Night sawing anyone?

[moosehunter]

Wednesday the 17th I had an appt to saw 8x8 poplar for a lumberjack show. We started right about 5pm, when it started getting dark I only had 4 or 5 logs left so I moved my truck around and turned the lights on. Gretchen Cicora took these way cool pics of me sawing by truck lights. I have never sawn after dark before out of safety concerns but this went ok. The lumberjack competition was today at the Chumung co fairgrounds, I have not heard how it went. 
 

 

 

 

 

mh

[longtime lurker]

I'm half nocturnal by nature: in an industry where everyone seems to work daylight to dark I often do more like 10 till 10. I tend to get more done after about 6pm... No interruptions.

[lxskllr]

If my profession was sawing, and I had the room to make noise, I'd certainly be doing most of my work after dark this time of year. Too hot to be out in the sun if it isn't necessary.

[Arkyrick]

You bet when its this hot I saw at night. 

[Roundhouse]

My mill is set up miles off the grid but when I wired up a 12 volt deep cell to run a winch I couldn't resist including some overhead lights. It sure is nice in the fall when night comes early and an extra 30 minutes makes a huge difference in finishing up a log you're half way through cutting. The three lights are sold as backing up lights for trucks and don't use much power.

[tmbrcruiser]

I have a full time job and saw in the evening or I wouldn't get much done. The mill is electric and set up in a building so lighting was planned during construction.

[Tom the Sawyer]

Although I don't need to start milling jobs after dark, I have had jobs (especially in the late fall or winter) when milling after sunset might be necessary to complete the client's job.  At home I have a couple of high pressure sodium lights over the mill area.  I also have an LED light bar mounted on the mill head, which illuminates the cutting area, in case it gets dark on mobile appointments.  I have been on jobs where I finished up by the headlights of a tractor or pickup truck.

[Resonator]

For more info there is a thread from 2016, "LED lights on a sawmill", where Bandmill Bandit and others go into detail on how wire up lights for working after dark.

[moodnacreek]

Nite sawing is like nite fishing, you need to be prepared.

[twobears]

with my dads mill we sawed alot at night.weekday hours where 4pm till 9pm or later.we sawed to 1am if needed..but his mill was in a building with 3 phase power.. ;-) I don't have lights in my mill now but I sure wish I did and I wish my mill wasn,t mixed in with several houses.i'de be sawing from 6pm till daylight if it was out by itself with nobody to bitch at me.
my land is under contact to sell and if does infact sell I,ll be buying back where my dads mill was 17 acres with three phase power and setting up a new mill and you can bet there will be lights and I,ll be sawing late.. there's nobody stopping and bugging you and it,s cooler and no sun beating down on you.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I have finished a mobile job or two by my truck lights when it got late and we only had a log or two left and a long commute back. More often it meant finish sawing in the waning light then do the tally in the dark. I think night sawing is much more a stationary option and as Moody mentioned above it requires good preparation.

[Tramp Bushler]

Sure have . midnight or 1 sometimes even 2 am till 8 or 9 am. 

 

 

 It was due to the heat. Just too hot during the day for this Alaskan to work in the sun. 
 I think I spent 4 nights milling this summer. Sure made it alot nicer. But then when sunset is @ almost midnight and sunrise is 3 am ish. With over an hour of twilight . It doesn't really get dark. 
 I used a flashlight to read my thickness scale for 1 log . 
 I'm not a enthusiastic about logging at night. But I did for 3 nights. 

 

 
 Had a bear hanging around fairly close sometimes so it was harder to relax and enjoy the loggin as much as I usually do. 
 I never thought about hooking some led work lights up to my mill. But I plan on doing that now. As they don't draw much juice I'm sure my charging system will handle them fine. Even If I have to go to a bigger battery, that's no problem.