Glad You are Leaving

[Magicman]

Offering a portable sawmilling service, I see different customers in different locations with varied saw jobs.  Most times, the customer is the off bearer.  I give a few instructions beforehand, but mostly it is a hand signal communication situation.  Oftentimes the customer is unaccustomed to work, or particularly handling logs, lumber, and slab work.

I have heard comments like; "not many to go, or that's the last one, or I'll be glad to see those taillights go out of the gate".   Last week one said "I know why Sawyer Brown sold his sawmill and started singing".

[mikeb1079]

 :D :D  nice mm.  i have some neighbors like that who are always asking me for help.  it's like the old joke they're not afraid of hard work, they'll stand next to it all day!   

[Woodsrover]

I work best alone no matter what the task but sometimes having help is worth the extra time.

I've been sawing some logs for my next door neighbor and he and is son have been helping me off-load.  His son is a young man with cerebral palsy, but is pretty high-functioning (if that's the right way to put it).  They've fallen these trees together themselves and brought them down on their trailer.  Watching him see this pretty lumber come off the mill and off-loading it and stacking it on his trailer is worth any extra time I could save doing it all myself.  He's never complained even when it was hot out last week.  In fact, they brought the beer and we all had a couple after the job we done.

[giant splinter]

I would never let any comment bother me,when it comes to hard work there are many people that just don't get it ..... or more like maybe they don't want to get it.
So many others are happy to have someone help cut a beam they would have to wait three weeks to get from a lumber yard or an off sized run of dimensional lumber cut from their trees.  ( at a cost that is normally less than a retailer )
There are still a great deal of individuals who know how to be nice and they overshadow the others that can't figure it out.

[Kansas]

I always thought that far more mills were bought, and people discovered they were hard work, than ever got sold for serious use. Take a look at the number of hours on a lot of mills advertised for sale. I realize a number of factors can play into that, from other work, and everything else. But sawmilling is hard work. You can't get around it.

[Magicman]

I really did not intend for the thread tone to be negative.  Most are wiping sweat and admiring their stacks of lumber.  Many will want to figure how much it would have cost them at the box store.  But they are still glad that we have finished. 

I'll sometimes ask if they want to go with me to another saw job.  They will reply Nnooooo.   :D

[Delawhere Jack]

Unless they have worked in construction or the lumber business, most people don't know how to carry lumber efficiently. I learned very early on to carry loads on my shoulder rather than hold them with my arms. Some people catch on quickly, others have aching arms for a week.....  :-\

Yes, it is still hard work....

[steamsawyer]

Unless they have worked in construction or the lumber business, most people don't know how to carry lumber efficiently. I learned very early on to carry loads on my shoulder rather than hold them with my arms. Some people catch on quickly, others have aching arms for a week.....  :-\

Yes, it is still hard work....

I agree. I'd like to have a dollar for every ton of steel I've carried over the years.

One trick to the heavy stuff is find a helper that is about your size and takes the same stride. It takes practice to get everyone on the same pace to pick up and go at the same time.

Alan

[terrifictimbersllc]

Last Fall I worked for 2 days with a young man provided by my customer.  Customer said I could expect him (the helper) to be 2 hours late.  With respect to this expectation the young man showed up exactly on time each day. In shorts and sneakers with no socks.  I pulled boards off the front with the board return for him.  There was about a 10-20 foot walk to set the board down.  After a few boards I showed him how it would be easier if he got on the other side of the board from the stack, that way he wouldn't have to turn around with a long board each time.  After reminding him of this cheerfully several times I just gave up and watched him turn around each time, for most of 2 days.  The second day it rained and worked in some of it.  At the end of the day he had on my extra rain jacket, my socks, and my sweat pants.  But it seemed we had a good time. I didn't ask him if he wanted to go with me to the next job though.

[customsawyer]

I like to go to saw jobs and let the customer watch my (small framed) wife handle the lumber. They will then start to feel guilty and jump into help. They try to take over and realize how heavy the lumber is. They will then look at my wife and wonder where she is getting the strength to handle their lumber. All I can tell them is that she has handled so much that she knows the tricks to make the lumber easy to handle. The worst thing you can do is pick up both ends of the board at the same time. It took me a while to teach WDH  this trick but I think he is now starting to catch on. ;D

[Magicman]

Several years ago I chided a helper telling him that he was 40 and I was 60.  He replied, "yes sir Mr. Lynn, but you don't understand".  "You are in much better shape than I am in."  I still love to work the young bucks down.   

