Huge Log, No Forklift, No Problem
George VondriskaDescription
Good news: I have a sawmill. Bad news: I don’t have a forklift. The platform for the sawmill is about 36 inches above the ground. If I were using the sawmill all the time, I might invest in a forklift or a front end loader, but since I only use the Logosol mill every once in a while, I can’t justify the investment. Instead, I’ll do the work with a cant hook and a pickaroon.
PSA: Logs Are Heavy!
Be very careful moving logs. They’re incredibly heavy. Log to lumber conversion should be done while the log is still green (wet), so you’re moving a lot of water when you move the log. For instance, a 16” diameter red oak log weighs 88 pounds per lineal foot. That adds up fast. I’d advise looking up a green log weight chart if you want to see the weights of various species in green log form.
Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’
There’s no way to lift a heavy log without equipment, but two Rs work well: rolling and ramps. Use your cant hook to grab the log and roll it. Since logs are rarely perfectly round, they roll okay but not great, so the cant hook gives you the leverage you need.
When You Gotta Turn
The pickaroon is one of the most useful tools I’ve found for log handling. When you need to get the log turned in another direction hook your pickaroon into the end grain and give a pull. It’ll spin easier if you roll it up onto a two-by-four first. Easy peasy.
Once you’ve got the log rolled up onto the mill, you can cut it into lumber. After your green wood is cut, it needs to be dried. Air drying lumber is a low-tech way to accomplish this.
The good news is I have a saw mill. The bad news is I don't own a forklift or a skid steer that's going to help me get this log up onto the saw mill, so I've learned a few tricks over time, and I'm going to pass those tricks along to you. Trick being, this is about a thousand pound piece of maple laying here, and we're going to do some rolling, some sliding, some moving in order to get it in that direction. A couple of tools are going to help. This one is called a pickaroon, and it lets me embed into the log and do some pulling. You'll see that happen in just a little bit. This one is a cant hook. It should really be called a can hook, because it makes it so I can move stuff I otherwise wouldn't be able to move. The way this is going to work is this big hook is going to wrap around the log. I grab the handle like a lever, and I can roll it. So here's what we got to do. We got to roll in that direction, and then once the log is over there I got to turn it almost 90 degrees to get it on a ramp that's going to get it up the saw mill. Of course, logs aren't perfectly round, so that makes rolling a little challenging sometimes. One of the things I should mention I did before you guys got here is I used my chainsaw, and I did a little cleanup work on these branches over here, because they were sticking out more than they are right now, and all that's going to do is make it harder to roll. So when you're in this scenario, a little trimming to get this closer to round is going to make your life easier. Now I could use a little bit of a turn. So let's see if I can do that with the pickaroon. This one might be too heavy. Sometimes you can grab an end and slide it just a little bit. Well, that's not bad. A couple degrees of change. Get out of there. This is a little bit easier for me because I'm on asphalt, but I've done this on grass a bunch of times. Almost ready to make a big turn here. Maybe one more roll. Yep. Now we want to spin it. What I need to do is turn it about 90 degrees so I'm aligned with the ramp, and here's the easiest way to do that. That's why the two by four is here. Two by four in about the center, not the center by distance but the center by weight. The log is heavier on the butt end then on this end. Stay. Oh, went too far. Oh, there we go. That might be about where we want to be. It's an art, not a science. Now let's try this right where it is. What I'm looking for when the two by four is under there, is now I only have one distinct contact point with the ground, which is the two by four, so that makes it easier to pickaroon an end and pull. Cause what I'm doing now is just sliding on the face of that two by. Need a little more of a turn. You really need it to stay right on that two by. I need a longer two by maybe. Oh, this might do it. Okay. I like that. Now watch this pivot. Yeah, yeah. See how easy that goes? Now what I'm eyeballing is I wanted the log approximately centered on the ramp, and once it gets here there's no way to just move it laterally cause it's so heavy. So I can control that now by how far I pivot it. I think that's gonna be about perfect. All right, I'm going to roll for the bottom of the ramp, and then after that, we're going to roll up the ramp. Next up sawmill. I'm ready to up the ramp here, and a couple of things are key to making this work. One is this board thing I fabricated. Two by six, two by six, two by six. So what you'll see happen here is that I'll roll the log with the cant hook, and then with my feet, I'll be kicking this thing up the ramp, and it just acts like a big wedge to hold a log in that position. On the ramp, which is also made out of two by sixes, there are a series of holes, and as I worked my way up the ramp, then these pins go in, and those act as a safety so that if the log wants to start coming backwards, they're going to act as a stop. He says with confidence. Was it, what Galileo or Archimedes or somebody said, with a big enough lever, I can move the world. And how about a big enough cant hook, we can roll a thousand pound maple log. So a little roll then the kicker. I'm making sure it's aligned with the ramp. I'm at my first set of holes almost. Here we go. We showed that log. A little leverage, a two by four, and just some smart moving around. And it's amazing just how big a chunk you can handle on your own. No forklift.
