Whatcha Sawin' 2021 ??

[Magicman]

I have no idea but they did not come from his property because his is all hardwood.  I could have asked but that would not be my nature.  The sawing contract states that "he owns the logs" which is good enough for me.  All that I am interested in is "what is the cut list".  

I have not even tried to estimate how long this job could last but I see several weeks and it could be 20Mbf.  ??  I'll just saw until he runs out of logs or $$.  ;D

[Bruno of NH]

Sawing ash boards 1x8x10
For an order of 100
Sunny and windy 26° with a 5 to 7° wind chill factor.
The wind is what gets ya.
One more day closer to spring.
WM silvertips 1.25 x .042 t7°

 

 

[WV Sawmiller]

Bruno,

   Awful pretty boards there. I love sawing ash and hate to see it getting harder and harder to find with the borers killing it all off.

Lynn,

   Understood. I just thought you might be sawing on an obvious freshly built pipeline or powerline.

    We had a new electric line installed about 30 miles from here and one of the landowners talked to me about sawing some of his pine off it but it never panned out. He was hauling his poplar and I guess maybe his oaks to a mill and selling them for sawlogs. 

[richhiway]

Nice looking lumber,Bruno. I always say the same thing, every decent day is one day closer to Spring. 

[firefighter ontheside]

If you saw my post about butternut, you know I'm working on buying a big log.  It is gonna be way too big for my mill and will need to be trimmed.  I've done a little trimming to get logs thru, but I've never cut off a foot of thickness.  How have you guys done this.  Would you recommend taking the same off both sides or would you take all off of one side and then mill slabs with one straight side and one live edge.?  I guess if I take it all off one side I can mill the piece I take off into some boards.  I'll know more when I go and look at it tomorrow.  He says it is 4' at the base, but it look like they cut it pretty low and it will taper pretty quickly to about 36".  Still too big for the mill, but a lot less trimming.

[Magicman]

The whole log doesn't have to fit.  Utilize the cantilever design to your advantage and hang the oversize portion out and then you can turn and nibble with the sawmill.  I use the clamp and turner together to turn the big'uns. 

[firefighter ontheside]

I have an LT15 which has an idle side mast, so that won't work for me.

[richhiway]

I have an LT15 which has an idle side mast, so that won't work for me.

Are you familiar with a lumber maker? It clamps on the bar and rides along a 2x6. You screw a board on each end then attach the long board to them. You can square up a big log in no time. You don't need a very long bar to just take off the sides. 
http://www.haddontools.com/Chainsaw-Attachment.html
Here is a video, this is how I started sawing.
Chainsaw Mill. Cutting a 2X6 with the Haddon lumbermaker. - YouTube

[firefighter ontheside]

Thanks @richhiway I have one.  I used it a lot when I built my house.  All my loft railing was cut from ERC using the lumbermaker, plus a big timber I made for the staircase.  I will use it to get a nice straight cut on the logs.  I was just undecided whether to take some off of both sides or all off of one side.  I'm leaning toward taking some off of each side to make the log fit.  My mill can fit a log about 28" thru the uprights, but only cut a board a max of about 25" between the guides.

 

[Magicman]

I have an LT15

Oops, Obviously I was thinking LT35.   :

[richhiway]

I like to keep the log balanced so it easier to turn my mill has a manual deck. The LT 40 is 28 inches between the guides.
I can whittle down a good size one.
Sometimes I leave one edge live.

[mike_belben]

Youre tougher than me bruno.  I dont have the moxie to stay out in that kinda cold no more. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Finished my 3rd job of 2021 today.  About 725 board feet from 12" and smaller logs, 20 of them, pine, cedar, WO.  Customer making Adirondack shelter on his new acreage.  Technical sawing it seemed.  5 hours charged time plus mileage.   A third of it was 5/8" thick cedar for lap siding. It's what he wanted.  I sawed 4x4s also out of 5" logs and split some 3-4" logs in half.   :  This customer had a Tesla car.  When I went to leave I asked if he could move it forward so I could back the sawmill up the path to turn my rig around.  He pulled a remote out of his pocket and pushed some buttons and the car drove up the path by itself.

