Mixed marriage at Bibbyman’s – Baker-Mizer or Wood-Baker?

Bibbyman · April 23, 2007, 08:14:42 PM

Jim, Tom-In-Mo's first cousin showed up Wednesday morning about 9:00 with our new Baker 16' 3-strand deck.

It didn't take long to get it unladed. The Terex handled the deck Ok weight wise. But it was a little awkward to get into position. I had to take it in one step at a time.

Mary expected something personal on the nameplate - Like "Special Built for Pro-Sawyer Mary" or something. But it only had a Postit Note saying "Warden Sawmill".

About the time we got it positioned, the two young farmers that rent our pasture showed up. They jumped in and took on the task of making up the two hoses that connected to the mill. We tapped into the hoses that had powered the loading arms. The deck is equipped with a couple of selector valves that are activated by 12v DC coils. Son Gabe, Mary and I worked on the wiring while the hoses were being made.

Here's what it looks like in the arms down position.

We had it fired up by noon but had other obligations after noon we didn't test it until later.

It happed that Brooke was home from school when we were ready to load the first log onto the deck. All went well. The arms lowered and the 14' oak log gently rolled onto the deck of the Wood-Mizer. Brooke says, "COOL! It's just like a robot!".

I loaded it up with about 1400bf of oak logs. The chain pulled them forward and back with out effort.

We were busy Thursday and didn't saw and we were out to the Wood-Mizer 25'th Anniversary Tour party Friday, Saturday and returned on Sunday so today was the first day we got to use it. It worked great. We sawed all morning on one deck full. It sure takes a lot of effort out of getting a log on the mill.

Any questions?

ShowMeSawyer · April 23, 2007, 08:25:13 PM

Looks great Bibby!

You might have to change the color of your mill to match the deck... ;D

SMS

Minnesota_boy · April 23, 2007, 08:27:41 PM

How does it handle it when you stack the logs 2 or three deep? I like to have stuff ready for all day. ;D

Burlkraft · April 23, 2007, 09:01:33 PM

Hey Bibby,

That looks like just what ya needed... ;D ;D ;D

I like the looks of that...You'll have to let us know how it all works out down the road. It almost looks like what I was gonna build....if I ever get my shed up... :D :D :D

thecfarm · April 23, 2007, 09:09:25 PM

Can I borrow it????? :D :D :D :D

WDH · April 23, 2007, 09:23:25 PM

How much do you expect it to improve your productivity?

Part_Timer · April 23, 2007, 09:48:11 PM

Very nice. So what mod. do you have in mind for it already. ;)

tom

Jeff · April 23, 2007, 09:59:40 PM

A good live deck is certainly an asset to any mill!

LOGDOG · April 23, 2007, 10:17:20 PM

Snazzy!!! 8)

Greg Cook · April 23, 2007, 10:46:47 PM

Looks like the color scheme for them Florida Gators.

Now if Pro-Sawyer Mary had one of them pink Log-Rite hooks....

Nice set up, congratulations !

OneWithWood · April 24, 2007, 02:39:08 PM

Is that what became if Tom's mill?

Paschale · April 24, 2007, 03:56:16 PM

Quote from: OneWithWood on April 24, 2007, 02:39:08 PM
Is that what became if Tom's mill?

:D :D :D

Whatever did happen to Tom's mill? ???

Tom · April 24, 2007, 04:50:24 PM

I don't know!! Those beams on Bibby's deck look kinda familiar. :D :D

Bibbyman · April 24, 2007, 06:40:13 PM

Quote from: Tom on April 24, 2007, 04:50:24 PM
I don't know!! Those beams on Bibby's deck look kinda familiar. :D :D

Yea but they look all shiny and new. If they came off'n your old Baker they'd be rusty and oil soaked. :D

Quote from: WDH on April 23, 2007, 09:23:25 PM
How much do you expect it to improve your productivity?

I'm not quite sure. One thing it does that we wanted it for is that it takes the hard job of cant hooking the log over onto the mill.

