Family Thanksgiving

Neat moss

Before we left for the farm I was taking Smokey out walkies and I noticed how well the moss filled in the cracks on my back patio!  Beautiful!  Almost like I planned it!

New Bandsaw Blades arrived!

The shipment of blades arrived from bandsawbladesdirect.com!  I ordered 2 blades.  One bi-metal re-saw blade and one carbide tipped re-saw blade!

Lenox blades from bandsawbladesdirect.com.  They took a while to arrive, but not bad considering no shipping charges!

Close-up of the carbide tipped blade once installed on the bandsaw.

Installation was easy.  The only issue I had was trying to figure the correct tensioning, but that's not just with this blade but with any bandsaw!  It seemed to run better when tension was above 5 (sorry, don't know units on the scale!).  It did produce a very nice cut and it cut through everything with no burning (like the normal blade that I had on the saw).  Very fast and beautiful cuts!  I used CT blade to cut up the slabs left over after last weekends milling and chipping operations.

Chipping

The new bandsaw blades let me saw the slabs into something that would fit in the chipper.  I sliced up all the slabs I had left over (and the new stuff) and chipped away! 

I figure I must have at least 2 cubic yards of chips there now.  I should put them on some trees next time.  Not sure which trees though.  Maybe the hazelnut?  Could do the persimmon too, or the remaining smaller sour cherry trees.

Jointer up and running!

I finally got around to putting a long cord (and appropriate plug) on my 8" jointer!  We stopped at Edgewood hardware when we were out getting food Friday and I got the needed hardware (12/3 extension cord and plug).  I fixed the plug and gave it a shot!  Still works!  Much nicer jointer than the one I had been using.  The fence stays rock solid perpendicular to the bed!

See the yellow cord there?  Thats new!  I turned it on and it really hums!  I ran a board through it - very nice!

The old 6" jointer.  Harbour Frieght special. Thinking of setting it to maximum offset to rough-in badly warped boards!

More saw-milling

I put one very long straight old oak log on the mill and started in on it.  It was VERY straight an took the full 17' of sawmill bed space that I had.  While the log wasn't very big I did manage to get a 17' 5x6 out of it!  

Thats an 8x8 on the right.  There is an additional sticker under the 5x6 (center).  That's a 5x5 (I think) on the right.

5x6" 17' footer! Its actually trying to bow!  I sticker-stacked it ASAP.  I am hopefully that it will ry further without more deformation.

Got some nice long boards from the long log too, but they either need edging and/or trimming.  I am saving them until later.

Going to have to do a cleanup of that sawdust soon!  Can barely walk over it now.

Muddy Mess

I chose not to do very much saw mill work because of the muddy situation in front of the barn.  It was bad enough just for the little bit I ran over it to chip the clabs!

I still have a log or two from the old batch (the ones taken down when the garage was excavated).  I have some more over by the house but I have judged them too small to mill. They may become test subjects for the lathe attachment or maybe just firewood and wood chips.

Was muddy from the rains we had last week.  There was standing water in the gardens.

No big ruts yet.  

 Planing boards for lathe device and furniture

I have been planing up some of the nicer (sometimes - lol) oak boards in order to make the lathe device of the sawmill and perhaps to make a coffee table for the house.  I will need to do glue-up panels for both.  I have prepped about 6 3" wide by 4' boards so far.  I need more so I scrounged around and found a few more oak boards.  I planed them this weekend but did not get around to cutting them down and jointing them.

The ones ready to glue are on the roller table surface.  A freshly planed one is leaning on the roller table there.

Freshly planed.  They look nice, but those knots will cause problems.  I will remove them before jointing.

More freshly planed.  

More freshly planed.  Some of these were so warped that they are left with an extremely thin board!  I will have to grade these and even up the thicknesses before I glue them!

Plane makes quite a mess of chips!  

These chips are much finer than the wood chipper chips.

I should use these on some plants!  Maybe bring them back to Silver Spring?

Family Thanksgiving

Mom.  Tom an Julie, and Connie and Ben arrived at our place Saturday - just after noon.  Tom and Julie sent out the pictures that they took - I didn't take any for some reason.  Anyway, it was a good get together!

My sister Connie (on the right) and me.  Lucy, Connie's dog, is checking things out in the lower right.

About to go for a walk around the farm. Tom has the camera.

Julie is operating the camera.  Lucy is being a dog and upsetting Connie.

Got one with Ben! Although he is trying to hide back there, LOL

Some interesting moss Tom found.

Bandsaw delivered

I spent most of Friday clearing a space for the bandsaw in the shop.  The lathe was placed a little too close to the doorway so it had to be moved back a bit.  I got some 3/4" black pipe (bought 3 10' pieces at Home Depot and had them cut each in half - so I have 6 5' pieces) and placed them on the floor to use as rollers for the heavy machines.  After cleaning the garage a bit i was able to use the tractor forks to help lift the lathe up onto the blackpipe rollers.  The forks couldn't lift the lathe really, but took enough weight off so that I could use a prybar to work the lathe pallet onto the pipes.

The UPS delivery guy finally got here about 4:30pm on Friday.  He had to call several times to get directions.  He pulled up out front with a full sized tractor trailer.  I took the tractor down to the road and used the forks to lift the bandsaw out of the truck and haul it back to the shop.  The bandsaw seems so small compared to the lathe and milling machine!  I had to move the forks in close together so that I could engage the bandsaw pallet.  Was a bit nervous moving the bandsaw on the forks since the bandsaw is so tall and thin.  I went very slow and didn't make any quick moves taking it from the road and into the shop.

Here is a picture of the bandsaw as it was Friday evening on the shop floor:

Ordered bandsaw and other stuff

I finally got the nerve to order the grizzly bandsaw today.  I bought it off of the grizzly site because they were cheaper and had what looks like a nice wheel base kit for it.

I spent considerable time outside today. Couldn't take this cabin fever any more!  I built a small fire brick version of a rocket heater near the wood pile and started it up.  I am surprised but the thing actually works fairly well.  I would have had to come back inside often to thaw my hands today because it was so cold, but the little fire place did the trick!  I think that if I put a heat deflector over it that I could then use it to heat the little plastic roofed greenhouse I got earlier this year.  After I got the fire going I went to work splitting wood.  I got several large pieces split.  I was keeping an eye out for wood that I could use to make a mallet.  I found a couple pieces that looked suitable and pit them aside until tonight.  After dinner I went out and started turning down one of the pieces to form the mallet head.  I used a technique that I saw on YouTube what a guy uses a router instead of the lathe tools to cut the wood.  I did try using the tools, but because I was turning the wood so that the grain was perpendicular to the rotation axis, the lathe tools were not doing very well.  The router was a little scary to use at first, but once I turned the cylinder down a bit, the lathe ran smoother and I calmed down.  Using the router was great!  It took smaller chips off and cut much more uniform than a larger tool would have.

I didn't take pix tonight, but will add pictures tomorrow when I can!