red oak cut

woodmills1 · Dec 28, 2001

here is a shot of the load of red oak i cut and hauled home in a few hours. gonna saw them for a customer who is doing a post and beam carrage house for a garage. over 100 pieces witht the largest an 8"x10"x12' girt. just for reference he is paying $64 for that piece. am i cheap or should i say a good value?

James "woody" Mills

woodmills1 · Dec 28, 2001

another view

James "woody" Mills

woodmills1 · Dec 28, 2001

in action

James "woody" Mills

AndyR · Dec 28, 2001

A real good value I'd say. If you are still cutting I may look you up next year when I get back to work on the barn.

Nice setup you've got there.

Andy in NH

TWINKLE_TOES · Dec 28, 2001

James,

<font color=blue>am i cheap or should i say a good value?</font color=blue>

I would never say you were cheap, but your oak is inexpensive. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif
I think I'm getting a good deal @ $6.50 a board foot for finished red oak./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Is there a dry kilm near you? How long does it take to air dry red oak?
Al

Anonymous Poster · Dec 28, 2001

Woody...

That looks like a great workhorse...

I couldn't get away from work a few weeks ago on a Saturday for a Kioti open house about 60 miles north of here... They had the brand new unit with cab and Perkins, maybe DK60/65?, don't remember model #.

I was really interested in the Perkins and the intro price was ~$25k w/heat/air/cab/55 PTO HP Perkins Turbo Kioti...

It looks like you are getting your money's worth with your's.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

woodmills1 · Dec 29, 2001

andy and t-toes, i will be cutting, as my plan is to stop teaching at the end of 2002-3 school year and do this full time. i have 85 acres of mixed forest, mostly oak but also some pine, birch, ash, maple. i can also buy most any native wood from a couple of sources. keep me in mind. I have much air dried stock on hand, and will be setting up a small kiln soon.

JJT · Dec 29, 2001

$.80/bf? Your tree or his? If it's your tree you are extremely cheap!

beenthere · Dec 29, 2001

As long as you are getting that equipment paid for, and your time, then you should be happy. And when you haul in the high value logs, you can bring in the firewood pieces too.
Seems some confusion between price/bd ft of log(tree) volume, and sawn, dried, surfaced price/bd ft. of high grade (#1C & btr) lumber. This is where you make your money and also invest your time and $$ into the cutting, hauling, sawing, stacking to air dry, re-stacking to kiln dry (in your house), sorting, grading, surfacing, and selling 5% of the log yield that makes FAS lumber for $6/bd.ft.
Its a fun hobby.

woodmills1 · Dec 29, 2001

just so we are on the same page it is $.80 my logs. it pays for all time and equipment. but that is just this job. the last one was white quartered at $2.00. i would cut horse fence for a dollar if i had those customers. it always takes the same time to get the logs, but the quartered takes real time to cut. this job, all 8 by to 4 by will cut fast and leave me some nice outside 4/4 for a later sell. again to be sure this is not a hobby. i cut here and at sites. i sell off the mill and after drying or finishing.

JJT · Dec 29, 2001

James, Around here, twice that would still be a bargain for Oak. Do you cut any white pine? How big of a timber can you mill? 18' 8x12 too big? In the spring I plan to build another post/beam structure. JJT

beenthere · Dec 29, 2001

Before I retired, I worked on a project where we cut short (6', 5', 4') bolts of red oak, then processed them on a WoodMizer to get right at 90% yield of quarter sawn lumber. We did this by quartering each bolt (down the middle lengthwise). Then for each quarter, set a wood bunk on the frame of the woodmizer that had a fence (lip) along the operator side. Then each quarter was laid on the bunk with the widest face down and the sawn vertical face away from the fence. The saw height set for 4/4 (or whatever thicknes desired) and left there. The first quarter sawn board was removed from the bottom, then the saw head returned, the quarter flipped around end for end, and the widest face placed down for the next board to be sawn. After each pass, the faces get narrower as well as the boards get narrower, until the last one might only salvage a piece with a 1" wide cutting. The piece being sawn sits very still without being held. These quarter sawn pieces are easy to dry (no warp) and make great furniture cuttings. Just thought you might like to know about this technique, as you have the Woodmizer and the market for quarter sawn wood. The best part is that the highest grade in the log (just under the bark) goes into the usable piece, and not into a slab to be burned or tossed. I hope the description makes sense.

woodmills1 · Dec 30, 2001

jjt i have cut some huge logs and can easily cut 8x10 i have some 21 inch wide 3 inch thick piecws and yes much white pine. in larger logs i will cut to a 14x14 cant then slice 4/4 from that. as a single post mill i am not limited and have had to chainsaw some to get the head to pass the first cut.
sorry but i didnt follow the quartered info. i cut quarters the stand them with point horizontal then flip at 6 inch. i only slab the first and last triangle, which i made into a worm fence.

Thomas · Dec 30, 2001

James,
How are you going if your going to,protect your fence from the weather elements also road salt etc..

Yep a few miles can make a different /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif
Have you ever visit MB Tractor Equipment in Tilton,NH,..for them seem like nice folks,and Dan said there going to have a run on winches next month.

Have a good day and stay safe.

beenthere · Dec 30, 2001

Probably I didn't explain it well enough. Think of it as sawing the log first into four quarters. Then take each quarter and saw a board off the widest of the only two faces (this will usually result in flipping to the other face every other pass). There will be no triangles to dispose of, as every piece will have a bark edge and a sawn edge. No repositioning the saw cut as it stays the same for every pass of the band carriage. After drying, rip the bark edge off straight, and take the clear wood off the board. If interested, I could dig out a report that tells of this technique, including the bucking of the logs, sawing, and drying the boards. 100% of the log yield is in quarter sawn lumber.

woodmills1 · Dec 30, 2001

i do get it now, with the horizontal bade cut the piece off the face near th bottrm of the saw. there still has to be a triangle left at the end unless ya can sell 1x1.

woodmills1 · Dec 30, 2001

thomas it looked calm from inside but havin spent the day out there my ears are still cold. need to do it again tomorrow though.

beenthere · Dec 30, 2001

You are right, and the 1x1 is getting a bit narrow, but even they can be salvaged, planed, and edge-glued into flat panels. Probably one would stop at 1 1/2 or 2" width though. The equipment to straight line rip the narrow pieces parallel to the bark edge would likely be the limiting economic factor. Although, they could be used for stickers too. It is a unique idea, especially for the woodmizer mills, with very high recovery of product volume/log volume. Thought you would like to know about it.

Thomas · Dec 31, 2001

Well its a tad warmer up here this morning..14 above w/no wind..sure did get some wind gust last night..30 to 45mph /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Weather down there in Hudson must be just about right for logging..thats if the ground frozen.

Stay warm and safe.