Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

[Ianab]

If you can control the current pulses and their timing more precisely then the motor should be more efficient, and hence the battery lasts slightly longer. 

[Southside]

It shows 18V on the battery. Will 20V batteries work on a saw like that?

The Milwaukee platform is all 12V or 18V, so without some sort of aftermarket adapter no.  I have 2AH - 18V on my drill and driver, they are nice and light and last quite a while, 5 AH on the 1/2" impact and leaf blower and they go a long time. The impact will remove and reinstall a skidder tire with charge left in the battery, 18 lug nuts @ 1.5" 

[jeepcj779]

That sounds like a pretty stout driver. I only have 19.2 and 20V Craftsman power tools, and Black+Decker 20V yard tools (trimmer, blower, hedge trimmer). I can't say what the AH ratings are. They are not the best out there, but they serve my purposes pretty well. Then again, I don't have a skidder to take care of and don't do much hard work with them.

[OffGrid973]

 

 

 

 

 Pin oak trailer decking at 2", and many 14" and wider to fill this order...yes back hurting...no bad weather so tent didn't need to happen which was a huge relief.

LT 10 traveled well and only lost one bolt which was keeping the raising lowering arm locked in place, thank goodness WM has that double bolted on both sides...would have been rough without it.

[Brad_bb]

Well this is the end of the 3rd week on this sawing project.  I wasn't planing to do this for a couple more months, but we need 2x8's sooner than I expected.  I'm milling Ash 2x8's  (actually 1-15/16 x 8-11/16 as sawn) for T&G for our mini-barns that we are building.  They aren't so mini actually- 60x38 each. The walls inside will use the T&G for the walls 8-10ft high, and for the partitions and front wall of the 5 stalls in the back of each mini barn.  I need about 7,000 linear feet of 2x8's.  I don't think I'll have enough logs for all of it, but I think at least half, and maybe more.  This is the pile I bucked and sorted at the end of last summer.  There were about 33% more logs than this when I started 3 weeks ago.


 

The first 3 weeks were very hard.  Rain, and thawed muddy ground, have hampered the effort along with frozen skid steer tracks for 2 days.  At least one of those weeks I couldn't mill with the weather and tracks, and the others were spotty.  It snowed 4 of those days but that didn't bother me.  I learned a lot about milling outside.  It rained, then snowed, and sawdust was freezing in the mill and I had to keep it clear.  I had to fill my lube jug each morning with warm water and it would be fine all day, but I occasionally had the metal tube by the band freeze up. So you have to keep it flushed and not let it sit too long without running water to keep it free of ice. I am also milling alone on my LT15go.  I have to manually stack all the heavy boards, and carry the slabs and scrap to a pile.  I only have 1000 lineal feet so far.  The ground froze last night which is probably the last time it will this winter and I used that to fetch most of the logs out in the yard and bunk them along the gravel drive so I won't have to mess around in the mud in the coming weeks.  Here is a lot of mud I've dealt with in the tracked skid steer.  Mud most of the time, only 2 days when it was froze.



 

First pile of slabs banded up.  



 

Chanigng weather.  I try to spread my dust over the mud to reduce sticking to tracks.  Works so so.


 


Nice Crotch figure.


 

Milling outside lessons learned:  Make a chute to keep most dust on the ground and not blowing
In your face!  Use goggles like these anti-fogging catseye goggles from FastCap to keep Dust out of your eyes.  they work.  They don't fog for the most part.  



 

The home made chute from Lowes- duct work and duct tape.  I used the two bolts from the
deflector sheild to hold the duct.


 

Some of these logs have been there awhile and have been growing some shrooms.  Most of the wood is just fine though.  


 

Not wanting to go back into the mud the last few days, I started loading logs from the wrong side of the mill.  You can see the cant hook and two  bunks used like uprights to hopefully stop the log from rolling off. I'm planning to turn the mill around next week before I start again.  I think I'm just going to lift it with the skid steer and turn it around that way.


