Whatcha Sawin' 2021 ??

[WV Sawmiller]

   I got a follow-up call from a young man yesterday to bring me 3 logs to saw about midday. He was a referral from a previous customer - the best jobs we can hope for. I put the bumpers and plastic scraper back on, checked and cleaned and sanded the power bar for the hydraulics with 400 grit sandpaper and seem to have fixed/removed the hot spots from arching in the past. I checked the blade tilt and distance to the bed and I was surprised so little needed to be done - 1/8" adjustment on the floating rails was all that was needed which amazed me after the beating the mill took with the cabin logs project. My customer showed promptly on schedule. He had a maple and two walnut logs with crotch wood to contend with. I dragged and lifted them off his equipment trailer with John and carried or pushed them on to the loading arms as needed. He just wanted everything cut into live edge boards and slabs. I cut a few 4/4 boards out of the maple then a few 6/4 but the slabs were 9/4.


I forgot a before picture but here is the after shot of the maple. About 7-8 ft long.


Here is the butt log of the walnut. I had to trim a little off the limb stubs to fit between the guide rollers but the customer was very easy to work with. I was just able to fit it with both live sides between the guide rollers.


Since we were next to my washpoint I went ahead and sprayed the log to show him what to expect when he applies his finish to it. After this shot I flipped it 180 degrees, put a new blade on, made a couple of cuts and, of course, being walnut and a yard tree and a new blade... Yep! I hit 2 nails, the blade took a dive and we had a time digging it out. I flipped it back and sawed a couple more slabs then stood the 4-6 inch cant on its side and I sawed boards and 3" stock for table legs. We could see the nails and I sawed between them.


Here is the second, upper log. You can just see the top of a limb stub at the very top. I cut a couple of limb stubs to fit between the guides then stood the log with the limb up. It was a little over 3' to the top so I cut cookies/ovals till we got to the trunk of the tree. By that time some ovals were 5' long. I got full length and made 6/4 boards the rest of the way, flipped it and sawed to the rails. It really turned out pretty!


Boards, slabs and 3Xs loaded for the trip home. The longer cookies/ovals and 6/4 board from the 2nd log are on the right in the picture (Don't they look nice?) with the shorter cookies are in the back of the truck. In spite of the nail (Which was not unexpected and the customer was warned before we ever started and was very cool about it) it was a real fun job, I made a new friend and instead of asking for a discount like my last job he was very happy and paid with a nice tip.

I'm loaded back up for tomorrow's 10-12 mile trip up a curvy road to saw some big but short RO/WO logs for a several times repeat customer. I am glad the stress level has dropped as the week goes on.

[TimW]

I ordered my LubeMizer today.  2-3 week wait now.
hugs,  Brandi

[Larry]

A guy brought in this walnut a while back and told me to slab it 11/4 live edge.  I trimmed each end to 32" to fit between the guides.  The center was maybe 25".  Log was 15 foot long.  When he picked it up yesterday he dropped off a big white oak and told me to cut the biggest beam I could with no bark.  I did that this morning and told him to come and get it.  He was still trying to figure out how to get the walnut slabs off his trailer.......

[Magicman]

There are times such as sawing hardwood such as Oak when no lube is necessary but then when I encounter some Pine logs, I am constantly adjusting even between logs to keep the blade clear of pitch. 


 
With the Longleaf Pine that I am now sawing it's easy to see why the blade needs an extra dose of lube and occasionally even a continuous flow to keep the blade pitch free.  During these instances the LubeMizer is much more than just an "option", even though it is an expensive option.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Started with a dead battery and corroded negative cable in my truck so $200 and 2 hours later I got to the customer site 12 miles away. Oh well, it was the original battery and was 12 y/o.


 

We sawed beside this old log barn for those interested in local old style timberframe and joinery techniques.

 Total yield after 6.4 engine hours 1376 bf of 4/4, 6/4 & 8/4 with 4- 4X4X8 posts out of 4 punky old poplar logs I consider scope creep as they were not in the original stack of RO/WO logs.

Bulk of the logs - all 8' long  

First and hardest log due to limb stubs, punky sapwood and a 2 wire fence. We still got what the customer wanted/needed out of it.

[DPatton]

Today I took the sawmill to see a windmill. ;D





After a nice break from sawing during most of April and May my weekends for the month of June are booked solid. Today I took the TimberKing for a 120 mile (one way) trip to Elkhorn Iowa to saw ten or eleven logs into live edged boards, slabs, and a few 4" thick fire place mantles.









