Finally getting 'er done... (with pictures)

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Well the big day has finally arrived.

About three years ago I acquired a whack of cypress logs and then a whack of sycamore logs. Initially I planned to mill them myself using a chainsaw mill.  Fortunately saner heads prevailed and we finally decided to hire someone with a portable bandmill to come in a mill these logs.  I contacted forum member Woodbowl and we agreed that he would mill my logs for me. I've finally got all my ducks in a row and today's the first day of milling.

 


Cypress logs waiting for the sawyer.



All logs on deck, now where's that sawyer?



Woodbowl manuevers his mill into place.



First log loaded and dogged down ready to open.


First cut and away we go.


Olen sighting it in, just like aiming a gun.


First board, edges trimmed up later.


Measure twice, cut once.


Lining up two logs to cut at once.


Two log cut viewed from other end.


Cutting two logs at one time.


Working on turning a log into a cant.


Sawyer readies for another cut.


Opening another log.


Result of day's sawing. A nice stack of 5/4 cypress.


And some special pieces with character.


Olen heading out at the end of the day.


Not much left on the cypress log deck.


But the sycamore is waiting for tomorrow...

Olen did a great job turning my "ugly" cypress logs into good board. He'll be back tomorrow morning to finish the cypress and start on the sycamore.

Me, I think I'll drag my tired behind to bed pretty soon.

Herb

[Magicman]

Tired.....All that you showed us that you did was take pictures......

Congratulations on the sawing.  It's been a long time coming, but the reward will be worth the wait....

[Don K]

You can tell that woodbowl has been around the block a time or two. Good pics. Can't wait for the next installment.

Don

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Tired.....All that you showed us that you did was take pictures......

Congratulations on the sawing.  It's been a long time coming, but the reward will be worth the wait....

Magicman,

I would have got some pictures of me tailing but it's pretty hard to take the picture of yourself and I don't have a remote or time delay setting on my camera...

And you're right, the reward will be worth the wait.

Herb

[DanG]

Lookin' good there, Herb!  I may have to waddle down that way tomorrow to make sure y'all are doing it right.  If I ain't feelin' too wimpy, I'll take over the pitcher takin' duties so you can help pore ol' Olen out a little bit.  We'll just have to see how the fickle pill treats me in the mornin'.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Lookin' good there, Herb!  I may have to waddle down that way tomorrow to make sure y'all are doing it right.  If I ain't feelin' too wimpy, I'll take over the pitcher takin' duties so you can help pore ol' Olen out a little bit.  We'll just have to see how the fickle pill treats me in the mornin'.

DanG,

You'd be welcome. As a matter of fact Olen mentioned that we probably needed some adult supervision... 

Seriously, I hope you can make it tomorrow. We've got just a few more cypress to finish up and then we'll start opening the sycamore.

Herb

[ErikC]

DanG, Your comment reminds me of my neighbor Paul. He lives up the hill a ways, but can hear my mill, backhoe, etc when I start up. He rides down on his lawn tractor, which he calls "the poor mans atv", and sits on it watching me work. Usually drinking beer and smoking a cigar.....But he wears gloves because he is "chief safety officer". .  After an hour or so he putts on back up to his place. I never mind a visit from him, he's a pretty nice guy and a great neighbor.

[Woodchuck53]

Morning guys, I have a little to do with safety here where I work so I have to throw in my 2 cents worth. Great job and the boards look good. Be mindful of the blade when tailing the saw with out the guards in place and 2 logs on the deck at a time kind of scares me. That being said I want bore you with any horror stories. Stay safe.

[WDH]

I am inspired, so I am heading our to saw some maple now  . 

[pigman]

If I didn't live so far I would be down today to help with that job. I am not sure DanG is up to the task of the picture taking.

[DanG]

I'm not sure either, but we're gonna find out.   I'm about to scramble outta here and try to get there in time for lunch.

Film at eleven.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

I'm not sure either, but we're gonna find out.   I'm about to scramble outta here and try to get there in time for lunch.

Film at eleven.

