Whatcha Sawin' ???

[grouch]

Boy, if I had some of that ERC logs here I could make a lot of $$$$$ in NH with it.

I have been trying to get some WEC from the northern part of NH with not much luck. But I'm NOT going to give up. :D

If I had some of those cedar logs here, I could make a lot of ... things. I'd settle for the slabs Magicman's been edging!

What is "WEC"? I tried looking it up but Google and ixquick turned up logs for cars in some kind of world race thing.

[grouch]

I know you guys out on the road taking care of customers don't always have time to take pictures and write up your adventures, but man it's sure great when you do! Thanks, thanks, thanks!


Still working my way through my maple when the weather permits. After finishing the last one shown in this thread, I managed to wrestle a sway-backed whale up onto the mill before the rains came in:




Tape measure is upside down because that's the only way I could get it to hook and hold while I took the picture. That's beyond the stated capacity of my little mill.


The length is no problem.


This is the view that makes me think of a whale. All 4 humps on that head and that flipped up tail are outside the limits of my mill. Those 2 buttress humps were pretty symmetrical and I wanted to saw a couple of 2 inch slabs through them.

First problem was the blade height is at maximum in the above image.

Fortunately, there is the Forestry Forum with helpful people. :D
Thanks to plowboyswr over here, I was able to raise the head another 4-1/2 inches. That was just enough to do the trick.

Next problem was rotating the thing without hydraulics or even a cant hook. FF to the rescue again.


Sorry, but I don't remember who posted images of a jack with a hook on it for turning logs on the mill. See somewhere in the past 180 pages of this thread. I didn't have a hook, but a couple wraps of the chain worked to turn the beast 270 degrees against the stops so it wouldn't get off the mill again.


Now, that's the way I want to saw it. Still have humps sticking out beyond the width between the blade guides, though.








Rotate and square again.


Buttress hump. Not much character there. Maybe I guessed wrong. Lots easier to read a board than it is to read a log. Makes the sawyer-artists on here even more impressive when you lay hands on a lumpy log and try to get the beauty out of it.


That cut shows up the amount of curvature in that butt log.



And rotate and cut and repeat. Oops. That's for shampoo or something, right?


What are those orange squiggles? Fungus of some kind? The wood is solid there.


And rotate and cut... Gotta fit sooner or later.


That doesn't look promising.


What is that?


That looks better.




A slab! 2 inches by about 18 inches by 8 ft 7 inches. Forget lifting; slide that sucker over and out of the way.






This one was a real struggle. Still using my first Kasco blade, 4 degree, and it doesn't seem like it should be dull yet, but there are definite ripples and struggles. Cranking up the drip helped, but there's something else wrong somewhere.

Wood is looking a little questionable, too. It's not rotten, but there's some included bark and other stuff going on.


Still some pretty in there.

Ended up with 5 of those slabs and some weird shaped 1 bys. The blade has taken a pounding but the big problem was heat causing a loss of tension. The roller guides were locking up and the drive belt was a little too loose. I fixed those and that blade kept right on cutting for the other half of that log.

I have to put in an off-topic comment here...
The guy at Kasco told me to pull 2 blades from the box and use them. If I was unhappy, he'd pay shipping back for the other 13 and refund me for 15. I think I'll keep 'em. He said nobody has taken him up on the offer yet.

[Savannahdan]

Great pictures.  I wound up getting 3 maple logs yesterday.  My mill has been in the shop for quite some time.  Anxious to get it back and cut up logs in the backyard.  I forgot to have my cell phone with me today in order to take some pics.
Thank you for the post.

[WDH]

The orange squiggles are caused by insects that feed on the sap of the maple.  The "what is that" holes are called bird peck.  Made by yellowbellied sapsuckers. 

http://hardwoodbucking.mtu.edu/hardwood_defects/bird_peck.html

[Brad_bb]

Grouch, things like that bark inclusion are often the cool stuff that give a piece character.  The inclusion can be filled with clear epoxy and will look great.  I think you met the minimum picture requirement for a post  :D :D :D

[Cedar Eater]

I'm sawing stinky bam with a chainsaw mill. I'm making deck boards for a hay wagon. 2 X 12 X 10' long. I'll probably seal it with copper naphthenate.

