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Author Topic: saw mill story  (Read 7897 times)

Offline starmac

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saw mill story
« on: January 03, 2018, 03:15:01 PM »
A different kind of sawmill story.
I was talking to an old logger, custom log house builder friend of mine yesterday, and he told me this story about one of his mills.
He had a manual mill with a 13 horse Honda and 40 feet of track, not exactly portable.

He had loaned it to another guy that has been in and around the logging business around these parts for years,and it was stolen from the site he was building a cabin at.

It rocked on for several months, with no word of it's where abouts, when a guy with a somewhat shady lifestyle hit him up to borrow money.
The guy told him no as far as the loan, but since he knew he knew much of the shady crowd in the area, he would give him 500bucks if he located the stolen mill.
A few days later he tells them he thinks he has some leads on it, so my friend and the guy that he loaned it too and was paying the reward load this cat up and go to one place, where the guy talks to the people and gets a line on the mill, supposedly. They go to another place on a main road and sit in the driveway in plain view for 30 minutes or more while th shady cat is looking for the guy, he finally comes back and tells them we have to get out of here, the mill is not there, but he found the guy in the garage, graveyard dead. He wants to leave quick, as he is well known to local authorities, and not exactly in a good way.

My friend, says, my pickup has been parked here in plain view of everybody driving by for 30 minutes or more, no way am I just driving off without calling the law. lol
The law came and it was explained why they happened to be there and that was the end of it, with no problems for anybody, but I thought it was funny.

A couple of months later another guy that works in the woods and knew the mill spotted it and he got it back, but not with the help of the shady dude.lol



Offline Ox

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2018, 04:57:29 PM »
Too crazy to make up, right?  Truth is stranger than fiction.  Helluva read, I enjoyed it!  Thanks for sharing.
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Offline drobertson

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2018, 08:01:49 AM »
Now that is one wild freaking story! very believable.  I have to ask, was this in Alaska?  reason for the question?  I just happened to watch some show about Alaska and the State Troopers there the other day, I got sucked into a few shows back to back, and never realized that there was such the (riff  raff) if that's what its called was up there, then one of the Troopers said, " they (the riff raff) figure no one would ever think to search for them there"  crazy, glad the ole fellow got his mill back, that had to be a pain the the rear end,

Offline starmac

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2018, 03:26:41 AM »
Yea it was in Alaska, heck most of the old time Alaskans wound up here running from something, usually either the law or a woman. This is as far as they could run. lol

Now I always figured the guy who homesteaded at Prudhoe bay had to be running from something real serious like. If you take into account that at the time, there was not a road closer than probably 500 miles, no tree for 150 miles, not even a single strand of barbed wire to slow down the wind. Think about it, just what would it take to get you to follow a pack of dogs 500 miles north of the last person you saw, and stop when the last bush over 3 feet tall was 150 miles or so behind him, but can't go any further because he ran out of land, and think this here is my little slice of heaven. lol

Offline Kirk Allen

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #4 on: January 06, 2018, 08:31:00 AM »
starmac,
I spent 12 years in Anchorage and I think you could put me anywhere in AK and it would be my slice of heaven. 

Oh how we miss Alaska!  Looked for some property in Haines several years ago but just couldn't pull the trigger on anything at the time.  Still looking for that retirement property! 

Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching!

Offline Kirk Allen

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2018, 08:40:36 AM »
Since this just happen AGAIN, recently, I figured it's worth sharing.

How many have had a customer bring you a log and tell you they want XYZ lumber to build something and they are shocked when they find out that one log won't make the dimensions they want nor the volume of lumber they need?

Well, another brainchild of our education system showed up with a 10-foot oak log that was 10" diameter on the big end.  What makes this so comical to me was I had this very same size log and issue several years ago with another customer.

This guy wanted 2X10's, 5 of them but would appreciate if I could squeeze six out of this log. 

When I told him he couldn't get one 2x10 he was perplexed as I tried to explain the problem.  The small end on this log was just shy of 8", LOL

As the lumber education class progressed, this character took the position that I simply didn't know how to cut lumber. 

Having a log of the similar size of my own, I challenged him to a brain teaser.  He tells me what my log will produce, tells me where to make every cut, and if he is right, he gets every board from that log free of charge. 

His plan failed, even after the first two slab cuts which opened up his brain just a little and he wanted to change his original estimation.  I let him, he still lost! 

At the end of the day, he got some really nice full 2x6 boards from his log.  LOL 

I didn't have the heart to charge him for the education that rocked his brain pretty hard.  He truly had a hard time grasping the concept of converting circle shapes into rectangular shapes. LOL 


« Last Edit: January 06, 2018, 10:20:03 AM by Kirk Allen »
Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching!

Offline HaroldCR - AKA Fla.-Deadheader

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2018, 09:05:57 AM »
At the river saw site, we were set up fairly close to the hwy. We had a number of people stop and want their logs sawn. Very few had any idea what a log can saw out to.

 Then you have the ones that have nice logs and just want whatever we could get out of them. The few we actually did saw for were amazed at what we got from their logs. Ya just never know about peoples ideas.  ::)

Offline Ox

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2018, 10:28:02 AM »
Kirk, people like that I need to keep as far away from me as possible.  I don't have the capacity to handle them in a polite manner.

"I don't understand or believe you because I'm mentally superior to anyone else - you must be wrong even though you own a sawmill".  Yeah, this is temper explosion stuff for me.

I know one thing:  if this had happened to me I wonder how he would fit in his vehicle to drive away with that log up his backside?  It might have made me laugh, though, watching him try to walk.
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Offline starmac

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2018, 12:33:15 PM »
Kirk, my biggest regret as far as Alaska goes, is not coming 30 years before I finally did.

Offline Kirk Allen

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2018, 12:49:03 PM »
Kirk, my biggest regret as far as Alaska goes, is not coming 30 years before I finally did.

Just had to rub it in didn't you?

They say once you have lived there it will haunt you forever if you leave.  So true.  I am dying to get back!
Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching!

Offline starmac

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #10 on: January 06, 2018, 11:38:30 PM »
I know what you mean, I dreamed of it for 30 years before I came up the first time.
One major problem with just vacationing up here is you just get to see a small, small portion of it, a guy really needs a couple of months to see much, and that gets pretty spendy.
I hope you do make it back, if that is really what you want.

Offline Ox

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2018, 11:11:55 AM »
I know real estate prices were higher than hell last time I looked.  I decided I couldn't afford to move there if I wanted to.  It's a shame because I might have considered moving to the lower part of the state with all the year round milder weather. 
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

Offline A.O.

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Re: saw mill story
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2018, 01:58:52 PM »
So I like watching "buying Alaska" on tv, I don't know how true it is, but I'm always amazed at the people going way up there and looking at a place with 1-5 acres!! Seems like you go that far,  get some property, you can always build a bigger house, but you cant build more acres!

But then I've always likes living on acreage!