DanG,

I'm glad you were able to make it down here today. Really enjoy the visit. Thanks for taking pictures of me tailing, just wish I'd got you to use my camera...

Hope you made it home safe and sound.

Herb

[WDH]

That picture taking thing must be a rumor because I do not see any purported pictures 

[Magicman]

I've heard that if you don't have pictures.......it didn't happen.     

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Saturday milling:

Olen (Forum member Woodbowl) showed up this morning and we got right to work milling the last few cypress logs.

After just a few passes with the mill, I mentioned to Olen that he had been really decimating the local lizard population.



Olen's been slaughtering lizards!



Cutting a thick flitch from a special cypress crotch log.




A poor picture of a very pretty flitch.



A better picture of another flitch from the same crotch.



One last picture of Olen cutting that cypress crotch log.

Shortly later Dan (Forum member DanG) arrived and after a few minutes we took off and had a quick lunch at one of the local fast food establishments. Olen claims he always has to take a nap after lunch but I don't think he did, although the mill does have bunks...



DanG arrived and is supervising things.



Cutting the last cypress log.



DanG doing a fine job of providing adult supervision.




Olen keeps playing with lizards!



This lizard's still in once piece.



And away he goes, looking for a new job with a big insurance company.



Hooking up the mill to back it up into the area where the sycamore logs are staged.



DanG makes sure Olen does it right.



First sycamore log on the mill.



Opening the first face on the first sycamore log.



Hard to see in this photo but we have some nice spalting.



Olen turning my ugly logs into pretty boards.



Stack of 5/4 and 8/4 sycamore boards.



Just three or four more sycamore logs left for Monday morning.



Cypress posts, beams and flitches.

All in all it was another good day milling. It was a pleasure to finally meet Dan and we had a good visit while still getting a lot accomplished.

Once again I'm just about wore out and think I'll hit the hay in a little bit.

Herb

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

I've heard that if you don't have pictures.......it didn't happen.     

Magicman,

Well I sure hope Dan save my bacon and posts the pictures he took today...  Otherwise you guys are gonna think I'm getting

In the meantime my arches are falling and my *ss is dragging so I sure hope I tailed today or else I'll have to go to the doctor to figure out what's causing these symptoms!


Herb

[DanG]

Just as I planned, I arrived on the scene just in time for lunch.  Nothing beats experience, ya know.   After lunch, I was able to relieve Herb of the picture taking long enough for him to make a token effort at offbearing.



There was only one cypress log left when I got there, then Woodbowl had to move the mill to this stack of well aged sycamore logs.  That's the runt of the bunch on the mill.  It was barely long enough to saw without making special provisions.  The rest were pretty nice sized, though a couple of them may have "over-spalted" just a tad.



Not all of them overcooked, by any means.  Herb was well rewarded for his "patience."

[backwoods sawyer]

That had to have been a lot easier then using a chainsaw mill.
I wore out two tailors this week myself, I don’t know what is about them but they have a hard time keeping up with the saw and keep asking you to put a dull saw on for a bit.

[ladylake]

That had to have been a lot easier then using a chainsaw mill.
I wore out two tailors this week myself, I don’t know what is about them but they have a hard time keeping up with the saw and keep asking you to put a dull saw on for a bit.

 For sure a lot better than a chain saw mill which might have taken months, wore out a saw and ended up with 2/3's of the lumber.   Backwoods, you must get offbearers like me 3 old guys to carry 1   1x8  x 8'  pine board, had to chuckel to myself when I saw that. That was the same bunch where I was loading a log and one was standing over the end of the loader arm, I was looking somewhere else, looked back over there and he was a foot off the ground.   Steve

[Magicman]

Herb, congratulations on gettin' er done.  Quality time spent with "sawdust friends" can't be measured.  And, you got a nice stack wack of lumber also.  Looks like you made the correct decision to just saw it rather than cutting the ends off.  I noticed very little waste in the pictures.

And I see that you did tail at least one board......

[WDH]

Now I can see why you are so wore out, handling that one big slab and all  . 

