productivity..or lack of

[alanh]

O.K., I`m new at this, have a manual mill and realize in life experience improves everything but I`m getting a little frustrated with myself over getting some lumber stacked. I`m cutting 16 ft pine logs for a timberframe truss pavilion I`m building for myself, so essentially I need 6x6`s for the truss` and 1x`s for the roof/ceiling. I`m concentrating on getting the 6 x centered on the log as advised here, making 1 x whatever as I get to that goal. I do alright (IMO) with a helper but yesterday by myself it took me over an hour to cut up a log that yielded me 1 6x6, 2 1x8`s and 4 1x6`s...
I read somewhere here not to bother wasting time w/flitches? Seems like I can`t decide what lumber to make lumber and what to throw away

[Magicman]

I "waste" plenty of time dealing with flitches.  You have already spent the time removing the flitch, so why not recover the lumber?  Depending upon what your target cant is and the log size, side lumber can be ¼+ of the log's yield.

[AnthonyW]

When I started I was cutting a log, then edging those flitches, then loading and cutting the next log, then cutting those flitches. I have changed that up a bit. Now I cut 2-3 logs and sort the flitches into 3-4 widths. Then place them back on in larger groups from the widest to the narrowest. With the manual up/down head crank, it seems to save a bunch of time (and effort) by minimizing how much I have to raise and lower the head.

[Magicman]

I realize that it is easier to speak when you have hydraulics, but I seldom accumulate more than ~6 before they are being edged into lumber.

[47sawdust]

I work alone as well.Lt30 ,power feed,up/down,hyd. toe rollers and electric winch.Sometimes it seems like I'm not accomplishing much for my  effort.I just finished cutting 18 hemlock 6x6 and I was grateful for the toe rollers as well as a 10 foot roller conveyor.I got 50 1x6x16 and 30 1x8x16 out of the logs in addition to the 6x6.So as MM says there is a lot of lumber in those side pieces.My attitude is the difference maker,if I'm tired or out of sorts I try to find something else to do unto the "weather" improves.I try to remind myself that I'm supposed to be enjoying myself,usually that works ,no matter the task.
Best of luck to you.

[Magicman]

I worked ~3 hours sawing alone yesterday.  I was dealing with 10' Cypress logs of varying quality and yield.  My output was maybe 400bf which included stickering.  After the customer arrived, we sawed another ~740bf in two hours.  Even with hydraulics, help matters.

[losttheplot]

Hi Alanh,
I have a manual mill also, I find pushing the saw through the log takes the least amount of time. Its the moving things around that takes most of the time.
An hour per log doesn't sound too bad. Did you include the time you will be spending cleaning up the sawdust, dealing with the slabs and taking your blades to be sharpened  :D :D
As 47sawdust says, try to enjoy the process 
Things will get a little smother as you gain experience. You will find yourself moving things only once instead of twice  :D :D

Cheers.
LTP.

[AnthonyW]

O.K., I`m new at this, have a manual mill and realize in life experience improves everything but I`m getting a little frustrated with myself over getting some lumber stacked. I`m cutting 16 ft pine logs for a timberframe truss pavilion I`m building for myself, so essentially I need 6x6`s for the truss` and 1x`s for the roof/ceiling. I`m concentrating on getting the 6 x centered on the log as advised here, making 1 x whatever as I get to that goal. I do alright (IMO) with a helper but yesterday by myself it took me over an hour to cut up a log that yielded me 1 6x6, 2 1x8`s and 4 1x6`s...
I read somewhere here not to bother wasting time w/flitches? Seems like I can`t decide what lumber to make lumber and what to throw away

So far you are at 100 bdft per hour. One could argue the 6x6 skews the numbers but with the manual mill and limited equipment it likely took you as long to unload the one 6x6 as it would have take to cut and remove six 1x6's. With the LT25 and one helper, I cut one pine log in 3 hours that yielded 750 bdft of lumber; that included loading and edging. It was the second log of the day so we knew everything was setup and working and still fresh. We hustled as much as we could to see how fast we could go. The only two places we could see there time was to be made up, was raising the head (lowering is not an issue) and loading.

