Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[WV Sawmiller]

  I will have to do this post in several stages because I ain't smart enough to get this picture gallery thing sorted so bear with me.

   I loaded up and hooked up yesterday to go do a mobile job for a many times repeat customer. My wife and I looked at the logs last week and I showed him where I'd like them staged and what size I felt were worth sawing. He did put me a couple of sticker logs in the front to get me started. All the logs are white pine and either 8' or 10' long and all are being sawed into 1" sheeting. I am doing the stacking and stickering and adjusted my rate accordingly. I had hopes to get some teenagers to help last week during Spring Break but the weather was lousy or at least predicted to me. Several were good days and it annoyed me I lost out on them.

   I left in drizzling rain. The site is 16 miles away. It is well laid out but I only had 2 pallets so I placed them for 10' stacks 40" wide. I sawed one of the sticker logs into 4X4's and cut them 4' long as his forks are 4'.

   I should have moved the mill a foot forward to center it better but it was close enough. I did move one big 10' log with a lot of sweep but when I hooked my Magic Hook to it and the side support and with both rollers up, the sweep in the log and my bad luck when I lowered the arms to move the log to the rear, I dumped it off the side. I rolled it out of the way and figured I'd drag it out with my truck, get the customer to move it or turn the mill around when I was done to reach it but a friend of the customer came over to borrow his Bobcat with a FEL and a thumb and I asked him and he set it back on the mill for me. (All the pictures this post will accept so on to the next one. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Here are my pallets set out near the rear of the mill so they are close since I have to move the boards. I set the 8' stack about 15" away for easy access between the two. Since I'm stacking I make sure all the stacks are the same width and stage my boards at the end of the mill till I have the right mix for 40" for 10' boards and 48" for the 8' boards. At least the tally is easy and accurate.

  This is the log stack at the end of the day. I think I did nearly half and looks like there are 21 logs left to saw.

[WV Sawmiller]

Third chapter

    I called the customer for more pallets and he brought me some 8' dunnage. I will lay them out in the morning and use the short left over 4X4s I cut for the 8' stack to start a second stack of 10 lumber at the end of the mill. The tall stack below is the 10' boards and it is getting uncomfortably tall to stack on so I will finish i toff soon. The customer also brought me some really nice 3' metal roofing so at the end of the day I covered the stacks and put some slab wood on to keep it from blowing off.

  I left a 10' log on the mill to help deter thieves. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nicer day than today which was very cloudy (I missed the Eclipse entirely). Total sawed, stacked , stickered, lay out, covered, etc was 1108. I don't know if I can finish tomorrow or not. I have the WM Service loop team coming Friday so I have to have to mill back home by then.

[cutterboy]

Nice looking lumber Howard, thanks for the pictures.
Is white pine common in WV or is it mostly the southern pines?

[WV Sawmiller]

   White pine is our native pine here. I don't think SYP grows naturally but I have sawed a little that was planted. Most of my boards were 1X10s with a few cants that made 1X12a. The smaller boards are from the side lumber.

[Magicman]

I have the WM Service loop team coming Friday so I have to have to mill back home by then.

I always had the service loop done at a customer's location on a sawing job somewhere.

[Larry]

I had a couple of walnut logs to slab this morning. Beautiful day but the wind was gusty, switching, and generally out of the wrong direction to keep sawdust out of my eyes.

I have goggles and a face shield that I sometimes wear in these conditions but most generally I just don't saw. I wanted to get this little job complete so I used a different strategy to keep out of the sawdust.

Enter my custom made cruise control or feed lock. (Definitely not TK approved.)



Lock the feed down and step back out of the sawdust.


A little job completed in short order without dust in my eyes!

[Dave Shepard]

I'm getting blasted by locust dust. I'm wearing a mask, so I'm not breathing it, but it does get under my safety glasses, which is not much fun.

[TimW]

Freshly cut White Oak did that to me.  It kept getting past my safety glasses.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Okay the saga continues. I returned to my site today, set up 4' X 10' base for more boards.

   I sawed till about 4:00 pm and we had a slow steady drizzling rain and I hate sawing in wet sawdust and mud and such so I packed it in with one log on the mill and 7 more on the hillside. Weather permitting I'll finish them in the morning.

    My first stack of 10' boards is 40" tall and 24 rows and getting uncomfortable to reach so I put the roofing on it and am done with it. My 8' stack is 4' wide and 22 rows so far and not much if any more 8' to do.

