Today's milling

[topchippyles]

5 minutes ago, Tippin Alaybye said:

You can make anything mate. Bandsaw is just a whole lot more efficient than a chainsaw. Took me 2 years to build this, 3/4 with logosol M8 chainsaw mill. When I got the bandsaw it was like going from walking to running.

You get more out of a log with a bandsaw mill as well i find. Chainsaw is a lot thicker per cut than a the bandsaw blades 

[Tippin Alaybye]

And the fuel, oil and wear on chainsaw.
This load would cost £780 from B&Q and took me 3 hours to mill.
(OK, the trees were mine and so free but you get the point)

[trigger_andy]

Milled a customers Sycamore. Just over 40” x 4m got a few nice if plane slabs out of it.

[topchippyles]

2 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Milled a customers Sycamore. Just over 40” x 4m got a few nice if plane slabs out of it.

Is that your girlfriend in the bottom pic or boyfriend 😗 Looks exhausted

[Big Beech]

I've heard that sycamore can be or is notorious for problems when drying.

Hope you have luck in doing so and it is not a wasted exercise in the long run. Especially as you say, very plain boards.

[trigger_andy]

Just now, Big Beech said:

I've heard that sycamore can be or is notorious for problems when drying.

Hope you have luck in doing so and it is not a wasted exercise in the long run. Especially as you say, very plain boards.

It was a paying job. 

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, Big Beech said:

I've heard that sycamore can be or is notorious for problems when drying.

Hope you have luck in doing so and it is not a wasted exercise in the long run. Especially as you say, very plain boards.

It can go a bit grey in places if it dries in damp weather.  Otherwise really good drying - so much more stable than other native hardwoods.  Especially good as wide boards, so I would say those slabs look great.  Grain is more subtle than Ash or Oak, but very beautiful nevertheless.

[openspaceman]

37 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

It can go a bit grey in places if it dries in damp weather.  Otherwise really good drying - so much more stable than other native hardwoods.  Especially good as wide boards, so I would say those slabs look great.  Grain is more subtle than Ash or Oak, but very beautiful nevertheless.

Back in the day of british railways the coaches were all  panelled  with sycamore. no one would believe it because they went mahogany brown with tobacco smoke.

 

Back in 1972 or 3 I went to fetch the cows in by the bluebell railway, the cutting was being filled in with municipal refuse then, since re excavated and sent to Bedford. A large sycamore had fallen across the farm track so I got Tom, the boss out of bed and he cut a way through. As I was not allowed to use a motor saw (despite being amazingly proficient with a DDA110 😉 ) after milking I selected a bit out. I really didn't understand the significance of knots or I might have chosen a cleaner bit.

 

Anyway there was a blunt handsaw there which I ripped this 12" ring of pure white wood into a few bread boards which I planed and sanded  and gave to family members and the mother of a friend. I know that survived with her as she moved back to Dodsworth as I saw it there 40 years later.

 

Any way the end piece had this defect but 50 years later you can see how it has mellowed and the sheen from the grain as it curls around the branch union.

 

 

The other side reminded me of a bird so I made a gouge out of an old half round file and roughed it out, it has stayed that way on various walls here since. After that I didn't attempt to mill sycamore again, preferring to sell it in the round but I still think it has become underrated.

 

 

[astra25]

Just giving people the heads up,

Just bought 2 oregon 27ra ripping chains from chainsdirect for £118.80 vs £172.80 on chainsawbars.

[Dilz]

debarked and milled a couple of short cherry logs that had been sat on the ground for 6 months... first time hitting a screw from setting up the ladder 😬.   Still impressed how well the echo 620 just chugs on through stuff.