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Bothy_Loon is a busy man

Started by CHARLIE, October 07, 2005, 12:46:38 AM

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CHARLIE

We haven't heard from Bothy_Loon for awhile because he's been extremely busy.  On his own time he's building a cabin on a pond located in county Angus on the east of Scotland. It's about 2 miles east of Forfar which is 12 miles north of Dundee.  Y'all will have to get your maps to figure it out.  He's dragging logs to the site using one of his pride and joys, a 1959 Massey Ferguson 35 and will saw the boards with his other pride and joy a Lumbermate MK 4 mill.  He's already built a small 8 foot wide X 18 foot long pier on the pond.  Now all that is in his spare time, but on his job he and his crew got the job to cut the 2 masts for the restoration of the old sailing fishing boat, The Reaper.  With Bothy_Loon's permission here are some pictures of the felling of the selected tree, getting it to the mill and milling it and the old Reaper where the masts will go.  Yep, he's a busy man and helping preserve Scottish history while he's at it.8)  I'm hoping Bothy_Loon will have a little time to come on the forum and make sure I have this right.



That's Bothy_Loon standing in the rain by the log.








Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

sprucebunny

Thanks for the update and pics, Charlie.

That's a good looking stick and a handsome boat.

Wonder what they moved that stick with ???
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

SwampDonkey

It's a nome. I say, there's nomes in them there woods. :D

Well now. That's a brute of a log. Look at that little model sawmill in the saw shed.  :o

Nice fishing boat, well deserves preservation. :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Paul_H

Thanks for the update and pics Charlie.I hope Bothy_Loon will post more onfo on the mast when he's not so busy.It sounds like and interesting life he leads!
Science isn't meant to be trusted it's to be tested

CHARLIE

Sprucebunny, I'm not sure what they used to move that log.  But, if you look in the picture that has Bothy_Loon standing next to the log, there is a red tractor behind it all.   

SwampDonkey, what caught my eye is how long and straight that log was and the trees standing around where it was cut seem similar.  I wonder what kind of pine it is....maybe white? Anyway, he said the log was 69 feet long. That sawmill in the shed does sorta fill up the doorway doesn't it.  I reckon they need a nice sized mill to cut logs of that size but I don't know what kind it is.  Bothy_Loon is the Head Honcho at the mill and his crew runs from about 20 to 26 men depending on the economy.  He's has worked at the mill since he was a teenager.  Did you notice the hoist?  That'll handle some weight.

Bothy_Loon likes old machines as you can see from this statement he made to me. "There are a few old Farmalls over here & I believe them to be very good. I was brought up on fergies hence my liking for my old 35. At the sawmill where I work the retired manager keeps 2 fully restored steam engines + 2 at his house, all Fowlers."

One of the threads on the forum was talking about metal detectors and treasure hunting. How would you like to treasure hunt over there with a metal detector.  Bothy_Loon said, "I was talking to three men with metal detectors near our house today. They had found several Roman coins & some dating from the 1700s."

I'm hoping he'll have time to add to this thread because I think he has a lot of interesting things to contribute.  Oh....he also enjoys photography and enjoys taking wildlife photos of Roe Deer, birds and such.
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

SwampDonkey

Surely it's not Scot's pine, I've never seen a straight one growing around here. And Scot's pine has orange bark. I was tempted to suggest Norway spruce, but no tops to look at. ;) That stand of wood it came from has been well looked after, that's for sure. :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Bothy_Loon

 Hello Folks
Just been sawing firewood for a friend but it got dark so I thought I would like to keep these fingers for a wee while yet!
Charlie has been busy!
The log in question is a Douglas Fir & was planted in ( I Think) 1938. I do know the seed was scoured from the Fraser River. Any  of you folks from around there?
Charlie is not quite correct when he says I have built a cabin up at our pond. It is still to do. My wife has been very ill this year & I have not been able to do so much. Fortunately she is almost sorted now so I will get something done.
I will gladly put more pics on the Forum if someone tells me how to do it!!
Bothy Loon

SwampDonkey

Ah, Doug Fir  :) Was Doug Fir widely planted in your neck of the forest Bothy_Loon?? I've heard of it being planted over there with great success. I've never seen Doug Fir as standing trees, although I was in BC for three years. In the area I was in it was growing in protected coves of Douglas Channel and up near Stewart, which were thought until recently to be outside it's range. Mostly what I seen in BC was cedars, hemlocks, and spruce.

