our day of cutting in the woods

johncinquo · June 05, 2003, 11:38:44 AM

I had a little whack of logs that I have been gathering out in my woods for several years, and I cut a few down the week before we scheduled to have "Hawby" come up with his portable mill. It was a big experiment for me, and had no idea what was going to happen or what we would get out of it. Ken came up the night before, and we started bright and early the next day. We cut the new logs first, and got some pretty decent looking wood here and there. After that we jumped on the old ones. Some had worm holes, ants, termites and just plain rot. Of what was good, some of it was really interesting and will make some great lumber. I dunno how much we ended up with yet. We worked all day saturday, I stacked and stickered part of sunday, and monday night finished it all off. Tuesday morning I could barely lift my coffee cup. Those darn desk jobs can kill a man. we cut a lot to 3/4 and I plan to line the walls of my basement and create a "bears den" in part of it. Also a lot of 4/4, 5/4, and some that fall in between here and there. It was a lot of fun, a great learning experience, and I would say a successful experiment so far. I will let this dry, and eventually move it to a kiln to finish it off. I keep getting asked what I am going to do with all this wood, and I have no idea. I have a few friends that make stuff off and on, and I always have a hankering to do something noce, so maybe this will inspire me.
I will add some pics here. Some of them came out so great, I hate to crush them down so much to post here. I will post on my picture site and if you want you can view them there.

Here is Ken, his son Andy, Me, and my dad at his mill.

here is Ken and Andy at the mill

Here is ken and me loading a log

Herss the link to my online alblum.
http://groups.msn.com/BrooksiesWildTrip/shoebox.msnw?albumlist=1

DanG · June 05, 2003, 02:42:09 PM

Nice pics, John. Good to put some faces with the names, too.

Looks like y'all were havin' a good time. There's no better way to spend time with the guys than doing a day's work together.

Tom · June 05, 2003, 04:56:48 PM

Good pictures. It's fun, isn't it. Glad to see that you fellows had such a good experience. Pretty woods. I love the green in the woods this time of year. Everything is so alive and moist and special kinds of green.

woodmills1 · June 05, 2003, 05:11:23 PM

yes but the orange against the green is soooo nice.

nice whack of work!

Furby · June 05, 2003, 05:47:53 PM

HEY!
I'm not in any of those pictures! ;D
Good thing for you all, you would have nightmares for a month! :D :D :D
Furby

Wudman · June 06, 2003, 06:46:45 AM

>>I love the green in the woods this time of year. Everything is so alive and moist and special kinds of green.<<

The only problem is the assorted bloodsuckers out there, and I'm not talking about the taxman. A couple of weeks of deer flies has me looking forward to November.......but the deer flies have been missing this year. I guess they must have drowned as we logged just a hair over 14 inches of rain for the month of May. ;D ;D

Wudman

Bibbyman · June 06, 2003, 07:19:48 AM

You do know that WM put them arm things on the right side of the mill to load logs onto the deck?

Those short logs are a time killer on a HD mill. We've recently got three trailer truckloads of walnut logs in and the majority were 7' and shorter.

You can load a short log using the loading arms by throwing a couple of boards across the arms and then rolling the log onto them.

johncinquo · June 06, 2003, 08:45:08 AM

Those older logs I cut several years ago and just stacked them there with no particular purpose in mind. I got most of them from tree removal jobs I did and length wsa of no concern to me at the time. Once I had the idea of some day milling out some lumber, I cut em all 8' 4" and over. Yes those short ones proved to be a real pain. In the neck, back, arms and joints! I did have a 12' er and several 10s as well. Lots of 8s. Course it was after they were done that ken told me it 8s should be 8'8" to make it real easy, and in case of bad ends etc.
Oh yeah! I can not forget, well already did, to give a great big thanks out to Furby. We were working away when out of the blue I see mini sasquatch come strollin through the woods. He weighs about a buck 0 nine, and 10 lbs of that is hair. We had a great chat, and he helped us move wood around all afternoon. If he had not have come along, I am pretty sure I would have had to quit long before we were done. He is a pretty bright fellow too, and edumacated me on how to move some logs forward, lengthwise, by lifting them up and putting a couple small logs cross ways underneath then we just shoved them along right into place to be loaded. My picture taker girl left before you got there. Guess we will have to do it again to get some photo ops. So thanks again!

Thankfully summer, much less spring has not really taken a strong hold here yet so the bugs are at a real minimum. About the only time I have noticed them is on the motorcycle.

I hope you get a chance to check out the ones on my picture site. It is a lot easier getting them on there and saves a great amount of time. I will make sure I get some of the neat ones girly took. we found some flourescent purple mushrooms under one of the logs that look really cool. Unfortunately I keep seeing strange shapes and colors after my snack. Just kidding!

Bibbyman · June 06, 2003, 09:02:46 AM

I got a chance to go out and look at your picture album. Looks like the forest about reclaimed the logs.

johncinquo · June 06, 2003, 09:17:40 AM

Yeah some had been sitting there for quite awhile and had some funk to em. A few we only got maybe 6 boards out of by the time Ken was done whackin off the soft or bad stuff. Then again some looked fantastic and were just dryer than a fresh cut log. now that I have the whole idea and plan in my head, I will do things differently. Cut to better lengths, have only one stack going so we dont have to move the logs or the mill, get stuff higher up off the ground, and use the logs sooner than 3-5 years! I now have one heck of a slab pile that I need to do something with. I plan on cutting for firewood as I dont know anyone off the top of my head thatwants them for anything else. I did get a couple of neat knots or burls or whatever you like to call them that we cut off the sides of a few logs. If any of you wood worker types want them let me know and I will send you a couple pictures and you can decide.

