Today's milling

[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 👌 

[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 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 by skc101fc
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