OK - Woodworking Talk

**Daren** · 06-04-2009, 10:25 PM

Now what ?

drcollins804 · 06-04-2009, 11:17 PM

Looks like you need a bigger saw

. When you get it let me know cause I have a couple of similar crotches I want cut to.
David

jeffreythree · 06-05-2009, 08:32 AM

That looks like one that will get cut which ever way it will fit. It must be tough picking out where to trim first

.

**TexasTimbers** · 06-05-2009, 11:56 AM

That's easy. A 3-sided table for the space shuttle crew.

**Daren** · 06-05-2009, 01:05 PM

Well...in the antigravity of space the sucker would be much easier to move than where it lays in my yard, I'll give you that

My buddy called and asked if I wanted an oak crotch, he works for an excavation contractor and they were cleaning up a future building site/doing grade work. I said sure, how big is it ? "Oh, about 3 1/2 feet across". No problem, I can mill that...I didn't know he meant 3 1/2' at the little end

Gary Beasley · 06-05-2009, 01:22 PM

Know any chainsaw sculptors? Be a shame to waste the symmetry of that.

Shamus · 06-07-2009, 12:27 PM

I don't know much about milling but I'd sure be tempted to start at the bottom and saw off about 10 or so 2" table tops. Would be pretty interesting as you got closer to the top of the crotch.

JP Sinclair · 06-12-2009, 11:14 AM

Daren - Must be in the air, I just took in this wafaring monster. It's a very old rock maple stub from a tree job near here. It's about 4 feet across, has some really cool horizontal and verticle compression and was suprisingly solid in the center. I can't even imagine how old it is. I would love to build a saw rig that could cut this into 4" solid slabs. A guy named Sam Talarico has a site called Talarico hardwoods and he has a neat rig that can cut nearly any size log into big slabs. I wrote to him but he said his saw is from a company that isn't in business anymore. I've been talking to some buddies that have pretty good engineering minds. I think a verticle reciprocating type saw would be the way to go. It would clean out the cut gullet with gravity. It would be sort of along the lines of the old giant hand saws you see in the old pictures of loggers cutting the giant redwoods out west. I just think it would be the bomb to make a big kitchen table out of a solid piece of big old growth stuff like this. Otherwise I have to quarter it just to even be able to lift it with the log truck to get it on the mill. Has anyone heard of any saw makers that could make a rig like what I'm talking about?

**TexasTimbers** · 06-12-2009, 11:40 AM

JP,

If you have or can borrow/rent a powerhead large enough I will send you my 6' bar (I finally found it again) and some chains so you can slab that thing out. It wouldn't be much to send just the bar and chains. I'd like to see some cookies out of that thing too. I might even try and fenangle one out of the deal (of course) but you wouldn't have to promise me anything I'd still loan you the bar and chain. Just cover the round trip shipping. Free-handing that 6' bar is not a cake walk I'll admit, but if this little guy can do it I know you can too. I run it with a 395XP and I wouldn't want to try it with anything smaller.

I also have a 6' two-man hand saw. I could send it to Daren for a good sharpening and he could forward it to you. When sharp, those things will surprise you how fast they cut. Personally though, I'd pick the chain saw bar.

**Daren** · 06-12-2009, 12:50 PM

I have a 5'6" (in the picture) and a 6 foot 2 man bucking saw...just can't find anyone who wants to run the other end

Yea, thank goodness for a long chainsaw bar/big powerhead.

I heard an old boy tell a story once (might have been dirtclod here, not sure) about him and his brother using a 2 man bucking saw. His brother got tired so he tied his end to a willow limb and it did the pull stroke...the feller got thinking and decided that worked pretty slick so he tied his end to one too and they went fishing.

JP Sinclair · 06-12-2009, 01:17 PM

That type of old style saw blade is what I was thinking of, I'm sketching ideas of a tensioner and piston or some type of reciprocating action to drive the blade. Kevin - I've been thinking of getting a big ol' bar and ripper chain and rigging up a 2X6 on either side as a guide. I'm just worried about smoking my chainsaw. I have a buddy that was trying to get into pine bar tops and quickly burned up two of the top of the line huskys in his attempts. That sounds very expensive. By the way - I'll get you that bf amount on the tiger maple soon....

**Daren** · 06-12-2009, 05:16 PM

It would be neat to figure out a way to "motorize" one of those old blades, redneck wide slabber. Maybe a wheel/pitman arm/bearing setup. Like a steam engine piston in reverse (if that makes sense). The linear motion of the piston turns a wheel...use a powered wheel to create linear motion with the saw blade

Trivia for anyone, pitman arm is a widely used term know where it most likely came from ?

Now I had to go and drag one of my old saws out...it's sharp/set ready to cut. I may wait till my neighbor gets a couple beers in him later this evening (he is always up for crap like this) and set up the camera and make a YouTube video of us bucking a log with it

.

drcollins804 · 06-12-2009, 07:18 PM

That would most likely be the guy that wore the big hat because he was on the bottom of a log working a saw like yours.

David

supershingler · 06-12-2009, 07:33 PM

could you rig up a setup like the pitman on an old cycle mower.

should work on the same concept.

just and idea.

daren

got your kiln plans, going to build one next week, cant wait to get that walnut in the carvewright.

kendall

rocklobster · 06-12-2009, 10:26 PM

Don't understand what the problem is. Just lay a beast like this on it.

GerryB · 06-13-2009, 02:07 AM

Darren,
The guy in the hole at a pit saw.

**Daren** · 06-13-2009, 08:51 AM

Right Gerry, with the hat like David mentioned.

dirtclod · 06-13-2009, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daren

I heard an old boy tell a story once (might have been dirtclod here, not sure) about him and his brother using a 2 man bucking saw. His brother got tired so he tied his end to a willow limb and it did the pull stroke...the feller got thinking and decided that worked pretty slick so he tied his end to one too and they went fishing.

T'weren't me. But I like it.

Yeah on the pitman being on the losing end of the coin toss of the two man pitsaw team. Or maybe the top man threatened to pop him in the jaw if he didn't get in.

I think the term pitman rod came from the first attempts to use steam powered pumps for coal mines in England. The rod that connected the rocker arm to the pump at the bottom at first glance looked like it had the pitman at the bottom.

**Daren** · 06-13-2009, 07:23 PM

Hey dirtclod, where ya' been. Long time no see, hope all is well.

dirtclod · 06-13-2009, 09:02 PM

Thanks!

Ice storm, bombed computer, apathy(sp?), take your pick. Still milling. Getting ready to get some old black (magic) walnuts on the mill sometime soon. Backlog in milling = SNAFU. Were do all them logs keep coming from? They weren't here when we agreed to do the job!