Staying out of trouble, the hard way!

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Sharkey
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Staying out of trouble, the hard way!

Post by Sharkey »

About a year or so ago, a large cedar tree on the other side of the creek fell over, it's roots weren't enough to hold it up in the sandy soil anymore. It was really a shame, as it was a big tree, and healthy as far as I could see. It lay partially across a bend in the creek bed, with it's top resting on solid ground.

My friend Thomas has has his eye on that tree since it fell, wanting to turn it into some useful lumber. The bulk of the tree was over water, though and attempting to cut it into bolts that we coould move ourselves would to be difficult enough on land, but the best sections would fall into the creek if cut from the stump, which was up-ended on the bank.

Well, in March, we had a load of rain, and the creek came up, so Thomas decided that we were going to go down and drop the tree in 8 - 10 foot bolts into the water, and then float them downstream to a sandy beach were we could fetch them out.

And that's what we did. Much easier to write about than actually do. We worked on it for two days, Thomas would cut a bolt, and after it was in the water, we'd tie it off so he could stand on it like a raft in his spiked caulk boots to cut the next. At the end of the day, we were both saturated from rain and from the various dunkings we took while wrestling these large logs in the water. We did manage to get all of the tree cut and up on the bank in 9 to 13 foot sections.

April 2nd, Thomas came back with a truck and trailer and it was time to load the logs for a trip to a private mill to be sawn into useable lumber. Here's what we started with on Saturday morning:

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We had no way to pick these logs up, so we had to load them onto a small wagon and tow them behind my ElecTrak out to the road where the truck was parked. The first load was two smaller logs, but after that, it was one log loads. We got them up off the ground and onto the wagon by rolling them like, well, logs. Thomas wrapped a strap around each log, then held the bottom part of the strap as a deadman while I pulled on the top part using the tractor. They went right up the ramps and onto the wagon:

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(I'm out of the picture on the right, riding the tractor)

After pulling the wagon and log up a steep hill using the winch on the tractor, we unloaded them onto the flatbed trailer using grunt power and a cant hook:

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The sixth log was the largest, it had 79 rings. We estimated that it weighed 2,000 pounds. We actually did manage to crush one corner of the wagon deck when we allowed it to roll off on purpose so we could reposition it. Here, I'm riding the wagon out of the woods and towards the truck and trailer with the big butt end of the tree:

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The mill was located south of town, along a slough that connects to the river. Dave, the owner had his mill set up more-or-less permanently outside his shop. We've been milling for a few hours here, and the wood is beginning to stack up on the truck and trailer. We were cutting 1x6 fencing, 2x4's 2x6's (full dimension), 4x4's, a few 2x12's and some custom wood for me which I'll get to in a moment.

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Dave is running the controls making the first cut on the next-to-last log while Thomas prepares to pull off the peeler:

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The mill, a "Wood Mizer" is mostly just a big band saw run by a 2 cylinder Kohler gasoline engine. It has hydraulics for adjusting the height of the cut, and has a hydraulic loader and a big claw foot for turning the logs, or in this case, the "cant", which is what the log becomes once it has been squared off:

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After seeing the quality of the cut that the mill was making consistently, I asked Dave how thin a board he could cut. He told me that he could cut any thickness I wanted, so once we got down to the heartwood in one of the more clear logs, I had him cut several pieces 3/8" thick by a full 6" wide. They were beautiful! A few minutes after cutting and being exposed to the air, they turned a warm shade of tan, with an almost flesh-colored blush to them. After that, when the cant was in the heartwood, Dave would align it on the mill and cut 3/8" material until the grain became flat again, making a growing stack of pure vertical grain lumber. On several of the logs, he cut two cants from the heartwood, then lined them up side-by-side on the mill and cut book-and-cant-matched boards.

When this stage of milling was underway, I took full control of removing the wood from the mill and stacking it on the trailer and truck. Each piece was kept in the order and orientation that it came off the cant, so all of the grain patterns are intact in the stacks.

The result was over 1,000 linear feet of paneling for the inside of my bus! Much of the wood from the last big log was completely clear of knots. Here's the cache of paneling, stacked and stickered in the back of my storage shed for drying:

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There are 56 pieces 8'10" log, 20 @ 12'11" and 30 @ 11'2", more than enough to do my walls.