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

  I still love to work the young bucks down.   

Slave driver!   

[Magicman]

As Jake indicated above.  It's all about working smarter, not harder.

[WDH]

Jake says, "We don't tote boards."

[pineywoods]

Jake says, "We don't tote boards."

One of the many good things I have learned on the forum. I saw alone and I have figured out ways to not tote boards...

[hackberry jake]

Magic, you reminded me of a guy I work with. I started this factory job right out of high school and my trainer was a 60 year old man that had been here over 30 years. I wasn't used to standing on concrete all day and he never hesitated to point out our age difference when I wanted to sit down.

[Migal]

I would have replied earlier but when I started reading MM's post I told wife think i will resaw those boards from last weekend and fuel everything after greasing yes I still have a day job too! it was only 102 today whats the deal the humidity drops out at around 97  8)

[morgoon]

I work best alone no matter what the task but sometimes having help is worth the extra time.

I've been sawing some logs for my next door neighbor and he and is son have been helping me off-load.  His son is a young man with cerebral palsy, but is pretty high-functioning (if that's the right way to put it).  They've fallen these trees together themselves and brought them down on their trailer.  Watching him see this pretty lumber come off the mill and off-loading it and stacking it on his trailer is worth any extra time I could save doing it all myself.  He's never complained even when it was hot out last week.  In fact, they brought the beer and we all had a couple after the job we done.

Having CP myself and being hooked on sawing, sometimes it is a little more challenging.

However taking time out to sit on the last board of the day before it comes off the mill, and smelling the fresh lumber...well maybe it is a little sweeter

I'm stationary right now but looking to do a bit of mobile milling for friends in the near future

[Okrafarmer]

The worst thing you can do is pick up both ends of the board at the same time. It took me a while to teach WDH  this trick but I think he is now starting to catch on. ;D

I didn't know it was possible to pick up both ends of the board at the same time. My arms aren't that long.  ???

[Okrafarmer]

I've been doing some milling the last few work days, and have been my own offbearer, as usual. It gets irksome after a while with the 2X12 hardwoods and so on. I went and got the Bobcat to offbear the Tupelo bowl blank slab, though.  8)

[Bibbyman]

Well before we got a mill, there was a guy south of us doing mobile custom sawing with a Wood-Mizer mill.  He covered a good part of the center of the state with his services. He only ran the mill and required the customer to do all the other labor.

After getting established with our mill, we picked up a couple of his former customers.  One family had five husky young brothers that had all but one built their own homes framed their homes from lumber sawn by him.  They brought us the logs to saw out the major frame parts for the last son's home.  They said the old guy like to have worked them to death offbearing and were glad to just drop off the logs and haul back the lumber.

We take another attitude towards help around the mill.  We allow no customers to help -finding people without experience more of a handicap than a help.  We work in somewhat cramped area with our own way of doing things.

[Migal]

it's ale good in the hood Love your post's now stay out of the woods lol its ale good lol

[WDH]

I didn't know it was possible to pick up both ends of the board at the same time. My arms aren't that long.  ???

You grab it, alone, and pick it in the middle.  That picks it up on both ends  .

[Magicman]

I once worked a 6'+ husky guy into the ground sawing framing lumber.  My next saw job for him was again framing lumber, except this time he had his two Sons to do the off bearing.  Both were "body builders", and both of them were completely whipped when we finished.  They worked hard, but never smart.  They worked themselves down.

I just sat in the operator's seat, sawed, watched, and chuckled at their bumbling.

