Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

[caveman]

Good work on the transmission poles.  Those are almost the perfect logs to saw except for the dryness and embedded grit.  Our first paying job years ago was transmission poles.  We went through nine blades in 1 1/2 days.

If you figure out where to get 100 free carbide tipped blades, let me know - I'm interested in getting in on that deal.

[Magicman]

Very Nice Dennis!   


 
I am still sawing on my job but it's just ordinary stuff.  All of the 9X9's (22) are sawn and I am now just knocking out 1X8's.  I still have about 700 1X8's to go. 

[Magicman]

I had an appointment this morning so Luke and I did not get started until 11:00.  I hit metal at 4:30 so rather than put a fresh blade on that late, we called it quits after working only 5 hours. 
https://youtu.be/iR82hKoJzcY
Luke did ask about uncoiling and coiling blades, so today was his day to learn.  I doubt that he will ever let me touch a blade again.  :

[Crossroads]

Nice looking wood gentleman! I have a job Saturday cutting beams, saw the cut list and 12 of them are 24' long. I've only cut a few beams over 21', maybe by the time I get done with these 12, I might have an "efficient " process. 

[doc henderson]

got a little done before the rain coming today.



 
some mulberry.  been sitting a few years and still yellow inside.


 

about 10 4/4 boards 9 feet long. 8 inches wide.


 

some cedar (ERC) nice solid center for boards.  also did some of the 20 foot long logs into live edge 4/4 for my APP buddy from work to build raised beds.


 


 


 

The view from my mill.  This is what it is all about.  sawing logs, CAT in the foreground.  My daughter on the trampoline, and our flag in the background.  good day.

[SawyerTed]

Spent a couple hours on a portable job this morning cutting spalted maple 6/4 live edge one side.  Several pieces were book matched for the customer.   This is just one example - no water added.

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[Walnut Beast]

Absolutely! Nice pictures 

[Magicman]

Luke and I had a good day today sawing mostly 1X8's, but there were some 1X6's, 1X9's, 1X12's, and 1X14's which were all on the customer's cut list. 


 
This broken blade thought that it could escape easier folded back.  :


 
The customer felled this big old SYP that we will begin sawing Monday morning.


 
A closer look.  It will be a chore but the cantilever Wood-Mizer will get-r-done.


 
Yup, 5 logs.  Two 10's and three 12's.  


 
I'm finished with 9X9's, 1X9's, 1X12's, & 1X14's.


 
A closer look at the ever mounting whack of 1X8's.  The cut list is for 700 1X8's and I am now at 228.

[Banjo picker]

Cut some white oak for trailer deck....full 2 x 8 s...I almost feel sorry for who ever has to install them.  

 Those 14 footers on the bottom are pretty heavy.  I thought I was gaining a little ground, and as I was finishing mowing around the mill a customer showed up with a trailer loaded down with some nice pine.  Some of them are 18 footers.  Banjo

[alan gage]

I had an appointment this morning so Luke and I did not get started until 11:00.  I hit metal at 4:30 so rather than put a fresh blade on that late, we called it quits after working only 5 hours.  
https://youtu.be/iR82hKoJzcY
Luke did ask about uncoiling and coiling blades, so today was his day to learn.  I doubt that he will ever let me touch a blade again.  :

Tell Luke I appreciate the tutorial. Early on I gave up on coiling bands but after watching him I thought I'd give it another shot last night. Got it with no problem! I'm looking forward to having my bands take up less space.
Still need to work on the uncoiling part of it. I struggle with envisioning how it will unfold and where to grab. Guess I better watch Luke a few more times.
Alan

[Magicman]

Thanks he caught on very quickly and as predicted, blades are his job now.

No sawing for us today.  Yesterday I noticed that a hydraulic cylinder was leaking internally and gradually allowing my front toe board to slowly raise.  Not good, so we took both cylinders off yesterday after work and they are being rebuilt today.


 
They will be ready Monday morning.  I don't know why it failed, it was only 22 years old!! 

[ktm250rider]

I used to go from coiling bands blindfolded to chucking them across the yard in a fit of rage.  I finally figured out what I was doing wrong.  When you first grab the blade, do not grab it in the middle.  When you grab the blade and form an oval, you should have about 60% of it away from your body.  Then a quick flip and bingo, bango!

[Darrel]

Thanks he caught on very quickly and as predicted, blades are his job now.

No sawing for us today.  Yesterday I noticed that a hydraulic cylinder was leaking internally and gradually allowing my front toe board to slowly raise.  Not good, so we took both cylinders off yesterday after work and they are being rebuilt today.


 
They will be ready Monday morning.  I don't know why it failed, it was only 22 years old!!  

I had the same thing happen yesterday. Only mine leaked down. Got a board that was 5/4 on one end and about 3/4 on the other. 

