Whatcha Sawin' 2023 ??

[TimW]

Ya, the other day I was thinking about how it seems nobody asks me to saw when it's in the 50s and 60s, but then also realized that the last few springs in MN, that would have only been within a 1 week window. No spring anymore, we go straight from winter to summer.

We have always had 4 seasons down here in Texas....Winter, Pre Summer, Summer, and Post Summer. The secret is do everything in the shade. smiley_clapping
                   hugs,  Brandi

[jasonb]

I don't really know how you southern boys do it when it so hot. 

Sooner or later I will make it into the A/C.

[Nebraska]

 

 

Nothing special just some Cottonwood 2x6's, just a little whack, but I did get some sawing in. I've got another 12ft Cottonwood log on the mill now, just started it  then I  got called out so I'm done for now... The sawmiller is low on gas anyway. 

[Larry]

Sawing spalted maple rescue logs and these interesting patterns showed up.






What does it look like to you?

[Resonator]

The sawmill version of the Rorshach ink blot test. :D

[APope]

freudian knot...

[Magicman]

I finished this job and then sawed the "customary" ERC logs.  It seems that 'bout everyone has a stash of ERC out behind the barn.


 
Mostly junky ERC timbers/posts.


 Mostly junky ERC lumber.

I sawed Poplar, Red & White Oak, Pecan, and the ERC for a total of 6047bf.

My plan is to be off for the rest of the week and spend a bit of "Cabin" time. 

[Larry]

freudian knot...

I had to look that one up.

"Freudian Knot The Contradictions of Racialized Masculinity in Chester Himes' If He Hollers Let Him Go"

It got far to deep far to fast for this country boy. :D :D :D :D

[Stephen1]

A Baboon face

[RetiredTech]

plan is to be off for the rest of the week and spend a bit of "Cabin" time.

 Sounds like the perfect plan to me.

[cutterboy]

Larry, an angry horse.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Its a cuttlefish swimming rapidly away from a predator or in pursuit of its prey.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Today 2560 bf in 9.5 hr overall time on site, with customer on a skid steer and his buddy helping, mostly 1-1/4" x random width maple and oak.  He's going to use it for concrete forms.   3 blades hit metal.  1 hr drive from home.

Logs were mostly not very straight and 12-25" diameter x 8-16 ft. Lots of pushing them around in the dirt.

I set up away from his log pile and skidsteer brought logs over several at a time. Logs needed front end trimmed and some cut in half, they did that once they got their chain saw running. 

30 minutes in, customer  broke both clamp-on forks.  He had a friend tree service drop off a strange looking scoop that went on front of bobcat and was able to pick up waste and finished boards.  Says now he knows what I want and maybe we can do 4000 bf next week.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Today was 30 miles from home, new customer.  Logs in 2 places.

7:30-noon, setup plus 1260 BF of mostly red oak, some 2" live edge, 6 6x6's, and 1-1/8 random width for flooring.
Moved the sawmill to second spot, 45 minutes. Then had lunch, leftover Italian something from yesterday.
About 1:15-4:30, another 700 bf of 1-1/8 RW ash for flooring, and packing up.

Charged for about 1920 board feet and 0.8 hr hourly for the sawmill move, plus mileage, 4 blades hit metal, and sales tax.
Very pleasant customer and helper, a good day.

We have Canadian wildfire haze here, but it is better than breathing sawdust.  Hoping it rains.

[richhiway]

 
<b
r>More siding today.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Today was a good day, but it didn't start out so good. Customer had logs at four different places. I was pulling in to the first place, and felt some resistance, put the truck in four-wheel-drive, but it just didn't help at all. This is what I saw when I got out to look.


 

The Woodmizer was up to the axle in a hole that was at least 5 feet deep. Problem was we didn't have any boards that were long enough to span the 3 foot long by 2 foot wide cave that opened up under the tire. However, we did have some cedar logs. After some work with the rear idle side jack, and two other jacks,  I got the tire raised up high enough to get a makeshift raft under it, made of three cedar poles ratchet strapped together. Tom Hanks would have been proud and escaped his island earlier if he had these. A 3 foot 2 x 12 on top of these for insurance, then lowered the sawmill onto this bridge, and drove out. .

 

 

Here is a picture of the hole with a bucket load of rocks dropped in it.

 
By the time I got the sawmill moved to the driveway, as I did not feel adventurous enough to pursue other areas on this lawn, it was 9 o'clock, an hour and a half after I first arrived.

