Today's milling

[skc101fc]

Def a huge risk. Brave thing to do, you must know him well and have worked with him.

I love the ringing sound big circulars make. 

[difflock]

Some of the clips on YouTube of the Amish running big circular saws are wonderful to watch and listen too, particularly if steam driven, and man do they sing!.

[ucoulddoit]

Almost 4 years since I used my Alaskan mill and a combination of withdrawal symptoms and being keen to use it again while I’m still fit and strong enough led to me spending yesterday milling an elm log on a local estate. A windblown dead elm, about 30 feet long and over 2 feet diameter which was quite ambitious for a mill with a max capacity of 20 inches! But, quite achievable for hobby milling to get timber for my own use. It had lost most of it’s bark, but seemed largely sound and the freshly cut ends looked fine with no obvious shakes, rot, etc.

 

 

I was given the freedom to cut and take (buy) what I wanted, so chose a 10 foot length where the diameter was a shade under 2 feet.

 

 

It was quite dry when cut which didn’t really give much idea of the colours, but a convenient shower at lunchtime let me see what I might achieve one day with oiled planks. Looks promising!

 

 

After milling the first few planks, I trimmed one side using the Alaskan Mini Mill to reduce the width to 20 inches so that I could continue milling the planks. I find the mini mill really useful, but suspect it doesn’t get much use by others?

 

 

A very satisfying days work and now stacked temporarily at the estate and will be moved soon to my drying shed at home. Planks are max 20 inches wide and were milled at 65mm thickness which should enable me to achieve a minimum of 50mm / 2 inches after planing to remove drying distortion. Or, I can resaw them after drying to get say two 25mm / 1 inch planks. Through the centre, an 80mm plank was milled, then an 80mm strip was cut out, centered on the pith, to remove it and reduce the chance of defects (splits) migrating out from the pith, leaving two decent sized 80mm thick quarter sawn planks. Always good to have some thicker stock, but they can also be re-sawn into thinner planks when dry, so plenty of flexibility for future projects which haven’t been designed yet. Would be good to have a bigger mill and get wider planks, but in reality, 10 foot long, 20 inch wide by 65mm thick freshly sawn planks are pretty hard to move on your own aged 65!

 

 

So that’s the log that was milled. Also bought a slightly smaller beech log which the estate have agreed can be left lying in the woods where it will hopefully start spalting. Will check in a year or so, and guess it might take two years to reach the stage of being spalted but not rotted and useless. A bit of an experiment.

 

Will be almost 70 years of age once all this is ready for furniture making …….

 

Andrew

Edited August 24, 2024 by ucoulddoit

[Squaredy]

Finally got round to milling a large diameter cedar of Lebanon log yesterday.  Getting close to the limit of what the mill will cope with at five feet diameter.

 

Most hardwoods at this width would be pointless milling as a single slab, but this cedar stays pretty flat. I just need lots of customers now with large dining rooms…

 

[skc101fc]

I bet the smell was at least divine, if not overwhelming. Did a few Lebanon logs with the lucas mill, and found it like catnip for cats  - just wanted to roll around naked in the sawdust 😁😁

Edited September 21, 2024 by skc101fc
Spelling

[Johnsond]

Hi All

Quick question regards a random log I milled yesterday. Had the mill fired up for the first time in months due to work commitments, random log with no bark at all on it in amongst some DF I was doing for cladding. Same grain and patterns as Elm I normally mill but a totally different colour ??, just curious as to why the colour difference if it is even Elm or whatever it may be 🤷‍♂️!! any info from the more knowledgeable members would be appreciated. 
Cheers 

[woodwizzard]

Could it be chestnut?

[5thelement]

On 19/10/2024 at 10:37, Johnsond said:

Hi All

Quick question regards a random log I milled yesterday. Had the mill fired up for the first time in months due to work commitments, random log with no bark at all on it in amongst some DF I was doing for cladding. Same grain and patterns as Elm I normally mill but a totally different colour ??, just curious as to why the colour difference if it is even Elm or whatever it may be 🤷‍♂️!! any info from the more knowledgeable members would be appreciated. 
Cheers 

It does have a look of Sweet chestnut, and the minimal sapwood is a good indicator.

Did you notice any smell whilst milling it, I usually get a hint of vinegar and it smells nothing like Elm, nice boards. 👍

[Johnsond]

3 hours ago, 5thelement said:

It does have a look of Sweet chestnut, and the minimal sapwood is a good indicator.

Did you notice any smell whilst milling it, I usually get a hint of vinegar and it smells nothing like Elm, nice boards. 👍

Thanks for that, I did have one of the regular guys I mill for mention “ English Elm” 🤷‍♂️ but I’m inclined to think it’s a bit too soft a timber for that. I do normally pick up the whiff of the various timbers but I’d cut an ash log previously so the place stunk of cat piss. Im currently at a gig in Clydebank watching Molchat Doma but heading home tomorrow so will put the handsaw over it to see what if any odour it gives. 
Cheers 

[Billhook]

A friend asked me to cut some dunnage blocks into sleepers for a small gauge railway he is building.  Not sure what the wood was, it was treated and quite heavy, being dunnage it could have come from anywhere in the World 

Everything going fine until I lost a couple of teeth out of the five on the Lucas blade.  I have only lost a couple of teeth before in the thirty years of owning the Mill and that was due to a hidden nail.

We looked around to try and see the cause but could find nothing so put a new blade on.  This lost all five teeth in the first millisecond of the vertical run

We assume that one or two of the teeth from the previous blade had been left in the cut.  Moral of the tale is not to attempt another cut into the groove until you have either cut out the piece or abandoned it for another piece.