Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[NewYankeeSawmill]

It's so hot here, I'm spending time doing odd jobs in the house.

Seems like I'm spending way more time as PapaTed than SawyerTed the last week or so.

I know you cherish every minute of it! She's precious!
The tree's can wait. She'll be grown some day.

[Magicman]

It finally sunk in that I have the next 5 days OFF.  I am in the process of reactivating my 50' water well that has been inactive for the past 32+ years so I will be busy but......

I am also thinking about the Weber Grill and that something needs burning. 

[caveman]

Being a good Papa is one of the most important jobs anyone can have.  There will be time for sawing when it cools off a bit.  

[WV Sawmiller]

  What? Now you tell me Labor Day doesn't mean you have to go work? I guess I missed the memo (again  ).

  I've been in caregiver mode for several weeks since my wife had a total hip replace 4 weeks ago tomorrow then our closest/dearest local friend died the week before last and that took up most of a week so I am working off a backlog. 

   A many times repeat customer is a builder but can't find off-bearer help so I end up sawing solo when I saw for him I charge more and it works for both of us. He told me a few weeks ago he had 20 poplar (tulip) logs at his camp he wanted sawed into 4/4 when I got a chance so I loaded up and hooked up and shuffled 15 miles to his camp in a gated community (most of which he built) on the Greenbrier river. Usually I stack and sticker but this time he said flat stack it as he is going to put it in a building on the site. (Turns out he built a big garage then added a 2-3 BR apartment he rents as a VRBO which he says does real well. It should - its private and a beautiful site.) I just noticed you can see the roof of it in the 2nd picture below.

Here are the 20 logs. At least 2 turned out to be hickory Nearly all are 10' long with a few 8'. None will make over a 12" board and few do that.

  No speed records. I got a leisurely start and did not get the first log sawed till around 10:00 am. At the end of the day I had about 780 bf as shown in the background. The bigger stack is 10' and the small stack is a couple of 8' logs and a few boards I salvaged off the longer logs/cants. I'm ready to start in the morning and left the cant on the mill to harass/deter and thieves although this is a ridiculously secure area and the own is sleeping in his cabin 300 yards away and can see the mill from there.(BTW- his cabin is nicer than most people's home. It is elevated about 8' and during flood stage the river runs several feet deep underneath.
At the end of the day there are 7 logs left plus the cant and 3-4 flitches to be edged still on the mill. I expect to finish around noon or early afternoon

[Wlmedley]

Looks like a nice place to work.I spent a lot of my childhood on the Greenbrier river.My grandpa had a camp on the river and that was where we spent a lot of our free time.A little community called Anthony.Learned to swim there and how to row a boat.

[TimW]

The title of this post is skinny blades.  I put this 1&1/4 inch blade on and it dipped in the second cut.  No knots.  The log was cut about 2 years ago.
The blade is a hair over 1".  I took it off and put on a 1&1/2" blade and no further dipping.  Maybe it's time to put the 1&1/2" guides on and trash the 1&1/4 inch blades.

I'm cutting 8 foot 4x4 dunnage for my welding shop's outgoing loads.

[beenthere]

Maybe it was dull, and not a result of the blade width? 

[TimW]

Maybe it was dull, and not a result of the blade width?

It was the second cut right out of the resharp box.  I had another blade, before this one, that popped off after it exited the cut.  About the same width. So I quit 1&1/4s for the day and then got productive.  Oh yeah.......the 1&1/4 before the popped blade......, broke.  All from the same box, and not many cuts on any of them.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I went back about 8:30 this morning to yesterday's site and finished sawing about 1:00 pm. Total yield was 1339 bf for the 20 logs. On the way back while towing the mill I met a big UPS box truck on the steep, curvy mountain which was a little dicey but he backed up to a wide spot a curve or so back and I was able to pass. 
I started this job with a brand new pair of leather work gloves.

They look pretty ragged now. I guess I need to have a helper more often when I saw (or stop buying cheap HF gloves. )

[Old Greenhorn]

Howard, with those HF gloves the term "YMMV" is an understatement. I buy those by the dozen and many have failed just like those in your photo. But I do like and prefer that glove style. I wish HF sold them in an XL size so I could slip in my wool glove liners in the winter months. That makes the prefect work glove (for me). 
 But every once in a while you get a pair that holds up for a while. I can get the same glove style from Madsen's on a 'per pair' price for about twice the cost (which still isn't a lot of money) and they generally last a LOT longer. I get my XL's from Madsen's. But yeah, those HF's with some pairs, I get a day or two out ot them and they are shot. 
 OTOH, you can cut off the cotton stuff and use the leather for door hinges on the out house in a pinch. Just sayin'.

[doc henderson]

Tom, "in a pinch" in the outhouse.  Is that short for pinching a loaf?  

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I buy the packs of 10 for under $10 IIRC. They are not high quality but they hold up just about as long for me as the $15-$20 pairs of name brand gloves to.

