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Bulldozer work..

10K views 116 replies 27 participants last post by  NbyNW 
#1 ·
Looking to trade some standing trees for some bulldozer work in the lake city area.
 
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#61 ·
Wood Sleeve Bag Automotive design Tints and shades
This slab cost me 400 bucks unfinished. You don’t know until you ask. Find the right person and you may catch a break
 
#77 ·
#73 ·
I've milled some trees up for my dozer guy. I think it would depend on what you got.. Black wood or cherry might be enticing.

Well APPARENTLY...black wood isn't that enticing.
 
#87 ·
One thing I learned with my sawmill is there is no such thing as junk wood. I had an oak log that was wormy so I set it off to the side. A guy comes along and asks about it. I told him about the worm holes and he offered me quite a bit for it if I sawwed it. He stood aand waited for me to saw it took it home he was happy and so was I. Later he showed me the cabinets that he made out of it. Another was what I call rotten wood. It is splated big bucks for that I still have some I sawed here. I had one guy by Niles that is all he would cut to be sawed. His uncle taught me how they sunk box elder and let the fungus work it over under water. When sawed the wood was all pastel colors and with a finish they got brighter. He could not speak english just japinese
 
#88 ·
One thing I learned with my sawmill is there is no such thing as junk wood. I had an oak log that was wormy so I set it off to the side. A guy comes along and asks about it. I told him about the worm holes and he offered me quite a bit for it if I sawwed it. He stood aand waited for me to saw it took it home he was happy and so was I. Later he showed me the cabinets that he made out of it. Another was what I call rotten wood. It is splated big bucks for that I still have some I sawed here. I had one guy by Niles that is all he would cut to be sawed. His uncle taught me how they sunk box elder and let the fungus work it over under water. When sawed the wood was all pastel colors and with a finish they got brighter. He could not speak english just japinese
I had 2 cherry logs that laid on the ground for 4 years, the sap wood was pretty punky. When I cut into it long black wavy streaks were revealed in the grain. I turned the spalted cherry into cabinet stiles for my cabinets. Beautiful.
 
#95 ·
I had a 6x6 of one that was spalted and I made vases out of them. A woodworkers guild that I use to saw for showed me how they use it. They get the minwax hardner and soak the wood in that and that hardens the soft stuff right up. They made high end jewerly boxes. They use to want me to save any pieces with knot holes in them and then they would turn them into a vase with the knot hole in theside of it
 
#89 ·
You're close brad, I guess I should get more in depth on whats going on. Back in 2014 I had logging done on a new adjoining piece we bought, I needed to get sunlight to the ground so I hired a guy that needs at least 100 cord to come out. He only took the poplar and soft maple, I had a lot of standing dead ash that one guy wanted for fire wood. So after I was put in touch with the head guy Joe in charge of the job. We meet up for lunch (My wife made) and went over my plan. They had to put in a road for access anyway and I wanted plots put in so we worked out a plan. They did a great job, Joe de stumped my plots and worked around all my markings as long as I let the one guy take the dead ash on the side. I guess he really needed the cash from selling the fire wood. It was a win win ... Now here I am some years later and I want a road put in on my north boarder for access. The current road stops at my NW corner. So basically make a hard right and go east with one pass. Now as far as the trees I wanted to trade. Those are in the SE corner with great access with a truck or what ever to cut and haul away. If this doesn't work out I'll try and sell some trees to pay for the dozer... again I just thought it was worth asking. whats the worst that could happened..

Would you believe start a 6 page argument in the Deer Forum. This has been a pretty funny read. :lol::lol:

Pursue your idea, I spent over 40 years in heavy construction and in sales for Cat and had plenty of small customers that would barter, or do small jobs like you’re talking.

I have a good friend that’s a retired excavator and still has all his equipment for summer work. I pay him $95 an hour for either Cat D4 size dozer, or 3 1/2 yd loader plus $100 mobilization one way to our camp.
 
