A learning lesson.

[danweb]

Well guys I told you I would share about how things went with me tackling this 60" sugar maple. Remember the customer wanted it quartersawn. My first attempt at this. Well, we get to the site, First my son and I take out the chainsaws and do a bit of trimming , so as to be able to quarter this baby, with a Husk, 372 with 24" bar. Found out thta that isn't enough saw for this kind of work. Anyways, then we began quartering the log. As I was showing my son how to do it (Yeah Right) about half way down the log my saw just dropps into the void. And what a void it was. Come to find out that this tree is rotted, with a huge cavity dead center. Five foot from each end the tree is basically worthless. So I called the customer and informed him about this, He said go ahead and do what I could, Now I have allready quoted him a price and for some reason this rot slowed down the whole process. We worked all day, And still have another 4 hours of work left to do, milling this tree has been an adventure, the rotten , or pithy very soft parts just go everywhere. And I have had to replace a blade after just getting started because of this kinda soft like allmost styrofoam condition of this tree. The chainsaw, I rented, the 372 throws chains, so I figure the bar is bent, but it relly looks ok, then it becomes hard to start , then it just quits all together, then it wont even pull start, I think it is the pull roppe mechanism, but the rental place , thinks it might be locked up. So My saw, the 137 husky, which isnt big enough except for maybe trimming becomes my only saw , We finally get maybe half the tree cut ip, after all day. And most the lumber isnt fully quartersawn because to get the most out of what he had, I had to saw it differently. Still gonna be a lot of lumber, but I dont think most of it will be worth a darn. But I did, get some nice cuts, of pure quartersaw lumber so far, spalded and really shining stuff. Any ways, i will post pictures when I remember the program Kirk told me about. I have since then lost all my stuff on my computer whn I got a bad virus and had to re-format. Kinda like I need to do with this job. I wont make a penny on this baby, I will pay my son but My expenses and with the extra day added on, I will lose a bit. Oh well at least we came away to day with everything attached and I think that makes for a good day.

[danweb]

I think I said in that previous post that I am going back out there tommorrow. I was wrong about that, I have another job allready lined up for tommorrow and probably Saturday. Customer has 20 , 14" Cedars he wants milled into 2x4s. Plus he said he has a few other larger trees he wants milled too. So we are heading out there to try our hand at that. LOL  Oh yeah and tommorrow, first thing, I am stopping by a local shop that sells Husky's (Yeah Steve, I know, that is what you call a dog!) And I am buying the biggest saw they have. it's a 575xp, Its a beefed up model of the 372xp. At $779.99, I hope I have a better day of sawing. And my lord willing, I am hoping to actually make enough to pay my expenses.

[Kirk Allen]

Its those kind of jobs that require billing by the hour instead of a flat rate.  Anytime I have to use my chainsaw they are on the clock at $60 an hour.  Logs over 30" are billed by the hour instead of the BF. 

I know I use to charge by the hour for everything until I learned enough to bang out more BF in an hour, thus making more by charging by the BF. 

Many jobs get it both ways!

Dan, as far as the chain throwing itself off, I would suspect the small sprocket on the saw head is shot. 

I have a 372XP and  a 385XP and both work well for ripping logs lengthwise but only with a ripping chain.  The 385 is my first choice.

You might check with Baileys on a saw as they had the italian Efco saw on sale which if I remember correctly is a husky repackaged.

[danweb]

Yeah Kirk, I agree with you , right now by the hour is wiser. Thats what I did quote this job at, but I told him that it wouldnt take more than 8 hours . So I have to stick to that, I will eat the rest. I dont feel like right now, I can go back and say that I mis quoted the time for doing the job. I will know better next time, and like I said it is a learning experience. As far as the saw, I did look at the ones you mentioned. In fact I also looked at the echo. But again, right now, I think I will stick to the proven ones. But the price tag hurts, LOL . But then again, like yo also said, after I get better at this, I will be able, to switch the requirements to meet my needs instead of the customers. Thanks for your advice and direction. Appreciate it.