The customer had a real nice little tractor with FEL and forks for placing logs onto the loading arms or the deck of the mill. He did a real nice job operation that little tractor too.





There was plenty of help with family and friends all joining in to carry boards, brush away the sawdust, and stack lumber. I used 2 TimberKing UltraMax blades and we were done in 3 1/2 hrs. I was back on the road home before 11:30 am.
 Next weekend I'll travel 81 miles to Emerson Iowa for a full Saturday of sawing roughly 20 walnut logs. Then 15 miles to Alvo Nebraska to saw for a half day Sunday on some Elm and Oak logs.

Here's a few more pics at the Dutch Windmill Museum in the town of Elkhorn Ia.

[Southside]

Love the skyline behind the tractor.  Sure miss that. 

[Patrick NC]

Cut 960 bf of pine 1x6x12s this morning. Working by myself it took about 5 hours. 

No stickers as the customer is using them right away. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Dpatton,

   I did not know the Danes used a lot of windmills but my understanding was the Dutch used them largely to pump water from one side of the dike to the other. Then the next neighbor would do the same thing till eventually the last landlord pumped it back into the sea. With their low country it was always seeping back into the country but they kept pumping to keep the level down to a manageable level.

[Don P]

I didn't realize there were mills in Denmark either, neat.
My wife's parents came from Dordrecht in Holland, the line of windmills often pictured are along Kinderdijk, "children dike", where legend has it a cat saved a sleeping child in its cradle afloat during a flood by balancing the cradle and keeping it afloat, the cat and the cradle story. Some pics of the molens, mills, are here;
Kinderdijk - Dutch Mill Beauty - Public Transport Holland Shop (public-transport-holland.com)

During the war, her Dad knew the tidal shallows well, others did not 

[WV Sawmiller]

   The Dutch tale reminded me of things I like in the names of people and things from other countries. I worked in Norway in 2007-2008 and our project was engineered out of Haarlem in the Netherlands. We had a number of Dutch co-workers. I remember one was named Marcel Kraaier. His ancestors used to be the town cryer who went around yelling out proclamations and such to the village. Like so many of our names like Smith whose ancestors used to be a coppersmith or tinsmith or such. Or Cooper whose ancestors made barrels.

  I did not learn many Norwegian words but I did learn the Hospital was the Sykhus (Sick house). The local government office was normally the Radhus (Red house). No Parking signs read "No Parkering" or "Parkering forbudt"

[Tristen]

This was a walnut log left in the woods by a logger.  When i looked at it laying in the woods i could tell why the loggers had left it laying.  I had a small split down one side, it was all closed up but you could tell it was NOT a high quality log.  I was hoping there was a few good 5/4 boards left in it.  However after the first cut i found the big hollow spot inside the log.  I could tell right away i was going to get ZERO high quality 5/4 inch boards out of it.  I decided to try my luck at some 8/4 live edge slabs, it was the only way i could think of to get any value out of this log.  Got pretty lucky because my first cut opened up the hollow spot.  

IF these hold together after they are kiln dried i will be happy !  



 

 

 

 

 

[Jim_Rogers]

Some people buy those hollow slabs and fill the void with clear epoxy and then put lights underneath that shine up through the void. Some use colored light that cycle through different colors.
Others will fill the void with one color, like blue, and make them a table.
You'll sell it if you find the right customer.
Jim Rogers

[cutterboy]

Last week I finished a job for a customer. He is building a house about a mile up the road. A number of trees were cut a year ago to make room for the house and drive. Most logs were small to medium in diameter and 8-10 feet long. He would drive his tractor to my place with 2 or 3 logs on the forks and drive back with lumber and slabs. He brought pine, red oak, red maple, cherry and aspen. What was going to be 15-20 logs turned out to be 35!


 

 
All went well until the next to last log which was a monster cherry.

 
I had to do some serious chainsaw work to make it fit on the mill. The customer wanted two 8/4 live edge slabs and as much 8/4 boards as I could get. I could see a nail sticking up so I cut it out with the chainsaw, but I hit a second concealed nail with the chain. No big deal.


 
To make a long story short, seven more nails and two brass (house?) numbers and two ruined blades. Also a large rotten cavity. 


 

 

 
I did get him two live edge slabs and some 8/4 boards but not much of it. However he was happy and paid for my blades.

Happy sawing.....Cutter

[York Woodwright]

Nothing very remarkable, just thirty-two pine boards 1 x 4 x 6 ft. 

It is for a drama project and was requested by a university student completing her last assignment before graduating in Fine Arts. And like most students at the end of four years of school, she had little money and little time. With Ontario locked down and the lumber yards closed apart from curbside service, she couldn't find what she needed let alone find wood within her budget, which was $60.

