WOW!! Clear skies as the Tuarts come down!

[Wild Dingo]

Well today was "D day" for the mighty Tuarts at the side of the house... here they were a few days back...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/p94414f5d5f03954b545f47be52ac96f1/fc52fc9c.jpg

7am the day looked like rain but the fellers rocked up anyways saws in hand... Gotta raze these fellas man "MANDURAH TREE LOPPERS & STUMP GRINDERS" are bloody legends!!

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/pe1c8e4dbbefd07d119dceb9c7d224832/fc4b7964.jpg

And then the cherry picker lobbed and up they went!...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/p5f5912c9dee4af1607d565dab25414fc/fc4b72d0.jpg

And down they came...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/pba56eb32b921b95e18161924afd2a3c1/fc4b7cae.jpg

And by 1pm all that was left was the 1 ft rounds for the heater and the logs cut into 3mtr lengths... Next job to get the miller fella to decide just when hes gonna come cut them... should start on Friday Saturday if not then next weekend... unless I find someone else who can do them sooner... ends painted and readied...

This one Ive decided to get cut about a dozen rounds about an 1" thick from and make some heart shaped tables from it...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/pbae968f9f89bc0edcd3a1ff6b13a9957/fc4b7e5a.jpg

Possumpoop is happy as a pig in poop right now but a patio is a definant before summer thing! :cool:

Thanks for all the possitive support :cool:

[Mrleft8]

Paint fast! The sooner you get it on, the less cracking you'll get.

[Bruce Hooke]

Nice series of pictures. Too bad the trees had to come down -- it looks like the must have provided some nice shade.

For the heart shaped tables are you aware that about the only way to keep them from splitting is to soak the rounds right away in PEG-1000?

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Using_PEG_for_dimensional_stability.html

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/A_PEG_primer.html

If you can't soak them right away in PEG it might be possible to stablize them temporarily by storing them in water.

I'd go with a bit more than 1" to give yourself some leeway for have to take of wood to flatten the top.

[htom]

Yes, you'll want thicker than 1" for table tops (and they'll be wonderfull in that shape!)

Watch for large sun shades to be on sale!

[reddog]

Dingo:
And down they came.Paul Bunyan and his blue ox,Babe,couldn't have done any better.You'll have your work cut out now what with the sawing and stacking of the lumber.
And my God man!!You live in the burbs.And here I thought you stayed in a hut out in the burning desert going walkabout and all.Popped that bubble,eh.
Your loggers have a great company name.
Take care and pics of the milling please.
Earl

[Wild Dingo]

Thanks fellas

I will do as all says... paint was on within a heartbeat of the job bein done...

Didnt know about the peg stuff Bruce will be heading out tomorrow am in search of a couple of tools and a shed so will see if I can find it...

Heres what greeted us this the first morning after they are down... :cool:

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/p821577cb82a481f8209d93f22c395b42/fc4a77b1.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid60/pe1a91270c230f91efe6a47df48f0cde1/fc4a77b5.jpg

Think it may be warm today?? :eek:

It was sad to see them come down... in one sence theyre been a great source of birdlife and much great shade during our hot summer... on the other hand a couple of them were getting flamin dangerous... one had the neighbors scared whitless everytime the wind blew a bit it leant more toward their house where it would have landed in their living room had it fallen which these particular trees have a peculiar penchant of doing... and another liked to lean over the house which worried young Tiffany a whole lot cause it was aimed at her room!!... :eek:

so one the one hand heartbreak... SOB... on the other joy... LOOKIT THAT WOOD!! :D

And if these are the sorts of sunrises we will now see without the trees then bring on the sunrise!

[John Gearing]

Dingo,
PEG is polyethylene glycol, IIRC, and will soak in the end grain and take the place of the water that's been lost, in the process stabilizing the wood. Or at least that's how I remember the action from reading about it some time back. If I'm far wrong I trust a more knowledgeable forumite will correct me and put you on the right track. Since you have already painted the butts (the trees' not your own!) you may not need the PEG until you slice the rounds for your table tops. Hmmm....I wonder if CPES would also prevent cracks?

[Wild Dingo]

Gidday John
Mate the miller put some goop called "endseal" on some of them {yeah the ones hes getting! :mad: } then buggared off ...anyways he reckoned it was a pvc glue with a wax mixed just put in a little water and whacked it on...

