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I set up last night in front of this stack of logs. The customer is bucking them at 20'10" so there is no extra room to play with when sawing. I removed the rear bumper and bought myself an extra couple of inches and next time will remove the front bumper for even a little more.
Gotta remember to take some pictures of the hacking and stacking part this time.(Image hidden from quote, click to view.) Also the crane getting it onto the mill, because my gear ain't big enough to handle this one.
Quote from: WV Sawmiller on March 11, 2021, 09:12:35 PM I set up last night in front of this stack of logs. The customer is bucking them at 20'10" so there is no extra room to play with when sawing. I removed the rear bumper and bought myself an extra couple of inches and next time will remove the front bumper for even a little more. WV, That is how you do 20'10". Here I thought 20' 6" inches was tight. Thanks for the tip.hugs, Brandi
Quote from: Bindian on March 11, 2021, 11:48:11 PMQuote from: WV Sawmiller on March 11, 2021, 09:12:35 PM I set up last night in front of this stack of logs. The customer is bucking them at 20'10" so there is no extra room to play with when sawing. I removed the rear bumper and bought myself an extra couple of inches and next time will remove the front bumper for even a little more. WV, That is how you do 20'10". Here I thought 20' 6" inches was tight. Thanks for the tip.hugs, BrandiBrandi, Thanks for asking. You do them very carefully! My mill will cut 21' and has two black marks looking like pieces of black electrical tape- one at the front and one at the back of the mill. The logs have to fit exactly between those marks. Too far forward and you can't get the blade in the wood. Too far back and it won't finish the cut and that is a long way to back out of a cut. Even 1/2" over and you can't get your blade in or out of the log. I removed the rubber bumper at the end that is held in place with a cotter key and that gave me about 2" more. I noticed there is another at the front and I will remove it next time. That should actually let me cut 21'4" or real close to it. Other concerns are the logs must be cut/bucked perfectly square or there will be an inch or two extra unexpected length to contend with. Also when you rotate the log for the second cut (I only had to turn once since we were doing live edge cabin logs) if you are not careful they will crawl forward or backwards a fudge and get over the line. When you load the logs you also have to raise the head and pull the debarker all the way out or the log will hit them. Once on the bed you can raise the toeboards and roll back or forward to adjust but they are very heavy. I had it with me but forgot use my Magic hook for it but if you raise the side supports all the way up and hook to the end of the log and a side support when you lower the arm you can pull the log backward a little. You should be able to pull it forward using the same technique from the back end starting with the side supports partly lowered, hook to the front end of the log then raise the side support and that should pull it to the rear. I think I have seen pics of the MagicMan moving logs forward or back this way and I will try it next time. BTW - 21' slabs and flitches are heavy too! Lacking the pair (or more) of burly, mentally challenged off-bearer helpers we needed we generally needed 2 of us worn out, broke down old men to carry each one to be stacked. Finally I just started sliding them off on to the bed of the mill or loading arms. When finished I'd raise the toeboards to full height giving us 5-6 inches of free space for the tractor forks to get under and lift and remove first the log then we'd do the same thing with the flitches. I do not like having anyone driving heavy equipment like that at and over my mill as a poor operator can easily tear something up but the neighbor with the tractor yesterday was very careful. Yesterday was just a concept verification day and it took us about 30 minutes per log. With properly bucked and staged logs and good help we should be able to do 3-4 per hour. I'd start at the center and make a mark 3" above and 3" below dead center to leave/take the 6" LE log from the middle. Heart checks had to be turned horizontal to the cut or the crack would show in the log when used. From my mark I'd come up 1-1/8" at a time (we were saving true 1" side lumber) till I had the face width I wanted, stop and set my SimpleSet for 1-1/8" drops, saw off side lumber to my mark, flip, start at 6" from the bed and raise and repeat so I had the 6" log left in the middle. I had to raise the appropriate toeboard a little on the first cut to level the heart then remember to lower it once I flipped the log or I would leave a long wedge and ruin the final log. Its not rocket science but it is tedious and heavy work.
Brandi, I tried to convince the customer to cut them to 20'6" so I had 6" to play with but she keyed on that 21' max and decided she needed that extra 4" of house space I guess. I guess I'm lucky she left me 2" of play. If she'd known about the bumper space she would have left them 21'. We pushed these with the toeboards up. It is much easier on the second turn when you have the sawed face resting on the toeboard than the round edge like we started with. We did not have a fancy telehandler to work with. I think the MagicHook will do what we need but I forgot about it yesterday. Straight logs don't shift as much as crooked ones. Maybe Marty Parsons will read this and have WM make a log shifter attachment for the mills to fix this issue and if it makes any money he will send us some of it. EDIT/ADD-ON: All they have to do is provide power to the toeboards.
WM does have powered toe rollers available. @Stuart Caruk put them on his mill.
with those you do not need off bearers, just cut through the cant, go to the high speed and toss them off the end of the mill!
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