Best Return

[Big J]

On 30/12/2019 at 20:40, Johnsond said:

Hi All 

Quick question ref some excess timber I’ve left over. I bought 25t of Douglas Fir saw logs for a project and have about 30% left over all oversize up to 42inch diameter, looking for the best options in regard to milling this up and seeing what I can get for it. Some of these logs will easy produce several 6x6 or 8x8 beams or alternatively even bigger if going for a single heart centred beam from each log. All logs are min 4.8m long. Big J hopefully you read this, I was gonna PM you regarding the above question but thought I’d throw it out into the open. 

Hmmmm, hard to know exactly. Big douglas is always nice, but the longer you leave it, the harder it will be to cut. Once dry, it's no fun to mill!

 

I'd personally be inclined to mill them into standard beam sizes and wait for folk wanting feature, non structural beams. You could get them visually graded, but that would probably not be cost effective. It's a nice, strong timber, but not enormously durable. 

 

You could do chunky garden furniture, but make sure you have a market for it first.

[Rough Hewn]

8 ton is a lot of tables. [emoji848]

[topchippyles]

What i do with mine is to cut the biggest square beam out of each piece possible as can then be milled into 4x2 6x2 8x2 ect ect or custom cut beams to order.You have the same mill as me and how i mill to maximise the log is to say example. Yon have a 20x20 beam on the mill i wind up the blade a full inch above to a full 21 1/8 and place all the outer edge cuts one by one on top of the 20 inch beam and run each peace in 1 inch slabs so you will end up with 14x1 down to 4x1 boards when square cut. All the waste goes for firewood and sawdust for bedding ect. That is my own self taught milling method. Interesting to see how you guys do it. Happy new year all by the way ?

Edited December 31, 2019 by topchippyles

[Johnsond]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

Hmmmm, hard to know exactly. Big douglas is always nice, but the longer you leave it, the harder it will be to cut. Once dry, it's no fun to mill!

 

I'd personally be inclined to mill them into standard beam sizes and wait for folk wanting feature, non structural beams. You could get them visually graded, but that would probably not be cost effective. It's a nice, strong timber, but not enormously durable. 

 

You could do chunky garden furniture, but make sure you have a market for it first.

Cheers J 

To tell truth it’s at the bloody hard work to mill stage now. Probs gonna mill it up to like you say the standard easy to use and produce sizes with maybe a couple of larger ones and see what comes from that. 

[Jack.P]

Having looked online there is a potential end retail price of £800m3 once sawn to 45mm waney edge and kiln dried .

how quickly they sell though I’m not sure 

 

 

 

[topchippyles]

1 hour ago, topchippyles said:

What i do with mine is to cut the biggest square beam out of each piece possible as can then be milled into 4x2 6x2 8x2 ect ect or custom cut beams to order.You have the same mill as me and how i mill to maximise the log is to say example. Yon have a 20x20 beam on the mill i wind up the bladed an full inch above to a full 21 1/8 and place all the outer edge cuts one by one on top of the 20 inch beam and run each peace in 1 inch slabs so you will end up with 14x1 down to 4x1 boards when square cut. All the waste goes for firewood and sawdust for bedding ect. That is my own self taught milling method. Interesting to see howwyou guys do it. Happy new year all by the way ?

Example of what i have tried to explain how i will mill most of my logs. Just a quick sketch as had a couple of pms. I cut the centre to a finished size beam and all the outer into inch boards which gives around 80% of the log for £££ 

Edited December 31, 2019 by topchippyles

[topchippyles]

31 minutes ago, topchippyles said:

Example of what i have tried to explain how i will mill most of my logs. Just a quick sketch as had a couple of pms. I cut the centre to a finished size beam and all the outer into inch boards which gives around 80% of the log for £££ 

Sorry just to add when milling the outer edges into inch boards i never move the blade up or down. Just rip through move the cut board and rip again and just keep repeating process until finished. Great waney edge boards so maximise profits (firewood) ton bags for all the loose stuff £40 a bag which pays for the next load of uncut logs or helps towards cost ??

[gobbypunk]

So guys how long is too long to leave D Fir before it becomes hard to cut ,a matey of mine has left a pile of logs in the woods for about a year and now wants me to mill it for him ,is a year too long ? I think you are going to say yes it is but thought I would ask those with more experience than me 

Thanks Happy New Year.   Mark 

[topchippyles]

9 minutes ago, gobbypunk said:

So guys how long is too long to leave D Fir before it becomes hard to cut ,a matey of mine has left a pile of logs in the woods for about a year and now wants me to mill it for him ,is a year too long ? I think you are going to say yes it is but thought I would ask those with more experience than me 

Thanks Happy New Year.   Mark 

Not a problem if its been stacked outside just crack on and mill it 

[harvey b davison]

cheers Saul.