they will choose the one which makes it stronger than it was before, making a whole new pin and modifying the arm just a bit. ;D No word on when it might be ready, I don't rush them and they know we are waiting production on it. We trust them, plus, the price is right. Last time I brought in a small job, when I picked it up, I told him to send the Invoice to Bill. He said, "nah, I can't bill him, he's been plowing my lot and driveways for 10 years and hasn't billed me yet." :D
I did another pour on Monday to bring the pond up more and here is video #13 (sorry):
The Bar Episode 13 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/ecFxpomt_co)
It was my first one using both cameras, with mixed results. ;D
Yesterday was another pour and I am just about getting the pond even with the top, but the slab has a slight crown, so it's tricky. No video on that one, same as before. Today is a big day, I will do the primer coat on the top and try to push all the excess into the pond to get it even all the way around. Tomorrow I will sand it all flat and re-assess where I stand. Yesterday's work cured up nicely. The shop stayed over 71° all night and at one point it was 78. I shut down the house stove yesterday, nice and quiet without all the fans running. I may restart tomorrow for another cold front coming through overnight, we'll see. House wood is nearly gone. What I have left looks like MM's yearly supply, so not a lot. :D
Time to get at it.
Did you end up hitting it with the torch, after the video? looking good.
Yeah, Doc, I did, a little bit here and there but I wasn't really concerned much because it's just a rough coat. I did another layer today (no video of this one!) and found one last pinhole I had not noticed before and the dang thing would let out a bubble of air about once a minute, which I would pop and it did that for 45 minutes before I gave up. I cam back an hour later and it had quit and filled in the hole to where I couldn't find it. That little crown is proving more difficult to cover than I had thought. But no matter, I think I have enough stuff. The pond is full now and I am adding thin layers over the whole table, but I have two tiny sections of 'shoreline' that are still protruding up a tiny bit. Late in the afternoon I found two tiny hairs, I think from my cat but maybe me, and managed to get them out and smoothed out with the torch.
Videos are still proving to be a bear to edit, compile and upload. I wasted yesterday evening doing the next one, then it crashed overnight during the save and I lost it. I installed a different editor this morning and wasted a good part of the morning redoing the editing, and not as well as the first time, I think. It took hours to edit, save, and upload. Part of the issue is how much memory I have on the computer. Anyway, with sincere apologies, here is Episode 14:
The Bar Episode 14 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/DYboIKGvL4A)
I had just gotten done doing this pour yesterday and Bill called. "Watcha doin'?" he says, which is code for "I got something for you to do". :D He was doing hazard trees and they are Hickory and good mushroom logs so he invited me to come work with them. I put on my dancing shoes and headed over. 4 hours later I was home with about 35 logs, a full belly (Lunch was on the boss), and a stiff neck (I don't know why, gone this morning, all good).
Quote from: Old Greenhorn on April 06, 2023, 07:31:46 PM. . . and a stiff neck (I don't know why, gone this morning, all good). . .
My son and Bill use the same code.
I get a sore neck from tree work and hazard trees - comes from doing the rigging and squinting straight up into the top branches, for a whole day.
That kid, I tell ya, he's a pain in the neck! 😁
Roger that, Andries, I didn't think about the 'looking up' all the time. We work pretty tight and so you need to tune into the bucket man. You can drag brush, chip, and buck while he is roping the next cut, but as soon as you hear the saw wind up, you best stop and pay attention. The problem that day was that I was bucking with a gas saw, so I had my muffs on, and Bill was using his electric for most of the bucket work which I can't hear. I was looking up and checking a lot, that must have been it. ;D
Late last night Bill called again. He had gotten texts in the evening telling him the machine shop work was done, but they didn't hit his phone until 9pm. We are now up to almost 9 weeks waiting on WM and the machine shop made a full new part, redesigned for strength, and pressed it together in 4 days. I'll pick it up this morning after shop work (and drop off a few dozen eggs in return) then run it to the mill, check for fit before we weld it up. I'll get some photos and let you see how we modified it. It ain't gonna break again in my lifetime. ;D
We have the grandsons for the day today, I have a pour to do, and the mill work. Gonna be interesting and I should get at it.
I hope you get caught up with the sawmill soon. Those grandsons will benefit abunch in life just from the stuff they absorb being around your shop
Well, frankly I am trying to keep EVERYONE out of the shop today. I just finished what I hope is the next to last pour and want to avoid any dust being kicked up. ;D If I get done at the mill soon and the errands, I think I'll do some firewood.
Today was a pretty productive day, at least it started that way. I was in the shop by 7am and had my biggest pour done before 8. I didn't shoot video, too much to get done. The bar top is starting to look nice, I will need one, possibly two pours to finish it off, but I really should do the legs first and they are still a few weeks out. He's some photos taken today about 6 hours after the pour:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230407_075945454_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1680913528)
The above photo kind of indicates how I am doing getting the top flat and smooth. The one below gives a better idea of how it looks, but it's impossible to get it without all the reflections.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230407_075954881.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1680913526)
I still have two spots that are sticking up above the level top and those should go away in subsequent pours. BUT, the epoxy count (usage) is growing. >:(
Anyway, I finished that pour and ran out to do a quick local errand for the wife and pick up the debarker swing arm from the machine shop and I left him a couple dozen eggs. The shop was closed for Good Friday, but they left it unlocked for me. ;D I ran the arm down to the mill and did a test fit, all pretty much good, I tried to knock the pin up about .030 before welding, but it was a hard press fit. I will just have to do a little whittling on the key to sneak it in. While down by the mill, I took a look at the new addition. I saw this going past my house on a trailer this past Sunday.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230407_091340620_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1680913535)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230407_091310743_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1680913537)
I can see this being my prime machine when we finally get some drying sheds built. No idea where he picked it up and no fanfare with it, it's just 'there'. :D
I had also promised someone a photo of Bill's new OWB which I saw for the first time today since he inked the deal in Booneville back in August. It is 1/3 the size of his current one, but should run better and use a HECK of a lot less wood. (More work for me, no more 5' slab lengths and huge chunks of logs cut to 5', or loading with the forks.)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230407_092442368.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1680914877)
So I dropped the arm in Bill's shop by the welder, got 4 dozen more eggs, re-stocked the egg stand on my way home, and texted Bill with the status.
I came in and took a shower so I could head to town and get a haircut (badly needed). Got that done and got home by noon.
Then it all slowed down because the grandson's were here. So I worked on a shorter video I shot last night between entertaining them. Not a nice day for playing outside, but we did some of that, pruned some lower branches on a red maple and the boys threw them over the fence and stuff like that. In all, I got a lot done today and after they left I finished the video and got it uploaded around dinner time. This one I take a break and talk about my approach to these types of projects and why I am soo slow.
The Bar Episode 15 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/OYldIrPSMKQ)
A few minutes ago I got a call from my cousin in VT. It was his Dad David that passed a few months back and I mentioned a few times. They want to know if I would serve as a sort of MC at the memorial service. I was not prepared for that and will have to come up with some words. They had a family meeting, decided that nobody in their immediate family was very good at talking to crowds and my name got thrown on the table. It will be a Final Call Fire Service, followed by the family stuff and remembrances. I was trying to decide if I should wear a uniform since I am "retired" and I can't make my mind up. I'll think about it some more. I have 2 weeks. These things are always tough. The last LODD funeral I attended was in their department, there were 300 members from 5 states in attendance and I have no idea how many apparatus. David (my cousin) was the Chief who had lost a member, his Assistant Chief and it wore very terribly on him. It was when I got closest to him, knowing what he had to be going through, but not being in his department or connected to any of the investigations I was the one person he could talk with freely and understand the Fire Service issues. Anyway, I'm rambling in my own head. I have two weeks to figure it out and you folks don't need to hear this.
Right now I just have 3 things on my plate. I have a consult tomorrow, which will kill the day, then I need to get the mill up and running (another day), then The Project! Anything else I get done is gravy (and will probably include epoxy ;D).