I would not worry about the speed, it will come.

[alanh]

thanks for the input, for now it seems the first priority would be to make the flitch cutting more efficient, i like the idea of putting them in like piles and doing a bunch at once, could go out after dinner some night and clean up a bunch. I also need to come up with a closer, higher place to put them, I`ve seen the hydraulic guys just drop them on the loader arms. I`ve been taking them off and putting them on a row of pallets perpendicular to the mill then picking them back up to cut them, I need a spot to hold them not in the way of other operations.

[btulloh]

I've been going through the same thing.  I've only been doing this since last August and every log is another step in the learning process.  Increasing company productivity was something I spent a lot of time on in my career, so it's only natural for me to apply that to sawmilling.  Trouble is instead of a few hundred people, it's just me.  But then there's no interpersonal dynamics to worry about either - which is a good thing.

Edging flitches takes a lot of time.  I keep trying new approaches and it's getting a little more efficient.  Like you said - handling the flitches efficiently pays off.  (True across the board, really.)  Right now I stack them on bunks (or the tractor forks) next to the mill in a pile next to the lumber I'm taking off.  I've tried gang edging and individual edging.  I still need to improve the process, either way.  Leveling the flitches is fussy in a gang, a little easier solo.  With one edge done, the gang is ok - I just work my way down and take one out as it's finished.  A lot of dogging and un-dogging though.  Takes time and effort with my manual mill.  Somebody said they do some edging when they're taking boards off a cant and it's low enough to use as a fence.  The cant makes a good backstop and you avoid the need for throwing a backstop fence on.  I tried it - there are times when it helps.  I've found that no one way is THE way. 

I invited some input in a thread a week or so back that had some good ideas from other people:  https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,89700.msg1381686.html#msg1381686    You may want to read through it.  It was good to see how other people were doing things.  Somewhere on here someone said that 80% of the time is spent on non-sawing tasks.  That seems about right.  I used to spend more time moving lumber, sticker, storing, cleaning up slabs, etc than I do now.  Improving all that other work has helped the whole process.  There's still room for improvement.

No matter how much I'd like to speed things up I do try to enjoy the whole process even when I'm not as productive as I want.  So far that's working.  I try to review the day's work at the end of the day and find at least one thing that could have been done better and dial it in for the next time.  Over time it's getting better and things are getting more efficient, but there's still a long way to go.

There's another thread from last week about homemade log decks that also has some good points that relate to this topic. 

I'm sure there'll be some good responses to your post that will help all of us.

[WV Sawmiller]

alanh,

   I may be like MM in flitch numbers. I almost never save the flitches off a log till the next one although separating by width sounds like a good idea. I'm afraid I would end up handling each several more times. I am using a hydraulic mill with the loader arms serving as my table for my flitches. I toss everything on the arms till I start producing finished lumber. I cut the cant until it is lower than my target board size. Example if I am cutting 1X6s when I get below 6" on my cant I stop, stack the flitches next to the cant and edge them. I find this gives me a squarer cut than standing a stack of flitches on edge. If cutting random widths I edge till I have a clean edge then flip it. When I have 2 clean edges I remove the finished board and stack it. If I end up with flitches that won't make my target board width I often leave it clamped to my cant and continue cutting generating 1X1 tomato stakes or stickers for drying my lumber. Since I am short on space here or ideally cutting at a client site I don't have the luxury of a bunch of sawhorses set up to stage flitches. If I were stationary I would consider building and using such. Of course if I were stationary or sawing with experienced help I'd consider the single blade edgers WM sell.

[Magicman]

Or look here for a twin blade edger.

[47sawdust]

alanh,
You say you place your flitches on pallets.You might consider building some stout sawhorses to place them on.I made two sets out of ash.Last week I had 32 pieces of hemlock stacked on them to be edged.They are very handy and keep your work up off the ground

 
If you look to the left of the mill you will see the horses I use.Full disclosure, I cheat and use an edger, best investment I made after the mill.