orienting 2xs in a cant

[Tony]

    I've got a job cutting 2x6's and 2x4's. I had a 14"x14" cant today  and lost a lot of time studying how to cut it. Well I finally ended up cutting 2" at a time till I got a 6x14" cant out of the middle of the original cant. Should I have split the heart or what? ??? : ??? : ??? :

    I can't seem to find any info on how to get the most out of a cant and keeping the lumber as straight as possible in the process. So again FF members I come to you for advice. ;D ;D Most of the logs (pine) are straight. Is there a book that I need and where to find it?

     Again thanks for any and all help ;D ;D

                                               Tony   8)

[Dan_Shade]

here's how "I" do it:

if I am cutting 2x6, then I'll level the heart/pith on the deck, then saw down to 3" above the heart, then flip 180 degrees and then saw down to 6 inches on the deck, and flip it up and saw the rest down.

you want the growth rings centered.









since I drew this up, I started flipping 180 degrees instead of 90 degrees, to me, it makes the process go a bit faster.

[Bibbyman]

Dan,  that's the way we do it.  I never like to split the heart (pith) because you always end up with bowed boards.

When we're sawing beams,  I save back all the logs in the 11-12" range for our 2x6s and 1x6 business.  They work out well as you can take a slab and maybe a flitch off each side and make a 6" cant. Then turn up and saw the third side then flip and saw all the way down.  Our customers are happy that our lumber has a minimum of bow.

[DanG]

That is what I like about sawing customer orders from my own logs.  You get to choose logs that want to be what the customer is asking for.   Even when sawing a customer's logs, most folks have more than one size on their cut list, so I can take what the log offers most of the time.  If they only have one target size, I tell them up front that they're gonna get some other sizes anyway. :D

[Dave Shepard]

I have sawn a bunch of oak for a guy who makes hay wagons. Always wants 1x6's. I tell him he's going to get some 1x8's too, because I'm not edging them down to 6" :D He doesn't mind. The customers that want 1x12's out of their 10" logs are the worst.  :


Dave