    My new stack is 4' wide X 10' and 9 rows high so far. I think I can stack all the remaining 10' lumber on it. 

    I figure it was 13 logs and 750 bf of all 4/4 white pine today.

   

[WV Sawmiller]

Here is the last of the logs plus there is one 10' log on the mill for security and to be ready tomorrow.

Lynn,

   I know the service team will go to the customer site but I prefer to have them come to my home and I have my mill washed and ready for them when they get here.

[Magicman]

I prefer to have them come to my home

OK, you used the words "have to" sorta inferring, to me, that it was a requirement. 

I wish that the service loop was still available to me.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sorry for the mix up. WM is very accommodating and has always told me they'd go to where the mill was but I prefer them come here.

[Southside]

Larry your fab skills are light years ahead of mine, I would have made use of the hole in the factory plate, a bungee cord, and some duct tape to keep the bungee from rolling down the handle.  

[olcowhand]

Small Cherry Burl "Log" (it sure wouldn't roll.....)

[doc henderson]

OCH that is pretty.  Now what are you going to do with it?

[olcowhand]

Thanks Doc! I'm probably going to sell them....
I milled them at 4/4, so they may sell as knife handles/ pistol grips. I'll probably give a couple to my NDN, who produces some stunning epoxy/ live edge stuff, but is also very generous.....

[WV Sawmiller]

  Okay, the final chapter. I went over a little after 8:00 am and unpacked, uncovered my lumber stack and resumed sawing and finished and was pulling out at 1:30pm. The 8 additional logs turned out 667 bf so a total of 2435 bf for the job. About 2 days sawing although I took 3 because of the weather.

  I learned or remembered several new things this trip.

1. You need to hug your helper if you have one!

2. If you are sawing and stacking by yourself a handy tip is to slide the lumber to the end of the mill to get it out of the way till you finish sawing the cant then go stack it. I'd slide several boards off the cant and give them a little sideways shove at the end so the boards are resting/leaning on the end of the mill. That way I was able to pick and match the boards to make every row the same width for easier tally

3. When cutting stickers make them 2-3 inches longer than the width of your stack. That allows you to see the end of the sticker past the boards on the other side and makes it easier to keep your sickers lined up properly.  (Some of you may have strong disagreements with this but it worked better for me.)

4. Use a short stick as a pivot stick when edging a stack of flitches. I often saw my flitches in 1" drops especially when I need to generate stickers. As I get a clean face on a flitch I remove it from the stack and flip it over. When both edges are free of bark and the board is a standard width (I normally cut all my lumber in 2" widths for ease of stacking and tally purposes) I remove the finished board and stack or set it aside. To remove the board or flitch from the middle of the stack I lift my end higher than the other flitches, take a 2' stick and stick it under the raised flitch and on top of the ones to be edged, bear down on my end till the opposite end of the board/flitch rises free of the others then I set it aside or flip it over. Placing the stick crossways as a pivot is a handy tool to free the flitch/board from the stack.

[olcowhand]

A Maple Burl "Log"..... (This one didn't roll, either)

[WV Sawmiller]

   Wow, I am amazed nobody read my previous post and said "Hey, that's a great idea" or "Are you crazy? I ain't cutting stickers longer than my stacks of boards" or such. 

    True genius is so often overlooked.  

[Magicman]

No comment does not indicate overlooked.  I thought longer stickers were SOP.    

[doc henderson]

well, I use skids for wide or feet with groves for single log stacks.  I do not like longer sticker as they interfere with my strapping being in line with the top and bottom cauls with the groove.  as well, I have caught my leg on them walking past them in a group of stacks.  As well if you are moving them and staking, they catch on stuff.  I line up with the sticker below by looking at them.  .  I do have some manufactured sticker at 48 inches and my skids are only 42.  I hate to shorten them although they will always fit my skids after shortened.

[doc henderson]

Lynn, what is SOP.

Howard, we all know you are crazy, and keeping like company here on the forum.

[olcowhand]

Wow, I am amazed nobody read my previous post and said "Hey, that's a great idea" or "Are you crazy? I ain't cutting stickers longer than my stacks of boards" or such.

    True genius is so often overlooked.

Howard,
Please note that I made sure my pics all showed the stickers protruding from the pieces....
Some of us recognize true genius, even when it ain't me.....

[Magicman]

Standard Operating Practice to trim the longer stickers after the lumber is stacked.