I then had to hunt up some paint and whack it on the ends he missed!... yeah mine! not real happy about this fella after all this muckin about... but well so far hes the best I can get around here and Id planned on loosing about half the trunks for the cuts... initially that was going to be my cost... half the logs for the slabbing done... now theyre down and layin around the front yard its $200 per day plus half the logs!

aaahhh well as I say hes better option than the only other one who was interested but at $100 set up plus $70 per hour to mill them I lost interest after the first day!! :eek: ... mind you I got to keep ALL the wood! nah too flamin much the missus would give me curry with that much stacked out the front for the next couple of years!!

School of Wood in Dwellingup where we were hoping to donate half the wood for the cutting ended up screwing around so much I gave them a miss! :rolleyes:

So I end up with a fella who keeps changing his mind and wants the best wood only and to leave the ****e wood for me... He wants to take the logs elsewhere to mill them and then of course Id be up for the cost of bringing the milled slabs back here... and probably loosing the best timber in the process... Ive told him its not an option they were cut here and will be milled here why the hell did I look for a mobile flamin mill if theyre gonna take it away to do it??? mmmm yeah me muttering "idiot!"... so mine will be milled here and he can take his to where the heck he wants to!

Neighbors have been spoken to and as long as a days warning is given and they dont start before 8am none have a problem... in fact a couple have expressed some interest in buying some slabs! so maybe I can recoup some $$ locally :cool:

Anyway we will see... Ive finished painting ALL the ends now and marked them with his initial on his logs and mine on mine if he dont like it... tough ****e! I still have a couple of other avenues to go for if need be... hopefully not as I want them cut and stacked so the front yard doesnt look like a forestry logging camp for too long! :D

Reckons he will cut a couple at 6 x 6 from one log for the keelwood and deadwood... the rest slabbed at 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 inch... so were lookin up with a grin :D

[Bruce Hooke]

John is right on, at least as far as my memory serves me :D . You soak the rounds in the PEG so, in fact, it won't be any use to you until you cut the rounds but once you do cut the rounds you want to get it into the PEG in very short order - it will start to check within hours on a hot day.

PEG-1000 is not something you will likely find at your local hardware store. There are probably industrial uses for it so if you can find out what those are then that may lead you to a supplier. Otherwise, here in the US it is available mail-order from a few suppliers of woodworking tools and supplies so that should give you some idea of where to look over there. I believe wood turners are some of the major users of it (in the woodworking world) so if you have someplace there that caters to wood turners that might be a place to try...

[pjwalsh]

Shane,

I can sympathize with your plight in finding a sawyer who will both show up to do the work and not rip you off when he does - I spent a whole summer trying to get a local fellow with a portable mill to come slice up my logs. Finally he asked me to truck them to him, and wanted an hourly rate of $35. Kinda loses the advantage of portable, and the cheapness of cutting your own lumber I would say - he got the axe.

The guy who ended up doing the job was an old (70 anyway) fellow named Eliot who I ran across while driving along a dusty back road. I stopped and asked if he was interested in the work and he came to check out the logs that same day. Showed up to cut two weeks later. He charged a flat rate of $0.25 per board foot plus replacement of any ruined blades. On the third day of cutting (we had quite a few logs) he did'nt show up until 2:00 in the afternoon. On questioning his helper said "One of us went to the BarB-Q (local bucket-o-blood)last night and got drunk. It wasn't me..." They still managed to finish things off in good time.

Keep on looking for the right deal, Too bad you are on the wrong side of the world to hire Eliot.

[Mrleft8]

DO NOT LET THE SAWYER TAKE HALF THE LOGS! If you're paying him, he gets cash. If he wants logs, he gets no cash, plus you choose which logs he gets. Don't let him bully you.
There really is no reason to saw the logs up, if you're not getting the pick of the litter. If he wants the best stuff, tell him you'll sell him the logs, but only if he buys them all. Then go buy nice pre-seasoned lumber with the money he gave you.
No... Just keep it all. If he doesn't like your terms, find another sawyer.
Besides painting the ends... you might want to put a sprinkler on those logs at night to keep them from drying out too much, too fast. And don't forget to tarp the lumber piles after they get sawn, and stacked....