Tomorrow is another day.
So wearing the uniform will honor his dad (David), not be and ego thing for you. I suggest you go full bore and wear it. usflag
Epoxy looks nice and shiney. smiley_thumbsup
When the pro's photograph objects they'll often have a diffuser panel in front of the lights, this softens the glare and reduces the reflections. Another trick is to have a room with a white ceiling and aim the lights straight up, the light is reflected back even and not focused. Nice thing too with digital, you can take multiple pics with different angles and light sources, and just keep the best one.
Funny thing though the pro auto detailers will set up a light area specifically for that light flection, to show the depth of shine as they "cut and buff" the paint on a car.
That table looks great!!!!
Accidents happen Ray. :D
Resonator, in a previous life I did a bunch of photography, but I'm not going back there. ;D I just wanted to get some photos to share here. It would take an awful lot of messing around to eliminate the ambient lighting and replace it with diffused and even then, it would look weird in photos, so I won't even try. All I care about is the smile on the client's face when I set it up in their house.
By the time I get this done, the grass should be greened up and I may set it on the lawn and do some beauty shots for the webpage. But then it's gone and I move on.
QuoteAll I care about is the smile on the client's face when I set it up in their house.
Yup! :)
I always try to get that "beauty shot" to show perspective clients. "This is what I'm capable of building, I just need 2 things. Time and money." ;D
I vote for wearing your uniform as well. It's meant to honor and that is what you'll be doing. That bar looks like canyon walls to me in the picture. Just how I see the the depth of the pour. I hope you are paid handsomely for your efforts it looks great.
The jury is gonna be out on the uniform until the night before as I am on the fence. I will check to see if I have all the parts and proper insignia first anyway and if it still fits somewhat. If it's not presentable, that makes the decision easy for me....
Yeah Nebraska, that photo is deceiving. The deepest part of the pond is about 1-3/4 and the outflow channel is about 1-1/4 deep. It's hard to get in photos.
Yesterday was pretty good. I drove a little over an hour to Conesville and spent about 3 hours walking 50 acres with the landowners talking about options, trees, management for what they want, etc. It's a nice piece and a previous owner had made access roads that will easily carry a loaded semi to most parts of the property, so they are in very good shape going forward. They have lots of options and a long time to work on it, they were just a little overwhelmed at what it takes just to maintain a property of that size. Anyway, it was very enjoyable and they were well pleased with the time spent. I grabbed a sandwich at the country store in downtown Conesville to eat on the road.
I drove about 30 minutes south, then 15 minutes further west and stopped at my friend Gary Mead's yard/shop/gallery. I had called him in the morning to make sure he would be there. I wanted to get a nice KD board of 'something' for the shelf and stringer on the bar. He didn't have ash, but he said he had a lot of sycamore and has that has been discussed a bunch recently on the forum and I have never worked with it, I went with that. SO I got there and waited for him to finish the studio tour he was giving to some folks from Jersey. then we took down 3 or 4 lifts of 14' lumber to get done to the 6/4. We couldn't find any QS, but I settled in on a nice 6/4x12x13 which was almost entirely clear. I whacked it in half and threw it in the truck. A $100. board. I don't believe I have ever spent more for a single board. Sure hope it cleans up nice. ;D
I got home around 5:30, caught up with the wife. We had dinner, I did stove chores, did a bunch of research on Sky Traks and fell asleep in my chair around 11. Then got up and went to bed.
Today is more shop work in the morning, then I might head to Bill's and see about getting the mill back together. I'll also take a look at that Sky Trak and see if I can learn something.
Just another day in paradise. Happy Easter.
I vote wear the uniform. If a young person looks up to you, or if someone thanks you for your service, it's worth it. smiley_thumbsup
The bar looks incredible!
That skytrak should be quite handy! My father in law has one similar to that and it's sweet, though maybe too big for some stuff.
Well I did head to the mill on Sunday, but Bill was off doing family stuff and hadn't gotten to the welding yet. So I climbed around on the sky track looking it over, then came home and did other stuff.
Monday morning Bill welded the arm before he went off to work. I got there a few minutes later and put some paint on it, grabbed one or two tools I heeded from his shop, and headed down. It fit well and everything went back together with no issues. I took my time, did a nice neat job on the wiring and tested it. I did not run a log and do the alignment. Bill had left things in a mess, I had tools and parts all over and I just wanted it cleaned up and the lumber out of the way. So I did all that and came home to do other stuff.
Today Bill called me before breakfast and asked what time I was coming down. He needed at least one 6x12 and after questions I found out it's for a job they are doing TODAY. "Yeah, OK, I'll be down as soon as I can, but likely 10am." I got there just after 9am and he had started on it, well he had a log up. Apparently he had suffered the consequences of his habit of packing the mill with logs making it hard to work and he got all messed up trying to jump the log he wanted up to the mill. Took him a while to get it mostly straight. :D ;D Maybe now he knows why I get tweaked when he does that to me. Anyway, we got off his 6x12 and I looked at the debarker alignment. He took his beam and I finished off the cant, then put up another log and adjusted the debarker a bit. Took some cuts, adjusted it some more and finally had it lined up with the blade cut centered. Good to go. I made some 1x10's and 12's, then his other 6x12, then the 2x12 I needed. I called it a day at that point and cleaned up. I have other stuff to do and I am trying to take it easy so I am rested for the trip. That 3am wakeup and driving has me a little concerned, it's been a while. I seem to be a little out of shape with 3 months off from the mill. ;D
Did some yard work yesterday, a little more today since it's in the 70's or I can split some wood.
I still have some of today to work, then tomorrow is another one and I'll pack and finish cleaning out the truck.
Catching up here and not quite fully recovered from The Project yet. :D It will take me a while to process all the thoughts and learning in my head. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed and I think slow, so I file away what I can and think on it for days afterward, in this case it will be weeks or more. I wrote most of my thoughts over on that thread and I'll not repeat them here. I am glad many did a much better job of documenting the weekend than I did. I was overwhelmed frankly.
I was a bit stressed about the trip down with all the changes in TSA since my last go-round when I was flying for work a lot. Turned out I was properly prepared and the trip down was pretty much a joy. Nice plane too with TV's at every seat and wifi through the whole flight. No problem hooking up with Dennis in ATL at all, painless and easy, and no problem getting over to the international terminal to meet Stephen either. The 2+ hour drive down was filled for sawmill breakdown discussions, then after checking in, a nice dinner with Jim Rogers and more good conversation.
From Friday morning on, well, you can read that on the other thread. Let's just say it was a super weekend. :D :) The only downside was leaving way too early. Saturday night came in the blink of an eye and I had to be prompted a couple of times to get in the car to leave.
The trip home was going smooth...until I got to the train to take us to the gates. Dennis managed to get squeezed into a car and the doors literally pushed him in and me out, so I had 2 seconds to wave goodbye. I got the next train and got to my gate as they were going through some series of complicated announcements about 'changes' and calling a list of names that they didn't have room on the plane for. Not good. I had my boarding pass on my phone and brought it up to double check that I was good and as I refreshed it, it went blank! Now I am thinking I am in trouble and I walk up to the counter to seek help, how do I get on without that stupid code thingy on my phone? As I was waiting my turn, my code thingy re-appears, but now it is for a different flight at the next gate over. Fine, so I walk over there. It's a cluster. Apparently they overbooked enough people on the first flight that they had to add another (smaller) plane because everyone showed up. The confusion added a half hour to boarding and delayed everything as well as put everyone in a sour mood, plus this plane had overheads that were not big enough for an average carry-on suitcase so we had to check our bags on the jetway. I was just in a t-shirt and spent the whole flight home with my jacket stuffed in my bag under the plane deck. But it got better. ;D ;D They assigned me to the last seat in the back of the plane, crushed up against the window by a rather large woman who was very proud of her obnoxious perfume and wanted to share it with the world, or at least anyone within 100 feet of her. It reminded me of acetone. We also had the crying child serenade going full bore with 3 part harmony before we even pushed back. There were a lot of people, mostly families with small kids flying home from spring break or something. No wifi, no TV, no nuttin', and I was freezing from the air conditioning. Getting off the plane and trying to collect bags with a crowd of people on the jetway was another cluster event. I think there were 3 of those double wide strollers that came up, got expanded and filled with kids and eventually clogged up the aisle while they figured out if they found all their kids or not. Yeah, good times.
