Whatcha Sawin' 2021 ??

[doc henderson]

I visitid a high school friend.  her dad got moved to Dallas.  It was 106.  If you walked on a black top driveway, your feet felt sticky and your tenni-runners left a little bit of rubber with the print of your shoe left on the ground.  twas hot.  the worst is Florida, you cannot run from an airconditioned building to your car with the AC running without soaking your shirt.  

[Walnut Beast]

Come on Doc don't you like that high humidity in gator country 😂

[Magicman]

Doc don't know nuttin' yet:



 

[Wudman]

Things we take for granted freeze up, like diesel fuel, water pipes, brass monkeys etc.

That's gotta mean something different there than it did to a kid growing up listening to the Beastie Boys in the '80s. :D

My daughter FaceTimed my wife last night.  She was dancing on her deck with friends listening to the Gap Band and "You Dropped A Bomb on Me."  Brought back memories.  I'm fairly certain a fermented fruit product was involved as well.

Wud

[Mountainmindset]

I've been milling up a few smaller chestnut oaks into 2"x8"x20' for trailer decking. Still have a few to go, but here's a video of me cutting the first two if anyone is interested.
https://youtu.be/1Tz3zFr633o

You'll fit right on in, welcome to the forum.  
The CO was green, are you worried about it shrinking on the deck?  What says the forum?  I'm a bit concerned with selling trailer decking because I think people would install green and it might shrink in ways that caused issues.  Here it is all on mountainmindset so that's cool but for the general public ?

Thanks! I just put some screws from the bottom to hopefully keep them from warping too bad. I'm not using the trailer right now, just working on it so hopefully it dries enough in the meantime. I'll do the same with the rest after I saw it. Once it's all pretty dry, I'll bolt it down. I'm not too worried about a few cracks between the boards. Hopefully they won't be too bad. I don't plan on selling any trailer decking after handing those 2x8's. Lol!

[Southside]

Tractor Supply has RV Antifreeze as well, usually in the $3.00 ish per gallon range. 

[TimW]

  the worst is Florida, you cannot run from an airconditioned building to your car with the AC running without soaking your shirt.  

You are describing Southeast Texas in July, August and Sept.  Especially at night.  I would go through 3 changes of work clothes, each night, in the hangar.
hugs,  Brandi

[WV Sawmiller]

    I drove 29 miles and set up to saw 21' cabin logs for a customer.


 

I found these 3 stacks of logs staged on the opposite side of the road from the last time I visited and sawed there. They were downhill from the road to the barn. I managed to get my mill in and set up in the field below them. The lady honchoing the project asked why I decided to set up there instead of on the road. I told her because there was no way 2 helpers with cant hooks were going to be able to roll a bunch of 21' logs uphill.

   My "Big, burly, mentally challenged helpers I had specified as required to handle the side lumber and load the logs turned out to be an 80 y/o neighbor and a skinny, 60+ y/o retired USAF retiree. To their credit they did well but we had to adjust and have the lady customer driving the tractor remove the flitches and slabs. The helpers would slide them off and she'd transport them to the staging area. I'd lift the toeboards and she'd slide the forks under. On the second side the flitches would be on top and the helpers would slide them off on the way. Meanwhile I would be sawing the next log they had loaded on the mills lifting arms. Waiting on the tractor slowed the process down some but was a good compromise. With 6.4 engine hours on the mill in about 7 hours we completed 24 logs. Several were squared to 6X10's while the rest were live edge 6" thick. We completed the upper stack. Many of the logs were crooked and a real challenge to produce a workable cabin log. One was so bad I rejected it out of hand. It was in the way and we had to load then lift off the back side of the mill.

 At the end of the day I moved the mill to the next stack, covered it for the evening and the big tractor is in the shade.

 Ready to start the next stack tomorrow.

