Making it through another year '21-'23

[Old Greenhorn]

Well it took about 3 hours of sanding to get that top back to fresh again. Every time I thought I was done I found another level of spots, drags, or other poor appearance, so I started over with 80 grit a few times. Then I tried my new approach and it seems to be better. After drying I will know a little better, but the second coat is always where I run into trouble. I have to go get more poly because I have just about finished another quart off.
 Danny, nice benches! Which screws are you talking about? The threaded inserts or the lag screws? I bought the inserts to use on the top (from the bottom up), but the stringer is just under an inched thick and those inserts are 7/8" long, so that would still need a through hole. Those lag screws are 1/4" diameter and the holes in the leg are over 5/16" so that would work well either. I opted for the carriage bolts thinking the brushed brass would look like a nice accent and I think it does. Everybody's mileage varies though. I would use them on a table for myself, but I don't think I have enough left for me to use. ;D
 I am off to run errands and leave the shop to settle and not raise any dust. I'll update the other post when I get time later today.

[WDH]

The 1/4" lag screws in the 5/16" hole allows for expansion and contraction of the wood. This is especially important if the bench lives in a non-climate controlled place like a porch which sees large swings in humidity from day to night and from season to season.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, yeah, I get that. But this is a 5/16" clearance hole which measures about .350" in diameter, and that is nearly enough for a 1/4 bolt head to go right through. Even 5/16 is a bit bigger than I would like for 'loose clearance'. Next time I order from Riteleg I will get a box of each of their screws just to have on the shelf. I don't like using those short little lags in wood, too easy for them to rip out. I'd eventually like to get to a good enough relationship with Riteleg and some shop throughput so that I could keep a pair of bench legs and table legs here in stock, but that's down the road a bit. I do like their stuff and I like doing business with them.
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But with the finish issue seems like I am closing in on getting this thing done. Now it's a matter of adding coats, letting them harden, and light sanding before the next coat. The coats will be thinner now, but better quality so I just need more of them. I just have to work my schedule around the drying time and keep at it. Easy, right?
 Well yeah, but a lot of other stuff is closing in on me. I mentioned some in a previous post but now I am getting polite texts and calls "checking in" with subtle hints. My son has a maple trunk I need to get down, about 30"dbh he wants to do in the morning. I got 2 more new orders at the mill today on top of the 2 I haven't gotten done. I need to get the house chimney cleaned and my son is bringing the boys over tomorrow to 'help' move dirt and crushed stone so the driveway is cleared off for snow plowing but I have to get to the mill at some point. Starting to feel a little pressure these days.
 I'll get it all done, just gotta put in longer days.

[Tacotodd]

Tom, almost everyone on here has more days behind us than in front of us, so just take your time and do it right. Be in the state of mind that: slow is fast and fast is slow. Remember that speed comes from practice at doing it (whatever "it" is) correctly, not just because you feel the need for speed.

You're only in a race with yourself!

It's the time in your life to go slow and do it right, not fast and do it wrong (twice). Ask me how I know ;)

That's how I got good at round filing my saws and about to start my square file journey.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, it's not a need for speed. I just need to get it done once, correctly, and move on. I do take my time, but I have to learn how to do it right, or do it all over again and that last part is what is killing me. Doing it right the first time is always the fastest route, regardless of time spent. Add to that all the other tasks I need to get done and the weather steadily closing in on us and I am feeling a little stressed. 
 I stopped rushing in haste years ago, but getting it right is the challenge. Headed out there right now to fire the stove up, light sand, and get another coat done before I load tools to go cut another tree, then in the afternoon, down to the mill I hope.
 I just have a lot of stuff to get done is all. That table isn't due until Christmas, but I need to get it, and wrapped up, and out of the way for other work.

[Hilltop366]

But this is a 5/16" clearance hole which measures about .350" in diameter, and that is nearly enough for a 1/4 bolt head to go right through

Washer?

