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2x6 sawing questions

Started by barbender, July 23, 2021, 07:41:04 PM

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barbender

Hey fellas, I'm looking for advice from some of you more experienced sawyers. I'm sawing a pile of finished dimension 2x6, so 1.5x5.5". I have a bit of a conundrum in how to go about it to saw them and get good production. I have medium size pine logs, say 14-18" tops. If I'm a good boy and take jacket boards down to a 5-1/2" cant, centering the pith, I end up with such a pile of flitches to edge on the mill (no edger😟) that it really slows things down. Not to mention, with a cut list that is all 1.5x5.5", it is really clumsy edging that stuff imo when you have flitches that vary from 6" to 14" (at least with my methods). If my cut list called for some 8"-12" it would help, but it doesn't. Also, if I edge a wide flitch into 2 boards, I'm still splitting it in half and inviting crown, aren't I? I tried splitting a couple logs into oversize cants, and then "stress relieved" them by trimming them to width. That took care of the crowned lumber, and the excessive flitches, but wrestling the two cants around to trim them (I do them one at a time, with the other waiting on the loader arms) is time consuming as well. I'm just trying to saw the truest rough sawn lumber I can as this won't get planed it will leave the mill and go directly into a building.
Too many irons in the fire

moodnacreek

Trying to get all one product from the same logs is not always the way to go especially without an edger. At times I can hold an order off until another one comes in and i can combine the 2 but again it is the edger that saves me. With the size logs you have at least you will have wide 6" cants. and should have 2 5 1/2' faced boards to be edged. What is in between should be 2 x 8 0r 10" to put on sticks for the future and that's why I have so much lumber on hand.

barbender

That's the problem I don't really want any lumber on hand right now😊 At this point I just like to fill orders and send it down the road.
Too many irons in the fire

Magicman

Yes, you are sometime splitting a flitch into two boards and they may crook, but at times it has to be done to recover more than one board from a flitch.  At least you are some distance from the pith and the flitch contains no juvenile wood.  One board per flitch normally would not crook, but the rest of the flitch is waste.

Oddly enough, I do not dread edging on the sawmill because I am still making production.  I always edge a log's flitches before I saw the next log, just part of the job.  I do not nor will I ever have an edger.

If you are sawing for a customer, you may consider adjusting your sawing rate to make up for wasted time and lack of production.  I don't but it is an option.  Maybe hourly rate would be appropriate?


 
This whack of framing lumber that I sawed this week is an example of what can be done.  The 20's on the bottom are (73) 2X6's with only (2) 2X4's.  The customer only wanted 2X6's and that is what he got with only those (2) 2X4's sawn from two odd flitches that would not make a 2X6.  Dropping the opening face down only ¼" will usually produce a 2X6 rather than a 2X4.  Of course most face opening are made to reach your targeted cant so they are not "adjustable".

From the 16' logs, he only wanted 2X4's so even if a flitch might have made a 2X6, it became a 2X4.  It was what the customer's cut list called for and that is what he got.  I just picked up a couple of stickers.

It is nice to be able to saw the dimension lumber that the log wants to yield.  Nice but not always a reality.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Southside

I saw your post earlier and have been trying to think of a better solution but as was said, getting one product from a log is always a looser, one way or another.  Not having an edger just makes it harder.  If your pine is like mine then the juvenile part will be full of knots in addition to such "stable" fiber.  Sorry, I can't offer anything better.  

At least it's not hot, dry, and dusty there.... >:( 
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barbender

Wellness we just got a nice thunderstorm that knocked out the power and probably dropped 1/2" of rain, so thankfully that should deal with the dust for a day anyhow. It was nasty, "southern" hot today, my helper and I were not loving it👎 
  Magic, I've seen you say many a time that edging doesn't bother you because it's part of the game, and I'd agree except for the fact that I saw alone most of the time. That doesn't change the fact that it is part of the game, but it seems like I spend 75% of my time at the mill edging. I hate everything about it, having to reach across to pull the flitches off the loader, flitches getting tangled up with each other, etc. I feel like I'm pretty good with the mill until the flitches make a fool out of me😂 
Too many irons in the fire

Dan_Shade

My flitch handling improved when I started flipping 180° when opening the second face. 
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lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

Magicman

I should have noted that there is a big difference between sawing/selling vs custom sawing for a customer.  Since all of my sawing is the latter, my reply certainly leaned in that direction. 
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

WV Sawmiller

   My edging sounds like the MMs. I nearly always edge the flitches against the cant they came off. It might be more efficient in your case to stack similar sized flitches together and edge them together to reduce your labor and time expended. 
Howard Green
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longtime lurker



 

I've done them this way in similar sized logs before - kinda sorta given equipment variations - but it should give a reasonably straight edge on the deck with most of your flitches and you'll be able to get off some 3 or 4 x 1½" out the edgings quick. 3 x 1½" is the standard size for roof batten here so it moves all the time. Sawing off the lathes just above the clamps will make for straight boards and if they're going into a job straight away by the time they're trying to crook again under drying stress they'll be locked into a structure and going not real far at all.
You might loose a whole two 6" boards out your flitches by sawing that way but what you get will be straight and it'll be quick cutting.