 Slabs and flitches in the weeds next to a shed. We will process them tomorrow or the next day. We agreed on 7/8" sheeting and 1-7/8" from framing. The lady asked me at the end of the day if we had enough framing. I told her no way for me to answer that as I did not know what they had planned. Her hubby came out during sawing and asked why we were sawing the sizes and about the framing. I told him "Because that is what your wife said to cut." End of discussion.  To her credit she is a young wife with 4 kids under about 8 years old and you have to love a lady who comes out wearing Carhart overalls and coat and driving the tractor.

LE 6" cabin logs. The upper stack is edged 6X10s. I think we have about 50 more to do. A conservative estimate for today's sawing is 1058 bf based on my average sawing rate. I'm billing by the hour due to the tedious nature and extra handling. She is still going to come out okay and it is fair to me.

   I called on the way home and did a site visit for a repeat customer for Saturday assuming this job is done and weather permits. He has about 8-10 WO/RO logs about 7-8 ft long and from about 15-24 inches in diameter. Looks like an easy one day job 10-12 miles from home.

[Magicman]

Outstanding!!!   8)

[WV Sawmiller]

   I removed the rear bumper to gain a couple extra inches there and one thing I learned is doing that allowed the plastic scraper on the back of the lubricated pad that greases the rail to fall out. I'll put it back after I finish this job. Just something you all need to keep in mind if you ever remove that rear bumper on a WM mill.

[trapper]

tree trimmer brought me  some firewood and I got 2 6x8 and 1 8x8 10 feet long oak. rest is firewood

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 I continued my log cabin log sawing today. I had the son of one of yesterday's helpers and he was top notch! Probably in his mid to late 40s and worked circles around the 3 -19 y/o Mormon Missionaries who also came to help. They were were not bad but lacked the experience and initiative to jump right in without being told what to do. The 3 of them stayed till shortly after lunch then left. The lady customer continued to drive the tractor and served as the project manager. About 4:00 pm she disappeared and came back out with a compress on her R eye. She had gotten something in it yesterday and it flared up so she left my helper to watch the 4 kids while she went to the doctor until her husband returned from the "cowpracter" or "accupokerist". When he got back he told us his wife and called and they found she had a small splinter inside her eyelid, removed the splinter and  gave her some numbing drops and said she should be fine tomorrow. The logs above are what are left from yesterday's stack plus several others the lady added while I was sawing. 8 left in the stack, one small log on the mill and another on the arms. I think our total count for the day with 7.3 hours on the engine and a complete tank (5.8 gallons) of gas used were 32 more logs. Total complete 59. Remaining either 22 or 23 depending on what else she finds. :D

Flitches and slabs from today in front. Much neat than yesterday. The husband was moving the cabin logs to the stack so I did not get a picture of them.


 I cleaned, lubed and covered the mill and packed up. On the way out this lady was in the customer's drive. I should have shut of the truck to take the picture for a better focus I guess. Before I left the house I had watched a young buck in velvet in my pasture by my yard fence about 35 yards away. I see lots in the hay fields and pastures on my trip to the client and back. One turkey was loving the fresh cut hay field for bug hunting.

 I have an early start tomorrow, same good helper and his dad so I hope we finish and I can come back and finish my composting toilet before the weekend.

[Daburner87]

^^^Hey WV, is 6x10 a common size cut for log cabin logs?

[WV Sawmiller]

   They were for sill plates or such. The logs themselves are live edge and 6" thick. She had me cut a few 8X8 and several of the 6X10. Very few of her logs will make a 6X10. Lots of curve and sweep and a real challenge at times. Mostly I lay the log on the mill and let it come to rest naturally and then saw off the top and bottom leaving 6" out of the middle. Looks to me like an awful lot of chinking will be needed but that is what the customer ordered and their logs. I' trying to keep the hearts/pith centered but that is also hard to do because it wanders so much in some of these logs. I just get as close as I can and sometimes I have to cut long wedges to try to level out the hearts and such.