 

Yesterday's view.  Front to rear:  8-9ft boards, slab pile, 6-7ft boards, 4-5ft boards, 2 bundles of slabs.


 

I think I'm going to be here for at least 6 more weeks.  Besides getting boards for T&G plus jacket 5/4 boards, I'm clearing the place of logs and thus cleaning it up.  Once I run out of logs to cut T&G from, I've got a bunch of long beam logs, and short live edge brace stock logs, and short/small pallet/utility wood logs.  

[doc henderson]

good God man!  you seem to be enjoying yourself.  i think i used to work that hard... not sure!

[Bruno of NH]

Brad, 
Why aren't you running windshield washer fluid -20 in you lube tank?
Doesn't hurt the lumber.

[WV Sawmiller]

  Sawed 2 small ash logs. Got 6 10' rafters and a 1X4 nailer strip which immediately went up on my shed project. Bucked an 11' log for the next section and took one thick slab cut and decided too spalted and punky so cut it up for firewood instead then cut a 5' ash cut-off into 90 1X1 stickers. I'll trim them to 2' on my RAS to match my usage and needs.

   I need 117 bf to hit my 100K mark but noticed today my set/adjustment screw on the band roller vibrated out today and the bearings are bad on the other with replacement on hand so that looks like tomorrow's schedule. I forgot my camera today BTW so no pix.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Cut 1300 bf of 5/4 choke cherry today about 25 8 ft logs. Tree service left it in 2 piles. First setup a bit too much slope for comfort but got it done.  Grade sawn and all the sapwood cut off. Very pleasant customer with 2 buddies. They worked hard and got mornings sawing stacked while I moved to the second pile.  Broke my recent rule and ate a donut. 

[Magicman]

I have heard of a "one armed wall paper hanger", but not a "one armed sawyer".  My "sandbox" customer called this evening and wanted to know when I could get there? 

I have a followup visit with the surgeon Monday and depending upon what he says.  

[Brad_bb]

@doc henderson , I wouldn't say that.  The last three weeks have not been enjoyable, but rather miserable.  Hopefully the next 3 will be better.  It is hard work, but the payoff is the cost savings.  We were quoted $6.80 a linear foot vs. $1.60 a foot if we provided the rough cut lumber.  That's a huge difference.
 At home we were in a routine of sawing Monday, Wed, Fri. Sometimes I'd mill or catch up on other stuff on the days between.  That would let the body rest some between.  Here I'm going Mon-Fri. and usually for 8 hrs.  I'll be glad when it's done.  But then I have to mill a bunch of Osage back home while it's still green, otherwise it will be miserable.  I'm on a treadmill for the next 3 months!
@Bruno of NH  , I've never used Washer fluid.  Don't have any experience with it.  I usually mill inside a heated shop.   I should have considered that 3 weeks ago, but now the temps are going to be in the mid fifties from now on, so shouldn't need to.  Thanks.

@Magicman , didn't you just get a surgery on something?  Don't you have a long recovery process?

[Magicman]

Yup and yup.  :

[jeepcj779]

MM,
 Did you get a replacement or just a clean-out? I have had both. The replacement is working better for me.

[SawyerTed]

One of the local high school science programs got a small grant to do a bluebird study.  When I saw the announcement of the grant, I offered the teacher donated materials to help stretch the grant.  Here are the students with their boxes.  Because of the donated lumber, the grant will be able to purchase web cams to watch activity at some of the boxes.

The lumber was 96 linear feet of 1x6 that came from jacket boards while sawing other orders.  

Those smiling faces are the Return on Investment!  Yes, I'm still a teacher at heart.



 

[Bruno of NH]

Sauer Ted ,
I like doing things like that.
Thank you Sir

[trimguy]

 
 I cut a couple of cookies this weekend while I was cleaning up a sycamore tree that I cut down last weekend. Any advice on how to dry these the best way ? They are 36" to 38".
 

