First Portable job, Locust, any thoughts?

[Walnut Beast]

Tom,

TT is pulling your leg on the blocking on the rail side. ;) Just take several 3'-4' 1X6 or 2X6 scrap boards and lay them in front of the low side wheel just before you center the mill and drive up on them to level the mill side to side. Be sure to chock the wheel good but that is a quick and effective way to level the mill side to side. Trust me - I never get a level site to start with.

Check the mill good before moving it to make sure all hydraulics are collapsed to maximize ground clearance and be sure the safety chain is hooked to be sure the head doesn't bounce off the pin. Be sure to raise the arms and such to travel position before you move the head off the hydraulics power strip. I raise my head 25" to clear the arms. Remember to pin the debarker so it can't swing during travel.

The Magic hook is not needed for lifting in my case but I do use it to roll a log forward or back or on to the arms if needed. Mine goes on every job along with 2 logrites and a cheap wooden cant hook for a mill special to flip cants when needed.

Your cardboard shipping boxes for bands will work fine for a one time job but if you are going to do more you need to make something sturdier.


 

I used 1" stickers and thin boards for siding and piano hinges to make these. Rope handles in the tops for carrying and closing the box. But that is for the future.

Take several short boards to put under the landing gear feet if needed to level them. Take a shovel and spud bar in case you have to dig out under a landing gear.

I take a box with all my spare belts and a pretty complete tool box and normal spare parts that could fail and shut me down. I take an old bumper jack for leveling the mill if needed. (I don't have Fast Adjust Jacks.) I rarely need it but have it in case.

Chainsaw, gas, oil and tools is a must. A spare can of fuel for the mill and lube is prudent although rarely needed.

 Locust has thick bark and holds lots of dirt but generally saws good for me when green as described.

 Time spent at the start for stacking piles pays off big at the end. If possible make separate stacks by length and thickness to make the tally quick at the end if this a bf job. Make your stacks close to reduce travel time with finished boards but not so close they interfere with the rest of the work.

 Are you flat stacking or stickering? If stickering does he have stickers? Don't make any stacks wider than the forks on his MHE. If he is going to need stickers I often start with a short, scrap log and cut it into stickers. If he has some old dry boards I'll stand them up and cut into stickers for him if he wants.  If I need more I cut them for the edging later in the job.

Don't forget water, gatorade, toilet paper or purple paint. Good luck.

Oh yeah - be sure to lower the rear landing gear at least part way before moving the head so the tongue doesn't point skyward.

Any reason you didn't make a  sturdy box to hold them the way they are supposed to be folded with dividers 

[DWyatt]

@Walnut Beast this is how blades come from woodmizer. Either flat pack like shown or coiled in a box with dividers between the blades.

[WV Sawmiller]

   As Dywatt said that is how I get mine folded in a flat pack in a clover leaf as shown. I first made my racks wider/thicker to carry 15+ blades on each side but soon found that was too heavy to pack around so I rebuilt them to carry only one stack. There are other systems but this works well for me.

[moodnacreek]

I saw quite a bit of locust logs like in the pile shown and would not do any amount of 4x4 and 1x4 as a target size especially by the board foot. The 1x4 would come from edger boards, or said another way jacket boards but you get no footage. the 4x4's will warp themselves back to where they came from. You could do 1 per log as a boxed heart and get the 1x4 of the sides. [off the cant to be a 4x4].  The best thing with those locust is 2x6 and 2x8 and if I owned the logs that's what they would become. Also expect as much as 1/3 waste from sawing locust. Who pays for that?

[WV Sawmiller]

Moody,

 Good points. The biggest locust job I did was poles and beams. I think the beams were 4X8 and the poles were something like 7X7 and rounded corners were fine with the customer. When he got his pole barn up his wife looked at it and said "This should make a fine line dancing venue" and, wise man that he was, he concurred then called me back to saw some more for the modifications and so he had a place to store his equipment as originally planned.

 But in Tom's defense, he saws what the customer orders. I don't know if it is BF or hourly job so the waste may not matter.

[Old Greenhorn]

I don't do the negotiations, that's the bosses job. I am just the operator. I can advise the client on what might be a technical choice, but they are his logs. We do have a safe minimum charge in there in case we do not reach the BF minimum, but otherwise the charge is by the BF and I get paid by BF milled.
 Obviously if these logs corkscrew or something I will stop and have a conversation. But if the wood comes out flat and straight, I mill 'em up. I sure don't like the idea of doing 1x4's, but what I like doesn't matter. Honestly, I think he wants 4x4 posts and 1x6 for fence facing.
 I asked some more questions this evening and the mill area is a flat and pretty level space just down from this log pile.

[Walnut Beast]

@Walnut Beast this is how blades come from woodmizer. Either flat pack like shown or coiled in a box with dividers between the blades.

I see 👍. WV Sawmiller nice job on your storage boxes!

[Peter Drouin]

I would set up down from the log pile 16' or more. When they roll down, you won't have a log jam.
Do one log and put the slabs in front of the loader arms, so the rest will roll on them. That way with them off the ground. Your help can have room to center the logs to the arms.
Good luck.

[dgdrls]

My first post seems to have gone to the digital abyss.
What @moodnacreek said
and I have had success with 5/4 BL boards as well

Pictures!!

D

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I have no idea when we will start this job. But your thoughts and questions had me thinking a lot, so today I had to take my wife to her quilting 'thing' and that put me a couple of towns over and I had other errands to run, so I tied in a visit to this mill site. It's better than I thought.
This is the long shot so you can see the lay of the ground better: 


 

The logs are piled on a hill on the left and it is a mix-mash to a degree with some firewood logs in the pile I won't waste time on.


 
But there are also some very decent logs in there:


 

So looking a little closer at the working ground:


 

We can pull the mill straight in which will put the load arms on the pile side. If we set the mill about 15-20' away to the right of the pile that should give us enough working room. I am concerned that as we start to roll logs out of that pile, it might cascade and make a mess. I don't want the mill too close that we get jammed up. The ground is level enough in that spot that any blocking will be minimal and the ground is stiff and well drained, so quite stable.
 That burn bucket you see is easily moveable by hand. All in all it seems like a pretty workable layout. I just wish all the log ends were even on the head side of the mill.
 The largest log I measure in the pile is 25" diameter, just a couple of those. I didn't talk to the client, but I did run into his ex-wife on my way out who's driveway I have to access the site from. A very pleasant gal, she thanked for for coming to look it over. The client lives in the house at the top of the hill above the pile. Yeah, I'm confused too, but it's none of my business and has nothing to do with why I am there, so I don't care. ;D

[Magicman]

That is a very workable layout.  8)

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I was surprised. We don't have many flat spots around here. We got lucky.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Yeah, I have worked a lot of worse spots. Does the client have any MHE or are you just rolling the logs on with a cant hook?

  I tell my clients not to stack over 3 logs high for the same concerns you have there about getting buried under a log pile. I had some last year against trees that were 6 logs high and I was working alone. I'd roll a log and jump out of the way as the pile came down.

  I'm confident it will work out well and you may like this life on the road.

[GAB]

I'm confident it will work out well and you may like this life on the road.

Especially the "not having to clean up" part.
GAB