[WV Sawmiller]

   I met my helpers and customer at 7:00 this morning. My good helper from yesterday was back and his dad from the first day. Both are good. The 80 y/o dad would work circles around the 19 y/o missionaries we had yesterday morning. They were good young men just inexperienced

 We finished the 10 logs in the first stack then moved down the hill to the next stack and sawed another 20 or so. It was hard to keep up as the customer kept bringing more. By the end of the day she was pretty stressed when one log she wanted for 8X8 was not big enough (Hard to get a good square 8X8 out of a 10" diameter top with sweep in it). Then I left the roller up on one and cut 5-1/4" on one end and 6 on the other. She brought me a 14"-15" poplar with a lot of sweep and wanted an 8X8 and I had to flip it repeatedly to get square surfaces. She wanted to know why i was sawing it different and I told her because it was to be square and the others were live edge. Finally I suggested she get a chalk line and chalk out how she wanted to get an 8" square out of it. She backed off then. It came out perfect but was real stressful to get it.

 About noon we were breaking for lunch and my helpers walked to the woodline to cut a big dead red oak. The wood is green as it still had dead leaves on it. It was 36" diameter at the stump with a good bit of flare. We finally cut it into 2- 10' logs for flooring but only after I explained to her why I could not cut a cabin log that big as I was going to have to whittle it down to fit my mill. I haven't checked the calculator here but I suspect a 21' red oak that big would max out my mill and likely their tractor.

BooBoos for the day included rolling a log across it with the side supports down and leaving the toeboard up. We later moved about an 18" poplar over the mill because  she did not know what she wanted to make out of it. She backed the tractor up and it rolled off too. My alternator belt broke but I had a spare and got that fixed is pretty short order although I am not sure the customer recognized the prior planning involved to have a spare belt and tools to fix it as quickly as we did.


RO logs on and at the mill at days end. Butt log on the ground is over 36" and at least one nail 5' high. I hope it is not full of fence wire as it was right on the woodline to a big hay field. The customer suggested a 10X10 mantel and a 10X12 lintel. I asked her if she can get her tractor inside her house and asked her how they were going to mount it. She was going to think on it overnight and tell me her decision in the morning. I expect to finish tomorrow, weather permitting. The customer suggested I come edge the flitches on another trip. I told them no problem but be sure to stack and sticker them and showed how to cut off the run-out and useless parts and to stack in straight stacks. I guess I should ask them about stickers as I know they don't have them.

 Broken alternator belt. I also broke a wire on a ring connector to the debarker up in the box but found and fixed it at the end the day. 6.5 hours on the mill today.

[VB-Milling]

Really enjoying the recap of this particular customer @WV Sawmiller 

[btulloh]

This style can have some pretty wide chinking to deal with crooked logs. 



 

[Southside]

Where is that? 

[tule peak timber]

Holy crap,,,what a beauty !!

[btulloh]

Montebello VA. Typical of the style throughout the the southern Appalachian mts. VA, WV, OH, etc.

More pics of this cabin including interior. 

WV Sawmiller was getting asked about the logs he's sawing right now so I thought this would help. Not everybody  has seen log cabins done this way unless you're from this area - or you watch Barnwood Builders (who buy, dismantle, and rebuild a lot of these).  

More of this style

[WV Sawmiller]

 

I returned to the site today and first we sawed the two red oak logs into this stack of 4/4 boards. Most of the boards in this stack are 18" wide. They were beautiful boards. The stack is about 5' tall (I guess you could enlarge and count them if it is that important) and they are 10' long. It took some serious "gun-barreling" to get that big log on the ground to fit between the roller guides. It was too heavy to turn with the claw and what I had to do each time I shifted it a few inches was raise the front toe board, then lower and back up, lower the toeboard, then raise the clamp to lift it. I'd saw a small corner off and eventually was able to get long enough slices to get flitches for future edging. The log/cant was so heavy it put so much pressure on the clamp I could not lower it without using the toeboard.