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, yeah, you could on one hole in each leg, the other hole would be a challenge, I think. Yu might need to shape the washer into a "D" shape. In any event this didn't strike me as an elegant solution and I am very pleased with those solid brass carriage bolts. For the top, I will of course be using the inserts that Ritelg sells, which reminds me, I have to find some appropriate bolts about 1-1/4" long.
 As long as I am here, I might as well give a quick update on my finish issue. It would appear I have found a solution through dilution. That is to say, thinning the poly with about 25% mineral spirits allows me to get a full and even coat on which dries very nicely with the desired semi-gloss finish. I am quite please with the. Second coat done this afternoon and it just gets better with each coat.

[WDH]

You don't need a washer if you use the 1/4" pan head lag screws.

[Old Greenhorn]

I don't know, off hand, what the head diameter is on a 1/4" pan head, but you are probably correct. However, just because it fits or will do the job does not mean it will look any better to me, and I wanted something appealing. Also Lag screws depend on good solid wood for the grip and over time as tables get moved around and leaned on, especially heavy ones, those lag screws can loosen and eventually pull out. It's just my design decision is all that played in here.

[Old Greenhorn]

 Forgetting about my finishing miseries for a while and realizing there are other things to get done, I tried to do some catching up yesterday and take advantage of the weather, which was crisp and lovely.
 I re-loaded the stove early yesterday and did a light sanding around 7am on the table top with 400 but it was just too cool in the shop to take a chance laying down another coat (61°) so I packed the stove, then packed the truck and headed off to my son's place. There is a large hard maple trunk that needed coming down and firewood conversion. He had an arborist do all the top work back in the early spring, it was dead and threatening the house. Measured about 30" on the stump. My big saw would not start (first time for everything) so I did it with the 50cc saw. I expected heart rot but there was none. It was a double trunk but I took them as one because it gave me the fall line I wanted. It came down fine and didn't split apart until it hit the ground, just as I hoped. Nice size stump. I don't get many of these.



 

Didn't think of photos until after I started bucking, so here are post-bucking photo with half the rounds already in the trailer. ;D



 

 So we got that done and loaded. I headed home dragging back my little firewood shuttle trailer. We had a guy scheduled to look at that lift table we are trying to sell at noon. My son is supposed to be handling the deal and would follow shortly. I got home, dropped the trailer and was unloading saws when the guy showed up....at 11:30. >:( He had called and asked if he could come early and we said 'no' because we were 5 miles away doing the tree. Anyway, he looked at it, admitted it was a sweet deal, then tried to chew the price down further than he already had with my son. I wasn't buying it. The unit sells new for over 4k and should sell now for close to 1k and he is trying to get the price down to $150 bucks? No, that was where I drew the line. So he paid up and we loaded it and he was gone. I had lunch, the son showed up with the boys and their lunch. While they ate I went out to the shop and layed down another coat now that it had warmed up. They finished lunch and we started moving dirt and gravel. Mostly we want to get those leftover piles out of the driveway before snow removal time, but I also have some low and wet spots to fill. So we put down the crushed stone in the deeper spots then spread topsoil over that and in the thinner low spots. We did about a dozen wheel barrow loads before our backs started talking. The boys went in the house with Grandma and my son went up on the roof to sweep the chimney while I prepped the stove inside. It took 10 minutes and he blew out the gutters while he was up there. I will let the dust settle in the stove and clean it out in a day or two, then we are ready to fire it for he season.
 He took the boys home to drop the dump trailer and change his shirt. We met an hour later at the diner in town and had a big family dinner. Long day and I never made it to the mill as hoped.
 I got home and checked the table, it is looking fine! I still have teeny pieces of dust showing up in the wet finish, but when it dries they disappear into the semi-gloss. I am pleased with this and will do another coat this morning.



 

 I forgot to mention this but I took a photo just so I could, so I will. When I was in HD on Friday I found myself in the lumber aisle and noticed they have 'bandsawn lumber' which looks to me like it went through a resaw or was cut with a lousy blade. What caught my eye was the price:



 

 That is $2.45/BF or twice what we get off the mill for what I would call 'shorts'. Of course, we do get a better finish. :D I was just a little surprised to see that. I am not familiar with what 'S1S2E' means and I should have pulled a board to look it over and figure it out. Maybe 'sanded one side, sanded 2 edges'? nah, that can't be right.

