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Sawyers

Started by Seth, October 06, 2002, 06:41:42 PM

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Seth

 Hi fellas
  My name is Seth and I am a Sawyer at Wieland&Sons Lumber Co .I work at the Muscoda WI plant.The mill has 100'log deck toMellot rosserhead debarker.The headrig is left hand.carriage is a 36"Cleereman with on board log/cant tunners,and a Mellot# 5 chain log turnner,56" inserted tooth(9/32kerf) circle saw spun at 650rpm, 150hp at arbor.the carriage drive is Cleereman 100hp hydo drive then to the Crosby 6x48 board edger and Knewman trim saw then the 100'green chain. We saw about 100mbf a week . Just thought I would let you know where I come from. Seth

Tom

Glad to meet you Seth.  We have production mill sawyers here too and I'm sure they will be comparing hardware and sawing and business practices with you before long.  

You'll find that we are not all business nor a bunch of stuffed shirts.  There is lots to learn at this place and a lot of education on the hoof.  Foresters, loggers and sawyers alike as well as teachers, woodworkers and businessmen.  I hope you take the time to read old posts.  You will find the flavor of the board a lot quicker and I promise you will enjoy the read.


Seth

Thanks Tom
 I am looking forward to meeting everybody at this forum. Seth

Kevin

Glad to have you join us Seth.

Tom,
That`s not quite true.
We do have one stuffed shirt.  ;D

Bro. Noble

Hey,

If you're talkin about me,  I'll admit my shirt is a little stuffed, but since I'm back to logging and milling it's getting a little roomier.  

Noble
milking and logging and sawing and milking

Tom

Ok.............Who's got the stuffed shirt?

Good food doesn't count Noble. It's the Pontificator we're looking for. :D :D

Seth

Heres a picture I took atop of the yard truck while laying out some  White Oak stave logs


Fla._Deadheader

Now there's something you don't see in Fl. When I lived in Arkansas, My fellow logger and I got into a BUNCH of good stave logs. He got out the splittin mall and axe and said let's start splittin.
  NO WAY. Let's get all we can bedded today and tomorrow we'll split them the easy way. He just KNEW I was nutz.
  Well, the next day I pulled up to the bed with my 1 ton flatbed and this "Rube Goldberg" hydraulic wood splitter that I had built from used stuff.
  It had a 2 way shaft, stuck out both ends of the cylinder, and would split 40 inch long logs.
  He laughed at my rig, but, after taking 2 loads of split bolts to the Marshall Stave mill, everyday for nearly 3 weeks, he laughed no more!
  Boy, did we make some bucks with that project!!
   Kinda miss the logging, but, NOT the DanG ticks. Nearly killed me, TWICE !!!   Harold
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

Weekend_Sawyer

Welcome abort Seth,

Nice weekend operation ya got there  ;)
Imagine, Me a Tree Farmer.
Jon, Appalachian American Wannabe.

Bibbyman

I've split and loaded a gazillion staves in my youth.  I hear tell that the stave mill in New Florence, MO. is the largest and most automated in the world.  I think they go through something like 50,000 bf of white oak logs a day.  Can't find anyone there that remembers splitting staves bolts.


PS Seth,

The 25hp 3ph motor on our Wood-Mizer LT40HD25E probably ain't as big as the motor on your dust blower. Hard to imagine.
 :o
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Jeff

YuP Noble, Stuffed shirt. I'm sure he meant you. DanG near positive. Couldnt a been anybody else. That Kevin, he's always pickin on you. why is that? :)
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Seth

Tom
 There is only one way to saw and that is for grade,quality over quantity. The main species that we saw are Walnut(4/4 through 12/4)50% of our production, along with red/white oak and Hard Maple and Cherry.We also have a woodmizer 40 with handles the veneer rejects and crotch wood and spaltied Maple.We also take care of all the custom work at the Muscoda mill.

 All of the stave logs are sold to a company in Caledonia,Minnesota  

Jeff

There is more then one way to saw young Seth. 24?
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

ARKANSAWYER

Seth,
  Gald to hear that you have a WoodMizer for a back up saw in case you go down.  I worked on one of those big saws for a while and could saw in a hour what I do in a day now.  But I am now having a whole lot more fun now.  Do you ever saw on the WM?
   I like to see clean neat log yards, makes me want to go clean up mine. ::)
   ARKANSAWYER
ARKANSAWYER

smwwoody

bibbyman

What type of production do the orange men clame on this mill?
Full time Mill Manager
Cleereman head rig
Cooper Scragg
McDonugh gang saw
McDonugh edger
McDonugh resaw
TS end trim
Pendu slab recovery system
KJ4WXC

Seth

Jeff
 You don't have to have gray hair to be a good Sawyer, If you can name a more profitable way than sawin for grade.I would like to here it. Even if your sawing ties or 1/4 sawing,Mof grade or high recovery. 7x9x8"@$18.00 grade tie you don't leave Select faces on it do you? The money is not in 3b and cants.
 The main Mill in Winthrop, Iowa saws 90 mbf a day GRADE sawing, Inovec 3D scanner and setworks are worth as much as our complete mill in WI. Iowa mill-19 degree slant 36" Mcdonough LP carriage,6' band head rig feeding a 6' Mcdonough linebar(graders run the cant inspect line positioning the best face to saw) all running into a optimized edgar. Seth

Jeff

Seth,

I never said anything about good or bad sawyers. I said there is more then one way to saw. A good sawyer will find the most profitable way to saw. This can and will depend on his markets, log quality and other variables. There was a time in the early 80s when you could not sell a grade red oak board, but you could sell cants. If we would have sawn our oak logs into grade during that period we would have been broke. We could not have sold the lumber. Sawing them into cants allowed us to run with timber and logs we had, still make a profit and stay in business.

