Woodland HM126 - Mods started

[Darren Wright]

So, are you waiting to unpack the mill when the concrete pad is cleaned off so it gets assembled in place and not get tweaked during a move? If you have ever watched "Barnwood Builders" and Johnny Jett on the tele handler, you should be able to clean that pad off in less than an hour. If you have never seen it, it is worth it just to watch him manipulate the equipment and tear off a metal roof and disassemble parts.

Sorry, thought it was father in law, grandfather, better yet. A set of 4 wheeler tires on the golf cart will help it in hills on wet sod.

Chuck, I have a son in law in trucking. He used to teach at a trucking school. They now don't even teach them backing as they don't have enough time! So he went back into a truck. I enjoy the boat ramp videos, see first hand at the sale barn on Saturday mornings people trying to back to the chutes.

Anxiously awaiting updates Darren, your public is restless!

No worries, it's been great being here to learn things done first hand. I find new things he's done about every day around here too. I was up behind the pond in the holler the other day and came across this pipe/valve sticking out of the rocks.


Turned out he tapped one of the springs there to pipe it down to the dairy barn for pressurized water. The crack has since shifted in the last 60 years and water just runs out the base around it.

We literally have miles of that black plastic waterline all over the property fro irrigation projects he’s done. He didn’t put in an actual well until about 1990.

I have watched barnwood builders. Johnny is quite the operator along with Sherman helping to guide.

Another great place to watch backing is at the RV parks. We like to go up a day earlier before the weekend, before most of the new arrivals come to watch the show. You certainly can tell the weekenders from the full timers.

Sorry for the delays, but been fighting the rain, helping with her uncle's place since he had to have surgery, and still need to finish up the green house siding. We'll also probably finish taking down the little house first. Got lots on my plate.

Edit: Oh, and there is yard work, lots of yard work since it is spring.

 

[Chuck Ellis]

Chuck, I have a son in law in trucking. He used to teach at a trucking school. They now don't even teach them backing as they don't have enough time! So he went back into a truck. I enjoy the boat ramp videos, see first hand at the sale barn on Saturday mornings people trying to back to the chutes.

Anxiously awaiting updates Darren, your public is restless!

Backing my boat was a pretty steep learning curve for me, but finally got to the point I could back it up a couple of 2 x 6's to clear the slight curb on my driveway.... actually was glad to get rid of the boat... I still can't back a trailer for beans.

My stepson was a trucker for about 20+ years... he's pretty good at backing a trailer....

remember a time when I worked for a moving & storage company in the Bay area.... watched a truck wheel into the yard, stop and shift into reverse then back blind side onto the dock between two other trucks, no jocking for position or anything just wheeled in and parked.... commented that that driver knew how to back a truck.... one of the warehouse man said "yeah that's Rick Curl... when the driver opened the door and dropped down, it was Rick Curl's wife... a little 5'2" blond... that warehouse was position so that all trucks were blindside parking... some drivers had a time with that.

 

[Don Baer]

I used to struggle with backing up my trailer but with practice I got to where I could do it without to much work. Now with the new truck with the backup camera and the built in guide it's a breeze, I can put the ball under the hitch without any effort.

 

[Ryan Mooney]

Turned out he tapped one of the springs there to pipe it down to the dairy barn for pressurized water. The crack has since shifted in the last 60 years and water just runs out the base around it.

Having had both kinds, I have a rather deep appreciation for the value of gravity fed water of all sorts. Issues with the fault lines shifting and shutting down the spring aside .. it's still pretty dang nice to have the option!

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

My dad could back a trailer into just about any spot he wanted. I learned the mechanics of how it works just from watching him. My granddad was a whole other story. From the the time I was about 10 years old, I would be telling him which way to turn his wheels when I was out with him and his camp trailer. But through my adult life, there have been very few times where I needed to back a trailer myself, so I've never had a lot of practice from behind the wheel. I suck loudly at it, lol. Nowadays I have to move a cargo trailer around for my shooting club. It stays parked in my buddy Rick's back yard. It still takes me multiple tries to get it in his gate. (Poor Rick would be pulling out his hair if he had any left. He was accustomed to backing the trailer into his yard by himself.) The rear camera on my 4Runner makes it dead easy to hook it up, but it's not much help while backing the trailer itself.

 

[Steve Chavez]

It's kind of funny, I am a truck driver and I back up several times a day , My son was moving to the mid west and bought a box truck to move his belogings, we were shaking it down to make sure we didn't have any problems on the trip and I was backing it in his driveway and kept steering the wrong way. He said come on dad I thought you were a professional driver, my brain kept seeing a trailer in the mirror and just did what it was supposed to do, it took me 5 days to figure out how to back that stupid thing up.

 

[Darren Wright]

Still plugging away at getting things ready for the mill to be setup. I had to get the rest of the greenhouse built to get all of its boxes out of the garage. Last week when I had the backhoe on the tractor, I used it to finish breaking down much of the lean-to to the ground.

