Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[KiwiBro]

Not me praise God. I believe folks can learn, but they choose not to, ignoring what they know to be true in order to live the lie they are familiar and comfortable with.

i usually start by asking them where money comes from. Minds blown

 

[KiwiBro]

If you have trees ready for the slabbing (and customers begging for it) you can justify cutting a corner on the financing of the mill with the rapid payback. Maybe this is the exception that proves the rule?

Bringing this comment back up because I just bought a second hand lucas mill. It's an oldie but didn't require any debt. If the weather ever clears long enough, I'll attempt to mill a log before deciding if I got a bargain or another lemon. If it's good, I'll buy a slabbing attachment for it or will make my own.

Will post pics when lumber starts coming off logs.

 

[James Miller]

Glad to here James, not sure what's up with that and those saws, not sure if others have experienced it, but I did twice now.
Did that 24" chain feel any better after she perked up.

It pulls that chain fine now.

 

[MustangMike]

An attachment to your chainsaw may not be as efficient as a mill, but there are numerous advantages, which is why it works for me:

1) Much lower cost, not financing or large payments. I purchased my first "Beam Machine" for about $25 (now they are about double that) and used it on my existing (at the time) 044 + 441 to make the Ash post + beams for my cabin.

2) Easily Mobile along with your other gear.

3) It goes to where the log is. You can mill in the middle of the woods or on the far side of someone's septic fields, and take the boards out.

A mill is a trailer in and of itself, and you often need some heavy equipment to move the logs.

 

[chipper1]

i usually start by asking them where money comes from. Minds blown

That can have that effect lol.
What's funny is those who are wealthy by the world's standards are not necessarily "happy" or even content people.
Understanding where wealth comes from can bring about a different state of mind than the one people get from having it (worldly wealth). Knowing the one where wealth comes from can lead to true peace whether you have much or have little.

 

[MustangMike]

1) Money can not make you happy, but not having can sure as heck make you sad!

2) Learning how to live well within your means is very important to happiness.

My Dad used to say "Whether you are rich or poor, it is nice to have money". The older I get, the more sense it makes.

Some people who make lots of money have large mortgages + car payments and have nothing left for enjoyment. And/or they spend too much eating out and on entertainment, and never have a pot to piss in.

 

[KiwiBro]

An attachment to your chainsaw may not be as efficient as a mill, but there are numerous advantages, which is why it works for me:

1) Much lower cost, not financing or large payments. I purchased my first "Beam Machine" for about $25 (now they are about double that) and used it on my existing (at the time) 044 + 441 to make the Ash post + beams for my cabin.

2) Easily Mobile along with your other gear.

3) It goes to where the log is. You can mill in the middle of the woods or on the far side of someone's septic fields, and take the boards out.

A mill is a trailer in and of itself, and you often need some heavy equipment to move the logs.

You know, that's one issue (of a few) of "portable sawmills" that still pisses me off; how they can get away marketing their mills as portable. I mean, if we go with that 'can be moved thus portable' mantra the sawmill guys use, we'd be calling houses portable (I've relocated a few over the years, one in three pieces, and have stitched seven houses together into a sprawling mansion for a person with more money than sense). A phone is portable, a lightweight generator is portable, an alaskan mill and chainsaw is portable, but calling most of these sawmills portable is a joke. Transportable, sure, on a trailer (it came with one) or back of the ute (it can fit on my ute and I prefer that to using the trailer - but I do get tight for space for other chainsaw/tree gear if the mill is on the ute). But until they come out with a mill that one person can pick up complete and walk around the back of a house, over a rough paddock, etc and easily set up over a log, all in one round trip from the car, then it ain't portable by my definition of the word.

All that said, how many board feet of lumber can you get from your alaskan in a day?

Setting up over a single log is easily done (15-20 mins until i get used to it then might get that down a bit). But nowhere near as quick as throwing a ladder over the log and letting rip with an alaskan. Still, if we are talking single logs, there aren't many here worth milling unless they are big. Smaller logs are only worth it if there are plenty of them, or I've got nothing better to do and want to see how well the lumber seasons from juvenile trees of whatever species the tree is.

I guess if there were more logs around producing slabs like these, everyone could justify the cost of a mill/dedicated slabber. But while these are still being dug up from swamps/peat, not many this size these days. Just one of these big logs would pay for the mill, and half the digger, and the shed and dehum kiln, etc.