#92 ·
I just picked up a Case 350B last week and plan to make minor repairs to it over the winter so it is ready to work next Spring. I am sure I will be hauling it to several friends camps to clear land and will be happy to do so as long as they put fuel in it and keep the beer flowing!
View attachment 610825
I’ll predict you’ll do that until the first time you need to buy new rails, rollers and sprockets. There’s a very real cost to running a dozer. :lol:
 
#91 ·
My FIL was an excavator by trade. Two Deere dozers and two Case extendahoes. I observed some great work he did.

But you should see his driveway. You'd think it belonged on M33.

I asked him why he never regraded his mud pit and brought in some stone. He told me that if he had a nice driveway, that salesmen would stop by.

Hey, I resemble that remark!!:lol::lol:
 
#96 ·
I built out the walls of my pole barn to the same distace as the treated posts on the inside. Then I cut 2x
s to that thickness and set like studs. I cover it all with 1 inch thick popular after I insulated it. I sawed for one guy tht had a lot of red pine and we cut his to the same thickness as the pole on the inside wall. Then he stacked these timbers on each wall. It worked as insulation and for sound plus looked like a log cabin. It has quite a bit of r factor doing this this way
That sounds beautiful Scout.
 
#97 ·
One thing I learned with my sawmill is there is no such thing as junk wood. I had an oak log that was wormy so I set it off to the side. A guy comes along and asks about it. I told him about the worm holes and he offered me quite a bit for it if I sawwed it. He stood aand waited for me to saw it took it home he was happy and so was I. Later he showed me the cabinets that he made out of it. Another was what I call rotten wood. It is splated big bucks for that I still have some I sawed here. I had one guy by Niles that is all he would cut to be sawed. His uncle taught me how they sunk box elder and let the fungus work it over under water. When sawed the wood was all pastel colors and with a finish they got brighter. He could not speak english just japinese
Like Spalted Maple. It’s maple that is in the initial phase of decay and it is absolutely beautiful. My neighbor had made some beautiful end tables with it.
Brown Rectangle Wood Trunk Wood stain
 
#100 ·
#101 ·
One thing I learned with my sawmill is there is no such thing as junk wood. I had an oak log that was wormy so I set it off to the side. A guy comes along and asks about it. I told him about the worm holes and he offered me quite a bit for it if I sawwed it. He stood aand waited for me to saw it took it home he was happy and so was I. Later he showed me the cabinets that he made out of it. Another was what I call rotten wood. It is splated big bucks for that I still have some I sawed here. I had one guy by Niles that is all he would cut to be sawed. His uncle taught me how they sunk box elder and let the fungus work it over under water. When sawed the wood was all pastel colors and with a finish they got brighter. He could not speak english just japinese
Yeah, but could he spell Japanese?
 
#105 ·
#115 ·
I would love to have a Dozer for a couple years but that is were I am leery about, you did not mention the pins. I would love a excavator also but imagine trying to replace the center rotational bearing on one.



Doing it with the ground frozen a couple feet down is the easy way. I watched one time up in P.I. County 2 D8's with a chain between them obliterate a woods on frozen ground. I have learned to always charge for your equipment otherwise I feel like a fool. Fifty bucks to start up my 100 hp tractor for plowing your garden or food plot stops the freebees pretty quick. My equipment does not get used for my entertainment. I know what a PITA it is to fix or cost for the tire wall cut by that old T post.
If you’re talking about pins in the tracks, they would be in the rails, or links. With non lubed pins and bushings it’s generally cheaper to run the rails/tracks and sprockets to destruction and buy new rather than turn the pins and bushings.

To be honest, not sure I’ve ever seen the big ring gear on an excavator replaced, maybe a couple times. More often it’s the small swing gear and that’s accessible and easy to repair and not as costly as you might expect.
 
#117 ·
Bartering is great. Good friends are even better. I am fortunate to have a good friend who lets me borrow his backhoe at a moment’s notice, only need to fill it up when I return it.
As someone else stated, in this line of work I’ve gotten my best deals/barters in the spring, they seem the most eager to get the money coming back in and aren’t backed up yet.
If any of the wood is dry, dead, or down. Near the end of a long, cold, hard winter when cheap dry wood is hard to find would be a good time to set your deal.
 
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