Making it through another year '21-'23

[Old Greenhorn]

NAH, you weren't. :D :D :D :D ;D

[Nebraska]

Tom I've been wanting to ask you what it's like sawing on a new hydraulic Woodmizer  with setworks etc compared your manual mill?  I was sawing  the next log up  on my little mill and wondered what you thought.

I need to replace my drive belt, the farm store off the shelf blue belt isn't getting it done.. So as I could tell it was slipping if I pushed things too hard, I was wondering  what more than 11 hp would feel  like on a dry ash log....

I really started wanting (key word there) a bigger mill....

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I am finding there is a slight difference. ;D I had to think on it a bit to come up with a way to describe it and this is what I cam up with for now:
It's kind of like the difference between

A) Being resigned to a life getting around on crutches where you have to think about exactly how you are going to get yourself to where you need to be. You always get there, but it takes time and a good plan to keep yourself whole.
-or-
B) Having a chauffer driven limousine and your only concern is to choose what sights you would like to see along your route.

AT Least, that is the best I can come up with. With that machine I can do in an hour what used to take me a day or more. It is a double edged sword, because you can also produce scrap at a much higher rate. :D I believe the lessons learned about reading and cutting a log manually were priceless when I stepped up to the big machine. 16" logs were my preference on the manual, now I look for logs in the 22-28" range for better productivity. I used to get hurt loading, unloading, and pushing the head. Now I only get hurt handling slabs (working on that). Certainly that accuset is a dream to work with. I have mastered several functions I use all the time and there is more to learn that I have not needed yet. Misuse or overuse when you should be using your brain, can also lead to some extra firewood. When you find the proper blend (15% brain and 85% accuset) I think that is when you can really fly. Material handling becomes a little more of an issue with higher production, especially working alone. I often feel like Lucy in the Chocolate factory when trying to stack boards as the machine is cutting the next one and frequently finding myself jogging to keep up and catch the head at the end of the cut. If I have a helper, any helper, those 1,000 BF days are over pretty quick.
SO yeah, there is a slight difference. Bill has an LX25 new in the box we are hoping to set up early next year just for doing long beams. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
I assume you would be looking at an LT35 or 40? Lots of options on those. Your only limit is your bank account. I see a big difference between the LT50 and 35/40 models and it seems reflected in the cost. I just feel lucky to be running somebody else's $60k machine for them.

[aigheadish]

Kicka$$

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, not the most pleasant weather here so far this week, damp, solid overcast, some very light snow cover. It all puts me in a funky mood and I don't feel like doing much. Monday I did some household chores, took the screen door off for the winter, cleaned up and stored some yard junk, fixed a chair for the wife and did a bank run.


 Tuesday I split a little wood and did some other odds and ends in the shop. I talked to Bill in the evening and we discussed finishing up across the road. We also worked through a little mis-understanding. Apparently when I saw the broken pole problem and texted Bill to say "let me know how I can help" he assumed I would be on the clock. SO I told him that he was not to charge for any of my time and he protested a little but understood. He said he wouldn't have got it done nearly as fast without me and I said, 'That was the point'. :D


 Wednesday, more of the same and I headed across the road the the neighbor gal's place to pull a lot of the smaller trees that we left and get them yarded up for bucking and splitting. Just before I left to go over I got a text from the property client I was with on Sunday. She had just tested positive and was enduring minor symptoms. She wanted me to know. Great. This is like the 4th time now I have been through this. So when I was working at the neighbors and she came out I told her to keep a good distance. No way would I expose here while she is undergoing chemo. But it was cold and crisp and snowing so we could chat while I threw the stick for her cute little puppy that apparently likes me. :D After she got cold and went inside, I finished up most of the logs and headed home, it was nasty again. I just have a couple more small red oaks to drag in. Bill will bring his 6 way splitter over and we will shuttle split wood to her pile with the skidsteer bucket. Hopefully get it done before her family arrives for the holidays from the west coast. I talked to again Bill last night and he told me he had put in an order to WM for the spare parts I requested and had confirmed with them that my thought of flipping the direction of the dabarker blade was a good one and we should do that.


Today almost looked like it would turn nice. I split more wood and then decided with the sun coming out to head to the mill and flip that blade rotation. As I hadn't mentioned I was going to do that, the road was blocked and nobody was around. I didn't feel like moving trucks and trailers for a small task, so I parked up by the shop and climbed down the cliff to the mill. I flipped the blade and changed the wiring and checked the operation, all looks good. I also checked on my blade lube mix and see that my 'formula' is holding up and it is not freezing yet. There is full ice on the swamp and pond waters now. By the time I finished up the simple task my toes were frozen and it was solid overcast again. Nasty.


OH, and @WDH I have been doing a study on this paragraph issue. I have done full testing and determined that the forum software is making me look bad. ;D It is my habit to add a blank line after each paragraph and I have come to learn that the software removes or ignores this, hence no space. If however, I add two blanks lines after a paragraph, one of those lines remains in the subsequent post. Just thought you might want to know, it wasn't all me, I had help. ;D :D

Tomorrow is Chiro day and I am truly due for a tune-up. I have been feeling a lot of 'close call' tweaks lately. Not sure what I am doing in the afternoon yet.