When I finally got out of the terminal and got to the shuttle bus I felt like that driver was an old buddy and was very happy to see him. I was alone on the bus and we sat and chatted for a while waiting for more folks that never came. Nice fella and we talked weather and where I was coming from etc. Got to my truck and took my time relaxing and catching my breath and adjusting my attitude. Hadn't eaten yet since the night before and it was 2pm. Tried to hit a local Denny's for lunch, they had a waiting line, I walked out and grabbed a barf burger on the way down the road from a drive through and ate as I drove.
I was still missing Doc and gave him a call and woke him up (Sorry man) and we chatted as I drove down the thruway.
Got home and visited with the wife and caught up. Cleaned out my suitcase and was glad I didn't have to fire up the shop stove. I had let it go out on Wednesday and with the warm weather while I was away, there was no need. About 68° in there yesterday and 65 now with 55 outside temps. So this is the first week of full shutdown on both stoves and I am adjusting to not having to do those chores every night. I was in bed at 8:30 last night. Just plain wiped out.
As Jeff said in the other thread, it's back to reality here. Heavy rain when I woke up and still raining steady. I will do a drying fire in the shop today just because of the chill in the air.
Bill called me last night. I had texted him some photos of the cypress log Friday. He asked me how it went. "I had a GREAT time, holy cow did I have a GREAT time!" He poked "Really? you had a great time, glad to hear it." I said, "let me put it this way, if this happens again, YOU WILL come with me! No excuses this time." 30 seconds later he was standing at my door staring at me as I (thought) I was still talking to him in his truck. He brought his splitter by to drop off on his way home. Smart Ash. ;D
I'll spend today getting my head back in the game and my feet back on the ground. What a great weekend. My thanks to everyone who made that happen.
Glad you had such a good trip. :)( minus the flight home part)
ANother weekend another trip. I spent a day and a half settling my thoughts from last weekend, then a few days doing more sanding on the bar and did a final pour of the shotglass shelf. It came out well so I sanded all the corners adjacent to the top preparing for that final pour. That yook a couple of sessions because my mind would wander and it would get tedious and I would miss details/ Pick it up again the next day and that section would dress up nice. I found 600 grit discs at HF and that made things go a lot faster than hand sanding and me up well for the final final pour/polish.
Time to flip it. I got a call from RiteLeg on Friday that the legs are ready for pickup. Too bad I could not make the open house today, it would have been a win-win.
We spent 5 hours in the car today driving over to my cousin's memorial service in VT. I ran into a FF member at the service (Sorry I cannot remember your forum name, shame on me). I had been asked to introduce a section of the program a few weeks ago and when I arrived today I found out I was the MC for the entire service and they didn't have a lot in the way of an agenda. ;D So I winged it here and there and we managed to pull it off. Part of the service was the Final Call, End Of watch, or 5 Bell Ceremony depending on what it's called in your region. So that was something I have been through too many times, the rest I had to improvise, but apparently it came off OK. My cousin David was a lifelong member of his department with over 25 years as Chief, his son still serves his department in the next town over, and there was representation from 3 states and about 5 departments. (Yes, I wore my uniform, it still fits, and no I don't have a picture.)
Tonight I am pooped and off to bed early I think. Bill tells me we finally got the parts from WM we've been waiting for. Tomorrow I'll go see if they are the right ones, then back to work and maybe some firewood. Weird weather today, in the 60's here, but high 40's in VT and I saw snow patches here and there.
Tomorrow is another day.
Well I got down to bill's on Sunday and confirmed WM did in fact send the right parts to rebuild that debarker arm. Unfortunately the pin on the swing arm id a bit too big to fir in the bearings and will have to be cleaned up with a few thou taken off to get it in, but if this breaks again (lord I hope NOT), then we have what we need to fix it. Case closed, 11 weeks after it went down.
We also spent some time tinkering on the Sky Trak, see other thread for that, then the rain returned and I came back to the shop in time for dinner.
Monday and Tuesday I did shop stuff and worked on getting some videos done, they takes hours to edit, process and upload with my pitiful gear, but what the heck. I did a seconf version of the sawing project to use on my webpage where I just added an intro clip explaining a bit about it from the layman's point of view. It's stuff that holds no interest for the folks here, but some already saw it because they are among the hordes of subscribers I have (14). :D I also uploaded Episode 16 (!) of the bar build saga. Which I share here if you have an interest:
The Bar Episode 16 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/qW-cCVgEeX0)
-----------------------------------------------
Sometimes you eat the bear:
Today, Pat and I (she came along for company) made the 5 hour round trip to LogRite to pick up the custom legs for the bar. It was my best round trip through the Consptiaption state corridor around Haatfurd (some pronounce it 'Hartford') ever. Traffic was there but kept moving and drivers are crazy there plus the odd Mass. driver comes in and really scares everyone good, but pretty much normal. I met with Shaina and the legs looked great, as expected, she took me to the back room to look at some oddball legs and I picked out a pair of bench legs that I can make a demo bench out of for shows and clients to see. These were pretty shopworn and painted with a discontinued color, perfect for me. I also got some Blue Creeper for Bill. (I'm trying to get him hooked on it.) Packed the truck and headed home, we stopped for a nice sit down lunch just to break up the drive. Got home before 3pm, caught up on the forum reading, then unloaded the truck. My plan for tomorrow was to shoot the next episode covering the legs and all about where I get them and the minor customizations I had done on these and how I mount them up on an irregular slab shape.
And sometimes the bear eats you:
So in thinking that through I stood the legs up (upside down) on the upside down bar top and looked them over. Something looked a bit 'off'. I went into a mild low-level panic and started checking my work on the bar, the flatness and parallelism, and levelness. Then I reluctantly started checking the legs themselves and I checked them 3 different ways before I had convinced my self there was an issue. I truly did not want to find a problem with the legs, nor did I want to find a problem with the bar. I was heartsick.
I needn't go into deep details, let's just sum it up by saying there was a mistake made when the welding was done and I could measure it and put a number on it. The last thing I wanted to do was make that phone call. I thought about how I could compensate and found a way to do that, but the fact is, this is a very expensive piece the client has waited a long time for and I wouldn't do it unless I made full disclosure to the client and got their approval in advance. That was also a phone call I didn't want to make.
I have bought lots of legs and other stuff from LogRite and I really did not want to call them with a 'complaint'. We have a great relationship and I don't want to be 'that guy'. But then a thought popped into my head when I realized both legs had the exact same issue and were 'out' the exact same amount and in the same direction. It dawned on me that there may be a tooling issue in their shop (or something else) which would effect these products and others, so I knew the right thing was to let them know about it. I spent my life in manufacturing and I know how these things go. I have also been in their shop and know that Kevin is VERY good at tooling up his jobs with nice jigs and fixtures to make repeatable products every time. I fugured there was an issue someplace. If they don't know, they can't fix it.
