Whatcha Sawin' 2025 ??

[doc henderson]

My old mentor Kenny referred to a smart end and dumb end of a tape measure.

[Magicman]

But the smart end has been known to be read upside down and the inches counted the wrong way.

I once sawed a job where the customer said that all of the logs were 20 1/2'.  Wrong, every log was 19 1/2'.  He marked the 6" on the wrong side of 20'.  Yes, on every log. 

[SawyerTed]

I had a fellow try to sell me 12' logs that were measured the same (wrong) way.   He got mad when I scaled them at 10'.  He came over to protest.  When I put the tape on them "right side up" he realized what happened.  

His tree service workers cost him several hundred dollars by measuring upside down!🙃 

[Resonator]

Got a taste of early spring today, watched the snow melt away into puddles. Good day to make some sawdust, mill fired right up on first crank after it's long winter nap.

Lined up some of my spruce logs on deck, and worked on getting the better ones cut first for 2x's. I will cut the ones with the bark falling off for natural edge siding boards.

Fresh cut stack of 2x4's and 2x6's for future deer blinds, or possibly a garden shed, or maybe even a chicken coop?  
We shall see what is most profitable.

Hoping the weather cooperates, I've got a whole pile of logs to saw...

[Wlmedley]

Resonator, That's a nice looking stack of logs. That would be enough to last me a couple years.

[jpassardi]

My Father, a Carpenter for 42 years and never short on sarcasm introduced me to the "dumb end" when I was a young boy. 
I learned a lot from the Ole Man.

[TimW]

Tim, that's a nice looking stack of lumber!

CB,
Thanks!  I miscalculated on how many I need and added two more levels to it today.  It's getting too high to heft the boards up that high by myself.

[TimW]

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Got a taste of early spring today, watched the snow melt away into puddles. Good day to make some sawdust, mill fired right up on first crank after it's long winter nap.

Lined up some of my spruce logs on deck, and worked on getting the better ones cut first for 2x's. I will cut the ones with the bark falling off for natural edge siding boards.

Fresh cut stack of 2x4's and 2x6's for future deer blinds, or possibly a garden shed, or maybe even a chicken coop?
We shall see what is most profitable.

Hoping the weather cooperates, I've got a whole pile of logs to saw...

That's at least, two whacks full of beautiful logs!

[TimW]

Why are they all over 17' long? Are they a special order or do you guys not have tape measures in Texas?

Howard,
        I was thinking of you when I bucked them and wondered if I could confuse you on the length.

I will be making 30"4" trusses out of them.  So half will be cut to 15'2" and the rest will be somewhere over 16 and a half foot long.  I will determine the upper cord length upon layout.  I got quotes online and the quotes come with drawings, but no dimensions.  So I am kinda going by their drawings and kinda scratching my head to figure the numbers out.  I figure I will save around $3,000 building my own trusses.

[TimW]

Yeah, I heard a new dad in Texas was handed his just born son and was amazed till the doctor explained that was just the umbilical cord."

[Resonator]

Thanks guys. Was able to get a bunch of white pine and a few spruce cut while doing my winter logging. (Details are on the Forestry and Logging: "What are you cutting 2025 thread"). I'm just hoping I can get them sawn before the bark munchers start tunneling.

[jpassardi]

If you plan to get them milled this Spring you should be fine as far as the pine weevils. I doubt they'll get deeper than the sapwood. If there are any you can't to get to, take the time to strip the bark once it starts to slip and that will go a long way to drying the weevils out before they get past the cambium. 

[Resonator]

Yup, peeling the bark is definitely what I plan to do.

[SawyerTed]

The Doctor (pictured) wanted a fire pit so I built one.   

Then she wanted benches, so I built 2 cedar benches with legs. 

The 2 cedar benches weren't enough.

So today I built two live edge benches from a tree that blew down last spring. 

So I sawed up a perfectly good red oak log to make her benches.  The mill struggled on my last job.  I thought I was having blade problems.  After investigating , my drive belt was crazy loose!   I tightened it and it sawed great today! 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I drove 76 miles back to the site I started last week. Drive 67 miles till you get to Beartown State park, go 3 more miles then turn into Droop Mountain Battlefield State park, stop at the ranger station to use the toilet, then 6 more miles along county and private roads, ford the shallow creek then go 1/4 mile and you are there.

