The Greenhorn's initial sawing season 2019-20

[Old Greenhorn]

We were out late last night enjoying a nice campfire so i wasn't really motivated today and went to some yard sales with the wife before heading down. First, the promised pictures of the bench. It is big, heavy, very ugly, but solid and functional.



 

I offset the legs so that I could use c-clamps around one end to hold things down without interference. Maybe it's a stupid idea, but we shall see.



 

I used whatever I had laying around, so this is truly a scrap table for sure.



 

The is 8/4 pine, the legs are 6x6 pine, the stringers are white oak about 3x3 but tapered and out of square, and the diagonals are hemlock 3/4 board.



 

 SO today I attacked that ash crotch I wanted to open up. Probably shouldn't have because it was really hot and my brain wasn't working so good. But I did. a Little tricky to fit up on the mill and get both blade guides to pass without hitting the log.



 

But I managed it and did get it slabbed up.



 

What I thought was a crack turned out to be the separation between the two stems as they grew together. If you look close you can see the two heartwood areas.



 

I am getting better at leveling and centering the pith. Still a little off, but not too bad. It tougher when there are two sections of heartwood.

.

 

Tomorrow is another day.

[doc henderson]

OK. now that is a table.  looks a little like torture table in "a princess bride".  you are going to love that table over the years and will want to fix it rather than throw it away.  I see some wood to level it under the legs.  can you put a little white oak on the ground to make a barrier between the wet leafy ground and your pine legs.  i want a cup a coffee in the am but might want to slam a stein or two down on that table in the eve.  Just so you know, you are having more fun than anyone else!!!  Regards.  have fun storming the castle!

[doc henderson]

if it wiggles end to end, you can add a triangulation on the long side, or strap it to one of those trees.  

[Old Greenhorn]

if it wiggles end to end, you can add a triangulation on the long side, or strap it to one of those trees.  

Good point on some shims under the other legs. As it tuns out the ones you see are white oak. 
 The one thing this bench doesn't do is wiggle. ;D I have two 6"long lags going down into each leg. the front and back stringers are likewise lagged into the legs. Everything is screwed together except the diagonals. I will probably add a shelf across he stringers at some point when I make more scrap.

[doc henderson]

just do not want it to fall over and kill you !!!   :D :D :D  massive and cool.  be prepared buddy. 8)

[Old Greenhorn]

Not much going on at the mill this week. Monday I had plans, but when I got down there I realized I had a lot more housekeeping to do. SO I worked on the pile of hemlock tree stems I made when I cleared out the area. Probably 35 trees, mostly around 4" diameter and 15-25' long. a handful were 8'diameter and I saved those for milling into 4x4's or something. The rest i cut into shorter pieces and stacked them out of the way to use for legs, or stakes, or something.  The stack was where I want to build the next drying rack. Then I did some other cleaning up and assessment work (what do I need next?).
 I resolved to make some benches, which means I need legs and a way to fit them up to a slab or cookie. So I ordered a tenon cutter and forstner bit.
 Tuesday it rained pretty hard in the afternoon, nothing accomplished. Wednesday again it rained hard in the afternoon  so I sharpened one of my saws and did a few other things at the shop. 
 Tonight was mostly clear so I grabbed some of the tolls I need down there and tried out the new bench. I clamped some 3" hemlock to it and stripped the bark and shaved up a handful of lengths to use for legs. The bench is solid as a rock.  Tomorrow the tenon cutter should arrive but I don't trust USPS and they say the bit is due Saturday, but I really doubt that. Whatever, it will happen eventually. I moved a heavy 1/2 drill down there and need to get the genset going again.
Tomorrow I am hoping for a couple of good hours, but on Saturday I have a Logger Rescue class about an hour and change from here. It will be a long day, but I get to meet Bargemonkey and see his shop after the class. Always nice to meet another FF member. Looking forward to checking out his store too, I plan to have breakfast there at least. Sunday will be the only full day I get this week. Sometimes progress is slow, but it is still progress. I am chomping at the bit to make something useful.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, the tenon cutter arrived today, but no forstner bit. I head down and it should be easy to test something like this, but first I had to drag the generator out because I hadn't used it since January. Got that set up, got a little log clamped to the bench, setup the tool, tested the drill fired up the generator and was ready to have my arm torn off given all that I had read. Boy, I was a bit surprised, it cut pretty easy. no grabbing at all. I do wish I could slow the drill down, but it's not variable. I made up 4 legs but didn't go further because I was being eaten by skeeters and didn't have the drill to test how they would fit. No sense burning up a bunch of stock. I want to do one junk table before I really start working on anything I am putting some real time into. Maybe a coffee table for the mill. I have a short slab lay there on a stump now, might as well put legs on it.
 SO I cleaned everything up and then sat and listened to the woods for a bit. Then I came up and loaded my saws and gear in the truck for tomorrows class. I have to be up around 4:45, so an easy evening tonight.
 More on Sunday I guess. Tomorrow will be a long day.