 Anyway, today is already wasting away, I have to get at it and get a coat layed down, the shop heated, and then head down to the mill and try to make up time. I have 4 orders outstanding, they called yesterday trying to entice me down to do a few 'quick timbers', but I couldn't go. I gotta make it up to them today.
 Carpe diem, right?

[WDH]

Surfaced 2 sides 2 edges. 

[Old Greenhorn]

That's why I will never understand this stuff. Not sure how thy came up with S1 meaning that it was surfaced 2 sides. In my brain, that would be S2.  :D ;D

[WDH]

I wrote that wrong and screwed it up.  Should have typed:

Surfaced 1 side and 2 edges (straightened).  

[Old Greenhorn]

AH! OK, now it starts to make a little more sense. :D But don't worry, in a month or so I will forget and have to be retrained. That wood actually looked like it was simulated bandsaw cut with a texturing roller or something. If my mill or yours left marks like that we would both shut it down until we found the problem. At that price I would never buy that staff. Ugly.

[Old Greenhorn]

 Because it was Sunday, "a day of rest', I thought I could catch up a little. I had one simple goal, get to the mill and get lumber on the stack. We got a lot of stuff done today, but that wasn't one of them. Out in the shop by 7 and got the stove stoked up. Did a light hand sanding on the table and prepped it for another coat. Came in and made a good breakfast, back out and put another coat down and cleaned up. Threw my saw in the truck and headed to Bill's before 10 (it is Sunday and I know his Dad comes for a family breakfast every Sunday morning, so I delayed just a bit). I passed Bill's Dad coming out as I was going in, perfect timing. I pulled up to the house and saw Bill headed through the trees so I cut through the woods and found him at the OWB. The blower gave up last evening and needed replacing, the system was down and house and shop were cooling off. So we did that, it didn't take long to get it back up and running. Then we decided it's about time we fired up the edger and tried out the newly re-tipped blade. It cut 'right good' so we edged all the boards that were laying about and made 4 nice stacks of 1x6, 8, 10, and 12's. Only working with one blade still, so it is slow, but we will have the other blade back on Thursday, then we can rock and roll. All the scraps went right in the OWB, so that mess was cleaned up and you could walk in the area again.
 Next it was time for toolcat training, so we went through all the controls and then took it down to the mill and cleaned up a pile of short slab chunks and odds and ends that had been growing. I like the 4 wheel steering, but in tight quarters you have to plan well. ;D We over filled the bucket and drove back up to the OWB and I got some practice manipulating the bucket to drop all that junk in the burner. It was eating all this junk up trying to settle out the heat in the house and shop and 700 gallons of fluid. It was finally beginning to catch up.
 Next I swapped over to forks and went back down to the mill and picked up the last stack of boards I milled and we stickered them all because it may be a while before they get used. We checked out the pole barn I had never been in on the new property. That is planned to be a wood shop. I was trying to talk him into storing some wood in there this winter to dry, but he wants to pour a cement floor in it this winter then insulate before putting anything in there. It has a lot of 'stuff' in there that doesn't have much to do with anything, but it will get done eventually, maybe 2 years.
 ANyway, we went back up to the shop and did some routine service on the toolcat and fueled it up. We had a beer and I came home and did another coat on the table before dinner. Bill is off with his crew on a larger job tomorrow so I will be at the mill for as much as I can do. With the toolcat, it should go easier. So today I never got to touch the one thing I felt I needed to do today, but we got a lot done anyway and my back doesn't hurt anymore than it did when I got up this morning.  Some days are like that, you know? :D
 Tomorrow is another day.

[Nebraska]

  Tool Cat, good deal that will make you much more productive and less  strain on your back. Glad you got the finish solved.