Knowing Olen, I bet he can work up a frenzy sawing  .

[pigman]

DanG, is there something wrong with your camera? The board that PC Urban Sawyer has in hand looks all twisted like an airplane propeller. I just know that Woodbowl wouldn't make airplane propellers, so it must be your camera.

[DanG]

Specialty cut, Pigman, specialty cut.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Specialty cut, Pigman, specialty cut.

And Pigman if you really like that specialty cut I've go a whole pile of them you can have for the taking....

Herb

[pineywoods]

To get propeller boards, you have to run the mill without bandwheel covers  If you have lost them, I could make you some more...

[woodbowl]

We all had a fun day and there was lots of different things going on. I lost count of how many lizards we sawed through, must have been a dozen or more. Herb and Dan hit it off pretty good talking about differet woods and building projects. Herb is a good planner and knows what he wants. The nicest of the wood by far to me is the spalted sycamore. We quarter sawed one log by first quartering it, then alternated the cuts on each piece. We got some good fleck to begin with untill it riffed out on the smaller boards, so for the rest of the logs we settled for the few wide quarter sawed boards, flat sawing through the heart.     

Tomorrow we plan to wind it up, leaving our PC-Urban-Sawyer to do some lumber stacking. Big plans are in the works for the 5/4 cypress. Some of it goes for a deck and the beams for an arbor I think. It looks like the backyard pool area is about to get a face lift. I'm sure we will get to see some more pictures in the future. 

[fishpharmer]

Woodbowl, looks you got er done!!   How thick did you cut the cypress flitches?  Are there any tricks to stacking and stickering big cypress flitches to minimize problems drying?
Glad to see DanG arrived keep a check on quality control    Impressive spalting.  Herb please post up some pics of the cypress flitch and sycamore in its final form.

You grow bigger lizards than we got in MS.

[woodbowl]

Hey fishpharmer, almost everything was 5/4 with the exception of some 6X6's, 5X5's, 3X5's and the 3" thick slabs for table tops. I think stacking in the shade with plenty of air circulation, out of the direct weather would cause minimal warping and checking.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Sunday - No milling today.

I decided it would be a good idea to start stacking and stickering this afternoon. First I spent a little time cutting stickers from the trimmings. I had hoped to get enough from them to do it all but Olen has turned almost everything useable into a board. But I got enough to start things off...



The drying rack is ready.



Moving heavy filches the hard way.

These first three boards are 2" thick, average 20" wide and are 17' long. I could barely lift one end by myself. But I managed to get things going using my back to the pyramids method of using 4" steel pipe rollers...



First board on the rack.




Cyress color and grain is beautiful in these planks.



Another shot of the great grain.



More color and grain. White is reflection from the water I used to bring out the character in these boards.



These 2" thick cypress filches are going to make some beautiful tabletops.



One last picture showing the character of these boards.

Worked until dark-thirty loading large heavy boards on the rack. Looking forward to finishing up the milling tomorrow and getting most of the stacking and stickering finished.

Herb

[fishpharmer]

PC, shurnuff pretty lumber   Thanks for the pics.  How long you gonna let it dry?

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

... Are there any tricks to stacking and stickering big cypress flitches ...

The biggest trick is to get several strong young fellows to help move them!

I ran out of friends I could call on to do manual labor so I had to figure out how to move them myself.

Herb

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

PC, shurnuff pretty lumber   Thanks for the pics.  How long you gonna let it dry?

Fishpharmer,

I'm going to let it dry at least 6 months (the 5/4 cypress) before I even think about using it for decking or outdoor furniture. Even then I plan to get a decent moisture meter and check the moisture content before moving on.

The heavier filches are mostly 2" thick. I plan to make at least one large dining table using some of it. I'll air dry it at least a year and then probably put the pieces (cut to rough length for the project) into a small "kiln" probably solar, perhaps with a DH assist.

Not sure about the sycamore. My wifes say's I've got to many irons in the fire as it is...

