Shop Time w/T.W. Friends. Torque wrench on spark plugs, we need answers so cast your vote now

Sometimes. When the computer loses sequence and randomly opens the press rolls and drops a 16 foot long log off that sharp chain... it can be interesting.

 

? For the saw mill .... brother joe and I run across some nice straight hardwoods such as oak, ash, black walnut and such.... like 12-14ft sections we could haul to a mill.... is there any benefit to this? Or cut,split and sell as firewood.... ? Got any idea?

 

You'd have to check with any hardwood mills near you. I'm in a softwood mill, we deal in fir and spruce exclusively, and a very high production volume so anything smaller than a semi trailer full probably doesn't interest us. But I'm not on the buying side, just the production, so take what I say with a grain of salt or two.

 

Industrial bearings are a weird, contradictory animal. I've always been told if it's got a grease fitting it takes a pump or two of grease every 3 months. This is specified in our "handbook" from the engineers. There's some in the building going on 15 years. However, we're at a point where the dumpster fire of 2020 led to us running almost 24/7 and the life of alot of the bearings are at the end of their lifetime and issues are rearing their ugly head.

As a industrial technician I love seeing this stuff, thank you. If I want to move to Maine, y'all wanna hire me?

 

Ty for the input . Just got me thinking when you posted some pictures of the sawmill

 

If you can turn a wrench and have a head on your shoulders, most mills up here have positions for millwrights/maintenance. I know for a fact sappi paper is hiring for millwrights at the moment, but they're Union. The family of mills I work for isn't

 

No problem. I know up here landowners typically contract with a harvester to get the trees down and out. Not sure how things are like for you guys down there.

 

Better yet, I can pass a drug and background screening!

Maintenance technicians are a dying breed, even the the past couple years. The place I work at is normally very hard to get in to; it took me 3 tries to get in the door. When our volume went up we were allowed to get more technicians and let me tell you its been hard to find anybody that wants to do it, or is able to do it. The great thing about this place is even if you have never done the kind of stuff before they'll train you as long as you have ANY mechanical ability at all. I've taken several guys under my wing when they first started and they have turned out to be really good junior technicians. There's even guys that have been there way longer than I have that I've showed them tricks (like torching off inner bearing races) and they were amazed. my main passion is working on trucks and cars, but I can't touch the pay/benefits I have now (please don't take that as bragging, just stating a fact...) doing that.

 

Do you work for nine dragons?

Edit: they make paper not lumber. Who saws logs around here anyways?

 

I got to tour a saw mill years ago. I wasn't in a maintenance position then so didn't give it much thought. But yeah, I can see there always be something in need of repair or PM. It was a mill in West Virginia.
I should revisit my training materials from time to time. There's not many I don't think who could retain absolutely everything in the books regarding bearings.

 

I work on cars and need something different! I like torching

 

I got fantastic advice when I was younger from a career mechanic. He asked if I liked working on my own bike and cars and whatnot. I said yeah of course. He told me "good, never do it for a job because you'll likely lose that. It's not fun when it goes from a hobby to your only income." So instead I got a job working on industrial sawmill stuff... and still like working on my cars and bikes.

I agree that I wouldn't get paid or the benefits that I get here either, unless I was doing some high end work for one of the exotic car companies... but I'm not.

 

I'm pretty sure that black walnut would have more value somewhere. I'm certain that our Penny press paper sometimes has advertisements asking for it.

 

My wife just texted me from work that her phone signed her out of the Toyota app and asked me to start her car for her. Frickin technology.

Then she asked me to make her a pizza...

Guess it's a good thing I didn't go to the gym tonight!

 

You're hired!

You got a point. I'd probably get burned out on it and never work on my own stuff.

 

9 days off from work followed by one night shift...I think tonight may call for Advil PM induced coma lol. Set me back on track

 

9 days off? What in the name of all things good is that wonderful imaginary thing?

 

If you work at UMaine it’s a reality. Comp time is a wonderful thing. Why get paid time and a half for overtime when you can take 1.5 hours off for every hour you work? Guy I work with took 17 weeks off paid his first year on the job because he worked so much overtime

 

There’s a lot of truth in that.

 

Heck yea... I hate working on my own cars cuz I do it everyday! I only find it pleasing when I HAVE to do it and I have sometime off of work :-/