Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

[Dave Shepard]

Sawing toothpicks this week.

[caveman]

Rob, you have a lot going on.  We could use a little of your rain.  

I dread sawing that camphor.  The smell permeates the air and is overwhelming.  I planed a few wide camphor boards a few weeks ago and nearly got sick.  We had some sitting on stickers taking up space for years and we took them to the local hardwood lumber distributor and they sold for good money so I guess we will try it again.  I used several boards to build a manure trailer for may daughter to haul/dump hog crap with- the bugs don't seem to like it.

Tomorrow I will saw some longleaf for a shed batten and board.  

Dave, what is the plan for the long log?

[Dave Shepard]

Part of a timber frame project. 

[Crossroads]

Went to my first real sawmill job since ? Maybe July? Anyway, milled some Doug fir into some beams. The sizes were a little out of the ordinary, like 8x14x18'. All in all the day went very well and I have another happy customer. Sorry, I forgot to take any pictures 🙈

[Magicman]

It's good to see your smiling face back, Crossroads.  8)

[tule peak timber]

Timber frame is next on the list for the office. I need to do a lot of reading on the forum....... ;D  We have some big  twisty wood gates out to bid, and maybe a massive museum counter piece in line. Most of this year will be spent on the  NNRH project in Sacramento. Endless fireplace mantles, doors, tables, desks and weirdo light bars ....There is a lot of interesting timber not going to mills right  now (closed) that can be had at good prices and the vision is limitless for the possibilities to look ahead. A REALLY busy time with this crazy pandemic. Lost an order today for a truckload of walnut burl and slabs because the guy had to close his retail store, yet other folks are clamoring for wood. I wish I had a crystal ball and enough foresight to see through all the timber that needs sawing.
  When I fished I liked to say never let the machinery space cool down or the hold warm warm up.Not sure how this relates to sawing ,,,,but you get the idea.

[tule peak timber]

Some of the burned material from the town of Paradise Ca. In 2018 this town was destroyed by the "Camp Fire " which took over 85 lives and was the worst wildfire in Ca. history.We are making wall paneling from this Incense cedar.

 

[WDH]

I watched the "This Old House" programs about the beginning of the re-build. 

[tule peak timber]

As a side bar, yesterday my wife signed a huge check for our yearly fire insurance on the ranch. Most company's will not insure rural Ca.anymore as a result the Camp Fire. $$$$$ Bummer....

[tule peak timber]

Day after day of rain and we are completely muddied out down at the mill so we are inside ripsawing and resawing,,,,,but still sawing ;D

 

 

[Magicman]

My upcoming Saturday's "one log" job.  :-\   Pecan.  


 
The customer said 13' long and.....



 
39" on both ends, which would put it somewhere ~6,000 lbs.  Bucking it to 10' would be ~5,000 lbs, and 8' a more manageable ~4,000 lbs.  

Bucking it shorter will also get rid of all/most of that worthless top end.  Marty and Luke will go with me.  

[Ljohnsaw]

Bucking it shorter will also get rid of all/most of that worthless top end.

But that is where the nice grain patterns will be!

[WDH]

Yes ;D.

[Magicman]

But this is Pecan and "nice grain patterns" in Pecan tend to be not so nice.  That plus that knotty top end is much wider than 40" which is beyond what I can saw..  Anyway, we will decide exactly what to do when we get there and find out what the customer's cut list is.

[caveman]

We sawed 1x12 and 1x8 pine today and a few 2x4's to make more stacking pallets.  Four of the five we built last week are loaded.  We cut the camphor log in half that was mashing my trailer down for a few days and sawed it into 12" and 10" boards.  It was a smelly mess.  If you want the experience, just slather Vic's Vapor rub up both nostrils and smear a bit in your eyes for good measure.

We will saw the butt log tomorrow morning after bringing in a few more pine logs we have stashed.



 

 <br The heartwood on this camphor is cool  We gave it to the guy and his wife who has been providing us with all of the pine logs.  They are turning an old school bus into a camper and using a lot of wood inside.

 A former student of mine and his son stopped by yesterday afternoon around 5 to pick up his boards and battens that I sawed yesterday morning.  My son and law (in the orange) works with him- they are linemen for the city.  Anyway, my daughter sent me this picture yesterday evening.  They had all the wood nailed on before dark.

He and my son in law have been scaled way back at work for the next six weeks.  I guess Monday morning will be spent sawing out the wood to do a 14'x 36' barn addition for my daughter and her husband based on this afternoon's conversation.