[Old Greenhorn]

Howie, I buy those gloves from Madesn's to get the XL's for winter use and they hold up pretty well. The get $4.95/pr which I think is fair. I put in an order to them once a year or so. They are a local shop in NW WA and don't really have an 'internet presence' per se. You can download their PDF catalog, look it over, make your buy list, then call them up and place your order. It AIN'T amazon. But on the other side of the coin, the guy you talk to on the phone can answer, or find out the answers to any questions you have about size, fit, feel, or whatever. They are good folks in the store, not in India. I buy my Hickory shirts there, my logger jeans, my flagging, my wedges, my crayons and holders, logger tapes, and a lot of other odds and ends. I always enjoy placing an order with them because I feel like i chatted with and old buddy on the phone when I am done. If I get through school tax and insurance billing this year with any money left, I will be sending them and order again this fall. I need a new hat, some shirts and other stuff.
 I liken my experience with them to when I was a young boy and we would get the L.L. Bean catalog (way before it was the L.L Bean that it is is now and was just an outfitter), I would sift through the whole catalog and pick out my one or two 'big wishes' then save my allowance and earnings to make those purchases. I still have my first pair of Bean boots, the Maine Guide Hunting boot. I don't think they honor the lifetime guarantee they had when I bought them, but I don't expect to wear them out before I die anyway. I don't wear then that much. Good boots, but they aren't very warm, even with the sheepskin soles I bought with them back in 1971.

[SawyerTed]

Several years ago I visited @Southside in Virginia.  There's stuff I learned from that visit that I didn't know I learned until later.  There's also stuff I knew immediately that I learned something extremely useful.  

Something I learned from Jim and his crew was that the cheap stretchy fabric (I hesitate to say spandex) gloves with nitrile coated palms and fingers last as good as any gloves.  These are the $2 ish per pair gloves and less in bulk.  I've had $15-20 gloves last less time than the nitrile coated ones. 

I had just bought a variety of leather gloves in search of just the right kind of glove.  So I felt compelled to use them up. There's a few pairs of mismatched leather gloves around and one pair of high dollar insulated Tillman gloves around now. 

A about an year ago, I finally bought some of those nitrile coated gloves.  Unless I'm handling something like shingles or lots of concrete blocks, I won't use any other gloves now.  

The thing that kills leather/goat skin gloves is the moisture in the green lumber.  The moisture softens the leather, then the abrasion of the lumber kills them. Nitrile gloves are waterproof.  Hands stay drier too

[Southside]

The real origin of the "Spandex Sawyer" has been revealed, all the others are copycats. 

[SawyerTed]

@Southside sorry for revealing your secret! 

[dougtrr2]

That is the style glove that I use.  I tried expensive ones and they didn't seem to last long enough to justify the price. I got a very good deal on those gloves at Lowes and number of years ago.  They were on clearance at 53 cents per pack of 3.  I bought all they had, 18 packs.  

Doug in SW IA

[barbender]

 Those gloves aren't the only spandex Southside is wearing, though😁

 I like the Milwaukee version. They last forever, and that's what I wear 95% of the time in the summer. 

 Around the mill, I've been trying to wear "impact resistant" gloves. I've gotten sick of smashing my fingers with 20' oak planks, and then having to endure the nearly year long ordeal of my fingernail falling off and growing back. 

 I bought a pair of Mechanix impact gloves. They were expensive but lasted a long time. I'd buy another pair but I've been struggling to find the same model.

 Like the rest of you, I'm not going to spend $35 on a pair of gloves so I can look cool. But if they actually last and protect my hands better, then I'm willing to cough up the cash.

[jpassardi]

I have gone to the thin coated ones as well. With the thick leather ones you have no dexterity. I like Milwaukee also and 3M have performed well for me.

[SawyerTed]

Sawing lots of framing lumber - mostly crosscuts.





Sawmilling has been slow so I took a carpentry project to fill in the blanks.  Too hot to fish...

A friend of my customer's and me stopped by.  He's a new sawmill owner and his day job is a construction site superintendent.  

He said, "Nothing worse than a sawmiller trying to be a carpenter!"

I said, "Unless you're a straw boss trying supervise him."  

[WV Sawmiller]

Ted,

   Are you using fresh cut framing or KD it?

[SawyerTed]

I offered my lumber.  Customer's business is paying the bills son it's all kiln dried, box store quality.  He's picking up the materials so it's a crap shoot on this mess.  

Here's a 2x8x10.  Reckon the top saw had a little wobble?  

[fluidpowerpro]

Sawed yesterday for a guy that has his own circle mill. The logs, white pine, were to big for his mill so he had me cut them down to a size he could handle. He said his mill was a Frick and it could cut about 15" max.

My mill is rated to up to a 36" log and I often wondered if I could actually do it.
Well, I found out. Yes I can, but it isnt fun.
All the logs were big. 32-36".

[TimW]

Yep, shoehorning logs on the mill makes a long day. 

[Southside]

BB is just jealous because in the words of Agent J, "the difference between you and I is that I make this look good"