Bro. Noble · June 06, 2003, 02:27:50 PM

John,

Have you and your dad decided what kind of mill you're going to get? I'll bet you both have the bug bad now :D With that good looking timber, looks like you could use one. Do you have quite a lot of forested land?

Hawby's mill looks just like ours except this old fat boy took the wheels off and put a seat on. ;D

Noble

biziedizie · June 06, 2003, 03:26:45 PM

Noble I was thinking about something, when you take your wheels off your mill does the log loader still work? How low does the mill sit to the ground?

Steve

Tom · June 06, 2003, 04:19:04 PM

He he! It depends on how many blocks you put under it Bizie. :D

biziedizie · June 06, 2003, 04:30:00 PM

So Tom if the mill sits too low then the loader doesn't work ???
  Seems to me that the loader arms would be sticking up if the mill was too low.
  What happens if you're sawing on site and you get a flat tire :D

   Steve

Tom · June 06, 2003, 04:45:33 PM

well, actually nothing because the mill is up on its legs and off of the wheels. You are right though. If the mill sits too low then the loader won't go down and it won't work. The loader on the WM is two pieces. One piece raises the log and the other piece rest on the ground to provide the place for the hydraulics to push against.

My Baker will work if too close to the ground but the lift arms might stick up in the air and you would have to lift the log over their ends to get them into the cradle. It's hydraulics push against the frame rather than the ground.

I guess a ramp is the only loader that would work in any configuration. It might be difficult to use if the mill were too high. You'de have to roll the log straight up :-/ Well, I guess you could get some real long ramps, eh? :D

I did get a flat tire under the loader once. It made changing the tire real easy to be already jacked up. :D :D

Furby · June 06, 2003, 04:57:14 PM

Weeeeell, you could always dig down at the loaders. The logs would roll into place REAL easy. ;D

Tom · June 06, 2003, 05:02:48 PM

Yeah, that would work, Furby. Reminds me of two jokes. One of a semi stuck under a bridge and one of two Amish brothers trying to get a mule in the barn and his ears wouldn't fit the door. :D

Furby · June 06, 2003, 05:05:55 PM

:D :D :D :D :D :D

I get the idea. I was only following the line of thought.

Tom · June 06, 2003, 05:19:04 PM

Oh! Was there a line of thought? I must've missed it. :D :D

I like the mule joke best. :P

Bibbyman · June 06, 2003, 05:52:01 PM

Here is a picture of the back side of Noble's mill. Note, No wheels. It sets so high off the ground he has to climb on the seat from the front side.

More pictures taken on the Baker farm

Bro. Noble · June 06, 2003, 07:37:22 PM

Bibb,

The ground slopes some there allright and it allows us to let the sawdust get a little higher before shoveling. It also lets the water run off when it rains. We don't use the loader, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work if I put the control lever back on. I havn't accidentally raised the loader a single time since I took the lever off, however.

Bibb took this picture to remind himself of what new stuff he learned while visiting. In this photo I am teaching him how to dance a jig :D

Noble

hawby · June 07, 2003, 08:33:08 AM

I can't take my wheels off until I lose more of that stuff stickin' out above my belt. John's picture lady didn't warn me so I could suck it in ;D ;D ;D

Actually, I have wondered about the remote station, since I may end up cutting alone sometimes... Anybody got that setup?

I do wish I didn't have to walk around the wheel, but I have met such nice people being portable

My plan has kinda been to saw as much at home as possible, but have a permanent clientele that I cut at on an annual or biennial basis. Most of the places I have cut so far have pretty fair size woodlots and want to select cut on a regular basis. Not sure if that strategy makes sense.

As far as some of John's logs being smushy, ya know I wasn't nervous about how big a whack I took on the opening face :D Not like the 28" dia. 14' Black Walnut I did for one guy ;D My palms sweated

hawby

BTW Furby was a big help on Saturday... Andy was getting pretty tired and he got to take a nap ??? :D

Furby · June 07, 2003, 10:29:44 AM

I aim to please! ;D

John,
GOOD description, it won't be the first time I have been called a sasquatch, and probly not the last. ;D
That's o.k. on the pictures I make sure I'm always the one taking them, so much so, my camera never leaves my side. ;D :D

Hawby,
Andy's o.k. I know I couldn't get any of my brothers out at a mill after the first day. Unless I had some pretty BIG bucks to offer.

johncinquo · June 09, 2003, 08:21:14 AM

OK heres the results of our efforts. Stacked and stickered and drying out some then off to the kiln. Found one right down the street from me.
Heres the wood I stacked in my barage. a couple 12s, 10s and the rest 8s. I wanted some right inside to so I could really watch it. Need to get it weighted down, but only so much time.

Heres some of 10s on my all purpose trailer. I meant to put these on the bottom of the other stack, but forgot they were on the other truck! I will just leave on here until they are ready to go to the kiln, unless I need the trailer.

Then finally this is the last stack with the most boards. I really should restack the whole thing as it goes from long to short to long again. Just another thing to get to later on.

The base is 4x8 so you can get an idea of what is there.

Like I mentioned before, this is just one big experiment for me and proved to be as much fun as I had hoped. I think it is only about 2/3 of the way through. Hopefully next winter I can post a pic of something I made with some of this.

As for a mill for me, all dreams live on. Yet when I add up the cost of the mill, all the extra expenses for parts and maintenance, throw in a few other hobbies to eat up my time, it makes so much more sense to have Ken come up and pay him and have it done. Plus I would want to get a pretty cheap mill, and how could I ever be happy with that after experience the ease and quality of the big WM. When I get to jonesin for a mill I will just go help him for an afternoon and that will get it out of my system. I hooked my dad up with a WM down in FL to cut the pines he has down there, He was real impressed with how it worked here but realized he was in no shape to try this new hobby on his own now.

Thanks to all for all the help and fun and comments again. JB