[SawyerTed]

Sometimes, Magicman, you gotta do what you've gotta do or there's no lumber at all.

Today was one of those hard days at the mill.  Nothing significant went wrong but it was just hard to get the flow going.  Emily was helping and seemed to get bruised and banged up, so we quit early.  No need to push until somebody get hurt (especially her).

Sawing heavy white oak bridge decking 2x6x14, 2 x8x14 and 2x10x14. 



 

This is about 1/3 of the order.  We will put another layer or two on this trailer and the rest will be loaded on another trailer tomorrow.  The customer is only 4 or 5 miles away so the stickered lumber on the trailer won't be a big issue.  The minimal stickers are because the decking will be laid Saturday and Sunday.



 

Was there stress in this log?  Just a little.

[YellowHammer]

MM, having bent my loader arms from a too big log, and it being pecan, and it being too large a diameter, and uh, it being a very dry and hard pecan (I had to say it twice), I'd be hacking the big piece into a more bite sized little piece.  If the customer wants 13 footers, I'd try to convince him he really wants something less.  

I'm interested to see how you handle the monster as well as the customer. 

[longtime lurker]

 

 

Back to killing my own trees again because of supply chain interuptions. Got to keep the girl fed somehow... couple of trailers a week is enough now but if I could we'd plow straight on through. Good thing about wood - it's a long shelf life product. I've never had to think of it that way before.

[PA_Walnut]

Been a while...doing the battles like everyone. The good news is that being "sheltered in place" keeps the sawing going. Git'n'er done!

Was really excited to saw some HUGE white pine for myself. Flooring for a future timber-frame project. The big/clear EWP logs landed too, and will get to soon. 20-25" floor boards will rock! (I think sawing nice white pine makes me as happy as sawing walnut!) ;D 











Some really cool....WIDE (50") Norway maple slabs. Amazing color and figure! 





Sawed some into dimensional for my own person hoard. 




How about some 40" wide quartersawn white oak? I normally saw white oak to dimensional stock (quartered) but wanted to get some slabs into the rotation. Of course, the obligatory metal in there. :(  :-[ :-\












Will post more soon! Stay safe all! 

Happy sawing!

[boonesyard]

Made a good deal on all of this black walnut.



Should keep me busy for a bit.



There's some rot in a few of the butt logs, but most are in good shape.
Took the day yesterday and got everything anchorsealed.

[terrifictimbersllc]

 
Wow, where does it end?

Next gas station 127 miles.

2457 miles to Wall Drug.  

[cutterboy]

PA Walnut...Really nice looking lumber.

Boonesyard... Nice score, happy sawing.

The last few days I've been sawing white pine. Last November I cut down a nice sized tree and cut it into ten 8' logs. The butt log was 22" small end and the 10th log was 7" small end. That little guy I sawed into a 4x4 and all the rest of the logs went into 1" boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 


All in all I was very happy with those logs. I got 863bf out of the ten 8' logs all out of one tree.

     All the best, Cutter

[WDH]

Boones,

Whoa!  (Did I say, "WHOA!")

[Southside]

Don't forget to get your free cup of water there Dennis!  Happy Birthday too!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sawing job - mobile - 2.7 miles from home. Poplar and all 8/4. It must be a dream. Late snow delayed my start by 4 hours or so. Got there just before noon, very windy, cool, pretty level, right next to a gas well/pump station (I don't think they actually pump natural gas so that is likely a misnomer).

   My up/down is extremely slow. I checked the belt, seems tight, I tightened the chain but no effect. simpleset not hitting the marks as set, I'll start another thread on all those issues. Limped along for 8 hours sawing 12' 2x6 & 2X4 and and handful of stickers for good measure. Sawed 1500+ bf in 8 hours. 5.8 engine hours so pretty steady sawing. 


  12' poplar logs. 1-2 Maple, hickory and a couple of 16' locust at the back. I think we sawed all but 13 of these logs.


 8' poplar logs for tomorrow for 2X4's


 Natural gas rig next to the mill. Nice level spot to work.


 6'X10' dump trailer. Stack is at least 25" tall on left side X 5' wide before we got into the stickers and such and all 12' long. I estimate we are about half done and beautiful weather scheduled tomorrow so barring further equipment issues I expect to finish tomorrow. But what the hay - it is 2.7 miles from my front door.