[ 04-23-2003, 09:35 AM: Message edited by: Mrleft8 ]

[Wild Dingo]

Well really its quite amazin what a few hours will do eh?

Well this fella who was puttin his price up came again and upt it again 200 per day plus cost of a hiab crane and truck to truck his out! plus the best log... now I called around and found that it would cost me abou another $5-600 for the hiab and truck to cart these logs... so were now up to $1200 and 3 days... ****e on the sums from the fella who was gonna charge me 70 an hour Id be better off payin him and gettin all the flamin wood and be done!!... anyway had a yarn with the Wayne the feller about it when he came and ground the stumps this arvo and he sorta got p****d off told me to leave it with him for a few so he could make a few calls and hed get back to me this evenin

So anyways there I am waiting and deciding to mark the logs I want with a painted X on them and once marked that was it no changes... anyway the phone blows itself stupid... and its the school of wood fella again asking me if I would go out and measure the logs again missing the heartwood and from under the bark {sizes mattered here} so Im out there with tape in hand phone crammed to earole and were yammerin as Im measuring... "Bloody beaudy Shane they'll fit! just maybe have to take a slice off to bring the biggest down but they should fit the mill"

So I thought buggar this for a joke get this nailed before any other mutterins happen "look mate the price?..." I asked straight up and he comes back "same as before Shane no worries we will come take our logs and bring em up here to the school and then cut yours onsite for you... no cost to you other than half the logs... Just mark the logs you want and we'll take the rest if thats okay?"

Okay??? ****E!! OKAY??? Flamin oath it was okay!... so the schools trucks coming to get them over the weekend and they'll bring the saw down hes hoping for Tuesday... bloody ripper! he did say if I wanted them to dry them in the kiln that would cost me but ****e Im happy havin them on the front lawn for a few years! :cool:

Now as for the other fella who upt his price... Wayne the fella from Mandurah Tree loppers has this bloody great slab of Karri at his place three times the size of any of these dry and ready to go... hes offered this slab to the fella who kept upping his price for nix and this fellas been thumbing his nose at it... even talking with him tonight he reckoned "yer mate I could take that but its only one slab" well its a bloody big buggar! "yer but its only one $1600 slab and yerve got 7 logs I suppose yer given them to the school in Dwellingup aintcha?" yep sure am mate "Well that big log wont fit on their saw either yer know and yer'll only end up with the small ones yer know that doncha?"... {actually the slab is worth a damn sight more than $1600!}

Well I tried to end the convo with the comment "look mate yer not missin out altogether I reckon its pretty much a win win all round the school gets some free wood I get the logs gone and cut and dont have to pay buggar all and you get the slab at Wayne's and Wayne gets paid to fell them so everyone gets a bit of the apple no worries...now we cant do much better than that surely?"... "mmm yer but its only one slab Shane... an what happens if the school muck yer about again?"

Had to think for a sec there but "no worries" says I quick as a flash "look if that happens yer on again okay? elsewise I find someone else eh?"... "yer I reckon... yer get yer logs and slabs and the school gets on alright to an Wayne gets his money and all I get is the one flamin slab eh? thatd be right"...

"Look mate it could be bloody worse couldnt it? Wayne could tell yer to get ripped and keep the slab couldnt he? the school could tell yer to get ripped and take the work theyve offered yer of yer couldnt they?"... "yer suppose mate but ****e its only one slab"

Way it is sport! as Wayne himself said "greed took over and greed will always loose the day"

So end of story is the School of Wood comes to pick up their 7 logs over the weekend and then comes back to cut mine insitu hopefully Tuesday Wednesday at the latest... no cost to moi! Im happy :D Schools happy :D Waynes happy :D but the other blokes a tad p*****d :rolleyes: {but I bet he gets his ring into gear and gets to Waynes first thing tomorrow to make sure he gets that slab!}

Now Im buggarin of up to Perth to visit some timber and woodworker shops on Monday... got a flamin driveway goin in tomorrow public hol on Friday and the the weekend so Monday Ill do a search for that PEG-1000 goop and an old tub to stick em in! ;)

Thanks again fellas! :cool:

Oooh edited to add... I always pretty much expected to loose roughly half the logs in the cut that was to be the price of it... no worries I was happy with that... I guess I did want and expect that I would get the best logs and the only way that can be managed without payin through the nose is through the School of Wood... unless I fork the cash and get the other bloke to do it and keep the lot... and mates theres a ****eload of wood in them thar logs!! way more than I want or need at this stage and way more than possumpoop wants sittin on her front lawn for the next upteen years too! Not that Im adverse to doin somethin as perverse as that to stir her up a tad but somehow I dont think she'd be a happy little lady if I did so... anyway if it goes legup with the SofW we will see Im sure I wont bother with this other bloke even if hes the last one out there.