So I called Shaina and left a message, which got cut off when the call dropped. I didn't complain, I just told her I don't know what to do, but I thought they should know about it. Truly I was a bit sick over it, thinking I was causing them problems, but that they needed to know and I was still trying to figure out how I could fix this. I also took photos of how I checked them so Kevin could see what I saw. I knew he'd want that at least because I would. 15 minutes later, after I thought they had all gone home, Kevin called. I apologized and he cut me off saying "I'm sorry this happened, we will remake them." He explained that he knew what the welder did (or rather didn't do) and they would remake them as fast as they could and he would make it right. I was dumbstruck, then I got a little upset because they are taking a big hit here and we should be able to fix these things or "something" short of making new from scratch. The delay is no more than a bump in the road, I really didn't want to see them take that hit making a custom item twice, but he insisted it's the right way and the only way to do it. This is the reason I am sharing the story here, I wanted folks to know how they do business and why I remain a dedicated (but small) customer of theirs. It's not always about what folks sell, or the prices they charge, the real measure of a company is what they do when something goes wrong. Kevin's bottom line was that he felt bad there was a problem which cost me time and all that driving, etc., and they will fix it and that he doesn't want me to take a bath on any of this. "We'll make it right." was his final statement. Well, I don't want to see them take a bath either. We need to get the new ones made, get them here, and then get these back to them so they can use them 'for educational purposes'. Funny thing is, I would buy those legs anyway for some speculative project down the road, but he wants them back and I fully understand why. Since they are custom, maybe I will find them in the back room next time I visit? (I make light of this, but really I am still a bit upset that they are absorbing the cost on this and there isn't a middle ground.) I already let the client know we have a slight delay and it's not a big deal. They've been waiting a long time for this bar, another couple of weeks won't mean much. They may stop in this weekend just to see the legs and how they will go with the bar. They probably won't notice the defect until I explain it, but they would notice it when it is sitting in their pool room for a few weeks.
Good on you and good on LogRite, Tom.
As a fellow manufacturer a major part of my job is hoping issues like this don't come up (we had one today) and man it sucks to pull stock to figure out what's wrong and what's not. It's nice to hear LogRite wants to make it right at any cost.
Greenhorn, when you work for yourself and have an LLC, You all ways make it right. ;)
Well Peter I would, and I can assume you would, but I can't assume that about everyone. I have a repair job sitting in my shop right now waiting to be picked up by the client, no charge, no questions. The thing got whacked in a weather incident and the top spilt in half. I know that top should have been thicker than I first made it, so I re-did it twice as thick and repainted everything (brown). Part of my business model is to be able to sleep well at night. But that's me.
Not all companies are created equal and share that ideal. Kevin could have just as easily pointed out that it wasn't off by much, I could shim it, or he could knock a few bucks off, but none of those options were on his table. Just remake it and do it right. That's the highest road you can take. I don't see that very often these days and I thought it was worth noting.
I used to be in Austin's shoes for many years, running down quality issues and 'excursions' as we called them. It killed me when I discovered a mistake that was our fault and the customer deserved to be made whole and my employer tried to find a 'cheaper way out' or a compromise implying that the customer shared the blame. These forums are chock full of stories like that from little guys like me being ignored by our vendors and suppliers. I think this is a good great news story for a change.
Making a post like you did is the best advertising a company can ask for I feel. Mistakes can be made at any level at any point. How they're dealt with tells the ultimate tale. It's nice to read what their answer to the problem was. More businesses should operate as they do.
Well I have no idea what I did on Thursday, but I must have done something. ;D I was out in the shop a lot of the day (more rain) and started to wrap my brain around making the lower shelf for the bar. Maybe I cut some 'stuff'. Friday I got into it and cut the shelf to length and routed a step around the outside edges to set a rim in and I ripped down strip to create that rim. Then looked around at some old cutoffs I had from some dining room benches I made and started to layout how I could salvage them to make a simple bench to go on the demo legs I got from RiteLeg. One had a big taper along the length and I figure if I cut that off to make it 'sort of' straight then I could flip it and glue it back on then glue on the other single live edge and wind up with a slab about 15 or more inches wide. Doing those long cuts straight was the challenge, so I let it sit while I thought on it.
Saturday I got back into the shelf and did final fitting up of the trim edges, then glued them on and threw in some brad to hold it all in place. Then I jumped back to the bench and made all the cuts, laid it out dry and figured how to clamp it. I did one glue edge, waited 2 hours (lunch) then glued the second piece one. Not my best glue up, but workable. I let that set over night.
This is the glue up which I think you can see where the glue lines are:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230429_164131382.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1682897475)
Then after trimming the ends off.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230430_133909615.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1682897545)
And once more, after rough sanding.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230430_140708038.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1682897588)
I did some edge sanding on the shelf to match up the joints and that looked pretty good. I quit at 5 to get cleaned up for our monthly dinner at Bill's this time with my daughter joining us (her hubby was playing a wedding gig, his loss). It's a semi-planned meal, we bring half, they do half or so, but the women folk have a fun time planning it. Bill and I talk shop or play games with little Inga. A lovely evening.
Today more time in the shop, but first the grandsons all came over. They wanted to make a simple bench for them to sit on while they wait for the school bus each morning. So we worked on that together for a couple of hours, then they had to get to their next gig. I worked on the bench I started yesterday and did a mess of sanding to even out the glue joints. (see photos above). Then I did some epoxy pours to seal cracks on the boy's bench and mine.
I quit around 4 and came in to clean up and change clothes. Today is out 46th Anniversary and I took the wife out to dinner. But man it's raining cats and dogs and it looks to be this way almost all week.
Tomorrow is another day.
46th good for you two. 8) 8)
I betcha them grandsons will have to point out the bench they made with you!!!
46 years, good for you two.
Congratulations on your anniversary, we certainly could find a spot for that extra rain.... :)
Happy Anniversary to you both 8)
Thanks for the good wishes fellas. The wife and I aren't big on celebrations for birthdays and such, it's just another milestone closer to something else. But we do something simple for the day like dinner or a little ride or whatever. Simple folk, right?
Today I was back in the shop early-ish and had more sanding to do and more little epoxy pours. After all the fine dust we generated yesterday I decided that I was done breathing all that stuff and cleaning up the mess. So today I hooked up a vacuum to the sanders and that worked good, but a lot of hose to manage and the hose doesn't really mate with the tools, plus I thought I could de better. SO after I did another epoxy pour I had some time and errands to run. HF had sent a me 25% off any single purchase coupon because 'they missed me' (I hadn't been there in 3 days :D). They had a small 3 gallon vac that I thought would work just for sanding. So using the coupon I got it for about 30 bucks and hung it near the sawhorses thusly:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230501_145143042.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1682980992)
It worked just great and I have zero dust on the floor and none that I can see in the air. As a bonus it plugged right in my Dewalt ROS and it also went in my 4x24 belt sander.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230501_151709395.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1682981101)
After initial testing I placed a screw hook directly over the sawhorses so it can just swing around as I move. It only has a 4' hose and I thought that would be too short, but with it overhead, it works just fine, so I'll count that as my improvement for the week. (Corporate would be proud.) It's a small vac, but for just fine dust, it will hold a lot before emptying and the paper filter keeps that dust in pretty well.
I have 4 projects working in the shop now and I am rotating through them because they all need some minor epoxy fills at this point and sanding just minor cracks and such. I have the bar shelf, the boys bench, a demo bench to use those RiteLegs on, and another 3' thick Ash bench I just started for no particular reason except maybe Howard inspired me with his demo (Please don't tell Howard!). This last I will decide as I go as to how nicely I will finish it and what type of legs it will get and in which style. I might try blind mortise and tenon with wedges for something different, or maybe try something new. I'll let the bench decide as we go along. The others just follow their own course. I did two different little pours today and maybe tomorrow some of this stuff will be cured enough to finish sand out. With the cooler temps in the shop (high 50's) overnight I am finding it takes 2 days before the epoxy is really hard enough to fully sand without melting or gumming up.
A full work day, so I count that as a win. We had another 1/2 inch of rain interrupted by 2 hours of deceitful sunshine. We are now up over 7" of water in the last 9 days. This is getting old.
On the way back from HD I found Bill's truck at the local restaurant/watering hole. Him and his guys were grabbing lunch, so I stopped in and had a beer and caught up with them. (They're jealous I could have a beer, they had to get back to work.) Me, I am just sanding and pouring epoxy and 1 beer won't hurt, might even help. :D
Tomorrow is what it is, probably more rain.