[doc henderson]

be careful at your class.  makes us all take a deep breath reading your journal of working in the woods.  the cutters are nice on wet or green wood.  a square chunk of dry oak will make you cringe a little.  if shavings come off like an apple peeler you are good.

[Old Greenhorn]

I only tried it out on dry wood Doc. I have a stave of hemlock I had stripped at the beginning of the winter, cut last year. It cleaned up pretty good. It is tricky to center the tool on the stock, have to work on that. I also will do a little tweaking to get the two blades balanced better, I think it is cutting a little choppy. I clamped those sticks to the new bench and I have to tell you, it didn't move at all. It's funny, but I bought it on fleabay from a guy in CA and he listed it as 'new'. Sure enough, it was new in the box but covered in fine shop dust. There was a hand written note in the box, it said "I hope it works for you." I still wonder what he meant by that? Maybe the bit will be here when I get home tonight.
 The class should be fine, ore worried about getting rained on. After well over a thousand hours of training time in the fire service doing all kinds of high risk stuff like swiftwater rescue training, drills, and actual rescues, FAST team training, etc, this will be a walk in the park. Training is supposed to prevent accidents, right? But yes, I know as an instructor myself, that 'things happen' (Just not in MY class). ;D :D Maybe I've been lucky, only hurt twice. Once was a back injury at a car accident (patient handling) that messed me up for a few months, and the other wasn't really an injury just a BSI exposure that required a lot of testing and paperwork. Anyway, even though I am no longer in 'the service' it is hard to get out out the training mode. I still miss that part. Knowledge is power, but there is no skill without practice.
 Anyway, it should be a fun class and fun to meet Barge. I was up at 4 so I would have some wake up time before the long drive over the mountain and into the hills. It's pretty country where Barge lives. I'll try to remember to grab some photos.

[doc henderson]

send a pic of that tenon cutter when you have time.  green wood cuts smoother.  I know they are expensive, but that is why I have 6 to step down as I go.  I use a lot of square stock for legs and if I plan to rout a round over on the edges, I do that first to dull the corners to center the bit.  On a log, you could carve a taper with a chains saw to get the bit started. I of course will trim legs to final length after the bench is built.  the other trick is getting the bit in line with the axis of the leg, harder in rough branches/logs.    At assembly, I sometimes have to rotate the leg to get the correct splay on the legs so the bench does not look "cross eyed"

[Old Greenhorn]

OK DOc. The forstner bit arrived today, but I spent my day a few hills from home with @BargeMonkey and am pooped. He is, in fact skidding logs as I type this. I am going to take a shower and the evening off to sit by a campfire or something. Tomorrow, back to work. 

This is how we spent our day, more on that later too.


 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well between the long day on Saturday and the late night down at the camp fire I was a bit groggy Sunday and not very motivated to make noise and move around. I did however get down there and tried the Forstner bit and the junk slab and learned myself some things. Then I glued up some legs but because of the lousy holes I made while learning, not everything glued up well. Letting that sit until tonight when I will finish off the gluing. I also discovered that the slab had a previous un-noticed crack down the middle so a grabbed some beam clamps to bring down tonight and will try gluing up the crack. It's just a test table and if it holds a coffee cup without breaking, it will be a winner.
 So mostly yesterday was just messing around with the process and thinking things through. I also got the lawn mowed and found a large deposit of bear dropping on my front lawn. Really? I thought they went in the woods? ;D

 Last evening I was contacted by a friend who asked if I could mill up some top boards for his dump truck. 2-3/4 x 10 x 15'. Wants white oak, not sure if he has a log to drop off. I happen to have a tree marked for felling. Dead standing and should do the job. I was asking $1.50 a BF. Does that seem fair? It's for his business truck and even though he is a friend, I don't want to give up 2 or 3 evenings of my time for free, and that lumber could go for other things. I am not in this for the money, don't even advertise, but I will do small things that fall in my wheelhouse to help folks out. Any money just goes towards the mill and tools. (Feeding my habit, so to speak.)
 He seems in a  hurry, maybe there is an issue, so I will take a look at that tree tonight to make sure. It's a double stump and on an outcrop about 20' above grade, so it will be an interesting felling job. I hope it doesn't break or kick, because it's a small ledge I will be working on and not much room to run with a sheer wall at my back. I love a challenge. I may try to setup a camera (so the rescue squad can figure out what happened  :D ;D).

[doc henderson]

to make rustic look nice, it takes some practice.  if making for other people, you have to gauge their expectations.  everyone has their own definition of rustic.  i forgot to ask, why do they have you laying under that log?   .  i assume the dimension of the board is x 2 (each side of the dump bed)  so if my math is correct, that is 75 bdf.  or about $112.50.  assuming that 2.75 rounds up to 3.

