Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[hunt4570]

Oldpath inspired me to dig up this picture. (Sorry, no tractor pictures, though my tractor did get used to transport the lumber back up to the site.)

We used a curved sugar maple as the collar-tie on a small timber frame pavilion I helped construct at a favorite hiking spot a few years ago. We needed at least one sugar maple log in the project, because this is Vermont, after all. The curve was because the timber framer loved putting a bit of "character" into his timber frames. The frame was constructed on top of the old dam control station for a reservior which was the water supply for a neighboring town many years ago.

The wood was harvested within a couple hundred yards of this site. It was sawed on the landing on this property, a couple thousand feet away. The furthest any of the wood traveled from this spot was to the timber framers shop 9 miles away. All of those volunteering for the project got a chance to help make the joinery and hand-hew one of the beams which had been left un-sawed just for that purpose.

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Pretty cool!!

 

[Oldpath05]

You guys make it look so easy, and fun.

FUN.................. My mill dont have enough buttons switches and knobs for fun, manual log turning is a workout, then stacking lumber and sawdust clean up is non stop no thrill chore.

 

[Oldpath05]

Oldpath inspired me to dig up this picture. (Sorry, no tractor pictures, though my tractor did get used to transport the lumber back up to the site.)

We used a curved sugar maple as the collar-tie on a small timber frame pavilion I helped construct at a favorite hiking spot a few years ago. We needed at least one sugar maple log in the project, because this is Vermont, after all. The curve was because the timber framer loved putting a bit of "character" into his timber frames. The frame was constructed on top of the old dam control station for a reservior which was the water supply for a neighboring town many years ago.

The wood was harvested within a couple hundred yards of this site. It was sawed on the landing on this property, a couple thousand feet away. The furthest any of the wood traveled from this spot was to the timber framers shop 9 miles away. All of those volunteering for the project got a chance to help make the joinery and hand-hew one of the beams which had been left un-sawed just for that purpose.

View attachment 661078

Thats good use for banana wood but sugar maple, around hear thats a sin.

 

[Oldpath05]

My first set of holes needs more accuracy, I either need 4 sets of eyes or do jackrabbit drilling, neither option is really that good for drilling straight holes, lots of straight holes. There has to be a cheap low cost better way, especially right now since L-6 and BIW is going through a disagreement.

So after watching some youtube videos I got inspired, I need a jig so I can the jig non stop, hole after hole in right location from both sides. A quick portable drilling block seams to me the best option but to make it was 4 hours, well 2 hrs thinking and clamping. I never thought it would be so hard to hold things dead on square, as soon as I put a clamp on, the blanking things moves.

But I think I got something that on one test beam seems to work quick and on target with just one line on top of beam to center the jig on. I use a long 3/16 drill bit first from both sides, it seems to be the best size to use first so the next 3/4 wood bit becomes easier to back out and still drill in quick. After the 3/16 I switch over to the heavier duty 3 speed Dewalt and drill from both sides then high gear to clean hole out. Now let me see if I can be the first one to flip this page 700 with no thumb nail pics, if I do I win the tractor.

 

[Oldpath05]

I have all 10 6x6's on saw horses for 1, 5' panel, 4 are drilled, now I'm getting some serious weight.

 

[Jstpssng]

I was looking at that, and thinking that your sawhorses must be pretty solid.

 

[Gordon Gould]

My first set of holes needs more accuracy, I either need 4 sets of eyes or do jackrabbit drilling, neither option is really that good for drilling straight holes, lots of straight holes. There has to be a cheap low cost better way, especially right now since L-6 and BIW is going through a disagreement.

So after watching some youtube videos I got inspired, I need a jig so I can the jig non stop, hole after hole in right location from both sides. A quick portable drilling block seams to me the best option but to make it was 4 hours, well 2 hrs thinking and clamping. I never thought it would be so hard to hold things dead on square, as soon as I put a clamp on, the blanking things moves.

But I think I got something that on one test beam seems to work quick and on target with just one line on top of beam to center the jig on. I use a long 3/16 drill bit first from both sides, it seems to be the best size to use first so the next 3/4 wood bit becomes easier to back out and still drill in quick. After the 3/16 I switch over to the heavier duty 3 speed Dewalt and drill from both sides then high gear to clean hole out. Now let me see if I can be the first one to flip this page 700 with no thumb nail pics, if I do I win the tractor.

I like your jig. But what if the beams are bowed enough so the jig drilled holes don't line up ? I know they make it look easy on you-tube but at about 9:30 in on this video they build a bridge panel. Use a 7/8 drill for 3/4 bolt and mark the holes by driving rods thru previously drilled beams. Then roll the beam over to drill. They make the statement drilling vertical is easiest and they use a bit better suited for keeping hole straight. I have no idea if this is better method but they look like they have done it before.

Better Stream Crossings: Using Portable Skidder Bridges - YouTube

gg

 

[hunt4570]

FUN.................. My mill dont have enough buttons switches and knobs for fun, manual log turning is a workout, then stacking lumber and sawdust clean up is non stop no thrill chore.

Agreed.. It is always a project.. but not having to go to the lumber yard for a project is fun!!

 

[Creamer]

There are farms here who keep REALLY good records, and for a time they tried corn and bean, no till. And when they did, their yields were lower! So they went back to doing tillage.

SO, no till just doesn't work everywhere.

SR

Or did they not do it right? There are a lot of changes you have to make to get it to work, and yes it is not the same things in different climates, soils, crops, etc but from what I have seen yields will improve almost everywhere if you know how to read the soil. Try this one on for size - dryland corn five years in a row with NO herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or fertilizer that outperformed the conventionally tilled fields around. The experiment is only into its sixth year so we will see how it goes but total up the cost of input savings and it is huge.

It is a total change in thinking but it is being proven in many parts of the world. Out in the Dakotas there are still many farmers who farm conventionally but there are a lot of who have converted very successfully. My nephews will tell you their wheat yields will fall back to almost half what they are now if they started conventionally tilling again. Their basis is when they takeover renting land that has been conventionally tilled and see the yields and then see where the yields get to in a few years as they get the ground converted - it doesn't happen overnight and takes about ten years when you know exactly what to do in that soil, climate, etc.

 

[Creamer]

So then you just go fling your seeds on top of hard packed soil?

Is your name Bloomberg?