If you find you're not getting enough straight pieces for your cribbed ends, try sawing the log the long way. Of course you'll want to get it down to your basement workshop so you can use the band saw or table saw to cut it up. Luckily gravity will do a lot of the work.
Round 2 - testing the limits of man and machine. Machine/man well oiled and finely tuned but getting thirsty.
I'm glad I'm not you........you're workin' too hard. On the other hand, that looks like a blast (except for the hard work part).
One more - red pine 8x8 this time. So much lighter than the maple. I'll be working on some red maple and red pine firewood the rest of this weekend, so I figured I'd use the slab wood for the cribbed ends.
I'm not sure yet. At first, I was thinking I'd turn the pine into dimensional lumber. There was some blue staining around the outside of the log from whatever killed it, and I wasn't sure how deep it would go. But it looks like some really choice stuff in the center. It's nicer than the select pine you can get at the big box stores. Theres only 2 rings of knots in 8'. I may just sticker all the square cants, and bank them for future furniture projects. There's a 10x10x8' spalted red maple, 2 7x7x7' black cherry, and 1 8x8x8' red pine so far. Lots more to come too.
On to the stacking part today... The slab wood really does make some nice ends - rock solid. Stacked a trailer full, and split another trailer full of rounds today. If I can pull off the same tomorrow ill have all the maple split. The slab wood is going to make nice shingles for the holz too. The hidden side of the roof could use a few more splits to even it all out.
Shawn Curry.....the FHC guru who actually has a bandmill......in his BASEMENT.....now THAT'S dedication! Priceless
Made some more progress today - another load stacked and another one split. I'm going to leave some air space between the rows this time instead of packing it tight. Everything I've been splitting had been huge rounds. I was splitting them with the axe yesterday, but today I made a lot of noodles instead. My girlfriend raked them up for me, and deposited them in a low on my trails. She did the same with the pile of bark that's been falling off of these rounds. Made for a very busy and fun long weekend. Sorry I haven't been paying much attention to your guys stuff - I haven't been spending much time on social media stuff lately. Usually just long enough to post a few pics from my phone. Hope you guys are enjoying your summers as much as I am!
Looking good Shawn! Summer is great! 2 more weeks and the wife and I are heading to the UP of Michigan for a week! While we're gone I was hoping you could make the trip down here to css my log pile..lol..
