August 23, 2008

This morning I received a phone call from Dick Bartmess. He said a portable sawmill was coming to his farm to cut some seasoned logs he harvested from his farm into boards. A couple of years ago we saw an old sawmill in operation when we went to The Heston Steam Show to see our nephew, Todd, work with enormous steam tractors. I was excited to see what this portable machine would look like. I stopped and picked up Char’s brother Bill and we headed for Dick’s farm. They already started by the time we arrived.

This white oak log is about 7 foot long and with a 2-foot diameter. The saw is a large band saw that travels along the length of the log and can be set for any thickness of cut desired.

Here Dick is removing the first waste slab cut from the log.

The log was rotated 90 degrees and another waste slab was removed.

This is owner/operator, John Coulter Jr., and Dick running the saw. John’s name is familiar because his father gave us our terrific boat ride last night.

After the waste and first boards were removed, the remaining 12” X 15” block was cut into the boards Dick will use in his woodworking shop. Dick informed me that a 12” X 1 1/4” X 7’ board is valued at $80.00.

Dick was happy to have the saw come to him instead of loading his heavy logs on a truck and going to a sawmill. Today he loaded the big logs on the saw platform with a tractor front-end loader. The boards were put on a wagon and moved to his storage building.

The log size the saw can handle is limited to 16-foot long and a 3-foot diameter. Dick cut his trees with this size in mind so John could bring his compact machine to the farm. I enjoyed watching this operation and I’m sure Dick was happy to get the homegrown lumber for his shop.