[plowboyswr]

Shucks grouch twernt nuthin! And I won't be shipping  my 4° Kasco blades back either! :D Them things handle hardwoods so much better than the Lennox blade that came on the mill.

[grouch]

Thanks WDH. That's a small price to pay for having the birds come around.

Brad_bb, lots of photos means lots of opportunities for somebody to see stuff and say, "That one's  right, that other one is just wrong, and the last means we need to take the engine off that mill before you blow up the neighbors."

Cedar Eater, what's stinky bam?

plowboyswr, my original blade did some minor dipping and diving when it hit heartwood, right from the start. That may have been at least partly due to the operator, though.

[Brad_bb]

I'm not complaining Grouch, just razzin'. ;D

Does Stinky Bam = Elm?

[Magicman]

Boy, if I had some of that ERC logs here I could make a lot of $$$$$ in NH with it.  

Peter, I am sure that my customer is doing quite well with the ERC lumber here in MS and wherever else he is selling it.   ;)

When I got to the job this morning much was going on.


 
Log on the sawmill, logs staged, logs being bucked, and logs being brought to the sawmill.


  
A closeup of the log bucking and hauling.


 
The big trailer that will haul the ERC lumber to Saskatchewan Canada finally arrived this morning.


 
So the first overloaded trailer was hooked up, but the truck could not pull it.


 
So the Kubota was hooked to the truck for a tow. 


 
And then the overloaded trailer was backed alongside of the big trailer.


 
And now a total of 5Mbf will be stacked onto the big trailer for it's trip North.  Leaving Sunday.

The ERC lumber on the left is what I sawed today.

I will probably finish sawing the remaining ERC in a couple of days and then SYP.  I misunderstood about the number of SYP logs.  The customer said 23 logs, but he meant 23 tree-length logs. 


 
53 have already been brought with many more to come.  I measured two 20' butt logs in the far background at 28" & 29" and was told that they were not the largest.  The SYP will all be sawed into 2X6 through 2X12 framing lumber.

[tnaz]

Thanks WDH. That's a small price to pay for having the birds come around.

Brad_bb, lots of photos means lots of opportunities for somebody to see stuff and say, "That one's  right, that other one is just wrong, and the last means we need to take the engine off that mill before you blow up the neighbors."

Cedar Eater, what's stinky bam?

plowboyswr, my original blade did some minor dipping and diving when it hit heartwood, right from the start. That may have been at least partly due to the operator, though.

Hey Grouch, keep'em coming.  Lots like me don't have a mill.  This is my way to get a good look.


Thanks,

Terry

[Cedar Eater]

Cedar Eater, what's stinky bam?

It's green Balsam Poplar. Populus balsamifera. It's called bam locally. It has a stench to it. If you smash the buds on your fingertips, you'll be smelling it for the next day or so. And you'll probably think your toilet paper ripped.

[Cedar Eater]

Does Stinky Bam = Elm?

No. Elm smells good compared to Balsam Poplar. It stinks so much that Labrador retrievers will roll in the sawdust.

[4x4American]

Thanks WDH I was wondering about those orange squiggles myself.

MM...that's a good sawjob you're on right now thats for sure.  You have the lombardini engine?  How many hp?

Me, I've spent almost every day since last saturday trying to get my mill to saw straight.  Even had a wm tech stop out who was in the area and we couldn't finger it out.  I had a break today, Marty gave me the idea to lower my rpms with that turnbuckle, and I started playing around and got it to where I could saw basswood pretty well, so I finished an order of that today.  I'm hoping I can saw pine now too.  I never got to finish sawing an order of hard maple the saw just dont wanna have it for some reason.  Have tried everything I can think of.  If we can't figger it out I have to bring mill back to dealer for them to put a laser on the wheels and check for something called cross flex.