Hah, forgot to mention this because I had nearly put it out of my mind but I got a call today from a guy who wanted to know if I had winter cut mushroom logs to sell. :D As it happens, I do have some, maybe enough for what he wanted but they are for another client and I would have to cut more in the 'bad season' to refill the order (I don't cut now until full leaf out and the trees stabilize). When I found out the guy wanted to start growing mushrooms to call it a business and he could take a tax benefit, I started to lose whatever sympathy I had remaining (which wasn't much). I remarked that usually when you start a business, you have a business plan which includes procurement plans for critical materials. ;D I also could not stop myself from 'mentioning' that all my clients that want winter cut logs order them in January. (you know, like in the winter?)
I left it off that he would have to wait for June cutting time. He didn't even know how many logs he wanted.(there's that 'business plan' thing again.) I deal with enough of these folks to know that this was going nowhere slowly and I'm not gonna jump through hoops for a (maybe) new client at the expense of a long time client that ordered logs 3 months in advance.
It's spring, I should know these calls are coming, they happen every year lately.
About 5 hours after my prior post I was awakened in severe pain which I spent pretty much all of yesterday dealing with the pain and trying to mitigate it, but that's another story in another thread. Last night I had a very blessed and complete night of sleep, so today was a good day. I got up at a normal time instead of the near noon wakeup yesterday and felt much better. The problem is not gone, but I can deal with what's left. So I got a fire going in the shop and got to work on the 4+ projects I have going now. Nothing special, just routine stuff, I just wanted to work like normal after losing a full day to nothing.
For some reason I decided to do a video for my web page. I figure I will put some of these up there and maybe stimulate some sort of sales, maybe by accident or something. :D Sometimes you have to make folks think, so I figured what the heck?
Not a lot going on here, but you can watch it if you want:
Wat Up Benches? - YouTube (https://youtu.be/miOWRa7uOmc)
I did get a full day in the shop and worked on the stuff in the video and some other stuff. Probably a 9 hour day sanding, some small epoxy crack fills, some cost of sanding seal and one bottom coat of urethane. I still don't feel like I got much done when I look at it, but I did make some pro-gress.
Tomorrow is another day and hopefully I'll do better.
:D :D :D thanks for the shout out!
Just credit where it's due! I can't come up with catchy stuff on my own, I'm a Lutheran. ;D
That vac looks like the same one I have under my Dewalt miter saw, doesn't get everything but most.
Yeah, I would say 90% or better connected to the tool. Seems what get by it are the heavier crumbles of epoxy that fly right off the disc or belt. That's fine because they don't float in the air. After a full session of sanding on 3 projects I had no need to use a floor broom. I expect the paper filter in that thing to clog pretty well with the fine dust, but it still sucks! :) I would like a slightly longer hose though.
Tom,
Do you make most of your benches that wide? I've made them from about 6" wide to 18" wide but I think the sweet spot is around 10-12 inches. I had one lady buy a wide ash bench to use as a coffee table.
Real nice work joining those 3 pieces BTW. I'm waiting to see them with legs on them.
Well Thanks Howard. I like to make them as wide as I can which is generally over 10" and preferably at least 12". I like this for two reasons: A) The stability that a wider bench presents, and 2) It seems wider allows for other uses such as a small table. Also, if I am using RiteLegs, I need to have it over 12" so that there is enough room for the flange on the leg top to be covered. I did make some around 8" wide when I first started with the tenon legs and spreading the legs made it plenty stable but the width to height ratio just didn't appeal to my eye. I don't know why.
The glue up was me being cheap and I actually tried to stretch it to the full length of both boards with a fancy cut when I had laid it out and had one piece flipped the wrong way. The came came out perfect, but I had it backwards. ;D >:( Yes, I am anxious to see how a finish looks on it more than anything.
I'm moving slower today, confounded by indecisions of which 'thing' to do next. :D 4 at a time gets complicated, especially at 3 different quality levels. I still have no idea what legs I am putting on the ash slab. Maybe I will surprise myself.
Tom,
Maybe one of these days you can take a couple of slabs of different kinds/colors of wood, clamp them together, run them through a band saw and cut all kinds of fancy patterns and loops and such like they do when making wood puzzles then unclamp and swap the pieces and join the different pieces. Sounds like a project for someone in jail with more time on his hands than most of us would have. :D
On the wide benches you are correct they are more stable. If wide enough you don't even need to splay the legs out.
I had one customer who wanted the lichtenburg etched end tables for his deck so I cut a 6' red oak into 3 pieces about 15-16 inches wide and 2' long, made them mortise and tenon like I do my benches then put them on the mill and cut them off at 20"n tall. I had my friend etch them before I put the legs on. The man ordered 2 but the wood made 3 and he bought them all.
Well we've discussed on the bench thread how there are a ton of different options with these benches, it never gets old I guess. If I ever get my shop band saw put back together and working I may just do that. It would be easy work I think but a key point with the glue-up style is that the wood must be kiln dried or at the very least 5 or more years air dried. Different woods dry and shrink at different rates so unless they are completely dry, you will have issues show up months after the build is done. I learned this one the hard way and had to refinish tables a year after building. Kiln dried is the way to go with this stuff.
I wish I knew somebody around here crazy enough to do that Lichtenburg stuff, but sadly no.
I did get a coat of urethane on three of the pieces and I cut slots in those device stands and got them ready for finishing. My legs seem kind of wobbly today and I don't know why. I am feeling a bit better after lunch so am hoping to get another coat on some stuff later.
Well, just catching up here. Thursday afternoon I felt better after lunch, must have needed to eat something I guess. SO I went back out to the shop and did some second coats and also did first coats on the device stands. Still have no idea what kind of legs I am doing on that rustic bench and would like to try something new, so am pondering it a bit. Since I have learned that Tule Peak trick of thinning my urethane, life is SO much better. I do it on everything now from the get go. More coats, just thinner and no issues getting nice stuff. Thanks again Rob! I tell you it's almost as if I knew what I was doing and was a woodworker or something.
Friday I got out there early and added 2 more projects to the mix to keep me busy and did various work on each and was done by 10am. Then the wife and I went to HD, I needed some more mineral spirits and a box of screws for all the RiteLegs I will be doing in the next week or so. I looked at a new Dewalt ROS, and holy cow, they are up to 90 bucks now! Mine has a lot of hard hours on it and is getting due for a break. The variable speed no longer functions and I would love to have one for upstairs and one for downstairs because I use it so much. I was thinking 60 bucks, but at 90 I have to think on that. Maybe try a battery one? Maybe try a HF one for giggles? I'll keep thinking on that for a while.
Anyway, we got home and I did some more work and shot a quick video to use on my webpage as a follow-up to the prior one. I include it here for your amusement (or not):
Juggling 7 projects at once - YouTube (https://youtu.be/WcBKVudOIYY)
At the end of the day I didn't 'feel' like a did a lot, but I worked all day so I must have done something. ;D
This morning I got a text from Bill with he first 'official' order of the season (it's not official until I get a BOM in writing or text, everything else is just a rumor I ignore). I cannot adequately describe this text so I will include it here verbatum:
"12. 2x12x10 or 24. 2x6x10. Or. 20.2x12x8. or. 40. 2x6x8"
So I started to transcribe that to my mill order sheet and got as far as 2x12x10', 12 pieces then realized none of it made any sense. I read the whole thing 3 times and thought to myself " this looks like something I would get from a homeowner who has never built anything!" I just sent him back a text and said 'call me when you are sober. :D :)'. (for the record, Bill drinks very little if at all these days.)
On my way down to the mill I ran into Bill and Inga coming out. I asked him about the 'BOM' and remarked that it looked like a typical order I get form a homeowner. He laughed and said that's exactly what it was. He hadn't even read it as it came from the customer, he just forwarded it and after he got my reply, he re-read it and realized it was useless. Translated into English, the customer wants to make 6 garden bed frames 3"wide x 7' long x 12" tall. I never would have got that out of the BOM he sent.