Things went very well after that. We sawed up sassafras, white cedar, and red cedar, a fragrant total of about 1450 board feet and I drove out at 3 PM. I decided that the misadventure at the start of the day was not the customers fault and did not add anything to the invoice for it. It was a beautiful day, the Canadian smog was gone, and I got to work mostly in the shade. I also got a nice tip.

[WV Sawmiller]

TT,

   Now that is different. Glad you you got out with no apparent damage to your mill, truck or by-standers.

    I started out with an 8:00 am appointment 55 mils away for a repeat customer.


 

 
You can barely see the tree length logs scattered in the tall grass. They were mostly hemlock with a couple of cherry logs topped off with a big 16' red oak. I worried the oak might overload my recently replace hydraulic motor but it just dug in raised it slowly and steadily. We were sawing dimensional lumber with the customer choosing 1-3/4" for the thickness. Only 2X6 and 2X4 and the rest as true 1" boards. I mostly saw full thickness so this was a mental challenge to add the different fractions for the kerf. I bill my 1.75 X 3.5 and 1.75 X 5.5 boards as that actual thickness. I had the customer bucking logs and dragging them with his tractor and 4-5 helpers all the time and they were all good so there was almost no wasted/lost time. We sawed 2200 bf by mid afternoon. The last 2 times I sawed for this customer we finished in the dark. In fact last time when I thought we were almost done I heard a chainsaw crank and rev and a tree fall and he brought several more longs. : :D It was good to see him and his team again.


 

 
This big Red Oak looked rock solid till I got inside and we lost 6-7 2X6s which is always disappointing to the customer who worked hard to cut and buck and load the log and to me to saw it. I charge on actual yield and not for the waste especially in cases like this where there was no indication ahead of time.


 

 
The lumber was stacked on assorted trailers and hay wagons the customer, a big local farmer, had available. The trees all blew down in a big wind storm several months ago.

   It was a very good day with no problems with the mill. I did remove the little aluminum guard rail the slides in and out on the arm as the plastic keeper broke on my last just and I have not fabricated or bought a replacement part yet. I need to do that this week I guess.

[Southside]

By chance is @Jeff in your area with his backhoe TT?  He may be digging stealth holes at night.  ;D

[Ianab]

he Woodmizer was up to the axle in a hole that was at least 5 feet deep

Weird, but we would have "Tomos" like that open up at the old farm. The underlying ground was old sand/mud stone with a layer of later (but still old) compacted volcanic ash of varying depths. You would get springs coming out of the hillsides, and flowing down unseen between the layers, eventually appearing down in the bottom of the gully. All fine until one got eroded enough to fall in, and make a hole like that. 

One time we had a couple of calves missing, couldn't see them anyplace in the paddock. Only found them by chance when walking by checking random spots and heard them calling from a tiny hole. Had to basically "birth" them out of the hole with a rope. Another one we found when the G/F wanted a small pen made behind the house for her horses. We had a large excavator there doing other track work, so the easy solution was to have him drive some solid pointed posts into the ground. No problem, until he puts the bucket on one, it goes about a foot into the ground, then basically dropped almost out of sight. "Ahh, lets not put the pen here". Fished the post out with the thumb and we went to plan B. The hillside above and below the spot collapsed over time, but the driveway to the house (and the road below must have been compacted enough that there was no problem there.

[beenthere]

terrifictimbersllc
Suspect the hole could be an old septic tank or cistern, or the "tomos" as Ian suggests. 

[WV Sawmiller]

BT,

   Maybe this is where the old outhouse used to be that TT found. At least the customer has a good place to dump the sawdust. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Jeepers Dennis, that sucks! I think I would have been madder than a wet hen. You are a better man than me and that was a nice elegant solution to get you out. I think that property owner has some work to do finding that stuff and fixing it. The price you pay for nice sandy soil I guess. Glad there was no damage to the mill.

[Resonator]

Problem was we didn't have any boards that were long enough to span the 3 foot long by 2 foot wide cave 

You know it's a bad day when a sawmill falls into a hole in the earth, and does not have the right size boards to get out. :D
Glad you got out OK.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Log availability has saved many a sawmill. :D :D :D

Thanks guys, I had no explanation to offer the customer yesterday now I do.

I was thinking of Magicman when I took the photos. Best photos are when things are bad.

I'm still trying to summarize my thoughts on the psychology of the moments yesterday.

[Ljohnsaw]

How was it that your truck front tire, which weighs much more, didn't break through? That would have been a bit more difficult to recover from!