Whatcha Sawin' 2019 ???

[Magicman]

The skidder showed up and drug the tree up the hill.


 

 
And positioned it nicely.

 
Sand?  What sand?


 
All that I see is that it needs measuring.


 
And maybe the buck line needs a bit of brushing.   :

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   Looks challenging. :D 

   My thoughts/concerns on this project you are doing are about the quality of the housing if these guys are slapping up green beams as fast as you can produce them. No reflection on you as you are producing what the client wants but I wonder about the construction quality issues. I guess time will tell and I have certainly lived in worse places I bet.

[E-Tex]

8/4 by 28"-32" wide Pine slabs.  Customer making a large table for herself.  She sold 5 slabs on facebook while I was milling!

Turbo 7°'s  cut wide, smooth, flat, and fast!!!!




 







 



 




 

a little warm today!!!

[Old Greenhorn]

The skidder showed up and drug the tree up the hill.
<

OK MM, all due respect, but 'DRUG" (or dragged) IMPLIES that the log would be above the surface. This appears to have been 'submarined' up the hill

[Magicman]

Depends upon how far South that you are to use "Colloquial" English.   :



 



 
I was glad to get that tree bucked into 11' logs.  



 
So glad that after showering I enjoyed a Catfish plate with Turnip Greens and Cole Slaw.  

[Magicman]

Funny thing happened this afternoon. I previously told about the project managers for different buildings competing for timbers. Well yesterday one needed six 4"X 8". I bucked them yesterday evening and sawed them this morning. Another project manager scooped them up early this afternoon so guess who probably was badly ticked off when he discovered "his" timbers gone. He will probably have something to say Monday morning, but I only saw. Whoever gets them is left up to them.

Well it got even funnier.  I found out today that after the Big Guy got the timbers and hauled them to "his" building the Mexican crew "stole" them and used them on "their" building Saturday.  I kinda wondered Monday and Tuesday what had happened and then today the Big Guy was needing 4"X 8" timbers. :  :D

[caveman]

I finally sawed a little this afternoon.  It was not without challenges.  A guy stopped by yesterday evening wanting several dark, rustic, one inch thick, one live edged pieces at least 10" wide.  I did not have anything that appealed to him already sawn.  He is going to use it outside so I suggested that I pull a live oak log out of the pond and saw it.  We have had a considerable amount of rain lately and my attempt to retrieve a suitable log without getting wet were fraught with failure.

First I drove the tractor into the pond as far as I deemed reasonably responsible without coming close to any logs.  Then, I took an anchor off of my offshore boat and began dredging the bottom with it hoping to snag one and pull it close enough to pick with the tractor's forks- no dice.  At last, I got into the canoe and attempted to get a rope on a log but they were too deep so I bailed out and felt around with my bare feet until I located a suitable log that felt like a live oak on top of a pile several feet below the surface.  A rope was cinched around one end and it was dragged up and to the shore where a chain was then wrapped around it and extracted from the pond.

I was a little apprehensive about how well it would cut since lately, unlike most who are using them, I have had  a real difficult time getting our turbo 7's to produce flat longleaf pine boards.  The oak, even though it was felled almost two years ago, sawed like it was dropped today.  The wood sawn today was much flatter than the last longleaf I butchered with the same new blade last week but still not perfectly flat (I guess it is time to go back to 4° bands).  The wood had incredible grain and thankfully the customer was ecstatic.  Most were 14- 16" with one live edge.  The pictures do not accurately show how vivid the figure was.


 

 

 

 

[Southside]

So does this mean next year at Jakes we are going to have a class on tree identification using one's feet? 

[caveman]

We'll start by taking our dendro walk barefooted.  We can leave our boots on his porch so they will stay dry.  I am really good at identifying green briar and black berry bushes barefooted and I suspect I could get black locust and Hercules club as well.

Once when trying to help a friend get a truck unstuck from a pond back during the high school days I stepped on what felt like a log with rough bark...and then it squirmed from out beneath my foot.  A little while later we saw a small gator swimming around the stuck truck. 

[SawyerTed]

Cut around 700 board feet of cherry and maple 5/4, 8/8 and 12/4 live edge today. One section was just too big for me to cut.  It was 34" plus wide.  My customer is going to have it slabbed by another sawyer with a 60" CSM.


 

 
 

    

[WDH]

There are not many that can ID a log with ones feet, underwater, and blindfolded.  It takes years and years of experience.  So far, though, when I ask someone if they can ID a tree by the bark I have never had anyone take off their shoes and feel the stem with their feet.  Not yet, anyway :D. 

[doc henderson]

I guess for a dogwood you would have to at least take your earbuds and or hearing protection off. ...  to ID it by its' bark! :D

[Magicman]

My thoughts/concerns on this project you are doing are about the quality of the housing if these guys are slapping up green beams as fast as you can produce them. No reflection on you as you are producing what the client wants but I wonder about the construction quality issues.

It's not nearly as haphazard as it may seem.  I started sawing for this project in February, 2018, and there are some very rigid inspections that must be satisfied before the units can be occupied.  I am sure insurance as well as the city inspectors and lending institution.  

All of the timbers that I have sawn have been used for porch posts, (4"X 8", 8"X 8", 6"X 12", and 12"X 12") as well as the 4"X 6" that serves as the framing for the screened back porches.  I do see much surface cracking/checking but I have not seen any crooked posts.

 


Falling another Red Oak this morning,


 
And the "skidder" bringing the de-limbed log to me for bucking and sawing.