[grouch]

Magicman, that's an operation!

Are the trees all coming from the woods seen in the background of your photos?

How big is the sawdust hill now? Does your customer have a market for it, too?

[Magicman]

You have the lombardini engine?  How many hp? 

This is a non-turbo Lombardini replacement engine that Wood-Mizer listed as 38 hp.  It's OK but it certainly does not have the "grunt" that the old 40 hp turbo engine had. 

[Magicman]

grouch, This customer is a professional logger. The ERC logs come from various clearcut areas and are accumulated throughout the year.  I saw for him once every year to turn those ERC logs into lumber.  I generally do not know his lumber market.  We recover no sawdust but this year he is recovering the ERC slabs by having me edge them. 

The SYP logs are coming from his property ~16 miles away and are drought/beetle killed trees that have no market value because commercial sawmills will not buy them.

Yes, this is a very good $awing job that will last a few more weeks.   I have other customers that are ready for sawing that will have to wait.   :

[4x4American]

Maybe you could borrow wwsjr's edger for edging all them slabs...u know equipment sitting taint no good!

[Magicman]

An edger has gone through my mind several times but for my market it would not not be productive enough to justify it.  With the feed, it would not work with those slabs.  Some of the ERC slabs are very knotty and gnarly. 

[grouch]

Magicman, I bet there's enough ERC sawdust to pave that road.

Supposed to be sunny and 70 today. Cloudy, drizzly and thermometer has only tickled the back side of 60F even though it's now past time for the day's high temp. Been working in the garage on brackets and things to extend my mill.

I knew I had more photos of that maple and tried to resist posting more. Fail. Blame tnaz for twisting my arm to "keep 'em coming".











And the results so far:




Those ends are painted green cuz I expect the Magicman's gonna turn green with envy soon. I estimate there's about 270 bd ft in that stack. My rate of production exceeded the ax, wedge and adze method for the first half and I think I beat the pitman / tillerman for the second half. That means I'm closing in and should beat the Magic by next week! Bwahaha! All your customers will come flocking to me just for the shock and awe of seeing the boards flying off the mill.

Ok, might take a month. Maybe next year? Decade? I'll get back to you on the final evil plan.

[tnaz]

I like the pictures.  Don't think you will be able to keep up with Mr. Magic, he's a little older and wiser so he should cut more any way you look at it.  :D :D

He's sure has gotten a workout here lately. 

[derhntr]

Cut dry dead ash today. Customer told me logs scaled 620 BF. Took 3 hours and 1 blade change to get it sawed. Wish I had some 4 degree blades only had 10 degrees. So was some humps and bows in some of the boards. I was not happy about that, Then customer told me not to worry just for pig fence. Was challenging at times cutting a material list from marginal logs. At end of job I asked him if he got every thing he needed on his list. He replied YES and more.

I did not tally total cut but suspect it was over 700 BF but was happy with getting paid for 620 BF. He brought 5 helpers  8) so was easy day. Was so busy I forgot to take a picture of the trailer Load. Say he would be back in a couple weeks with more.     

[thecfarm]

grouch,nice sawing.
I noticed your log stops go straight up and down. Mine do the same thing. I put lines and 3"-4"-5" and so on,on my stops. 4 inches is really 3 inches and 6 inches is really 5. This way when I set it to cut 4 inch flitches I know I have an inch to spare. No more setting them too low to make sure.

[Magicman]

grouch, speaking of green, keep it up and you will soon wear the green paint off of your sawmill.   8)

[WDH]

Grouch,

You might consider building better foundations for your sticker stacks.  If the foundations are not dead level, you lumber will take the shape of your foundation and not be flat and straight.  Hard to use and sell thick bowed slabs.