Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

[farmfromkansas]

So Don, do you glue that joint?

[Don P]

No its all mechanical. I think hoof and hide glues were about all that was available when these joints were developed. Watch some japanese timberframing videos if you really want to see some mind blowing joinery 

[SpaceBus]

https://www.archdaily.com/796918/these-mesmerizing-gifs-illustrate-the-art-of-traditional-japanese-wood-joinery

You were not kidding about Japanese joinery. 

[TimW]

Is Sycamore the same as Sweet Gum?  I have tons of Sweet Gum.
 hugs,  Brandi

[WDH]

No.  They are unrelated species. 

[trapper]

Honey locust  



 

[Sixacresand]

Trapper, Is the yellow bucket the lube tank?  Glad to see you are still milling.   

[trapper]

yes empty cat litter bucket from daughter.  Use another for the control cable for the electric winch that replaced the manual one on the lt30.  Waterproof and cheap.

[Jim_Rogers]

Last Thursday, I brought the mill back from the dealership in Maine.
The told me that the valve cover had a crack in it and it would leak oil.
So don't run it full time. They replaced the cracked cover. It arrive here on Tuesday, and I put it on right away.

Today, I had my first job scheduled to resaw some wide pine planks from a barn into whatever I could get out of them. But basically in half.



 

some of them were wide like this and some were narrower.
50 minutes into the job, with two pieces left to cut, the drive belt (brand new one) fell off the drive pulley.
I had to take the cover off and put it back on.
I am assuming that the "new" brake strap they installed has slipped and allowed the tenon on the belt to be less that prefect. I say that because when I clutched down the blade would spin a while; not stop quickly like it should.

Customer was happy and gave me a tip.

Jim Rogers

In the above post, I stated that the drive belt fell off 45 minutes into the job.
Since then I haven't been sawing much due to health reasons. Pinched nerve in my neck and shoulder issues.
Yesterday, I took all the rest of the guards off the mill to adjust the brake strap.
During the installation of the new 25 hp Kohler engine the tech at WM Maine told me he installed a new brake strap as my old one was pretty worn out.
I knew from previous experience that when the drive belt falls off after powering down from a cut it is because the brake strap is too loose. Learned that from WM many years ago.
To understand where the new strap has to be to make it right so that the drive belt doesn't fall off, I inspected the clamp that holds the brake strap.
I found that one of the two bolts on the clamp was kind of loose. Not as tight as I would like it to be.
I loosen up the clamp and pulled the brake strap through a little more.
To understand where it was and how much I had pulled it through the clamp, I used a red sharpy marker and drew a line on the leather/fabric brake strap.
I then tightened the clamp and tried it. Watch for how loose the drive belt was.
Then adjusted it more.
Until it was too much and then backed it off just a little till it was "just right."
As many of you may know, this also effect the throttle linkage cable.
Lifting the engine plate by shortening the brake strap causes the engine to idle at a higher rate of rpm.
With a minor adjustment to the cable bracket, I managed to get the idle RPMs to the right level.
I have removed my old tachometer from the dead engine and installed it on the new Kohler and it works great now.
Here is a shot of the brake strap with the red lines:


 
The first line, closest to the end of the strap was where it was when I took off the guards.
The second line was were I tested it and found it was not enough.
The third line is under the clamp and not visible.
But having these lines on there for the future inspections will tell me if my strap has shifted.
I just thought I'd write this up for you to see how to adjust your brake strap.
Jim Rogers

[Brad_bb]

Today it was very humid and 91F.  It was pretty miserable in the sun.  Luckily I was in and out of the building AC a number of times, and thus took breaks and drank plenty of water.  In between that I milled this one.  The longest/largest I had - 25ft Ash.  I pulled this one out of the edge of the woods last summer using two logrite arches, one on each end.



 
Much straighter than the last one.


 
You can see I already made 3 passes on this one.
I made it into a 10.5"x16" beam.


 

 

The side boards are in the pile on the right.  I'll edge them tomorrow Thurs. into 2x8.75 for my T&G for the barn stalls(pile on the left).  Nice boards.

[cutterboy]

Hi all. I also have been sawing ash the last couple of days but nothing as long as Brad's. Four 8' logs and one 5' with a crotch. The lumber was very good and very white (almost no heartwood)


 

 

 

 

 

 
The short log I sawed into live edge slabs. 


 

 

 

 
AND THEN THERE WAS THIS LOG!


