Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

Started by Oljarhead, September 21, 2009, 02:53:09 PM

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MountainDon

Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.

Pine Cone

Quote from: Yonderosa on February 18, 2011, 10:01:29 AM
Very cool guys!  Pine Cone, what is the best way to strip the bark? 

Sorry for the late reply, but I've been out of town listening and playing Old Time Music.

My wife and I used bark spuds/shingle removers (a 3-4" flat blade on an 8-foot long handle) to clean the bark off the longer logs (34' long), and then I used a draw knife to do the final cleanup on cabin logs (8-feet long).  I ended up with both by the end of the project

A Peavy has a spike on the end that works well on thick-barked logs.  The spike is pointing in the same direction as the long handle and is meant to stick into the bark rather than the wood.  A cant hook is made for working with cants, squared-up logs, with the point perpendicular to the handle so it does less damage to the finished boards. 

There are two reasons to remove the bark before milling the wood.  The first is that if you skid the logs on dirt (instead of snow), the bark ends up full of dirt and rocks that damage the bandsaw blade.  The second is that if you leave the bark on between March and October it will encourage insects (bark beetles and wood borers) to lay eggs in your logs.  Wood borers live a long time.  Three years after cutting my cabin logs I discovered round-headed borer pupae in some of my logs.  For boards this is less of a problem, but for posts and logs it may mean that you have insects exiting your logs years after you have built things with them.   I was a forest entomology/pathology researcher for several years and have a good appreciation about how much damage insects can cause.

In your case, since you are skidding the logs over snow and it is still winter, I don't see any reason why you need to take the bark off first, but come spring it will be a different story.

My friends' WoodMizer was bigger than yours and mounted on a trailer so he could pull it behind his truck.  No idea what model it was, but it could mill logs longer than 16', had hydraulics to lift the logs onto the carriage, and the bandsaw part was pulled though the log with a motor-driven chain drive.  He had made a living with his mill in the past.  I met him in the kayak-building world so I already knew him before I started building our cabin.

Looks like you are making great progress.  I have found it very satisfying to build with boards that I helped mill up from logs.  You've gone one step further... 

Keep them pictures and post coming!



OlJarhead

No work this weekend :(  Kids moving in (son-in-law was laid off) and I'm fighting a sinus thing.  SO it's stay home, eat soup and relax all weekend -- and plot the next trip!

I have plans to get more bodies to the cabin and get all the logs staged for the mill while a crew works the mill -- with luck we can get about 10-15 logs milled in a weekend if we have the bodies and stage well.

Then in the middle of next month we will have a family trip to the cabin :)  Mostly to enjoy the place (and work a little)...but come spring weather we'll finish the wiring and start on the interior finish!  WHoohoo!

OlJarhead


No time to report but I thought I'd toss this up :)

My step son on the left runs the mill and my son-in-law to be on the right is the helper :)  I'm the foreman!

We had a great weekend and despite it hitting 10 degrees last night we stayed warm :)

One issue we had however, was the sewer pipe freezing AGAIN!  I moved the heat trace to cover ALL of it this time and put it on the solar power in hopes it will be thawed come next weekend.

More to follow after sleep and work!
Cheers
Erik


OlJarhead


I worked late Friday so we weren't able to head out until about 6:30pm which meant a LATE arrival at the cabin in the best of conditions...which we did not have.

After driving two hours to get home, then packing the jeep and heading out I was tired to start with.  Then we ran into a blizzard!  It snowed on us for the last 100 miles of driving and got worse and worse.  By the time we arrived at our private road to head into the hills my eyes were exhausted!  We chained up, however, and drove to the cabin as the snow finally let up...hmmmmm..


Once at the cabin I plonked my butt into my comfy chair by the wood stove and got the stove lit while the boys unloaded the Road Warrior (Jeep).  It was 40 degrees inside the cabin and 20 out -- very nice!  Didn't take long to warm it up.

It was 1am before I passed out (which is WAY past my bedtime) and 4am before I stoked the fire again.  Ahh life in the cabin during the winter - but I don't mind.


Next morning we slept in, then had breakfast (Scrambled eggs with bacon and sausage with sourdough bread and coffee of course) and finally got busy around 11am.

We had to pull up logs that were burried in 15" of snow but the jeep worked as a skidder and the boys choked em up.  We managed to pull the last of one tree up leaving us 5 new logs and the old log we'd left on the mill.  Good enough for me.


Josh set to quarter sawing the old pine in hopes of giving us some nice quarter sawn blue stain for the cabinets.  This is by far the longest way to mill a log!  It took 2 1/2 hours to mill on 16" log this way!


