Whatcha Sawin' 2025 ??

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

M.M saws slabs for a guy down on his luck. Next guy gives him a beautiful handmade bowl. 

That's how it works.

My dad had a antique shop for many years. Many times I watched him buy things from a "picker" and after he left my dad would put the item in the junk pile or trash. Just trying to help a guy out. 

Weather finally "broke" looking forward to more moderate temps and getting the mill fired up this coming week. 

[WV Sawmiller]

    I forgot to take a Before picture and only got a partial picture of the finished wood as the customer had already hauled a couple back to his house/storage area. He is a builder who has been calling me for over a year about sawing for him and finally got his logs ready to saw, well come of them. Turns out he has decided to downsize and sell his large home and build another for him and his wife and daughter who has graduated college and looking and likely will move I suspect.

  Anyway he is 76 miles away and had a small stack of logs beside his new build site. They are in the way of where he wants to drill his well so he needed them gone first. Red oak, tulip poplar, White pine and locust. The pine became 12' 2X4, Poplar was 5/4 and oak and locust 4/4. All full dimension and none of this wimpy dimensional stuff.
Customer was happy we got the logs out of his well driller's way so that part can proceed.

  It started snowing and got bitter cold before e shut down. The customer has a large whack of big white pines at his house. I went with him and discussed how to arrange them and where I could set up. His suggestion would have my mill blocking the road and no way to get my truck out. I could not back in because the mills would have been on the wrong side of the loading arms. I let the mill and I'll go back Monday when he had MHE and more help required. Looks to be 4-5 days work but weather looks like we will have to break it up.

    I did not do a tally today but suspect somewhere between 1500-2000 bf.

About 15 or so pine 2X4s to be relocated and stacked above, poplar and locust below

[Magicman]

It's good to see you up-and-at-um Howard. 

I have two full weeks off before I saw again.....   

[caveman]

I had a guy call a couple of days ago wanting us to saw him 160 1x6x16's.  He called a few days previously and said he'd determine how many he needed and let me know.  I assumed next weekend would be a realistic expectation.  He wants them the middle of this week.  Normally, this would not be a problem, but I have not seen my place in the daylight since 2/15 or before and I did not recall any good 16' pine logs in captivity.

John and I started looking for logs this morning and only found five pecker poles that were really not worth sawing, but we sawed them anyway.  We considered felling some trees in my pasture or in my mother's backyard and even went around the neighborhood looking for blowdowns.  

I decided to change into shorts and start wading in the pond to try to find enough logs to fill the order.  The pond is deeper than normal for this time of year and the water is still pretty cold.  After an hour or so, I had located, and we removed nine decent logs.  While sawing, Furby showed up with his latest acquisition (pontoon boat trailer).  We will finish up sawing the rest of the order tomorrow, assuming all goes as planned.

It is a pain to get the logs out of the pond, but they saw nice and they don't get eaten by the bugs.
The logs were so slick that I could not get the tongs to grab them.  I used my toes to work the cable choker around the ends of the logs.  It was a bit of a challenge to determine what was pine and what was cypress.  Thankfully, most of the logs still had a little bark on them.  While walking on the submerged logs they sometimes roll or I'd slip off of them, floating my hat.  There are quite a few more in there, but they are too deep to easily access.

[barbender]

Being able to tell the difference between pine and cypress with your toes...that's next level, Cavey!😂

[SawyerTed]

Going in the water in March is next level too!  

[WV Sawmiller]

  I am expecting to see Caveman put his mill on pontoons and get some of those big water shoes and just go saw the logs when they lay/sunk.

    It may be hard to get Furby to off-bear till he relocates that 12' gator in the pond.

[caveman]

There was a pretty good gator in the pond until a few months ago, but I have not seen it in a while.  John was on the bank pulling the rope and tying it to the telehandler.  He was watching for snakes and gators just as I do for him when he draws the short straw.  The water was cold enough that they would not have been moving too fast anyway.

You can tell the difference between pine and cedar bark with your hands.  It is about the same as determining pine from cypress with your feet, except for everything is wet and cold (by my standards).

I'm sure Furby would have been glad to offbear, but he had the whole Furby clan in tow.  They followed him over when he dropped a truck and trailer.  We'll give the neighbors another hour of peace and then we'll start sawing.

[Magicman]

or I'd slip off of them, floating my hat. 

That is very descriptive !!  

