Sawmill Creek Forum

Post tags: | sawmill_creek_forum | wood | woodworking |

thread - The language of Loggers

Certified weighbridge dockets, showing loaded weight and empty weight dated the same day & location.

But the grade (specification) of log is important too!

Assessing a log, (for ‘specification’ and ‘recoverable timber’) is something only the local forester will be qualified to do!.

Also as the saw miller (presuming your going to mill your own lumber), your ability to assess the log, position it, turn it and saw it (quarter sawn, back sawn, boxing out heart wood etc) will determine your recovery rate.

It’s skills you only learn by experience “i.e. making mistakes”.

You’ll learn a lot faster with someone experienced to guide you thru the learning process.

When you buy your lumber “rough sawn” - your paying for the experience of the miller… he makes his $$$ by knowing all this, sourcing the right specification logs, and milling them for maximum recovery - any mistakes are at his expense!. Your only paying for the lumber supplied not his log purchase costs and milling waste etc.

If you are going to build a pole barn, does the local building regulations require that your lumber be professionally stress graded and stamped in accordance with any minimum engineering specifications - so you know the lumber will carry the stress & weight load of the buildings roof over whatever designed spans and so on?

If you mill your own lumber & a stress graded spec is required by local govt building authority - who will you get to do this for you?

One last thing to watch is tensile strength, there’s 2 ways to measure it… (usually at a pole destruction testing facility.

Some species (maritime pine here for e.g.) will easily pass the stress test where load is applied gradually and the pole deflects to a pre determined minimum amount - however when the shock test is applied, if its grown too quick with too much fertilizer and too much water light etc - it will snap like a carrot at the slightest knock. So things like street light (electricity transmission) poles, where there’s a engineering specification for them might be fine in load bearing of the weight of cross arms and wires & pass the wind deflection load test - but still fail “the vehicle collision test” due to not meeting the shock loading specification.

Theres a surprisingly large amount of technical detail when you get right into it and dependent on the final intended use.

Some ‘rural’ local govt authorities building inspectors are easy going - and you might get away with milling your own lumber!.

While some might be by the book types with all the requirements for stress grading marked lumber etc.

Things vary, but best to find out before you start buying truck loads of logs that maybe you can’t (or shouldn’t) use.

Not saying don’t do it - (because I have done it as have many others no doubt).

Just saying that any time invested in learning the ropes is well invested.

I built 2 identical workshops recently (in steel).

1 was for myself… and my local authority required a registered master builder to inspect concrete footings etc before concrete pour for integrity of reinforcing and meeting minimum specifications. They also required the same registered builder to then inspect at plate height before the roof went on and then to sign off on the building when completed, and after that they sent a local govt health & building inspector around to “inspect” the final product for compliance.

The 2nd workshop, 3 suburbs away, but under a different local govt authority, just approved the initial application - with no requirement for any inspections or supervision by a registered master builder & no inspections before or after of site footings or final inspection, nor any visits from the local govt health and building inspector so we just “built it”… with no interference from anyone!.

It all depends is the answer…

This really is one of those, “how long is a piece of string” questions at the end of the day (it’s open ended).

But everyone has to learn!

The smartest thing you did was ask questions.

That, and making mistakes is how you learn.

My old man (RIP) who was a master builder - was often wont to say “The man who never made a mistake, never made anything”!

How many of you have 3-Phase?

Mike Henderson

It’s unusual to have 3-phase in a residential area. Even if there’s 3-phase on the power poles in front of your house, getting it into your house will mean that the power company has to install 3 transformers (one for each phase) on the pole and bring the service to your home. Then, you’d have to have a three phase distribution panel.

All that adds up to real money. If the power demand for a tool is not too great, a VFD is an excellent solution - it gives you speed control, also.

Mike