*Actually ignore the drawing and stack your flitches with the tallest ones to the outsides, you'll be able to get another 5½" if it's there, then x4, then x 3 as you drop down ifn you wanted.

But yanno I'm not a bandmill man and I've sawn a whole three pine logs in my career so take it all with a grain of salt.
The quickest way to make a million dollars with a sawmill is to start with two million.

Bruno of NH

I edge right after each log like MM.
Its not bothering me as much anymore. 
I will still get another edger at some point and won't let cost sway my decision. 
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OlJarhead

Just a thought but have you advised that it will shrink when it dries?  I always advise my customers of this and suggest 1/8" over minimum to account for it.  Different species dry Differently but I find that a good rule of thumb. 

When milling just 2x6s for a customer who does not want anything else, and on their logs, I open with a 6" face so my first flitch will make a 2x6.  Then I drive for a CANT that will produce a number of 2xs with no waste.  Thus may mean I have to mill off a 2x12ish off 1 or both sides and split it but I will do my darndest to make sure not to split the pith.

Logs do not produce all No.2's and better so you try to get the most production of the best you can but have to accept the above rule too.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

Resonator

Make two piles of lumber as you go. The center cant cut ones use for stud framing lumber, and the jacket ripped boards for blocking, doubled up studs, etc.
Under bark there's boards and beams, somewhere in between.
Cuttin' while its green, through a steady sawdust stream.
I'm chasing the sawdust dream.

Proud owner of a Wood-Mizer 2017 LT28G19

tawilson

Quote from: Resonator on July 24, 2021, 12:43:03 PM
Make two piles of lumber as you go. The center cant cut ones use for stud framing lumber, and the jacket ripped boards for blocking, doubled up studs, etc.
I've been cutting 6 x 1.5" studs out of hemlock. I've got a couple skids of nice straight boards for studs and another smaller one of stuff that didn't want to cooperate too much for the other stuff. On the flitches, I cut them up for stickers till I get the 6" stud. I cut my stickers at 1 x 1.5" anyway. 
Tom
2017 LT40HDG35 WIDE
BMS250 and BMT250 sharpener/setter
Woodmaster 725

barbender

My customer in this case did a lot of milling over the years with his Dad, who had a decent sized circle mill. They sawed many thousands of feet of lumber with that ol girl, more than I ever will. All that to say, he is well acquainted with green lumber and shrinkage.
Too many irons in the fire

Andries

Edging on the mill always seemed haphazard if I edged each logs' flitches as we go.
It seemed a waste of time (and good wood) if all the different widths of flitches were stood up next to each other. Line 'em up, clamp, cut, sort, flip, pull sumpin' out, clamp . . . . . DanG, this just isn't working for me.
Hmmmmm, what wood Jake or Danny do?
So, I set up some wide sawhorses to set aside the flitches, according to width.
When the sawhorses got full, or if a cant was just screaming to be used as a clamp, all the same size (sorta) flitches got stood up, edged, flipped and edged again.
The flitches that were wide enough to split were all in a bunch and that made for more cut-list product.
The flitches that were too narrow for the cut-list, well, I've never had too many stickers!  :D 
LT40G25
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barbender

My experience is the same Andries, and I've also had a set of sawhorses for flitches. Shoots, if I'm in small logs that only yield 1 3-1/2" can't, I'll pitch the cants off until I have 3 to saw at once. However, I'm sawing 16' material right now and it gets pretty unwieldy😬
Too many irons in the fire

Nebraska

You know some of this is why my slab rack is two big steps from the mill. If it's a long piece  I can pivot it til it hits the uprights,slide it along the top a little then flip it onto the pile without  having to lift the entire weight. It can be firewood if it's nothing special.  Otherwise if there's decent wood there  I set them back on the pallet forks  to edge them  in a batch.  Like mentioned above.   I'M not selling any wood, just cutting what happens along for my own use..So I don't have try to save every bit just the good enough stuff.

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