# Aint this fun . . .



## Kevin

Tell me yallndont like milling big cedar and I wont believe you. This cant started out as 20" square - here its a pair of 8" thick x 18" wide book matched pair . . . 11 feet long. Anyone want to make some really big chifarobe doors? 



 

Thats not even the big one.

Reactions: Like 9 | EyeCandy! 4 | Way Cool 9


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## DLJeffs

I see a fantastic blanket chest. Be really cool with hidden joints so it looked like a giant solid block of that cedar. Ohh the smell!


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## TimR

Dang, when I grow up I'm gonna have to get me a mill!

Reactions: Agree 4 | Funny 2


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## Treecycle Hardwoods

Kevin said:


> Tell me yallndont like milling big cedar and I wont believe you. This cant started out as 20" square - here its a pair of 8" thick x 18" wide book matched pair . . . 11 feet long. Anyone want to make some really big chifarobe doors?
> 
> View attachment 74877
> 
> Thats not even the big one.


Our ERC trees only get about 12-16" in diameter up here. I can only dream of cedars that big. Nice hunks of wood!


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## manbuckwal

Pretty and smells great too !


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## Kevin

I guess this will break some hearts but it was already milled into decking. I just wanted to show off the big ERC because it's one of the few species we can brag about down south that no one else has this big and solid. I don't do much local business but every now and then an old buddy will ask for a favor and I can't say no. I have another 3000 BF to mill for him. That was just the start. I hate jobs this big but he waved too much money in my face so what could I say. More pictures later if y'all want 'em.

Reactions: Like 4 | Way Cool 1


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## Treecycle Hardwoods

More pix please

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 3


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## mrbelvetron

Always yes to more pics!

Reactions: Agree 2


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## woodtickgreg

Me three on the pics!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Kevin

I dug these out of a pile yesterday. That big one in the center (26" wide cant) isn't going to be cut into decking. What a monster eh.

Reactions: Like 6 | Way Cool 2


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## Nature Man

Please send the scent with any future pics... Chuck

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 1


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## Tony

I can smell it from here!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Kevin

What I find amazing is that over 24 hours have passed and no one even asked WTF a garden rake was doing in a sawmill picture. I took the trouble to carry it over from my wife's garden shed and lay it there just for the picture but no one said a word. Ya'll are just way too easy.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## NYWoodturner

Kevin said:


> What I find amazing is that over 24 hours have passed and no one even asked WTF a garden rake was doing in a sawmill picture. I took the trouble to carry it over from my wife's garden shed and lay it there just for the picture but no one said a word. Ya'll are just way too easy.


Who the hell was looking at the rake?

Reactions: Agree 6 | Funny 2


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## justallan

I love sawing cedar/juniper. I have only found a few trees big enough to make some nice slabs, but one of my co-workers begs me to saw everything under the sun for him. The problem I have is that most of them have heart rot so bad that I'm about to start doing core samples before I even think about dropping them.
The last time I did some for myself I sticker stacked them in what is now my wood room downstairs and the house smelled great for about a year. My plan for the slabs was a couple beds. Another project that hasn't been completed.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ripjack13

Rake? Sure....to rake in the cash....

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Blueglass

I've seen a rake used for de-barking logs before.


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## DLJeffs

Rake = snake deflector


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## Tclem

Yep them babies are all over here. Think I have about 10 in my yard and logs of it on the fence row.


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## Wilson's Woodworking

Wow! I thought I had found some huge boards when I purchased those 16" wide planks last weekend!
@ $3 a board foot I am headed back to that guys sawmill again
and again
and again
and again
and again
I think you get the idea. 
OH and he threw in three slabs of the junky maple he had practiced with his new sawmill. 
I drove home a very happy camper.
This stuff is gorgeous Kevin! I will look forward to more pictures!!!!!!!!!!!


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## Kevin

$3BF for ERC would probably cause me to open to the public again. Its only a buck a foot here but a fella could make some decent coin getting 3 for it.


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## Wilson's Woodworking

Well now I bought 55 board feet and gave $87 for it so it figures out to $1.58 a board foot.
He had advertised it at $3 so we just kind of went from there.
Around here if they are going to cut it most saw mills are going to charge between $3 to $5 a board foot. If you don't want to pay that they make cedar boxes or yard furniture out of it and charge up the rear for that.

Reactions: Like 1


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## justallan

When I first got my mill I was sawing WRC utility poles and the local lumberyard was selling the lumber for me, my take on it was $1.00 /BF.
The only ERC around here for sale is 70 miles away and they are asking about $5.00 /BF for S4S.
I have a friend down on the rez that will trade straight across, his juniper logs for my 2x10 pine. I'm thinking that would be WAY easier than to try to find my own logs that are solid.


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## Kevin

I don't know how you stand sawing anything with creosote in it. No amount of money will make me do that ever again. If my grand boys were starving I would do it, but that's about the only reason.

ERC is a good species to show how drastically markets can fluctuate from region to region. It might be a good idea for you guys to buy a 53' trailer load of cedar logs from me each month. Let's say you buy enough logs to mill out 12K BF (it could be more because you'd never hit the weight limit of 90K pounds with cedar before maxing the height limits) of lumber at a materials, labor, and overhead cost of $1.25 BF and you resell the lumber for a profit of only $1.75 after expenses. Do that every month in your spare time. That's $216,ooo per year in your spare time. Hire a few employees to do it all for you and still net $175,000 in your spare time, in your sleep. All you have to do is collect large checks and write smalls one on occasion. Hire a few more employees and quadruple that profit easily, like falling out of bed. Go full time and make 10 times that easily. Like falling over a log.