Herb

[pineywoods]

... Are there any tricks to stacking and stickering big cypress flitches ...

The biggest trick is to get several strong young fellows to help move them!

I ran out of friends I could call on to do manual labor so I had to figure out how to move them myself.

Herb

It's called a tractor with forks, you only have one back, don't mess it up 

[DanG]

Herb couldn't use a tractor in that yard if he had one.   There simply isn't enough room.  Having been there and seen it, I'd say he's done a great job of organizing those logs, all by hand, and has a good plan for storing the lumber.  He has used the simple machines, all applied with a great deal of patience.  The pipe rollers, inclined planes, leverage, and parbuckling have gotten it done, all without hurting himself.  I wish we had pics of the process he used to get those logs stacked in the first place.  Herb, try to get a pic of that rack you had the Sycamore logs on.  That thing seemed to work out perfectly.

I know you portable sawyers run into little jobs like Herb's all the time, but I'll bet you don't see many where the customer has put so much thought and effort into making the job easier...or in this case, possible.  Good job, Herb!

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Work got interrupted by an accident. I managed to cut three fingers on left hand pretty badly with my table saw. Spent afternoon and overnight in hospital. Had surgery yesterday to repair as much damage as possible. Got out of hospital late yesterday afternoon.

Herb

[Don K]

Wow Herb !!!! Hope they were able to put everything back so you can retain full use. Sorry to hear it. Tablesaws can be nasty. Praying for your recovery.

Don

[tmroper]

Herb,
Those boards look beutiful.  I hope your hand turns out alright that can be a tough deal..
Prayers from here that you have a quick recovery.

[Magicman]

Ouch, Herb.  Sorry to hear about your hand.  Prayers from the Magicman for your complete recovery.

[DanG]

Jeeze Herb, I hate to hear about that!  Sure hope it recovers well.

How far did you get in re-stacking that lumber?

[woodbowl]

Oh no Herb, I hope there is not long term damage. I hope things mend back without problems. 

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Jeeze Herb, I hate to hear about that!  Sure hope it recovers well.

How far did you get in re-stacking that lumber?

Dan,

I had managed to get all the biggest filches and several of the longest 5/4 boards on the stack





I've got a guy who's gonna come over and help me get the rest stacked Saturday.

Herb

[Qweaver]

Sorry to here about your accident Herb.  Makes my fingers hurt just to read about it.
Quinton

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Thanks to all for kind words, best wishes and prayers. Dr says I should have full use of all fingers but that he could not salvage tip of left index finger. So far pain is managed ok with percoset. Typing one handed is slow for noe so I'll not be very noisey on here for a while.

Thanks again for thoughts and ptayers.

Herb

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

My hand's getting better each day. Fortunately the doctors got ahead of the pain very early in my case and I've managed to avoid true agony. I have movement in all injured fingers. The surgeon made the decision that it was not reasonable to try to "save" the tip of my index finger because it was very badly mangled. So he took it off, leaving enough good flesh to pad the end of the finger. I change the dressings myself every other day and my need for pain meds is minimal, mainly at night so I can get a good night's sleep.

I've managed to get the cypress stacked and stickered, just need to build the top cover. I had help for several hours Saturday but my "helper" has not had more time to spare since then. It was challenging but I managed to get the rest of it finished yesterday. There was a lot more than 1300 bf of cypress. The stack is about 6' high above the support rack. I have used over 100 bf of the "worst" cypress boards to make stickers.

This afternoon I could not work very long. I got a 4 x 8 ft support rack built and leveled up. Tomorrow I plan to cut skickers from another bunch of "bad" cypress to use on the sycamore. Hopefully I'll get that all cleaned up and treated and stacked before the week is done. I went back to my regular work Friday and can't take any time off to do the wood related work. Hopefully the sycamore will hold up ok being dead stacked this long. So far I haven't see any new mold growing on it. There was a little bit starting on some of the cypress. Some was green and other was white and fluffy like cotton candy. I rinsed every bit of the cypress with a fresh water hose as it was being stacked.