We had a manual mill for years that had a "dead deck". That is, the deck was level with the bed. We just rolled the logs onto the mill.

When we got the LT40 Super in 2002, we used the loading arms. We found it more of a problem cant hooking logs onto the arms than just cant hooking them onto the mill from the dead deck. So we took the loading arms off and put the dead deck back on. But big, heavy, rough logs were still quite a chore to get rolled onto the mill.

This live deck will hold enough logs to saw all morning or all afternoon - as fast as we saw. So we don't have to "charge" it as often.

I'm sure we can put logs onto the mill faster. I'm not sure we can pull lumber and slabs off the mill any faster. But maybe we can stand to saw another hour in the day.

customsawyer · April 24, 2007, 07:31:19 PM

YOU DA MAN!!!! ;D

ElectricAl · April 24, 2007, 07:48:06 PM

Bibbyman,

It's nice to see you are spending your money with several of the Forestry Forum Sponsors. ;D

WoodMizer, Baker, TimberKing, Log Rite, and many others.

That third chain will be nice for the short logs.
Not that you want to saw the short ones.
Not too many people just saw 10' stuff all day every day.

CLL · April 24, 2007, 08:48:03 PM

Congrats Bibby. only problem I can see with it, they delivered it to the wrong place. :D :D

Tom_in_Mo. · April 25, 2007, 09:00:47 AM

CLL
Ole cus knows where Sedalia is ;D

DR Buck · April 25, 2007, 12:49:33 PM

Don't look like anything a large can of ORANGE paint can't cure. ;D

Chris Burchfield · April 25, 2007, 08:18:07 PM

Dr. Buck I believe that'll take a couple of cans of the Kubota Orange from Tractor Supply. :D :D :D

sawguy21 · April 25, 2007, 08:21:56 PM

Naw, dat blue looks real purty. :D :D

oakiemac · April 26, 2007, 04:47:40 PM

I made a dead deck from old I beams. but the problem that I have is moving the log forward and aft. I can easily cant hook them and roll them from the deck onto the mill but I still have problems if they need to move forward or back a little bit. You can't cant hook them that way.
How do you all deal with this?

Bibbyman · April 26, 2007, 04:54:30 PM

Quote from: oakiemac on April 26, 2007, 04:47:40 PM
I made a dead deck from old I beams. but the problem that I have is moving the log forward and aft. I can easily cant hook them and roll them from the deck onto the mill but I still have problems if they need to move forward or back a little bit. You can't cant hook them that way.
How do you all deal with this?

The "live deck" helps some as you put them on square with the mill and they keep square with the mill as they move down the deck. The ones with a big butt or somehow odd shape may gain a little when coming down the loading arms but it's not as bad as they did when rolling them on a dead deck.

How we deal with logs not centered well on the mill?.... Well, if it's not too far off and we can get it up and leveled ok, then we'll take a slab off and turn it. Take another slab off and turn it. Now we have a cut face down and a cut face against the back supports. We raise the roller toe boards and roll the cant/log to where we want it and let it down. If the log is short and not on both rollers, we have a 6' rock bar that we stick under it and lever it forward or back - at least far enough to get on the roller toe boards.

oakiemac · April 26, 2007, 06:46:13 PM

Yeah, I have problems keeping them square. Some logs want to get crooked then go on bad and need to be moved a little. A long pry bar would probably help.

BTW-Nice deck. Have you got any firgures on increased production yet or is it too early to tell?

Bibbyman · April 26, 2007, 07:12:36 PM

Quote from: oakiemac on April 26, 2007, 06:46:13 PM

BTW-Nice deck. Have you got any firgures on increased production yet or is it too early to tell?

I kind of answered that a couple of post back.

I'm sure it will speed loading logs onto the mill - plus only have to load the deck about half as often. But I don't expect to see too much increase in overall production as we still have to do everything else. It's just one more hard job that's been replaced by mechanization. :