_My friends all told me I was crazy when I said I was going to buy a samwill and sell cedar, but now I'm on my way to my first cool million in my first 6 months of operation, and I even run my business entirely from my beach chair in Hawaii while sipping drinks with the little umbrellas and fruit in them. Scantily clad Polynesian beauties* wait on me hand and foot. All because I purchased "Kevin's Foolproof, Turnkey, Cedar Riches From Your beach Chair!" system for a measly $100,000 investment. He even included the beach chair! . . . . . _





_*Polynesian beauties not included in basic franchise price._

Reactions: Great Post 1 | Funny 2


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## justallan

@Kevin believe this for sure, when sawing utility poles you definitely use strategic placement of the mill and I've actually stopped and turned the mill around to keep the wind on my back when I had the little mill. I think the WRC poles up here are only coated on the bottoms, but just the dust from 20-30 year old poles will wreck your day pretty good.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## APBcustoms

there is a huge juniper tree tree at my grandmothers house i want to cut it up so bad


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## Kevin

APBcustoms said:


> there is a huge juniper tree tree at my grandmothers house i want to cut it up so bad



If it's big enough you might end up on a beach in the south Pacific like one of my franchisees in the picture there. It would have to be pretty darn big though.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## justallan

Kevin said:


> _*Polynesian beauties not included in basic franchise price._


How much for just the girls?


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## Kevin

justallan said:


> How much for just the girls?


Actually I don't know. I don't have my first sucker yet haven't sold my first franchise yet.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## justallan

Here's about the best looking juniper I found on the ranch, so far. Like I'd mentioned before, it was supposed to become a couple headboards, it just hasn't struck me to finish them yet. The wider ones are about 16-17" by about 6'-8+'.









And here's why I'm sitting in the house trying to stay warm! Cows are fed, straw is put out, I rode the heck out of both my pastures and the kids all look healthy and my a$$ is froze.

Reactions: Like 1 | Way Cool 1


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## Kevin

I was gonna hit the EYE Candy icon looking at that cedar, but then I scrolled down to see all that poisonous white stuff and couldn't brink myself to say anything positive at all. It's nearly 80 here but you don't want to hear that. You have my thoughts and prayers man . . . . . .

Reactions: Funny 2


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## justallan

If it were 80 here I'd for darn sure be in the farm tractor enjoying the A/C!

Reactions: Agree 2


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## APBcustoms

She's decent but not massive. I'll take a picture of a big aromatic cedar slab at the local lumber place this week it's mind blowing huge


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## Kevin

justallan said:


> If it were 80 here I'd for darn sure be in the farm tractor enjoying the A/C!



Air conditioner for 80? You must be joking. You lightweight yankees just can't stand mild weather.


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## NYWoodturner

Kevin said:


> Air conditioner for 80? You must be joking. You lightweight yankees just can't stand mild weather.


Oh hell yeah! I can't sleep if its above 64 in the bedroom. Its either fan or AC...

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Kevin

64 and I need double-lined sleeping bags in front of a bonfire.

Reactions: Funny 3


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## justallan

Kevin said:


> Air conditioner for 80? You must be joking. You lightweight yankees just can't stand mild weather.


I meant if hauled off and got to 80 right now. LOL
It will be about that when we start branding next month.


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## Horatio

Oof, don't see cedar that big here generally (just west of SA) especially not solid like that. Beautiful. I've got 800+ acres heavily wooded and can count on one hand the cedar that I've seen that MIGHT come out like that.


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## justallan

Andrew, those are pretty darned rare here also. I know where about a truckload is still, I just don't have the time to get them right now. Most anything that big is pecky or hollow around here.


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## Kevin

Horatio said:


> Oof, don't see cedar that big here generally (just west of SA) especially not solid like that. Beautiful. I've got 800+ acres heavily wooded and can count on one hand the cedar that I've seen that MIGHT come out like that.



Andrew the tree species you have growing on your property is Ashe Juniper (_Juniperus ashei) _a.k.a. Texas Cedar, Mountain Cedar and a few other names including Gald Darned Cedar to many who have to be heavily medicated during its pollen release months, and cattleman & ranchers who see it as an invasive weed. It may look almost exactly like a smaller version of eastern red cedar _(juniperus virginiana) _a.k.a. ERC, Aromatic Cedar, Incense Cedar, Blueberry Cedar etc. but it isn't. Same genus different species altogether. It generally doesn't get anywhere near as large as its northern cousin. I happen to live just inside the growing region for the tree - they grow everywhere up here. They're used to be some magnificent giants here but they're long gone. They're still some old growth monsters in the west texas canyons but only harvestable by helicopter and I hope that never happens.

Anyway, that's the reason your "cedar" doesn't grow as large as our "cedar". Because they are different species. Another example of this can be found both in my region and yours. You and I both have Common Persimmon (_diospyros virginiana_) and Texas persimmon (_diospyros texana_) a.k.a Mexican Persimmon growing sometimes even side by side, but you'll never see a Texas Persimmon grow as large as a Common Persimmon. The reason is everything is bigger that comes from Virginia . . . . including cedar and persimmon trees.


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