Whatcha Sawin' 2022 ??

[Jim_Rogers]

I charge by the board foot of lumber produced. If I have to trim a log with a chain saw, I charge for my time doing this extra work.

Jim Rogers

[terrifictimbersllc]

I wouldn't be trimming logs shorter for a customer unless they didn't fit on the mill.

[78NHTFY]

fluidpowerpro--with equipment I have which includes skid steer, log deck and LT 40 manual with added-on hydraulic loading arms, and working alone, I figure 1 hour per log on average.  That includes loading log onto saw deck from log deck, sawing, stickering by hand on ground or on platform placed on skid steer forks, disposing of off-cut slabs, removing sawdust, cleaning up machines at end.  I typically work no more than 1/2 day at the mill; too many other demands of my time.  I work slow & steady and get it done.  Last night after dinner, from 6:30 to 8:30pm, sawed two 14" x 10' white spruce logs which turned into ten 2x's, some 8", 6" down to 4".  Before leaving, loaded mill and log deck from PATU forwarding trailer with 6 white pine logs, so am ready to saw immediately (after fully lubing the mill which I always do before sawing).  Listened while sawing to Red Sox sweep Tigers which made it doubly enjoyable.  Enjoyment 100%, stress 0%.  Hope my experience is helpful to you.  All the best, Rob.

[Magicman]

Oh Wow, I just went and looked at my next sawing job which is for a professional home builder.


 


 


 
25 tree length Cypress logs from 38' to 60' long.  The butts ranged from 20" to 28" with no butt flairs.  The butt end will be bucked to 20' 3" and we will work the tops out depending upon what they will saw to meet his cut list.  The butts will all make timbers and side lumber.
I will start this job probably the 2nd week of July.  20' 3" means no operator's seat and no umbrella. 

[fluidpowerpro]

In hindsight, I think I need to factor in the size of the wood being cut. These RO boards at full 2" were really heavy. The 14.5 footers I could barely offload by hand. Most often I had to use the skid steer/ forks for the boards and slabs. If I was sawing dimensional 2 x 4's out of pine, it definitely would have been easier and faster. Regardless, I need to improve.

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

  Wow! Let me get a new bibb!

  Do you need to remove the rubber bumpers on the ends of the mill for the extra working length? I sawed about 80 20'10" cabin logs last year and had to do that.

   Just consider the walk along as part of your fitness training for Colorado this Fall. Maybe you should ask the customer to put them on a slope. :D

[Nebraska]

Time wise that was probably about what I would have in that job with my set up. Especially if I include cleanup time/moving and  stickering time.  I have good support equipment  and a similar mill.

[Old Greenhorn]

FPP, I thought about your question since you posed it, I don't think your 10 hours 'leaves a long way to go.' I think that is fair. I have a 328 (less HP, no log loader, and manual board handling) and I could do a log an hour but not for long if it were hot and it had to be a good log.
 Like you, I worked in industry all my life and time is money, so you try to same time (or in the case effort/expense) by being as efficient as possible. I found I spent a lot of time setting up logs for opening cuts with no toe boards, dogging the log, and making rotations. Also, some logs you have to stare at for a few minutes to figure out how to best mill them, and that can take time. So I concentrated on streamlining those steps. 
 Also how I edged boards and when was an area I improved in over time. Taking boards off, and then putting the back up for edging was not always the best way, but always took the most time. One of the nice things about a manual mill is you can "feel" the cut and can adjust your speed with that feedback. On the bigger mills you have a lot more HP, but you lose that feel so you sometimes have it cutting slower, or faster, than it could/should be, losing time or quality.
 Handling steps are important too. So with your machine I am sure you pull the forks up to the mill and slide your boards onto that then bring them to the pile as a batch. If not, consider that.

 It just takes time to figure out what works for you. Keep at it, but don't rush it. When I run the LT50, especially in the beginning, almost all the things I killed myself doing on my mill went away. But I still had to read the log and create a plan for each log, handle slabs, move the lumber etc. It was like starting over and I was very slow. Even on the LT50, an hour a log was a good day for me as I figured it out. Now I can do 4 bigger logs in about 2.5-3 hours and I am happy with that, but I keep working at my methods and I know that will continue to improve. Still rethinking things in many ways. I will never crank out product like MM, CS, TT, and YH. My goal is to get it done the best I can, and my best is still a work in process. If you just think about it and evaluate each step as you go, you will find your own epiphanies along the path to make you faster. Just keep at it. You are making pretty wood.

[boonesyard]

I think the first thing that needs to be identified when comparing sawing and handling rates is what you're sawing. You've identified that you're basically handling slabs alone.  A completely different efficiency and sawing rate vs 2x's, 1x's, light lumber. It's always a good thing to be trying to tweak our efficiencies, but sometimes extra time is the only answer. 

I charge by the hour when sawing and handling large, heavy product. 

