Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??

[richhiway]

We are moving toward completing this job with a few good logs, a few bad logs, and a whack of pecker poles to be sawed into 4X4's & 6X6's.  Weather permitting we should finish next week.  We sawed about 1500 bf this morning.

It's been good but I hear the bushhog calling me, plus I need to smell some fresh mountain. air.

If you ever get as far north as NY you can park in Monticello (Catskill Mts.) or North Hudson (Adirondack Mts.).

[SawyerTed]

My annual sawmill demo at a local agricultural-tourism farm event was today.  

I didn't get a photo of the logs.  The farm owner purchased the logs this year from a local commercial sawmill that's a couple of miles from his location.  

He and his father were not very pleased with what they bought.  I didn't get a photo of them but I was pretty pleased to be sawing 18-22" diameter pine logs 12' long.  There were about a dozen logs in all with 4 or so smaller logs but still good candidates for 2x8s.  

Today's total was 1,004 bdft but it was an easy day.  My wife was my off bearer/helper.  We took lots of breaks, were provided lunch and toured the other demonstrations and booths.  Of course many of our breaks were to talk to spectators.  

Most of the logs made 2x8x12, 2x10x12 and 2x12x12 with 92 bdft of 1x.   

Here's part of what we cut today. 



The farm owners' youngest son came by first thing to weed eat the tall grass.  He's 5 years old.  

[Resonator]

Looks like a "Future Farmer of America" at work! 

[SawyerTed]

That little kid did more work by 9:00 am than I did all day.  FFA is great but I think he'll own half the county by the time he's 16.

He had to know everything about anything I was doing.  The saw blades fascinated the little man.  He wanted to know how long the blades are, how sharp and how many boards could I cut.  He asked if I had enough blades and would I sharpen them like a chainsaw.   He even wanted to know if a chainsaw would cut the logs into boards.  Then there were the other hundred questions about FAOs, my impact wrench, why the sawmill had hydraulics, where the boards go and on and can on!  

He'd fit in here perfectly except he'd out work any of us!  Glad he's a neighbor!

[SawyerTed]

The sawmill, table, logs to the far right and the lumber up close.   

Somewhere around there's a big Massey Ferguson tractor with loader and forks.   So the 1x stack on the left was moved to allow the truck in to hitch up the mill. 

Off bearing was much easier with a functional table.  

[TimW]

Yesterday was a 3 sweat soaked T shirt day...and 3 rinse offs while working out in the sun.

[barbender]

It has been unseasonably warm up here, but nothing like you guys deal with😬

[WV Sawmiller]

    I have mentioned earlier I had issues with my hydraulics last week. Today at the flea market my mill would not start and I had to jump i toff with my truck. Later in the day it would not start and I had to jump it off again.

    I got back home and checked and the battery had over 12.4 volts or so and my alternator was putting out over 14.5 amps. I toggled the hydraulics and killed the battery again so took it off and back to my local Advance Auto and the volts were good but the x were about 220 instead of the 800 it was supposed to generate. I'm hoping that was the issue but won't be sure till I try to lift about oversized log.

  I checked the connection to the hot rail and they look good so I don't think that was the problem.

[Rob in NC]

That little kid did more work by 9:00 am than I did all day.  FFA is great but I think he'll own half the county by the time he's 16.

He had to know everything about anything I was doing.  The saw blades fascinated the little man.  He wanted to know how long the blades are, how sharp and how many boards could I cut.  He asked if I had enough blades and would I sharpen them like a chainsaw.  He even wanted to know if a chainsaw would cut the logs into boards.  Then there were the other hundred questions about FAOs, my impact wrench, why the sawmill had hydraulics, where the boards go and on and can on! 

He'd fit in here perfectly except he'd out work any of us!  Glad he's a neighbor!

This gives me hope for Americas future. Kids i see all around me on a daily basis worry me. 

[caveman]

This would likely fit well in the dumb today thread.  I sawed some 6x6 dunnage last week that I'll deliver tomorrow.  We don't have a bander yet, so I wrapped one of my poorer quality ratchet straps around the lumber and pallet runners.  I tilted the forks of the telehandler just a bit with the intention of the pallet sliding off of the forks (I should have blocked the pallet up with a 2x).  The strap broke and the 43 6x's were in the yard.  I really did not want to handle them again, but it was not too bad to stack them.

I'll deliver them tomorrow. 


This was last week's delivery.

[barbender]

 Caveman, you can get a roll of 3/4 woven poly, buckles and a manual tensioner for pretty reasonable. A price I'm sure you would've been willing to pay 3x when you were restacking those😊

 The manual tensioner is basically just a pry bar. I have the ratchet tensioner too, I thought it was going to be better than sliced bread but I actually use the manual one more often. You can get things tighter and it's just simpler to use.

[olcowhand]

I also use the 3/4" Poly. I stopped using the tensioner after the first few times, and now I just pull it tight. I also re-use the strapping, unless I see it drive away on a whole bunk ($$$$) of lumber.

[WV Sawmiller]

    I drove 18 -20 miles to a site 13 miles away this morning. (? - it is in a very exclusive, gated community and I could not get in the back gate 10 miles from my house on the way out.) Same customer as last week but a different site. We can only saw/work outside during weekdays. The only place I could set up was across the road and the customer's operator is bringing the logs from 50-60 yards away with an excavator. I They are down in a dip on the side of the drive. I unhooked the mill and swung it around perpendicular to the drive by hand. We have to be careful no sawdust on the road, weekday work only, porta johns have to be placed out of site, etc.

  We got some much needed rain which shut us down after only 4 logs and 335 bf of 4/4 lumber. The others could go work inside on the house under construction. All homes, including the one being built are multimillion dollar affairs and I have no idea what the HOA charges are for the security, golf course, and other amenities they offer.

  I will go back Friday if not earlier if the weather breaks.

    Many of the logs shown here will be culled instead of sawed and there may be a couple from the opposite side of the drive. So far a 1X10 is the widest boat I've gotten. I had one poplar and the rest are oak.

  When we stopped I spun the mill about 45 degrees to allow a single vehicle to pass if needed.

  On the way out I spotted 2 cows loose about 4 miles up the road. They were still out on the way back so I stopped and was able to open the gate and when I walked behind them they strolled back in the pasture. I drove over and saw my neighbor and let him know. He is a school bus driver and was home between the morning and afternoon runs.

[Magicman]

The End is Near !!!    I need to make a placard sign and start marching in circles. 


These are the only (two) "lumber" logs left to saw on this job.


All of these pecker poles will be sawed into 4X4's & 6X6's. 


This is a closeup of the whack in the top right corner in the above picture.  All of the timbers will be 4 passes....no side lumber. 

I'll wait until after tomorrow's sawing to scale the remainder of the lumber.  We are still only working until noon so maybe we will finish this week or maybe not.  Doesn't matter to me or the customer either way.  I have not and will not count the remaining logs.

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

   BF or hourly job?

[Magicman]

Everything is bf rate which is generally more $$ than hourly would be.  Especially so on this job.

[TimW]

Lynn,
      What is your current bf rate?

[Magicman]

This is $425.  My framing lumber rate is normally $400.  Anything over ~25 miles is $450 regardless of the dimension.