Today, since it was cooler and shady behind the barn I spent time cleaning up. I got about half of the boards and roof panels picked up, along with the piles of fence posts and other junk moved.

I'm hoping to get the rest of it done over the next week if it stays nice out. I’ve got enough room in the garage to start assembling the mill head now too.

There is a concrete pad under all of it, we’ll see what kind of shape it’s in once I get things cleared off.

 

[Darren Wright]

Assembly began tonight, at least of the cutting carriage. The cutting head was package on top of the tracks. The side of the crate is unbolted and laid down allowing the cutting head to be laid over on some support blocks. The tracks weigh a lot btw, probably 150# -200# per set.


At this point I’m supposed to stand the assembly up to finish assembly. I’ve got it on 4 wheel mover dollys to move it around. I’ll move it to the door edge of the garage door to stand up using the front end loader on the tractor.

 

[Darren Wright]

Spent a little time tonight and got the entire saw head assembled. I was a little hesitant at lifting the head to stand it up by hand, but watched a few videos of the assembly and in all of them they did just that. Turns out it’s pretty well balance and wasn’t hard at all.

This part of the assembly only took about an hour.


That’s it for now, at least until the back of the barn is cleared up. Then will have to figure out the layout and how I want to make the raised base. I’m almost wishing I had gotten the trailer option so I could get to using it, but I still think this was the right choice

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Looking good. What goes in the cylindrical tank on the top?

 

[Darren Wright]

Water or washer fluid, used as coolant/lubricant for the blade. You use water above 34*F and washer fluid for the cold months.

 

[Vaughn McMillan]

Water or washer fluid, used as coolant/lubricant for the blade. You use water above 34*F and washer fluid for the cold months.

That's what I was guessing. Hadn't thought about using washer fluid for colder temps.

 

[John Bartley]

I use water with a blend of dish soap and Pine-Sol during +32F days and during -32F days I mix that same blend 50/50 with windsheild washer fluid. I find the detergent/oil mix of soap and sol helps keep pine tar from sticking to the blade better than without. That said, my cutoff temp is about 10'F. Below that it's too dangerous to be slinging around 1/2 ton logs and working with wet, icy steel.

 

[Jonathan Shively]

Darren, don't know if you still get the magazine, "WOOD", but just got my new one and It has plans for a solar kiln in it. Think they missed the boat though, they have the sloping roof lift up to load it, I would change it so the tall front opens with two doors and then you could load and unload with a tractor and not by hand. If you don't get the magazine and are interested, let me know, can get them to you somehow!

 

[Darren Wright]

I’ll have to check their plans out. I’ve been considering the VT plans here, which is rear loading… https://sbio.vt.edu/content/dam/sbio_vt_edu/documents/Solar Kiln Plans 420-030_pdf.pdf

I still need to figure out the location for a kiln or two, the spaces that are out of the flood planes here, and close to the mill aren’t ideal for a rear loader, but agree loading with the tractor would be ideal.

 

[Jonathan Shively]

Your plans are it in a nutshell. Same theory, your plans load from what I consider the front. Like the double door so loading and unloading can happen with a forklift or forklift forks on your tractor. Make this less physical so you can enjoy it longer. A buddy of mine years ago used a semi trailer, painted it flat black, installed solar fans on a temp gauge. Hope things are still moving forward for you.

 

[Darren Wright]

Hope things are still moving forward for you.

Sloooooowly they are. It doesn't help when I have to keep switching or adding projects as SWMBO decides something new is a priority. We don't always agree on those, but if momma's happy...


Edit: Yes, those are harbor freight rubber floor mats under the pool.

 

[Frank Fusco]

 

[Darren Wright]

Been trying to do some site planning for how I’ll be setting up the mill, log storage, slab storage, the saw buck, and general process flow.


I think I’ll need to run the mill the shorter direction of the slab, which will allow more room for loading. It leaves the operator side of the mill where I can move slabs to a trailer or conveyer to go into the barn for processing.

The hill side behind the barn has an upper drive that goes up to the hay bale elevator. I plan to add a cross bridge to the upstairs of the barn at some point.

The valley behind the barn narrows but plenty of room for logs and slabs to sit, mostly shaded too.

 

[John Bartley]

A couple of ideas if I may?

1 - leave enough room behind the mill so that you can run your tractor/loader across behind the mill to pick up sawdust for removal
2 - leave enough room in front of the mill so that you can build a covered log deck that you load with 4-6 logs and then you can shut off the tractor until you need to move product
3 - slabs are a pain in the posterior and they tend to be unevenly heavy and awkward. Leave an opening on one side or t'other and then find and install a roller rack so that you can just slide slabs off to the side without too much lifting. You can always handle them later with the forks and if they end up falling onto the ground at the end of the rollers that's ok - they're probably firewood or landscape chips anyway
4 - same thing for sawn product - ie: find a way to handle without too much lifting until you have enough to start the tractor/loader and take them away on the forks for stacking/stickering

Just some thoughts ....

cheers