Thanks for the update, but we need more info on the fishing boat and how the milling of that log went. ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Bothy_Loon

 
Douglas Fir grows very well in certain areas of Scotland. There is an area of Perthshire from Dunkeld north to Blair Atholl that grows most kinds of softwoods well including Dougie Fir. The tree in the photographs was felled on Bonskeid Estate just a mile or two northwest of Pitlochry.
I have also selected Douglas from a stand near Ft Augustus for a timber frame building. They were if anything even better quality. I milled them at 28ftx14x10inches.
As to the boat. The reaper was if i remember correctly built in 1900 ( I can check all these facts if you want) & was originally used as a fishing vessel out of Shetland. She did mine sweeping service during WW2. She is now based at the fisheries museum in Anstrether in Fife. She is built with an Oak frame & clad with Larch boatskins.
On the subject of boatskins. I used to mill 2 loads per week of them. The lenghts went from 26to 40 feet & thickness varied from 2 to 3inches on average. Nowadays with our fishing industry cut back there is little demand for boat building timbers. Just as well as it is getting hard to find.
Bothy Loon

SwampDonkey

Thanks for the update Bothy_Loon interesting work. :)

I have a European larch growing on the lawn, which I 'salvaged' from a lot being chucked from a nursery at Forestry Canada. I worked there one summer.  That's got to be the fastest growing tree I seen at this latitude. It even grows faster than native Eastern Larch (tamarack) and is alot straighter with more long hanging branches. :) It was planted in 1989 and is twice as big as an oak I planted in 1986 from a seedling. I have seen plantations of it planted in the 40's and sure wish they were spruce of that size. $$$ :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

iain

The saw in the shed doorway looks like a forrester "150"  (i like the horizontal foresters a lot) they run on rails and cut real sweet

SwampyDonk  your euro larch is by nature very fast growing, but a bit soft when you work it,
but if you cut it right, you get some stunning wavey grain patterns with the colour going from yellowy pink to green all at the same time

iain

Nick B SW Ont Canada

I'm just an armchair sawyer at this time so I might be seeing things in these pics but?  Bothy_Loon are you sawing all sides for the length of track that you have and then pulling the log through to do another section?  If so is that a common way to saw the long logs?  Is it very difficult to keep the log straight? ??? ??? ???

Bothy_Loon


I should have made a better job of explaining. Sorry! I am better with a saw!
What you see is the sawing finished. All I had to do was saw a 20x20 inch square out of the bottom 12 feet of the 69ft log. Sounds simple but remember the square has to be in the middle of what will end up the rounded part of the mast. I also had to be very careful to have the corners all equal. As you can see the log in the round was not big enough to let me saw a totally wane free square. To have found a log big enough (we did) would have ment the boatbuilders having far too much wood to pare off to reduce it from 15inch dia at the end of my sawn 12ft, to 10inch dia at the top of the mast. The finished length will be 65ft6inch but I left a bit on in case of accidents!
Iain is correct the saw is a Forestor 150 which I have operated since new. I have also rebuilt it once as the engineering leaves a bit to be desired.
The set up we have at the mill is a 60foot 10ton overhead crane mounted over the saw. The saw rails are also about 60 foot long. The longest log I have sawn on it ( excluding the mast) was a 54foot Larch for boatskins. Largest dia handled 6ft6inch Obeche logs that came in 3 for an atic load. They were sawn 7/8th through & through for coffin boards!
Should have kept some for a DIY box!
Bothy Loon

CHARLIE

Bothy_Loon asked me to display this picture for him. The verbiage is Bothy_Loon's description of the tractor.




As there was some interest in the tractor that  took out the mast logs, here it is. The tractor is a Finnish Valmet of around 100hp (I think ) The winch is a linkage mounted Igland single drum 8 ton capacity.  We used to use equal wheel Ford/County tractors in the wood ( I still have one lurking in a shed). The Valmet was seen as a replacement for the County. I have had experience of 3 Valmets in the woods now & the operators all say they would rather have the County. The Valmet has the more comfortable cab but because of the wheels it is not so good in the wheel grip department. That log had to be winched all the way . A County would have reeled it in then driven off with it. Such is progress!  The Valmet is well liked on the farms around here but with much bigger engine size.