 

[dancan]

Nice day here , 40/55F with wind gusts of 50 mph so that meant not a blackfly to be seen lol
I went back to the driveway cut .

I got the popples cut and some up the hill on tank 1 .
Tank 2

And tank 3

So the driveway is cut , no further marker ribbons until this week for when they markout the house .
It was a great day , what made it great was that the friend that I had called was more than happy to get the wood and he came out to help .

We cut 2 trailer loads and delivered it , he made burgers on the bbq for lunch and offered gas monies for the wood , I was happy with the burgers and declined on the monies
Since this is minutes from his house , he's gonna pull out some more wood and then I'll shoot over to load and deliver .
It was a great day .

 

[MustangMike]

Now that is a slab of wood!!! The max for my stuff would be about 32"

My saws, with square file, will mill a 26" (2" thick) Red Oak 7.5' in about 5 min, but you will have to re fuel the saw about every 3-4 cuts, and sharpen the chain about every 6-8 cuts.

A dull chain will really slow it down, and the cut does not look as good. Milling dulls your chain the fastest.

I plan to mill some Tulip this year (sold as Poplar for lumber). It is a much softer hardwood, and the milling should go much easier. (They are really Magnolia trees).

 

[Cowboy254]

Nice day here , 40/55F with wind gusts of 50 mph so that meant not a blackfly to be seen lol
I went back to the driveway cut .

I got the popples cut and some up the hill on tank 1 .
Tank 2

And tank 3

So the driveway is cut , no further marker ribbons until this week for when they markout the house .
It was a great day , what made it great was that the friend that I had called was more than happy to get the wood and he came out to help .

We cut 2 trailer loads and delivered it , he made burgers on the bbq for lunch and offered gas monies for the wood , I was happy with the burgers and declined on the monies
Since this is minutes from his house , he's gonna pull out some more wood and then I'll shoot over to load and deliver .
It was a great day .

I have a question. How is the relative combustion quality of an awesome softwood like spruce compare to that of a lame hardwood like poplar?

I'm currently burning peppermint that was from the ridgeline on the Lady Farm. It is heavy as, but a bit more ashy than your regular peppermint. More of everything, in every respect I suppose.



I actually wouldn't mind having a bit of softwood about the place to burn down some of these big coals I'm getting.

 

[LondonNeil]

Do you not use ripping chain, or file a chain to rip? I've a feeling it's just a smaller angle, 5 or 10, instead of 15 degrees, could be wrong though.

 

[LondonNeil]

Softwoods like pine and fir tend to have a comparitively higher terpenes content Vs lighter hard woods. So burn with more flame and intensity. Short but hot burns. My fiancee made me move the cypress I collected recently, further from the patio, as t smell is so strong. It should burn hot!

 

[rarefish383]

Do you not use ripping chain, or file a chain to rip? I've a feeling it's just a smaller angle, 5 or 10, instead of 15 degrees, could be wrong though.

I only use out of the box Stihl chain on my 36" mill. It cuts a little faster, almost as smooth, and I can switch back and forth between milling and bucking. I've found that operator skill has more to do with smoothness of cut than type of chain. I bought the 660 to give my old Homelite Super 1050 a rest. The 1050 is running 404 and the Stihl 3/8's. I think the 404 stays sharp better. If you hit something small, like 1 nail, it wipes out every tooth on the 3/8's, the 404 with clip it off and you hardly notice it. It will only ding a couple teeth. I don't know if it's because the 660 is revving much higher, or the Homelite has more torque and bigger teeth. If you look at the pic in my avatar, that's a 70's Super 1050 and it's throwing a pretty good stream of chips. It is soft White Pine, 27 inches wide. I used one of the planks squared on one side, and joined in the middle to make the 37" folding table in my hunting cabin.

 

[Jeffkrib]

I have a question. How is the relative combustion quality of an awesome softwood like spruce compare to that of a lame hardwood like poplar?

I'm currently burning peppermint that was from the ridgeline on the Lady Farm. It is heavy as, but a bit more ashy than your regular peppermint. More of everything, in every respect I suppose.

View attachment 655926

I actually wouldn't mind having a bit of softwood about the place to burn down some of these big coals I'm getting.

