I have to agree with you on that. Preparation is important with many things , this is another example. Not to mention first impression. If I was to come to your place to buy some boards there is not a question in my mind that I would be leaving with a truck full. Excellent job!
The tractor basket is a massive time saver, and makes difficult stuff a cinch. And yeah, the fan was a necessity.... it was about a billion percent humidity last week, a little air movement makes so much difference.
Got the last few loads of logs hauled off the salvage job this week. There were 3 more loads but my camera was set on "take enormous pictures" mode, so I can't get em to upload...too many bites...
We sawed up 44 dinky logs into slabs the other day, took 3 hours to get em slabbed out, then a couple days later we made the time to edge it into lumber.... about 5 hours total for 700bf from logs to stickered lumber. I think it's at least as fast doing it this way as opposed to squaring up each log into cants, and then making boards outta em, but the lumber is turning out better this way. It's pretty much impossible to get a tiny can't square, but that's a non issue with slabs.
Cant..... Slab.... So, a can't is essentially a log that has been squared up into something like a beam, that is then sawed into boards. A slab is simply a slice of a log with the natural edges, ("wane" ) still on it, that is then cut off (edged) to make boards. In this case we put the log on the mill, and saw a flat face, wide enough to get a 1x4 or 2x4, then flip it 180° so that cut is flat on the deck, and then "slab it out" which on theses little logs, I usually get two 2x's and one 1x. With an edger you can make way higher production this way....but we ain't got no edger, unfortunately. I wish I had decent internet here and I'd just shoot a video, but no bueno.... Edit: Flitch is the word many (most) people use for what I'm calling a slab. It seems like maybe I'm using the wrong word, but after 30+ years I think I'll just stay "wrong".
Just read through this thread.. Impressive work Sawdust Man Can't say I've ever seen that much cedar before.
Thank you sir. I'd never seen so much cedar till we moved here either. I like milling cedar because it saws so easy, I can cut up to 2k bf between blade changes.
Here's some water oak saw logs you can have......free... Fell across a friend's driveway this afternoon...they cut and loaded it
Yes, it's not primo wood. Water oak, in the red oak family, is bad about having center rot. We'll grade it as we split it, probably be a lot of firepit or personal wood in that load.