 
I cut this tree down a few days ago. There was nothing unusual about the cutting of it, there was nothing unusual about the way it fell but when it was down there was this huge crack in the butt log. I was so annoyed I thought about bucking it up for firewood. But I ended up sawing it on the mill and got some good lumber from it.


 

 

 

 

 

 
All in all I got a nice little stack of very nice lumber from those ash logs.

 

 

   All the best.....Cutter

[Bruno of NH]

That's some fine lumber cutter.
I have some Nice ash lumber.
Good price on it , but no ones buying ash for some reason.

[Brad_bb]

That is some clean looking grade ash cutterboy!  Good thing you're cutting it pretty fresh.  Best quality.  

[WDH]

Interesting, but I rarely get any calls for ash. 

[DWyatt]

Honey locust  

How did this honey locust do? I cut one last weekend, first for me, and it had more stress than any log I've ever cut. Had one board pop open a 4' long split right as the band exited the log. No matter was direction the log was turned, board were bowing 2"+ off the cant. I was also extremely heavy and I won't be in a hurry to cut more of it, I know that.

[doc henderson]

I am not trapper, but it is a pretty wood.  and like the prettiest girl in HS, a little fickle. :D :D :D.  It is the devil wood in Ks.  as @WDH   likes to refer to Hickory.

[stanwelch]

 

 We had a strong downdraft wind storm a couple weeks ago.  15 trees were snapped off 25' up or uprooted. I needed some more 1x8x8' roof planks for my sawmill shed addition. Three white pine logs were salvaged (only pine I have on property which my wife and I planted from seedlings 45 years ago).


This log must of had the Covid  :



This is the first pine I have sawn. Man is this stuff STICKY!!
But it sure saws fast and flat. The first board I took off the mill almost floated right up out of my hands.  Nothing like sawing the white oak posts. 

[Hilltop366]

Snotty pine? :-\

[Old Greenhorn]

"Snotty Pine" :D I like that and I'm gonna steal it. ;D I have been sawing more of this lately and know enough by now to put a pair of gloves on before I start and consider them "done' when I am finished. Try as I might, I still wind up with it on my arms and washing up that night is a chore. Worst part is when you slip your grab and wind up shoving your hip against the end of the log or board. Tough to get out of the clothes, and if you sit on it, it's much worse. ;D
 But it's great wood and mills wonderfully. I have not had the issues with loaded bands as some had complained of. I put pine-sol in the tank when I mill it and once ina while a shot of WD-40 on the blade running at speed if it needs it.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I sawed a WP for a neighbor one time and he was cutting down more trees as I was sawing the ones already down so I sawed one with a crotch that had been standing 30 minutes earlier. When I hit that crotch I thought I had sawed into a bee tree. I bet there was well over a pint of dark sap that poured out. 

[Don P]

I've hit a few of those, actually put a jar under one that was flowing and got a good half pint and probably lost that much more. Structural grading wise when you see "massed pitch" stop and figure out why, there is usually a break or some kind of serious defect in the wood there.
Bandmills don't know the fun they are missing with pine. On a circle blade it is slinging a mist of pitch up and over you. If I forget to wear a hat I don't need any dippity doo  :D

[SpaceBus]

A tip I learned with conifer sap is to use vegetable oil on a towel and it will wipe right off. I run canola oil in my CSM, so plenty of it on hand which is nice since most of my trees are Balsam Fir with resin throughout the bark. It's hard to touch any trees on my property and not get sap on your hands! I also have a water bottle and tubing which dribbles soapy water on my chain which keeps it clean and cool while I mill. Perhaps a similar setup would be nice on a band mill and prevent so much of the sap from getting everywhere. My stihl pickaroon has a brown handle from all of the balsam resin, essentially free varnish! Whenever I handle wood I always grab a pair of Atlas Showa nitrile coated gloves, which I buy in bulk. These are the only gloves I've found that are economical and put up with the abuse of firewood. 

[Ed_K]

 I use two pair of gloves when sawing pine. One old pair that are easy to put on an off to load, flip over and offbear and a pair of better gloves to run the machine. I only cleaned the handles and touched parts on the mill once before  i learned the 2 pair option ;D.

[SpaceBus]

I use two pair of gloves when sawing pine. One old pair that are easy to put on an off to load, flip over and offbear and a pair of better gloves to run the machine. I only cleaned the handles and touched parts on the mill once before  i learned the 2 pair option ;D.

You could do it army style with leather glove shells and cotton inserts.

[Sixacresand]

I took a break and the dog ate my Forestry Forum cap that I got at the PR last year.  A Twenty Dollar chewy.