Whatcha Sawin' 2020 ??

wesdor · October 28, 2020, 12:24:33 PM

Didn't want to start a new thread for what we have all heard so many times.

Received a phone call this morning from a gentleman in nearby town. He has a walnut tree that came down Aug 10 during our huge storm. It is partway down a large hill and broke off about 4' above the ground. He says that the piece that broke off was rotten in the center but has lots of good wood left and it is more than 20' long. He asked if I would be interested in coming in, pulling the log out of the ravine, loading it onto my trailer, take it home to my sawmill and cut the lumber out of the log. He would only like a little bit of it and his goal is to get the tree cleaned up. Asked him if he had a tractor that would get the tree up to my trailer and he said all he had was a 15 hp lawn tractor.

I suggested he call a tree service, but he thought they would have trouble getting equipment into the site and thought they would charge too much. We did not come to any agreement on my removing his highly valuable walnut (he actually only inferred that term and never used it)

How many other accounts like this have been shared here? At least hundreds, maybe even more?

Hope you all got a good laugh.

WV Sawmiller · October 28, 2020, 02:29:12 PM

Normally when I get a call like that the tree is still standing, its leaning badly over the house or garage and a fence and the owner tells me if I will cut it down, remove all the limbs and re-do the landscaping/replant any grass damaged, he will give me half the wood. BTW - the owner has already cut the fence and clothesline on both sides where it grew into it years ago so that will make my job easier.

I did have a lady ask me last year if I wanted some walnut logs. She said if not she was going to have them cut into firewood. I went and looked at them and later sawed and removed the LE slabs I got. I probably got 300 bf of very pretty wood out of it and I was already sawing for her next door neighbor. In exchange I cut her up a trailer load of my slabwood from my home scrap pile into 12" lengths for kindling. I had to take the trailer over to collect the wood anyway so no extra trips involved. I will eventually sell the wood for $1,000+ or make it into benches for even more so it does not hurt to check out some of these calls.

Mossy Chariot · October 28, 2020, 05:24:46 PM

I saw stationary most of the time but decided to saw some popular for my neighbor. This was the second big one. It took me pretty much all day to saw two logs due to having to whittle them down. Sawing through 26" was certainly all my saw wanted to do. I had to lower the stops and push the log over a few more inches.

We did get a little over 1000 bf of 1" x 16" x 16' boards out of these two logs.

And a good part of the time was stacking it in his shed. I tried to get him to level it real good and sticker it at least every 2 feet but he says he'll have it sold within a couple of weeks.

Still have about 30 logs to go but, thank God, they are smaller than these two.

doc henderson · October 28, 2020, 06:27:19 PM

nice work chariot!

WV Sawmiller · October 28, 2020, 07:13:20 PM

I hates whittlin! If you got through 26" with that mill you are a better sawyer than me. Well done! I still can't seem to get past 23" with mine. Maybe its like fishing and I'm not holding my mouth right. I would like to be able to throw 2 -12" cants up there at one time and saw them both at the same time sometimes.

Patrick NC · October 29, 2020, 01:56:26 PM

Sawing some 5/4 poplar today. A little different for me since I mostly cut cedar. They have some decent color and nice figure in them.

alan gage · October 29, 2020, 02:59:57 PM

A couple years ago I bought a bunch of rough sawn lumber at a farm retirement auction. It was really cheap, some of it for good reason. There was a big stack of white oak and ash that had been poorly sawn into roughly 2x6. Much of it was knotty and had warped and crooked badly when drying, not to mention the waves from sawing with a loose or dull blade. Having no idea what I'd ever use all those for, and needing something for flooring in my living room and kitchen, I decided to resaw them into flooring.

I start by taking a skim cut to flatten one face and then drop down 3/4" for the first board. Then flip it over so the flat face is against the bunks and drop the head as far as it will go and take another cut, giving me my 2nd 3/4" board. Thankfully the mill cuts down to 3/4" from the bunks. Quick and easy once I got into the rhythm. Very little waste, only about 1/16" from each side and sometimes not even that.

These will be planed down to about 1/2" before install. I'm hoping to salvage 4-5" boards after straightening both edges. I'll cut around the worst of the knots. They'll be butt jointed and face nailed when installed. Did this with ash in my bedrooms a couple years ago and am happy with how it turned out.

One ugly oak board:

Two slightly less ugly (and thinner) oak boards:

You can really see the waves from the original sawing on the edges of the two boards when butted together. Some boards were worse than others and it was the faces too. This one was probably average.

Alan

Bruno of NH · October 29, 2020, 06:38:10 PM

Nice salvage job on the oak.