I've read, however, that quarter sawn lumber is the best for furniture making etc so we milled this one up that way.  You should be able to see the grain better in these.


Or these.


We stickered and stacked the lumber up to 4 feet high before running out of stickers!  I'll have to make some now, as well as bring more pallets.  All in all we're very happy and milled the 5 new logs in 2 1/2 hours -- and we're still learning.

We did manage to come close to the 100 board feet an hour this mill can do but we have some learning to do still :)  Either way, the learning is making us pine to put in the cabin :D


And so another weekend passes and we had to leave.  Staying for just a couple days isn't enough!  I want to stay for WEEKS!

Oh and I should mention that our sewer pipe froze again :(  The heat trace wasn't hooked up to cabin power because I haven't run the power fully yet.  I have plans to run romex back to the composter in the spring but for now it's either a generator or find a hole to stuff an extension cord through.  SO we opted for the genny -- mistake -- and the pipe froze on us!!!!

By Sunday morning I knew we were in trouble and couldn't use the toilet again and we set the genny running to warm the pipe.  However it just wasn't good enough!  Then I realized the problem was the way I ran the heat trace.  It was wrapped only near the top couple feet of the pipe because that is where I originally had the problem, so we unwrapped all the insulation and re-wrapped the heat trace and the insulation -- this time covering the entire pipe.  The boys then ran an extension cord under the cabin and up into the porch and plugged it into the solar power.

Now I think it will thaw out and be ready for the next trip :)  I hope so!  But with temps hitting 40 degrees during the day I'm confident -- it's just those 10 degree nights that worry me.

Cheers

rniles

Love the pics ....got a lot of work done ..that mill really seems to be handy!
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. - Col. Stonehill in 'True Grit'

OlJarhead

Quote from: rniles on March 09, 2011, 10:57:04 PM
Love the pics ....got a lot of work done ..that mill really seems to be handy!

Thanks -- it is amazing :)  After milling some lumber with a Chainsaw Mill the WoodMizer is a Ferrari!  We actually enjoy using it, it's easy to run and the lumber coming off of it is promising :)

Going back this weekend to drag logs up and stage as many as I can -- 3 days this time!  WHooHoo!

MountainDon

You might want to collect as many as you can now, if there is still snow on the ground. 
Just because something has been done and has not failed, doesn't mean it is good design.


OlJarhead

Quote from: MountainDon on March 10, 2011, 10:55:11 AM
You might want to collect as many as you can now, if there is still snow on the ground. 

That's the plan Don :)  It has it's challenges but with all 4 corners chained up on the Jeep I should have no problem getting to the logs and dragging them back.  I hope to stage a dozen logs in the milling area (landing) so that we can get serious next trip and really get milling!

Then I'll get a router table made and start milling T&G sometime in April :D 

Sassy

http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

OlJarhead

Quote from: Sassy on March 10, 2011, 01:19:19 PM
Nice stack of lumber!   c*

Thanks!  We hope to have a few more soon :D  Then we will finish the cabin and get to work on out buildings all with as much (if not all) the lumber we can mill from our own trees.

OlJarhead

Had a good weekend at the cabin with my wife and kids and a nefew and his GF :)  We managed to get a dozen logs ready to mill and milled on old Blue Stained Pine for making end tables -- we milled it at 3" deep to make heavy tops but as it was a bit thin we'll have to use two pieces to make one top -- I'll drill holes in the side and glue dowels into the holes to attach two 8" boards together.

I plan to use small saplings for legs and coat it in poly.  Of course have to wait for it to dry mind you.

Also got the freezer hooked up and working on the solar power and used the iota charger as the sun just wasn't coming out.

Next I'll have to get some heavier gauge wire for the charger as all I had was 10awg which is MUCH too small (so I had to constantly monitor while charging).  I'll replace the wiring (just couldn't find the cables I bought for it in the first place) next trip.

I also plan to get two more GCB's for the system to increase capacity and with luck will be picking up a small fridge for it also.

I can't wait to get back and the next trip my son (Kurt) will be coming too! 

rniles

Sounds like you had a great time ...how was the snow up there?
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. - Col. Stonehill in 'True Grit'


OlJarhead

Quote from: rniles on March 15, 2011, 11:07:45 AM
Sounds like you had a great time ...how was the snow up there?

Snowing again this week  d*  Last year the snow was all but gone by now but this year we've had a LOT more.  Still up to 15" in areas and the road was out-of-this-world bad!  Even with all 4 corners chained up I slid on one corner!!!  I've NEVER had that happen before.

