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OldJarheads Milling Thread...

Started by OlJarhead, April 06, 2016, 02:06:53 PM

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coxy

ok what is split the pith mean  ??? cutting the heart in half :-\

OlJarhead

Pith is the very center, usually about the size of a pencil or smaller.  I didn't split it and was off by about 1/2" however the boards with it or just off may have too much movement.  The rest should be fine so experience has shown me.

2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

Peter Drouin

A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

WDH

Yes Sir.  Only the boards from the middle that contain the juvenile wood will go delinquent (juvenile delinquent boards  :D).  Your species may have a small juvenile core.  This SYP down here can have a large juvenile core, especially the fast grown stuff, and that juvenile wood will give you fits  :)
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Deese

This is how I saw syp framing lumber. The pith is centered in the middle 4" wide beam. As WDH stated, and as you can see, this log has a large juvenile core, roughly the size of a baseball. I sawed these 16' long 2x4's last week.


 
2004 LT40 Super 51hp w/6' bed extension
Cooks AE4P Edger
Cat Claw sharpener/Dual Tooth Setter
Kubota svl75-2 skidsteer w/grapple, forks, brushcutter
1977 Log Hog Knuckleboom loader/truck

Magicman

Excellent picture.  I have it's sister in my Gallery.   ;D
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

fishfighter

Quote from: Deese on September 19, 2017, 03:23:11 PM
This is how I saw syp framing lumber. The pith is centered in the middle 4" wide beam. As WDH stated, and as you can see, this log has a large juvenile core, roughly the size of a baseball. I sawed these 16' long 2x4's last week.


 

Yep, that is how I do it too! But, I have to remove each slab to be able to saw down. :(

Darrel

I posted this pic in a different thread but I think it fits well here too.



The log I cut these from was a 16' banana and as you can see, the boards stayed straight until the juvenile wood entered into the edge of them on the last 3 feet. I knew it would be a problem at the time but wanted to see if I could get away with it and I didn't.
1992 LT40HD

If I don't pick myself up by my own bootstraps, nobody else will.

grouch

Darrel,

I don't want to meet whoever is going to use those slightly oversized hockey sticks.
Find something to do that interests you.

Peter Drouin

Deese, you should cut a sq, cant then divide into 2x4 . Your way you lost lumber. You could have made a 2x6 or 8 with the the top cut .
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

Magicman

True Peter, especially in your instance when you are sawing your logs.  But when custom sawing for a customer, you saw the cut list.  He very well might not want any 2X6's or 2X8's.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Jim_Rogers

Quote from: OlJarhead on September 18, 2017, 08:22:32 PM
Pith is the very center, usually about the size of a pencil or smaller.  I didn't split it and was off by about 1/2" however the boards with it or just off may have too much movement.  The rest should be fine so experience has shown me.



Normally when I see a crack in the end of a log like this:

I rotate the log so that the crack is horizontal. That way it either ends up all in one board/plank or in a cut, if you're lucky.
In this position you are going to have that crack in the end of all those boards. Just my way of rotating a log. Sometimes you have other factors that don't allow you to rotate it but I can't think of one right now.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

WV Sawmiller

Jim,

   I try to do the same thing. I start with the main crack completely vertical, slab off the first cut, rotate 180 degrees and cut to my final board width then rotate 90 degree, take off the wane, rotate 180 degrees again and start on my mark to end exactly on a finished board. This puts the crack horizontal as you describe.

   The monkey wrench in the gears is when there are multiple cracks at various angles then you just do the best you can. Hardwoods are much worse for pith cracks than pine in my experience.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Deese

Quote from: Peter Drouin on September 20, 2017, 05:54:36 AM
Deese, you should cut a sq, cant then divide into 2x4 . Your way you lost lumber. You could have made a 2x6 or 8 with the the top cut .

Yes Sir you are right.  The guy actually needed 35 2x4's and 40 2x6's. This was a dead pine I cut down from our property earlier that morning. But, this was my last log currently available and I would have ended up with 34 2x4's if I didn't get that top middle one.
2004 LT40 Super 51hp w/6' bed extension
Cooks AE4P Edger
Cat Claw sharpener/Dual Tooth Setter
Kubota svl75-2 skidsteer w/grapple, forks, brushcutter
1977 Log Hog Knuckleboom loader/truck

OlJarhead

I had other logs I was able to slice the crack that way but in this case it was 'either/or' as the other end was checked also.  Luckily the crack was short and the 13' lumber will all be cut down to 8' in the end ;)

This customer wanted either 8" or 10" boards and I could have cut it down to 10" and then sliced away boxing in the pith on one but with the time to cut 5/8" lumber I decided to go ahead and split the log this way and make two at a time. 