Thanks again to everyone for your concerns and prayers.

Herb

[fishpharmer]

Good to hear your on the mend,  PC. 

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Milling - Day 3

Well, now all the excitement and drama caused by my stoopid accident, I've finally processed and uploaded the photos from the last day of milling. We had just a few more sycamore logs to finish up the job.



Taking the first cut on the first log of the last day of milling.



Another ugly sycamore log sits on the mill.



Olen checks his measurement one more time.



Quartersawn sycamore.



More quartersawn sycamore.



Olen lines up to open the last sycamore log.



Opening face on last log of the job.



Edging the last few boards on the mill.



Mill's hitched up to the GMC and ready to roll.



Olen working on the bill in his executive office.



The bill is settled and the sawyer is ready to go.




Heading out to the next job.

Woodbowl (Olen) did a great job milling my logs. He managed to get the most from every log. The way he extracted useable lumber from several hollow logs I had, I sware that man could eat a donut, not leave a crumb and still leave the hole untouched.

Now I'm working on stacking and stickering all this lumber.

Herb

[fishpharmer]

What's that saying "beauty is only skin deep"?  In the case of the "ugly" sycamore.  The ugly was only skin deep.  Olen got the "goody" out of it.   Great job Olen

PC, glad you had a chance to post up those pictures. 

[Don K]

That's great PC. Glad you are on the mend. If I can ever get the ability to saw like Olen can I will be in the big leagues.

Don

[Magicman]

Leaving happy customers is a sawyer's dream.....

It did look like he was figuring the bill up with one foot on the accelerator......     

[DanG]

Leaving happy customers is a sawyer's dream.....

And finding a sawyer like Olen is a customer's dream.  The boy simply does not cut a bad board.  He's very careful with every one of them.  I've watched him saw a whole bunch of times, and I've yet to see a tapered or wavy board.

[Papa1stuff]

Sounds like I need to get Olen here to teach me what I am doing wrong !!

[woodbowl]

Oh garsh,  wutin' nutin'   smiley_rainbow_colors      I must say that Herb did a pretty good job of putting the pictures and story line together. With all the lizards that scampered away, the dozen or so that we sawed in half, the fantastic grain and unexpected character of the wood, layed back conversations in several other subjects, Herb, DanG and me,  we just had a good sawing and a good Forestry Forum visit.   

[Magicman]

With all the lizards that scampered away, the dozen or so that we sawed in half 

Sounds like you may have set the "Lizard Record"....   I enjoyed the story and pictures by all.....

http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,40600.0.html

[customsawyer]

 

[WDH]

It did look like he was figuring the bill up with one foot on the accelerator......     

Yes, he had that over-the-top-of-the-glasses look while figuring the bill  .

[backwoods sawyer]

 

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

I had planned on stacking and stickering all the lumber as soon as the milling was done. Well, we all know that the best of plans often get sidetracked by unplanned events. In this case my injury certainly put a major bump in the road as far as stacking the freshly milled lumber. I finally started working on it last Saturday and by Monday had all the cypress stacked and stickered.



Cypress all stacked and stickered.



Stack is 4' wide, 5' high and 18' long. Sure seems like more than the 1,300 BF Olen charged me for...



Sycamore dead stacked waiting on me.



Another view of the stack of sycamore. By Wednesday I was really starting to worry about it because it had been dead stacked so long.



One reason for the delay was the need to build another rack for the sycamore. By Wednesday it was ready.



And a bunch of stickers were ready.

I started unstacking the sycamore and rinsing off any mold and mildew on the surface.



Six 2" x 17" x 4' sycamore boards.




Spalted sycamore.



Beautiful color and grain on sycamore.




Five 2" x 12" x 8' sycamore boards.

Got it all rinsed off and sorted on a temporary rack Wednesday night. Caught it in the nick of time, another day dead stacked and I would have lost a lot of it.

I started the final stacking and stickering of the sycamore yesterday and got most of it done today. Tomorrow I have to cut a few more stickers to finsh up and then get the tin roofing in place. Hopefully I'll finish that and most of the slab cleanup this weekend.