Hence, I had a request to provide about 60 board feet of pine for $1 per board foot. In this era of crazy wood prices, that is what I pay for a pine log delivered to my mill. My choice was to lose money or say 'No'.  

I've been an impoverished student and also been a university prof, from whence I saw lots of great young people work diligently in a struggle to get across the finish line well.  So I said 'Yes' then spent the afternoon in the pouring rain to get her boards ready. 

 I told her that, somewhere down the road, if she is in a theatrical production in my area, to send me a ticket. 

[firefighter ontheside]

I've been wanting to find a box elder to cut down for milling.  Well, today my wife told me there was a tree growing by her air conditioner at her office building and needed to be cut down.  Low and behold it was a box elder.  Should make some pretty nice lumber, if a little small.  It was 1" DBH.


 

[Magicman]

I returned to my 106 mile away road trip today after a week off.  Things were going quite nicely until......


 
Had I not had two fire extinguishers in my truck the skidsteer would have certainly gone up in smoke.


 
The tail pipe broke out of the muffler and fell across the emergency battery jump cable burning a hole in it as well as setting the debris inside of the engine compartment on fire.

One thing led to another and very soon the entire engine was blazing.  


 
I left the customer and the skidsteer owner with their hands full of opportunities.  As it stands now, I will move the sawmill back home tomorrow and resume that job at a later time.



I was able to saw 1383bf of 2X10 X 10' before the magic smoke got released.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Dermatologist visit today - I am his miracle patient of the year and may become the new spokesman for Dupixant. ;) Then shopping for materials to build another composting toilet and 2 sheds.

  Our two friends who run the local hair salon came by and picked out a 4"X8"X6' Basswood plank that I went ahead and planed, sanded the front and squared the ends and will deliver tomorrow. They are using it in a house reno project under a walnut mantle and were very happy. They are great guys and good friends so it was time very well spent.

York Woodwright,

  I am confident you will be rewarded in heaven if not before for today's work! Some things are more valuable than and better compensation than what goes in our wallets. Helping a student is definitely time and money well spent.

Lynn,

  Glad you were equipped to help. My customer's son and helper asked me Saturday "How often does that fire extinguisher at the front of the mill get used." I told him "Hopefully never but it is there just in case." I bet if you include 2 fire extinguishers or refills, as appropriate or your final invoice the customer will not quibble too much about them. :D

[Southside]

@Tristen just a thought, but looking at the two pieces with the largest void I could see them in an outdoor kitchen with a custom hammered sink inlaid into there - might be a marketing avenue.  

[Tristen]

@Southside Great Idea,  I hope someone will find something to make out of them, very unique and very cool looking.  I hope someone turns them into something nice.  

[DWyatt]

@Magicman those folks have had all kinds of trouble with the skidsteer since you got there! (If that's the same one that frequently needs tires)

[tule peak timber]

This was a walnut log left in the woods by a logger.  When i looked at it laying in the woods i could tell why the loggers had left it laying.  I had a small split down one side, it was all closed up but you could tell it was NOT a high quality log.  I was hoping there was a few good 5/4 boards left in it.  However after the first cut i found the big hollow spot inside the log.  I could tell right away i was going to get ZERO high quality 5/4 inch boards out of it.  I decided to try my luck at some 8/4 live edge slabs, it was the only way i could think of to get any value out of this log.  Got pretty lucky because my first cut opened up the hollow spot.  

IF these hold together after they are kiln dried i will be happy !  



 

 

 

 

Headboards and bed frames !!!!

[Magicman]

DWyatt, Yes the same skidsteer but stuff happens.  This is a borrowed skidsteer and the tires were entirely my customer's fault for retracting the grapple too far and contacting the tire.  Personally I think that there should be a "stop" of some sort to prevent such, but there is not.  This fire was not the operator's fault in any way.  Just metal fatigue at the tailpipe/muffler junction which allowed the tailpipe to fall against the 12V contact..

We finished the available logs and called it quits for now on this job until the skidsteer gets fixed.  I sawed 1846 bf on this trip for a job total of 8948 bf.  

I'll try to catch up on some local sawing for now.

[doc henderson]

it can be a problem buying a generic grapple, intended to work on "any" skid steer.  my brother did road construction.  they called it monkey proofing, meaning any employee could jump on the equipment, and it was set up to not implode on itself.  

[Resonator]

"This machinery does not have a brain, you will be required to use yours." (Sign inside cabs I've seen.) ;D