Yesterday 1400 BF 1x8's, 1x 12's  out of 3 large bumpy pine logs 36" x8, 36" x 10, and 25" x 14'.  No trouble gobbling these up with the 70Wide. But board handling was slow, the scraps were heavy and the jacket boards two feet wide,  just customer and me.  Once we got the logs staged it was about 5 hours to set up and saw.  Before that however, the  first 2-1/2 hours of the day were spent tumbling these logs down a hillside about 150 feet or so to the setup area.  I was tired enough to go home before I even set up the mill. :

Last Sat was the first job of the year.  About 900 board feet of 3x4 and 3x5 black locust posts and rails.  The logs were 24" and smaller, and unlike many larger locust logs around here, these were sound with no hollows & ants.  Customer and I had to roll and shuffle the logs together.   :

I would rather saw than move logs.   :

But it's good business to do what it takes to help the customers get their wood sawn. Me tired, them happy.  8) 8)

Next job is for a Bobcat sales rep.   I better not be moving logs on that one.  :D

[SawyerTed]

Monday I had a new customer and my first mobile job of the new year.  

We cut about 1,600 board feet of 2x white oak.  Most was 2x10 and 2x8 all was 12' and 16'.  My customer is building raised beds for gardening and re-decking an 18' equipment trailer. He and his son were great tail gunners. 

Since Monday I've been tending to my 87 year old dad and 86 year old mom.  They are having health issues that require my attention.  Probably won't get to saw for several days at least. 

Having to reschedule several jobs. They will keep because it's awfully wet here and family comes first.

[caveman]

The week after Christmas I helped my 82 year old neighbor cut down a large dead laurel oak.  John and I decided to bring it the 1/4 mile home and saw it.  We quartersawed this log yesterday morning using the technique demonstrated by Customsawyer, YellowHammer and WDH.  It was a little challenging since the pith was not apparent at the top end of the log but we lucked out and stayed in the ray fleck for almost all of the boards.

 

 

 

[WDH]

Yeah!!!

[firefighter ontheside]

What method is this?  The modified method where you take both sides off and set aside and then cut the pith out of the middle cant.?

[caveman]

Basically the RRQS method that YellowHammer has described.  We cut eight faces on the outside of the log, cut a 2 3/8" full width board out of the center, slid the top half off onto the loader arms, took another 1 1/4" full width board and then started sawing to the widest face with ray fleck.  It was very gratifying sawing but slow compared to sawing pine or cypress siding and dimensional lumber.  The process is not slow but we were taking extra time to ensure we were getting the results we wanted.

[firefighter ontheside]

Still no word on when my engine will ship.  In the meantime, I figure I'll keep collecting logs.  I saw an ad for cedar logs.  In the picture there were a bunch of different logs in a barn.  I went today and looked.  When I walked in I thought i may have uncovered a gold mine, but what I hoped would be things like walnut, were a bunch of short pine logs and some pin oak.  I ended up bringing home 13 ERC logs, some of them around 6' long and 18" diameter.  The guy helped me carry all the logs to my trailer.  They weren't too heavy as theyd been drying in there a long time.  He told me $1 per log.  I have him $20 and headed home.  I'll be able to mill these and sell right away, as soon as I have an engine.

[DPatton]

I did an interesting small resaw job this past fall. The client called and asked if I could resaw existing Douglas Fir timbers. Of course I said I could and inquired about their size, intended resizing, and if they were cleaned and free of any nails 😆 lol 🤪 ?
 Below is a pic of the timbers. They were delivered to my mill site location by a young man that wasn't the client. He brought the timbers from Omaha Nebraska and said he was paid to deliver them to my location.  