[Old Greenhorn]

 Back before I retired, I just hated Monday's. Now, not so much. :D Yeah, I am still in a bit of a rut, but it's a good rut to be in, I guess.
Same deal this morning, stoke the sho stove, do some sanding, come in and make breakfast, then go back out and lay another coat on the table. Then come back in and do some other odds and ends, then head to the mill.
I got there around 11 this morning. BEAUTIFUL day! Started with a jacket and sweatshirt, quickly down to the sweatshirt, eventually that came off too. A little later I took the shirt off and finished up in a t-shirt. I will say that ToolCat with the forks does make things easier for sure. I slide the slabs right onto it and keep milling.



 

I wasn't shot at the end of the day, which seems to come sooner now with the time change. Small logs today and I only got about 300 BF done going into 3 different orders. Left one log on the mill and stopped a bit early because now I have to clean up the slabs and hack them into 5 footers for the OWB, then run them up. So having the toolcat gives me more to do now which takes from my milling time. I could just cut and stack them, but what the heck. I could hear the boys had come back and were banging around on a bunch of stuff at the shop. When I shut down and headed up I saw they were outfitting the 750 chip truck with a 12" suction unit for doing leaf collection jobs and doing some maintenance work on the truck. They opened up the OWB for me when they saw me coming and I dumped the load.
After a little BS'ing I realized I never tallied the lumber, so I went back down and did that and grabbed another pile of slabs and dumped those in also, then parked it.
All in all not a bad day in the sunshine. I still have to think more on my workflow with the machine, it's a new dimension for me, but it's definitely better. ;D Said goodbye, headed home, sanded and did another coat, brought firewood into the shop, then dinner.

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A couple of weeks ago a very kind FF member who wishes to remain anonymous sent me a raker guide I had trouble finding and a pair of mesh goggles I had been thinking about trying. (Both mentioned in other threads in past months.) He claims he didn't need them and wanted me to have them. The raker guide works as expected, I have the same one for 3/8 chain, but couldn't easily locate one for .325. He had a brand new one in the package. Now those goggles I had no experience with at all. On saturday I took down a good sized HM and wore them for the whole thing. I call them a winner, they worked well and sweat is not an issue at all. Today there was a slight breeze at the mill and I had a lot of dust getting in my eyes, so I tried them again and wore them for several hours. They work like a charm. Now these have the elastic head band which worked just fine for chainsaw work. However on the mill I found I wanted to pop them off once ina while to read a tape or see just a little better when the head got to the far end of the mill.  (I am working under the shadow of the roof.) That was a little tricky with the muffs holding the strap in place. So I think I will be using these all the time on chainsaw work, because they are perfect for it, but may buy a pair with the regular ear thingys for sawmill work. I tell you, these are really nice and act a little like sunglasses. I sure would like to thank that member in a public way, but he asked me to not mention it. Maybe he will declare here at some point. But at any rate he has my sincere thanks, it makes a difference in my day and I am grateful. As I said a couple of weeks ago, I have a face made for radio, but I did take a photo.



 

 I think I got a little ZZ Top thing going on, even if I have a short beard.

Tomorrow is another day.

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   Sounds great. Remember it is a marathon not a race. Kind of like the old Rules for Gun-fighting quote about "Nobody remembers who fired first just who was still standing at the end." The goal is to still be standing at the end of the day and ready to attack the next day.

[Old Greenhorn]

Tom,

  Sounds great. Remember it is a marathon not a race. Kind of like the old Rules for Gun-fighting quote about "Nobody remembers who fired first just who was still standing at the end." The goal is to still be standing at the end of the day and ready to attack the next day.

The only quote that stands out in my head about gunfighting (besides never bringing a knife to one) is that there are "No Second Place winners" [Bill Jordan] and insofar as I know, this is accurate. I do have hi book around here somewhere I should give it another read sometime.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Other quotes include:

Shoot twice - bullets are cheap, lives are expensive.
Never use a pistol whose caliber does not start with at least a 4.
Be polite and professional and have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
If your stance is good you are not moving for cover fast enough.
Somebody may kill me with my own gun but they'll have to beat me to death with it because it is empty.
Always cheat. Always win. The only unfair gunfight is the one you lose.
You can't miss fast enough to win.

