Timber Framers Guild Forums Tools Tool Forum Timber Cart Ideas?

Dave, are you able to mill 47'? You get an extension? Or did you hew?

I believe the Jack cart is pretty damn low, like 18" off the ground.

Yes, the cart is low.

We have the 24' extension, allowing us to saw 45'. Anything over about 43' is close, and the 46' and 47's that I cut I had to saw as far as I could, cut the slabs and boards off with an electric chainsaw, and then slide the log back to finish. My fastest 42' timber was a 12"x10", that took me 1:45 to saw, cut up the slabs and cut the boards to length. An over length log could take me 4 to 5 hours by myself. The sawing is the easy part, it's finding the logs that is tough.

Just handling a 45' log is a job in itself. What species are the timber Dave?

I use an old dolly from the abandoned sardine industry as my timber cart, only on a smooth surface, it is not so good on gravel.

White pine. I use a Lull forklift for the lifting, just can't get them through the door on the machine. My record so far is 29', which can only be done with a telescopic boom and for wheel steer.

Hello,

29 feet! That's exactly the length of this "stick" of western red cedar. In the end, after hewing, I could lift it on my shoulder.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

That's four wheel steer. No edit option, I guess.

I can pick up the 45' 5"x7" plates, but not over my shoulder.

My customer made his like this:



After he saw mine like this:



His worked much better then mine.

Jim Rogers

Go to your local farm store and buy a cheap quad trailer. Mine cost $160 and took 15 minutes to build.
Gut it. Throw away the box and the hitch and keep the undercarriage. Screw a peice of plywood offset on to it. I've used it for moving up to 9x13 20' fir beams. I'll take a picture tomorrow.

I bought two wheel barrow wheels and one piece of threaded rod, some nuts and washers for under $55 to make mine.

Jim Rogers

lots of good stuff. I have a metalworker doing a favor for me with some spoked wheels. We will see what he comes up with and I'll post when done.