So we unloaded the timbers onto my sawmill loader arms and the young man along with his girlfriend said goodbye and drove away. While waiting for the client to arrive I loaded the first timber onto my sawmills bed and skimmed the top face off the timber as previously discussed with the client. Then I shut off the mill and patiently waited for the client to arrive.

 My little black lab "Sadie" got in some quality retrieving time while we waited and she wanted to pose for the camera.





Turns out the timbers were full of small hardened square tacks or nails on both edges. When the client showed up we started digging and pulling nails from both edges of all of the timbers. We would end up finding 20-40 plus nails in each timber and would do our best to try and get them all. The client was well aware of my damaged blade charge and was willing to pay for the blades. We sawed two passes on each timber. The first pass was done just to skim off the old existing oxidized wood and create a new, flat, and straight face. The timber was then flipped over and a pass of the saw was made at 1 3/4" above the deck completing each piece.

Here's a couple (low quality) pics of two of the newly opened faces loaded into the clients truck.








 

During the nail pulling session I had time to ask questions and kinda get to know my client and his material a little better. The timbers were old Douglas Fir joist that had been salvaged from the historic Woolworth Building in Downtown Omaha. They were removed as part of a remodel and upgrade of the building that had taken place in recent years. He is utilizing the newly sawn 1 3/4" thick lumber to make electric guitar bodies with his CNC router. Turns out he is talented in guitar making and knows a thing or two about how to make them and what woods make some sound much better than others. I am looking forward to seeing (and hearing) some of his final product. Who know maybe some day one of the many guitar player here on the FF will own one of the guitars that I sawed the lumber for.

Thanks for looking!

[Brad_bb]

@caveman , Your figure is narrow but very dense- I'd love to have those boards.  Hopefully you get to keep them for yourself?

Sawed for the 3rd day this year, first post.  Pics colors don't do justice the bright yellow dust all over everything in the shop.  Osage cut a year and two months ago.  Still cuts ok.  Using about 1.5 bands every two logs on average.  This one was first on the mill today.  One of the large dia.  I got 5 fence posts out of this one 5"x5"x9'.


 

 

There were some butt logs in the fence row that were almost 4' dia. I didn't dare mess with those. Too heavy and too difficult to mill. Even with this one on the mill, the pith area is often split or partially hollow.  So you have to take the solid wood from outside of that center hollow.  Smaller Osage logs are solid in the middle, but the bigger they get, the more they start to spit and hollow.  They don't hollow like a cherry or other logs, It's not from rot, but from movement of the log while growing causing the center to open up from the outside probably shrinking in places.

[Cruiser_79]

Last week I cut some alder trees in an urban area for a friend, nice job with dismantling the entire trees with a cherry picker cause there was no space to just fell them. First time I took down alder, I was surprised how fast branches break. Same with the hinge when cutting, no long fibers after felling as with poplar or fir trees. 













Most of the trees will end up as firewood, the trunks I will mill and see what it looks like from the inside. Does anyone has a good purpose for Alder trees? Cause it isn't elastic/flexible it won't be good for beams etc. I assume?
For the big rounds I think I build a inverted log splitter for the forklift or wheel loader. They are a little bit too heavy for lifting on my splitter by hand... 

[tule peak timber]

Alder is excellent for furniture, mill work, and architectural mill work. I buy all that I can get. WOC

[alan gage]

Alder is a popular wood for trim and cabinets in the US. I've made some kitchen cabinets and book cases from alder and it's an easy wood to work with and I think is quite attractive with a natural finish.

It doesn't grow around here but I've heard it can be a dangerous tree to take down. Due to the brittleness they have a strong tendency to barber chair.

Alan

[Iwawoodwork]

Lots of Alder here in western "wet" Oregon and Washington. yes Alder id dangerous to hand fall, Barber chairs frequently.  Lot of furniture made from it. I understand that it finishes to look similar to Maple.