Thanks again for all the kind words, thoughts and prayers.

Herb

[thecfarm]

Guess I should of kept following this thread.I stopped a about a week ago and look what you have done! Sorry to hear of your accident,but I see you are still getting alot done.Lucky you feel like doing it at all.

[Magicman]

Those are some fancy stackin' racks......

[stonebroke]

How do you stack onehanded? never worked for me.

Stonebroke

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Those are some fancy stackin' racks......

Thanks, Magicman. I had to thow something together that would handle the load and be faily easy to level...

Herb

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

How do you stack onehanded? never worked for me.

Stonebroke

Stonebroke,

My injured hand can't grip much (although the thumb can help a lot because it wasn't hurt at all. But generally, if I can get the bad hand under it I can support some of the weight with that hand and use the other to grip and lift.

Like somebody once said in a movie: "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do..."

Herb

[stonebroke]

I hope you are not hurting your injury any more. Course maybe it could be considered physical therapy.

Stonebroke

[Slingshot]

 I, too, am sorry about your accident. I had one very small cut on a forefinger on a home-made table saw
when I was about 16. Really made me cautious from then on and have done a lot of sawing on table and
radial saws.
 It would be great if all us woodworkers could have this type of saw;
Anyone who hasn't heard of these, watch the little videos:

http://www.sawstop.com/howitworks/how_whitepaper.php


_____________________________-
Charles

[WDH]

Herb,

You stack wood nicely  . 

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

I hope you are not hurting your injury any more. Course maybe it could be considered physical therapy.

Stonebroke

Stonebroke,

I appreciate your concern. I am being very carefull of my injured fingers. The doctor says they're healing well. And if you think stacking lumber with one "good" hand is tough, just try tying your shoe laces with one hand... 

Herb,

You stack wood nicely  . 

Thanks WDH!

Herb

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Well, I finished stacking the sycamore this morning.



Sycamore all stacked and stickered.



Stack is 4' wide, 6' high and averages 8' long.




I had to use a ladder to put on the last two layers.

I didn't put the roofing on today because I spent a lot of time cleaning up the cypress slabs. Trying to stay on the good side of my honey and the neighbors...

Herb

[fishpharmer]

That looks better than my two handed stacking.

[wewacountryboy]

I seen that truck and mill at ol' mexico taking a lunch break.

[Magicman]

It's gonna take a lotta building stuff to use up all of that lumber.....    

[jpgreen]

I nipped about 1/4" off my index finger years ago on a planer, and the darn thing grew back. It always itches though ... You'd be surprised how well you will heal back.

Very nice haul of wood. Thanks for posting.

[WDH]

OK, so what are the plans for this wood?

[trailman]

great job on the stacking . I did the same thing to my hand in 97. spent a month at mass general. I tied my sneaker one handed. took about an hour. was thrilled to be on my feet again and walking to the chapel and gift shop at the hospital.b

[DanG]

OK, so what are the plans for this wood?

I hate to be answering for Herb, but I understand there is gonna be one evermore pretty computer desk in his house one day.  There will probably be another really good thread on here to go along with it.

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

OK, so what are the plans for this wood?

I hate to be answering for Herb, but I understand there is gonna be one evermore pretty computer desk in his house one day.  There will probably be another really good thread on here to go along with it.

The cypress will be used primarily for outdoor projects, including expanded deck around part of our pool and various outdoor furniture.

Dan got the one about the desk right. It will probably be a good while before I get to that project since thr 8/4 sycamore will take quite a while to dry unless I break down and build a kiln...

Herb

[Steve_M]

Herb,

I have enjoyed this story with all the great pictures and hated to hear about your accident.  Glad you are healing and able to keep moving forward.

Any chance you could share more about your accident:  what caused it, what would have prevented it and any advice you could give the rest of us so we don't do the same thing.

Thanks

Steve

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Herb,

I have enjoyed this story with all the great pictures and hated to hear about your accident.  Glad you are healing and able to keep moving forward.

