Rookie w/lt40

[bates]

New used lt40 (46 hrs), but I'm really slow.  They say 400 bf per hour, I'm maybe 100 per hour.  Maybe ok for figuring it out myself? 

[Magicman]

First, Welcome to the Forestry Forum, bates.   

Those posted figures are showing what the sawmill is capable of sawing and often include multiple people and support equipment such as an edger so you can forget them.  You are doing just fine.   

[Nomad]

      You're doing fine.  Is there anyone near you that you could maybe help out for a few hours and get some pointers from?  Doesn't matter what mill they have; they all do the same thing.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

If you're a Rookie and we all were at 1 time, what ever they say your mill will saw an hour..........
feed it to the goats!  :D :D :D :D........for now.
Just take your time sawing while learning your mill.
You'll get a bunch of help here just by asking.

When I first got my mill, I really had to focus on not bumping the blade guide arm into the log lifting arms.
I had to learn clamping procedures and log positioning.
Getting comfortable with daily maintenance.
Learning my hydraulics without looking. ETC...ETC....ETC....

You've got a lot of fun to do before trying to saw the BF the brochure says your mill can saw,

WELCOME! 

By the way....where are you from?

[thecfarm]

bates,welcome to the forum. Just like a lot of things in life,it takes time to learn how to do it. Learn all the little things and the speed will come. Some days the speed will be there and some days the speed is gone and no wheres to be found.  ;D

[SawyerBrown]

Welcome, bates! 

Listen to these guys -- they're the pro's!  The other thing, start by focusing on quality, not quantity (see Magicman motto above ...).  Forming bad habits/procedures early on will only be worse when you do them fast!  :D.  Take time to pause and analyze, and never stop learning or trying to figure out how to do better.  Speed will come with time and practice.

Best of luck to ya!

PS:  You weren't in the motel business before you started sawing, were you? 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

PS:  You weren't in the motel business before you started sawing, were you? 

smiley_horserider

[bates]

No,uncle Norm didn't need help at the motel...  The new used mill is in Montmorency County in NE Michigan.  Bought to give us a retirement hobby... Retirement (hopefully) in about 1.5 years.  In the meantime  we (wife and I) will use it on weekends.  Lots of ash that either gets sawed or will rot.

[Delawhere Jack]

Welcome to the FF Bates.

Like MM said, those figures are based on a setup with some support equipment and some extra hands offloading slabs and boards. But don't let that burst your bubble, you can still turn some pretty impressive numbers without a lot of extras. The single biggest issue is efficient material handling. I've met or beat the 400bf/hr rate on a couple occasions on mobile jobs with just a tractor to load logs and some dedicated hard working offbearers.

And remember, you're not an official member of the brotherhood of bandmillers until you try to saw a backstop or clamp!  ;)

[shakebone]

Speed will come ! Like DJ said go ahead and saw the backstop that will speed you up as you will not be going slow not to hit it !  :laugh:

[Brucer]

I usually take the quote sawing rate and divide by 4. Sounds like you're doing all right.

I had a look at the manual for an older hydraulic Wood-Mizer and it said that one person working alone could saw 1000 BF in an eight hour day. That's 125 BF per hour, not 400. You don't see that kind of information in the manuals today.

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Bates!

[Sixacresand]

Welcome to the Forum, Bates.  With plenty of help, support equipment, good logs, 2000 bf is a good day for me. Usually the customer provides the help and they get "board" after a few hours and want to knock off. If I am sawing by myself, about three twenty-four inch logs a day is about my limit.  That includes edging on the mill. sticking and stacking the boards,  handling slabs, moving logs and stacks of lumber,hauling off slabs, and long iced tea breaks. 

[Ox]

Welcome to the best place on the internet!

[scully]

Great Mill! and welcome . I can say this ,as you grow into your mill you will have those days in the "sun" when your BF makes you smile and say wow ! But over all sounds like your doing prety darn good !

[YellowHammer]

The sawmill will only produce when the blade is in the wood making sawdust.  Take a hard look at your operation and youll get a good idea where to improve. 
My LT40 has three speeds and three lumber production rates.  Lowest production rate is me sawing alone and sweating, next increased production rate is me sawing with one off bearer and both of us sweating, and the highest production is me sawing with two off bearers and all three of us sweating.  ;D Each time I add "help" or support equipment, my production rate increases. 
If you are sawing by yourself, adding a helper will significantly increase your production rate.
YH

[Magicman]

I love your "three speed" analogy.   

[Sixacresand]

Seems like with any job, 2 people can get three times as much work done as one.  With two helpers, you can sit up on the mill like MagicMan and enjoy the ride. 

[Ox]

I remember this as well as a kid on the farm.  2 people don't double the speed and efficiency, it basically triples it. 
It never made sense to me, but there it is.  ??? :P

[SawyerBrown]

Ox, don't you ever wish you had 3 hands?  (And instead try using your mouth, chin, elbow, knees, or other body part as a substitute?).  There you go!  And, yes, the "divide and conquer" technique works so much better than trying to do everything yourself!

[drobertson]

Had a good chat with my forester this morning, after reviewing the work to be done with the prescribed plan on the stands, he asked how my production was going.  I gave him some real close ball park numbers, in a very humbled tone, you see sawing alone, even after 10 years, you are running close to my numbers.  Now I will say the logs and cut list will influence the total at the end of the day, but the bottom line is material handling, and as YH mentioned, keeping the blade in the log.  Very critical for upping the bd/ft numbers per hour.
I like most everyone else strive for quality, with volume taking a back seat.  There are times and jobs where I chunk it out, and even alone the numbers will go up proportionally to the sweat that drip from the brow ;D   Finally he said that's not too bad for a one man mill, and my stacks look great, very nice lumber. The last job being 16 foot logs I was averaging near 300 bd/ft an hour, and felt it at the end of the day.

[Ox]

SawyerBrown - yessir, you bet, 100%.  In fact, I wish there were 3 of me running around here.  Then maybe I could come up with a full body the way I used to be and be able to get something done!

[ozarkgem]

100 bf per hr is about what I saw.

[Larry]

Nobody has mentioned production is a really dependent on what your are sawing.  Sawing 4/4 hardwood for the highest grade, out of 8' logs is a lot slower than sawing framing lumber out of 16' pine logs.  All kinds of different examples.

What are you sawing?  I guess your sawing with a lt40 super since you mentioned 400 bf/hr in your first post.

Welcome to the forum bates.  If you read enough around this place you will pick up little tips that will make sawing easier and faster. 

[Brucer]

...  2 people don't double the speed and efficiency, it basically triples it. 
It never made sense to me, but there it is.  ??? :P

For most work, there are "overhead tasks" that have to be performed by someone. The second person doesn't have to do these tasks.

An example. When I run the edger with my helper, I lever the flitch onto the infeed table, dial in the width, and push the board into the edger, guiding it just long enough for all the feed rollers to grab the board. Mary grabs the edgings as they leave the machine and puts them onto the roller conveyors. Then she grabs the edge board and slides it onto the pile. Meanwhile I've already got the next board ready and have decided how wide it will be.

When I edge alone, I have to walk back and forth between the two jobs. I can usually walk from the infeed side to the outfeed side while the flitch is being sawn. When I've finished with the lumber the entire time I'm walking back to feed the next flitch, I'm not doing either my tasks or Mary's tasks.