 
A different skidder bringing more logs.


 
Today's whack measured and marked for bucking.


 
The de-limbing causes some damage.  This one probably would have been an 8X8. but now it will only be a 4X6.

I'll saw his last logs and finish this job up Saturday.  My next sawing for him with be sawing trees/logs/timbers that are on property only about 100 miles from home.

For now it will be sawing from home and catching up on the 1-2 day jobs. 

[caveman]

There are not many that can ID a log with ones feet, underwater, and blindfolded.  It takes years and years of experience.  So far, though, when I ask someone if they can ID a tree by the bark I have never had anyone take off their shoes and feel the stem with their feet.  Not yet, anyway :D.

Danny, I remembered about where I put them a year and a half ago and they sunk like stones.  Most of the pine is stashed in the middle of the pond.  The bark of a live oak feels quite a bit different than that of longleaf pine.  Rather than putting dry socks on wet feet, I went ahead and sawed and stacked the wood barefooted.  I found some really enthusiastic fire ants that were looking for higher ground and evidently the gratification they receive when they execute such a well timed attack.  

When my forestry kids think they are pretty good at identifying trees by looking at the leaves, I challenge them to do it with their eyes closed - it will improve the way many of them key them out and cut out some careless mistakes.  It is amazing what they can smell, taste or feel and often they end up with the right answer.

If this storm keeps coming, there will likely be a lot of blow downs to saw.  The ground is already saturated- I had to import dirt to bury an armadillo this week.

It looks like Mississippi is going to have to plant some more trees after Magicman gets finished with this job.

[Southside]

What does a big old snapping turtle feel like bare footed?   :D

[olcowhand]

What does a big old snapping turtle feel like bare footed?   :D

That one's "Bite" is worse than its "Bark"......

[nativewolf]

There are not many that can ID a log with ones feet, underwater, and blindfolded.  It takes years and years of experience.  So far, though, when I ask someone if they can ID a tree by the bark I have never had anyone take off their shoes and feel the stem with their feet.  Not yet, anyway :D.

Danny, I remembered about where I put them a year and a half ago and they sunk like stones.  Most of the pine is stashed in the middle of the pond.  The bark of a live oak feels quite a bit different than that of longleaf pine.  Rather than putting dry socks on wet feet, I went ahead and sawed and stacked the wood barefooted.  I found some really enthusiastic fire ants that were looking for higher ground and evidently the gratification they receive when they execute such a well timed attack.  

When my forestry kids think they are pretty good at identifying trees by looking at the leaves, I challenge them to do it with their eyes closed - it will improve the way many of them key them out and cut out some careless mistakes.  It is amazing what they can smell, taste or feel and often they end up with the right answer.

If this storm keeps coming, there will likely be a lot of blow downs to saw.  The ground is already saturated- I had to import dirt to bury an armadillo this week.

It looks like Mississippi is going to have to plant some more trees after Magicman gets finished with this job.

Burying all that good eating?  Actually I'd think the gators would take care of it if you dropped in the river.

[WDH]

It looks like Mississippi is going to have to plant some more trees after Magicman gets finished with this job.

Two major Environmental Deforestation issues currently, the fires in the Amazon and MM in Mississippi :D. 

[alanh]

Some nice 18" wide 5/4 pine, local guy wants to stockpile a bunch to see if he can make it dry flat, I told him dry stickers and weight...Question, What would you guys charge for this? Local box store has "select" pine (more knots than these) for about 4.75 bd ft for 12" wide. I`m thinking 1/2 that would be fair..... Too high? too low?

 

[E-Tex]

Milled some 9/4 and 5/4 RO live-edge for a local Country Club that lost a "Special" tree.  They plan to make benches for the golf course and plaques for members.




 




 




 




 

[doc henderson]

alan, you prob. know I am a hobbyist, but you cannot buy a 18"wide 5/4 board at a big box store so do not sell yourself short.  your log or his?  at least make sure you get something for your time and equipment.  cheers

[alanh]

thanks, my logs..when you do the math at 2.30 bd ft I say thats a pretty darn nice piece of wood for 47.00....

[SawyerTed]

700 board feet of spalted maple This morning.  For the month of August the tally shows a little more than 21,000 board feet sawn.  

Four mantels and the rest is 5/4.

The middle photo is of my first broken blade!



 

 

 

[Sheepkeeper]

Some 8x8x4ft blocking for a local building mover. Sure glad I don't work for him, them suckers is heavy!!!

 

[DPatton]

 The TimberKing and I traveled to a custom saw job near Glenwood Iowa today. I had an excellent client with decent logs. He had the logs all lined up and positioned perfectly. He even had all the bark removed, and had plenty of good help.



Z



W

We produced over 1400 bf of walnut and white oak lumber, and we were done by 2:30 pm. We also only used 2 blades for the whole shebang ( Turbo 7's). Client also had a neighbor who brought two logs for me to saw. His material is in the trailer below. Too bad one of his logs had ring shake real bad so a lot of material was lost from that log. The neighbor requested some 3" thick live edge slabs and was not disappointed in what he recieved.











A

We even found a spectacular Curly Walnut log in the pile. It was simply amazing in character. Below is a sample of the first few boards off of it.



Z

The client who is a retired cabinet maker was happy with his product. I got a nice tip, and I'm guessing he will be calling me again in the future.
 Tomorrow we travel to Minden Iowa and get to saw Walnut again!
I wish my regular job was this enjoyable.