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Cody Colston
11-10-2015, 8:07 AM
I finally got around to sawing the Pine logs a friend had saved for us to halve the lumber. I had lots of help and was able to saw 950 bf of 4/4 lumber yesterday. That's the most I have ever sawn on my manual mill and about the most I am physically capable of sawing. I also sawed it all on one Cook's band before it broke on the last log planned for the day. The bark had slipped on the log and was easily removed so I think that helped preserve the band sharpness.

Sawing the rest today, about the same amount although some of the logs are recently felled.

John TenEyck
11-10-2015, 11:52 AM
That was a really good day, Cody. Did you sticker it all, too? I don't think I'd have enough left in the tank to do that two days in a row.

The most I've ever milled in one day with my chainsaw mill is somewhere around 300 BF. Getting logs onto the mill completely manually, and then rotating them, too, really slows things down. I am thinking about how to make the base of my mill assemble and level more easily. As part of that process I'm looking to incorporate a log lifter or par buckling system. I think the par buckling method might also double as a log turner.

John

Scott T Smith
11-10-2015, 12:56 PM
Cody, that's a great feat with a manual mill! One thing that I've found regarding bands is that if we swap them every 2 - 2.5 hours, they don't crack and break and we can resharpen them several times. If we run them longer, gullet cracks will develop and they will break.

Danny Hamsley
11-10-2015, 9:40 PM
Excellent day, my friend. That is getting it done.

Cody Colston
11-11-2015, 10:07 AM
Did you sticker it all, too?

I stickered the 550 bf that I brought home. One of my friends there followed me home and helped me. I was definitely ragged out by the time we finished. The landowner's son will sticker his after we get it all sawed...about 800 bf for him. I scooled him a bit on how to stack and sticker. It will go underneath a large shed and he also has a big fan there that will be used to dry the stack.

There were four of us there which is responsible for the production. The land owner drove one of his tractors loading logs onto the mill using my log tongs. We never had to wait on a log. He also had another tractor there and the slabs were stacked on the forks. When it was full, he would take them away somewhere and dump them. The other two pulled and stacked the lumber as it was sawed plus doing most of the log turning and clamping. I basically just sawed although I had to help with the clamping quite a bit as the guys could not seem to get the clamps low enough for the final 1" pass. I sawed all the lumber I took random width but sawed the landowner's at 8" width as his son intends to use it to panel the inside of his garage. I set the cant width when sawing the third face and had to explain several times that I would edge the side lumber that came off to get to that dimension. They were eager and wanted to jump in and rotate the log as soon as I got two square edges on the cant. Can't find fault with that, though. Basically, it was four 60+ old men having a good time.

Due to a dr.'s appointment, I got a late start yesterday and we only got about 500 bf sawed along with a bunch of stickers for the land owner. There are six logs left to saw and some more stickers for one of the helpers who will get the last batch. We will finish those Thursday as there are thunderstorms forecast for most of today.

The landowner as well as another acquaintance that stopped by both said they have some Cedar trees that will be taken down and they offered me the logs. Yep, I was glad to say I'll take all they can provide. :D