Today's milling

[doobin]

Another successful afternoons milling. Did have a band go bang- didn’t snap, just put a bad kink in it and derailed. No metal in the timber. All I can think of is that it pinched as I was cutting a row of three blanks into posts at the same time?

[Squaredy]

  On 06/07/2022 at 19:11, AJStrees said:

Milling up some old oak logs this week. 
 

Using the 881 with the 48” lo pro and stihl full comp lo pro milling chain. Find the Stihl chain runs the smoothest. 
 

 

Expand  

That oak is sweet chestnut if I am not mistaken.  And your next post in this thread about posts.

[AJStrees]

  On 29/07/2022 at 16:23, Squaredy said:

That oak is sweet chestnut if I am not mistaken.  And your next post in this thread about posts.

Expand  

Fair point @Squaredy, the logs have been down about 4 or 5 years in the wood with no bark on. Looked like oak to me and the grain seemed more like oak than chestnut, but you may well be right mate. 👍

[Squaredy]

  On 29/07/2022 at 18:42, AJStrees said:

Fair point @Squaredy, the logs have been down about 4 or 5 years in the wood with no bark on. Looked like oak to me and the grain seemed more like oak than chestnut, but you may well be right mate. 👍

Expand  

Very nice anyway, and equally durable.

[doobin]

  On 28/07/2022 at 11:42, doobin said:

Milling day today- got a fair size cutting list. 
 

im starting to get the hang of getting the best use out of each cant. It’s always nice to find some nice figure in the boards that you thought would be waste too. 
 

im cutting oak for an archway and trellis on the job in the photos first, then a load of 3x4 posts and some 5x4s. Then some boards for a gate. 

The curved slabs will be cut on a bandsaw to provide two arches- from a branch that would be firewood otherwise.

 

 

The gate posts (which will be weather topped) for that job we cut ourselves too. A mill is a very handy thing to have about the place 

Expand  

Update on this job. 

[doobin]

Spend yesterday milling on and off. Cutting an order (on pallet, £520 plus vat) and also going through the smaller of my free oak logs to turn them into rough cants. They take up less space this way, and it’s much quicker to grab a cant to knock something up quick. I’ve been living a charmed life with my first oak cants- got tons or material out of them, but they were big butts. These are smaller and with more branches and therefore, I’ve discovered, a lot more defects and rot holes. I still think they were worth cutting, however. Mainly as they were free off jobs 👍🏻 Being smaller they took much less time to square up, and it’s always surprising what you can get out of even the scrappiest cant when you know you can hide a defect on site, either in the ground or against a hedge. 
 

Ended up with a a load of odd boards too- leftovers from the order wastage. I must remember to sticker and strap these. 
 

I also had a trial run of a sweet chestnut from a garden job  that I’m hoping is in a sweet spot size wise to not be full of shake- time will tell! It made a lovely sized cant very easily. So straight and with little sapwood compared to oak. 
 

All told, less than a tank of petrol used. I changed the blade four times. Does this sound excessive?  I’m guessing this is because I’m cutting a lot of bark squaring the cants, and then I also remembered that I crushed a load of concrete next to the log pile too 🤦‍♂️ I’ll try jetwashing the logs I do today and see if it makes a difference. 
 

I can’t tell you just how easy this milling lark is single handed with a counterbalance forklift on concrete! Barely break a sweat, and I’ve positioned the mill to be in the shade most of the time too. Luxury. 

Edited August 21, 2022 by doobin

[dumper]

  On 21/08/2022 at 06:26, doobin said:

Spend yesterday milling on and off. Cutting an order (on pallet, £520 plus vat) and also going through the smaller of my free oak logs to turn them into rough cants. They take up less space this way, and it’s much quicker to grab a cant to knock something up quick. I’ve been living a charmed life with my first oak cants- got tons or material out of them, but they were big butts. These are smaller and with more branches and therefore, I’ve discovered, a lot more defects and rot holes. I still think they were worth cutting, however. Mainly as they were free off jobs 👍🏻 Being smaller they took much less time to square up, and it’s always surprising what you can get out of even the scrappiest cant when you know you can hide a defect on site, either in the ground or against a hedge. 
 

Ended up with a a load of odd boards too- leftovers from the order wastage. I must remember to sticker and strap these. 
 

I also had a trial run of a sweet chestnut from a garden job  that I’m hoping is in a sweet spot size wise to not be full of shake- time will tell! It made a lovely sized cant very easily. So straight and with little sapwood compared to oak. 
 

All told, less than a tank of petrol used. I changed the blade four times. Does this sound excessive?  I’m guessing this is because I’m cutting a lot of bark squaring the cants, and then I also remembered that I crushed a load of concrete next to the log pile too 🤦‍♂️ I’ll try jetwashing the logs I do today and see if it makes a difference. 
 

I can’t tell you just how easy this milling lark is single handed with a counterbalance forklift on concrete! Barely break a sweat, and I’ve positioned the mill to be in the shade most of the time too. Luxury. 

Expand  

How much metal are you finding in trunks 

Edited August 21, 2022 by dumper

[doobin]

  On 21/08/2022 at 08:56, dumper said:

How much metal are you finding in trunks 

Expand  

None so far, touch wood!!!

 

the blades aren’t knackered as when you hit metal, just dulling. 

Edited August 21, 2022 by doobin

[william127]

  On 21/08/2022 at 06:26, doobin said:

Spend yesterday milling on and off. Cutting an order (on pallet, £520 plus vat) and also going through the smaller of my free oak logs to turn them into rough cants. They take up less space this way, and it’s much quicker to grab a cant to knock something up quick. I’ve been living a charmed life with my first oak cants- got tons or material out of them, but they were big butts. These are smaller and with more branches and therefore, I’ve discovered, a lot more defects and rot holes. I still think they were worth cutting, however. Mainly as they were free off jobs 👍🏻 Being smaller they took much less time to square up, and it’s always surprising what you can get out of even the scrappiest cant when you know you can hide a defect on site, either in the ground or against a hedge. 
 

Ended up with a a load of odd boards too- leftovers from the order wastage. I must remember to sticker and strap these. 
 

I also had a trial run of a sweet chestnut from a garden job  that I’m hoping is in a sweet spot size wise to not be full of shake- time will tell! It made a lovely sized cant very easily. So straight and with little sapwood compared to oak. 
 

All told, less than a tank of petrol used. I changed the blade four times. Does this sound excessive?  I’m guessing this is because I’m cutting a lot of bark squaring the cants, and then I also remembered that I crushed a load of concrete next to the log pile too 🤦‍♂️ I’ll try jetwashing the logs I do today and see if it makes a difference. 
 

I can’t tell you just how easy this milling lark is single handed with a counterbalance forklift on concrete! Barely break a sweat, and I’ve positioned the mill to be in the shade most of the time too. Luxury. 

Expand  

What I'd give for a flat concrete yard that a normal forklift could handle... so much nicer to use than a loader, and a fraction of the price.

Nice milling as well👍👍

[Johnsond]

Nothing majorly glamorous and weather was crap at times but a decent day milling some Oak and resawing some bloody hard free hand cut beams to client spec. Few decent chunks of steel ( including a cracking old square nail) unfortunately but a good try out for a batch of woodmizer 4/32 blades, impressed so far, very consistent and cleaned out some 1100mm wide slabbing cuts very well. Had to revert to tipped x cuts to chew through the steel on a few cuts 🤷‍♂️. 
Cheers for the job Andy 👍

Edited September 24, 2022 by Johnsond