[Old Greenhorn]

That's not me Doc, it is Annie, the Plastic American that was helping out with the class. :D
 The 2-3/4 is the exact size he needs, I came up with 68.75 BF and $103. which doesn't seem like much for the time I will put in to drop the tree, buck it, skid and mill it.
 Yeah, on the benches, I am just playing until I figure it out. I hope each one will get better. More glue tonight, then I work on sanding and finishing. More stuff that I am lousy at. ;D The more stuff I try, the more I can see what I like or don't and work on the plan for the next one. Have to borrow my son's flush cut saw to trim the tenon tops. Have you ever put wedges in the tops of the legs? Was thinking of trying that just to learn why I wouldn't want to do that.

[doc henderson]

yes, you want the force of the wedge going end to end and not across the grain or it will split.  i have made some tenons to loose, and for outside benches i usually do not go through the bench to keep water from getting in the joint.  I have done careful measured wedges in tenons that go into a blind (not all the way through)  mortises. so the end of the hole holds the wedge as you drive in the leg tenon, and the tenon then expands inside the mortise.  Not to be done late at night or after spending time at the fire pit.  When I saw the composite toed white tennis shoes, i was just sure that must be you.  maybe they are just composite toes!!   8) 8) 8) :D :D :D ;D ;D ;D .  if you are happy with a hundo I think that is fine.  some will round up  but if you ask for 103 or 112 but tell him you would take a hundred, he might be back sooner rather than later.  up to you.  best wishes.

[doc henderson]

@Old Greenhorn so which one is you in the pic, or are you behind the camera.  looks like your goatee in the foreground.

[Old Greenhorn]

I am behind the camera in my photos, it's easier that way.  ;D If you go to This Thread and look at BargeMonkey's photos: I am in the first 3 wearing a plaid shirt, and in the 4th and 5th I have a bright green t-shirt (took the long sleeves off after lunch).

 Yeah, I thought about the blind wedges, but I will wait until I really need them. :D

[WDH]

Greenhorn,

$1.50 per bf for white oak is below the market down here for white oak thick trailer decking from what I have seen.   

[Old Greenhorn]

Probably true, but I am not about the profit and it is for a friend. A little extra cash will just help the mill project out. It is for his business and I know he is doing OK, so I don't mind charging, just wanted to be fair. He never made a comment about my price and it's a small point here. He's helped out in a bind or two. What goes around comes around. We have more white oak around here I think, or at least I thought. It turns out those WO that I THOUGHT I had, turned into Ash since the last time I looked ;D at them. Then I cruised the whole woodlot looking for a WO that would fit the bill and found none I was willing to take down. Actually I only found two, both beauties. I thought we had much more. Somehow most of them turned into Maple. Actually every one of them turned into maple. I guess my bark identification skills need work, because my mental marks were from the winter time when its easier to see the tops. :D So my friend is checking his piles.  I had a really nice fresh Maple log queued up by the mill, but it's 6" short. I don't think he will take maple anyway. We'll see if he finds a log. I had already scheduled tomorrow afternoon off work to take the trees, but they are in a bad spot and after checking tonight, I'd really like to have a spotter for this one. Kind of precarious location and those ash need to come down anyway, but a good part of it is firewood, with just a couple of saw logs. They are worse than I recalled. One of them is pretty DanG tall and the stump is 20' above grade.
 BTW, WDH what is your going rate down that way? I hope your hand is doing better.

[doc henderson]

if these are to top the bed sides of a dump trailer, not sure it has to be WO as it should not be in contact with wet organic material constantly.  most poor shmucks without a friend with a sawmill go to lowes and buy a 2 x 10 pine or fir board and replace every 5 years.  see what you can find, and most any hard wood will out last almost any softwood.  I have a cottonwood slab 2 inches thick sitting out in the weather on top of a pallet crate for 5 years with no finish and no rot at all.  ash would be ok if not rotten or too beetle eaten.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I have tried talking him into maple, we will see how that goes. But I rarely cut my logs at 16', so I am not sure if I have one. There is one I have yet to check. He also logs a bit and has some piles. Could be I'll come home one night and find a log in the driveway. Yes, they are top boards for a  big dump.

[doc henderson]

if he provides the log, I think your price is great.  if you trade favors, could also barter.  up to you my friend.
if you did drop a tree, you would have wood left over to off set the time you spent if you could sell the extra wood.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yup, it is what it will be. One way or the other it will work out even. Small town, we work together. 

[Old Greenhorn]

He will take the maple if I have it.  Now I just have to check and see if I have it, OR a tree I am willing to take. I know I have a few that are on the list, but have to check and see if they will yield what we need, one is highly stressed with a big lean. I get out at noon today, so I have some daylight to work with today. Lower winds too.

[WDH]

2" thick white oak trailer decking $2.50/bf.