    I had to back the mill a couple hundred yards to get it into the site but got that done and his helper/contractor with his tractor and grapple started feeding me logs and I never had to wait for one the rest of the day. We started with a couple of scrappy logs and made some dunnage and stickers then started sawing framing lumber. Anything under 16' was 2X4, 2X6, 2X8 and 2X10. 16' logs became 2X12 and whatever narrower width the flitch would make. A few 4/4 board of assorted width for future B&B and such when the cant would not yield another 2X.



I did not get a starting count as the log were pretty scattered but looked like 50-60 logs. Most are 12-16 feet long and 18-24 inch diameter. All white pine with plenty of knots.

   The customer stacked a few of the short logs but hauled most to his future cabin build site about 1/4 mile away. We'll tally at the end of the job. I did hit one screw about 1' from the end of one log but other than that they have been clear of metal and actually pretty clean.



From his biggest log he wanted to make a 3" book matched LE counter so we loaded the 16' log, rotated it to select what would be the live edge and oriented some defects to reduce the chance of future damage. I sawed the back to about 17" thick in the center, then turned the log 90 degrees and sawed a few 2Xs then got these two 3" book matched pieces. The counter is to be a waterfall about 8' long and attached to a wall on one end. I printed and forwarded some notes from Tom (OGH) and lessons learned and the customer said he really appreciated and will use them. Thanks again Tom. Now the customer just has to get his wife and grown daughter to agree on which piece of the slabs they like best - Good luck getting 2 women to agree!



Some of the stacked shorter lumber (8-10 feet), and some 16' 2X on the truck to go to the site in the morning.






    I did not get a complete count but it looks like about 30 more logs to finish. We might finish tomorrow if the stars align and the batteries in my headlight in the console of my truck hold out. If not the weather is good for Thursday and we should sure finish by then. I've had very good help on this job and the customer is knowledgeable and has a very nice family. I just wish they were closer.
 

[Magicman]

Sounds like a very nice job for sure.  Also a good money$ job.  

[Wlmedley]

Howard,looks like a lot of level ground. Are you sure you are still in WV.

[WV Sawmiller]

Bill, the camera angle is distorted.

Lynn, I could get used to this sawing whole house framing jobs out of soft pine!

Gotta go. Time to make the donuts.

[SawyerTed]

Maybe Howard is like my friend Kenny.   Kenny  has been living in WV long enough he has one leg shorter than the other.

If Kenny gets on flat land he has to concentrate not to walk in circles. 

Maybe that accounts for the levelness in the photos.  

[Magicman]

Lynn, I could get used to this sawing whole house framing jobs out of soft pine!

Yup, I will start one Monday morning and good logs make good production.   This will be my third one this year. 

[barbender]

Well, I could agree that Howard is a little off kilter  I don't think that has anything to do with his legs though😁

[Magicman]

I very seldom presurvey any sawing jobs, but this one was only 8 miles away and the tree service was still there to relocate the logs to wherever we wanted so I went out:


Five very nice clean Oak logs; two White Oak and three Red Oak.  He was wanting an estimate so I told him not more than $600 without measuring anything.

I did stop and measure before I left and scaled 1170 International 1/4 Rule, so hopefully I can give him some change when I saw them.  He is a Nam DAV so anything that I can do, I will. 

[Magicman]

My Monday's customer just called from Akron, OH, verifying that we were still on for Monday's sawing.  He will leave tomorrow morning for the ~1000 mile trip. 

March 17th was set back in November.

[WV Sawmiller]

Well, I could agree that Howard is a little off kilter  I don't think that has anything to do with his legs though😁

[WV Sawmiller]

   I returned and sawed hard all day long. We had 5 logs left to do when my customer gave out and asked me to come back tomorrow. He actually has a bunch of old beams on his truck he wants me to resaw so there is still a little more left to do. I have had great help this trip with 4 pretty much full time helpers so I always have a log ready on the arms and boards and scrap is quickly removed so that does not slow me down.

   I did tear up 2 blades and messed up a couple of boards by getting the cuff of my gloves hung in the down toggle while I was sawing. Once yesterday, again today. With the Simpleset in use it automatically drops to the next setting when this happens.



An end of the day shot of some nearby wood. The live edge counter was moved inside today and the customer is stacking 4/4 boards there now. Most of the wood was hauled to the construction site 1/4 mile away. We still have not done a tally but will finish and do one tomorrow.



These are all that remain from the 30 or more logs we started the day with and these are short and smaller than most of what we sawed today. I am ready for this job to end but will make a leisurely trip over tomorrow with no urgency like the other days.