On another note... Ive not been up to this SofW yet so Im thinkin maybe I should take a wander next week and have a gander take a few snaps with the digital whacha reckon fellas? sound the go for a bit of a break?? ;) apparently they do turn out some pretty snazzy stuff up there...

[ 04-23-2003, 09:57 AM: Message edited by: Wild Dingo ]

[Wild Dingo]

This is turning into a flamin saga I can tell yer!! ;)

Okay today I got to thinking about the logs sat out there in the p*****g rain and muttered to meself for hours about the problem... hoons were startin to wonder who the drowned rat was sittin on the logs in what was once the garden :rolleyes:

Anyway possumpoop wandered over during a break in the rain after the hoons had nicked of to muck around somewhere or other... with a hot cuppa and sat with me and we pondered the situation of all this wood and loosing half of it the costs and all that stuff...

Anyway brightspark that she is wandered over to me tool box and lifted out the tape measure and said "what about you and me just measure all this wood every which way and then yer can give a proper sawyer fella a ring and ask them how long it would take to cut it? at least then we'd know the whole story eh?"

So we into it! measured them six ways to christmas no way was any smart all knowing old phart sawyer gonna trick me with some wobbly question of the thickness with or without the bark at the centre and 400ml above it no way no how!! so we measured and wrote them down...

Then I sat back while she wandered into this thing and found a sawyer fella who just happened to be the same one I originally rang before we dropped the trees {the one who charged 70 per hour} and we had a long yarn...

After hangin up me and delightful possumpoop had another chinwag while sittin on the logs... and then rang the School of Wood up and felt him out no worries the fella ended up yarnin with me tellin me what to do before the bloke comes to get it all ready what to do if we want to do the rounds {all precisely what you fellas have been saying of course :rolleyes: sheesh yer good! :D } and we hung up on each other remaining on a good footing. :cool:

So I rang the bloke back and organized for him to come and cut the lot on Tuesday week... yep its gonna cost somewhere around $700 - $800 but the dramas are over... he has an offsider and reckons they can cut stack and sticker the lot in about 8 - 9 hours tops! All I gotta do is list the sizes I want and he will cut them... keel and deadwood planks and slabs stickers and if necessary gluts... so Ive done away with both these other two and will now go with this bloke whos been sawing for over 20 years prior to the mobile mill and with that for the last 10... so he knows what hes up to! :D ...

Funny thing when I told the bloke from SofW who he was he couldnt recommend him more! So he reckons its the right thing too! :cool: shoulda done it this way to begin with and saved myself the dramas eh??!! :rolleyes:

As I said it bucketted down today and so I decided to have a nice quiet one here at home so didnt get away to Perth... next week will do the trick

[Matt Middleton]

I'm glad it's all working out for you. :D

It sure means a lot to me when my wife takes an interest and an active role in whatever project or problem I've got going on. She usually has a way of seeing things that sometimes telepaths over to clarify things for me. Seems that way, anyhow.

Matt

[Wild Dingo]

oohh yeah Matt shes a gem alright :rolleyes: ... she let slip this evening while we were yarnin after the hoons were abed her alterior motive behind todays events... she wants furniture from this stuff!!! :eek: ...mate!! I mean the "Honey do" list has just exploded outta sight seems she has all this wood that will be nice and dry and usable in a few years and there seems to appear to be this tuart table in her future along with a nice new tuart sideboard a full length tuart wall unit oohhh and soooooooooooooo many other things!! :eek: I mean the list was long before now... now... sigh its flamin massive!! I will be flat out for the rest of me days workin through it I can tell yer!! :rolleyes:

Gonna be hard to tell her that the wood is for... a boat :cool: ... FIRST!!! ;)