[longtime lurker]

I haven't been sawing much at all: using the virus slowdown to do some restructuring and re-organisation of the business. I'm sick of beating myself to death sawing for the wholesale market for next to nothing.

Still selling wood to my local guys though - the advantages of having stock sawn.

Dressed a dozen or so of these exterior stairtreads down the other day... this is Red Mahogany, one of my hard, exceptionally durable eucalypt species.



 

 

They're going to paint them. *le sigh*  

[tule peak timber]

Is this what I call iron bark eucalyptus here? Looking good !

[longtime lurker]

Is this what I call iron bark eucalyptus here? Looking good !

Different species - theres a whole heap of eucalyptus species. This one is a little easier to live with: not quite as hard as ironbark but close.
I'm a bit sad about it really: the buyer asked us to DAR as a prep for paint and wood like that deserves a varnish. Red Mahogany has mostly got some fiddleback but it's uncommon to see it so consistent over a whole parcel of boards. Oh well... I get paid and we make more.

[tule peak timber]

Our urban timber multi species euc is mostly junk. Sad.....I'm trying to focus on other logs that sell better using the same amount of time and real estate to stack and sticker. Personally I like beeswings/fiddleback but can't make any money with the quality of logs available. Your eucs sure look better than mine !

[doc henderson]

always nice to hear from you @tule peak timber 

[tule peak timber]

Howdy Doc ! I have been busy buying logs like this one that will be here in a week or two. Firs, oaks, redwoods and cedars in similar sizes. Stay safe 8)

 

[longtime lurker]

I read somewhere once that a lot of the Euc species introduced into California were not really the commercial timber ones. (There's about a thousand eucalyptus species, and maybe 50 of them are commercially well regarded for sawlog.)

It's all about fit for application. Here ironbark - and there's 4 commercial ironbarks - is mostly used for bridge timbers, ties and flooring: applications where it's strength, natural durability and hardness are a useful asset. It makes a visually ok floor... and the resistance to indentation makes it suited to commercial types of application where its under a lot of traffic. (Flooring here is usually plank on frame rather than laying on a subfloor so wear resistance is important)

The Red Mahogany is almost in the same density/hardness class though not quite so in ground durable, but Class 1 durability above ground. It also sees use for heavy framing and tie applications, not so much for flooring because although its got good wear resistance the deep wine red colour (those couple were at the pale end of the colour range) makes it too dominant in normal sized rooms and more suited to large spaces. Mostly I cut it for framing.... it's durable aplenty for joists that are weather exposed and has a lot of strength and visual appeal for long span exposed rafters etc.

I'm in a dying business that way... LVL and gluelam will eventually replace these types of hardwood: far cheaper, easier to build with, and disposable. Houses used to be built to last a lifetime (or several) now they are engineered for a service life of 50 years. After T.C. Yasi (cat 5) hit this place in 2009 I got to look at a lot of those hundred + year old houses that were destroyed. In nearly every case it was the metal components - tie bolts, nails etc that had corroded responsible for failure.... the wood itself was still perfectly fine and could have been used again had you been masochistic enough to try and drill holes in it.

Seeing as you can't get that quality of high grade steel/ thick galvanising fixings and fasteners anymore - because it's all made in China from low grade steel with cheap electroplated finishes - there is in a way even less point in building your house out of wood that durable. I give it another 15 years and my hardwood framing business will be a niche market affair: we'll run the same logs into decking and cut each others throats trying to get market share against cheap imports.

[terrifictimbersllc]

always nice to hear from you @tule peak timber

He took the bait with those pictures.  :D

[Lko67]

Gotta say lot of guys on here put out a lot of nice lumber. I'm getting close to 10'000 bf.  

[Wintergreen Mountain]

   Got a small bunch of white pine to board up. About 3000bf. going to saw it for half's.
That is if it ever stops snowing and raining. 4 inches of sn0w this morning, all melted now.

Leon
 

                                     

 

 

[Crossroads]

Returned to last weeks job site and cut a few more red cedar 1x6's a handful of pine 1x4 and 1x6's. Then started working on the beam list. Got about half of the beam order cut out, but only 1 of the 24' 4x8's, next week I get the joy of cutting 11 more of them. Sometimes I have to wonder what I get myself into. 

[DWyatt]

Quarter sawed some white some white oak on Saturday. This was my first time doing the @YellowHammer RRQS technique and I was not disappointed. boards ranging from a 4" face to 10" face width with some spectacular figure! Ended up with about 400 bf from the two logs I cut. Everything cut to 5/4 with the center slabs cut to 8/4. The sun washed out some of the figure in the pictures unfortunately. Hydraulics made the work extremely easy, just level the center to gun barrel, take a slab from the center, flip the top half to the loading arms with the two plane, then start cutting. I would guess I ended with 85-90% great figure and the rest with marginal figure. The worst figure came from the first cut after the wedge when I had a very narrow board, just like planned.