My timber frame build

[Magicman]

That is a beautiful picture.  In time, it will be more so. 

[Ljohnsaw]

Best laid plans ...

Got up this morning with plans to T&G two pallets of 2x8s. Beautiful clear, calm morning.  Moved the sawdust trailer over to my neighbors cabin where there's power. Moved the MP200. Moved my flatbed with a pallet load. Got all the extra stuff out of the cabin basement (roller tables, dust blowers, power cords) and set everything up.

Flip the switch, nothing. Check breakers - basement is dark. Tree crew working across the street. I go ask them if they had PG&E turn the power off for them or did they drop a tree on the line. They said no

Go to PG&Es outage website. Unexpected power outage affecting 50-499 customers. No ETR. Great.

Two hours later, the expected return to service is another 2.5 hours away.

On the plus side, my logger confirmed that a load of 16s will be here around noon or so. The 25s will probably come on Friday.

[GRANITEstateMP]

That's great news that the log truck is headed your way!

[Ljohnsaw]

The 16s have landed, the 25s should be here Friday morning. 

Five logs and he said something about scaling around 5,200 bd-ft. I had grumbled a bit that the last load had two logs that only made blocking they had so many huge knots. So he knocked out one log. Anyhow, that big one is 42"+. Should get some good boards out of these.

[Andries]

There's a race coming up here...

John on the mill making lumber
John checking the snow report.
John on the edger, then checking the weather report.
T&G and yup, what's El Ninã up to?

Finger crossed for a long spell toward fall.

[Old Greenhorn]

Andries, I think that race started a week or three ago.   Following John's build for a couple of years now I think his weather can change at the drop of a hat and the season can be over 'just like that' and he has a lot of winter prep to worry about too that is much more than a day or two's work. I think I (and many of us) know how fast his head must be turning now to hit his goals.
 As a very interested spectator I can't wait to see the peak of that roof closed up.

[Ljohnsaw]

I loaded up the top right log from above and milled it today. Got twenty six 2x8s and three 2x6s, 602 bd-ft. This was the worst log. It had some huge branch nubs. About a third of the boards have big knots that will end up being cut out making shorter boards. But still usable.

I upgraded the wheels on my lumber cart.

Then I loaded the bottom right log. Could barely lift it with the SkyTrak, 36" diameter. Mill it in the morning.

[Stephen1]

Great photo from above John. 
I'm hoping he has the same weather we've been having in the east. Best September in years and it's still looking good for October. His Fall weather season is quite short, Boom its winter. 
We all have good thoughts for you John!

[Ljohnsaw]

Update 10/6/2024

With lots of help from my nephew in law, Justin, we got the above pig done. It had a smaller ceramic insulator deep inside that wasted one blade and a bit of time. It yielded this addition to the stack of 34 2x8s at 725 bd-ft. The part above the layer with 5 boards.


Tried to move this monster on to the mill in the evening but the SkyTrak was overheating so put it up this morning. The rear was pretty light!

It was 42" x 48" on the flare end that I had to Bibby off.

It made a few wide slabs and three 8x39 cants. My mill really didn't like making those 39" cuts in a fairly dry log. That's Justin milling.

So far it yielded 36 2x8s at 768 bd-ft.

There will be a few more when I get to the slabs tomorrow. Unfortunately there were two metal strikes of some huge spikes deep in the log. Used 4 blades so far on it.

Had a couple issues with my mill. I think I need to change the fuel filter. Engine died and then wouldn't run full throttle. Shook the fuel filter as it was only 1/3 full. Now it run good again.

The head raising was binding at one spot so much so it popped the short first stage chain off a few times. I have telescoping covers for the ACME threaded rods and the one that is closest to the sawdust discharge had an inch of ATF soaked sawdust clogging the threads. Cleaned that out and all good now.

 Even with the issues, a VERY productive weekend! 

[Magicman]

Will some of this be for your rafters?

[Ljohnsaw]

No, too short. Haven't heard back yet but the 25' logs are supposed to come today. Those will be rafters. The finished 4x7 rafters are 23'-1-1/2" long.

Kinda hoping they come on Tuesday so I can get the last big 16 done and out of the way.

[Stephen1]

Nice stack of lumber. Glad to see the pile is full again. 

[Ljohnsaw]

So the 25s didn't come today. Supposed to come tomorrow. But so is some dirt! Actually, dirt delivery all week. I'll detail that once it starts filling in.

The two big slabs from yesterday didn't yield anything good. The wide cuts were too wavy. The two little slabs gave me 3 more boards so that log gave me 831 bd-ft.

The last big log was up this morning. The blade is at maximum height, about 4" down from the top.

I ended up breaking two old blades taking slabs off. So I was using sharp blades! I opened each face, took it off with the SkyTrak to rotate on the forks and set it back on the mill. The log calculator says it weighed about 5,600 pounds. I cut it into three cans of 8x31. My mill throat is only 14" so I had to remove one.

I flipped the remaining two upright and started cutting 2x8s. The blade just kept diving and rising. After three not great cuts, I pulled those 6 boards and stickered them. I remembered some discussions about cutting a log from the bottom of the tree, not the top. So I flipped the two cants 180° (end for end). Cut way better! Still some minor waves but that's because there were some huge knots.

I have the third cant loaded ready to slice up in the morning and two slabs to edge.