I’m hearing ya Cowboy, I have to own up I’m actually a big fan of pine, it’s good for getting the fire going and good when timing your run before the big bits before you go to bed.
I just received a truck load of radiata pine from a tree lopper who was doing a job in my suburb and posted a ‘free wood delivered’ add in gumtree. He also said he’s doing an oak tree in a few weeks and asked if I wanted it, I said yes just to see what it’s like.
Also heading out to my mates place in the next few weeks to get next years firewood.

 

[rarefish383]

I also like to mill Tulip Poplar, which we call Yellow Poplar, even though it is in the Magnolia family. It has beautiful yellow and greens in the wood, and when standing dead, it will start to spalt leaving attractive spalt lines and red colors. All of my early pics of the bench I made, with all of the colors still standing out, are still on my photobucket account. Here's the bench after it sat on the patio for several years with no protection from the sun, all greyed out.

 

[LondonNeil]

I think you will like the Oak. Heavy, long burns, usually easy to split green, it does take a long time to season though, 2-3 year wood unless cut and split small (I'm currently attempting to get small stuff dry in a year, stacked against a south facing wall.... We shall see how it goes) I do find it sometimes sulks and smolders, it seems to like company of other woods then it burns well.

 

[farmer steve]

I only use out of the box Stihl chain on my 36" mill. It cuts a little faster, almost as smooth, and I can switch back and forth between milling and bucking. I've found that operator skill has more to do with smoothness of cut than type of chain. I bought the 660 to give my old Homelite Super 1050 a rest. The 1050 is running 404 and the Stihl 3/8's. I think the 404 stays sharp better. If you hit something small, like 1 nail, it wipes out every tooth on the 3/8's, the 404 with clip it off and you hardly notice it. It will only ding a couple teeth. I don't know if it's because the 660 is revving much higher, or the Homelite has more torque and bigger teeth. If you look at the pic in my avatar, that's a 70's Super 1050 and it's throwing a pretty good stream of chips. It is soft White Pine, 27 inches wide. I used one of the planks squared on one side, and joined in the middle to make the 37" folding table in my hunting cabin.

Hey Joe. Was good to finally meet you and @Multifaceted at the GTG saturday. guess i should have ran that 1050. @James Miller said it was a beast. i was to tired after cuttin firewood in that heat. i see them saws we were talking about are stihl listed.

 

[nighthunter]

Helping out a elderly neighbor today, she asked if I'd cut up some firewood that she got off another neighbor, what she failed to tell me was it is black sally and is the hardest firewood we have here in Ireland in my opinion and is quite hard on chains but at least she baking me a nice cream cake as payment yum

 

[rarefish383]

I’m hearing ya Cowboy, I have to own up I’m actually a big fan of pine, it’s good for getting the fire going and good when timing your run before the big bits before you go to bed.
I just received a truck load of radiata pine from a tree lopper who was doing a job in my suburb and posted a ‘free wood delivered’ add in gumtree. He also said he’s doing an oak tree in a few weeks and asked if I wanted it, I said yes just to see what it’s like.
Also heading out to my mates place in the next few weeks to get next years firewood.

I've got to admit, I'm a wood snob. Living on the East Coast, I've got pretty much unlimited sources of Oak. But, many people like Tulip Poplar for firewood. It dries fast, burns hot and clean, starts fast and easy, but burns a bit fast. Before I retired, a friend had one blow down in his Mom's yard. I milled most of it, the rest I cut for firewood. When I was working, I could pack my stove with Oak and get a 12 hour burn out of it. When I got home there was a bed of glowing coals, just throw more wood on and good to go. When I loaded the stove up with the Poplar, by the time I got home it was out cold. You could put your hand in the ashes. My cousin loves it to start his fires, so always has plenty on hand. I only start my stove once in the fall when I start burning and never let it go out, so I don't need easy starting wood or kindling.

 

[James Miller]

Hey Joe. Was good to finally meet you and @Multifaceted at the GTG saturday. guess i should have ran that 1050. @James Miller said it was a beast. i was to tired after cuttin firewood in that heat. i see them saws we were talking about are stihl listed.

That super 1050 needed more bar would have been fun to lay it into one of the big logs. Wish I'd have gotten a chance to run T rollers P60. Randy said we should make the trip down for his GTG .