[WDH]

That paragraph eureka moment is good. When a post is many many lines long with no breaks, it is difficult to read. You don't need to be more difficult than you already are :D :D.  (Just kidding.....).

[Ljohnsaw]

I have come to learn that the software removes or ignores this, hence no space.

I do the extra return to get the spacing good.  What I did notice early on was when it removed the single blank line, I could go back into "modify", add one back, save and all was good again.  Seemed like modify used a different algorithm.:-\

[Nebraska]

Tom as I figured your reply to my query would be as such. I haven't had a chanced to reply and thank you. Lately I've been on call and working a bunch and a dear friend from high school happened to be in Omaha by chance with work so I spent my free time yesterday  driving to Omaha  and back on marginal roads but I got to see Jerry for the first time since he lost his dad a few years ago.  So we had a high school  class reunion. It's a very small class.

When i started this reply, I had made big plans in my head  to go out  fire up my rusted Yugo and saw the rest of the Ash log that I have sitting on the mill, and dream about how quick and easy your Ferrari would make the job and the next several logs in the line up. But the office just called and somebody is on the way with a Chihuahua in some sort of distress. So  no escaping to the sawmill today yet.... I hope I get a chance later.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Glad you had a good visit, that can do a lot for one's soul.
 I think I own the rusted Yugo compared to your mill. :D The biggest thing I notice is the rigidity and how mush better things work with less effort. But I still think learning on the smaller basic machines is great training. 
 I think an LT15 would be a huge step up from the mill I own now, but that's not part of the plan. But the plan is always fluid. ;D

[WDH]

If you go manual, the LT15 with the 25 hp engine and the power feed is as good as it gets. 

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, a pretty lazy weekend here, just not a lot of motivation for some reason. The weather has a hand in that. I did some stuff, then some other stuff, nothing of note accomplished. It happens. The only exciting thing that happened was sleeping the whole night through until 8am this morning. That hasn't happened in a while.
 Late this evening my son dropped off firewood logs from a clearing job, 2 dump loads, and here is part of it. Looks like I can get my firewood done, so I guess I need to get to work.


 

That's gonna keep me busy in my free time. I hope I can get it done before the snow flies for real.
 I had the usual Sunday night text messages with the boss: "What are your plans for tomorrow?" "Work?" "coming to the Mill?" "I dunno, probably", "I could use a few pieces for the shop framing", "Sure, shoot me the sizes and qtys" "2x8x14' I need 4" "OK, gotta find a log for that one" "There's one across from the mill" "OK grab it down with the grapple and I'll be down around 10am". And that is how the
beginning of my week gets planned. ;D

 Hey Danny, as long as you are here chcking my paragraph spacing, could you give me a clue what this thing is?:


 

I found it on a property walk last week, and I only found one. I don't know if its a nut or an acorn. I went through my books and keep running in circles. The hardwoods in the area were lots of chestnut oaks. I found one of these somewhere else months before and it wound up on my beside table but I have no memory of where I found it.

 So tomorrow, I guess I am milling in the morning and firewooding in the afternoon.

[Tacotodd]

It looks like an acorn that has shed its cap. I'd be more specific but I don't know my vegetation like I should.

Just like to play with my chainsaws :embarassed:

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

  Looks like an acorn to me too. The size and shape looks similar to a live oak but you are probably too far north for that.

  I ended up in firewood mode yesterday too. A dead ash across the road from me fell in the road the night before last. Someone coming by pushed the pieces aside on both sides of the road so I went out with my ATV and chainsaw and cut the limbs out of the road and as much of the top as I could reach then I climbed the steep bank (I slid back down a couple times till I got past the worst of it - its bad to get old and fat!) and cut the rest of the fallen log then cut the 20' snag and another beside it. I cut to manageable lengths and dragged them up the macadam road 100 yards or so with my ATV to my lot and cut till I emptied the gas tank on my saw. I guess I cut over half to firewood lengths. I still have to split (easy task with straight grained mostly dead ash) and bring them in the house as needed but there is probably 3-4 more weeks worth of firewood there plus I get community service credit for clearing the road which the county sure wasn't going to do.

[WDH]

Todd is right.  Acorn missing the cap. It is a white oak acorn.   Chestnut oak is a white oak so that is a likely source. 

[doc henderson]

any humans on the forum, ever taste/eat an acorn, if so, how are they?

[WDH]

Unpalatable. 

[HemlockKing]

Closest thing to acorn I have ate is red squirrel because that's all they eat if they're lots of acorns around lol 

[doc henderson]

is it the tannins?  surely Howard has eaten them.  @WV Sawmiller I will see if I can find one.  we have lots of walnuts, I will eat one of those, if you will eat an acorn.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Doc,

    Danny nailed it. I have tasted them, especially white oak acorns which are supposed to be much sweeter than a red oak acorn and I could never keep it down. Indians and such who ate them pounded them into flour and leached them out several times to remove the tannic acid as I understand. 

   At the Wolf Creek Indian village at Bastion Va one of the guides said Indians and possibly early settlers used to do the same with buckeyes but he is the only one I ever heard talk about anyone eating a buckeye. Even squirrels never eat over half of them and only the young, inexperienced squirrels even try them.