[fluidpowerpro]

Thank you all for your feedback. With every job I'm getting a better idea what's possible with this mill and my equipment so I will only get better. Either way, I enjoy sawing so all is good.

[richhiway]

 

 
I just turn the slabs off the mill and roll them onto the tractor forks.
Flitches to be resawn are stacked on the horses.
Finished lumber is slid off the mill onto the tractor forks.

[richhiway]

 
<b

I know you all share the feeling but I get a big kick when I need lumber and just get a log and cut it.
12' 4x4 for the top plate on the planer shed. 
When I want good beams or posts I always flip 180 and check that I am sqaure with the rest on cuts 3-4.

[Wlmedley]

FFP l couldn't have cut those logs in one day. With my mill I couldn't make any money cutting someone else's logs.I have been making a little but use my own trees.Basically I have been selling lumber for what I could get for the tree if it was delivered to the log yard.I have no way to haul enough logs to make it worth my time and gas plus yard won't buy off people without 
logging credentials.I enjoy sawing and when I get to tired I quit.I make enough to buy blades,chains ,etc and being my mill was fairly inexpensive should pay for itself by the time it has a couple hundred hours on it.Plus I have all the lumber I need for any project I come up with.

[richhiway]

 

 
and there is that 4x4 I needed. 
a beautiful day here in upstate NY. everyone have a great weekend. Rich

[richhiway]

 

 
Good help is hard to find. These two just want to swim in puddles and eat wood all day.

[Wlmedley]

I've got a fellow wanting 650' of 1x4 pine.The only pine I have is pitch pine but I've got some pretty straight ones and I priced lumber at .75 a board foot.Got 180' out of one log so I might have enough logs on deck.Not making a lot but gives me a reason to saw.Should make $100 today if I get half of it cut.Looks good so far.Seems to stay straighter than poplar.

 

  

[richhiway]

 

 
Cut out my rafters this afternoon. Now if I can get Bridget to lay them out and hang them for me.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Wow - nothing added here for a week. Must be getting hot or a holiday or something. :

   A guy got off the graveyard shift and brought me 2 walnut boards about 3" thick X 18" wide X 5' long to be resawed and split down the middle. A quick and easy job and he was happy. I usually just tell them no charge and I'll get it off them on the next job.


Today a guy brought me 5 locust posts to square into 4" X 5". I was able to get 7 posts for him but some of them had bad spots from hollow heart and such. The guy was a repeat customer and seemed happy with what we got and understood the wood would only make what it did. I did not get a before or after picture of the posts - just the slabs.

[Magicman]

Wow - nothing added here for a week. Must be getting hot or a holiday or something.

Yup, I could be sawing and I have two previous customers kinda "stomping at the bits" but we are still at the Cabin sorta taking it easy for a few days.

[KenMac]

I don't post on this thread regularly because y'all think if there are no pictures it didn't happen. But I will add that I stopped all advertising about 6 weeks ago hoping to slow down for the summer. I'm about caught up (only have 56 pine logs to saw into 1x's at my leisure) so I'm not looking for much business right now either.

[caveman]

Yesterday, after pulling some heart pine out of the hot box to set the pitch, I planed a cypress live edged slab.  I noticed that it had little brown streaks with ambrosia beetle holes in them.  I've never seen ambrosia cypress before.


 
We probably won't be sawing until after 7/20.

[WDH]

That is quite interesting.  I have never seen ambrosia streaks in softwoods.  

[burdman_22]

Was contacted about a tree (red oak) that blew down in a cemetery. A coworker of mine was cleaning it up for free since the cemetery fund wouldn't cover hiring someone, but he wasn't able to do much with the bigger parts of the tree and wondered if I wanted it. The lower parts looked pretty nice, so I was able to get a 10 ft and an 8 ft log out of it, each about 35 inches or so in diameter. 

The logs were too large for me to handle, so I cut them into chunks and then hauled them to Kentucky to mill. Was able to get about 1200 board ft of quartersawn and rift sawn 1x6, 1x8, and 1x12 lumber out of it, which will be the flooring in my cabin (the 1x12 that I use for flooring will be ripped down to 6 inches).





Wife out of town, so two of my kids were able to help me out a bit.

 



 

 



 



The following are all 1x12. I was able to get quite a few very clear boards out of this bunch, but even the ones with knots didn't have many to speak of.

 

 

 

 

 

[Walnut Beast]

Looking good 👍

[ladylake]

I don't post on this thread regularly because y'all think if there are no pictures it didn't happen. But I will add that I stopped all advertising about 6 weeks ago hoping to slow down for the summer. I'm about caught up (only have 56 pine logs to saw into 1x's at my leisure) so I'm not looking for much business right now either.

I quit advertising around 5 years ago and still too busy, most time when I get calls now I tell them I don't have logs.  I still do custom jobs but string them out.  Steve