One reason (of many) that I haven't moved forward on the Crown is that I have come to the point of installing the interior walls, but couldn't find anything that I liked. The material I used in the Housetruck is no longer available, and I need thin material so that the windows in the bus aren't restricted from hinging in. This wood, after having a tongue-and-groove routed into it's edges will fill the bill exactly! That it was grown on the property, cut and milled personally, and handled and cared for so as to preserve it's beauty and integrity as a single being (a tree, not boards from a bunch of trees) makes it that much more valuable to me.

Anyway, in theory, I'll have dried out the wood in 4 months or so and it will be ready to use. In reality, I probably won't get around to doing this for much longer, so the wood will be nicely cured by the time I start putting it up.

And that's how we stay honest out here in the sticks. So much work makes it almost impossible to cause trouble, who has any energy left for mischief?
splummer
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Post by splummer »

a very nice post, i like seeing projects like that, i owned a wood mizer many moons ago,mine didnt have the hyrolics to lift the log from the ground to the carriage,i used my 47 oliver crawler to lift the logs in place, was slo but worked good,we cut logs for our log cabin ,i wished i had cedar here on our land but had lots of oak ,so we milled out the oak ,sawing oak logs into d logs,the wood mizer was very accurate in cutting hard wood.
i did take lots of pics but didnt have a dig. camera at the time. i have found less wasteswill a band saw verus a circular saw.
from your pics the logs are red cedar, iam not sure , very little cedar on my land ,the cedar we have is white, thanks for posting your project. steve
just because you ride the bus , it doesnt make you a bus person
the bus stopped and i got on and thats how it all began
splummer
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Post by splummer »

oh yeah, you are right ,you do stay out of trouble plus you sleep good doing this
just because you ride the bus , it doesnt make you a bus person
the bus stopped and i got on and thats how it all began
Wallfly
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Post by Wallfly »

Good work! You can't beat home grown. The Crown is going to smell so good inside - and bug-free too.

Camellia looks as if she wants to try her hoof at horse logging.
Bob
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Post by Bob »

That was facinating! Thanks for sharing and showing us how to use our resources at hand. I really love the way that you kept the tree intact lumber wise, and I believe that will feel great in the bus like that! :D
Wherever I am...I am home.
dburt
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Post by dburt »

What a great story with photos Sharkey! I'm now envious of your wood stockpile, I can think of alot of projects I could do with that nice lumber!
We will look forward to the time we can see it installed in your bus! :)
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ezrablu
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Post by ezrablu »

Wonderful story and photos! The wood is just beautiful and it will look incredible in your bus. This was my kind of story...I ♥ wood :D

Last fall my Amish neighbors paid me for favors with beautiful slices of white oak 1-3/4 thick and 8 feet long....all natural edged. Plus a half dozen that are about 2 and half feet wide by 4-5 feet long. I'm going to use those for countertops and table tops.
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graydawg
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Post by graydawg »

Nice wood you got there Sharkey and what a way nature gifted it to you as well, I am sure you probably know the value of the matched boards as well, cha-ching. I actually went to a demonstration of the wood mizer in 94 at Victoria Sutherlands wharehouse here in Shreveport, La. and was more than impressed with the Wood-Mizer's simplicity of use as well as what you saved in waste wood verses a circular mill. At that time they were running over $30 K for a similar unit, they had cheaper mills also, but thats the one I wanted after seeing the demo.

James in da GRAYDAWG
I ONCE WAS A MIGHTY GREYHOUND
I THEN GOT OLD AND RETIRED
I LOST MY SEATS AND GOT A NEW GIG
I AM NOW A HAULIN SOME OLD DAWGS &
I BECAME THE GRAYDAWG
Stealth Camper
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Post by Stealth Camper »

That's beautiful stuff!! Western Red cedar, I presume??

Brother in law had one of those saws for a while. They are great. I am trying to save up for a Logosol now, but the ultimate goal is one of those Wood Mizers.

That will be gorgeous in the bus!
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