Today's milling

[doobin]

2 minutes ago, lux said:

Are they going indoors ??? Bolting them when green won't stop them moving, they will snap and pull bolts or the treads will split. They will twist steel plate when they move as well.  its quite phenomenal what green oak will move as it settles. Budget for some thicknesses blades. my treads rinsed through the blades. He will be looking at reducing them in thickness by 20 to 30 percent to get them flat when dried. do it evenly from both sides so the amount of material removed from either side is the same , they will likely move again if not as the moisture will pull out of the board at an uneven rate on either side.   Like I said earlier, I started at 75mm to achieve a finish of 50mm when dried. that was only just possible on a couple of the treads by a whisker.. 

 

Here's the staircase we built in my (still ongoing) self build. The treads have stainless rods internally that cantilever into the wall. I milled that oak 6 years prior and during the thicknessing process it still 'released' and moved more.  The treads are 1000mm wide, I think the going was 285mm. 

 

 

I’ve known oak happily snap screws as it  dries. I gave him the option of the board for £200 and he takes it the English woodlands for drying and his builder does the rest. 
 

customer always right and all that!

[lux]

7 minutes ago, doobin said:

I’ve known oak happily snap screws as it  dries. I gave him the option of the board for £200 and he takes it the English woodlands for drying and his builder does the rest. 
 

customer always right and all that!

I think that’s a good idea mate. It’s one of those things that until you’ve done them you have no idea what a pain they can be. Oak in particular can really bite you 

Bigbeech has a nice little kiln set up down the rd.  you could send your customer to him to dry the board.  I’d imagine 3 weeks or so in the kiln. He’s a good bloke and knows his onions.  

[ucoulddoit]

9 hours ago, doobin said:

It’s 550mmx3100mmx70mm Will be supplied to the customer as 8no rough cut oversized 250mmx750mm stair treads, ends sealed. He’s going to bolt them on the steelwork and bring them back once a bit drier after finishing the refurb to run through the thicknesser before final trimming and cutting. Total cost £300.  

Very nice looking slab! Those sizes equate to about 4 cu feet, so at £250, that's about £60/cu feet which I'd say is a pretty good price for green timber, even for that quality. Including the work re-sawing to size and sealing the ends I'd say at £300 it's a fair price?

 

Just hope the buyer can dry it without too much damage. I'd be thinking about putting 1/2 inch stickers between the treads with a similar sized sheet of ply top and bottom, with a couple of ratchet straps to hold the bundle together. Otherwise the surfaces will dry quickly causing surface checking which oak is very prone to do. Checking can occur very quickly, in warm sunny weather working outside it can be pretty much immediate. But, I guess it depends on what the buyer wants to achieve and there is certainly a current fashion for a rustic look.

 

Andrew

[Johnsond]

Not really been up to much lately what with work etc and in reality with the fact I literally parked up the new mill after the first few times using it. To say it was a pain in the arse would be an understatement. First of I’ll just say those who are getting along fine with electric Trakmets 👍if you are happy “great”, mine was bought to cut large hardwoods not softwood. Blade speed was ridiculous, running at 1800m/min, combine that with the supplied x cuts which I detest and the result was very very poor cuts bordering on useless in fact, blade diving and losing tension ie heating up, just no consistency at all. On my old Trakmet I could turn the engine RPM down to suit, not ideal as you went out the peak torque curve but it did allow some flexibility. Ended up fitting a VFD with potentiometer ( which in my opinion they should be fitted with as standard) cost including fitting was nearly 4K on top of machine price, and let’s face it Trakmet are not cheap mills anymore. Spent last couple of days testing on DF, Elm and Ash and so far the difference is night and day, I’ve swapped to Woodmizer double hard blades in 4, 7 and 10 degrees. Cut all day today and had zero build up on the blade, no diving or loss of tension etc just consistent repeat cuts. Still a ways to go and hopefully getting down to Triggers to get into some big Oak and Ash which should give it the test I want. If anyone is looking at buying and plans hitting the big hardwoods I’d seriously recommend the VFD option. I mounted the box myself but had a proper sparky wire it in, way above my 3 pin plug skill level. 
Little update, got a piece of Ash on the mill today not the biggest at 600 mm max but still a decent log and plenty of moisture, had mill turned down to 1300m/min and using a 4 degree double hard, cut lovely with no hassle at all, nice coarse saw dust, wasn’t pushing it hard at all but very pleased with how it just chewed through 👍

