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sawmill project, pictures

Started by apm, September 01, 2009, 02:45:52 PM

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Carpenter

Thanks for the pictures and the story that went with them.  I'm sure your boys learned skills they would not have learned in a public education along with the family bonding time.  Congratulations.

JD350Cmark

Quote from: tonto on September 03, 2009, 02:37:34 PM
Do you have any info on rental - prices and availability. We would like to go to a Bristal race some day. Thanks, Tonto.

DITTO - also, how far are you from the track??

Ditto on what everyone elso said too.  Very neat!
2004 Wood-Mizer LT40HDG25

rbhunter

My son who we started homeschooling last year was impressed.

We started homeschooling last year. He was a junior. I wish we would have started earlier as he was struggling in school. He is doing so much better now. He has to learn it plus we are on top of how he is doing. If I could do it over I would have done it for both of our kids and started alot earlier. There are so many options with homeschooling and things that can be done.

Thanks for sharing.
"Said the robin to the sparrow, I wonder why it must be, these anxious human beings rush around and worry so?"
"Said the sparrow to the robin, Friend I think it must be, they have no heavenly father, such as cares for you and me."
author unknown. Used to hang above parents fireplace.

apm

I don't mean to change the thread by getting on a soapbox about homeschooling, but.......... When a lot of people think of homeschooling they imagine replicating the public school classroom in the home. That is a recipe for disaster! There are so many options for being able to train (not necessarily teach) your children, at their pace, in the ways that they learn best. The public schools are a "one size fits all" system that leaves a lot of kids out in the cold. Even if they manage to learn something, they frequently never learn to "love learning" like they can in a home environment. Not to mention the undesirable influences, drugs, violence, challenges to their faith, etc.

We wanted to focus on character development over scholastics. Life skills vs. rote memorization. Book learnin' is important, too, but much more easily accomplished within the framework of customization that you can create at home. Some kids do very well in public schools, I don't mean to belittle anyones choices. But some blossom at home.

JD350cmark: we are about 45 minutes from Bristol Speedway. Really a neat place.

Thanks for your indulgence,

Greg
Timberking 1600 now

paul case

hey greg,
is that a foley belsaw m-14 that they cut that house out with? ive never seen one wtihout a huge pile of sawdust! just wonderin  pc
life is too short to be too serious. (some idiot)
2013 LT40SHE25 and Riehl edger,  WM 94 LT40 hd E15. Cut my sawing ''teeth'' on an EZ Boardwalk
sawing oak.hickory,ERC,walnut and almost anything else that shows up.
Don't get phylosophical with me. you will loose me for sure.
pc

Norm

If more parents stood on a soapbox because they care about their children we'd all be better off.

Way to go Greg.  :)

apm

Hi Paul,

yep, that's a Belsaw M14. At the end of every shift we raked the sawdust pile out flat around the mill. Kept the weeds down. Used a lot of the sawdust in the mortar mix for the cordwood. Soaked the sawdust overnight in a "kiddie pool" from Walmart, then mixed the wet sawdust into the mortar mix next day. Something like two shovels mortar, six sand, one lime and two or three of sawdust.

Greg
Timberking 1600 now

paul case

sounds like a good idea,but that would cause wet ground problems here in ne ok. my first sawmill was a belsaw m-14. it did ok but i can cut more lumber with less waste in less time with the  manual bandsaw that i now have. good for experience though. like your kids i learned a lot of valueable lessons on that saw. i wouldnt trade anything for the experience and i wouldnt trade for another m-14 either!   pc
life is too short to be too serious. (some idiot)
2013 LT40SHE25 and Riehl edger,  WM 94 LT40 hd E15. Cut my sawing ''teeth'' on an EZ Boardwalk
sawing oak.hickory,ERC,walnut and almost anything else that shows up.
Don't get phylosophical with me. you will loose me for sure.
pc

James P.

awesome house, I just wanted to add my 2 cents, when you said schools don't teach children how to love learning. I agree , recently I heard a kid say when asked , why he deserved an award for being great at math. his response was cause he loves math and its in his heart. I never quite felt that way about learning in school myself. I went to private school growing up and still just wanted to get it over with. We are told how its going to aid us in getting the best jobs and such. Just never pushed it would help me learn what I really want to learn down the road when I finally figured out what I wanted as a career. they didn't emphasize the broad opportunities and choices that were out there. Like in a kids book it was all general careers. doctor teacher policeman and most popular trades. I say if you don't love what you do you will never be great at it.

jpgreen

Outstanding accomplishment Greg! .... 8)

I've been thinking about cord wood for a long time. Bought Rob Roy's books.  We have the perfect property for a berm home, and a forest full of logs. The view would be stunning.

