Saturday sawing

[Dodgy Loner]

Me too. It would take someone with a swing mill to work on that giant.

[RynSmith]

DL, is there blister rust that far south?

[Dodgy Loner]

I can't say that we don't have it, but I can say that I've never seen a tree that has it.

[RynSmith]

Be thankful 

[Dodgy Loner]

Would you consider trading the hemlock woolly adelgid for it Actually, y'all have the HWA out your way but your hemlocks are not susceptible to it. Ours are disappearing before my eyes

[Lanier_Lurker]

There is a nearly pure stand of old hemlocks along the first leg of the Appalachian trail between the terminus and Noontootla Creek (I think that is the creek name).  It is an incredible site with nothing but those old hemlocks - and the ground covered with little hemlock needles.  Very little undergrowth because of the dense canopy and very dark shade.

I sure hope someone is treating them.  If they go that stretch of the trail will be barren and shadeless for decades.

Although it takes a lot of effort, at least HWA can be treated - unlike the chestnut blight.

[WDH]

I'm really not aware of anything killing large number of white pines in Rabun County other than old age and chainsaws.

There are not many white pines succumbing to chainsaws except on private land since the harvest in the Chattahoochee National Forest has been basically shut down.   

Dodgy, there is a woodmizer/log cabin operation there just south of Tiger off of US 441.  Have you stopped there and checked them out? 

[nas]

Thought I'd bring this thread back up.
Cut this little oak yesterday.  It was little on the length but almost as wide as it was long, about 40" by 6' long.


 


Needed a little trimming with the chainsaw to get the saw past.

Nick

[Magicman]

We couldn't saw those without Huskys and Stihls.....

[nas]

We couldn't saw those without Huskys and Stihls.....

And I had one of each there.  Also my trusty 60" Logrite cant hook.

[ljmathias]

Reminds me of a couple chunks of a massive red oak that my son brought home from a subdivision construction site- they just cut it down and chopped it into 4' sections.  Tree sat in the yard for months before I worked up the courage to mess with it- had to chain saw it to fit but wow! the boards that came off that thing- been air drying in my barn for 2 years now and I'd forgotten all about them till this thread popped up again.  Guess I better get some and make something...

Lj

[schmism]

It was little on the length but almost as wide as it was long, about 40" by 6' long.

tis just a weee twig!   

[Bibbyman]

We’ve been doing mostly production sawing since late winter.  We’ve not had too many calls for custom sawing or small local orders.  But in the past couple of weeks since the end of summer and the weather is nicer, we’ve got in a couple of custom sawing orders and a number of small local orders. 

We worked in the three larger custom sawing orders earlier this week.  Two were pretty good size and straight forward and we made good time.  The third was more complex and time consuming but not bad.

Yesterday morning Mary gathered up all the small lumber orders and made a composite list.  It’s hard to come up with all these sizes without creating a lot of lumber that don’t fit.  But by combining the requirements we are making some success in using up most of every log sawn.

We started with the longest requirements first.  I chose a 14’ log that would for sure make the 3 2x10s.  I boxed it down by 1” increments and we made 1x6s out of the flitches even though they were 2’ longer then required.  The log made 5 2x10s so the extra 2 went for the 2x10 x 12’ order.

The 1x14” x 12’ wide boards were the toughest.  To find a log big enough to make them and still be able to get other items we needed was a challenge.   We lucked out and made 5 good ones out of a log and the rest went into 1x10s and 1x6s.

And on it goes.  But it sure burns up a lot of brain cells and time.  With each log making parts of different orders,   we have a stack for each customer and try to keep it all sorted out.

All said and done,  we’d make more money by production sawing.

Saturday custom cutting schedule:

Customer A:

3    2x10 x 14’
25   1x6 x 12’
8   2x10 x 10’
9   2x10 x 8’

Customer B:

5   1x14 x 12’
5   1x10 x 12’
2   2x10 x 10’
6   2x6 x 10’
4   2x4 x 10’

Customer C:

20   2x10 x 12’

Customer D:

1   2.5x10 x 12’
2   2.5x9.25 x 12’

[paul case]

i gotta go back and read all this.
i have been experiencing the same trends in custom orders since the cooler weather has set in. it makes me think about hiring a logger to cut some of my timber so i can get it to the mill without having to deal with soft ground later. will oak logs degrade much over the winter and do you think i could get by with stockpiling some to keep me busy milling during wet weather?
my saturday sawing.
8 am went to the mill cut 1 grade log yeilding 60' grade and 1- 4x8 pallet cant.
9am went to church campground (GLBA)to winterize cabin and dig up waterlinefor water meter and shut off to be installed.
12 ate a dq hamburger
1pm return to mill . cut up 2nd grade red oak log yeilded 40' grade and 1 4x8 pallet cant
2pm go home to clean up
3pm perform a wedding ceremony for a friend of a friend.
430 pm return to the mill. scott(my 16yo son) was there end trimming pallet boards. i stacked for him and cut another grade log yeilding 4o' grade and 1 4x6 pallet cant. cut up a forkfull of slabs to firewood size .
730 pm called it a day.
i am not sure it was a day full of sawing but i have had some days i have sawed and not produced that much lumber! pc

[Bibbyman]

will oak logs degrade much over the winter and do you think i could get by with stockpiling some to keep me busy milling during wet weather?

We've been getting in logs in the past few weeks faster than we can saw them up - especially now that we've spent most of the week dealing with custom orders.  I've been hording up 9' tie logs all summer and have a couple hundred.  I don’t feel nearly as bad about building up a log stock in the fall as in the spring and early summer.  We’ll need to “fatten up” our inventory to carry us through the winter.

We have sawn some oak logs that were two and maybe three years old and they still made good lumber and beams.  For sure you’ll lose the outside sap boards on logs this old but most all of these logs were low grade anyway.

Ron can give you a better answer but I’d say if you got someone cutting now, by the time they got them cut and out, it’ll be cool enough for them to keep well over the winter.  If you got really good logs, it wouldn’t hurt to seal the ends and maybe cover them with something.

[Magicman]

Stationary custom sawing like you do offers many more twists than I have to deal with.  I just travel to them, saw what they have into what they want, and then it's off to the next job.

I admire your ability to meet your customer's needs with what you have, and retain your sanity.      

[paul case]

thanks bibby,
i would imagine in the spirit of being the one man band, i will be the guy on the chainsaw and loadr and truck driver and unloader as well as the fella sawin them up so i probably wont accumulate 100's of logs very fast anyway.

mm,
i think you are delusional if you think that i have any sanity left. did you read about my saturday?  pc

[paul case]

had another one of those saturday sawing experiences today.
got to the mill at noon after doing other chores all morning. made pallet boards all afternoon with a few interruptions
neighbors grandson came by to harrass me for 15 minutes.
another neighbor came by and ordered a thick board for his shop bench. 30 minutes.
yet another neighbor came by to tell me he is bringing me 2 logs this week. i am not holding my breath since he has done this before but no logs yet. 20 minutes.
my wife and 9yo brought me a cold drink. 10 minutes.
neighbor lady stopped by to pick up 15 sq bales of hay. 30 minutes.
i think i had 4 phone calls too.

all that and i got to the house at 830 pm and managed to get about 750 pallet boards sawn and end trimmed.