Seems the 8" of solid ice covered with a few inches of melting snow/slush makes for a slippy road.

Actually got to use the Winch for something other then logging this trip too!  One of the residents had slid off the road in her toyota truck and couldn't get back onto the road.  She was at the top of a steep steep part of the road and precariously on the bank stopped by rocks from going down the bank (a long way)....so we hooked up the winch and hauled her out :)

Jeep!  The Yota recovery vehicle :D  [cool]

rniles

A good samaritan you! I've been watching the weather and it seems the cascades are just getting hammered ...I thought some of that would be spilling over in the Okanogan valley.
I do not entertain hypotheticals. The world itself is vexing enough. - Col. Stonehill in 'True Grit'

OlJarhead

Yup - the weather has been brutal this year!

I've been working on some solar power stuff and it looks like I can run a fridge and freezer 24x7 in the summer and 'should' be ok with 6-8 batteries (220ah gcb's)....it's probably safe since we get a lot of sun but I bet it could be touchy if the rains came on and it actually rained for a week straight in June which I have seen....though I doubt the freezer would thaw mind you, since it wouldn't get opened.

Anyway, just something I'm working on...might have to consider 1 more panel and 10 batteries to push the range out a bit...but I'm only planning on running these on low settings and the freezer only if actually needed in which case it would be full or partially full so ought to use less energy.

glenn kangiser

Mill is looking good, OJ.

We use 50/50 diesel and chainsaw bar oil for blade lube.  Sprayed on while cutting it is not really noticeable on the wood later.
"Always work from the general to the specific." J. Raabe

Glenn's Underground Cabin  http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=151.0

Please put your area in your sig line so we can assist with location specific answers.

OlJarhead

Quote from: glenn kangiser on March 24, 2011, 12:55:58 AM
Mill is looking good, OJ.

We use 50/50 diesel and chainsaw bar oil for blade lube.  Sprayed on while cutting it is not really noticeable on the wood later.

Interesting combination.  Woodmizer recommends water for most milling and we haven't tried anything else yet...we're getting about the life we're told to expect out of the blades but we're newbies too.

OlJarhead

Got up this weekend and milled a little more lumber, burned slash and chopped firewood :)

Now I'm looking for a new charge controller :(  At $500 a unit more or less I'm a little sore that I already bought and put to use the C40 ($111) but on the other hand I'm kind of excited because with just about 200 watts of charging power I almost had what I needed with the batteries I have (6 now, soon to be 8) so I figure with an MPPT controller I will probably be doing the sun dance soon :D


OlJarhead

Oi!  Got the controller coming :D  So now I'll have to make a trip to clean up the solar power and perhaps finish the battery box -- and I might as well add two more batteries while I'm at it...hmmm....so much to do!

I've got a few pics from the last trip :)  I'll post soon.  All in all, we've got a lot of work to do but it's nice to be able to go up and just relax a little too :D

OlJarhead


Woke up Saturday morning and thought "someone please smack Al Gore!"


But the snow melted (Global Warming?  *snicker*) and we got to work!


The boys were milling away before I realized I was out of stickers!!!  Yikes!  Well, maybe next trip I'll remember to make that happen -- as in I'll get the boys to make stickers out of cheapo 1x4's and take them up with us so we can mill the 9 remaining logs.


And then Global Cooling took place again....funny how that seems to happen a lot in the winter...wonder why...oh Al Gore, buddy ol' pal.....I wanna smack you!"


Last year this time it was warmer by a bunch, the snow was gone, we were sleeping in a tent trailer and framing the gabled ends and sheeting the roof...hmmmmm......

Anyway, life is good and the retreat motors along :)

Sassy

 heh heh  yeah, that Al Gore - it's all his fault!!!  Great pix, btw!  You're getting a lot of lumber piled up there.
http://glennkathystroglodytecabin.blogspot.com/

You will know the truth & the truth will set you free

JavaMan

Good deal OJ ... I can't wait for the snow to finally let me up to my place. I have a feeling it's going to be like 3 years ago .. I could barely make it in there on the first of June... and when I went up and tried on the first weekend in May, I could get about 1 mile from my place and then the truck would be buried to the axles.

Your place looks like it gets snow, but it seems to disappear during the day ... nice.

Yonderosa

Some neighbors by me said their still getting snow but its on the retreat. 

Gearing up for another trip over myself.   ;D
http://theyonderosa.blogspot.com/

"The secret to life is to be alive.  To live ultimately by one's own hand and one's own independent devices." -Ted Nugent