[WV Sawmiller]

   Well, that was a bust! I drove 76 miles back to the site and got there where my mill was parked and the customer came over and told me the man with the tractor had called about an hour earlier and said he had the flu and could not come. By that time I was half way there and no cell service to even get the call. We talked a while and looked over his next log pile but there was no way I could have set up and sawed over 1-2 logs the way they were jumbled with cut off stump in the way too so we called it a day and will reschedule for another time. 

   I hooked up the mill and returned home with it. I stopped at our local Middle/High School (Same campus) and talked to the receptionist since the principal and shop teacher were supposedly in a meeting. I left couple of cards and she said they would call. I have offered workshops there several times but only had one temporary shop teacher take me up on it. The kids and the teachers loved it but the school admin typically won't go to the effort to set it up. We will see what happens this time.  
Pretty poor picture but here are the logs still to be sawed. All White Pine, mostly 12'- 16' it seems and I think mostly it will be framing lumber so it should be a decent job by the time it ends. I just wish it was about 65 miles closer.

[Magicman]

That dead trip is a bummer for sure.  Hopefully you are charging 'return trip' mileage to at least break even on traveling.    Even then, the dead trip is time wasted.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yeah, he will pay for the milage. Last year i started milage on every trip. Before that I only charged when I brought the mill out but found I'd have cases where I'd drive 30 miles, saw all day and have 2-3 logs left and the customer would say "I'm give out. Lets finish them other 2 tomorrow." It was not costing him any more but just cost me 60 more miles. Now when I tell "Okay but it's  gonna cost your this much more in mileage" and I find they say "Well, let's just knock these other 2 out and be done with it." That's what I prefer anyway.

   Now I charge the same mileage for every trip I have to make to a customer site. The only exception would be if I have a breakdown then those mileage costs are on me. This customer seems to be a real good guy and was very apologetic but like I said "It could have been me or you getting the flu so those things happen."

[Magicman]

Good for you.  I am now @ $2 per mile one way for the initial travel & setup, and $1 for each return trip.  That does not cover the actual expense, especially when you consider your butt/windshield time, but it helps.

IRS is now $.70 per mile.

I have never had anyone to question nor make any adverse comment about any of my charges.

[TimW]

Had a whack of almost too old to saw logs.  Got enough from 3 logs to make this 16 foot pallet.  So 90% of the log went onto the burn pile. 

I screwed the bottom boards on, so when I move into the new sawmill shed, it can be lower to the ground, or concrete.

[TimW]

Many time repeat customer needed more raised garden boards, so 3 more full size 2x12 Ten footers.  They burn them black before using them.

[ladylake]

Many time repeat customer needed more raised garden boards, so 3 more full size 2x12 Ten footers.  They burn them black before using them.

how long do the have to burn them to make then rot resistance.  Steve 

[TimW]

Make them black.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My understanding (Scary I know) is the burning seals the wood and helps prevent rot.

[SawyerTed]

I'm not sure how effective it is but there's a guy selling "thermally modified " pine, oak and ash. on Marketplace.  He says it's baked at 400^o to prevent decay.  "Better than pressure treated " he says.  $5.50 a LINEAR foot for t&g 1x5 1/4

The wood is a different color -darker. 

Scorching the lumber as Tim describes creates a carbon layer that is supposed to be water, decay and bug resistant. 

[Resonator]

From what I understand, scorching seals the wood, and also the chemical compounds created in the burnt creosote are decay resistant. 

[TimW]

https://nakamotoforestry.com/japanese-flame-treated-wood/

The art of Japanese flame treated wood, known as yakisugi in Japan and shou sugi ban elsewhere, is a centuries-old craft that is returning to popularity today. This method of preserving wood involves heat treating it with fire, a process that hardens the surface layer and preserves the wood from rot, insects, and other damaging elements. It's a beautiful form of wood siding that has been used for centuries in traditional Japanese architecture. Today, it is becoming increasingly popular in modern designs.

My customer said they used a high octane torch that is a lot hotter buring than a weed burner.  I think adult beverages  was involved as they tried the torch on a daughter's softball bat.  The torch melted the bat.

The link above has a video showing the traditional way to do the burning.

[TimW]

It will turn faster now.

[SawyerTed]

Condolences for the premature loss of a blade...

[TimW]

It was a brand new blade too!

[SawyerTed]

Murphy is a cruel SOB!