Warfighting rules include:

Don't draw fire. it annoys those around you,
When the pin is pulled, Mr. Grenade is nobody's friend.
If you're involved in a fair fight - your tactics suck!
If the enemy is in range - so are you!

[Old Greenhorn]

Those are all pretty good. You brought to mind another that a long ago friend and gunsmith who was an Army Ranger used to say: "The definition of firepower is one well placed round"

[Tacotodd]

Tom, I did tell you all of those things about the goggles, didn't I. And like I said, they are SUPERIOR at what they are supposed to do, just a PITA when you have to continually take them off and on when you have ANY kind of headgear on.

I am glad that you're liking those 2 things. Like I also told you, I don't have any need for them. I'm just glad that I could help a fellow FF member. Just like Bruno helped me out with that handlebar for my Echo chainsaw. Bruno, if you are reading this, I don't have the same saw that you have but it fit BEAUTIFULLY 👍, thank you very much. I told you that I'd pay it forward, and Tom, you pay it forward as well. Nuff said.

BTW Tom, you make those goggles look good.

[Old Greenhorn]

Indeed you did, and they are not an issue with chainsaw work, but are a distraction on the mill. If I were wearing ear plugs instead of muffs it would not be an issue. But I am having some ear issues this week and the ear plugs can't be used just now. Either way, problems or not, I like them and will likely buy a pair of the eyeglass style next time I put in an order. Thanks again!

[Old Greenhorn]

Running late this morning, overslept, guess I need it. Yesterday wound up being about 14 hours. Two (actually 3) beautiful working days in a row with perfect weather and a little warmer each day. Didn't even have the sweatshirt layer on yesterday and today will be the same. I am getting used to that toolcat and trying to figure out the handling process and cycle as I make lumber. I got bit by the dang toe boards again and screwed up a few pieces. They will become 1x8's today. Nearly done with one order for concrete form lumber, then focus on the two others (or is it 3?).
 I also managed to flip the table top, resand it all down to fresh and start over on the bottom. I got 3 coats on through the day and it is coming along nicely. Last coat around 7:30 last night.
 I forgot to mention but I got an email at about 5:30 Sunday morning from a gal who heard me on the radio show. They would like me to come and walk their property with them to help them figure out a plan for the future. They have 100 acres they bought about a year ago and their daughter lives on it now and they would like to retire there. Right now they live and work in D.C.. So I wrote her back and said I would be interested to come take a look but made it clear I cannot manage and do all the work on their parcel. My niche is to help them figure out what they want, how to get it done, and who will be doing it. She said they will be having a consultant come in the spring and they plan on hiring a forester for a written plan. Anyway, I answered her in some detail and never heard any further, so forgot about it.
 Well just as I was leaving for the mill, she called me. Turns out she never got my email, which I then resent. We chatted for about 20 minutes, she gave me the address and I looked at the property on the maps as we talked. it's quite a parcel, even has a nice lake. They are just looking for an advisor to help them pick general directions and find the right people and understand what they have, which is what I can do. We made arrangements for me to go up the first weekend in December and I will bring the Mule with me so we can cover the property better. The previous owner sold all his equipment before he sold the property, so they are looking for help picking up a few machines as well. They have done good research on the property history and seem to be very attuned with what they need to do, in general. She was raised on a farm in MD, so this ain't her first rodeo, but the northern woods are new to her,so she is looking for some 'grounding'. This sounds like fun and I should be able to help them along. I don't think I will be doing much hands on, which is good because I have other clients I am WAY behind on and need to catch up. But at least I pulled something out of that show I didn't really expect.
 Anyway, I gotta get at it here. Hoping for another long day.

[aigheadish]

Way to go getting some work from From the Forest, that's pretty cool.

Listening to those guys and reading your post leads me to a question about foresters. Ryan and John talk about going to people's property for consultations and stuff like that. I assume, locally, there are foresters that would come look at my property but they don't do it for free, right? What kind of money goes into that sort of thing, anyone know? Is it like 50 bucks or by the hour, or much more? I have no idea and while I'd heard of foresters I didn't really know what they did until listening to FTF.