Teaching RRQS

[Brad_bb]

Last Thursday I took two red oak and one white oak log to a sawyer nearby who has an LT 40 wide hydraulic.  Two Partner's own the Mill and I had them watch Robert Milton's jelly roll video.  Then I worked with them and taught them as I went. I was worried it was going to take too long as they were charging $150 an hour. But they caught on fairly quickly and we got those three done and slabbed a 5 foot long cherry crotch in four hours. All three logs ran from 30 to 36 inches 8 feet long.  We gunbarreled them, Then took cuts through the center, and then reverse rolled the half pie sections. One guy caught on really quick with that such that I didn't even need to help him align or reposition or tell him how much of a wedge to cut off. That really sped things up. The white oak turned out awesome.  The red Oak did too, but there's a bit of loss because those two Logs sat for too long. I've been without a computer for more than three weeks now, trying to get a consulting appointment with Micro Center to help me figure out what I need.I'm doing this on my phone, so I hope it works. They were very appreciative for teaching them the method, and had a large sycamore log nearby that they plan to use it on.

 

 

 

    

[YellowHammer]

That's some eye popping beautiful fleck!  

I could even see it on the picture taken standing way behind the trailer.

Did they get mad or aggravated at first with you trying to show them something new?  Some folks can get pretty touchy about that.  I'm glad it turned out so well.  

[caveman]

Looks good.  You and Robert did a good job teaching.  A consulting fee may be in order.

[YellowHammer]

Yes, the Sawyer should give Brad a consulting fee for showing him how to do it. :D :D

I'm just glad it worked out well, and the topic title wasn't "Never Doing RRQS Again." :D

[Brad_bb]

The guy(#1) I talked to on the phone was a little reticent about it but at $150 an hour was willing to do what I wanted. I kind of choked on that I've never seen that high of a rate before. If it had seems slow going I might've called it off, but it went well. They were not aggravated and it was funny because the two of them kept switching off. The first guy gun barrel the first log and we did the center cuts, then they switched off and the other guy did the reverse roll, then they switched off and we started gun barrel in the second log but then they switched off and we finish gun barreling in guy number two did the center cuts and then they switched off again, I showed guy number one how to reverse roll. Then after that log they switched off again. Guy number to picked it up really fast, and with the reverse roll I didn't even have to tell him because he got the hang of how much ways to cut off and how to prep to cut down three boards or so.  I told them you have to watch the fleck and when you start going out of it then you have to take a waste cut.  I offloaded each board onto my trailer and even kept some of the wedges but I will re-cut on my Mill for narrow boards or stickers.  They were appreciative to learn the technique, but unfortunately didn't give me a break on the rate.  I joked that I wouldn't deduct too much for teaching.  They said they've been using the wood Mizer technique to quarter saw, but they won't be doing that anymore, rather using this technique.  Robert you came up with a hell of a technique and we're all indebted to you!  Thank you!  Now are we going to see you saw that devil of a Hickory log?

[jpassardi]

Very nice. I'm also appreciative that YH shared the method with us.
Robert, do you normally wait to edge the beveled edged pieces until after drying?

[YellowHammer]

I appreciate it.  It wasn't just me, the original RRQS was an evolution of each of the three of us, the Three Amigos as Andries called us, with Danny, Jake, and myself each adding a little as we kept maturing the technique.  I remember as clear as if it was yesterday when we first demonstrated it in front of an audience at one of Jake's earlier projects after I had added my unique "half log reverse roll spin" because it seemed that the current conventional way sawing logs in quarters was a real issue with all the techniques at that time.  So that's when I first started doing the half log as well as targeting the actual rays themselves vs conventional quartered log pattern sawing. It was a technique the guys hadn't seen in person yet, but I had talked about on the Forum.  The guys were a little apprehensive and Danny kept gently reminding me that the proceeds from the log would be used to help pay Jake back for the expenses of the project and I could tell he was worried that it was going to be a "crash and burn" situation. :D  One of them even asked "Are you sure you want to do this if front of all these people, we can do it the "old quarter sawn way" but I said yes, why not, ain't no big deal, I'd been doing it for months.  To their credit, and for reasons I'm still not sure of, they trusted me to go ahead, and I figured with the two A-Team guys right there, how could it go wrong?  It went perfect, and the rest is history.

Later on, WDH called it the RRRQS technique for "Robert's Reverse Roll Quarter Sawing" technique, but I didn't think that name was appropriate because it ignored the contributions of both of them, so I shortened it to the RRQS, and the name stuck.  

I'm still working on the technique because I do a lot of quarter sawing and a couple of years ago I came up with the simplified version, which I coined the "Jelly Roll" which I prefer over the original version.  However, I'm still trying to get the technique even faster and simpler, now evolving from gun barreling using a tape measure or laser to just eyeballing the toe boards on a four sided half cant in some situations.  I put it out in public for the first time on my recent video, I called it "Speed Reverse Roll" and I'm still working on it, but use it pretty regularly.

Anyway, I appreciate that Brad and others have the confidence to use and even teach the technique, especially having to pay the Sawyer $150 per hour.  
That's pretty gutsy in my book.  8)  Well done!

Yes, no need to mess with straightening the edges until the board has been dried and is stable.

[customsawyer]

That is some nice looking lumber.
It's a little funny how far this technique has come. Danny and I had discussed it some after seeing some pictures that Bibbyman and Arkansawyer had posted on the forum about cutting the octagon. Danny and I added a couple of twist to all of that. Then Robert comes in adds some more twist on top of that. At this point I don't think any of us can take credit for the system. It just kind of evolved over time. Matter of fact I'm planning on working on it a bit more if I can ever get all of this pine sawed.