Boy, what a nice day. The sun is out and the thermo broke 55°F Wed. afternoon; warmest day since Thanksgiving. Nancy and I wandered down to Bill McCutchen's saw mill (see previous post, Day 98) to watch him cut the raw wood for our
trim. In exchange for felling a dozen large cedars from a neighbors lot (clearing for future house), he gets the wood for our job. I took a bunch of pictures
for the Mr. Bills (the wood cutter and my father-in-law). Wood doesn't get any fresher than this, smells great and looks good. The process is as follows. He drags a log (up to 21 ft long and 34" diameter) to the side of the mill, and the mill lifts it up onto the bed. He levels the log with hydraulic lifts so its center line is parallel to the cutting plane, then has at it. The bark comes off first, then 1x slices until he is down to solid wood. He was getting 12" x 20' slices from this log. After the log is trued up on all four sides, he starts cutting 5/4 (1.25") slabs.
This will be dried and ripped to the proper size. We need some 8", 6", and a ton of 4" for door and window trim, as well as 1x6 T&G (tongue and groove) for the soffit. I suspect we'll end up buying about $2000 of cedar trim for the house, which will save us $450 over Carl's prices, and we're even buying local. One extra thing to mention. When all the windows and exterior doors are installed, Bill will come over, measure all the windows and doors, and cut the trim to size in his shop. That way he'll make the best use of the wood, and we'll only pay for what he delivers. I figure that this little freebie will save me a week of trim cutting.
trim. In exchange for felling a dozen large cedars from a neighbors lot (clearing for future house), he gets the wood for our job. I took a bunch of pictures 
for the Mr. Bills (the wood cutter and my father-in-law). Wood doesn't get any fresher than this, smells great and looks good. The process is as follows. He drags a log (up to 21 ft long and 34" diameter) to the side of the mill, and the mill lifts it up onto the bed. He levels the log with hydraulic lifts so its center line is parallel to the cutting plane, then has at it. The bark comes off first, then 1x slices until he is down to solid wood. He was getting 12" x 20' slices from this log. After the log is trued up on all four sides, he starts cutting 5/4 (1.25") slabs.
This will be dried and ripped to the proper size. We need some 8", 6", and a ton of 4" for door and window trim, as well as 1x6 T&G (tongue and groove) for the soffit. I suspect we'll end up buying about $2000 of cedar trim for the house, which will save us $450 over Carl's prices, and we're even buying local. One extra thing to mention. When all the windows and exterior doors are installed, Bill will come over, measure all the windows and doors, and cut the trim to size in his shop. That way he'll make the best use of the wood, and we'll only pay for what he delivers. I figure that this little freebie will save me a week of trim cutting.
