Mixed marriage at Bibbyman’s – Baker-Mizer or Wood-Baker?

[Bibbyman]

Jim,  Tom-In-Mo’s first cousin showed up Wednesday morning about 9:00 with our new Baker 16' 3-strand deck. 



It didn’t take long to get it unladed.  The Terex handled the deck Ok weight wise.  But it was a little awkward to get into position.  I had to take it in one step at a time.



Mary expected something personal on the nameplate - Like "Special Built for Pro-Sawyer Mary" or something. But it only had a Postit Note saying "Warden Sawmill".

About the time we got it positioned, the two young farmers that rent our pasture showed up.  They jumped in and took on the task of making up the two hoses that connected to the mill.  We tapped into the hoses that had powered the loading arms.   The deck is equipped with a couple of selector valves that are activated by 12v DC coils.  Son Gabe, Mary and I worked on the wiring while the hoses were being made.



Here's what it looks like in the arms down position.

We had it fired up by noon but had other obligations after noon we didn’t test it until later. 

It happed that Brooke was home from school when we were ready to load the first log onto the deck.  All went well.  The arms lowered and the 14’ oak log gently rolled onto the deck of the Wood-Mizer.  Brooke says, “COOL!  It’s just like a robot!”.



I loaded it up with about 1400bf of oak logs.  The chain pulled them forward and back with out effort.

We were busy Thursday and didn’t saw and we were out to the Wood-Mizer 25’th Anniversary Tour party Friday, Saturday and returned on Sunday so today was the first day we got to use it.   It worked great.  We sawed all morning on one deck full.  It sure takes a lot of effort out of getting a log on the mill.

Any questions?

[ShowMeSawyer]

Looks great Bibby!

You might have to change the color of your mill to match the deck...

SMS

[Minnesota_boy]

How does it handle it when you stack the logs 2 or three deep?  I like to have stuff ready for all day. 

[Burlkraft]

Hey Bibby,

That looks like just what ya needed...

I like the looks of that...You'll have to let us know how it all works out down the road. It almost looks like what I was gonna build....if I ever get my shed up...

[thecfarm]

Can I borrow it??                    

[WDH]

How much do you expect it to improve your productivity?

[Part_Timer]

Very nice.  So what mod. do you have in mind for it already.

tom

[Jeff]

A good live deck is certainly an asset to any mill!

[LOGDOG]

Snazzy!!!

[Greg Cook]

Looks like the color scheme for them Florida Gators.

Now if Pro-Sawyer Mary had one of them pink Log-Rite hooks....

Nice set up, congratulations !

[OneWithWood]

Is that what became if Tom's mill?

[Paschale]

Is that what became if Tom's mill?

 

Whatever did happen to Tom's mill?   

[Tom]

I don't know!!  Those beams on Bibby's deck look kinda familiar. 

[Bibbyman]

I don't know!!  Those beams on Bibby's deck look kinda familiar. 

Yea but they look all shiny and new.  If they came off’n your old Baker they’d be rusty and oil soaked. 

How much do you expect it to improve your productivity?

I'm not quite sure.  One thing it does that we wanted it for is that it takes the hard job of cant hooking the log over onto the mill. 



We had a manual mill for years that had a "dead deck".  That is,  the deck was level with the bed.  We just rolled the logs onto the mill.

When we got the LT40 Super in 2002,  we used the loading arms.  We found it more of a problem cant hooking logs onto the arms than just cant hooking them onto the mill from the dead deck.  So we took the loading arms off and put the dead deck back on.  But big, heavy, rough logs were still quite a chore to get rolled onto the mill.

This live deck will hold enough logs to saw all morning or all afternoon - as fast as we saw.  So we don't have to "charge" it as often.

I'm sure we can put logs onto the mill faster.  I'm not sure we can pull lumber and slabs off the mill any faster.   But maybe we can stand to saw another hour in the day.

[customsawyer]

YOU DA MAN!!!!

[ElectricAl]

Bibbyman,

It's nice to see you are spending your money with several of the Forestry Forum Sponsors.

WoodMizer, Baker, TimberKing, Log Rite, and many others.

That third chain will be nice for the short logs.
Not that you want to saw the short ones.
Not too many people just saw 10' stuff all day every day.

[CLL]

Congrats Bibby. only problem I can see with it, they delivered it to the wrong place.

[Tom_in_Mo.]

CLL
Ole cus knows where Sedalia is

[DR_Buck]

Don't look like anything a large can of ORANGE paint can't cure.   

[Chris Burchfield]

Dr. Buck I believe that'll take a couple of cans of the Kubota Orange from Tractor Supply.