Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

[Jim_Rogers]

Today, I trimmed some southern yellow pine ceiling joists for my customer.
They started out as 4x14x14' timbers I believe when they were installed in the train station in Concord, NH.
Now they were around 3.75 by 13.75 x 14' or so.
He wanted me to trim off 1/2" on each face.
He is intending to make them a counter top for his wife's new coffee shop in a nearby city.
As I was concerned about this job, I asked him how he was going to transport them over to my sawmill yard. He said he was going to rent a uhaul truck and bring them over.
Before he did, I suggested that I meet him at his place and inspect the timbers for "nails" along the top edge of the timber. Because he told me that there wasn't any nails in the timbers. That they were bolted in and all the bolts had been removed. Yea right we've all heard that on before.
Wednesday, I inspected them and sure enough there were not nails along one edge. These were truly "ceiling joists" and not floor joists. There must have not been a floor above them as the edges had the same appearance in age.
He arrived on time with a helper to move them out of the truck and onto the sawmill rails.
I started by cutting the edges to clean one up nice. And then flip it 180° to bring them down to the width he wanted, which was 11".
Then I cut one face and then the second face to thickness.
Of course some of these had some twist to them.
I suggested that we get once "good A face" on each one and that the "B face" would be the bottom. And if that face didn't clean up completely that it wouldn't matter as this was the bottom of the counter.
He agreed.
The second one I saw a nail on the first edge and we pulled that one out.
On the four one, on the final cut, we hit one small brad nail. But I manged to get to the end of the timber.

Here are these pieces:


 

He was very happy with the job. And these were very nice timbers.

Jim Rogers

[WV Sawmiller]

   Good looking timbers there Jim. It is fun to figure out how to help people like that.

 I had 2 happy customers myself. The first was a repeat customer building an ash clothes  cabinet with a seat for daughter #2 to match one he had built for daughter #1. He should have known to build each of them one at the same time. :D He wanted 5-2"X2"X8' strips which I cut out of a LE Ash slab, and I found him 10 6-10 inch wide 4/4X8' boards.

 The next guy wanted some 8' long slabwood wide enough to cover some 6" porch posts. I had a couple of 9-10 inch 8' poplar "logs" left over from my neighbor's peeled pole project. I cut 2 sides off each then got 4 nice 4/4X6" boards out of the middle of each. He kept the edgings for tomato stakes or such. The rest he got out of my slab pile from my just finished customer's poplar order. His mentee (I guess that is the right term for a teenager he mentors) wanted several sacks of fresh poplar sawdust and he got them. All was scrap to me and I told him no charge but he tipped me for helping cut the slabs to length and such. His mentee had bought a nice locust bench from me for his dad for Father's Day and hoped to get it routered showing name and date and Happy Father's Day. He said his dad was thrilled with it. I asked if he got it engraved and he said his little sister wrote on it with a magic marker. I told him that would work and he said, no she did faces and all kind of art work. :D  Turns out he had to re-sand it. I forgot to ask is he put more tung oil on it. I'd have given him some if he needed it. Anyway it sounds like baby sister had a good time. :D :D

[Bruno of NH]

I'm starting to saw up some red oak logs I have.This is the first 2 small 8ft logs.
I don't have much luck selling red oak. I usually make plow stakes out of it.
I have 2 big logs I'm going to 
Quarter saw.

 

 

 

 

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

 

 
Sawed the couple white pine I brought home from my camp in the Adirondacks.
1x13x8 far a customer in NJ that builds boxes and sells them on esty. Nice logs make nice lumber.

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

 

 
Nice yield from straight logs.

[Bruno of NH]

It nice to cut good logs sometimes 
I try not to get used to it.
It makes production much easier. 

[Magicman]

Luke and I kicked this job in the butt log yesterday. He goes back to school Monday so this was our last job together for the Summer. He learned a lot about sawing and probably also learned a bit about me. We had a wonderful time together. Thank You Luke !!!

So here is Luke's first day "not sawing" and back in school.
 
https://youtu.be/20-hNQczNLI
It began with a Senior Parade. (a better video)

[doc henderson]

cool.  I hope with all his experience, they were letting him drive the truck. 8) 8) 8)  fun.

[Sixacresand]

It nice to cut good logs sometimes  
I try not to get used to it.
It makes production much easier.

I got into some pine logs that looked good from the outside but I soon discovered that every bump on the log was a place where the tree had healed over a hard 4 inch+ black knot. Tough on a blade.  But good ole 4° double hard's handled it. 

[Jim_Rogers]

Today, I decided I'd try and load this flopper. I was told that is what these are called because a log would roll. This one did not, roll.



 

I did get it over to the log loader but again with the butt end way off center to the loader and no way to slide it towards the hitch, I strapped it off with my heavy duty yellow strap.
This allowed me to lift it up but not all the way onto the table/bed rails.
With a little push from my bobcat it was on the table:


 

Now to undo the strap:


 
Still has some tension on it.

And just for others in the future, make sure your strap ratchet handle doesn't line up with the clamp bar, preventing it from opening up enough to release the strap:


 
Looks like a good time to stop and have some lunch.....

I guess I'll have to get creative to figure out how to release the strap.

More later after I solve it.

Jim Rogers

[doc henderson]

hatchet ?!!!   :D smiley_indianchief axe, tommy hawk?!!   8)

[Jim_Rogers]

hatchet ?!!!   :D smiley_indianchief axe, tommy hawk?!!   8)

No, I like my yellow strap.....
Jim Rogers

[Jim_Rogers]

I got the strap free by pushing the log back onto the loader a little with the bobcat.
then about the third cut sawed into a chain hanging from a screw eye under a knot.
Jim Rogers



 

[Don P]

 :D Sometimes I go to work just to see what's going to happen today.

[firefighter ontheside]

I'm sawing nothing because I broke the curl cylinders on my tractor.  Not a good time to break the loader since the huge log I broke the loader with I'm supposed to quarter saw.  Not gonna happen if I can't lift a cant off the mill.

[RichTired]

Firefighter, maybe your local dealer has a loaner piece of equipment you could use. Or maybe they will let you test drive one for "maybe a future purchase" that would let you to finish your current log.

[tule peak timber]

The first "Neanderthal" table from the big pines. 4X12 with a pinned dog bone base. Heavy.

 

 

 

 

[doc henderson]

WOW.  that is one flat and shiny top..  how is it (the top) finished different than the rest of the piece?  is that a table top epoxy?  that is a hunk of wood.  what kind of saw for the nice   curves of the legs and stringer?

[tule peak timber]

Doc , I coated the top with GF Armorall at 5 this morning and took the photos with a wet top. Base coat is penetrating epoxy. I used one of my shop bandsaws to cut the curves and a spindle sander to smooth them out.

 This job done , my crew comes in at 7 AM to keep working on Mingei Museum while switch to NNRH Sacramento. Last week the designers and architects did another design walk through allowing us to move ahead with the inlays and joinery

 

 

[doc henderson]

looks like your place would be fun to hang out.  nice projects.  huge scale.

[tule peak timber]

Working here is like body surfing on a tsunami.

[caveman]

Rob, that is a pretty quick turn around from logs to finished furniture on the big pines.  The table looks amazing.  I suspect lifting that thing will pull one's back pockets together.

[tule peak timber]

Yes,,,That is why the snap together leg parts-also easier to ship next week.Cheers !

[Walnut Beast]

Looking absolutely fantastic 👍

[Bruno of NH]

Sawed black locust all day in the rain it At least kept the dust down. The mill was a mess :D