But I had a bunch of EWP logs to get off the mill deck before I can switch to hemlock anyway, so I knew I really had to get down there today and kick off the season ad I suspected it would be a slow start. It was. He had left the log truck blocking one entrance to the mill and his dump trick blocking the other entrance. I could not get the dump truck started (dead battery) and wasn't going to mess with the log truck, too many levers, buzzers, and control thingies. So I left my truck in the middle of the road and carried my stuff in, no big deal. Then I found that the mill was just packed over with sawdust. I guess they were trying to get a bunch out into the bags they sell to chicken farmers and I think somebody had a party in the pile. I did find some little girl hair scrunchy things in there and stuff was all over. Too me 10 minutes to find the coal shovel. So I spent nearly an hour clearing sawdust to make things workable and then tried to figure what I was gonna do. I saw that the bunks I stack wood on were busted by a log coming over the cliff during the winter (oops) but there was still lumber on top of it that needed to be removed so they could be replaced and I couldn't drive a machine in anyway today until SOMEBODY moved a truck. So I was frustrated pretty completely.
SO I dropped into 'grab the bull by the horns mode' and the first thing I needed was replacements for those broken bunks and I needed 2x4's to make those. So I got the mill cleaned up enough to run well and rolled up a log and made 15 2x4's, then carried bout half of them to my truck and brought them home. I ran into Bill again on my way out and explained what a 'joyful experience' it had been and what I was doing. Gt back to my shop, opened the garage door and worked half outside and made 4 sawhorses for the mill about 1' tall and a pair standard height to replace a pair of mine that are living in Bill's shop now. By then it was about 3:30 and I piddled around with cleaning up and shop chores. I laid a fire in the stove for tomorrow. No fire today, too nice and warm and NO rain, finally! First 70° day this season!
Tomorrow the boys come by for a bit to finish off their bench, then I expect to head back to the mill and do more cleaning up, assuming I have access. There is always more to do tomorrow, right?
looks great. let me know if and when you want more coins. :)
Doc, I am using those coins judiciously, just putting them on nicer pieces. They really add to the illusion that I make nice stuff and know what I'm doing. ;D That one in the video I just dropped and glued it in the hole and put a weight on it overnight, then used the same tung oil finish on it for a few coats and buffed it all even. I like it better the way I did it on the bar and make a deeper hole, glue it in, then float the whole thing even with epoxy. It blends in and looks pretty dang slick. The client keeps commenting on it every time he sees it. I still have 5 finished benches (those nice Cherry ones) that I need to put these on and am really hoping I can blend them in as nice because the woods are contrasting colors. I need to remember to do these at the time of build, rather than afterwards.
Man I feel old this evening. :D I did get some stuff done today but it was like work, y'know?
Temps and weather were great over the weekend, perfect weather, I'd say. Yesterday was an easy day, the Granscon's came over in the morning and they picked out some Ash for me to cut stumps to put their bench on , we did a test sitting and they are well pleased so I sent them home with the nesessary materials to assemble it by the bus stop. Then I had a quick light lunch and headed to the mill where the focus was just cleaning and setting myself up for work. I blew the mill off good and checked some basic seasonal stuff and did a little raking. Bill eventually came by and jumped the F600 dump to get that out of the way and I took a stack of 1x12's off the broken bunks and sticker stacked them elsewhere. I replaced those bunks with some 1' high sawhorses and dead stacked the 2x4's a I left laying on the mill. They will get used very soon to make stands for roller tables. :) Bill and I had conversations about getting things working better this year and we are going to try some things out. I took a load of slabs up and filled the OWB before heading home.
In the shop I piddled around a little bit, closed up, then came in for dinner.
-------------------
I haven't needed any fire in the shop for several days now, BUT I also noticed my finishes are not curing at the rate I am used to and are not workable after 12-18 hours and need another day. So last night I tried a little experiment. After dinner I was going to apply another coat on 3 or 4 pieces, so I went out after dinner and started a fire in the stove even though the shop was 70° already. All I had in the stove was deadfall yard junk, branches I has cut up in the afternoon and stuffed in there to get rid of. Nothing over 3" diameter and most of it dry rotted. I let that go while I put finishes on and cleaned up and the shop got up to 78° in that time. ;D I choked the stove back to my normal overnight setting but sure didn't have much wood density in there at all. When I went to bed it was still 77 out there and when I got up it was 68° while it was about 51 outside. Checked my finishes and they were cured perfectly and ready for sanding or whatever. Lesson learned. I'll do the same thing tonight with more yard junk I found today.
--------------------
So today was another fine day, I know this because one of my Cats woke me at 6am to tell me, while the other woke my wife to tell her. ;D
I got out to the shop at a reasonable time to check on last night's experiment and saw that the finish on my demo bench was solid enough that I could work on it and drill the holes for the legs and put the inserts in etc. Since I often recommend RiteLegs to clients but they are (understandably) hesitant, I thought I would do a video to show how these legs go on, why I find them a better solution, and how I install them. I also wanted to show how nice these legs are. So I shot a video and although this might seem like a commercial for RiteLeg, it is really targeted to my clients so they get a better understanding of why I use these legs. I also DO like to plug the suppliers I find easy to work with and help me out from time to time. It's a relationship that is too rare these days and I admit I like to foster that. I'm just a tiny guy doing small wok, but what the heck? So here is that video:
Installing RiteLegs on a Bench - YouTube (https://youtu.be/_eZY47MkcF0)
After I finished up there I figured I was overdue to get some firewood going so I went out and tried to start the big splitter only to find a completely dead battery. It seems that when Bill dropped it off, he had cranked the engine to get the log lifter down on the ground and didn't shut the key fully "OFF", and it just drained flat. So I put that on charge (can't move it with the lifter on the ground) and moved the other stuff around as much as I could. I had a light lunch, messed in the shop with other stuff, edited that video and left it to process for an hour or two and finally got the splitter running. Nearly tore my back in half pushing the beast over to where I wanted it, pulled a trailer up, and started splitting. Took less than an hour to pretty much fill the trailer while also finishing off what was left of my back muscles (probably from moving the splitter and trailer by hand). I decided not to push my luck. I need to get back in that groove of handling rounds. Also I noticed a leak on the wedge lift cylinder, so I fixed that. I'll top off that trailer tomorrow and try to get it all stacked. We have company coming on Wednesday that will park their camper near my splitting area, so I'd like to dress that up a little with the small amount of time I have.
Tom.
I wonder if the fire in the shop is not just to provide higher temps but if it is reducing the humidity that helps your finishes dry.
No doubt Howard, but I have noticed that temp has something to do with it too. Urethans, or much else, doesn't cure/dry very quickly in the low 60° temps. at 70 or above they all do pretty good. But I think it is probably both.
I did another junk fire in the shop over night Monday and again last night. Just burning stuff that would normally go into a burn pile, so 'free' stuff. Last nights fire was just junk that falls off the splitter and I will have plenty of that. I just shove a couple of milk crates under the wedge area and they fill up quick.
I only did a little touch up work in the shop yesterday and split a trailer full of firewood and got that stacked. Ready for another round today, but we have company coming so I'd like to get that trailer loaded and at least out of the way before they arrive in early afternoon. I need to do a run to town also for 'supplies'.
Here is finished photo of that glue-up bench with the ritelegs, I'll put more in the 'watcha makin' thread.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230509_102944238.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683720278)
I still need to clean those legs up a bit, but it looks pretty good considering it was made from scraps. ;D
Gotta get to work, lots to do today. :)
Well yesterday was busy just as I predicted. Our company that was coming through CT was going to try and pick up the new legs I have coming from Riteleg but the timing just missed by half a day. So they had to be shipped. I got a call from Shaina around noon that the legs were in, passed final inspection and were being shipped out in the afternoon. So that was good news. I had gotten as early a start as I could on firewood and bucked up a bunch and split a mess up until I had a loaded trailer, then moved it over for stacking and got it out of the way of the rigg arriving in a few hours.