Any chance you could share more about your accident:  what caused it, what would have prevented it and any advice you could give the rest of us so we don't do the same thing.

Thanks

Steve

Steve,

Thanks for the comments. I’m glad you enjoyed the story and the pictures.

I’ve been meaning to write more about the accident. Thanks for prompting me to get around tuit…

My accident was due to absolute stupidity on my part. I’ve been using power woodworking equipment for over fifty years and certainly knew better…

What happened? I was using a tablesaw to rip 5/4 cypress slabs into strips to use as stickers when stacking my lumber for air dying. I put my left hand beyond the blade to pull the remainder of the board back to begin the next cut. I got too close to the blade with my little finger, it caught the finger, pulled my hand down, cutting each finger worse as it went.

Contributing factors:

• No blade guard. If I had been using one the accident probably would not have happened. (I was using a push stick to push the cut strip past the blade.)
• I was wearing kid leather gloves. The blade initially caught the small finger of the glove.
• I was complacent, not really paying full attention to what I was doing.
  

I was very lucky that I was able to get good medical care quickly. Within thirty minutes I had been through triage and was in a treatment room at the ER. The surgeon who worked on me is said to be the best in the area. I think he made the right decision when he removed the badly damaged portion of my index finger back to the first joint.

So, don’t be stupid like me. Use guards and other protective features of the equipment. Do not wear gloves when working with moving equipment. And stay alert. Don’t daydream while sawing out the 299th piece…

Herb

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

Yesterday afternoon I built the roof framework for the stack of sycamore and I managed to install it this afternoon.



Sycamore stack with roof installed.

I used racheting tie downs to secure the framework in place.



View from other end of stack.

Once that was done I started working on the next roof module. I got the frame cut and assembled and ready for the tin.



Frame for second roof section ready for tin.

Hopefully by the end of the weekend I'll have both stacks covered and be done cleaning up the mess...

Herb

[jpgreen]

Looks awesome.

Why do I keep seeing pigs fly? ...

[DanG]

I gave up being surprised by the stuff Herb does when I saw that stack of Sycamore logs he piled up by hand.

[WDH]

This has been a great thread!  Now we will have to wait for the sycamore to dry.  I found it to be one of the wettest woods.  It seemed like water was running out of the wood as it was being sawn.  It took longer to dry than I thought it would.  I have some sycamore to cut, and once I get it stickered, I plan to use a small box fan to keep the air moving so that it does not mold or stain.

[woodbowl]

Herbs sycamore seemed like it was just about dry. I know it wasn't completely dry, but it was very light and dusty too.  Sure looks good in that drying stack though  don't it!   

[WDH]

I wish that my stacks looked that good  .  And, Herb did it one-handed.  Just think what a fine stack he could make with two good hands  .

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

This has been a great thread!  Now we will have to wait for the sycamore to dry.  I found it to be one of the wettest woods.  It seemed like water was running out of the wood as it was being sawn.  It took longer to dry than I thought it would.  I have some sycamore to cut, and once I get it stickered, I plan to use a small box fan to keep the air moving so that it does not mold or stain.

Hopefully the tin roof will keep most of the rain off the lumber and it will dry enough to use by the time I figure out what to do about shop facilities and equipment...

Of course a lot of my sycamore already got hit with mold and fungus in the log. Hopefully it didn't go too far towards the rot stage...

I finished construction on the two additional roof modules for the cypress stack yesterday. As I was trying to figure out how I was going to get them up on the stack by myself, my friend Mark dropped by and with his help we got them in place in just a few minutes.



View of cypress stack with roof from the "ragged end" of the stack.




The cypress stack roof has two 10' sections, each held down by racheting tie-down straps.





Cypress stack with tin roof strapped down.

Herb

[Magicman]

Even the "ragged end" or your stacks look    good.......

[dad2nine]

To get propeller boards, you have to run the mill without bandwheel covers  If you have lost them, I could make you some more...

So... That's what I've been doing wrong - time to find the dang band wheel covers