Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

[WV Sawmiller]

   The last time I ran my mill it kept bogging down and I took it to a local small engine mechanic who check the coils and replaced a fuel line and filter. We were seeing black fragments in the clear fuel filter. He blew out the air filter and put in some gas additive so I checked it on an old 10' RO log sitting on the lot. All the sap wood is gone but the heart looks good. The mill never bogged down but seems to slip a little which it did last time so I need to check the tension on the drive belt. The debarker did not run which is new and will require some troubleshooting. The log loader was real slow but I think that is from the 86 y/o customer dropping a log on it and bending the plate covering it. I tried to straighten it but will try my jack or spud bar tomorrow to straighten it some more. It just won't let the loader toggle raise enough to run full speed. I bought an installed a couple of cheap inline ignition testers but all they showed was things were running okay. I replaced the guts on my hitch which my customer also broke. I got about107 bf of pretty boards, mostly 1X10's out of the log.


 2 y/o RO log


 Last 4-1X10 boards off the log. I was afraid to overload John and took the rest earlier and forgot to take a picture.

[quadracutter222]

No sawing for me this weekend, promised myself I would deal with this situation before starting the next job.


The Kubota had to go off Island to the tractor shop, so I am behind on the cleanout.

Got the rest of the wood sorted, pretty decent 2nd growth fir for private land clearing




With two kids, we teach them young not to climb or go near piles of logs......am trying some large wedges to lock piles in.  I'd be interested to see or hear other ways to secure piles vs a deck.

[SpaceBus]

Seeing the "feathers" on some of the the boards reminded me of a SMG sawmill demo I had seen a few years ago.

After sawing the squared cant into boards he would turn and re-clamp the boards with the feathers up and set the saw to the board width and made a quick pass to remove the feathers, the whole process didn't seem to take any longer than 30 seconds.

Nice lumber!

Are the feathers caused by the blade being sharp or dull? I get them sometimes, but usually on recently felled red spruce. It doesn't always happen to me, but that might be due to using a chainsaw and not a bandsaw. 

[Hilltop366]

I think it is just like any wood chipping out the back side of a cut with any kind of saw with the difference being sawmilling is a more coarse blade so the feathers are bigger.

With the sawmill I use to have (a 16 hp chainsaw mill with .404 chain) cutting spruce or fir it tended to vary by log and grain orientation but cutting speed was the biggest factor, with a narrower cant I could cut much faster but the feathers were bigger and longer.

[firefighter ontheside]

I want this.  I've never seen these little bobcat telehandlers.  It looks like I can load logs with it during the week and use it as an ATV on the weekend.  Lol.  


 

[SpaceBus]

I think it is just like any wood chipping out the back side of a cut with any kind of saw with the difference being sawmilling is a more coarse blade so the feathers are bigger.

With the sawmill I use to have (a 16 hp chainsaw mill with .404 chain) cutting spruce or fir it tended to vary by log and grain orientation but cutting speed was the biggest factor, with a narrower cant I could cut much faster but the feathers were bigger and longer.

What kind of saw? Here I thought my 395xp was a pretty big saw  :D

[Hilltop366]

16hp twin Briggs and Stratton.


Sawmill homemade / home built chainsaw mill - YouTube

[Bruno of NH]

I want this.  I've never seen these little bobcat telehandlers.  It looks like I can load logs with it during the week and use it as an ATV on the weekend.  Lol.  

I want one but they are pricey

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 I had a customer/neighbor come by this morning and wanted some 4/4 lumber to build a woodshed or such. He did not care what kind, 8' was long enough, and he wanted 200-250 bf. I told him I had spruce log down I'd cut today for him and he agreed to call and come by tomorrow. I had this 17' butt log I cut when i was making my deer blind project. I cut it in half and sawed it.

My sawmill engine did act up again. Based on suggestions from Dennis at WM Indy I put a couple of in-line ignition testers and found it is periodically running on one cylinder and I found it is the one on the left (Drive side) that is cutting out. I'll order a new coil and have my new small engine mechanic I met last week and really am impressed with, put it on.


 I only got about 138 bf out of the first 2 logs so I went up and cut another spruce. I did a poor job of cutting and got it hung and had to drag and cut off 8.5, drag some more and got it to stand straight then pulled the rest down the hill with John. Sawed these and same issue with the mill.


 
Total tally for the 4 small small 8' logs was 259 which is perfect to fill the customer's order. I'll likely cut the top into 3/4" siding and framing about 7' long for future deer blinds/bus stops.

[Don P]

I want this.  I've never seen these little bobcat telehandlers.  It looks like I can load logs with it during the week and use it as an ATV on the weekend.  Lol.  

What is the capacity of that, in and out? Tipping forward in a telehandler raises the rears and counterweight up high and fast, the load dumps and then it slams back to the ground hammering the rear end. Make sure it is enough machine for the use. But it would be nice to have one that doesn't take 40 acres to turn around!

[RAYAR]

Have my mill at home and was doing some maintenance on it, then remembered about this:

An ornamental (flowering?) lawn tree I cut over a year ago that was pretty much dead from a friends place. These sections are about one meter long, just over a yard long. Don't know what type of tree this was.

When I made the first cut and removed the slab, ! It is very yellow in colour.







 

[Ljohnsaw]

Don't know what type of tree this was.

Stunning!  Was it fairly hard?  The little bit of bark I see looks like Crape Myrtle.