I ran to town to do a little shopping then came home and got a quick shower which was really needed. ;D When I came out of the house, our company had arrived. Maybe some of you folks know these fine folks?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230511_090620393_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683812622)
For those who may not, that is @terrifictimbersllc (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=11495) and his lovey wife. Dennis and Jody are enjoying a west bound jaunt across CT and NY visiting friends along the way and we were lucky enough to have them stop here for a night.
So we relaxed and hung out a bit after the 'shop tour' (which lasts all of 5 minutes) and then took a ride down to Bill's place and the sawmill. I'll let Dennis tell you about that if he cares to. For me, it's just where I live, but they were interested to see some of the things I write about for themselves. On the way back, we ran into Bill, who was not having a good day, having just blown up two tires on his equipment trailer with a machine loaded on. He had called a buddy who was bringing him back to the shop to get jacks and tools to pull the wheels, bring them back to the shop, put on the new rubber he already had, and go remount them and get it all home. He would not tell us what was on the trailer. I have no idea what time he finally brought it all home, and I didn't see it drive by.
So we went on back home and sat around talking then went out and had a pretty nice dinner. This morning I was in the shop around 7 and working on a 'honey-do' and Dennis came in a bit later. We had some coffee, and just like that, they were on the road again. I kind of envy them their drive today, winding west through the center of the Catskills and a much less traveled road. They will pass through Cooperstown and Oneonta before reaching their next stop.
It's always nice to take a day or two out and enjoy visitors and the break, for me at least, was welcome. I wish them safe travels. :)
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This morning, just for giggles, I checked the tracking number on those legs and UPS shows them 'out for delivery' today. That will be less than 24 hours since shipping. I don't know how RiteLeg does it, but shipping from them always seems to be 2 days or less. Pretty amazing since I have waited for packages from 30 miles away take a week to get here.
So this afternoon I may get started mounting them up.
It's a beautiful day in the Catskills, time to get back at it.
Yesterday the legs arrived around 1pm, so less than 24 hours from shipping and that box was around 80lbs! They looked pretty good considering what they'd been through and given the weight to handle. SO I wasted no time and got them mounted up. I had to do a video, just for continuity for those 3 people that are following along with the build.
The Bar Episode 17 - YouTube (https://youtu.be/ohmcRK2LnxU)
The rest of the day I messed with this and that and am now waiting for somebody to stop by and help me flip the bar up on it's legs. In the meantime I can finish up the lower shelf now that I can take measurements to ensure a good fit up.
It's supposed to be in the mid 80's today! Guess I'll be sweating no matter what I do. :)
Nice job. what size and where do you source your inserts and machine screws? A brad point bit may be less prone to wondering and give a flat bottom so you do not have to over-drill for the insert.
I used inserts years ago on a baby changing table. nice if you move and or for storage of items not used forever. like a baby changing table. :)
I get my inserts from Rite Leg. In the previous video with the bench legs I go into some detail on those for folks not familiar. I kind of left some of that out in this one so as not to be redundant. The inserts take a 1/4-20 screw and are .781" long, so under 7/8" and will work fine in a 1" top if you are careful. They also have a starter pilot which helps get them started straight in the hole and drops into the drill point area.
I'll have to look for a brad point drill in the right size and just leave it in the kit I have made up with all the needed tools and supplies together.
Screws I buy at HD and they can be different materials of head shapes depending on the project.
I just like using these for so many reasons that I don't think I would do attached legs like this without them. The only exception would be large picnic tables that don't get taken apart. I have done those with Rite Legs and used construction quality screws because the slabs are around 2.5-3" thick and I use a bunch of screws.
I did not see the tip of the insert, but if it is pointed then your regular bit may work better, if they are flat the brad point may help. I think I remember that now as I watch all your videos.
Well Doc, I been thinking on those drills and I'm not sure how they will work for staying on location in hardwood. Drills like that can take a jump in one direction or other when they hit denser wood and that would be really bad for this application. I had my standard 118° point drill do that on one hole in the bar legs, but I caught it quick and corrected it before I had a bad hole. I'll keep pondering that, no way of knowing for sure unless I try it. For now, I have had no issues with what I am doing. The pilot diameter on the insert tends to go down further in the drill point although it is not tapered.
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Well it got hot today, mid 80's and I am still tired most of the time. I stacked some firewood this morning until my back started screaming, then had some early lunch. I headed down to the mill knowing it would be hot, but I wanted to get at least a couple of logs cleared out. Something is better than nothing, right? The logs queued up were not so good, I got some 2x4's, 2x6's and a 6x6, very little of which will go to an order, but I need to burn up those logs and clear the deck for hemlock. Some of the 2x4's I took home to build support stands for some roller tables.
Bill was back at the shop to get gear and I went up to say hi on the way out. I finally found out what he had on the trailer that was such a secret the other day. Apparently, 3 backhoes are not enough. @terrifictimbersllc (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=11495) and Jody will get a kick out of this, it drove past the house while we were all out to dinner Wednesday night.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230512_143541425_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683925766)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230512_143516261_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683925768)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230512_143513541_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683925771)
It's a Dynahoe 190-4 and a fairly substantial backhoe loader with a split bucket. This will be the biggest of his backhoes (so far). I'm not yet sure what it needs, but it weighs in at about 23,000 pounds. ;D No wonder he blew the 2 trailer tires due for replacement. :D
After that, I came home and finished stacking that trailer load. Then my neighbor stopped in and got sucked into helping me flip the bar. :D It's pretty tall, but sitting on 2x8's, so will come down a bit. (maybe like, I dunno, 2" or so?) It is starting to look fairly acceptable. The legs looks great! I am fairly happy. Might have this out of the shop in 2 weeks or so.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230512_155413837_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683925760)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230512_155402462.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683925751)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230512_155349201_HDR.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1683926683)
I just have to put the skin coat of epoxy on top to finish the top and complete the shelf. I confess that I am considering another shelf at the stringer level that would have high sides and hold bottles or a small purpose built beer cooler/ice tank thing-a-ma-jig. I should stop those thoughts. This has gone on long enough. :D I need the shop space back.
Tomorrow is another day and I think most of it will be lost to other stuff.
Edit to add: I forgot to mention that when I was down at the mill I was sizing up my first log and figuring out the plane for it. I guess I stood in one spot too long and a flippin' bird landed on my hat! I have never had THAT happen before. He/she freaked me out a bit I will admit. I think I freaked him/her out in return. I didn't know if she/he was landing or attacking and in that instant and my arms began flying around. :D ;D It must have been amusing to watch if anybody had been watching. :laugh:
That passed and I forgot about it. A half hour later one of those horned pine beetles landed on the back of my neck looking for a log. I was less generous with the beetle and he was a stain on the sawdeck in a millisecond. :D They are busy right now and as I was milling pine, I wasn't very sympathetic. Sorry dude, you're toast. I HATE those things. :)
video of the bird landing on your hat? :)
nope.
Tom,
I don't understand the design on the bar. Is that a lip on the front? What is the purpose? So they user can keep the glasses or beer bottles/cans lined up straight? (There must be more to this drinking thing than I thought there was. ;))
I confess that I am considering another shelf at the stringer level that would have high sides and hold bottles or a small purpose built beer cooler/ice tank thing-a-ma-jig. I should stop those thoughts. This has gone on long enough. (https://forestryforum.com/board/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif) I need the shop space back.
I think you are right - put this one to bed and move on to something else. :D :D
No Howard, that's the back of the bar and it's a shot glass shelf. One would place a drain through material on there if it were a wet bar to allow cleaned glasses to dry. In this case it a place to keep shot glasses, swizzle sticks, and whatnot. I can say it was a later thought and added a considerable amount of work with the joint, trim and getting the finish right inside all the corners.
If I do that extra shelf, it will be later and a separate item.
OGH, Bill must have security cams, you sure don't the bird landing on you incident wasn't caught on tape?? :D
We just got home. Our trip took us to New Milford (night 1), OGH's (night 2), then 2 nights near Skaneateles NY (Nights 3 & 4) and Night 5 last night at SUNY Morrisville (NY), Parking lot D, after my wife's niece's graduation ceremony yesterday).