[Papa1stuff]

Your just mean MM.just mean ;D

[Indiana Robinson]

We had 3 daughters and one son. The girls were about a year and a half apart in age and during the years they were all teenagers they attracted boys like jelly attracts flies. Got to the point that you had to be careful about tripping over them and there was usually a lot of showing off etc. (I spent a lot of time cleaning my guns ).
I have always been pretty much of an ox and just wrestled anything around myself. Growing up on a farm will do that. One day I was loading some smallish walnut logs on a trailer by myself and one of the "boys" about 17 or 18 came running out and said that I shouldn't be loading those by myself and that he would help me. I went to one end and he the other. Maybe it was not polite of me to laugh that loud but that young ball player couldn't even get his end of the log up off of the ground...   :D :D

You couldn't pay me enough to go back through those 3 teenage daughters with boyfriends years again...  :

Today at 70 I have all kinds of hand trucks, carts, dollies, trailers. Work smarter, not harder. 


.

[SwampDonkey]

I always thought that far more mills were bought, and people discovered they were hard work, than ever got sold for serious use.

Should see all the 1 -20 acre Christmas tree farms that were let go by the next year. I've seen lots of hobby mills around here, but maybe one now and again makes a job out of it. Never see one advertising services. I know lots just sitting in barns or in tall weeds and might get used once a year or never. Nice for folks to spend money that way I guess, the mill manufacturers benefit. It seems some people have too much and don't know where to throw their money on the ground. ;D

[Tree Feller]

The summer I was 19, I worked at a sawmill. One of the jobs they had me doing was tailing boards on what they called the "outside resaw." It was a vertical bandsaw with a blade about 10" wide. The operator ran cants back and forth through the blade while me and a Pakistani took the boards off the conveyor, stacked and banded them for the fork truck.

It was the second-hardest job I ever had, right behind pulling and loading watermelons. About mid-August the mill laid off all the summer help. I was only too glad for the idle time before going back to college.   

[WDH]

When i go to Jake's and he cranks up the LT70 and starts whipping out 12" wide 2" thick 10' long pecan planks, I am glad when I leave  :D.

[Magicman]

Actually the joy of portable sawmilling is that you do get to leave.  Your next job will be for a different customer, in a different location, and sawing a completely different cut list.  A change of scenery is good.

[WDH]

MM,

You just saw em and leave em.

[Magicman]

Logs ain't female so it's OK.   

[Misfit]

Actually the joy of portable sawmilling is that you do get to leave.  Your next job will be for a different customer, in a different location, and sawing a completely different cut list.  A change of scenery is good.

That's one of the main attractions for me wanting to get into mobile milling - meeting new people all the time, helping them meet a goal or realize a dream. Beats the @#%$! out of dealing with office politics!  :

[Magicman]

I left "office politics" in 1994.  The company wanted me to contract back doing the same job that I was downsized from  : ???.  As my late Dad would have said; "that don't even make pretty good sense".

I love having a finished job and leaving a product that I am proud of.

[Taylortractornut]

I used to get tickled and still do at   folks that  over work them selves.      I worked in the shop here as a kid and often didnt get along with dad long enough to do something with help.   I just figured ways to do it easy and by one person.      In school I used to turn down the ball coaches for football because I didnt  like it and I thought it was silly running ones self to death   pushing tackle rigs.           One of my first big construction jobs out on my own I got to work with some college ball players that were hired on as laborers .       THey would reach and grab some thing and wrestle with it.      I made sure I had bars and levers and hand trucks and  also   every kind of lift  available. 

[customsawyer]

Danny if I remember right it wasn't to bad on you when we had them to Horne men over. ;D

[Magicman]

You can fool almost anyone once.   ;D

[WDH]

I have to saw that Sawen preacher and his Dad were the best off bearers that I have seen  ;D.

[Cedarman]

Handling the small hay bales will teach you early to be very efficient with your moves. This was my summer job for a good many years.  I worked with a custom baler who baled hay steady for about 6 weeks each year. We loaded the hay from the baler onto a wagon behind the baler.  We each took turns loading the wagons while the other drove the tractor.  116 bales in about 35 minutes.  When it is in the high 90's you learn quick how to pitch a bale with minimum effort and put it into its right spot and then not have to touch it. I never wanted a second person on the wagon as they got in the way.
The same techniques work with lumber.
Plan ahead, put the board where it needs to go first time and then don't touch it again.
I watch people spin boards like MM says and they just never get the mental picture of how to be effiecient.
The laziest people figure the most efficient way and get the most work done.