WV Sawmiller · October 30, 2020, 07:15:02 PM

No pictures as the customer arrived while I was still getting set up and did not have my camera with me. We sawed 13 of his 15 firewood style logs into 3/4 risers and 6/4 stair treads with a few 4X4 posts for good measure. Had 4.3 hours on the engine at the end of the job. My mill started action up with slow hydraulics, Simple Set dropping in and out and finally when I shut it off it simply would not restart. We let is sit 15-20 minutes while I took the customer out to show him my benches as we may make a couple out of the remaining RO logs, one of which is split almost completely in two. As the customer was leaving I bumped the starter and the mill fired right up, I shut it off then it would not restart again. I will check it again in the morning and see what it does then. :(

Hackeldam Wood Products · October 31, 2020, 08:30:19 AM

A beautiful Cherry on the Wood-Mizer.

Hackeldam Wood Products · October 31, 2020, 08:40:40 AM

Hello Howard,
sounds like a bad connection or low voltage. Check the battery voltage should be 12.6. Then clean and or tighten the connections at the battery and work out.Don't forget the grounds. When you get it running the voltage should be 13.5 to 14.5 from the alternator.

Rich

Magicman · October 31, 2020, 08:41:55 AM

You saw some neat stuff and I always enjoy seeing your sawing operation. That Cherry should be exceptional!!

Bruno of NH · October 31, 2020, 02:44:38 PM

Rich
That's some nice cherry Sir

WV Sawmiller · October 31, 2020, 03:10:15 PM

Well, i think I may have found the problem. Does your alternator belt look like this? I tried the mill and it would not turn over. I brought my truck over and jumped it off and it cranked fine then I started checking connections and such thanks to @richhiway suggestion. I started with the battery then the alternator and it did not take long to find especially when I jumped off the mill and engaged the drive and everything was turning there but the alternator was not. You'd think WM would have a lifetime warranty on these things wouldn't you. :D I see the manual says it is an A33 belt so that should be easy to find at most any auto store.

Putting it on my be more of a problem. I loosened the 2 bolts holding the alternator on to take it off but it obviously won't go back on that way. I'm thinking I have to go from the other side and take the drive belt off the mill to slip the belt over the pulley. If any of you guys have done this and know of any gottcha's or shortcuts to make it easier please let me know.

The bad thing is I have been hearing it squeal but never thought to check the alternator belt. I thought it was the drive belt which I had tightened at the last regular service. BTW - did you know that an alternator squealing on a sawmill sounds just like one squealing on a car or truck? :

Magicman · October 31, 2020, 03:50:22 PM

That is one reason that I mounted an "always on" voltmeter on my sawmill: LINK

Hackeldam Wood Products · October 31, 2020, 04:26:43 PM

Quote from: Bruno of NH on October 31, 2020, 02:44:38 PM
Rich
That's some nice cherry Sir

Thanks. Might have been a veneer log. Sawed up nice anyway.

Hackeldam Wood Products · October 31, 2020, 04:28:54 PM

less expensive then a new alternator. Probably a good time for new drive belts,save the used ones for spares.

Hackeldam Wood Products · October 31, 2020, 04:31:31 PM

also Howard if your battery is more then a few years old charge it and get it load tested. A lot of times a half good battery will over work the alternator and ruin it.

Patrick NC · November 01, 2020, 03:51:29 PM

Cut some live edge today from some logs that were in the reject pile. It's amazing what you can get out of short/ ugly logs.

WV Sawmiller · November 01, 2020, 04:16:08 PM

Patrick,

Those are sure pretty cedar. I wish I had more of it around here.

Quote from: richhiway on October 31, 2020, 04:28:54 PM
less expensive then a new alternator. Probably a good time for new drive belts,save the used ones for spares.

I got out an put the alternator back on. Just 2 bolts but they were the dickens to reach and I never really needed to have taken it off to begin with. I took off 3 more pieces in preparation for my belt installation which I see is going to be real easy. I removed the cover over the drive belt (4 -1"X 1/4" bolts), I removed the weldment cover over the alternator belt (3- bolts about 3" long) and I went ahead and removed the little 90 degree piece over the drive belt (Looks like WM calls it a Belt Enhancement - a sort of guide to keep the belt from flopping I guess). With the tension off the drive belt just slips right off and the alternator belt slips over and behind the drive belt pully. I checked the drive belt and you are right - I will order a new one and replace it at the same time I replace the alternator belt. I keep a new one for a spare with me all the time anyway so I'll use the one I have and keep the new one for a spare. I'd guess within 15 minutes of getting and starting the install I should have the new belts on. Much easier than I thought it was going to be.

SawyerTed · November 01, 2020, 08:17:43 PM

Sawed cherry and walnut for my best customer yesterday. The cherry logs were good but not the best. The smaller walnut logs were poor quality with significant sapwood. The larger walnut logs had rot, lightning strike damage or were cracked by improper felling. Did I mention three blades damaged by metal? He even had a butt section chainsaw milled so I could get the pieces on my mill. It wasn't worth it.

It was a tough day for production. We talked about the issues we experienced and he readily admitted the lower production was log quality related. I gave him a bit of a break on the charges to take a little sting out of it.

You will see a bit of wane on the ends of a piece or two of this load of cherry. He will cut that off as he stacks it. He preferred a shorter board 6-7" wide. We made about half that much walnut not including 6 live edge/book matched mantle pieces.
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