Saw jobs get BIGGER

[paul case]

gotchya,
that makes things go a little faster when you can just saw boards and not have to stop andturn.this is generally the way its done at the case sawmill.pc

[schmism]

so when your on one of these larger sites with stacks of logs like this




how do you do log handling?  does the customer supply a small tractor with grapple or do you bring a skidsteer or something?

do they supply an offbearer to stack on there trailer or do you have help?

how do you manage slabs?  or do you just make a pile and let the owner worry bout it?

[Magicman]

On this site, the logs are simply rolled off of the stack to the mill.  In the above picture, I only have a few logs to saw before moving the mill.  I just move the mill up or back a bit to the next stack.  No tractor/loader necessary.  The slabs are piled and burned.  The off bearer "Gabby" handles everything.  I only step off of the mill during log setup.



Stacks of ERC logs ready for sawing.  I left stack should be sawed first and then move the saw forward to the next.

[Magicman]

A repeat customer and more beetle killed SYP.  He's still pulling up logs, so I don't know how long this job will last.  So far the logs are 24" to 31" diameter 16 footers.  He wants all of the 1X12's that it will make.  I haven't asked if it's for siding or paneling.  I sawed over 5MBF of dimension framing lumber for him a couple of months ago.

[Magicman]

I sawed over 2600BF of 16 foot 1X12's and I finished up what he had, BUT.  Yup, I left the mill on site.  He's skidding up more logs this weekend, so I'll just be back next week.   




Over 2600 BF of stickered 16 foot 1X12's

[Magicman]

Only 2 SYP logs to saw this morning before I move to the oak job, when the landowner asks about sawing some Sycamore.  He has never seen any Sycamore lumber.  OK, so he skids up 7 logs.



He takes a look at the 1X8's coming off of the mill and decides that he knows where some more Sycamore trees are.



Maybe I can get to the oak job next week.   :-\

[paul case]

those look like some pretty good sycamore logs an lumber.more logs is a good thing huh? pc

[WDH]

I love to saw sycamore, but I hate trying to dry it without twist, cup and warp.  If there is any appreciable sweep in sycamore, you are doomed from the start.  Those logs look nice and straight.

[Magicman]

Those logs were relatively straight.  It was bucked into 8' logs and I sawed mostly 1X8's and they were stickered at 2'.  Those trees had been down 3-4 months, but the wood was still really wet.  We sawed out 1028 bf.

He is moving the lumber to an unenclosed shed which will provide easy air movement with no direct sunlight.




1028 bf of Sycamore.

[DouginUtah]

Magicman, did you attempt to quartersaw as much of the lumber as possible?

[Magicman]

No.  He wanted as many 1X8's as possible and QS would have reduced this.  There were about 4 QS boards per log.  We could have flipped it and gotten 8 QS 1X4's, but that would have drastically reduced his 1X8's.  There were a few knots and irregularities that made some very interesting figures.

This lumber will be planned and used for inside paneling.