Okanogan 14x24 by a lurker :)

[OlJarhead]

Got off work yesterday and decided to unhook the mill and go through a set up.  Pavement isn't a nice place to do this me thinks (since it's hard and allows movement too easily) and it's on a slight slope towards the log loading side but for now it's just me playing with the mill a bit until I can get it to some logs.
 

Another shot of it.  Lots of 'shims' under the outriggers but that's because I need to mill some thinner ones!


I'm heading back to the cabin with the mill this weekend and plan to mill a log or two Sunday afternoon.  Then with luck I'll get to mill Wednesday and Thursday...then with a little more luck I'll get to do some milling the week after.  Still trying to get the time to be at the cabin but work and life keep getting in the way!

I'll make some videos as soon as I get the mill home to the cabin and starting making sawdust

[OlJarhead]

Too tired to post much but here is a short vid of me milling with the LT40.
https://youtu.be/65UFUXkPIQQ
I goofed at the end of the cut where I should have just lifted the head an inch and a half and drawn back for the next cut, where you hit 'down' and it sets itself to make the next cut but you get the idea anyway,

[garyc]

 

[Adam Roby]

Wow, goes through the wood like butter... that's insane. 

[OlJarhead]

Sure does!

There it sits waiting for more logs after chewing up two logs in 40 minutes and I'm still learning


After milling a 12"x12' log and a 15"x10' log in 40 minutes   Milling alone no less!  I can see doing 350bf/hr without issue once I get it down

[OlJarhead]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjneKQDe9O0
Showing off the new mill

Lots to learn still but things are going well.  Have cut all my 2x8's for the rafters on the deck (and a few extras) and started on both 1x's for the roof sheathing and 2x6's for the deck expansion   Lots of logs to go, just not enough time on the weekend -- though this weekend I actually came home to the wife since she was gone all week...

[Danfish]

What a sweet machine...makes me want to run out and buy one, LOL.

Thanks for sharing!

[OlJarhead]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YNRXfLrFPs
Here's another video for ya   (lots more on the youtube page.

Milling up some blue stained pine I'll use for deck flooring and trim etc.....and yes I said deck flooring but at 2" x 6" real dimension, under a roof and coated well it seems to do just fine

[OlJarhead]

Spent a week in Baker City OR doing a Snow Cat and Winter Survival Course for work that turned out to be a great course!  Heck, I could have spent another week with those awesome guys!  One was a former operator (that's me saying that because I've been around them and I KNOW he was some kind or another but he never actually admitted it), another was a rancher out of Wyoming who grooms trails all winter, ranches, and runs an excavating company, and the last used to run search and rescue on Mt Hood and other places.  All three were top notch individuals with vast experience in their fields and frankly, I think gave the best winter training I've had to date! (and I've had other courses on a number of occasions).  I was literally sad to leave!

Now I'm back at the cabin milling up lumber for my deck extension and roof.  I'm just about there with what I need though I did change my rafters from 3x6's which I thought would be strong but give me just a couple inches more headroom, to 2x8's (full cut) because, as Don would say 'deeper is better'.  I'll just make the pitch a little shallower.

I am debating 16" vs 24" centers though.  I am fairly certain my full cut 2x8's will carry the weight of a dimensional 2x10 though it would be nice to find a span table that allowed full cut vs nominal input.

Anyway, I put my first BIG log on the mill yesterday.  It was a 16 1/2 foot pine that was 17" (inside the bark) at the small end and about 20" at the big end.  Must have weighed over 1200 pounds and the tractor, with no rear ballast had a hard time moving it up to the mill on the forks.  It would pick it up but the slightest bump with lift one or both of the rear tires momentarily!  The mill on the other hand just picked it up and set it on the deck   Love that!  Took me 44 minutes to mill it up into lumber and that was with a few different challenges along the way and handling all the lumber myself!  With an off bearer it would have taken maybe half and hour putting my milling rate over 400bf/hr!  As it was I milled about 350bf in 90 minutes which translates to 230bf/hr

[nailit69]

So you have to take Sno-Cat and winter survival courses for work?  What exactly do you do for "work"?  Cuz it sounds like fun.

My dad taught Vietnam era jungle training and survival courses in the P.I. back when I was a kid (late 60s/early 70s) and always took us on "survival trips" long after he got out of the military. 

We'd get all kitted out in camo and go out for the weekend with only what we could carry in our pockets, eating fruit or other things we foraged, trapped or speared...  I miss those days.

[OlJarhead]

Believe it or not, I work in Telecom   I'm your phone company (depending on where you live).  In many locations we have microwave towers, or we feed cell towers, that up on mountains which get snowed in during the winter and when they break people are mighty upset if we don't go out and fix them   So we snocat in.

[Adam Roby]

You wouldn't think working in Telecom would be a life threatening job, but when you think about the remote places you need to go, anything goes wrong and suddenly you are in survival mode.  I guess its also a good way to see the country... 

[OlJarhead]

Very true.

While Urban phone guys may spend their careers inside city limits, rural phone guys will find themselves in all manner of remote locations, alone and on their own if anything goes wrong.

