Had two custom jobs to saw yesterday. Both were neighbors and both are amatuer woodworkers. First fella had three cedar logs around 24" in diameter and 6 sweetgum logs around 30" in diameter. He wanted all cut to 3/4". Cedar cut fast, but the sweetgum was a little slower. I got down to the last two logs and the fella says if you want, you can have some these logs to take with you. So I said that I would like to have two slabs about 1 3/4 thick to make a table top out of. I cut the slabs and they were both standing there looking at the slabs and wondering what a table top would look like so I grabbed my handplane (a custom made special smoothing plane) and I planed one side of a slab smooth in less than a minute. Now they were very impressed and wanted to see the handplane so I showed that to them and told them the story of who made it and where it was obtained. Then conversation turned to the slabs. The wood was snow white with little if no knots. The slabs were 8' x 30" x 1 3/4". Needless to say they wanted tops for themselves, so I finished slabing the one log and slabbed the remaining log too. Less cuts for me, the customers were very happy and I was on my way to the next job. BTW cut 2600 BF from 6:00 -12:30 pm.
They had plenty of helpers and a tractor with two trailers.
Next job entailed close to ten cedars, forty pines, an oak and two sweetgum logs. All around 24-30" diameter. This job started slow partly because I was tired and partly because the Mizer started acting up.
On one of the first cuts I made, the blade stopped in mid cut and the diesel engine died. Had to back the mill out of the cut, changed the blade and the Mizer started up again without a hitch and I cut a couple of logs. Blade dulled, so I changed the blade with a brandnew blade and made half a cut when I hit something in the log and all of the teeth came off the blade. Ruined a new blade.
Changed the blade, and this time the motor stalled.
Naturally, I take very good care of my mill and I have never had it stall so I'm beginning to wonder what the heck is going on. Oil and coolant is fine. Fuel filters are clear. I have a little hydraulic leak but nothing major. (It's at a fitting) I'm puzzled.
Father-in-law decided to add some fuel to the tank thinking that maybe it wasn't getting enough suction. Motor would not start. I check the fuel filter again and bleed it and it runs red. Now in my part of the world, diesel is yellow green. He proceeds to tell me that he thought they had recently changed the color due to a reformulation of diesel fuel. I knew better and suspected that he had poured gasoline and bar chain mix for the chainsaw into the fuel tank.
So we wrap everything up and head home with the promise to return next Saturday to finish the job. I get home, drain the tank, change the filters, prime the pump and the motor starts up as advertised.
Total board feet cut in one day? 2800! That is first for me.
