Shop time

[robinson46176]

Finally spent an hour in the woodshop this morning. Unfortunately it was all feeding the wood furnace and broom time but I'm going to count it. It was nice just being there.
It needs a lot of cleaning and reorganizing but then no one is looking over my shoulder and I have no deadlines. I've spent most of the time this summer outside with the horses or mowing grass or in the farm shop.
It's 32 degrees out this morning with gusty winds up to 25 MPH. That doesn't make me want to go outside very bad. I have to though to cut more firewood. I have several large dead trees that have dried down about right. I want to mill the logs and cut the tops for firewood. Two are tulip poplar, a couple are mulberry, a couple of elms and a mid-sized cherry.
The two big tulips may become mostly bevel lap siding.


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[BuckeyeDennis]

How do you mill the logs? I have several large dead ash trees that need to be made into lumber this winter. Most of them are where you can't get equipment to them without tearing up my yard, so I'm thinking chainsaw mill.

[robinson46176]

How do you mill the logs? I have several large dead ash trees that need to be made into lumber this winter. Most of them are where you can't get equipment to them without tearing up my yard, so I'm thinking chainsaw mill.

I have the small Woodmizer LT-10 bandsaw sawmill. I bought it with 21' of track so I could easily cut 16' long stuff like rafters etc. (basic track length is two 7' sections) It has really impressed me.. I have not used it a lot yet (ticker went dicky) but as a manual mill it is easy to push and compares fairly favorably to the larger commercial Kasco mill I used to have some years ago. A sawmill can be a good investment if well cared for. I bought my Kasco mill and used it for maybe 8 years and sold it for almost what I paid for it new. I would expect the same thing from this little Woodmizer. There are a lot of different mills out there now. When I was looking they all kept bragging that their mill came with those great Woodmizer blades. I decided that if the blades were so good why not buy the Woodmizer saw. A lot of the others looked very good but some looked a little too much like something out of a local welding shop as in not exactly repeatable parts if you needed a replacement. Like the part was fabricated for "that one saw" and the next one may be slightly different. The "fit & finish" of the Woodmizer is excellent and is what really made my decision. That and their "world headquarters" is in Indy about 25 miles away and I picked mine up (no shipping cost) at one of their plants about 25 miles south-east of here.

A lot of guys on forums I frequent do a lot of milling with chainsaw mills. I have never used one but I have free-handed a plank or two with a chainsaw but we won't use the words straight or quality when discussing the process.
The use of a "ripping" chain is critical with a chainsaw mill both for speed and accuracy.



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[robinson46176]

Long ramble...
I probably should have titled this thread "Confessions of a shop & Tool Madman"
I've never met a tool that I didn't want.
The wood shop now has a permanent home in the basement under the east wing of the house in a 24'x40' room. I still have some work to finish on the big door to the outside and well, OK, a lot of work to do on the shop itself but the shop is fully usable as it is, just not as organized as I would like. That is OK because for the first time in my life I have a woodshop that is heated and air-conditioned full time and I can walk in there and putter when ever I like.

Yesterday Diana came to the farm shop with me and helped me find part of the floor. I call it the "farm shop" just because I don't know what else to call it. It is where I have spent many years repairing my farm machinery and was for some time also the home of my woodshop albeit a badly crowded woodshop, part of it on a dirt floor. Now a dirt floor is not as bad as it sounds. I would rather work on a good level dirt floor than on a really rough wood floor. Actually while I don't want to go back to a dirt floor they are a lot more comfortable to stand on than concrete. The farm shop is in a converted 36'x50' old barn. Not super efficient but I'm used to it. Most of my life I wanted a big open building for a farm shop like in the magazines but as I age that doesn't really matter all that much. I have an area on the lee side (east) where I do a lot of work just outside of a bay door that is pretty shady in the hot part of the day and out of the wind in the winter. I have one work bay (when I can find it) where I can get my extended cab truck inside and work all around it (if the shop is basically clean).
There are several problems with that shop. Not the least of which is that it tends to be the catch-all spot of the farm. OK, I confess, it is just one of about 5 catch-all spots on the farm. But I am working on them...
Another problem is that I just have too much stuff... Did I just say that?
For many years I have bought a lot of stuff at auctions, garage sales etc. Lots of tools and literally tons of new nuts, bolts, washers, nails and all manner of such things. To walk into a vendor and order my inventory would probably cost you over $10,000. Not that anyone would ever go order this mix of stuff. I have used a LOT of this stuff over the years but now I am trying to reduce my stocks a little. Now that I am no longer doing farm stuff except for the horses and a little produce and we are down to one rental there is a lot of "stuff" that we just don't need. The one rental we still have I found a renter with basic skills that pays a lowish rent and does virtually all of the maintenance on it. It has worked well for a few years now. I no longer need several "spare just in case" furnaces or well pumps etc. I have sold a lot of scrap this year, all stuff I have owned for many years and just don't need. About half a ton of just pipe fittings. New regular work is all Pex and large drain stuff is all plastic.
The farm shop is a pretty general shop sort of with different areas. The work bay is mostly for tractor and vehicle mechanical work and the tools there reflect that. There is a big heavy bench there with a large vise on it. In one corner near the door is the tire and battery area with a tire changer and balancer as well as a lot of special tools and vulcanizing equipment. Unlike the corner station I also have need of truck tire stuff including a tool for installing dual wheels and a manual tire changing support rack. I also have need of the tools for rear tractor tires. Battery chargers, carriers and load testers reside in that corner too. South of the work bay is a pretty complete blacksmith and welding shop including a very heavy all steel bench with a blacksmith's post vise on one end and a big pivoting machinist vise on the other end. There are 3 hydraulic presses there too. Another area has the drill press, grinders and my metal lathe along with machinist tools and accessories. One large corner area is full of small drawers, boxes and buckets of new bolts and fasteners. There is a shelf with electrical wire, crimp on connectors and the hand tools for them. Everywhere there are tool boxes of specialty tools like small engine tools, regular special engine tools, soldering equipment for both electrical and sheet metal and tinners hand tools. There is also still a radial arm saw and a table saw in there with basic carpenters tools so I don't have to make a trip to the woodshop if I just need a basic repair/patch to a building. There is also a couple of large leather stitching machines still sitting there waiting to be sold soon.
In short it's a mess... A couple of years of health problems can do that but we made very good progress today. Maybe a couple of hours work away from being able to get a vehicle in and work all around it again. That doesn't mean that the shop is clean and organized, just that it is a lot better today than yesterday. The good part is that what we did today is pretty inspirational and has me ready to attack the rest of it.
One day this week I am buying it a new wood stove. It will sit in one corner with double metal heat shields between it and the walls.


