Heavy Oak Timbers to Restore Historic Water Wheel

[SwampDonkey]

The Kings Landing Historical Settlement is home to the most photographed building in N.B. Its the water driven sawmill.

Repairs had to be made to the water wheel after being in service for 26 years at the Kings Landing sawmill. They needed 16 pieces 24" wide and 5" thick and another 10 pieces 20 " by 2.5".

With the aid of the York-Sunbury-Charlotte Forest Products Marketing Board and log buyers from both the USA and New Brunswick they were successful in gathering the needed timbers. The timber where then sawn by a local mill and a mill in Jacquet River. They were then delivered the the Historical village to be air dried over the next 4 years. All wood came from Pennsylvania and it was white oak. We don't have white oak in New Brunswick, accept Bur Oak which is threatened by development.

There was an article in the September 2004 issue of Atlantic Forestry Review. Sorry I can't post the pictures of the milled lumber, but she's Dang Heavy stuff.

cheers

[ARKANSAWYER]

   All you had to do was call as I got that stuff laying around every where.  I have seen where they used the wood green since it was going to be in water all the time any way.  IF they dry it much and them put it in it may bust apart when it swells back up.
ARKANSAWYER

[Bibbyman]

Bur Oak threatened?  We got it everywhere here.

[Ron Wenrich]

The biggest thing I ever had to cut was a 10x20x10.  I needed 20 of them.  

[SwampDonkey]

Bibbyman:

Bur oak is threaten by development in New Brunswick, most dendrology books don't even map it this far north. ;) The burr oak is isolated by 750 km from it's continuous range down south (220 km from neighbors in Maine) and those down there aren't frost hardy in our colder climate.  ;)

Click here

Thanks for the offer Arky. I had nothing to do with the project and I never knew they needed the oak until I read it recently. Anyway, they are all set. They don't run the mill in winter, just during the ice free season. I remember being at the mill before they had it fully functioning several years ago. I think they are using the wood in the old ways and there probably weren't any kilns in the 1780's. ;)

cheers

[SwampDonkey]

Ron:

I wouldn't want to lift on that size lumber all day. That's for more rugged fellas than I.

[slowzuki]

We can just about see that mill from our property, less than 1 km away accross the river!

I read that article a while ago too and thought, hey they could have just asked on the forestry forum!

We have a line of huge oaks on my parents property, don't know what kind they are.  Want some acorns? I'd have to fight the squirrels for em!

Ken

[Jim_Rogers]

Recently I worked on some timbers for a similar project.

A fellow called me up last week and asked if I had a block of white oak that was 13 1/2" x 24" x 44"?

I said I did! He was very happy. He had been calling all around New England looking for one.

I told him he had to come down to my mill yard and look at the logs and see if the quality was good enough for his project.

I asked him where he was traveling from. He told me Loudon, NH.

I asked him what did he need such a big block of wood for? He told me that he was restoring an old "sash" sawmill. And that is was the pivot block for the saw blade (I think that's what it's for).

I told him that I had been to his site with the TFG (Timber Framers Guild) and had had a tour of the sawmill restoration last March. And that I understood what project he was referring to.

After he and his mill wright assistant arrived we picked out this log for his block:




After several rolls around the mill cutting off knot nubs the log looked like this while I was changing to a sharper blade:




After I had cut off some 2" and 3" slabs for other parts on his stock list, I ended up with this 14 1/2" x 25" x 10' 6" block.



Here is a shot of the left over piece that's available and is for sale:



You can see the yard stick at the bottom of the block, it is 14.5" x 25" x 52"

We figured the 4' piece weighed 727 pounds and with the other stock he had more than 1300 lbs on his 1/2 ton pickup when he drove out my driveway.

Can't wait to see this block in place.

It's fun to work on such projects.

Jim Rogers

[Jim_Rogers]

I suppose I could also post some of these pictures in the thread about "how do you keep cool in this heat".

Do you like my traveling umbrella? :D 8)

Jim Rogers

[SwampDonkey]

errmmm  ;)

That's real cool Jim :D

slowzuki:

I got the next white oak timber growing for the mill.....erm in the year 2070 or so. :D

[Gilman]

Jim,
How did you mount your umbrella?  I think it needs more flowers though.

[Jim_Rogers]

Years ago when I had my seat on my mill, it had a umbrella hole on the back of the arm rest. I used to use this with a regular beach umbrella.
Using the seat restricts how long a piece you can mill. So when I removed the seat I wanted a new location for my umbrella. I tried just putting it in the hole at the top of the upright tube, but that didn't work right and cover me and the sawmill engine.
So I went to Walmart and got a patio table umbrella, the type with the crank to raise handle.
This was the right size to cover both me and my sawmill engine.
The shaft was long enough to reach the base of the sawmill head and still not be too low for the engine even when it's at the top of the travel up the pair of tubes.
These umbrellas come with a plastic insert in the bottom of the tube that is there to prevent you from damaging your floor of your patio, or getting cut with the sharp edge of the tube. So I removed this plastic end and placed the umbrella next to the sawmill to find the right location to mount it.
I found on my sawmill a bolt head that was smaller than the tube. It's where the power block is located like this:



Then the top of the umbrella is just held in place with a long bungee strap:



This worked great for a long time until one windy day. The wind lifted up the umbrella right off the bolt.
So I added another bungee strap to hold it down like this:



The part of the umbrella where the crank handle is sometimes rubs the bracket for the saw height pointer and pushes it into the traveling ruler, so you have to be careful if you set one up this way that it doesn't do any damage.

This works for me....

I'm on my third umbrella since '95. The first one had black and white panels and they used to say I looked like a "hot dog" vendor.
The second one was solid green and was nice.
I couldn't get a solid color last time, but as I said it works for me.

Jim Rogers