Thread: Hacking & Stackin', more or less... mostly less.

You need to go over to the Woodturning threads and view some more of your timber.
Rgds,
Crocy.
BTW, that would make a nice floor.

Originally Posted by Old Croc

You need to go over to the Woodturning threads and view some more of your timber.
Rgds,
Crocy.
BTW, that would make a nice floor.

Got about 120 ton piled on the ramp: The gnawing of the borers is keeping me awake at night. ( not really, I sprayed the logs but they'll be in there quick if the rain washes it off) We mostly cut it for T&G, little bit of paneling, little bit of 38 and 50 for a couple cabinet and joinery firms.

Usual FNQ story: it's "no good" i.e. Didn't come out of the rainforest and it's not tassie oak for the joinery or spotty for flooring. It's more workable then the tassie oak for sure, same kinda density range, less internal checking. Repeat customers want more but the rest won't try it. *eyeroll*
Dunno what it is, but Townsville is spotty mad for T&G and nothing else will do. Trucks leave for everywhere else most days of the week fortunately.

Thought it was Floody as soon as I saw it. Grab yourself one of those tent type gazzebos. Nothing worse than a good dose of sunstroke.
Nice flying,by the way.

Originally Posted by rustynail

Thought it was Floody as soon as I saw it. Grab yourself one of those tent type gazzebos. Nothing worse than a good dose of sunstroke.
Nice flying,by the way.

What I need most Ken is about another 3 months of fine weather! Its about to rain, and we had a light wet the last few years so I reckon we're due a big one. Biggest issue is the reduced capacity side of it - by the time I get my scantling orders out for eat money, and I've got to go like hell in this RSG before the longicorns get to it... time to build a shed is scarce. I need me bench real bad, and the kiln so I can turn some of the cabinet/ flooring/panel type stuff to cash. I'm mostly chasing my tail in a circular argument about "need a shed to put the gear to cut the wood to build a shed" or "need a shed to install the kiln to make some cash to pay someone else to build a shed".

Bright side is this whole thing has really pushed me to look at what we're doing, and how we're doing it, where the money comes from and where it goes to, and how to do it all better. The leased joint was always limiting in terms of door sizes and positions, posts in the wrong places, general situation being dug back into a hill, and how it fitted together. Rather then the "one big shed" we had before, this time I'm going for three. Open shed for breakdown, a dedicated drying shed with shadecloth curtain sides thats about 6 m wide by a mile long so I get airflow through the packs for drying and nothing is more then a few lifts with the forklift from the front, and an enclosed shed for the drymill side. Less logs in the yard at any given time so we dont have the degrade issues - I'll swing a chainsaw regularly rather then the stop and log for a month then saw for four thing I've done. Offload one log loader and buy a truck with a dirty big crane on it: go back to pushing the real big stuff on with a machine and top load with the crane.
How to do more with less and get a better product because of it. Dunno anyone that knows their way around sash gangs by any chance?

I dont mind the Floody. Got a bit of buyer resistance locally at first from the joinery shops but the guys who've tried it back up for more instead of buying in tassie oak. Cuts nice, bit of spring due to log size but its manageable: its a good stand of logs with a couple hundred cube more to come down. Theres a bit of feature grade in it due to bullseye borers and associated wounds but mostly its pretty clean cutting. I'm quarter cutting rather then backsawing: I can't compete with Boral Timber on the S&B grade stuff so why try to play that game? Maybe I'm being dumb there but I think I can pick up enough of a premium to make it work. Or to put it another way, if it sends me broke at least I'll get there on my terms, not someone else's. You know the risks of " different" in this game as well as I do!

Good to hear that things are moving and that you have a solution on the way. Much as we need the rain here in "Brownsville" I hope it holds of a little longer for you.

That RSG is pretty special stuff, machines & turns well.

Watch the ants. When they start going up the trees its going to rain and hard. Old Aboriginal chap told me that when I was a kid and its never been wrong.
Sash gangs! Gees, you are a hog for punishment! Had a bit to do with them back in the 70's. Usually a softwood mill. Vibrate like crazy on HW. Pretty slow, but admittedly, multiple pieces per pass. Other than that, most mills seem to go back to single blade etc.
New technology may have improved the situation and I am guilty of becoming a dinosaur.
Re Boral: There was never much point in undercutting an undercut market.

Originally Posted by Mobyturns

Good to hear that things are moving and that you have a solution on the way. Much as we need the rain here in "Brownsville" I hope it holds of a little longer for you.

That RSG is pretty special stuff, machines & turns well.

yah well, things never go according to plan here, and everything takes longer ten anticipated: my choices are looking like get a wet in January or wear 10 grand in degrade in the Rose Gum. No choice really, just got to hope the heavens don't open till Christmas.

Originally Posted by rustynail

Watch the ants. When they start going up the trees its going to rain and hard. Old Aboriginal chap told me that when I was a kid and its never been wrong.
Sash gangs! Gees, you are a hog for punishment! Had a bit to do with them back in the 70's. Usually a softwood mill. Vibrate like crazy on HW. Pretty slow, but admittedly, multiple pieces per pass. Other than that, most mills seem to go back to single blade etc.
New technology may have improved the situation and I am guilty of becoming a dinosaur.
Re Boral: There was never much point in undercutting an undercut market.

mate, this is Tully... some of them ants live and die without ever getting their feet to terra firma.

dunno, I'm looking for an option. Not for the hard hard stuff but for the likes of the RSG, maple, and stuff like that where I'm doing a lot of inch or less. 90% Of our intake is under 700 diameter, 80% under 600quartsawing we get a lot of 4/5/6" boards so it's not like it's a deep cut at the resaw.
The kerf loss with the circle resaws is killing me in the smaller logs, been keeping track for awhile and dog board plus extra kerf over a band we're talking 8% recovery increase by going to a band. Not real fussed on the thin bands for a lot of reason but mostly accuracy. Nearest place that can properly handle wide bands is Central Saws in Brisbane and the freight down and back is more then the sharpening cost. Can't afford and not big enough to justify a full filing room myself. So I started wondering about a sash gang resaw. Feed it good straight flitches and let it do its thing while making the next flitch.

Only sash I ever saw working was the big single sash breakdown saw at Tarzali, and it was designed to handle what the Canadian couldn't so was a dead set monster of a thing.i was just a little kid and can remember it but not with any detail.

Figured you might have been around long enough to have run across one so thought I'd avail myself of your accumulated wisdom.

I'm pretty sure Rankin's (JM Johnston) mill at Stratford had a sash gang saw? Also a long time ago for me 1960's? When you mentioned the gang saw I immediately though of Townsville Pallets setup at the Bohle, but if you want a solution to save on kerf waste its not the one for you.

Tully ants! You breed them tough up that way. We had a problem for many years with them actually destroying the hard sheath and protective inner layers on optic fibre cables through under road conduits. They actually produce something that even etches the glass fibre, to the point that it degrades light transmission through the fibre. In the 1990's when we first discovered it, no one world wide had ever seen anything like the damage they caused.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q...6C&FORM=VRDGAR

Oh of course Tully! Old English for Help I"m Drowning.
John, you may wish to have a chat to the guys at Acora Reneco in Eden NSW. Roger Timms or Rex Rogers were the blokes to talk to. They would be able to bring you up to speed with what is available these days.
Your requirements sound very much like a Sash Gang would be good but, in my experience, reciprocation and saw milling do not make a good marriage. Hopefully, modern technology has taken some of the noise and bounce out of the equation .