The Coolest Rustic D-Log Siding: For Your Cabin Build

I'm super excited today to meet up with my buddy again, Craig Quilter from the Kilton Sawyer. The guy's that helped us build the dovetail tavern up in Bunyan and I'm here in Utah and he's going to show me how to run his Wood-Mizer LT40 and I'm here to help him out because these guys are making custom D-Log siding for an old refurbished building. Yep. I wish I had time to go see it but I know he needs help. This guy's got 18 pallets of this stuff to make something new, something fresh. Stick with us. He's going to show us everything we need to know. Good buddy. Some sort of white oak and you're going to be surprised. This is actually a one-man sawmill operation and if you look at the amount of wood that this one man cuts and the projects that he supplies for, for their custom building that they're doing up here in Utah, it's extremely impressive. So he's not cutting two by fours and two by sixes for framing. He cuts all their custom wood and the amount of material that this man has is truly incredible. I know he was always a hard worker when I first met him last year but when you come and see exactly what's going on for one man, a dream, a sawmill, you guys can get anything done. This takes a little grit, a little perseverance, but my men are already at it and that's what they're doing. And I've never seen this stuff before. He's going to teach me how to cut the D-Log siding that they're doing to restore an old cabin up in Utah. I wish I had a chance to go see that but I'm happy enough to just be here with my buddy helping out and he's going to let me run his LT40. You guys know I'm with a new guy so this is going to be fun just to run his saw, have something pro to go with, and I'm going to help him get all this D-Log siding because the 18 pounds that they need, he's got some work ahead of him. So let's see what he's got. How many of you guys have ever made rustic D-Log siding for a log cabin? We're restoring an old cabin up in the mountains of Utah here and we need to make 18 pallets of this stuff that I have never made before. This is fun, easy, and look how cool that looks when it's going to be installed. Nothing more rustic than using D-Log siding and cut this way. It looks beautiful. This is an actual one-man sawmill operation so if you don't think that you can actually do the things that you can do for just one man, everybody says hey I'm just one guy. This man has actually got work in every direction of this property. Hey Ricky! And Mickey Bobby sometimes actually helps out but it looks like right here. This is the daily activity for my friend. He just keeps sawing and sawing and sawing. It was very cool to come out here and he's going to let me run his Wood-Mizer which I never have. Fully hydraulic. Look at this backyard. Okay, one guy, two saws, and a dream. That's all we need. So he's going to show me how to run his saw. We're going to cut some custom D-Log siding I have never seen before. Yeah, fire that up. Let's do it. So normally you we've got to do is you got to pick the head up out of the way. Get the read the clamp. Clamp all the way down and out. So the clamps are back here. All the hydraulic controls are back here. Oh okay. As you're up and down on the clamp in and out. Back stops are the third up. See I don't know if I actually got that. I didn't even see that and we were working on this machine last night. Yeah. So they do have very similar hydraulics to the system that I have. I haven't run this for a minute so it'll take a minute for it to warm up. It'll get quicker. We just took this one out because he's been running his 50 back there and I'm here to help him make a bunch of D-Logs and he needs to get out by next week. We want to spend some time in the lake too. Oh yeah. So what we're going to battle with you is they're just making the pitting on the sides of the log. Yes. Your taper. I got you. You know what I mean? We got to position that log. So it's okay. We'll want to bring this side up. Right. That's light enough to do that. Yeah. That's light enough to do that. So to actually get up. So you're going to just pit in there. Are you doing this by eye? Okay. So I actually had it wrong and I actually never saw him cut a piece but the piece we cut off is actually the dunnage waste and I was thinking that was going to be part of the D-Log side. No. As you've seen I put that. I know. I put that check up so I'm sorry to get rid of it. So really at the end of the day when he flipped the log. So we did a 90. We're not actually. However that taper cut is you're cutting six inches across the top. Yeah. And this is really going to be our D-Log piece. Yeah. I'm just. That was my confusion. I just. I got you. Yeah. So it was confusing even for me standing here and I've never seen a piece of this. So yeah you're just cutting off dunnage. We're going to cut off dunnage. We're going to flip it. With cutting the tops of the logs and I don't want to take too much off this first and then and then have a you know. Yeah. Have have. I understand you're setting up. You're setting up the finished piece and this is your waste. Yes. I thought. Our last cut will be. We'll bust it in half or two. Perfect. I'm glad I'm seeing this live. So you're just gonna have to go with your eyes. So you're gonna have to drop that down. Can we drive forward a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Drive it forward. Right there. And when you when you turn it off when you you know when you're in neutral. Yeah. You always want to make sure this is always down. All the way off. Yeah. Okay. Click stop and take off. Got you. Always make sure that's down. And right here. That's your line. That's