[Ljohnsaw]

I got up early as today was the day! Logs and dirt.

While waiting, I sliced up the remaining cant from yesterday. Got another 11 boards so the total so far is 35 with two slabs left to process (3-4 more boards). Crazy grain - no wonder I was having issues! But I found if I FLOOD the blade with pinesol and water, it would cut pretty good.

I was loading the first slab when the first load of dirt arrived.

I wanted to fill in this area to level it out and will become the start of my woods road. Looking north.

Looking south. Hard to see on my phone but it is very uneven and sloped. Had to place lots of blocking to level the Genie so I could use it.

Currently I cross my neighbors property through here. Looking easterly.

And this evening, looking north.

Looking south. Need to add more and ramp it down.

Was supposed to be 6 truck loads. Fill dirt with rock in the 6-8" range. I lost track. Probably somewhere north of 15? They just kept dumping and running! Some of the rock look bigger than 8"!

They said they were done when my logs showed up at 1. But then one more. This evening, mostly leveled. They say more will be ready on Monday.

Nice whack of logs. Bigger than what the owner said he had and just what I wanted.

Stopped for lunch and one more load of dirt arrived and was gone before I could walk up there.

[Magicman]

Oh boy, if you were a monkey you would be a "busy monkey".  As it is, you are just "busy".  I am loving watching your steady progress.  

[Stephen1]

All that before lunch!! I'm tired just reading about it. 
Carry on John

[Ljohnsaw]

Today I move more dirt to finish the ramp on the side of the cabin so I can dump slabs and edging on my burn piles. Also will need it to pull my camper out before Halloween.

I finished that 16' log - total of 38 2x8s.

I milled most of a 25' log - second from the right because it was the easiest to reach. So far it made 9 rafters (4x7). Look way in the back at my mill. There's two 4" slabs that should make three more and a few 2" slabs that will make a few 2x8s.

I briefly thought I should put these up tomorrow. But after stacking them, I think I'll put them up next Tuesday after they loose a little weight! Also, I want to mill out all the rafters ASAP.

[Ljohnsaw]

The two 4" slabs didn't work out so well. I only got one more rafter as there were punky spots in the rest. The 2" slabs had checking going through them so more to the burn piles.

Today's log was a little bigger and promising. But it had some punky-ness going on as well. Got 6 rafters, would have been 10.  So the count is 16 of 27. Four more logs to go. Was pulling out the next one for tomorrow when a hydraulic line started spraying, only when max pressure.

So tomorrow will be a short day. Figure out what is broken and get it to the hydraulic hose shop for a replacement. They are closed on the weekend.

My Quick Attach on the tractor bucket is more of a Quick Detach! If I push down the bucket, it pops off. Looks like the plate is too tall. I'll compare it to my forks which are really hard to get off. So the bucket goes home tomorrow for some work. I also want to add some side angle pieces to the plate to make attaching easier.

The person in charge of the road work excavating is going to stop by tomorrow morning and talk about getting more and later, some cleaner fill that I can use to finish the top layer of my road. Despite the rocks, this is some good stuff. It actually packs down unlike my moon dust.

[SwampDonkey]

At least the rocky soil will drain good, not that it matters when your on a peak of a hill. The place here is full of rocks below a foot of top soil. I've never had standing water here in the heaviest of rain in almost 60 years.  Even the ditch here has never held water. There are two culverts, but they are dry culverts, I have two entries.

[Ljohnsaw]

Sorry for the radio silence.  Let's see if I can get you all up to date.

So I welded on my bucket last Saturday, a week ago. Brought it back up last Sunday to test. Made lining up the QA much better. Some other extra metal helps but I can still pop the bucket off.  But, much better now. 

Also, put the new hydraulic hose on the SkyTrak.

Came back up Tuesday and made some rafters. Wednesday was a washout, rained all day but used the time to make up a new laser for my sawmill. SUPER windy that night.

Thursday made more rafters, total of 30 but a few will likely be rejected. Loaded another log to make more but ended up hitting lots of metal so quit for the day.

Friday almost finished a 54 board pallet of T&G. 

Saturday at dawn, I finished them up when my nephew, Justin showed up. We swapped pallets and processed another 55 boards (rip to width/straighten on my table saw, groove, flip and tongue).

After cleaning up and putting stuff away, we pulled out the tools needed for rafter installing.

Sunday bright and early, we got right to work and cut and installed 9 rafters before quitting at 5:30.

Weather outlook is fair days with cold nights through next Sunday. I'll keep plugging away!

[Magicman]

That was a wonderful update.  I am only a cheerleader, or maybe more accurately a cheerer, but I am rooting for you all of the way!! 

[Stephen1]

I agree Lynn, We are all cheering you on!
hoping the good weather holds for you

[Ljohnsaw]

Hmm, made an update last night but not here.

Anyhow, got 6 more up for a total of 16, 12 to go.


However, I kicked 6 blanks to the side with defects. Need to mill a few more.

[jeeper9574]

Looks great! 

[Ljohnsaw]

Yesterday I was able to make 4 good rafters and get them up before dark. I had to move some dirt to level out another area for the Genie.

Today I broke down the monster log into 4" slabs. I have 8 rafters left to put up and made 9 NICE blanks. The remaining 4" slabs will become stringers and stair treads. Go big or go home!