Whatcha Sawin' 2021 ??

[Poquo]

Had a 6 Pine log job only a mile from home. He wanted mostly 4/4 and 6/4, but one short log he wanted 8/4 slabs out of got up to 27 inches wide.

 

 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Well, the elephant is eaten! Thank goodness for flash photography because it was right at dark when I finished and after dark before I finished loading and brought Mildred home with me.


8' & 10' stacks.


 a new stack of 7' lumber.


Final stack of 12' lumber. Lots of 6' boards end to end included here.


10' in front, 8' on back. Hard to see in the dark.


Final 10' in front and 8' in back.

 It was a long day but I finished all 17 remaining logs. Several were short and small diameter. Total for the whole job was just south of 4,000 bf. All 4/4 lumber. 4 small sycamore, a couple of maples and 50+ yellow poplar logs. I had to build the stacks, stack and sticker and  I moved the mill to the opposite end of the log pile one time. I had sawed another 1600 or so bf at the customer's home. These were at his camp on the Greenbrier River. @ellmoe  - this site was about half a mile and on the opposite side from where you guys stayed.

 Its almost time for another 50 hour service and I got the filter in to change the hydraulic oil and filter.

[Magicman]

I sawed a quick one today.


 
2656bf of mostly 2X6's, for studs in the customer's new home.

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   Is that dimensional lumber or full size? I rarely get a customer wanting dimensional sizes around here. It is nearly always full size lumber they want.

[Magicman]

Dimensional, I don't recall sawing full size but twice in 21 years of sawing.  I don't know of a nail gun that shoots 4" nails. 

[Sixacresand]

Dimensional, I don't recall sawing full size but twice in 21 years of sawing.  I don't know of a nail gun that shoots 4" nails.

An Ex customer and I got into a discussion about figuring board feet on "store bought" dimensions vs. full size.  Volume-wise it probably works out about the same bd/ft of lumber from a log, but it will take more cuts.  That is a discussion that should have taken place before I  started the project.  

[Magicman]

This subject occasionally comes up and I have no concern of any pros/cons regarding log/lumber scaling.  I sell nothing.  I provide a sawing service and both rates and scaling are clearly stated in my sawing contract that is reviewed and signed both by myself and the customer before any saw job begins.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My process is to scale the lumber to the actual sizes I sawed unless it is an oddball (for me) job that I do on an hourly rate. I do tell customers if I am sawing less than 1" thick I bill as if it were one inch. 

   Some sawyers scale the log before sawing and use that figure. If the log produces more the customer gains, if less the sawyer still gets paid for his time and effort. It takes at least as much effort to saw a crappy log with lots of defect as a high quality log the same size.

    I have an excel spreadsheet with formulas and at the end of the job I just plug in the thickness, width, length and total numbers of finished boards and the spreadsheet does the math for me. That is easier for me and clear to the customer. Usually I have them measure and call off the sizes and  I just record them. I will record a row of boards as if it were a single huge board. For example I had 48" wide stacks of boards 8' and 10' long, all 1" thick. A stack would be recorded as if it were a board 1" thick X 48" wide X 8' or 10' long and 30 boards in the stack.

   Sometimes when there is a wide range of lengths and widths of stacks the customer and I will just agree on an average and use that. On a recent job at the end of sawing and when we were getting ready to tally the customer asked me how many bf I thought there were there and I gave him a conservative estimate. He said how about I pay you 20% more than your estimate and lets skip the tally. I was okay with that. Neither one of us lost or benefited a lot out of that and we were bot satisfied at the end of the job.

   Some people have ranges/categories and bill based on that, some just do hourly. All systems are fine as long as both parties understand and agree before sawing starts.

   Looking at job I finished yesterday I was doing the stack building, stacking , and stickering and I wish I had set up more categories for different lengths. I set up 8', 10', 12' and added a 7'. I had some 5 & 6 but I doubled them up on the 10 & 12 foot stacks. I should have built and used a 9' and 11' stack as I probably shorted myself on the final tally. I always try to give the benefit of the doubt to the customer but that is just me.  

[terrifictimbersllc]

Traveled yesterday morning 110 miles, to saw a 56 to 60 inch diameter red oak tree.  Well, sort of. I told the customer I could do it if he had somebody else quarter the log first.

When I arrive there were eight quarters four  each of eight and 12 foot lengths. The shorter ones had flare going out to as much as 45" wide but the main widths of the quarter faces were about 28 to 30 inches.

Here is a not so good picture of the early morning arrival.


 
Here is the first quarter on the mill. It actually looks like a half not a quarter from this view. The near end was 46 inches tall. Customer had a machine an operator there, a bobcat with grapple and he was able to expertly load all the pieces as the day went on. First they were squared up sort of into large rectangles. Then we went for pure quartersawn materials with a variety of techniques including normal and RRQS. Having a wide head was everything for this job.


