On the road again

[backwoods sawyer]

Almost a month on the road.
The first thing on the list was to give the mill a bath, wash radiator, change all five filters, and lube entire mill.
the maintenance list was long but it is getting whittled down now.
#23 was saw logs and I was ready to start with that one zzzzzzz...

[backwoods sawyer]

On the road again.
This trip was well over 200 miles out, we had enough saws to saw up the log truck load of Doug fir 6,000 bft in two days with a few left over. and since our two weeks of maintenance turned into only two days due to back to back urgent milling jobs one of which wiped out 12 saws.
We ordered a box of fresh saws rather than take the time to sharpen saws between jobs.
Ordered the saws on Friday, should have them by Tuesday.
Wrong I ordered them on line after hours so the order defaulted to the Indy office rather then the Portland office they are due in on Friday and I am due to have another log truck load milled by Friday. Looks like like early mornings of sharpening saws in order to stay on track.

[mountainlake]

 

 I've been on the road a lot also but home every day as the jobs are only around 30 miles away. Mon and Tue cutting blocking for a big construction company, about 120 logs in 2days cutting 2, 3, 4, or 6 inches thick by how  ever  wide the log would allow up to 12" wide.  Wen picked up a load of white oak. Today cut 3500 square ft 3/4" thick random width of white pine, no edging as the customer has a edger in 6  1/2 hours.  Better than 500 ft a hour with the best off bearer one could have.  Tomorrow, only 20 smaller logs 5 miles away . Sat have to fill a couple of orders and I'm supposed to be retired.   Steve

[Tom the Sawyer]

Been busy here too, catching up on appointments delayed by a very wet month of May.  12 jobs in 15 days, almost all of them on the road but within 45 miles.  Yesterday, heat index of 110, 1800 bf of mostly 4/4 oak with a bit of walnut and cherry, kept me humping to get done in a single visit.  An inch of rain overnight but today was a bit of a break, milling demonstration at an art gallery opening in downtown Kansas City, Mo.  Two artists working with the products from urban trees - a nice change of pace.  Back on the road tomorrow. 

[backwoods sawyer]

Pulled up on a whole house package well off the beaten path 65 miles out, and they were not ready Still taking trees down and they had logs scattered amongst the trees, after changing their site lay out to where we were using the contour of the ground rather than having the back of the mill in the dirt and the front of the mill at chin high as the last mill they had out had done, then cleared brush on a goat that had been a challenge for their Subaru to get thru on. After a couple hours of site prep we were able to get the mill set. On the second day I broke the connecting rod for the side supports. The ends are cast and did not take to being welded and broke again this time well away from the weld on the first pull of the lever. It was late Friday by the time i got cell service but got the parts on order so we will be back at it Tuesday. This is a home for dinner type job
We were needing a break anyway with temps in the high nineties and triple digits all week.

[backwoods sawyer]

Finished up the timber frame home package and the heat was getting to the mill, fire level has gone 1,2,3 so pulled the radiator and gave it a thorough cleaning and flush. It was needed.

[4x4American]

How did you tell it was getting hot?

[backwoods sawyer]

The little red light started coming on and the over flow hose started dripping.
 
Gave it a good work out and went thru 33 logs yesterday without the light flickering on and no dripping.

That was an interesting day though.
On the drive to the milling site two deer were in the road as we came to a high long bridge that crosses the main Umpqua so I pulled the mill up along with the log truck that was following, the deer were headed across the bridge when this little white car passed us and started pushing the deer and they started getting antsy, then a diesel motor home came down off the hill from the other direction, by then the deer were 3/4 of the way across and rather then stopping he pulled onto the bridge blocking their path both deer exited stage left 200' to the rocks below
Just sad

We set the mill on a roman nose bluff with no turn around and had to weave thru an orchard to get there. Had to spin the mill around to get it off the bluff not the best site but not the worst either.   



 

[backwoods sawyer]

Milled up this pair of incense cedar trees to make way for a new home.
The but log with the split in it needed to be squared up a bit to fit on the mill.

[4x4American]

That is sad to hear about the deer.  Hopefully it was a quick death. 

Looks like you need some new handle material on your logrites!

I still like the green paint job alot.

Keep it up!

[backwoods sawyer]

kkk

[backwoods sawyer]

Just for reference I run 16" wheels on the mill. That is a lot of clam

Nice logs make nice beams!!!
This was a truck load of 20"-28", #1 Doug Fir saw logs we milled for a timber frame home.

