My new client and Quarry update

[doc henderson]

reinforced beam yes, not quite a footing.  in my English anyhoo!

it is too bad you do not have a quarry nearby!

[Ron Scott]

Looking good!

[teakwood]

Well, yesterday was the great day and i was pretty nervous, first container loading ever. wasn't sure if the truck could turn around at my sawmill as i don't have to much space, it was pouring rain all day, we have the hurricane influence from the Caribbean, not ideal but we still managed.
Truck came at 1pm instead of 6am  , welcome to CR! sent all workers home at 7am and they came back at 1pm. we lasted 6 hours to manually load 19tonnes of lumber, what a hard day. but everything turned out good, i'm relived.
US here we come! i hope that stupid strike doesn't affect us

[CCCLLC]

How would you unload. Assuming same way it went in, by hand. That is impressive use of space. Well done. What does it wiegh? I know, it'll  be kilograms. 

[Resonator]

Yup, we called those "fingerprint" loads when I drove truck. Every box (or stick in this case) had your fingerprints on it by the end of the day. Open the door very slowly, and look up to watch nothing falls out.

[aigheadish]

Whoa! Well done Ramon! That looks like a ton of work! If the container is going to the west coast I don't think they are striking. 

[beenthere]

Not so many years ago (50-60 and before), most lumber was moved across the USA by rail car and they were hand loaded stick by stick like Ramon is seen doing. In shipping containers, would be hard to load otherwise, I'd suspect. 

[customsawyer]

Congratulations Ramon.  I'm glad to see things are coming together.

[21incher]

Congratulations Ramon. Does that container need to be heat treated for insects before  going on the boat.  Is that going to Tule Peak Teak on the west coast    .
Or another continent? 

[teakwood]

The container was put on the ground at a special area near the harbor and had fumigation for 24h, it's mandatory and only one firm can officially do it, so we get the international fumigation certificate.

 

[Stephen1]

I find it interesting that  KD and Heat treating is not mandatory versus fumigation. 
In N America, pallets and some things require HT before they can cross state and international borders. 
I get calls to Kiln dry imported lumber. 
Why not just KD and HT before shipping? 

[nativewolf]

Because the bugs are moving all around the area outside of the kiln.  So, the insect could lay eggs on the wood as it was being destickered after drying.   They fumigate the entire container so nothing is living inside that container.  You could heat treat the lumber and then fumigate it, getter yet.  

[teakwood]

The lumber is of course KD! 
I guess fumigation is the guarantee that nothing will be alive in there after 2 weeks locked with the gas inside

[Old Greenhorn]

This discussion reminds me of a story. About 45 years ago my Pop was the facilities manager at a major international Airline that also ran freight. So at their JFK terminal they received a shipment of custom made furniture that cam in for South America. When it cleared customs and the forwarder came to pick it up, they had no room for the crate in their box truck, so they hand unloaded the crate and packed it in their truck and left the crate. The crate was about 8' wide, 6' high, and 15 feet long. They had to get rid of the crate and rather than have some of his guys waste time breaking it up into small pieces, he borrowed one of the company flat bed trucks with drop down rollers and took it home, only an hour round trip.
 We built a front on it, painted it and made it a nice storage shed in the yard. Well he got the crate in February. When the summer hit, the ants and bugs that came out of the wood were like none we'd ever seen. Ants nearly an inch long and ornery looking things too. Holy cow. We got a couple of bugs bombs and loaded the thing up Geez the stuff that come sin on exports, that was a lesson. No idea what wood it was made of, but we got a good 25 years out to that shed, mostly due to a good rook we put on it, but the crate wood eventually just rotted out in spite of being painted and kept relatively dry. I know it wasn't a softwood, but it was crap. I'm sure the ant holes didn't help.

[teakwood]

Did the last floor pour, had beautiful weather which helped a lot. it would have been impossible to finish the concrete with rain as this area isn far from ideal, it's near the kiln and the rain from the roof will flood the concrete. there is still a small retaining wall i need to do and another small concrete pad between the kiln and the new floor. you will understand when i finish

[Magicman]

I am loving watching your plans come together.    

[teakwood]

Thanks Lynn

Today was another nice day and we finished the little wall. Almost there!

[nativewolf]

I am really glad that you did the kiln.  It was a bit of a risk I guess but it seems that it is paying off!

[Old Greenhorn]

It would seem that everything Ramon touches turns to gold... after he adds a thousand hours of labor and thought.

[aigheadish]

I've noticed that too, Tom. Ramon seems willing to work hard for it but it seems to really pay off for him! Good stuff.

[teakwood]

I am really glad that you did the kiln.  It was a bit of a risk I guess but it seems that it is paying off!

the kiln is probably the best thing i did in my whole life thanks to you guys who encouraged me to do it. wasn't really a risk, didn't have much invested, more like 2 weeks of labor and 2k in investment and after 2 month it was making me money, so yeah, it payed off big time.

[teakwood]

It would seem that everything Ramon touches turns to gold... after he adds a thousand hours of labor and thought.

at the campingground in Michigan i said to  Tom (old greenhorn), sometimes in life you need to get lucky, we were talking about the metalworking tools i found and bought from the widow. and he says to me: "but you get lucky a lot!!"

i suppose that's true, had my fair share of luck. The rest comes form a strict, disciplined and very good education from my parents, the excellent school/education system we get for free in Switzerland, a worn out back and lots of sweat blood and tears, never ending drive to succeed and a start up financial help form my loving parents when i was in my twenties and started this endeavor. did i mention HARD WORK!   

[Magicman]

Some are rewarded for hard work.  Others just work hard. 

[Nebraska]

Looks good. 

[aigheadish]

I remember Tom saying that and heard it in Tom's voice as I read it, thanks for the memory!