Dave's Custom Woodworks

05/22/2026

I picked up some cute little poplar logs. I may not be able to get to them for a while, so I rolled them off in a pond. They will float around happy and stress free, and wait for me for quite a while.

It works on White oak too. Almost. They'll float around for about a week, and then sink. And you won't know where.

Q: how did you learn how to do that?
A: by reading, watching YouTube videos, and trying not to commit the same dumb mistake twice.

05/22/2026

I finished up an order of eastern red cedar window trim for a cabin being built. It's about 800 linear feet split between two sizes. It's easy cutting, but I never know how many pieces I'll need to make exactly. When you're running 800 ft, be assured that some of the boards will have pecky spots that have to be trimmed out, or sold a seconds. I took one entire cant there was 3.5 x 10 x16ft and just set it aside because it would have been 60% scrap. It's worth more as a really cool mantle or floating shelf! You can see a tiny pecky spot bubble up sawdust right when I go into the cut, but that one can still be trimmed out and produce a good board. So that's what I did with my Thursday morning. And then I had to clean up four thousand little cedar splinters and pieces and fur. It smells great but cedar makes a terrible mess.

05/14/2026

05/14/2026

Picking up some White oak to cut a couple of lowboy decks. There are a few nice poplar logs hiding in here too!

05/14/2026

Wednesday a return spring failed on the switch that controls height of cut. When that happens, the show's over. I dug through my parts inventory and found a complete new switch. I stole the spring off of it and repaired the mill.

Wood-mizer does a very nice job of packaging their electronics and they are very reliable considering the environment they're working in.

One thing I've learned with wood-mizer is when you have to buy a small part, by two of them. The brushes wear out on height of cut motor? By two. Because the same brushes are in the drive motor for the carriage!
And when you buy a belt, buy two! All the chaff and bark and debris going through the belts it's pretty rough on them.

I went ahead and completely disassembled all the switches from the control panel and put on a new faceplate label. I don't need it, but it looks much better. And of course I don't want anyone moving controls to see what happens! That has a little bit of an unwise ring to it. It looks like the display on my height of cut system is next in line for replacement!

That's funny. Because I've already replaced it once. But I failed to buy a spare part. Displays coupled with high vibration environments are just bad juju.

Anyway here we are now!

05/07/2026

What kind of a tree is this? When it's putting out pollen fronds it smells a little funky. Very distinctive. If you step on a freshly dropped nut barefoot, you'll never forget it. Some people say they're extinct. But that's not entirely true, but they are surely on the brink. There are perhaps a couple hundred healthy adult trees that have somehow avoided the fungal infection that killed all the others. Some landowners that have one guard that secret, fearful that even the scientists will accidentally bring in the pathogen, so they allow no access. Within our lifetime we may be able to prevent the complete Extinction. And bring them back.

Tacf.org

The tree pictured is a disease resistant sub variant of the original American tree.

05/05/2026

It's a little soft, but colorful and attractive. Remember this is after drying and exposure to dust / pollen.

04/30/2026

Don't know why I cut these but they're pretty interesting.
One pair table size, one pair coffee table size.
I'm finishing up all the little weird pieces of Walnut today.

04/30/2026

1200 board foot load of white oak going down the road. Mostly flatsawn but a bit of quartersawn from an exceptional log or two.

This is a custom sawing job of a customer's logs.
White oak is an excellent investment. The fee for sawing it is about 15 to 18% of its value when it's dry.
They will probably sell some, and use what they need.