Loooonnnnngg boards!

[scsmith42]

Thecfarm - no offense taken on my part, but thanks anyway for your follow up comments! 

I probably ought to remeasure it - I know the 40' part is correct but it may actually be a bit wider than 12".  Since it's a wane edge board, the 12" was at the minimum point - parts of the rest of the board are probably in the 14" - 15" range.

[hansbaba]

Scott,
I was just wondering, when milling those long boards, did you stake down any of your tracks or just let them sit on the ground?
hans.

[gizmodust]

Way to go Scott.  I have to agree with the suggestions on the stamp.  Just looking at the board will leave people of later generations scratchin' their heads.  Would also like to see the finished results.  Once again, WAY TO GO

[scsmith42]

Hans, I have 66' of track, and it is set up "quasi-permanently" beside my kiln.  They are "low - low" tracks, and are not staked.  However, for water runoff perposes I have about 1' of slope from end to end, and the tracks are installed level. Therefore, the support tubing for about 1/2 of the track length is set in gravel, which probably serves the same purpose as staking them.  The other end of the track is slightly elevated above grade.

I finally measured the boards - the bigest one averaged 14" wide (one wane edge) and is 44' long.  I'll end up triming it down slightly for the final installation.

I'll start updating this thread with progress reports on the farmhouse.  The past few days we treated all of the board and battens with a Timbor treatment, and cut them to length.  Tomorrow I hope to get the rest of the vertical boards installed.  The wood preservative (TWP) should arrive - hopefully on Monday, and we'll be staining the installed boards, and battens later this week.  We'll also treat the wane-edge siding and 44' trim boards with Timbor, and plan on staining them and installing later this week - weather permitting.


Jeff Mills (Dad2nine on the FF) sawed some nice 4/4 x 7" sycamore for me to use in the upstairs cathedral ceiling, and it's presently drying in the kiln.  Processing it into v-groove T&G ceiling boards will be one of the first jobs for my new Baker M412.

Scott

[WDH]

Scott,

I can't wait to see that sycamore installed.  Hopefully, some of it will be q-sawed.  It will be striking.  That is a fine use for sycamore since each board can move on its own, so it will likely behave itself .

[ARKANSAWYER]

  The Logosol paper had the plank as a 2x4x128'.  Very impressive!  I sawed out 50 2x6x31' a few weeks ago and everyone who saw them at the yard wanted to know why any one needed a board that long?  Not sure but the check cleared the bank and the boards left on a gooseneck.
  But a 44' 1x12 is quite a chunck of wood.

[scsmith42]

Arky - just wanted to say a quick "thank you" for a post you made a year or so back recommending planing board and batten siding.  Before I read your post, I always installed it rough cut.  This time I planed it and wow - what a difference it makes. 

128' of 2x4 is a heck of a board - I'd like to have a whack of logs big enough to cut boards that long from!

Scott

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Scott we need to find a brother out west that can find us a long stick to beat that record.  I know they got longer sticks then that out there.  Some swingers could get hooked up or a bunch of WMs. could do it.  I can do 32' easy enough so we just need about 5 or 6 more mills and some bed extensions.  I saw where WM one time in Mississippi cut some 70 ft stuff for a light house.
  The real trick is not getting the equipment together that could do it but finding the stick we can get at.  If a Helicopter could lift it to a small airport runway then we could all sit up and saw that little darling and make more then just a 2x4.

[ErikC]

 I've got logs here in N CA that will do it. I'll cover the first 30'. Gonna need some help though!
   

[scsmith42]

Arky, between you, me and Eric C - we're good for 122'! (I can mill 60' with my tracks).   This would make a worthy roadtrip - even out to "the left coast"!

Eric - just how long a log can you get your hands on?  I'm thinking that we ought to find out what the world records are and where the opportunities lie.

Scott

[ErikC]

Let me do a little looking around....

I have fell many that cut into 3 40' logs and a couple 20 or 16's   8" tops

What a great project that would be!

Erik

[LOGDOG]

How are you fellas gonna meld the woodmizer with those two Petersons? This I gotta see. 

LOGDOG

[Furby]

Was wondering that myself, but knowing these folks........ they'd find a way!
It's something I'd find a way to see, even if I had too walk!

[scsmith42]

Aw hell, knowing Arky, he's already got it figured out!   

One option may be to dig a pit and set the woodmizer up in it, with Peterson track extending along the ground on each side.  Mill the top with the petersons, and use it as an alignment for the woodmizer blade.

[Furby]

Gonna be kinda hard to get the band blade into the cut under the board.
Be a real pain to have to walk the blade in from the end and then get it on the band wheels.
You'd have to cut back towards the Peterson with the WM.

[scsmith42]

Forgot to mention that I figured that the "mid log end" of the peterson cut would have a chainsaw cut from the bark to the edge of the cut, thus removing the slab from the top, and leaving an end that the bandsaw blad could start from.

Clear as mud? 

[ErikC]

I was thinking about cutting toward the Petersons as well. Flipping the blade would be the problem. If the log was under 10" at the small end we could flatsaw the whole thing, but I never saw a tree that thin and tall! I guess it may exist though. Theres more than 2 Petersons around here!! Arkansawyer could drive his economy car and be the mentor.

[hansbaba]

I've got 30' of Peterson track in Northern california.
I'm not quite following what you guys are talking about with regards to the Wood Mizer mill and Peterson tracks. Why not just hook all the tracks together and put one of the WPF mills on it?
I guess u would need quite a few bunks to set the log on aswell.
Hans.

[Haytrader]

I think you have the answer, but you have to deal with the WM boys now.
I see them puttin together some kind of track for the LT 15 leavin you swingers out of the picture.........

[ljmathias]

You all sound like a bunch of kids (great!) but I have a few questions:

First, what would the taper be like for that long a tree and how would you take that into account?

Second, are you taking a board or a timber, say a boxed heart?

Third, how you gonna turn that monster for the second, third and final cuts?

Fourth, how you gonna move him/her to a place of honor in some building or shrine?  You can't just cut it and leave it there, right? especially in the middle of a runway (imagine coming in to land in your 2-seater piper and finding that thing in your path- maybe you could straddle it, maybe not).

Last, and tied to number four, what purpose for the final product?  Seems like that should come first, then the means of cutting it.

Not trying to be a wet-blanket here; just the opposite: you're more likely to get help when it comes to crunch time if everyone has some goal for using what you cut other than to just beat the record (although that can be a goal in and of itself).  Maybe we can brainstorm some on just why you might need timbers that long?  Shoot, once you've spent all the time, energy and money setting up to cut one, why not cut a bunch and build something that sets a record also?  Like the barn with the biggest sill and/or top plates every made?  Guiness might sit up and take notice of that...

Ideas?

Lj