Bothy_Loon
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

SwampDonkey

Thanks for the update Bothy-Loon and Charlie, couldn't let this thread get burried. ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

CHARLIE

I remember seeing a tractor called "David Brown" or something like that. I assumed it was made in England.  How would a "Brown" compare to a Ford/County or Valmet?  What is the quality on the Valmet?
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

SwampDonkey

Valmet paint, looks like New Holland 'blue'.  ;D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Timburr

Bothy_Loon, that's an impressive operation you've got there, particularly the milling side.

Yes, the County was a good alround forestry workhorse, but it needed a whole field to turn around on :D  They have better traction, 'cos the difflock locks all wheels together, they are nearly twice the weight of the Valmet and of course, the equal-sized wheels. I've pulled apart 100s, I mean 10s of Countys during my years as a forestry machine mechanic.
Do you use other forest machinary (apart from the Valmets), such as forwarders and harvesters?

Charlie, the David Brown was as common here as the Massey and Ford during the 60s, 70s and 80s, but it definately isn't a dedicated wood's tractor like the Valmet and County. It started life as a Vak Cropmaster, which I think you may have in America, then became the David brown. Case took it over at the beginning of the 70s and still use some of the DB mechanicles in their backhoe.

Cheers Tim
Sense is not common

Bothy_Loon

In my time in harvesting I had various contractors using everything from Countyskidders/forwarders,Valmet harvesters& forwarders, Timberjack, Osa with Keto heads, Rottne & Kockums forwarders, excavator based machines.Logset & many more including a brute of a harvester with a pendulum head with a big powerful crane & a big Logmax head.
Have even used a quad bike & trailer & a small 8 wheeled forwarder (cannot remember its name ) which took out about 1.5 tonnes a load & tiptoed over the ground without leaving a mark.
These days I am back in the sawmill & go out to the wood to"play" at the weekends with my old Massey 35 cutting trees to saw on the Lumbermate .
Pity you are so far away I am looking for a good tractor mechanic to restore the Fergie so that I can give her a well earned rest.
What do you get up to these days yourself?
Bothy Loon

CHARLIE

I did a search on Valmet and apparently, not only do they have an automotive division but they make firearms too.

Bothy_Loon, need a good tractor mechanic?  Heck, when I was 17 I was mowing, disking and hoeing an orange grove with an old 1947 John Deere 'A' for Harry Nelson (an aerial duster and sprayer).  Well, one day the tractor started running poorly and I headed for the barn. It woujld only run with the choke completely closed.  I pulled the spark plug and water poured out.  Pretty  soon here comes Harry in his truck to see why I wasn't working (he'd fly over just to check on me to make sure I was working).  We pulled the tractor back to his air field and he told me to pull the radiator, fuel tank and head. I'd never done it before but I got it figured out and got it apart and back together.  With a valve job and new head gasket it ran as smooth as a sewing machine.  ;D
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

CHARLIE

How do those Valmet tractors hold up?  Is the workmanship and quality good?  I assume they are sold in the U.S. but I've never heard of them or seen one before. Here in the midwest the most popular tractors are John Deere and Massey Ferguson. Some farmers still use Farmall and Olivers too.
Charlie
"Everybody was gone when I arrived but I decided to stick around until I could figure out why I was there !"

ScottAR

Valtra

They have a lot of interesting features including 9 color choices to mimic your other tractors I guess.  Bidirectional cabs, Forestry cabs, locking differtials on both ends.  36/36 speeds and on and on and on.....
Scott
"There is much that I need to do, even more that I want to do, and even less that I can do."
[Magicman]

Bothy_Loon

Yes they are well put together. I have had one of 150hp hauling away concrete & rubble in a 12 tonne trailer for the last 2 days. Making room for our 2nd new bandmill. This same tractor regularly hauls tracked diggers of 13 tonnes around our county. You do hear it grunt on a hill & a little black smoke but it pulls very well.
On the subject of John Deere. One of 200hp removed our old bandmill & conveyors on a tri axle step framed trailer the other day. Gross weight 31tonnes. It went for a journey of almost 70 miles.
Still like my wee fergie though!
Bothy Loon

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