[HemlockKing]

Maybe you could just boil them acorns like deer antlers lol , acorn soup base!

[gspren]

My goats really liked the white oak acorns.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My goats loved them just like the deer do. My cows, horse and mule also liked the big chestnut oak acorns that fall on and around my barn

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I was off working all day and this thread certainly went to heck quick. :D Food, Goats, but what, no chickens or grits?

Thanks for the leads on the acorn. I suspected Chestnut oak, but it was impossible to find another one with the cap or enough to give me a good feeling and we were walking and talking with a lot of ground to cover. Next time I will stop the parade and do some research. I do like those chestnut oaks and I have none in my immediate vicinity, but they are just down the road for some reason and I have cut some for mushroom logs.

 Man, today was a long one and I am bone tired. I thought I would work at the mill for a few hours then come home and do firewood. Bill texted last night that he could use some 2x8x14's for the shop build. I didn't know he would have his crew there today trying to get the roof framing, decking, and papering done. They were kind of waiting on me for lumber, another little surprise. I got to the mill and found Bill had a 17.5' log cued up already. So I jumped on that but handling those long slabs alone just takes time and I got exactly what he needed from that log plus a couple of jacket boards that dropped into existing orders. I ran those up to the shop crew and it was 'interesting' trying to navigate all the way around and up the hill with the 17'+ boards on the fork. The 'road' is, at best 15' wide, but I managed (thank goodness for 4 wheel steering) then came back down and milled for an order of flooring boards. One of the guys came down when I was nearly done with the logs and told me lunch had arrived (another surprise) so he helped me finish off the log and we climbed up the cliff and ate. During lunch I got the next 'shop order'. They had made a 'little mistake' and they wanted to make it right without tearing it apart. So they needed a board that was 14" wide and 14'6" long but 3-1/2' thick on one end and 1" thick on the other. I like a challenge, but I needed a big log. They also needed several 1x14x17's.

So we found a log just under 18' and big enough to do the job with just a little sweep. I managed to get a 14x16 cant out of it, but man those slabs were heavy and I had to cut them into 5' chunks for the OWB while they were still on the mill. They were still heavy to get on the forks. Now I am like every other sawyer here in that I have made a few 'long wedges' by accident (you guys know my love/hate thing with toe boards) but this is the first time I had to do it on purpose AND hit dimensions at both ends. It took me a while to figure it out and get it right, then remeasure about 6 times. I didn't want to do this twice. I had to hit 3 things: front end thickness, back end thickness, and the rate of taper along a 14'6" length. As it turned out I had the log set so that the 14'6" point was laying right on the last fixed bunk on the mill, so I could use that for a fixed pivot point, but I had to remove that rear swinging bunk which was interfering with my plan. (Note to self, I need to put that back tomorrow.) Anyway after second guessing myself several times I pulled the trigger and cut it.

 Now it would be a real nice story if I could tell you that it came out perfect. I really wish I could say that. But I had hit 3-1/2" dead on the front end (easy of course), but when I measured out at the 14'6" mark, my thickness was around 7/8 to 15/16, so I missed it by 1/16 to 1/8". I was a little ticked at myself, but really I didn't think I could do much better than that. So I laid the cant flat and took off the scrap piece, then flipped it 180° to take the wane off on the other side (I was leaving the wane on until I knew I had that odd board done, in case i needed more meat to do it again. I never trust me). Then I did the 1x14's they needed and left the cant on the mill for future instructions. I dumped the slabs and picked up the stack and had another lovely trip up the road to deliver them. These boards were all for facia, and the tapered one was to compensate for the end rafter having been nailed on the wrong side of the line and not discovered until the deck was mailed down. But while I was playing they finished the whole roof, except the facias. Daylight was fading (ok, nearly dark). So we quit on that for the day, then they decided we had some time and could finish planing those boards up we started 2 weeks ago for another job. The planer was set up outside and we needed some of those jobsite LED lights and planed away for a couple of hours. At 5:30 I had to leave. My wife thought I was coming home around 3 and I knew dinner would be cooking. They were nearly done with the planing anyway and 3 guys were enough to keep the boards moving on the last pass which feeds right into the truck.  I only milled about 500BF for the day, but never really stopped working, except for lunch.

As I said, I am beat. The bottom 6" of my pants is covered in mud and my boots look a lot worse (I gave up trying to avoid it, too much effort), my back, hands, and shoulders all ache more than a little, but mostly I am just tired. The last thing I felt like doing was chores when I got home and of course I had to load the wood carts for the shop and the house tonight and both stoves had nearly died out because I was gone so long. The shop seems to be OK now, but I need to tend the house stove, then bed. I don't know how you guys that do portable sawing do it. Long days for sure.

 Tomorrow is another day, I'll figure it out then.

[doc henderson]

glad you are retired Tom.  you were tired last week, and now you are tired again today.    God Bless sir!

[Old Greenhorn]

Lately I feel like I am getting re-tired nearly every day. I am thankful that when I get up in the morning the aches and pains of the previous day are pretty much all gone.