Traveling around the way we do you never know when an opportunity is going to step up and smack you in the solar plexus. Here I am at sister Holly’s lakeside home sitting around like it is Margaritaville. We are swimming and having a great time when my Nephew, Carl Morgan, asks if I want to come over and play with him on his portable sawmill. Now beings the only productive thing I have done all week is wash the coach and trailer, I said “sure, why not.”

Now Carl marches to a different drummer than most. He guides white water rafts on the Wenatchee and Skykomish rivers. He is building a house for his family. Once before I said sure and I spent the day running a Bobcat Digger. You can check out these stories at [Life is a Journey] and [Horse Feathers and River Rats]

Carl and Melissa’s home is coming along nicely and needs some nice cedar siding boards and a couple long beams for lintels over the garage.

We started by cutting a 21 foot chunk out of a huge cedar log and skidding it to the garage and the portable sawmill. Carl has an ingenious setup of winches and cables for bringing the logs to the sawmill and rolling them up onto the sawmill deck. It only took us an hour or so to nudge, pry, winch and roll the log into place and dog it down.

The internet indicates that the density of dry cedar is only 23 pounds per cubic foot. Our 28 inch diameter log figures about 100 pounds per foot of length or about a ton, if it were air dry.

We made our first cut just at the end of the taper and started cutting one inch planks off the log. When we got a 15 inch wide board off the whole length of the log we started cutting two and a half inch beams. After each pass of the band saw the big planks were a full load for the two of us just to move them off the log.

At the half way point we flipped the log flat side down. I suspect the half log still weighed three quarters of a ton, and we worked very carefully. We continued cutting one inch boards and two and a half inch planks until the log was finally sliced and diced to perfection. I was awestruck at the ability of this portable sawmill. The mill is rated for a 36 inch log, possibly up to 22 feet long. I think we would have needed a couple more small boys to handle something that big.

Just for kicks I am including a track from a Dry Branch Fire Squad CD. This group is one of my favorite bluegrass bands and Ron Thomason has an interesting take on the portable sawmill.12 Guaranteed Forever

By the way, I can see no way to get a portable sawmill into my shop trailer, so there is no worry from that source.

So long from the lake

Gary and Judy