A good sawyer will continue to learn even when they have grey hair. I learn new things from others with more or different experiences constantly. I continue to find new ways to do things and better ways to approach things. I have been called one of the best sawyers in our state by Pete Greives, former director and founder of Michigan Association of Timbermen but I have never thought that myself because I learn so much from my peers. I think they are the best.

Being inflexable and only doing something  "one way" will make you right when the variables fit that situation. When those variables change and you are still doing things that one way, odds are you aint doing it right anymore.

One of our mills saws mostly northern hardwoods, one saws mostly aspen. Grade aspen markets are up and down. When sawing aspen when the grade markets are on the decline production will out way trying to find that grade board.  Example:
Mess around and saw 12,000 feet in a day to upgrade 2000 feet of that total from 300 a thousand to 340 a thousand or run flat out and saw 20,000 feet and putting it all into 300 a thousand lumber. Sawing the grade in this example made you 80 bucks additional by sawing out the grade. Sawing flat out generated an additional $2400 in revenue.

There is more then one way to saw.  
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Bro. Noble

Isn't it still a sawyer's 'rule of thumb' to get junk logs off the headsaw as quick as possible?  

With our little set-up we cut a lot of logs that don't have any grade lumber in them.  Sometimes this is because of defects and sometimes because of species.  We cut the logs because they need to be taken out to improve our timberland.  We can still make a little money on them especially if they will make a tie.  What won't make ties goes to a scragg mill and then resaw and into pallet boards------Quantity rather than quality.

Noble
milking and logging and sawing and milking

Jeff

Thats the point I am making Noble. You have a log that wiull make a tie. You can sell the tie. This paticular log also has a 1 common board on 1 face. If you cut the board, then the log is not big enough to square for a tie.

More then 1 way to cut. Cut it for that 1 grade board and throw away what you can market, or cut the tie you can sell and be on to the next log, which may be a log that is of better quality and will saw enough grade to be profitable. We saw for profit. Be it grade or whatever.

Right now soft maple is not profitable for us to saw out the grade. We are low on aspen, we have orders that have to be filled, and to do that they will take the soft maple in place of the aspen. So, we are sacrificing any grade that may be there to fill orders and maintain a profitable existence during a slow market period. Those mills that cant do that disappear. Our mill has been here since 1971.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

smwwoody

Soft maple grade????? ???
soft maple makes 2 things around here

Ties and fire wood
Full time Mill Manager
Cleereman head rig
Cooper Scragg
McDonugh gang saw
McDonugh edger
McDonugh resaw
TS end trim
Pendu slab recovery system
KJ4WXC

Jeff

Yup, soft or red maple grade.

Here is a link to the soft maple page of one of the brokers in our area. One of my clients websites I built and take care of.

http://www.budres.com/maplesoft.shtml
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Tom

Well, I have grey hair! :-/ :-/

I don't know how to get into this conversation because we don't have what you guys call "Grade" logs.  I have to make good boards out of oversized water oaks with mineral stain and nails and fungal stain and bug holes.  I do my best but.....well........you know the story about a "silk purse".

My logs are anything from pretty pine to small ornamentals from someones yard.

My logs have to be cut up into what the customer wants and I have to do it while he's looking over my shoulder. It'll be a 1x12 one cut and a 2x4 the next; then he'll want the 1x12 split into 2 1x6's ::).  It's a good thing I have grey hair, I guess.  It taught me how to handle situations like this without getting all flustered and make the customer happy too. When you're sitting in a 3x3 sawbooth and you're whole world ends 6 feet in front of your nose,  being a 'good' sawyer has a lot different conotation than when you have to earn your wings every 5 minutes or your company fails.

I've cut ugly, knotty, rotten, ant infested, dirty, lumpy cedar into valuable slabs and generated 'artistic' pieces for customers that will be worth much more than a "grade' board from a production mill.  I may not cut thousands of feet of them but every foot is just as important as the same foot of FAS oak.  I think, sometimes, that it may be more important, because I made money out of something that most high faluttin' sawyers would have kicked off of the deck.

One thing my time on earth has taught me is that it isn't a good idea to talk in absolutes.  

There was this Dr's office manager who had to call the plumber to get a leak fixed in the Dr's office.  The plumber came, fixed the leak and rendered the bill.  The office manager showed it to the doctor.

The Doctor rushed to the waiting room and said "Two hundred Dollars!!, I'm a Doctor and don't make that kind of  money".

The plumber replied, "Yeah, I know.  I didn't make that kind of money when I was a Doctor either."

So, What I'm saying is that you have to find out where the money is to be successful and it is usually where nobody else wants to be.  To be good means that you enjoy doing what nobody else wants to do and will stick with it and do it right.  There is no "One Way" to do anything.


Kevin

I don`t even look at what I`m sawing, I just saw to keep from freezing.  ;D

Tom

Nah, you have to look at where you're feet are or you'll fall off of one of them little hills you got up there. :D

Fla._Deadheader

If my (bad) memory serves me, didn't I just read a thread that pertains directly to this thread?? Something about listening to the elders with an open mind, or something like that??  heh heh  Harold
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

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