Beautiful Fall and Planted Fields

October 19, 2016.    Grass is beginning to catch and will plant again in Spring.   What beautiful Fall colors!

Alone & Dangerous

• A chain saw can create 50 stitches or subtract a toe in less than a second.  
• A widow maker looms in every hemlock tree.    
• The band sawmill can take a limb before your realize its gone.   
• A 2000 lb. log can crush a hand or your back with one slip of the chain.  
• A runaway tractor that mistakenly slipped into gear and into into your path.
• A power takeoff  shaft that rolls your shirt like an alligator. 
• A snapped cable whips through flesh like a scalpel. 

A class in these subjects would be silent.   A lot of note taking and careful observations.  I think a few hands may be raised.   When you become responsible for your own security and a mistake is your life or limb, you pay attention.    Every operation of tree to mill to lumber requires careful thought, patience, and constant attention to safety.  

This year alone I almost cut off my toe when I decided a quick chainsaw operation did not need my steel toe boots.    Last year I managed to cut a 14 inch gash in my pants without scratching the skin.   I have to remind myself of basic rules of logging & the sawyer. 

1. Scan the tree for widow makers
2. Remove all brush and fodder around the base of the tree 
3. Plan an escape route when the tree falls in the right direction
4. Plan an escape route when the tree falls in the wrong direction
5. Scan the felled tree for tension, potential movement, stability
6. Remove the brush as you go and keep cutting area clean
7. Securely fasten all chokers and chains for minimal movement
8. Carefully get on and off tractor to avoid unwanted actions
1. Slips into gear
2. Breaks let go
3. Accidentally moving the hydraulic lever 
9. Keep the tractor level while lift logs with bucket
10. Keep the tractor level while moving logs with bucket
11. Log tender never lets limbs or body get under log or between equipment
12. Place in gear after delivering log and stopping tractor
13. Securely fasten log to saw bed 
14. Have an all clear message and visual before engaging sawmill 
15. Disengage sawmill when doing anything but sawing 
16. Have an all clear message to re-work log on sawmill after disengaging 
17. Never conduct any work but sawing while blade is engaged
18. Keep your equipment sharp, lubricated, and in good working order
19. Stay hydrated, awake, and visually alert 
20. Have a cell phone handy at all times and within reach

Not paying attention to any one of the above rules can and will kill you.   I think of the skidder operator who had a wedged log being winched by a cable.   Instead of taking the tension off the cable before exiting the skidder, he jumped off the skidder and started following the cable to the log.   The tension on the cable caused it to snap and took his foot off.   Tension on a cable looks like hot glass: you cannot recognize it visually.   He managed to get a tourniquet on his leg, stop the bleeding and back on the skidder.   He body was found the next day with his skidder stuck in the mud.  

Attention to safety, detail, and careful planning would have avoided this death.  

1. Reduce the tension on the cable then get off
2. Have a cell phone handy at all times 
3. Weigh the value of going through a muddy bog when failure is death

Logging Operations

Our logging operations in action.    The bigger logs are 24" in diameter, 12 feet long and weigh about 1200 pounds.  Hydraulics have no problem picking up the logs.   Below is the largest log we have sawed so far.  Very difficult to turn after first cut.  Any log bigger will have to be paired down using a chainsaw.   I am thinking of implementing a Scottish derrick to help with moving logs.

Oliver 550 has been impressive getting logs out of the woods.  Also useful in moving logs and lumber between saw and drying pile.

We are logging Hemlock for the most part for the machine shed and saving the Pine for main buildings and workshops.   A big Hemlock below that has been limbed.

Moving the sawmill to it's new home.

UnPlugged

Just received the manual mortising machine.  Its late 1800's vintage and made for a small workshop or  furniture maker.   Creates a mortis using leverage from your foot, and looks like a drill press.  Has a three sided chisel.     Great machine for OwlCrest and plan on restoring it this winter.  Completely off the grid, human powered, green and mean!  Will keep updating this post with progress.

Shipped it from California, this thus the pallets and packaging.   Hope to have a video of it working soon.  

Machine Shed Design

This is the design of the machine shed made with a solid modeler OpenSCAD.  The beams are going to be the hardest part to saw as they will be 20' and 24'.

It has four open sides to easily get equipment in and out.  

The Sawyers

The Woodmizer mill has arrived, installed, and we cut our first lumber for OwlCrest.   We felled three hemlock trees with about 20 inch girth each.   We are saving the pine trees for the wood shop.   New hydraulic bucket worked great getting the logs in.  

Seth and Nick were here all day to help with the logging and milling.   A lot of work and two trees including the milling takes a full day.  Based upon the yield, I am guessing we need 15 - 18 trees for the equipment shed.   Today was a little slow as we had to learn both how to choke logs and use the sawmill.

The pile keeps growing!

June 19th, 2016. Another work day on the pile.  We can do about a tree a day between cutting, hauling, and sawing.   We are sawing 1 inch boards and 2x8x12' rafters.  Nick works for beer and a meal! 

October 19, 2016.  Have most of the main beams cut.  Moving them wet without the tractor is almost impossible.  Bigger beams weigh a few hundred pounds each.   Hopefully will loose majority of weight when dry. 

Oliver 550 New Bucket and Hydraulics

New Hydraulics

I had to reverse engineer the Oliver 550 Hydraulics to add a modern valve and bucket loader to my tractor.     It is a open circuit flow that requires constant circulation of the fluids.    I created the part with a solid modeler and had a machine shop tool it for me.   The  bottom hose is the source for the bucket loader and the middle is the return.    I added a second return that allowed a two way valve to work with one way cylinders, i.e. the when the cylinders are allowed to return to the closed position, it "pumps" fluids back into the reservoir instead of reversing the cylinder.

Refurbished Bucket Loader

Here is a picture of the bucket loader I purchased second hand for $300.

Great shape, but we had to re-fabricate the bucket.   I added the forks to allow us to pick rocks and roots easily without taking away the topsoil.   Seth an I put the loader framework this Spring with very few problems and and installed new washers and bolts.    Hydraulics worked first time and surprised myself more than it did Seth! 

New Trip Mechanism

I had to create a new trip mechanism for the bucket as older one rusted out.   Pull the ring and the bucket dumps.  To lock it back in place, you must place bucket on ground and back up.   Oh, well, a new set of cylinders for bucket next year!