[4x4American]

Love the pictures, good work!  What do you gain with 16" wheels?  I would guess that you get more torque to the blade?

[backwoods sawyer]

Love the pictures, good work!  What do you gain with 16" wheels?  I would guess that you get more torque to the blade?

wrong wheels
The fender is large enough to fit a 16" tire

band wheels are 24"

[backwoods sawyer]

Hitting the road means early mornings and this was a family working trip.
 
This trip was to Oregon's south coast, the first 35 miles was winding down thru the canyon, then we follow the rivers windy course thru the coastal grass land all the way to the coast then headed south another hour along the coast line.
The customer had postponed a day to allow a rain front thru before we got started and we were catching the tail end of the weather on the drive.
When we arrived the customer had three log decks with a mix a Port orford cedar, Myrtlewood and Alder with fresh lawn everywhere. The ground was real soft in getting to the two bigger piles, so got started with the one that had the best path to it. By the time we moved the mill the ground had dried out some but was soft enough that when a leg shifted off a foundation board (a 1x8x8) while setting the mill up it sunk about 8".
This was one of those jobs where three generations are involved and everything flowed smoothly. To the customer big surprise we were able to finish their whole project in a 10 hr.
The best part was when the oldest member of the family came to watch and talk about sawmills from years gone by and the kids took a break explore the creek lined with Myrtlewood and full of aquatic life.


Note all the trees in the grove are Myrtlewood.

[backwoods sawyer]

triple digits again
this is part of the morning line up

Table tops were high on the cut list no mater the quality of cut with the chainsaw.

[mountainlake]

 Looks good, did you leave the natural edge on the slabs on the loader arms.  Looks like you really gave your chainsaw a workout and you.  Steve

[bradley bryan]

now that is a pile of shavings!!!

[backwoods sawyer]

They both ended up with on square side and one natural side.

I am liking this chainsaw but was glad to put it down and get back to milling for the rest of the day

[backwoods sawyer]

We are finally getting a break from the fire season.
This week it dropped from ex-4 to moderate-2 so I got started on a deck of oversized Doug fir logs that needed bucked to length so they could be positioned above the mill rather than below the mill which turned out to be a big chore for the old case 580 c backhoe. in two hours two logs had been moved so he opted to have a neighbor with a track hoe position the logs.

It was a good day to have the chainsaw in the tall grass/brush as it rained heavy before getting started and as I was finishing up.
The largest log is 48" and they averaged in the high 30's with some nice tight grain.
 
Bridge decking, and shed project
 

[furu]

Yes the rain has certainly helped on the IFPL levels up here in WA as well.  Lots of nice stuff you had to work with.

[4x4American]

wrong wheels
The fender is large enough to fit a 16" tire

band wheels are 24"

I completely missed that!   

That clam is huge!!

Talk about a hotdog in a hallway...

[backwoods sawyer]

This time I was running solo, grand-baby on the way so little Jo was staying close to home
GPS said 2 1/2 hours, I added another 1/2 since I was headed north on 101 to Florance. GPS said I never left home and my glasses were at home so that was useless    Add in multiple roads with the same name and the dead end the ended with cr and no turn around on a side hill is not the same as the one that ends with lake

when I pulled in it was obvious I needed to back in and how the logs were going to be moved was not so obvious as I was looking at a 48" Bull fir with 24" limb stobs laying on a 3' raised peninsula left after excavating and building the house and shop and no equipment available.
I set to work ripping the first log and rounding up the next then used the truck to work the halves down to the level the mill was set up on. As I worked the butt logs down the same route a road was made so I could get the truck up to the rest.

About mid day the coastal rain settled in, the glasses were sitting on the rain gear long day

The target was enough 1x8 to cover 200' of 8' fence out of 9' and 15' logs so 300 pieces Target reached

It was late when I pulled in.

[mountainlake]

 How the heck do you get in all those jobs where you have to buck up the logs and cut them in half or quarters, over here I might have to trim a log once in a while. Yesterday I 2 sided around 60 logs in 4-1/2 hours for a log house. Mill has been running great with no hiccups for a long time besides a mouse getting into one electrical box , the only one on my mill.  Steve

[backwoods sawyer]

There are a lot of "Over sized" logs and under sized chainsaws out here