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[fredsheldon]

Long ramble...
I probably should have titled this thread "Confessions of a shop & Tool Madman"
I've never met a tool that I didn't want.
The wood shop now has a permanent home in the basement under the east wing of the house in a 24'x40' room. I still have some work to finish on the big door to the outside and well, OK, a lot of work to do on the shop itself but the shop is fully usable as it is, just not as organized as I would like. That is OK because for the first time in my life I have a woodshop that is heated and air-conditioned full time and I can walk in there and putter when ever I like.

Yesterday Diana came to the farm shop with me and helped me find part of the floor. I call it the "farm shop" just because I don't know what else to call it. It is where I have spent many years repairing my farm machinery and was for some time also the home of my woodshop albeit a badly crowded woodshop, part of it on a dirt floor. Now a dirt floor is not as bad as it sounds. I would rather work on a good level dirt floor than on a really rough wood floor. Actually while I don't want to go back to a dirt floor they are a lot more comfortable to stand on than concrete. The farm shop is in a converted 36'x50' old barn. Not super efficient but I'm used to it. Most of my life I wanted a big open building for a farm shop like in the magazines but as I age that doesn't really matter all that much. I have an area on the lee side (east) where I do a lot of work just outside of a bay door that is pretty shady in the hot part of the day and out of the wind in the winter. I have one work bay (when I can find it) where I can get my extended cab truck inside and work all around it (if the shop is basically clean).
There are several problems with that shop. Not the least of which is that it tends to be the catch-all spot of the farm. OK, I confess, it is just one of about 5 catch-all spots on the farm. But I am working on them...
Another problem is that I just have too much stuff... Did I just say that?
For many years I have bought a lot of stuff at auctions, garage sales etc. Lots of tools and literally tons of new nuts, bolts, washers, nails and all manner of such things. To walk into a vendor and order my inventory would probably cost you over $10,000. Not that anyone would ever go order this mix of stuff. I have used a LOT of this stuff over the years but now I am trying to reduce my stocks a little. Now that I am no longer doing farm stuff except for the horses and a little produce and we are down to one rental there is a lot of "stuff" that we just don't need. The one rental we still have I found a renter with basic skills that pays a lowish rent and does virtually all of the maintenance on it. It has worked well for a few years now. I no longer need several "spare just in case" furnaces or well pumps etc. I have sold a lot of scrap this year, all stuff I have owned for many years and just don't need. About half a ton of just pipe fittings. New regular work is all Pex and large drain stuff is all plastic.
The farm shop is a pretty general shop sort of with different areas. The work bay is mostly for tractor and vehicle mechanical work and the tools there reflect that. There is a big heavy bench there with a large vise on it. In one corner near the door is the tire and battery area with a tire changer and balancer as well as a lot of special tools and vulcanizing equipment. Unlike the corner station I also have need of truck tire stuff including a tool for installing dual wheels and a manual tire changing support rack. I also have need of the tools for rear tractor tires. Battery chargers, carriers and load testers reside in that corner too. South of the work bay is a pretty complete blacksmith and welding shop including a very heavy all steel bench with a blacksmith's post vise on one end and a big pivoting machinist vise on the other end. There are 3 hydraulic presses there too. Another area has the drill press, grinders and my metal lathe along with machinist tools and accessories. One large corner area is full of small drawers, boxes and buckets of new bolts and fasteners. There is a shelf with electrical wire, crimp on connectors and the hand tools for them. Everywhere there are tool boxes of specialty tools like small engine tools, regular special engine tools, soldering equipment for both electrical and sheet metal and tinners hand tools. There is also still a radial arm saw and a table saw in there with basic carpenters tools so I don't have to make a trip to the woodshop if I just need a basic repair/patch to a building. There is also a couple of large leather stitching machines still sitting there waiting to be sold soon.
In short it's a mess... A couple of years of health problems can do that but we made very good progress today. Maybe a couple of hours work away from being able to get a vehicle in and work all around it again. That doesn't mean that the shop is clean and organized, just that it is a lot better today than yesterday. The good part is that what we did today is pretty inspirational and has me ready to attack the rest of it.
One day this week I am buying it a new wood stove. It will sit in one corner with double metal heat shields between it and the walls.
.

Farmer, one picture is worth a thousand words

Sounds like you could write a good book about the lost art of farming.
Fred

[robinson46176]

Farmer, one picture is worth a thousand words

Sounds like you could write a good book about the lost art of farming.
Fred

Fred, that shop makes decent words but right now a picture would make a pretty ugly statement...


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[davebodner]

So, what do we think is a fair entrance fee for the privilege of wandering around Farmer's various sheds, barns, and shops?