[WDH]

Looks like chinaberry, but that should not be growing up there in the Land of Glaciation. 

[Skip]

Kinda looks like a small larch

[firefighter ontheside]

I want this.  I've never seen these little bobcat telehandlers.  It looks like I can load logs with it during the week and use it as an ATV on the weekend.  Lol.  

What is the capacity of that, in and out? Tipping forward in a telehandler raises the rears and counterweight up high and fast, the load dumps and then it slams back to the ground hammering the rear end. Make sure it is enough machine for the use. But it would be nice to have one that doesn't take 40 acres to turn around!

Im not sure of its limits.  It says it will lift 6000, but Im sure thats with no extension.  I will not be buying, just wanting.  This one is used for sale locally for 23,500.

[Don P]

Wow, that's a well designed machine, I think that's about the boomed in capacity of my partner's old 644 Lull that has a much larger footprint. That's actually a good price if the machine is tight. I did see another old 644 for 12k the other night, but those old ones are all way over hours.

[RAYAR]

Don't know what type of tree this was.

Stunning!  Was it fairly hard?  The little bit of bark I see looks like crepe myrtle.

It kind of looks like it might be Crape Myrtle, but the zone map shows it to not be in this area. It seemed to have a texture of softwood. The wood looks like it might be Crape Myrtle from what I could find so far, more research to do on this. The bark was dry and pealing off of these pieces so I pealed off what I could, have some laying under the mill.

Thanks for a lead to get started on as I had no idea what it was.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Didn't saw anything today but called the local Kohler dealer and he had a coil in stock so I rushed over there 25 miles away and got it and got my new small engine mechanic to install it today. It looked simple to do but he has a better selection of tools including metric while mine for the mill are standard and had the feeler gauges and such to do it right so I have more confidence. I will try to saw up the spruce tops into stock siding and framing to make more bus stops/deer blinds and see if that fixed the problem. It seemed it would cut out and only run on one side after it warmed up. I don't know anything else that would cause that. My customer was at the house when we got back to pick up the 258 bf of spruce I cut yesterday.

   My wife's older brother died last night so we are trying to get things set up to go to the memorial service in Ala around the end of next week and schedule around her brother from Alaska's arrival and stay. I have several small projects I'd like to finish before we go. 

[firefighter ontheside]

Fingers crossed....the guy says my loader cylinders should be done tomorrow.  I bought a gallon of Super UDT2 to top off the fluid.  I hope thats enough to replace what I lost.  I've got a couple more saw jobs waiting for me to have my tractor working again.  

[SpaceBus]

Don't know what type of tree this was.

Stunning!  Was it fairly hard?  The little bit of bark I see looks like crepe myrtle.

It kind of looks like it might be Crape Myrtle, but the zone map shows it to not be in this area. It seemed to have a texture of softwood. The wood looks like it might be Crape Myrtle from what I could find so far, more research to do on this. The bark was dry and pealing off of these pieces so I pealed off what I could, have some laying under the mill.

Thanks for a lead to get started on as I had no idea what it was.

Planting in the wrong climate zone might be why it died. 

[firefighter ontheside]

Had a guy message me last night on FB, said he had some walnut logs and wanted to know about having them milled.  He called me this morning and was curious about milling the logs and then making flooring out of them.  I told him all about stacking and drying and then kiln drying and then having the boards milled into flooring.  He said he didn't have that kind of time and I could have the logs if I come and get them.  I'm going to look tomorrow morn.  Only concern is if I can get them out of the yard.  He sent pics and it broke my heart.  The best log appeared to have been perfectly straight and about 24" diameter.  It was cut into 3 chunks about 30".  The rest was left long, so I will still get some good logs.  The next log up appears to be about 9' long and about 22" diameter.  There are some smaller ones too.  I can't tell what was limbs.  I'm hoping to get the tractor repaired tomorrow so I can go soon and load the logs on a borrowed 24' trailer that will haul logs and tractor at same time.

[RAYAR]

Don't know what type of tree this was.

Stunning!  Was it fairly hard?  The little bit of bark I see looks like crepe myrtle.

It kind of looks like it might be Crape Myrtle, but the zone map shows it to not be in this area. It seemed to have a texture of softwood. The wood looks like it might be Crape Myrtle from what I could find so far, more research to do on this. The bark was dry and pealing off of these pieces so I pealed off what I could, have some laying under the mill.

Thanks for a lead to get started on as I had no idea what it was.

Planting in the wrong climate zone might be why it died.

I was talking to the person across the street whose sister used to own the place and found out it is Sumac. Doing more research, I figured it to be either Rhus or Staghorn, and looking at lumber from these two species, I'm leaning more towards the Staghorn Sumac.

[caveman]

Lately we have had some orders for 18' and 20' pine boards. The problem has been our log source is sporadic and all of the pine we had on hand was bucked to 16'6" and our log stretcher isn't working. I found some earlier in the week that are long enough and got a few loaded and hauled across town (31 traffic lights in 16 miles). 

 

 

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

sorry about you brother in law, Howard.

[firefighter ontheside]

Praise the Lord, my tractor is fixed.  Picked up the cylinders this afternoon and got them put back on.  Everything works as it should again.  So we are heading to pick up a load of walnut and hackberry out of a back yard.  Gonna take my 18' trailer and a buddys 24' trailer.  Hopefully I won't have any trouble bringing the logs out of the back yard.  It's kinds of tight quarters back there.  Might have to back the tractor out to the street and turn around there to load logs on trailer.