Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[Magicman]

I think that this was ~14 logs to be sawn into framing lumber:


Here the customer is trimming the ends.  I did not scale nor take any lumber pictures but we made fairly good production and have 5 logs left to saw Monday morning.

[WV Sawmiller]

The owner moved some more logs over for me to saw.




This job is like eating an elephant - one bite at a time. 

I went over a few hours today after a few days of rain and I sawed 460 more bf of lumber. I have about 2/3 of the customer's order sawed now. If the weather and such holds up I might finish it. I had to leave early today to go to a friend/neighbor's funeral.

Just before I left I buttoned up the mill and moved it over about 6' to get away from the sawdust and slab pile that has been encroaching on me. I am set up to start again any time now.

[WV Sawmiller]

    I made a leisurely start of it and did not go up to the site till after 10:00 this morning. Below is a picture of what the site looked like when I started. Plenty of fog till around noon. My customer/the log owner lives about a mile up the mountain from here and came down to help as I was stacking the first log (the one on the mill) and he said there was no fog, only bright sunlight at his house. Many of these pencil sized "logs" only yield a couple of 8' 2X4s or 1 1X4 and a 2X4. Many would only return 3-4 1X6's and 2-3 1X4s. My customers order is all 1X6 and 1X8 all 8' long.

    Here is the board stacks at the end of the day. On the other side we only added 3- 2X6X12 so I did not take another picture there. My customer stack was getting too high to stack so I started off with another stack. His order is for 1,000 bf. At the end of the day we had only sawed 380 bf but the customer order now has 984 bf. Yep, 4 more 1X6's will finish his order. I am pretty confident I will finish his order tomorrow if I get to go saw. One hiccup is I have to saw 10-12 more of small pecker-poles before I get to anything that will make a 1X6 including sever 12 and one 16' log in the way.

[Magicman]

  You are doing good pilgrim. 

[cutterboy]

Howard, are the boards coming off the mill straight from those small logs? They look pretty good in the pictures but I have had some problems with bowing and cupping with lumber from small diameter logs. 
Anyway, thanks for all the pictures, I do enjoy them.

[WV Sawmiller]

Cutter,

   Most are pretty straight but some of the 2X4s tend to have some bow which I try to stack with the bow up to help reduce or remove some. The one inch boards are much better about having no bow.

   I'd much rather be cutting bigger logs but this is what he has so I do what I can with what I have to work with.

    On some of the 9-10 inch logs I end up sawing through and through then edging the best I can in hopes of getting more 1X6's but I still get more 1X4s than I like.

   I can use or sell the 1X4s for roof nailers for metal roofs or battens and use the 2X4s  for small building projects.

[Magicman]

This SYP sawing job got moved from the "schedule book" to the "invoice book" today.


The last log; a 24" X 8'......


which yielded 52 2X4's seen above on the tractor FEL bucket.  I sawed a bit less than 9 hours and scaled 3320bf of framing lumber which was not too bad production wise.  There was one stack of full size.

This leaves 3 jobs that I have kinda committed to saw this year but I do not intend to saw anything before Thanksgiving.

[WV Sawmiller]

    As they say in Arabic (Plz forgive the spelling) Kah los. Quais  which means "Finished. Good!"

    I went over a little after 10 am and my customer/partner was already there a few minutes ahead of me.

    It was a cloudy, dreary day all day all day but no rain and comfortable temperature. We finished all the logs he had dragged up.
The 2X4s are in the left stack (almost 500 bf of them), next is the 1X4's (about 275 bf of them) and the last 2 stacks are 1X6 and 1X8 for my customer order (1090 bf - customer order 1,000 bf).

This is a stack of 12' - 2X4 and 2X6 and 2 1X6's (about 520 bf of them)

And 5- 16' 2X6's (80 bf). All told just under 2500 bf.

  I brought the mill home and nearly left the drive side front outrigger this time when I forgot to raise it. Fortunately the ground was soft and I was watching sooner to back up for a turn around. Now it is time for a service and oil change before I go finish my last 2 scheduled planned jobs (a 1 and a 2 day job) for the year.

    And here is Sheba, the customer's beagle/log dog. She has climbed up on the logs, slab pile and every stack of lumber on the site even those tall ones at the top I'd never have thought she could jump up on.

[richhiway]

You two are working pretty hard for a couple of old guys.

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Rich

[Magicman]

Thank you.  Fact is that I love to saw.

I scheduled a ~25-30 log job yesterday for the last week of January/1st week of February.  He works 14/14 offshore and will be "in" during those 2 weeks.  It is 48 miles so I can either drive or overnight at his place. 

[jpassardi]

You two are working pretty hard for a couple of old guys.

Everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Rich

Yes - much respect to you two ole "retired" guys for still getting after it 

[SawyerTed]

Went to a job today.  Left without setting up the mill.  This was a first even though I should have left on some other jobs.  If nothing I've learned to see a sinking ship before it leaves the dock. 

The stacks of "logs" were 2/3 tops, crotches and basically firewood.  They were nowhere near the sawing deck.  There actually are several awesome white oak logs I want to quartersaw. 

Customer (repeat) was to have a man there to help - no where to be found. This job I hired a day laborer to help.  I decided I'm better off putting him to work here than standing around

Halfway home I got a call, "My wife said she saw you leaving." 

We had a good talk with me repeating my instructions on staging.  His helper was supposed to have sorted logs. 

Customer said he'd be ready Monday first thing.  I'll be checking Sunday evening -  it's not far and my extra mileage for the wasted trip will find its way into his invoice.

Should have done a site visit.  Hind sight is 20-20. 

[Magicman]

I circled the wagons and headed home a couple of years ago.  Very nice 3-4Mbf SYP logs but on a steep slope with nowhere to set up.  I am not blocking a wheel a foot off of the ground.  Maybe if I lived in WV, but I don't and I ain't.  We had talked while I was in-route so he knew that I was fairly close but he was not there when I arrived and surveyed the situation.  I called him and got no answer so I left.  When he returned my call I was headed North.  He was not happy but I am not in the "feel good" business.

[Stephen1]

I left a job in June, He thought 4 guys could roll a 30" EWP log up a 2 foot incline out of where he had dropped it and it was sitting stuck in the mud. It was still in tree length and he was expecting me to keep moving the mill. I left him with instructions to move them logs. 
I went back last week as the last job this fall . Thank goodness the excavator was still there. He had moved the logs but they were intertwined in 2 piles. He could not figure out the thumb. I put my helper on there as he knew how to run it. Picked the logs up right onto the loading arms. We sawed all 6x8x8-10-12-14 
We left a pile of logs there for the spring. it will be my a job for May. 

[SawyerTed]

Checked yesterday.  Logs were untouched.

No call from the customer.  I've got other things to do.  The ball is in his court. 

Oh well, next job is Wednesday and Thursday morning.  Cedar posts, just four cuts.  

Will gobble until I eat...eerrrr or something like that!