your. Yeah. Yeah. Better than that. Yeah. Better than that right there. Like that? Okay. So I bring it back Once the band. Once the band goes past that rail, you're on the strip. Okay. Got you. Your clamp's gonna want to be lower than your bars. You know your backstop. So when you want to touch it then you'll. Okay. Now you want to make sure you're good and tight still. You know what I mean? Yes sir. Yes sir. You got to get a feel for it to make sure you're tight. But you don't want to be too tight. You don't want to be too tight. You're moving the wood. Okay. That's what I'm saying. If you want to roll up. Yeah. That clamp's powerful enough to move that. That does on mine too. Yeah. So to engage. And that just has to be on the contact strip. Yeah. Well the contact strip should run the hydraulics. Okay. At any time you could do that. You can do all this at any time. The hydraulics you've got to bring the head back and be in contact with that strip. Okay. So we're ready to cut. Now we're going to check your pressure. We've dropped. So we want to tighten that up. Does your band drop a lot? Well when you get going you'll make a couple tucks and it'll even out and stay put. So it's staying at 3,000? 28,000. All blades. All pipes. 28,000. You're heavy now. You have to run it. Well. It'll go down. Okay. Jason, turn the gas off. You want to be back. So there's no real speed control in reverse. It just comes at you. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Turn it off right. All these are. I'll want to see where the top of my log is because a lot of the logs I can't. I'm not going to be able to rip them right exactly in half. No. I want to. I don't want to be too fat. What is your ideal thickness that you're looking for? Two and a half to three inches up to six. Okay. So the minute. So we're mimicking a siding look that is actually. The original structure was built I believe in the 40s. So the siding and the walls are the same thing. Yeah. We're trying to mimic the newer structure to look the same. So we're doing a. You're making it rougher. Yeah. That's the beautiful part about making your own custom stuff and your milk. So in actuality, you could just kind of find your short side where you're weighing it and be two and a half. So I'll come to my short side and off my deck, you know, so I want to, you know, eight, eight, eight and a half, eight, eight and a half. It'd be about perfect. So I'll make that cut, make that cut. Then I will roll the piece over and then we'll just trim that. We'll just trim that thickness off. Yeah. For the, you know. Yeah. For the next side. And you got, you're getting two pieces. So I'm more, I'm more focused on getting two super good pieces instead of four so-so pieces. That's probably better off. And then whatever the waste is, it's not waste. It'll go. Oh yeah. Somewhere it's going to go to work. Yeah. Yeah. So for you, it's more about speed. You got so much work to do that. Yeah. No, I've got deadlines. He's got deadlines. So is it real? We'll ask question before we rip at it. Is it imperative or do you even, I know coming up here, we're pretty square. Yeah. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. With, with, with, with how, you know, your eye, I trust your eye. So it's not like I'm doing a finished 12 by 12 or a finished 14 by 14 where I have to make sure I'm, you know, I mean, in the old days, that's the way it would be done too. You know, if you're, if you're, you know, you're true with your, you know, the mill, it's going to be square. Well, let's, let's right here. I just, but I, but I guess the question I it's not imperative to sit here and square. No, no. For this app, because, because of the siding, not for this application. Our only, our main goal, our main goal is getting a consistent six. So I got you. So all your siding needs to be, that was, that was our guest. Right. So though it's not perfect for a camp, it's perfect for this application. Yeah. You're it's close. Yeah. You know me. I'm a stickler. That's good. You know me. Okay. You want, if you want to keep squaring every single piece, I won't hold, I won't hold them. No, I, if I could get really close and not have to add that, I need you to cut more than six today. I said, well, I think you said four. Isn't this two right now? This will be two. That was awesome. So we liked that eight and a half going to eight and a half. I know it's actually opposite of my hair. There you go. Are you good with that? You could probably maybe go a back six based off what? Okay. So we're already just know as close, but the 50, I mean, I'm within one 32nd. I got you, but it could be me how I'm looking at it. Well, yeah, you're, you're a little bit taller than me. So you're, don't give me that fighting over a half an inch. We're good to make the cut. You want to go in? There you go. We're going to work on the way home. Holy ----. Where's the break? So we're going to need to come down on these a little bit. Oh yeah. So let's figure on taking four and a half inches and four and a half. Are we cool to go? I really had a great time here at my buddy Craig's house. And this was a hard video for me to make because I'm actually never made a video out without my partner in crime, Jason. So I'm trying to film it. I can't even work a phone, no less a camera, but learning to do something new, seeing what my friend has going on out here was truly special for me. So if any of you guys are at the end of this movie and actually still watching this, give us a thumbs up because I really just wanted to share my experience out here. And that was the best that I can do. Leave me a comment if you think I did okay. Next time we'll get you one going. Jay and I'll be back. See you guys.