 After sawing the RO I sawed several more cabin logs and a big poplar for a 6"X 10" sill plate. Then I sawed some really ugly small tops into stickers and just when we thought we were done the customer decided she needed some 2X4s and 2X6's. She got 6-7 2X6s 10' long from edgings of the sill plate then we took 6-8 pine 2X flitches, cut then in half and edged them in 4" drops to get her these 2X4s. A few still have some bark but are fine for dunnage and may add the character inside if she wants to use them.


 

 

 

Here are several stacks of the finished cabin logs. I think the final count was over 80. It was a moving target as every time I thought I had sawed the last one, another one would come out of the weeds. The customer has a workshop on the 14th to start building with them.

  It was a stressful undertaking and my mill and I both took a beating. I need to put the bumpers back on each end of my mill, replace one and buy another plastic rail sweeper - with the bumper off they slide off the end as there is nothing on the round rail to stop them. We rubbed some paint on the hydraulics box from the long logs scrubbing it before we lifted and shifted them forward with the toeboard. My Magic Hook got a workout loading and shifting logs a few inches fore and aft to fit between the marks. I need to tighten the connection and scrub the power bar to my hydraulics as I have several burned spots and hard to find a live spot. Any advise on a good way to do this will be greatly appreciated. I have a green scrubby pad. Would fine sandpaper work better?

  We determined we were knocking out about 4 logs/per hour on average. Most are 20'10" long. Some are as short as 4-5 ft. She said she has people coming from as far away as Hawaii and California - wow!

  It is hard to believe the look of these stacked logs remembering the long, ugly double sweepy logs we started with to get them. It was a very educational experience. I now know several more warnings to pass along to any future customer including a time line and such to use for scheduling and pricing. I will think long and hard before I agree to saw any log order over 20'. A one off 21' is okay but a big order of that many ...?

  We finished about noon, I packed up, took the pix above and headed home. I stopped at an Amish bakery for a couple of fried Blackberry pies and found smoke coming from my driver side mill axle. I think it was my electric brakes as I disconnected and no more issues. I have to keep watching that. There was a young Amish man in the bakery who was very interesting in the mill and used to own one and we had a nice conversation about the mill and sawing in general.

  The customer still has all the flitches, including the RO to be edged at some future time/trip. I advised how to stack and sticker but worry they may wait too long. I warned them vigorously but it is their wood. I saw a stack of logs 1/4 mile away at a community center and stapled a business card to them and have been playing phone call with the owner on them this afternoon. They are spruce. We will see if that pays off. I wish he'd called before I drove home. I might have knocked them out today on the way home.

  I got home safely, washed the mill good and just got a call from a customer bringing a maple and 2 walnut logs here at noon tomorrow. Saturday is scheduled for 8-10 large short RO/WO log. The customer has an old log barn beside the logs that looks like the same "peaked roof" log notching that @btulloh  shows in his picture above.

[Patrick NC]

I decided to open up a couple of sweet gum logs that have been laying in a pile for about 8 months. They were designated to become a bonfire at some point, but after seeing some pictures posted by @Southside I couldn't help but want to saw some. 

After seeing this, I've decided to saw them. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I've got about 40 logs. I guess I'll sticker and stack it under my pole shed with some weight on it and see what happens when it dries. 

[caveman]

JohnM is on vacation this week so I'm not tackling the big pecan that a repeat customer dropped off today until he gets back.  Our customer texted me and he will be bringing some hickory by later today.  I asked him if he was going to bring the whole    family.

I sawed a wonky Paroda and a small sinker cypress log yesterday evening.  Sometimes it would be easier to get butter from a duck than to get nice slabs out of some of the logs this customer brings.  


 

 


 

 

 

 

WVsawmiller, Good job on the last saw job.  You and your LT-35 have been cranking out the wood.

[Magicman]

Nice Sinker Cypress. 

[Southside]

Duck Butter is but a click away....

Duck Butter