How well do things fair while taking a long time with construction like rain, snow, etc? I would probably take 3-4 years and work on it as time allows.  A little at a time.
-95 Wood-Mizer LT40HD 27 Hp Kawasaki water cooled engine-

apm

JPGreen,

I read Rob Roy's books as well. He outlines two basic types of cordwood construction; one is with the cordwood as a structural member, one with the cordwood as infill. We elected for a "modified" timber frame, using cordwood as infill only. That allowed us to frame up the building and roof it prior to starting the cordwood. We were infilling approximately 8' X 12' sections and could finish one, with four boys working in a 12 hour day. We got faster by the end of the project. All of the cordwood being done under roof made weather and time a non issue.

Our biggest quandary was the electrical inspection. I called the inspector ahead of time and told him what we were building and asked his advice. His only reply was "do it by code and you won't have any problems". When he got there for the rough inspection, I had run the wire inside the walls and out through the mortar joints to surface mounted boxes. He couldn't figure out how "code" applied to cordwood. We went through a few minor changes before he would approve us.  All ended well, though.

Paul, I'm glad you're happy with your bandmill, but I sure can't figure out how a manual bandmill will cut more lumber in less time than a circle mill. Did you have limited power with your Belsaw or some other trouble?
Timberking 1600 now

theboman

Becareful, ah, there's a black bear in your kitchen! 

Great story and it all looks great!

customsawyer

apm what kind of logs did you use in the cord wood part of the house and did you peel the bark off or just let it slip off when it dried a little bit?
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

apm

The cordwood logs are 90% poplar and about 10% walnut. The cordwood is all peeled. The logs cut in the fall and winter took many, many hours to peel. We later learned, the hard way, that the logs cut in the spring, the bark just popped off of almost always in one piece. There's always a learnin' curve.......... the boys hung the bark spud in the cabin as a decoration. That's the part of the job they remember least fondly. It would have been all easy if we'd known when we cut the cordwood.

Greg
Timberking 1600 now

Paschale

I'm resurrecting this thread, since I just took a trip with three of my nephews, aged 15, 16 and 18 to our family land in the U.P.  I always wanted a cabin up there when I was their age, and they've since expressed a lot of interest in building something up there.  I'd like to help it become a reality, so we went up north, spying the land, looking for the ideal spot for a cabin, and I told them that they are charged with helping to design the cabin, since it will be in their lives a lot longer than I'll have it.  They're pretty excited by the prospect, and my brothers are interested in supporting it.  I've got a pretty good schedule in the summer months to be able to go up there for extended trips up there and do work on building something with them. 

As I've thought about the most efficient means of building, and avoiding the most waste, cordwood construction seems like a great idea, and then milling the lumber for the rest of the house from trees harvested from the land, which we have plenty of.

Anyway, I'm anxious to know a bit more about cordwood construction--I would imagine that you would need to debark the cordwood, right?  I suppose that would be the most labor intensive part of the job.  Any suggestions on good books to find?

Thanks ahead of time!  That cabin is beautiful!
Y'all can pronounce it "puh-SKOLLY"

beenthere

So Pas, are you going to be cutting trees this coming spring when the bark peels off easy?
And what species would you be cutting?

Looks like a great project for Uncle Pas to take on. I've four teenage grandkids, and don't think I could get a total of two weeks of their busy time in the summer months. Just too many things going on for them. Wish you better luck with your nephews. :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Paschale

Quote from: beenthere on September 23, 2010, 07:40:59 PM
So Pas, are you going to be cutting trees this coming spring when the bark peels off easy?
And what species would you be cutting?

Looks like a great project for Uncle Pas to take on. I've four teenage grandkids, and don't think I could get a total of two weeks of their busy time in the summer months. Just too many things going on for them. Wish you better luck with your nephews. :)

Well, that's the other question I had--we have all kinds of hardwoods up there...maple and ash, mainly, (still ash, for now), and a lot of spruce and hemlock.  We have so much maple up there, it wouldn't seem like a waste to use it for the cordwood house, but honestly, I just don't know what kind of wood is typically used.  I'm sure hardwood would work just fine.  As to my nephews, there's nothing they'd rather do in the summer than get away from home for a few weeks, and work in the woods!  Them's some good boys!   8)

Dan
Y'all can pronounce it "puh-SKOLLY"

barbender

White Cedar would probably be best in that area if you have it, Paschale. It's light, has minimal shrinkage, and is rot resistant. And it peels easy ;)
Too many irons in the fire

Paschale

Quote from: barbender on September 23, 2010, 08:45:34 PM
White Cedar would probably be best in that area if you have it, Paschale. It's light, has minimal shrinkage, and is rot resistant. And it peels easy ;)

We've got cedar coming out of our ears up there, and it's ripe for the harvest, so that sounds like what it needs to be!   8)
Y'all can pronounce it "puh-SKOLLY"

apm

Hi Pas,

There's a lot of information on the internet about cordwood construction. The only downside that I'm aware of is that it's very labor intensive. If you've got willing nephews, you've got the hardest part licked. Rob Roy and Richard Flatau have published several books on cordwood construction. Get the latest edition you can find because there have been updates on processes and methods.  If you've got more time than money, cordwood definitely is worth considering. White cedar is considered an excellent choice in the book I've got. Sounds like you're looking forward to making some memories!

Greg
Timberking 1600 now

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