[nailit69]

Believe it or not, I work in Telecom   I'm your phone company (depending on where you live).  In many locations we have microwave towers, or we feed cell towers, that up on mountains which get snowed in during the winter and when they break people are mighty upset if we don't go out and fix them   So we snocat in.

Hiring?  Sounds like my kind of job... anthough my telecom experience is strictly end user unless you need concrete poured or something built 

[OlJarhead]

https://youtu.be/cW_MqjCqSbA
and now for some fun with a little Bo Diddly on this side

Made myself a bunch of lumber this weekend from 2x8x16 rafters (for the corners of the deck) to 2x6x8 joists and planks and 1x's for the roof sheathing.  Now I need to get back and make some 4x8's for the deck foundation and I'll be set!

Oh ya, and those pesky 6x6x12's I need.....

[pmichelsen]

Love the comments on rolling the log. 

[OlJarhead]

I've actually rolled a big log like that once or twice on the old mill -- and nearly thrown out several joints -- so ya, I sometimes think I still need to....then wake up! lol

[nailit69]

That's pretty slick... a friend of mine has the previous model you had... or similar (looks the same).  I have only watched his once for just a few minutes but rolling a big log looks like a pain... your new saw with the "log roller" is really cool though.

[OlJarhead]

Miled up the 4x8's and 6x6's  needed for the deck and am pretty much done now.  I'll mill some more 2x's today and finish stickering the last of it and then won't need to mill for myself again for a while (this spring anyway) so I'll prep the mill and mill box for the next customer job and head home for a needed break

But not till after I spend another evening at the cabin

[nailit69]

I hear ya on the R&R...  I'm getting pressure from family that wants to come along and help build the floor, to make a "speed run" up there and try to blow it out in one day then turn around and leave the next morning. 

Don't get me wrong... I work all the time and work very hard but i'm getting tired of going up there just to work without taking time to "smell the roses".  I understand there's a lot to be done and some of us are on tighter schedules than others but I want a day or two to kick back a little, check out the area, put my feet up, throw a line in the water, and toss back a cold beer.

They may just have to take another rig if that's thier plan cuz i'm tryin to spend a couple days doing nothing and return on the fourth day.

[OlJarhead]

Amen to that!  I did it more than my fair share I think but after seven years of coming out here I'm happy to relax at least some of the time I'm out here....as for fishing, I don't get too many chances but hope to get out this year..I have a canoe and Crawfish has the fish.....you bring the beer, I'll bring the bourbon and we'll toss a line in and float around on the lake snagging rainbows!

[nailit69]

I might have to take you up on that one of these days when we're both there at the same time.  I've got a 12' rowboat i've been thinking about bringing up and stashing in the basement for the summer too.

I just want to make it a point to spend a little time up there with my dad too... he's been going to the Okanogan for years and he turned 70 this year and probably doesn't have many summers left (his own words) so it'd be nice to take time out to hang with him.  I know he wants to see this cabin up too but he'd probably rather have a cocktail and fish... I think I agree with him.

[JavaMan]

Amen to all of that, guys!   A friend of mine had a 9' boat for sale with a tolling motor - it was a great deal ($200) so I'm going to snatch it up.  I need a trailer to put it on, but I need a flatbed trailer anyway, so there you have it.

Gonna float the lake down the hill from my place at least a little bit this summer.  As Ol' Jarhead knows, I have a BIG project going this summer, but I do want to stop and enjoy it a bit, too

[OlJarhead]

Been milling up a storm this weekend   So far I've milled some 30+ very large logs and about 4100 board feet of lumber for a customer in Riverside. It's been downright awesome and my mill is chewing through the 20" plus 20 foot logs no problem

Burned you say?  Ya, we do that
Got lumber?

[OlJarhead]

Spent a wonderfully quiet evening at the cabin

Came out for work and managed to sneak off a little early (truthfully, I'll flex out my time and worked from the cabin a little too so it isn't really sneaking) and arrived in the early afternoon.  After 'moving in' and getting the power on I turned up the temp on the hot water which was just a little too cool before and is now a little too hot (which is much better since I can turn on cold and cool it to where I want it).  I rotated the composter drum and flipped the battery switch on the genset so it's available though never needed on short trips.  At least the battery got a good nights worth of charging this way and that seems to be working very well now.

Took some wood chips from planing paneling this winter over to the orchard and dumped them around the three remaining trees which seem to be doing well.  The cherry is about to explode with blossoms too!    I'm still pretty tore up over the gophers eating my apples so I went and got the gopher rod and bated the mounds I saw they'd made into the orchard.  Darn things!  I will fight them back again!

I was too late in ordering new trees from St Lawrence Nursery so have to wait until the fall or spring to get more.  I'll order 2 more apples, a crab and if they have anything else I might toss a pear in again but last I checked they were doing apples only and none of the ones I lost

Seems to me it's green up here a lot more than the last 6 years so all the snow and now rain we've gotten is paying off   Usually it can be pretty dry in April (or was) and now it's about perfect.  Looks like a month later really.

Anyway, it's almost 7 years since we first looked for property out here!  Can you believe that?  I'm still not finished with the cabin but that's ok   It's finished enough that I can come out anytime, fire up the power and enjoy a visit like this one

Got some pics I'll share later, but for now I must get moving and head to work (leave around 6am when I'm at the cabin)