Matt Cremona would be proud
I cringed when I saw a man below a load that size on a ramp. Not that necessity hasn't put me in a lot of compromising situations, but for a routine operation that looks way too risky. I agree with some of the others that cabling and rolling has a lot more control and less exposure. I would also double or triple the 2x6's for the ramp, glued and screwed together. A ramp collapse could be crippling. By adding a solid anchor point for the base and three pulleys, some cable, and cheap bumper winch from Harbour Freight, one man could flip a switch and roll that log with ease and no danger to himself. Add a choker for that log and some bracing and that cute little winch could drag that log right up to the ramp. Mind over muscle boys......don't strain that carcass, it is the only one you have. I like the ideas of cabling and rolling, much safer.
Good info. Yesterday I went to pick up some free firewood advertised on facebook. The pic showed a couple logs but nothing to size them in the photo. Turns out the big one is about 34" diameter and the small one is 28". Had to put the 24" bar on the saw and then needed a cant hook. They are not easy to come by today with raw material delays due to covid. But I found one and its ordered. The logs are Black locust which is way heavy and a hardness similar to Hickory. Both are about 15 ft long. Ill probably cut them to about 2' lengths but need the cant hook to turn them over to finish the cut. The best parts will air dry for a year or so and then to the bandsaw and lathe. The rest will be firewood. I have used cant hooks with my brother and his tree business and also on wildland fires. I had no idea they would be so hard to come by. I like the simple 2x6 block and will be making one. Even a 2' block weighs several hundred pounds. Since I'm getting older I need to work smarter and not harder.
Awesome video! George is da Man!
Ingenious method—but with all that heavy timber rolling around, I’d like to have seen a pair of steel-toe-capped boots.
My toes were screaming for safety boots, but very informative.
A good thing to wear are safety toe shoes, or you might be making a walking cane with the log!!!
Great job! I'll order mine already cut (4/4 or 8/4) from the hardwoods store. Hard maple is no fun to cut, edge, plane or even stain.
Standing on the downhill side of that log on the ramp invites disaster! You may consider fastening two steel cables to the rear of your sawmill and running them down the ramp, over the log and back to the rear of the sawmill. Using a come-a-long or winch to wind the cable from behind the mill will roll the log onto the mill with you in a safe position all the time. I have used this technique to load large logs on my trailer to transport them to the mill and it works great. If the log is tapered, you may have to wind the cable on the smaller end a bit more than the stump end to keep the log level on the ramp, but managing it is easy and much safer that standing downhill behind all that potential energy stored in the log while on the ramp.
Reasonably safe way to go about it. Seems like the diciest part was the beginning of the ramp, if the cant hook slipped before you had your first pins in place. I'm wondering a) if a flat at the beginning of the ramp, where the log wouldn't roll but you could start your pins, would help, and b) if having 3-4 pins would be better, so 2 could always be in place. Actually I think you could cut a stagger or sawtooth pattern of some kind into the ramps, so the log would be stable at several points on the way up. thanks for the video!