 

[trimguy]

Good job with the donated wood !!

[SawyerTed]

@doc henderson has a method he uses with denatured alcohol.  I've had a little success burying anchor sealed cookies in fresh sawdust in a cardboard box.  I've not looked at those cookies in 4 or 5 months. 

My daughter and I have used a hole saw to cut the middle/pith out but we've found it takes 4-6" on cookies to limit cracking. 

[OffGrid973]

Sad when these beauties only live as a timber for a few turns...decking order almost complete, the 12' are a struggle to move.

 

[WV Sawmiller]

   I went out and worked on my mill today. The set screw in the bottom of the band roller had fallen out and I was going to replace the other roller thinking the bearings were bad. I replaced the set screw and checked the other roller and found it seemed okay so I put it back on. I checked and adjusted the tilt on the blade and the adjusted the distance/space between the back of the blade guide roller and the blade. I checked the left to right and had the required 1/16" more on the idler side. I checked the height from the bed rails and found the rail side on the last fixed rail was off about 1/4" or more. The jam nut had vibrated all the way down to the foot. I adjusted it back up and tightened everything.  (BTW - I found the missing set screw on this last fixed rail so put it back in the toolbox for next time).The floating rails were both okay.  I grabbed a small dirty, ugly ash log and bucked it to 14' and sawed 3 more 2X6 rafters for my shed and staged them on top of the shed for installation. Then I sawed a 9' ash log into 1X4s for nailers and put them on top of the shed too. I ran my tally - still 27 bf short of my magic 100K. I should have sawed a short log into stickers.


 Ugly 14' ash log - made 3 2X6 for rafters.


 9' ash log for 1X4 roof nailers. Badly spalted and about ready for firewood.


 1X4s for my shed roof.

[doc henderson]

@SawyerTed nice job for the students.  some will never forget this project.  @trimguy enjoy them while you can.  that large will be almost impossible to dry without a crack.  dry slow.  might lay one on cardboard then another layer of cardboard, then another cookie ect.  make the center of the cookie and the surface fairly close in moisture content.    maybe turn them every day or two to release some surface moisture.  that size is harder to soak in alcohol.  you could roll some linseed oil on each side.  the math on shrinkage at that diameter means you have a great excuse if they crack.  if it cracks in one line.  you can cut on across and joint the edges and re-glue.  the annular rings should line up and look good.  people love to prove docs wrong, and I hope you do!



 

you can leave them stacked up.  these are 12 inch walnut cookies after soaking in denatured alcohol.



 

here is the box i put them in, and i opened it and altered the staggering about once a day.



 

here they are several years later.  finished with danish oil for a natural satin look.

[Sixacresand]

Finally got around to begin milling this Church Tree.  The local Forester said it was a Deodar Cedar.  It smells like cypress.  Legend was that a young Church member planted several or these trees around the Church and town.  This surviving one in the Church yard died last year.  I counted about 85 rings. 


  

A wood hobbyest friend and carpenter took cookies off the end for table projects. BTW, It is mid Winter in Georgia and the plum trees are in full bloom. 



 

We got some beautiful grain 2 and 3 inch slabs.  


 
All the lumber will be used for Church projects such as crosses for members, wooden racing cars for the RA Derby Race and maybe a conference table from two of the book end slabs above. 



 

Moisture was at fourteen percent.  He said the moisture must be down to 8 percent before he will start working with it.  

[Ianab]

The local Forester said it was a Deodar Cedar.

Looks like it, and the wood looks similar to the one I cut up last year. The wood is quite light, but is supposed to be fairly durable, stable and easy to work with. 

[CKWoodCutter]

The big mill isn't really made for the smaller logs but it is fun to mill 2 at once. Not sure why the picture posted sideways. 

[donbj]

I knew someone would eventually show us the new vertical bandmill :D