Edited June 1, 2024 by Johnsond

[Johnsond]

Couple of days cutting Oak and Elm with Andy, mix of mine and his logs. Used the two days  as the final test of the VFD set up. Ended up running at 1300m/min and didn’t even use the 4 or 7 degree blades I had on-site, saw cut really well using woodmizer 10/30 double hards, consistent zero hassle cuts 👍. Night and day difference from the standard factory set up. 

Edited June 10, 2024 by Johnsond

[Johnsond]

Not my milling but down on weather today so took the opportunity to visit the Kent County Show. Some good stuff to be seen, guys with the old steam driven circular seemed to be having some issues ( who doesn’t milling) but interesting nonetheless. The exposed blade and potential consequences did send a shiver down your spine mind. 

Edited July 6, 2024 by Johnsond

[Conor Wright]

Having fallen out with my lt 15 I got a hydraulic lt20 in for 2 days to mill some ash, beech and poplar. Some was milled to order but most of it is just stacked now for drying. Some really nice spalted beech for a local woodturner and some equally nice spalted ash.

Great operator on the mizer, over 6k hours on the mill and he has it from new. It was a joy to watch him operating it. A mill really is nothing without a hydraulic bed, really takes the hard work out of it.

Had him cut a few oversize spruce too, for another "small" project that's looming.

I just canted the poplar as I'm not sure what people will want it for. Anyone have any ideas what pop is generally used for?!

[Johnsond]

1 hour ago, Conor Wright said:

Having fallen out with my lt 15 I got a hydraulic lt20 in for 2 days to mill some ash, beech and poplar. Some was milled to order but most of it is just stacked now for drying. Some really nice spalted beech for a local woodturner and some equally nice spalted ash.

Great operator on the mizer, over 6k hours on the mill and he has it from new. It was a joy to watch him operating it. A mill really is nothing without a hydraulic bed, really takes the hard work out of it.

Had him cut a few oversize spruce too, for another "small" project that's looming.

I just canted the poplar as I'm not sure what people will want it for. Anyone have any ideas what pop is generally used for?!

6000 hrs plus 😞that’s a lot of time to get to know a mill 👍

What happened to the LT 15 to cause the fall out ? 

[Conor Wright]

54 minutes ago, Johnsond said:

6000 hrs plus 😞that’s a lot of time to get to know a mill 👍

What happened to the LT 15 to cause the fall out ? 

It shows too, no messing around. He was set up in minutes and minimal down time. 

It was no one thing, lack of hydraulics and setworks just made the job inaccurate and unproductive. Plus it seemed to have had a hard life before I bought it. There were a few issues with it and not having a woodmizer dealer in Ireland made getting parts slow.

I still have it but its disassembled and stored out of the way. undecided if I'll sell it or not. I'd like a better mill but I've too many other things calling on somewhat limited finances. It is still a handy tool, especially if you're starting off with cants. Maybe some day I'm not busy (ha!) I'll get it up and going again.

[william127]

Haven't had the opportunity to use my mill in an age, had a local guy wanting me to do a day or so at a very expensive local place. Just couldn't make it work so he hired it without me, bit of a risk but it seems to have gone well.  A quick test on a little bit of Ash before i delivered it really made me want to do more! Back safe and sound, apart from us loosing both keys between us 😆  new ones in post.

Couple of pictures from Welland steam fair yesterday 👌