 
Some of the wood is shown here. There were about 1900 board feet of 1 1/8 inch quarter sawn boards about 6 to 24 inches wide.
I used three 1 1/2 inch .055 turbo 7 bands.


 
I arrived there at 7:30 AM and was finished packing up by 5:15 PM. After that my wife and I went out to eat at a local pub and then were able to stay overnight in very nice guest accommodations, and drove back this morning.

[TimW]

  My process is oddball me

Wow, the wonders of computers and editing.
hugs,  Brandi

[cutterboy]

Ttimbers, that is some nice looking oak. Interesting job. Thanks for the pictures.

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

Bridget, the sawmill princess says we are done for today.

[caveman]

We sawed a few 4x4s out of small logs and then got nine out of a decent log. After lunch we sawed some 1x that should be picked up in a day or so. 

The tall stack in the back we sawed for a customer and we got stuck with it. Lesson learned. We agreed on a price for dead stacked to his specs. He got sick and never sent a truck. I'm not sure he is still alive, which is unfortunate. He seemed like a good man. 
  We will either have a special deal for someone or use some of the big pile to build our next kiln.
 

[WV Sawmiller]

Cavey,

   Looks good. What is your sticker spacing on that tall stack?

[caveman]

Cavey,

  Looks good. What is your sticker spacing on that tall stack?
A lot.  Roughly 4', or double what is our norm on pine and 3x more than on most everything else.

[Magicman]

Today I got myself into a gots to do what you gots to do situation.  I have a goodwill 2X4 job to saw Saturday but first these two White Oak logs must be sawn.  They are mine and the largest 32"+ is for 2X8 trailer decking for Marty's equipment trailer and the smaller will be sawn into 2" bridge decking.


 
Yes it was a bad boy and I was working alone.



I was distracted and forgot to take a picture after I got it on the sawmill but here I am breaking it down.  Those flitches were heavy...yeah. 


 
No stacking 'cause it was all that I could do to get them off of the sawmill.  19 ea; 2X8's and 3 ea; 2X10's.  Only heartwood.

I will buck the smaller log back to 12' and saw 2" bridge decking from it.  Oh my aching back tonight.   >:(

[OlJarhead]

You are an inspiration sir!

[WV Sawmiller]

 

I needed to burn up a couple of hours on the mill to reach my next 50 hour service point so I decided to saw these 5 small Red Oak logs I got from a neighbor 1/4 mile away. She had a tree service cut it as it was threatening her house. Nothing fancy but I hated to see them go to waste. 

One small 5.5' log I sawed into 3 LE 8/4 slabs for benches and one 9/4 slab I sawed into square stock for a set of legs or two. BTW - the loading arms are in the position I always leave them in at the end of sawing each day during the winter months so the feet don't freeze to the ground. 

The rest were 7' and 8' boards. Max width was only 8". (They are stacked on top of some 8' poplar 2X4s I cut earlier.) Total yield for everything in the 5 logs was about 188 bf.

[Magicman]

True to my word, I sawed the smaller White Oak log today.


 
The log had a bad crook but no matter, this will be bridge decking.


 
And yes, there was some amazing fleck.


 
But fleck doesn't matter with bridge decking.  They are now ready for a trip to the farm property.



I was able to slid them off of the sawmill and onto the trailer but no way could I handled the stacking/stickering.  They will lay here until I get help....strong help.

[LeeB]

I know you don't like the drag back and removed it from your mill but there are times when it does help.

[Magicman]

The sawmill drag back would not have helped me but a trailer drag back could have.  ;D 

I brought the Kubota back with me and I will install the pallet forks/thumb today to get ready to handle sawing the SYP logs seen in the above picture.  This will be a humanitarian effort Saturday to help a lady that need a roof and we will be sawing 2X4 lathing.

[Magicman]

Just a ho-hum morning;


 
Moving some logs from my SYP log whack


 
to the sawmill getting ready for Saturday morning's sawing. 

[Andries]

Good work there MM, and great photos to match. 👌 
The forks thumb looks like a really useful attachment.
Does the thumb get in the way when lifting a pallet full of lumber, or do you mount the thumb to the forks frame only when you use it for moving logs ?

[Magicman]

I have never had an occasion to lift a pallet of lumber and probably never will.  ;D

I forgot to add that this sawing is for a lady that needs a new roof and a group of us will gather Saturday morning to saw the 2X4 lathing. 

[Hackeldam Wood Products]

True to my word, I sawed the smaller White Oak log today.


 
The log had a bad crook but no matter, this will be bridge decking.


 
And yes, there was some amazing fleck.


 
But fleck doesn't matter with bridge decking.  They are now ready for a trip to the farm property.



I was able to slid them off of the sawmill and onto the trailer but no way could I handled the stacking/stickering.  They will lay here until I get help....strong help.

I pray I can work like you when I reach your age!