On a side note I got a BIG tip on this one :D  More for the walnut I suppose, which was a monster to mill but the customer was very happy in the end.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

4x4American

Quote from: Jim_Rogers on September 20, 2017, 09:16:28 AM
Quote from: OlJarhead on September 18, 2017, 08:22:32 PM
Pith is the very center, usually about the size of a pencil or smaller.  I didn't split it and was off by about 1/2" however the boards with it or just off may have too much movement.  The rest should be fine so experience has shown me.



Normally when I see a crack in the end of a log like this:

I rotate the log so that the crack is horizontal. That way it either ends up all in one board/plank or in a cut, if you're lucky.
In this position you are going to have that crack in the end of all those boards. Just my way of rotating a log. Sometimes you have other factors that don't allow you to rotate it but I can't think of one right now.

Jim Rogers


A little crack like that should clean up in the trim on the log.  Besides, go look at the other end of the log, probably another crack and it's twisted the other way.  When I'm cutting cants for the resaw if there is a big crack i make it perpendicular to the bed, saw two faces down to my cant size and then stand it up and cut in half to make 3 sided cants and then the crack will be parallel to a cut when the resaw gets it and hopefully only take out one board.  Or if I'm lucky it's in a spot where the sawmill can split the crack.  Things that would make me favor something else before accomadating a crack are knot placement, rot placement, sweep, can my sawhead fit this way lol
Boy, back in my day..

Peter Drouin

Deese, You do what have to.
Magicman, When I was on the road sawing I would tell the customers there is always over run from cutting logs. Do you want 1" or 2". I don't put $$$ in the slab pile.I got paid for all the lumber in the log.  I did fill the cut list and cut by the BF.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

OlJarhead


Just under 98,000bf on this mill now :)  Arrived onsite at just after 8am and milled until 5Pm :)  Was a good day and netted 1749.6bf though I might have done more but the customer moved a lot of wood faster than I was calculating it!


Split this one but found milling near 18" wide with the 4 degree bands can be slow so dumped off one cant and hit two at a time instead and then set to taking down the last one..


I sometimes look back at these pics and think: "maybe I should have nicked off those edges a bit better" but I got some 2x4's out of them.


So the day was going well until.....and then a hit another!  Two bands hit nails :(

Did a fair amount of walnut (4 logs) which slowed me down a bunch or I would have done more in less time but it was a good day anyway :)

Another tip too :D

Gotta love it.

On to 100Mbf!
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

grouch

Looks like some nice logs with at least 1 goofy looking one in the pile.
It also looks like you laid down a nice carpet of sawdust!
Find something to do that interests you.

OlJarhead

The goofy ones are the walnut.  I explained that my experience with branches are that they tend to move a lot but I will mill anything a customer wants me to mill.  I mill by the hour and if they want to experiment I'm all for it.  Milled 4 walnut branches into 2"x4" boards that they plan to dry and plane down to at least 1 1/2" x 3 1/2".  Guess we'll see.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLi3dHPbuiY
This was right before the last....should have added them together
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja2xzI0m1vI
These 4 degree bands are definitely slower but cut a nicer, flatter, smoother finish.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

Got some maintenance done on the mill today. Just simple things like oiling the rails with ATF, topping off the oil, running the motor to burn off more fuel (down about 1/4 tank and thinking of adding some ethanol free mixed with stabil for the winter.


 
Pulled the tarp off which we'd pulled over the mill a month or so ago to keep the rain off and got to work.



 
After firing it up I noticed it's turned 391 hours :)


 
See :)  Still got a way to go but suspect I can hit the 500 mark no problem in the spring if the shoulder holds up!



  

 
Should get something to get the pitch off I suppose ;) But you can see the paint wearing off where my hands ride....sign of use?



  

 
Last years negligence (no tarp all winter and lots of standing snow on the mill) was sufficient enough to remind me to coat the rails heavily with ATF and cover with a tarp this year!

I may mill next weekend if the shoulder allows me to (and the neck)...and the weather.  I thought to take off the rest of the winter but someone needs 20 10 footers milled up....could do in a day or so if all goes well but more likely two since rough calc on the logs says 3600bf if the customer is close (he says 24" diameter at the small end....I'm guess ave 20 to come up with 3600 but could be a lot less.  I've done that much in a day though but it really requires lots of daylight, a good crew and good equipment.

And since I have to drive 2+ hours to get there, setup and then start milling I'm guessing 6hrs on day one for 1800bf-2400bf.....
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

submarinesailor

Eric,
After a little bit of experimenting, we found that Fluid Film (https://www.fluid-film.com/products/fluid-film-aerosol-non-aerosol-bulk/) works better than anything else.  We also take a piece of schedule 40 PVC pipe, split it length wise and slip it down over the rail.  If you are planning on storing it for the winter, I would look at the Fluid Film.

Bruce

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