Welcome to the Jungle

[longtime lurker]

What's growing in the field?

Sugar cane.

[moodnacreek]

Ok L.L. you got me again.  Right now we have no snow, deer season is over and a little frost in the ground. So I'm thinking about putten the brush hog on my 40 hp. 4x4 and going into a cedar lot to mow the barberry around 12" dbh 35' tall cedars. That way I won't get no prickers through my double knee carharts when I come back with the 024!  Kinda like working on a golf course compared to your country.

[moodnacreek]

And your gonna need double drive to saw that walnut with the button ball bark.

[longtime lurker]

And your gonna need double drive to saw that walnut with the button ball bark.

Yeahhhhhhhhhhhh, that problem is going to rare its ugly head again. I'm not really set up to handle the bigguns ... and it starts with not enough loader in the log yard because mine has SWL 9000 lb and can handle about 15000 with care.... and that is a 22000 lb lump of wood ( I went over the weighbridge coming home) and it's comparatively not that big, and its only a third of the log.

And then I'm going to need to rethink my entire sawline. I'm currently handling them by flitching down to a manageable size with the Lucas Mill but that gets old fast. Fine when it's one log here and there but really I'm not set up to handle anything over 26" with the main sawline.  Plenty of big circle headsaws that'll handle a 5 or 6 footer floating around the Australian market anyway, but I'm not yet sure of the depth of the resource to know if I want to go there... or maybe upgrade the Lucas to a Turbosaw or Peterson... or build a big vertical chain slabber... or that sash for you to come drive when its snowing and you want to see the sun. :D

Got that kinda walnutty look about it though, but  seriously hard and full of silica. Make a real nice wide plank floor huh? Picture is part of the head of this same log going back up to the landowner as a bribe thank you on my regular deliver into Cairns then up for a backload run. Just cut back to the last flitch and get 1 slab per log. Same log in those short 8 x 2's on top.... balance of load is the Red Mahogany. Small load - short week and its Christmas. Green framing with hardwood is SOP here.... otherwise you have to predrill every nail hole. Works for us sawmillers anyway: it's leaving the mill before the leaves have turned brown.





 

As I like to tell my few visitors - any time you visit a sawmill with a clean yard you know they aren't real busy. This place looks like a junkyard  ;D

[Andries]

Your jungle produces some incredible wood, wow, that's a beautiful trailer load!
Merry Christmas down under.😎👍

[longtime lurker]

Your jungle produces some incredible wood, wow, that's a beautiful trailer load!
Merry Christmas down under.😎👍

This was one of the worlds great timber treasure houses before they locked it all away with World Heritage Listings. Now we struggle with intermittent supply and not enough volume to drive a trend.
What I need is a marketing guy who understands that niche means niche... not how many containers can you do a month but supply one floor into anywhere in the world for someone who wants what nobody else has and can afford to pay for it. Meanwhile I'll send her for trailer decking to keep a roof over my head.

I hope you have a fabulous Christmas

[moodnacreek]

L.L, I wondered what you used to saw lumber. Man you are not afraid of work. That doing it with toys will catch up with you like it did me. If you don't get bigger machine you will probably quit. But of course you could also put your self out of business by getting in too deep. I wish I had bought an automatic mill and bigger log turner when I was younger. And when I think of the bull and combo edgers I never bid on it kills me now. Oh well we all have to be different thank God.    Merry Christmas from N.Y. U.S.A.

[longtime lurker]

L.L, I wondered what you used to saw lumber. Man you are not afraid of work. That doing it with toys will catch up with you like it did me. If you don't get bigger machine you will probably quit. But of course you could also put your self out of business by getting in too deep. I wish I had bought an automatic mill and bigger log turner when I was younger. And when I think of the bull and combo edgers I never bid on it kills me now. Oh well we all have to be different thank God.    Merry Christmas from N.Y. U.S.A.

Ahhhhhhhh its a long story, but I had a background in production mills, got out of the industry, was at a loose end a decade ago and bought a Lucas Mill to deal with some byproducts of a bulldozer business I had and fell back in love with wood so started to build it from the ground up with sweat instead of capital.

I've got a lot of antique junk that cuts a good board with much effort, and when I say antique some of its as old as my (now dead) grandad. All circular gear... the Lucas for oversize stuff, and my resaw benches can handle logs to 24" pretty well apart from the need for sweat and skilled operators not dumb labour.
I am an extremely capable sawyer, and a good sawmill manager and as we all know thats not that common a combination.
I have a strong back, although its not as strong as it was 20 years ago.
And I have a plan. I've deliberately delayed upgrading the front of the mill but have worked on the back end.... a lot of small operators never win because they cant deal with product as fast as they can saw it... all I need is new saws and we're good, and the setup has been designed with upgrades in mind.
I've got a good reputation within the industry and have more work from repeat customers than I can possibly handle with my existing equipment... not a lot of days under 12 hours long here anymore, and I pretty much work all of them (days)
And I've got a mortgage that would choke a horse on 20 acres of industrial land with serious sawmill power right there and 20000 square foot of warehousing and a couple acres of all weather hardstand.
All I need now is faster saws, basicly.

I'm kinda at a crossroads in terms of log supply - my crown (state) sale ends mid 2020 and I can either re-up there and develop that side of it which will be basicly upgrades to handle more 18 - 24"  logs.... or go with logging contractors and swing back into the rainforest stuff. The state sale gives me control of my log supply rather than being dependant on others, and it gives me a eucalypt hardwood resource which is good for cashflow products but not real profitable because I have to compete with the big boys on a level footing and my cost of production is higher. The rainforest timbers tend to be high value sales but poor cashflow and you can starve to death with a quarter million dollars worth of lumber in store between sales. Been there and done that.

The right answer is "both", but theres only enough $ to go one way or the other. I cut around 1000 tonne of log a year and need to double in size to bring my fixed overheads down per unit of production... and I can see resource and market to absorb that forever no problem. Thing is I don't want to be big... and I also dont see the resource and market to absorb me heading for 20,000 tonne a year. Three trailer loads a week and a crew of three is my goal, and a lot of value add on the back end... and its not that big a jump equipment wise. Thing being theres not much bull edger between 2000 and 20,000 either, and yeah there's a hole in the floorplan to suit a big gangsaw now :D

You have a great Christmas too mate.