The visit to OGH's was awesome. We got to see the Woodsman Forest Products factory where it happens (tables benches epoxy shroom logs et al) , which was not quite as I had envisioned, as for whatever reason I was thinking that some of it took place at Bill's. Two stories of industriousness, the woodstove, the RV spot, dinner with Tom and Pat at the barbecue place, and then there was the visit to Bill's. And on the way out of Bill's back to Tom's, we actually got to meet Bill (and CJ). Bill asked me what I thought. I wish I had done better, I was super impressed and wanted to call a realtor to find me more of the same. I wish I had told him that. Instead, lamely, I said I can't un-see it, I just will have to deal with it. In my defense, if you can imagine a Mad Max village in a rainforest, with an almost new LT50 to keep things real, or surreal, take your pick, in a tour rover driven by OGH.....Maybe Tom can make sure Bill knows we enjoyed it immensely. Seriously, another mountaintop experience only made possible by The Forestry Forum. Thanks Tom and Pat. We had a great time.
The arrow on the sign is pointing to Bill's place, it should be pointing up, to the guy holding it.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/21495/D6A52DA5-3C03-4733-A53E-331F3A89F853.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1684094852)
Granitestate, Bill has no such cameras and I wouldn't work someplace where I was on camera all the time anyway. Sorry. His security is measured in calibers. ;D
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Dennis, thanks for the kind words. FF members are always welcome here but I am always a bit apprehensive on that first visit because I can't really meet the expectations. I have a small place with a small shop and am more of a hacker with small or no equipment. It's not very impressive at all (there's a warning for the rest of you ;D). Even my little RV spot is in the driveway and not very 'pleasant' for a lot of RV folks. So I am more than pleased that your visit was enjoyable.
It's very funny that you mentioned that comment you made "I can't un-see it". A couple days later Bill was perplexed about that and asked me if it was a bad thing or a good thing. :D I just said it wasn't a bad thing. I printed out your reply, you explained it better than I could. Bill doesn't have a computer or 'do internet'. ;D
We were very happy to have you and now that you know where we are you are welcome anytime. Even if we aren't home and you need a spot to spend the night, stop on in. You know where the hookup is and the shop fridge is handy and the WiFi should be working. The Owls will be waiting for you too, more than likely. Of course, you also know how to find Bill's place. ;D
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Routine day today here. Odds and ends. I sanded and put another coat on the bottom of that botched shelf, did some cleaning in the shop, got involved charging and fixing water extinguishers, and finally hooked up the rain water pump. The burn ban ends today and I surely would like to get my brush pile burned up. I want to have water handy for control so I don't need it. ;D I also noticed the attic temp is 120° so I threw another cookie up there to see how it dries, I should check the stuff I put up there a year ago. I think it's dry by now. ;D
Tomorrow's another day, probably some mill time, then we'll see.
OGH, I like small, med, and large caliber security cameras ;D
Life is too short for small calibers. :D ;D
Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on May 14, 2023, 04:11:04 PM
We just got home. Our trip took us to New Milford (night 1), OGH's (night 2), then 2 nights near Skaneateles NY (Nights 3 & 4) and Night 5 last night at SUNY Morrisville (NY), Parking lot D, after my wife's niece's graduation ceremony yesterday).
Hope you visited Doug's Fish Fry in Skaneateles. We are about an hour away and love running over there for lunch. Great little town in the off season.
If Bill doesn't computer/internet, how is he finding things like the last backhoe treasure that came to "Mad Max Village". (I like that mental picture). :)
Word of mouth, human connections, job site chit-chat, etc, etc. al seem to work for him. He does go to auctions from time to time but lately it's been a lot of junk for stupid money. One of his secrets seems to be that he sees something and offers cash and loading/hauling so the current owner has no hassles to deal with. He gets stuff before it goes to auction. He also keeps a rolling inventory in his head of what other folks have that they might sell, so that if a need arises, he knows where to find it. He drives back roads a lot and will knock on doors when he sees something. You never know until you ask.
Old school, but it works for him.
Quote from: 21incher on May 14, 2023, 09:42:07 PM
Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on May 14, 2023, 04:11:04 PM
We just got home. Our trip took us to New Milford (night 1), OGH's (night 2), then 2 nights near Skaneateles NY (Nights 3 & 4) and Night 5 last night at SUNY Morrisville (NY), Parking lot D, after my wife's niece's graduation ceremony yesterday).
Hope you visited Doug's Fish Fry in Skaneateles. We are about an hour away and love running over there for lunch. Great little town in the off season.
Maybe next time. First evening, we went to Dino BBQ place in Syracuse, second, we went to Gilda's on the main drag in Skaneateles. Nice when visiting and hosts pick the places.
Well I earned my beer today. ;D
I realized I have been putting off doing that final top pour on the bar because maybe I am a bit concerned about getting it right. SO last evening I gave myself a pep talk and this morning I fired up a short load in the stove of junk wood to bring the temp up but I forgot my mental notes and did not mix 'quite enough' epoxy. I got coverage, but not thick enough to get a good even flow. Still I had hopes it would settle and even out. This will all be borne out on the video which still has quite a bit of time to process before I can even upload it so, not tonight on that.
So I did what I could and hoped for the best and left it to settle and cure. Then I went to cut logs for a mushroom order that I had thought was due next week, but the client called last night and I realized it was this week. No big deal as I have most of them cut already and just needed a few more to finish the order. Got that done, went and checked some things at the mill (I need dimensions to build some roller table stands), then came home, unloaded, let the client know his stuff was ready for pickup, had lunch and went and checked the bar. NOPE, it wasn't happening and I had waves, blurbs, and uneven spots enough to do it over. Now way was it a 'final pour' and no way I would turn that over to a client. I had two choices: A) wait until tomorrow and do another pour, or 2) just mix up the proper amount and do a pour now. I opted for option two and just mixed the stuff up and did the pour. I should have waited because it took more effort (I am reluctant to use the word 'skill') and I managed to get it all flat and pretty with a lot of torch and touchup work. So again, I left the shop and went out to stack wood for an hour or so. I came in the shop to get a water and take a short break and of course checked the bar. My heart sank. A fly had gotten into the shop and found the bar. Here is what I saw:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/bug.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1684286254)
That little sucker had done a full blown quicksand routine and got himself completely covered. I actually might have left him there as a 'feature' but he made a big lump that was quite 'unattractive'. I was sick, it probably meant doing the pour one more time. But I figured "what the heck, maybe I can fix this" :D ;D. So I plucked it out with my tweezers and hit the cavity with the torch and what do you know, it all settled out flat! Accidents happen. Here is the 'after' photo of the same spot:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/52103/IMG_20230516_160824103.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1684286581)
All nice and flat and you'd never know he/she was there.
I got lucky and figured that was it for the day. I still have a little wood on the trailer to stack, but I can get that in the morning and I still had some errands to run and barely got those done before dinner. I got the video editing done and it is currently processing as I type this. I'll put it up tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow I will be ending this topic/thread tonight. It's gone on for 2 years and it's time to start a new one. Tomorrow is Norwegian constitution day and a semi-significant date in my own life, as well as the day I had been starting a new thread of my mis-steps and daily debauchery activities in years past. So I have no idea what title to stick on it and am open to ideas. Maybe some of you folks have ideas on what better characterizes the things I post here than I could come up with?
Anyway, tomorrow is another day. I'll worry about that then.
Keep the title the same and change the year. ;)
Works with the weather thread.
Easy to find something too.
Looks great Tom! Happy birthday!
Happy Birthday! That first pic with the fly looked like a pork chop on a griddle when I first saw it. There we got a food comment in already today.
Happy birthday Tom. Hope you have a good day. What kind of oil do you use to fry your eggs? there we got food and oil in the same post! 8)
I fry my eggs in butter, but yes, mission accomplished and thankyou all for the good wishes.
As promised this thread ends today and the new thread is picked up HERE. (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=122242.0)